Cortex Command (Test Build 13)

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: February 14th, 2007

Right on the heels of build twelve, Data Realms releases build thirteen of their upcoming team-based shooter Cortex Command. Why do I even bother anymore? :P

This new build should fix a bunch of the issues with the previous version.

Download here, alright?

Hey Data! It seems that walking is much more clunky on my laptop than on my PC. How could this be? Also, I just noticed… CC is all “true” 2D, isn’t it? (I.e., blitting, sprite rotation, etc. versus hardware acceleration?) It looks fantastic. The gunfights are remarkably tangible.

Posted in Freeware, Multiplayer, Physics, Platformers, Windows | Tags: DataRealms

http://www.datarealms.com/devlog Data

Unfortunately a part of the physics engine is not performance-independent yet… that’s why you get the more sluggish and sinky walking on slower machines. I’ll look into it soon-ish.

Yes, it’s all blitting, some of which i believe is hardware accelerated, but not in the sense of 3D HW accel (ogl or d3d).

Thanks for your comments!
pragma

@Data: thanks. I’m running a 1.2Ghz AMD myself, and was wondering why the avatars move about like marrionettes that are missing a few strings.

Great game though – thanks for putting this out there!
Eric Vaughn

you should rename your game “parkinson’s disease extreme gun battle”
Derek

Dude, you just got dissed by Eric Vaughn. :'(
http://kwickfix.org Rz.

and that’s gotta hurt!
lexaloffle

Aha! I have quite an old machine (800MHz) which explains the sinky dirt. I’d jet pack along a bit, and then smoosh into an unsalvagable heap on landing. Must try it on a different machine for now.. it really is something special.
Dan

It’s so addicting, I love it. But at the same time it’s AGGRIVATING. I only get units delivered half the time because the AI dropships will kill them on takeoff. The worst part is trying to mine so you can replenish your units while endless waves of AI pound the crap out of you. :P
Dan

I retract that statement and agree with Eric Vaughn. Trying to defend with the is imposible, but you can win in seconds because the AI doesn’t defend itself. Getting stuck on corpses and breaking your legs doesn’t help.

I hope this game improves, it has the potential to be fun.
http://www.puppygames.net/blog Cas

Man, this is a lot of fun, with an equal amount of extreme frustration at its incredibly inept execution :/

I don’t even know where to begin with the criticism!

Something about the entire control scheme is just plain wrong. Everything about the controls is wrong. Even when you get the keys right – WASD works for example – the little guys just don’t behave like they should; they get stuck on everything, don’t fly high enough, break their legs too easily… etc. Why don’t they autopickup weapons? What the hell is the point of digging for gold when spending just 30 seconds at it means the other guy walks into your base and shoots your brain? Why does the dropship land and then spew out unarmed men when the thing is full of both guns and soldiers?

Meh, I could go on…

…so just FIX THE CONTROLS and get the game to do a lot more of the work. Micromanagement with incredibly complex controls just ain’t fun.
RP

This game has so much potential. It’s a shame that most of the game consists of you trying to get your guy unstuck from the ground. I’ve gotten pretty good at it but I could see this becoming really frustrating, especially in a online multilayer build.
Xander

Personally, I think what the game lacks for most people is the human element. The AI is enjoyable for a while but you can’t really play a typical Brain VS Brain game because they CPU focuses on killing you rather than defending themselves. Human against Human I think will really show off this game, since I never see the CPU bother to mine anything. I’ll have to give it a split-screen shot at some point.
Derek

@Cas: I think that given the complexity of the game and all the work Dan’s already put into it, calling the game’s execution “incredibly inept” is uncalled for. Especially from a developer like you, who should know how much work goes into making games!

“…so just FIX THE CONTROLS and get the game to do a lot more of the work.”

1. Easier said than done, especially since the actors actually walk using the physics engine.

2. I know for a fact that Dan’s working on these very issues… along with the million other things that he has to work on.

Anyway, just had to chime in! Dan’s putting buku sweat and tears into this game. Honest feedback is good, but “inept execution?” C’mon man, use your head. That’s insulting.
LurkingOne

Not to mention (since nobody has seen fit to mention it yet,) this is still a fairly early build of the game, isn’t it?

I mean, in my experience, that’s always meant that a game still has a long ways to go before it could be considered anywhere near the finished product…

…but that’s just me, apparently.
Prio

Autopickup weapons????
Ummmmmm, yeah, that’d be great, suddenly find yourself walking around with a zillion crappy little weapons in your inventory weighing you down so your jetpack doesn’t work. O_o That’s what the little blinking green/yellow/red weight icon to the left of your jetpack bar means yaknow.

Nah, it’s not a game yet, but just set things to two human players and stick the other player on the green team, and screw around.

The concrete gun needs to be more powerful or something tho, at least for solo players. Like the digger guns, it’s cool but kinda takes too damn long to do stuff.
http://failrate.com failrate

Apparently, you can already mod this game. Instructions are in the Forum in the Unofficial FAQ. So, you can build gigantic guns and new characters.
http://www.tscreative.net BMcC

You can mod this game indeed.
Methalated Spirit

This game is actually awesome, i mod a lot for it and think it’s fun