Hey all, here’s a rundown of what’s new in the new Test Build 24 of Cortex Command, which was launched in the Humble Indie Bundle:
So, what happened to the Metagame/Campaign mode we’ve been previewing in previous posts? Well, most of the effort since the last build went into getting this up and running.. however, as we worked on it, it became clear that many changes (like support for four teams, etc) were necessary to the engine to accommodate the types of battles that would happen during a Campaign.
Then, as the deadline for the Humble Bundle loomed, I realized that all these changes to the engine had fundamentally broken the previous Skirmish mode and its menus for setting up games. It quickly became clear that we had to abandon the hopes of finishing a first playable revision of the Metagame in order to rebuild and have ANY kind of playable modes working in time for the Bundle timeframe. That’s why this build’s Campaign button is disabled; we couldn’t ship it in a half-baked and confusing state to all the new people (now ~200k and counting!) who would be exposed to Cortex Command for the first time through the Bundle.
The good news is that while the work on the Metagame’s menus and mechanics aren’t visible in this build, it is quite far progressed already, and we are excited to get the last remaining phase of the turn-based mechanic running so the whole thing can actually be played, round after round! We intend to have a first revision of the Metagame up and playable (albeit still rough and unfinished) in the next build.
Last note: for everyone who has bought the game directly from us prior to the Bundle, check the previous post below for instructions on how to get Build 24. We are planning some very interesting things in terms of updates and DRM (or lack thereof) in future builds 🙂 Rest assured that you won’t regret having bought a license before these changes…
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First post. Lovely explanation of everything. I can’t wait for the next build (as usual).
FIRST etc
Anyways, to be frank, thank you for finally writing this up, Data. Only took like a week 😛 Better than expected.
I do like the new Scenario selections, where each scene is shown on the screen and described before you actually begin a game there, but of course I’m a bit disappointed that the campaign’s not here. Hopefully, all of the new exposure to CC might inspire/motivate some more work on the game, in terms of both first and third party content.
These new change are great news.
The random thread-freezes of B24 not-so-much.
Would a quick fix update be feasible?
I had to revert to B23 to be able to enjoy the game.
Thanks for getting back to the community, Data. It’s posts like these that make me feel good about buying the Dev Support version.
Please keep it up (and keep us appraised). You’re doing a great job.
Hey look, this is up.
Cheers for the clarifications on exactly what’s changed, Dan.
Good to know
I look forward to seeing the campaign
**** yeah. Nice job, especially with explaining what happened with metagame. Understandable.
Thanks for the info, Dan.
Thanks Dan, this really is all we’re asking for from you. We just want to be kept up to date on what’s going on. The majority of the outrage was because we were promised metacampaign, among other things, and with no explanation at the time, it didn’t come.
If you fill us in, we’re quite happy to wait, we just want to know what’s going on.
Hey wow what’s this, you finally wrote it?
Cheers, Dan.
Sweet, this is encouraging.
“If you fill us in, we’re quite happy to wait, we just want to know what’s going on.” – This. Definitely this.
Thumbs up, thanks for the info.
Yeah, let’s go. I’m already pumped for 25.
Holy crap, that’s a lot of stuff :O
A nice long post full of info.
just the way I like it
First of all I apologize for my reply to the last blog post, I’m really happy to know that I was right in believing that there was stuff in the background that just wasn’t quite ready yet.
I really would like to emphasize on what Dauss said, quote:
“If you fill us in, we’re quite happy to wait, we just want to know what’s going on.”
Being in the dark just makes us jump to all the worst conclusions.
I’m glad that you have finally started to fill us in even if it did take a week =)
Keep up the good work old chap
Huzzah, new CC build. Should probably say that here too.
oh finally. i was begining to worry bout the meta game. great to hear from data!!!
Good stuff, but it still only uses one core of the CPU and nothing else, so it lags more than most 3D games on the market. That’s pretty lame…
DATA, please, make builds as Notch(minecraft programmer) that’s better then 1 build in year!! I like CC SO MUCH! You do this build for last year, without ANY news, last month I think CC not release in this year :C! That’s not good! Make people knowledgeable! And good luck!
sry for my bad english…
Now, the only question that I have is how NPCs will react to darkened areas. Would they have an independent field of vision, or if one person uncovers a part, it uncovers for everyone?
Goooooooooood soup 😀
bout bloody time
Hey, this is the best Worms type game/sidescroller ever. I am playing it instead of the stuff I bought the Humble Indy Bundle for.
Lord I wish it was turn based, so I could play with my wife on one computer. I read your explanation as to why it wasn’t. Can’t wait for that!
Also, you’re right, you made the jetpacks suck! I’m playing Zombie Caves, and I can’t get anything bigger than a blaster in there. Maybe that’s on purpose.
Is there any way to make the jetpacks stronger through the console?
Merry Christmas everybody 🙂
First off, congratulations to the B24 release, but I have a question / finding I’d like to share / ask.
In Data’s forum post (http://forums.datarealms.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20595) the B24 is downloadable for all, even unregistered users and seems to be usable with all of B24’s features.
However, it quite often contacts the IP “216.40.254.131” which is “http://licensing.datarealms.com” and seems to be hanging itself up during some of these attempts.
I guess that’s the “coming DRM” version of CC, which requires an active internet connection, but that’s just my guessing (some strings in the EXE also hint to that).
Not sure if Data is aware of that, it may just be a marketing gag to attract more users for CC with this version and then force them to register and buy the game later on (currently the “execrypt” seems to have no limit on number of usages and no “trial” count).
Now my question – If I was to buy this game (or “sposor” development of the unfinished version), will I be able to play offline and without these nasty crashes or will an active internet connection be needed anyways ?
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely would like to pay for it and understand the “demo” move to attract customers, I’m just a bit puzzled about the DRM to be used and the licensing in general.
An answer is appreciated (blog mods can also email me at the given address), thanks.
Without prematurely revealing our plans, I can assure you that future versions of the game will NOT require an internet connection to play, and will in fact be completely DRM free.
The residual code existing in the latest build was left behind accidentally, and are holdovers from the old DRM system, which we intend to phase out permanently.
You will only need a connection to the internet to update the game in the future..
bought via humble bundle 2 linux version. hope you improve it because as it stands now it is playable but you have some stupid bugs like. killing crabs automatically segfaults the game with a openal error.
What about the HIB people like me?Will you send a special version to the HIB site so people can download new builds there?I heard that the revenge of the titans devs are doing that
Ogod,I just knew they’d finally add it! My hopes and dreams for a fog-of-war(see just about every RTS war-game(Starcraft/Warcraft/Total Annihilation/etc)). Finally, surprises mid-battle will be possible!
Now, I’m ernestly hoping someone’ll mod a horror scene, which involves fog-of-war, but move a certain distance, and it’ll return. Using a flashlight(or other source of light), would offer a better view, but only so far. Or maybe differenting time of day that would influence the degree of fog-of-war.
Anyway, this is a fantastic update, Data. Glad to see you’re still around and making more updates. <:
hey data, when is the wiki gonna go back up. im rather excited for that.
the fog of war is a nice idea
You might want to know, Data: Running Windows version using WINE is almost 2x faster than running the native linux version…
You gotta bash the person responsible for the port…
::PRECAUTION::
The new lack of DRM software makes CC ridiculously easy to copy and steal. You might want to look into whipping up some code that detects if the user has copied CC from an existing CC program (or something like that).
Joe: That’s the definition of DRM, making sure that the user is allowed to use it. One of the conditions of putting a game into the HIB is that it cannot have DRM. Thus, any game in the HIB is ridiculously easy to copy and steal, but that’s how they want to do things, trust the user to respect the author’s copyrights.
Wait a minute… Did I just miss my chance to get build 24 or did I misinterpret something? Can we still buy the bundle?
@^: See last devlog post.
Thanks missed the little note at the bottom.
Will the new build be called 24.5?Because 24 didn’t have that much stuff we were expecting for.
Nope.
So, any news on when we can expect the next build? like 2 weeks time? 8 months? 10 years?
Wait i’m confused… I bought CC years ago but now build 24 is only available to people who bought the game now for a reduced price?