Alright, after all the replies I got from all of you, I've gathered it all, processed it carefully and compiled some results that I will aim for in the final product. If you have anything against them or see a way to improve them, make sure to voice your opinion.

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CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY: RESULTS
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RESULTS START


1. How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

SOLUTION:

Game speed will be kept at full speed, but the gameplay portioning will be designed to be smaller and more tactical by having less units on the field at a time as a gameplay standard, so you will command a squad of 2-5 troops fighting a force of a similar size and having less of trying to handle an endless flow of enemies as if the AI is cheating.

However, this small portioning will not be enforced in any way, but any and all official scenarios will try to keep the unit count manageable and enemy spawns much more controlled and detailed. Using unlimited enemy spawners will be reduced to a very rare minimum or will be more strictly controlled, as they feel annoying in the game as opposed to a clean amount of targets that you must dispose, which is more fun and rewarding that you nailed the enemy and they're dead for good. Unlimited spawned give the feeling of being directly cheated upon.

OPTIONAL: Additionally (If DaTa agrees) there will be a function to freeze ingame time so you can manage your unit AI modes more effectively and order items from space and create presets without getting frustrated as you race to make presets before the enemy arrives.
This function is ONLY for solo play. When playing with a friend, you have 2 heads working at the same time, making it much easier for both players as one does a certain task while the other does the other task.


2. How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

SOLUTION:

Devices will be fairly strong and generally survive longer than its user. However, this is a unit/item specific thing as a human soldier that dies from a couple hits will surely have his weapon intact as he dies and can be used by multiple generations of soldiers, while a robot with a mounted device might have the device part be blown up before the unit itself is destroyed. In other words, item durability will be a context sensitive thing, but devices will be geared to be more resilient than their users in general.
Bombs and Grenades are very weak and will detonate almost instantly if shot at. This also applies to missiles and other similar launcher projectiles. By hitting them with another weapon, you can successfully detonate flying missiles in midair. Or catch it with a gravity gun and throw it back.


3. How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

SOLUTION:

Although precise pricing can only be done during testing phases, the general idea is that certain items are cheaper than others. IMPORTANT: As in the world of Cortex Command it is easy to lose items, get killed and otherwise screw up, resources MUST NOT be strict. A large amount of space to screw up and buy stuff again must be left to the player at all costs. This will make frustrations much less frequent and losing items more fun than trying to keep them intact. The fact of replacing old items with new ones is one corner stone of CC gameplay and thus resource management must be very relaxed, but still have a limit that will remind the player if he keeps blowing up 50 more ships on top of the enemy base, he'll go bankrupt and lose. So in short, you will have lots of resources to gain and spend. Items are cheap enough so the player would not mourn and/or get frustrated for their loss.
The order from cheapest to most expensive items are listed below, but there can be exceptions where some items have special prices. This is also a context sensitive issue.

CHEAPEST
-One time use items (grenades, bombs, supplies)
-Bunker walls and basic structures
-Devices
-Units
-Special Bunker systems (manufacturing systems, turrets, radars...)
-Craft
EXPENSIVE


4. How should weapon range work?

SOLUTION:

Weapons will be designed to behave as realistic as possible within the limits of the game. Lifetime is only used in special cases, such as energy weapons that lose their effectiveness over distance and dissipate, but never on solid ballistic projectiles. AirResistance will not be used as its function is not suitable for realistic performance on projectiles. So as the solution, for most if not all ballistic weapons, there will be a special script attached to bullets that will lower the effectiveness of the bullet over time. Guns will fire projectiles at realistic speeds and projectiles will never leave the battlefield once they are spawned (unless they explode or fly out of map borders.) and will always settle into terrain when they come to a halt. Solid ballistic projectiles as bombs, grenades and missiles do not use the lifetime variable ever. If they have a propellant that keeps them going, it will run out over time, causing the projectile to fall.

The end result is that ballistic behaviour will be very similar to the freeware game "Soldat" has. I suggest trying the game to see how bullets function there. It is the effect I'll be going for.
Energy based weapons will be limited through lifetime. As an example, if you launch a blob of fire through the air, it will dissolve gradually while moving and then dissipate. Or a laser that was fired loses its potential as it goes further, like a flashlight in the dark.
On the subject, energy weapons will not appear in the game as "pew pew reskinned bullet gun", but rather behave as realistic as possible and function as more exotic armaments that behave and cause damage of sort that no other ballistic weapon ever could do. (Burning, disintegration, dissolving, electrifying, freezing, stunning... ect.)


5. Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

SOLUTION:

Yes, craft will be expensive compared to soldiers and items, that will be multiple times cheaper than a single craft. This will direct players to having transport ships unload their troops somewhere more safe rather than attempting to risk a landing on an enemy base. Generally, you can buy many times more soldiers equipped to the teeth with various weapons at the price of a single ship. However, they are not so ridiculously expensive that you can only afford very few of them during a game. There is always room for some screw ups, but the player must understand that craft are precious and should be handled with care.

Additionally, as craft cost more, they will be far more durable against damage and more safe to use (e.g. craft does not auto scuttle like before, rockets do not fall over that easily, dropship engines do not burn your head off so easily. It will still be possible, but far less effective than now. More info at Q14.)


6. Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnerable/resistant to diggers?

SOLUTION:

Diggers will be directed to be very effective against terrain, but extremely weak against bunker walls and even weaker against bunker metal. This will make players feel more secure in their bunkers they pre-built with sweat and hard work. This solution will also be paving way to specialized anti-bunker weapons and tactics. The issue with current diggers is that they are slow when making tunnels, but fast when chewing down a bunker wall, making any bunker constructions instantly obsolete and unsecure.

Also, with this solution, enemies will actually enter through the bunker corridors to your vault and not through walls and terrain like they are made from pathetic cardboard mass. In turn, bunkers themselves will be designed to be more interesting to invade through and feature defences and weak points that can be infiltrated and then sabotaged or blown up.


7. How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

SOLUTION:

This is a faction specific issue, but mostly the naming is decided by the psychology of each Tech. As an example, robots would prefer more codenames and generic naming conventions for their items, while organics and other exotic Techs would prefer something more creative and defining. A good example list of various names for a shotgun weapon devised by Arne:

Generic: Shotgun
Affectionate: Shotty
Code: SG-70
Person name: Wimbleton-70
Mythology name: Zeus
Cool word: Devastator
Artsy: The Clavian spectacle
Emo: Nocturnal death

Dummies could go for simple generic names, Ronin would want something cool and affectionate, Coalition could use a mix of code and mythology, Techion might like artsy and emo, while Imperatus would have a cool word combined with mythology for extra epic effect. There are some rough examples that would work great.


8. In what style should item descriptions be written?

SOLUTION:

As you are buying technologies from different companies, the descriptions are very commercial like and try to make the player buy that item like a commercial does in real life. So in theory, a description should be creative, grab the clients attention, give a good reason why he would want this item.
Comical, true and creative with a style of TV commercials. If the item has special feature or perhaps a hazard to using it, it can be mentioned as well if deemed necessary. Additionally references from stories within the CC universe can be used as testimonials, that further promote the commercial nature of the description to give the buyer more reason to buy the item. An example that Arne came up with:

==EXAMPLE==

SG-70 "Zeus"
The SG-70 is an old reliable medium size shotgun which was given the nickname Zeus by the Eminence Taal-Bax of Procyon. The Dignitary grew fond of the weapon during his Wumpus hunting trip on Cursa.

==/EXAMPLE==


9. What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

SOLUTION:

For bullets and other ballistic projectiles, a compromise between visible and invisible bullets will be used that was present in the older builds. So, for bullets, color and trails color will be grey or similar colors that are hard to see, but still there, so weapons don’t feel like hitscan weapon. For repeating weapons like machine guns, there will be tracer rounds that will occasionally fire a bullet with a bright yellow trail with the purpose of giving the player the idea where his bullets are flying approximately. That’s what a tracer is supposed to do anyway.
For energy weapons, it will be context sensitive for how the trails work for each specific weapon. As an example, a laser guns beam will not be visible, but the point from where its fired and where it hits can be marked by a tiny bright red glow. Or a plasma launcher that hurls a ball of super hot plasma will create an impressive bright trail due to its hot nature. Or then there is an ion cannon that fires a bright beam of energy that can be clearly seen by the naked eye and its effects on objects as it burns through the air to fry the target.


10. What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

SOLUTION:

The best atmospheric feeling to get out of Cortex Command is when it is played at 640x480, when everything is up close and personal. However, many like playing on a higher resolution as they can see more of the battlefield and this facilitates commanding the troops easier. Items (backgrounds and backdrops) will be made to support up to the 1024x768 resolution. Anything higher than that, and its considered the user is breaking the game in ways not intended to be originally and is on his own. In other words, any higher resolutions than 1024x768 is cheating.


11. Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

SOLUTION:

For each Tech, there will be different digging equipment, but one main premise will change:
Currently, diggers are considered standard issue and pretty much any unit is carrying one, so the idea is to make diggers more specialized equipment. By this I mean diggers will be more heavy duty and more effective in what they do and also stay as very lethal close range weapons, but will be special issue generally, be rare on the battlefield, carried by selected few units, heavier and cumbersome to move around with. Diggers are one of the things in the game that are quite resource intensive and can generate lag when many are active at once because of the amounts of terrain pixels that are dug loose.
Additionally, as the game will accumulate gold to your account in the metagame, digging for gold manually during the match will be rendered as a bonus income rather than the main source of money unlike now.


12. What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

SOLUTION:

Explosions will be aimed to be both visually impressive (like they are now) and better optimized to run smoother. Also the visual effect of the explosion will need to match to the actual destructiveness of the explosion. Additionally, explosions should be optimized to be faster, rather than slow and lingering and give a good visual understanding to the player how deadly and large the explosion is.

Fire will be divided into 2 parts:

1. Loose burning emitters that can burn on the ground and can ignite flammable objects that come near and stay too long around them. This is done through a special script. These emitters gradually become less potent as the fire fades away by time and this is visually seen as they gradually shrink from a large inferno to a small ember. This fire does not create smoke. Smoke is created by the part 2 that is attached to a flammable object and is burning it.

2. Sticking fire that attaches itself to objects that caught fire from the loose burning emitters (part 1).
Each of these small fires drain health of flammable actors that have a weakness for fire (organics), and burn, causing smoke to come out as they fry the object they are attached to. Each of these small fires have a certain lifetime before they vanish and the only way to create them is for an object to be close to the loose burning emitter (part 1). The longer the object stands in a fire, the more of sticking fire pieces will attach to the target until its reaches a limit of maximum sticking fire pieces on it.
If an object is on fire with these pieces, it can ignite any nearby flammable objects as if it is a loose burning emitter itself. The sticking fire cannot spread on an object alone, but if there are two objects that are on fire and are close to each other, they will fuel each others fire.


13. Should soldiers collide with each other?

SOLUTION:

For organic units, soldier will be able to pass through each other, but machines and robot will be unable to do so and collide with each other. For organics, this adds a bonus for flexibility as they can move through each other without killing themselves through collisions and use will be able to use pass-through bunker systems (equipment dispenser/kiosk, health station) that are designed for them to use. Robots are straight forward and collide with both other robots and organics, making them less flexible on the field, but giving them an ability to ram into others or prevent people from passing through them.


14. Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

SOLUTION:

Depends on the unit. If it’s a simple soldier with a small jetpack, then its entirely harmless. But if were talking about a heavy robot fortress unit, its jetpack can be counted as a weapon that it may used to burn enemies beneath and around it.
For craft emissions, a rocket craft main engine exhaust will be very deadly to anything that gets caught in its way, while tiny side thrusters are fully harmless and do no damage. Dropship thrusters are more safer and it is considerably harder to kill anyone using them unless they get very close to the emission for too long. And even in this case, they will only receive burning damage and get ignited with fire, unless they are immune to fire.


15. Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

SOLUTION:

Combat will be focused to be more towards being on the ground and jetpacks will be designed to only provide capability for short jumps and hovering for a limited time. There will be a delay on jetpacks before the user may burst again. Bursting constantly to keep you midair forever will be removed. This will make walking far more important and jetpacks will be used more for short jumps to get over obstacles or travel the terrain faster.
The general idea how most jetpacks would function is that you first commence the bursts that causes your unit to make a short jump into the air, after which you may hold the jump button to maintain your jumping altitude and fly over a short distance by hovering for as long as you have fuel . When you run out of fuel, or you let go of the jump button, you will land back down.
Some units might have special exceptions on jetpacks or other flight systems, but the goal is to keep the combat closer to the ground.




RESULTS END

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Anything beyond this point is part of the old post
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Note: If you don't think this will assist the developers at all, or that nummy is trolling, please just simply don't post and/or email Data or PM another developer. That will keep the topic cleaner, if only for the other developers to look through.
Thank you ahead of time.
-Duh



The purpose of this survey is to make CC better.

This survey is both for developers and players to help improve the game and make it more solid, polished and most of all, more fun. I will write a question, followed by an opinion and things to take into account and then a field for your answer.

With this survey, you may influence the game's official content with possible ideas, suggestions and what not. This survey is part of a pre-production plan devised by me that we lacked from the beginning when we started making content. Most if not all content in B23 I consider is experimental. Very experimental.


Why do we need this:

When I joined the dev team, we content developers, were given full freedom to create the content in our own styles, while trying to mimic the original content and its style that was the basis. Cortex Command has kept developing into a more advanced game from time to time and we kept getting new features all the time as we did content and as a result, some of the content ended up using a technique that was obsolete or had a better alternative or just didn't fit in anymore. Hell, theres plenty of content I'd be ok to remove entirely or at least replace with newer, improved counterparts. You could say the B23 content is an experimental testing grounds for what can be done in the final edition of the game.

We built stuff as we saw it good in our view and that included file directories and organization of folders and code. Having 3 guys work on content in their own way, it was inevitable that without any guidelines or standards, our individual organizations would flip over and look different from each other and make the overall organization structure look rather... messy.

Then there was the balance issue. When I was building the weapons for example, I completely disregarded the realistic values for bullets and instead, I built them based on ingame gameplay trial and error, testing each weapon individually and comparing them to get a sense of balance between the guns. Weapon reloads were set long to make weapons not spammy/make the user vulnerable while he is reloading, even though realistically, they should be much faster if following realistic values, which CC is supposed to do. Same went for pricing, they were balanced by effectiveness with randomly thought out gold cost values as well as mass for the weapons that could have been as high as +40 kilos or more, just in order to degrade the player's flying capabilities. It might work ingame to a certain extent, but its not right realistically and its kind of lame and has a couple flaws like pushing the actor more forcefully against terrain that causes heavy terrain loss when a unit walks over it.


Anyways.

As you can see, we need a reference base that we can use as a basis for all the content. Guidelines that would dictate how to make the balancing properly and keep things realistic. A basic document that a developer could read and understand, make changes to, discuss about and use it to get the needed facts and not doing stuff just by guessing. All developers would go through this document, change something if necessary and agree on a single compromised way of building the game in a clean fashion, so everyone knows what they are doing. Theres a prototype of this after the survey part on a couple guidelines I think will work great. Feel free to check them out and comment about.

According to Data, he wanted the game to be realistic in gameplay(visually slightly deformed, but this is mostly for items and objects and not effects, like soldier limb proportions look cartoony, but effects like fire and explosions try to be as realistic as possible). That means less of cartoony and over dramatic effects, weapons behave like they would in real life and normal humans(ronin) are fragile and can die in a few shots or by dropping from a high place and headshots way are more effective than torso hits. So its almost leaning more to a tactical squad simulator like game rather than an arcade shooter one, and going rambo with guns blazing using a single unit will have you killed fast. Players need to use cover and effective placement of troops and use them wisely. The early test builds are good examples what its meant to be like, not perfect of course, but closer to what its meant to like rather than its in B23. The game is physics based and there a certain degree of clumsiness and unpredictability that often results in unexpected moments and things that you'd normally not see in a game without such level of detail in physics. The game features an environment that allows for varying toughness of materials, ability to build/create things and complete destruction of all and any objects ingame, so keeping that in mind, the game can be played in many ways and each time you play it will always be different.

Also to mention that the game is set in future where technology has advanced far and wide, anything that is not too far fetched (energy based weapons, fusion reactors, cyborgs, FTL travel, antimatter tech, teleportation ect.) is possible to include in the game. As long as it doesn't go too fantastic that is (Fairies, Magic, Wizards ect.)

The game allows for a very ambitious complexity in design and if done right, it might become the best game ever created. And this survey is meant to analyze what would work the best, gather as much as information as possible, draw a conclusion, make decisions and then put it into action. This survey will concentrate on content and gameplay, not story nor campaign at this point. Any engine related suggestion are welcome as well. Its not going to discuss any objects individually, but rather globally so we can set a standard to follow and build a whole new system and a new set of items that will replace the old ones completely or partially at least. The new content in B23 was experimental to see how well it would work and it has helped to see the flaws and what solutions work better than the current ones.

Heres what I want you to do:

1. Read all the questions carefully.
2. Copy the answering template at the bottom of the post and use it.
3. When done doing the survey, post your results here so we can read them.

How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Info: Personally I've noticed that if the game runs at full speed, in other words at timescale 1.0, the game feels way too fast to play or enjoy properly. Because CC involves a decent amount of micromanaging things and that combined with fragility of units can turn the entire game very frustrating and way too fast for any human being to be able to play it effectively. The thing here is that the full time scale represents realistic time flow, but theres way too much things to do for a game which is a real time strategy combined with fast paced action so my suggestion is to have the game speed be at 60-80% from the timescale 1.0 ( aka about 0.6-0.8 ) and to addition besides that, perhaps there could be a pause/time freeze function that will allow a player in singleplayer games to stop time in order to issue commands, order stuff and plan out your moves.



How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Info: There are two options regarding this. Weapons break faster than the soldier or the soldier will die faster than the gun. Either way, everything in CC must break, including guns. Its just a matter of having either guns be replaceable and cheap, that will require replenishing troops that fought and lost their gun, or as durable, expensive items that can be picked up and used over many fallen bodies. So its either recycle or resupply. To keep in mind, CC is about expendable objects, constantly in need to buy new bodies and equipment and not going solo with one John Rambo dude winning the match.



How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Info: Right now (B23) there is absolutely no basis or any standard to follow when pricing objects. Every price for everything is just a random guess. So, instead of random guessing, it'd be awesome if there would be some basic standards how to price guns, systems, soldiers and anything else. What we have is the currency gold ounce, the global all-mighty neutral retailer "Tradestar Midas" space station that handles all the distribution of equipment, soldiers, craft and other resources and finally theres the factions that buy the stuff for the gold they mine on the planet or by any other resources they find/salvage. Currently generating 100 oz through mining takes an effort of a few seconds with manual control over the miner. So its worth a lot. Why I say "a lot", is because manual control is very valuable and you'd rather be controlling a unit that is progressing your main objective like taking out the enemy brain then mining for resources, because its a trivial task and you'd rather love it to be automated by giving a single command to a miner.

What you can't do, is assign a single command for a unit to win the entire game, like as in tell a soldier to "Go kill them, dodge bullets like in matrix movies and turn god mode on lol". I'd like you to give some ideas how to price things and what kind of pricing would actually encourage you to buy stuff instead of using the money cheat right away. One thing is certain though, stuff must be cheaper. MUCH cheaper than now (now = B23).



How should weapon range work?

Info: In other words, how would bullets behave ingame? One thing is sure is that solid large projectiles like missiles, rockets, bombs, grenades and such will not disappear by lifetime, but detonate or settle on the map. Because with this, these solid projectiles can be manipulated with gravity guns and others without vanishing unexpectedly. As for bullets, I'm not very sure how to do them. There are several different types of bullet (pixels) weapons, such as the basic ones as: pistols, machineguns, shotguns and snipers. One thing that is true is that all of these bullets are fired at a high velocity, but to how to limit their flight and how far should a bullet fly is the question here. Air Resistance has been tested on these weapons in order to limit the range of weapons by using high values of AirResistance and the results did not look good nor realistic. If the bullets are allowed to only get removed by settling and not LifeTime, you can end up having bullets that can reach the other side of the level or fly many times along the map if its a looping one and in the process it makes the sniper rifle since besides the scope and better accuracy, a machinegun's bullet spam would be as good as a sniper, perhaps better, at a long distance. Not to mention players could exploit the range of the weapons by shooting from afar, hoping to hit a target. The AI cant do this because its view is limited. Inside bunkers, this might not be much of a problem, but outside it can be exploitable and unfair. Unfair because soldiers are generally fragile and a few stray hits to the head and he's dead.

On the other side, if bullets were restricted with lifetime expiration, it might look slightly weird how the bullets disappear in midair after traveling a few screens. But it would allow a bigger importance to long range snipers and artillery weapons, so that single soldiers could not act as artillery units just with their machinegun.

Another solution might be to decrease the effectiveness of ammunition over distance. Perhaps lower the sharpness or use AirResistance carefully (not much of effect, but still), but I'm not sure how to do this. Bullets live forever or are restricted with lifetime expiration that causes them to vanish after a certain distance? How large would that distance be on a normal machinegun, shotgun and pistol on 640x480 resolution game. How many screens would a bullet travel at most for those weapons? 1-3 or more?



Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Info: Logically disposable soldiers or guns should be of less value than a space craft and craft should be much more durable than soldiers. Not to mention craft alone can be used as a very devastating weapon by ramming or scuttling over a whole army, killing everyone easily. I'd rather have soldiers be cheap and come in large quantities, but transport or any other vehicle be expensive and more effective. How about you?



Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnerable/resistant to diggers?

Info: Diggers are powerful all-mighty terrain shredders. But why should they be powerful enough to chew bunker walls easily? Bunkers are prebuilt walls of protection with no chance of regenerating or repairing, besides using a concrete sprayer to fill the holes which is barely even called a proper repair and requires precious time of the player's manual control to get a unit to patch up the bunker with concrete spray that cannot be as powerful as prebuilt bunker concrete anyways. And digging that hole again by the enemy takes at least half of the time you spent patching it up. So its not very encouraging. So my proposition is to direct the diggers in what they are supposed to be, efficiently digging gold from the ground/terrain and not busting bunkers, we can have specialized weapons for that purpose and it could open new possibilities in strategy that way. Such as bunker buster missiles or breaching charges to name a few.



How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Info: Right now naming is very basic, lame and uninspired. Not to mention that many items have the same names like shotgun and shotgun or sniper rifle and sniper rifle for each faction. This looks lame and sometimes can cause wrong references being used. So instead of having bland, lifeless names, give names that actually mean something (or look good at least) and are native to each faction to distinguish its exclusiveness of the faction and their each individual style. Sure they can have the common words in their name like gun, rifle, shotgun and such as long as its not just that word. Stuff like serial codes(coalition), nick names(ronin), acronyms and such that factions could use for naming their weapons, units and craft. What suggestion can you give regarding this? Any examples how it would look like for a specific faction would be more than welcome. However, the faction name must not be present on any item e.g. Coalition Gun or Dummy Grenade or Whitebot Dropship. No, nothing like this. Acronyms would work though. Like COA for coalition for example.



In what style should item descriptions be written?

Info: Do you want solid information in form of "This thing does this and that", "Weapon fires explosive rounds at a high rate, easy to carry" or a commercial like humorous announcement that requires the player to read between lines like so "Economic machinegun, kill your foes, cheap!" Do note, this is for all items, not just guns, but soldiers, bunkers and craft too.



What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Info: Theres a couple ways to go by this. All bullets have a certain long trail length and are of a single color, bullets are hardly visible at all or bullet color and trail length is based on the power of the bullet to indicate what caliber of ammo is flying around?



What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Info: This has an effect on the backgrounds, weapon range and zooming range ingame. Default is 640x480px resolution, but I need to know how many actually play on a different resolution. I would almost classify very high resolutions as cheating since you can see much more than intended originally, allowing the edge over the AI that did not account for it. In any case larger resolution can screw up backgrounds showing properly on levels.



Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Info: If diggers were to be allowed as weapons, they'd leave absolutely no room to interesting close range weapon concepts, which are very possible to make and are fun to use. So far till B23, diggers are mainly close range rape torches with massive ammo capacity and extreme rate of fire with lots of power, capable of decimating anything stuff within seconds. Sometimes it feels like a digger is all you need to win a match and its not cool. So my proposition is to make diggers harm only terrain, and instead leave room for a new close range weapon concepts which can prove to be incredibly more fun than a death ray with nigh infinite ammo.



What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Info: The difference between the two is that the realistic/minimalistic stays more true, clear and less resource intensive while the other one is more dramatic and perhaps even slightly unrealistic and more confusing, but pretty at the cost of more resources so that less of such explosions/fire will be enough to lag the game opposed to the minimal/realistic style. If you have examples what would be the best, be sure to include a link to a video or image in your opinion for reference!



Should soldiers collide with each other?

Info: This one is a tough choice. If soldier can collide with others, then its possible to use your body to smash against other soldiers. However, this comes at a high price; within tight bunker corridors, attempting to pass through a team mate can result in horrible death due to collision between the soldiers. If soldiers wont collide with each other, such problem will not exist. Do note, craft and other objects will still be able to collide with and crush soldiers regardless of either option.



Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Info: Two sided. But it can be done so that some have it and other dont, but still. Harmful emission can be used as an attack against enemies by attempting to torch them with your jetpack, but then again it can cause accidental damage and even kill stuff that you were not intending to kill in the first place. Often I've had moments that a teammate flies over my other guy, removing his helmet with his jet boost or sometimes even decapitating the poor guy.



Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Info: Bursting means tapping the jetpack quickly to fly faster or keep flying in the air for a very long time. I consider it as a cheat, but it might be liked by some so I'm not sure about it entirely. I'm was thinking to reduce it by making a fair delay between each burst so that you would not be able to stay in the air forever, and actually be not able to fly at all if you're overloaded with stuff in your inventory.













1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion:


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion:


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion:


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion:


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion:


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnerable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion:


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion:


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion:


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion:


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion:


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion:


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion:


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion:


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion:


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion:





Thanks and sorry for my trippy speed-type english.

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion: Right now, at full speed, it does seem too fast for a normal person to play well in. Unlike the AI, we don't have superhuman reflexes. The average player just can't keep up with the AI raining bullets down onto your head. I myself am used to it being slower, because I use a high resolution, so whenever the game is going fast, I'm at a disadvantage. I think somewhere between .6 and .7 timescale would be best.


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion: A gun, expecially a big chunky solid metal gun, like a revolver cannon, shouldn't shatter into pieces after 3 or four shots. Less expensive guns or more "delicate" guns, such as a tesla gun, should be able to be destroyed easily, but when you are firing a solid, 20kg metal cannon, it stands to reason something like that could take some punishment before being destroyed. Bombs should blow up when shot, end of story. Tools aren't really meant to be in battle, and probably fall under the definition of "delicate" guns, so its more reasonable if they break after a few hits.


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion: Well, items and bodies are all mass produced, so cost should probably be generally low. Clones should be cheaper than robots, because of bleeding, and the general fragility of people.
Tools should be more expensive than guns, since you aren't as likely to have a concrete sprayer blown up as you are an SMG, if you are using them correctly. Bombs should be cheap, since you literally throw them away and let them blow up, so at the most about 15oz, maybe 20oz for a super grenade.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: I'm really not someone to ask on this, so I'll leave it to other people.


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion: Yes. A rocket costing less than a clone? Ridiculous. Crafts are already some of the most dangerous weapons in the game, while being a neccesary part of any assault, so players should be encouraged not to use them as suicide bombs unless it's meant for that. Driving the cost up would make players think twice about driving a rocket into an enemy if it would seriously hurt their finances, so they would more likely return it to orbit like they should. That's not say we shouldn't have suicide bomb crafts, they would just be much cheaper, have no ability to safely carry cargo, be easy to destroy. Dropships should be more expensive too, but make the Dummy DS weaker, or at least make the engines shoot off-able without a metric crapton of overkill.


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion: Not impervious, but very resistent. A clone with a heavy digger and some persistence should be able to get through. Medium diggers shouldn't be able to get through the metal, but can penetrate the concrete, with serious trouble. Light diggers shouldn't be able to even scratch bunkers.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion: The ronin should use nicknames, but not just generic gory nicknames like pulp, gore, evicisorate, smash, -er. Dummies should use serial codes, like "[DW-14] Nailer Cannon" or "[DW-42] Ahnihilator". Arg, I should be better at this than I am.

8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion: Technical descriptions. The Flamers are both good at short range, but only very short range. The description makes it sound like it's good for more than it is, and that can get you killed.


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion: Pass.


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion: I always play it at 1280x1024, but I might be changing that. I would say it's meant to be played at a tiny res, but a slightly higher one, such as 1024x768 or maybe 800x600 if you are feeling stingy should be supported too. But higher resolutions are game breaking, so I guess those should be discontinued.

11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion: Terrain only. Diggers are meant to dig, not to fight. They are currently short range face-rape cannons. Like I said before, they should be fragile since they shouldn't be in combat, and if they can't do anything in combat, then a person has no reason to even try it anyway.

12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion: Over the top. Flames, smoke, shrapnel, everything. Get capnbubs to make us some pretty new effects too. His are the most gorgeous I've ever seen in CC.

13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: Yes. A clone, flying through the air, at 112 mph, should not harmlessly pass through an enemy dummy just standing on the ground, and make a red skidmark a mile long behind it. The clone should hit the dummy, and they should both explode into an orgy of scrap metal, blood, and gibs. The physics of CC is one of its most prominent features, and removing them from the soldiers would deny you of such things as Brain Wrestling, or dropping down onto a dummy, pushing into the ground, and snapping its head off.

14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion: I myself have always hated harmful jetpacks, even if they do make sense. More than once, I've had soldiers clustered right up next to each other, and when I try to have them take off, at least on gets decapitated from the jetpack. I hate that, and it has almost never come in actually useful. If I want to kill my own soldiers, I'm given guns for that.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion: Limited with a delay. It would solve the problem of burst flying, without breaking the game extensively. If people are really so angry about it, then there could be extra jetpack tools, that can give a clone an extra boost. And if that isn't enough to lift it, then the clone should be sinking into the ground from so much weight anyway, so the point is null.

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion: The current speed is fine, it leads to a lot of hilariously chaotic moments.

2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion: I think that, like Hyper said, tools should be fragile. Otherwise, I think current levels of durability are fine.

3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion: I think that robots should be cheaper than clones, because they're just scrap metal and some rocks, etc., while clones have to be grown from scratch, and human organs are more complex than robotic limbs.

4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: I think it should use air resistance, with very low amounts I hate when bullets seem to just disappear right before hitting enemies in games, don't make that mistake.

5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion: I believe craft should be MUCH more expensive.

6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnerable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion: I think they should be more resistant to digging, to avoid just plowing through an elaborate base.

7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion: Like Hyper said, Robots get codes, Ronin get nicknames, I think Coalition weapons should have names similar to real life military weapons.

8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion: I like funny advertisement style descriptions.

9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion: I, personally, like to make invisible bullets for some weapons, perhaps make supressed/stealth weapons have invisible bullets? But I think that it's a good idea for more powerful guns to have bigger bullets.

10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion: I play it widescreen, at 1024x768.

11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion: I think that diggers should be lethal against soldiers, how would you feel if an industrial mining drill was jammed in your face?


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion: I think minimalistic explosons would be great for base content.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: Maybe make it so they can only collide with soldiers from other teams?


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion: I think jetpack emissions should still be just as harmful as they are right now.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion: I think that certain jetpacks should be the same, such as high-quality military ones, but maybe make ronin jetpacks, for example, sputtering, smoking, delayed jetpacks?

Well, lemme get this started:


1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion: In my experience, a value around 0.8 is the best option. 0.9 or so makes the game a bit more fluid, but considerably difficulter. At any rate, speed should never fall under 0.75, unless a ypsilon-type weapon is active.


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion: Frankly, I think that is one of the only stats that the devs (you) got perfectly right in this build, so I say don't change it. If weapons were stronger, you could just buy a bunch of cheaper guns and use them as shields. If they were weaker, they would become unreliable, since it would be too easy to unarm your foes. My only suggestion would be to increase the strength of the explosive weapons' material, so that they would more frequently fly from your hands rather than break when fired at really close range. And grenades should explode with a single shot, period.


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion: Well, the thing is, digging for gold is not rewarding enough to be justified. Yes, you should lower the price of some items, mainly the heavy weapons, but unless you put more gold clusters in each map, or increase the value of the gold pixels, it will still be very hard to balance. (Truth be told, I would rather have several small gold clusters, to get the players' economy started, and then one very big deposit more or less in the middle of the map, so that factions would really have to fight over it if they wanted the better equipment/units/etc.) So yeah, lower everything a bit, but try creating other sources of income too.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: Hrrm. Tough question. I still think that the current disappearance method, as unreallistic as it might be, is still the best option available in matters of gameplay/balance. Shotguns, though, should receive a small amount of AirResistance, so that they slow down, even if slightly, as the distance increases.


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion: Another tough question. I think that single use/single unit/supply crafts, such as the rocklet or drop crate, should be kept cheap, to work as an inexpensive/emergencial way of delivering small amounts of goods (and by "goods" I mean pretty much anything from equipment to bodies) on the battlefield. Medium rockets and dropships should be a little more expensive, about 1.5 or 2 times the price of a soldier, to make players only consider using them when delivering squads of actors or something like that, and the bigger ships, used to deliver large amounts of troopers (or heavier, armored units) should be quite expensive, but also stronger, so as to have a reasonable risk/benefit ratio.


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion: Yes yes yes yes yes. That would be a really nice change. Not totally invulnerable, though, or people could just encase their brains in a few bunker parts and become invincible. I think that diggers should still damage bunkers, but at a much slower rate, so that people would think of finding alternate routes instead of just plowing their way through.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion: Very well, let me see. I think that unit names should be kept mostly as they are, except for maybe giving the tradestar robots some kind of commercial name, renaming the light/heavy clones to light/heavy troopers (mainly because "trooper" is a really cool word), and giving the browncoats some kind of title other than light/heavy, something such as "Browncoat Mercenary" or "Browncoat Slayer", you name it.
Now, for the weapons (I might rant a little here). The Dummy ones require really small changes, maybe changing their names to something a little more industrial (i.e. nailguns, rivetguns, bolters, etc), since I think the dummies would rather use parts of the technology they know (crash-test/factory equipment) than invent something really new. As in, they would use a "Heavy Laser Cutter" rather than an "Anihilator". The Ronin should also keep to more real-world names for their weapons, such as M16, Riot Gun, spaz12, etc. The -00 names, however (spaz1200, ak4700, etc), should be kept, since they sound really good. Maybe some other nicknames for a few of their more "custom" weapons, too.

Line break here, or it would get hard to read.

The Coalition should use a lot of acronyms, mainly because big military conglomerates have quite a tendency to do that. But not those simple three-letters-and-a-number acronyms. No, no. It would have to be a three-letter acronym, followed by some kind of semi-descriptive nickname. Such as, for example, "SRS 'Stapler'" for a submachinegun, or "GRT 'Longshot'" for a sniper. Try also to choose acronyms that make sense, so that you can answer to all the angry "WTF does this mean?!?" questions that people ask whenever they see new acronyms.

At any rate, sorry for the rant.


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion: I always think a bit of humour is good for any game, so I would suggest going with more subtle/ironic ones. It would also increase the immersion a bit, I think.


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion: Yes yes yes yes yesssss. Bullets should definitely be visible, and even more so in stronger weapons. See question .12 for more information.


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion: 640x480, definitely. It allows you to see the beautiful pixel art in the game and helps give it a more retro feel.


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion: That would be a good idea, I think. I wouldn't make them completely harmless, though, just really weak (one harmful tracer every 25 shots or so), so that you would only use them as a desperate last effort. Shovels should keep to being megaweapons of mass decapitation, though, since they are so innefective as digging implements (and it feels great to shovel someone's head out, really).


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion: I really think we should go a bit over the top with this one, really. Weaker weapons would be OK with more real-life effects, but heavier ones just can't go without big muzzleflashes, smoking shells, shining bullets and so on. Really, I think it's a really good idea to show a weapon's firepower by the amount of effects it uses. Although you could make one or two "joke" weapons, that would use huge amounts of flashes and smoke, but cause little real damage, just so that you could dual-wield them and go for matrix-like gratuitous over-the-top bullet time sequences.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: Nummy, if you ever make actors not collide with each other, I'll personally go to your house and beat you to death with a herring. How can you even consider doing that in a game that strives for realism? Would you dare deny us the epicness of wrestling whole army of coalition troopers to death with an armless, one-legged dafred? I am disappoint.


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion: Eeerm, no. I think that, in the future, we would already have discovered non-hazardous propulsion systems, and it would be a lot better to be able to fly around without worrying about decapitating my buddies. A few heavier mechanical units, however, should have some more "fiery" jetpacks, so as to be able to yell "IGNITION!" and fly off, burning to a crisp anything and everything (ok maybe not everything, but you know what I mean) unlucky enough to be too close to the takeoff zone.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion: I think that some delay should be applied between bursts, so that people would need to think a bit more about when to use them, but not too long, so as to keep the jstpack useful. Nothing irritates me more than a too weak jetpack.

And that's it. Took me some time to write, I hope it's useful.

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?
Your guess seemed accurate. 0.6-0.8 is just fast enough for a human to be on-par with the AI as it is. If it got smarter though, a lower timescale might be more fitting.


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?
Guns are durable, clones are not. A guesstimate of about 1 wound per 3x3 pixel area seems like a good starting point, with modifiers for shoddy craftsmanship (Ronin), solid craftsmanship (Browncoats), or technical fragility (Tradestar stuff always struck me as being high quality at the cost of durability).


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?
Well, depends on if you take my advice for reworking how you buy units. See note. If you don't, reduce costs by 1/3 ish, drastically for expendable ammo (TDExplosives that is). A grenade should not cost a whole 5 oz for what it is now. Make it more useful (IE, deadly) and maybe.


4.) How should weapon range work?
Two options.
One, lend some of that blend of unrealistic to the thing, bite the bullet (ha ha), and put it back to LifeTime-limited. It works, has worked for many builds, and the player just gets used to bullets disappearing much like taxpayers do their money.
Or, rig up some Lua or Data-helped new variable HarmlessTime that just turns off HitsMOs after a certain time. This IMO is the better option, as it keeps both the visual effect and the limited range aspect. Reasoning: bullets veer off the plane of movement.

5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?
Yes, and while you're tweaking them, nerf their mobility and buff their durability too. Either Lua-assisted or Data-driven resistance to rotation so once they come down on the correct angle, they will stay at that angle unless given a substantial push, like a slug cannon shot to the prow. Much much larger GibImpulse and GibWound limits so they can take a substantial beating (and require heavy weapons) to take down. I should not be able to shoot down a dropship with a single AK47.

6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?
Heavy diggers should be able to go through concrete, medium through heavy dirt and rock, and light through light dirt. Try to go one level up and it will take you a while. Try to go two levels up and you'll never get there. Metal requires special breaching charges, probably of a thermite-like nature with lots of drippy hot metal goodness.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!
This point is covered in my note.


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?
See note


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?
Funny colored bullets depending on how fast/heavy they are sounds silly. Just make them look somewhat realistic. Lead is black, so make shots a lighter shade to indicate motion. Tracers orangey white like they are now. If visibility becomes a problem, add some yellow orange to normal shots too. Lasers? Whatever color you want.

10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?
It is and has always been 640x480.


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?
Seems like a point that is a personal choice, but I would say make them terrain-only.


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?
Over the top, all the way. It's perhaps the one defining feature of Cortex command, visually (besides the bit depth). Really really big and firey explosions.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?
Tackles aren't insta-kills IRL, and presumably not in the future either, so probably not.


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?
Of course. Short range only though, like if your jetpack is RIGHT on their face. A few damaging particles in the emissions along with harmless effect particles.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?
Adding a burst delay at all would work I think. Even an eighth second would do.

MY NOTE:
If Data wants to make this into a tactical shooter, several considerations must be made.
For one, how often during a tactical shooter FPS do you customize your entire loadout? I admit I haven't played many, but I tend to think never to rarely. As in, maybe you could order one or two switches, but often you control one set of weapons and only that set of weapons unless you pick up something else during the game.

So, I propose you change entirely the way we order troops. Keep faction separations of course, but within the faction make troops you order come preloaded with a sensible number and variety of weapons for each soldier's purpose. These loadouts would be customizable and save/load to file-able so that the player could build his own spin on them and the number of types.

For example, basegame Coalition would have four basic soldiers.
The Engineer, Light soldier, Bastion, and Heavy Weapons.

Engineer: This guy rarely leaves your bunker, except when you've turned the tide of the battle and need to breach the enemy's bunker to get at his brain.
Light rifle, heavy digger, concrete gun, and a few mines or turret setup kits. Breaching charges optional.

Light soldier: Your run-of-the-mill soldier. You'd spam these.
Regular rifle, 5 or so grenades of two to three types, light digger, and shotgun.

Bastion: Your point defender.
Heavy rifle, 5 or so grenades of two to three types, heavy shotgun, and riot shield.

Heavy Weapons: When you need to take out heavily fortified positions or deliveries.
Light rifle, Rocket Launcher (Lua-toggle for dumbfire/homing, dumbfire is more powerful), high explosive charges, light digger.

The weapons listed are not all that are available to the Coalition of course. That would be up to the player to customize, however, and it would provide a nice starting setup that would work generally well all around. The point is, during battle you cannot take the time to set up any of these classes on the field, save them to the presets menu, and then load them every minute when you need more troops. That would take far too long.

As mods have proven, most notably DarkStorm and Crobos, preset loadouts work very well, especially when you combine it with the existing menu as a submenu to use in special circumstances. This would also put more of an emphasis on preparation. Eliminate the ingame customization menu to cut the last ties to a 2d shooter and you have to be very prepared for all circumstances with appropriately clean but versatile loadouts.

This idea must be coupled with that of making guns outlive their owners though. Never should a clone have his weapon shot out of his hands without another one nearby to grab immediately, preferably he should never have his weapon shot out of his hands without his head going with it, but you never know.

On the subject of naming, once you remove the time constraints of loadout decisions as they are now, you can afford to prettify them up, give them full model numbers and verbose descriptions. The more meat to the descriptions the better, to more fully immerse the player in the Cortex Command universe, a universe of competing military, mercenary, and commercial interests.

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion: The game should run at a full 1.0 timescale, but you should be able to slow down time directly (While in 'One sim update per frame' mode) without making the game jumpy like ♥♥♥♥ (Like the slow motion in builds before B20).


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion: Device gibbing should not be decided by number of impacts they take, but by the force of said impacts. Say, a regular SMG should be able to take 5-7 hits for a pistol, but only 1-2 hits for a sniper rifle.


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion: Bunker modules should be quite expensive, but only the special parts (Hangars, brain vaults, silos, etc.), while tunnels, corners, etc. should be cheap.
Guns are mass produced, so unless it's a special weapon of bad-assery, it shouldn't cost more than say, 60oz a piece (60oz being for heavy weapons with lots of firepower and such).
For units, I say clones should not cost more than their guns, because like the guns, clones are mass produced, and are not really special in any way.
Special(ish) units should stay the same (Robots, brainbots, drones).


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: The LifeTime method blows balls. A bullet disappearing in front of an enemies face just because it ran out of 'Lifetime' is completely idiotic.
Bullet should have air resistance that would slow them down to a certain speed, that when reached just makes bullets fall down to the ground (This would require a new variable that will disable air resistance so bullets won't just slowly flow to the ground like they do with the current air resistance).


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion: Should be expensive, but not too much. A rocket MK1 should be around 150oz, but actually be worth that amount for durability, maneuverability, etc.


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion: Diggers should eat concrete like, 5 times slower than they do now (Medium power diggers).
Regular diggers should not be able to cut through metal, make special tools for that.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion: Depends on factions. I'm thinking Dummies should have some serial type things, Coa should have acronyms and numbers and Ronins should have 'bad ass' names that make you think they function better than they actually do.


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion: Short and to the point.


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion: TBH, bullets shouldn't be visible at all, but that would be kinda weird in CC.
Don't touch anything.


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion: 640x480, as it was originally made. 800x600 is reasonable as well.


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion: Making a digger not shred people to chunks is like making a jackhammer not punch holes through your skull, which is silly.


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion: I kinda like it the way it is now.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: I'm thinking no, but only for friendly units (Of your own team).
You should be able to ram into an enemy in a surprise attack from the sky.


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion: No, but only for the light jetpack. The light jetpacks only produces some sparks and the max. injury it could cause is a nasty burn (But since most units in CC have somesort of armor/suit, that can be ignored).
The heavy jetpack should cause some minor damage.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion: Burst jetting has been a part of CC ever since they were introduced to CC, and should never be touched. Ever.
Data has disabled it once, back in build 9 (I think it was 9, or maybe 11), but as you can see, it's still around, because without it, a jetpack is useless, and won't get you very far.
I wouldn't mind it being gone once the walking mechanics reach perfection (As much as possible) and after serious tweaking of jetpacks.

NOTE: Don't try to fix something that isn't broken.
Make only the necessary changes, and don't ♥♥♥♥ around with stuff that is fine the way it is.

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion: About 0.7 time speed.


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion: Weapons and tools should be rather resilient, but grenades should blow up with 1 or 2 shots.


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion: The devs should use their judgement, tempered by experience.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: Bullets shouldn't just dissipear, they should keep going 'till they hit something.


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion: Craft like dropships or rockets should be more expensive then craft like dropcrates and droppods. The dropcrates and droppods should be what rockets and dropships are now, but rockets and dropships should be more expensive, and a bit more resilient.


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion: More resistent then it is now, but not impervious.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion: Should definitly have more variety then now, but I'm not sure what that means.


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion: Humorous but informative.


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion: Bullets look good now, but I would suggest shortening the tails.


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion: Just my opionion, but it should be played at atleast 1024*768.


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion: They should continue to be what they are at the moment.


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion: Realistic for the lag reduction, but if it ran smoother, then big boom.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: Yes.


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion: Yes, harmful, possibly deadly.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion: Delay between the bursts would be better, although I have gotten used to bursting around and would be a little sad to see it go.

P.S. What does that mean ProjektTHOR?

Good work, nummy.

1.) Considering how much CC lags this is variable- I think it's fine now.

2.) Depends on the gun.

3.) Guns/Units is good right now for how things are balanced. Bunker Pieces/Units= Waaaaay imbalanced (depends how you look at it). Considering you cannot build after the game starts, and that you can make 1000 oz from one gold vein (est. 15 seconds of digging), it makes the more sense to sink nearly all of your money into a long base with a lot of defenses and a digger or two than to invest in nearly any guys.

4.) I think, for one, that all should use the variable recoil code that's been floating around for a while but seldom used. The Coalition are pretty balanced now.
Pistols= Good for half a screen, slightly more for good pistols like revolvers.
SMGs= Highest DPS, best at around half a screen (variable), crap at a full screen length.
Shotties= From a quarter screen to half, cut out by one screen even for the longer ranged ones. This should have lots of variation.
ARs= Very variable, generally a full screen is the best range, completely ineffective by two (bleh at one and a half).
Snipers= Very inaccurate when not sharp aimed. Bold Actions= one hit kill to head, destroy limbs, maybe 1HK to bodies, for Bolt Actions. Semi autos are slightly less accurate, only maybe 1HK head.
Basically MW2 with nerfed ARs, .

5.) Crafts should be really expensive, like 500 for a dropship, but be very very hard to kill. It should take around ten seconds for a Dummy turret to take one down. Rockets are already quite hard to destroy. 300 or so oz? Rocklets, 100-200. Crates, I dunno about crates.

6.) It should take a heavy digger about 10 seconds to bore through one bunker layer. It should be possible, but difficult and patchable by concrete sprayers (spray time=dig time).

7.) I think that Ronin should be given proper names with actual words.
Coalition should get maybe a short number of letters with numbers. Ml59k or something like that, something with a system.
Dummies get all number. Maybe one letter each.
The generic names are good too, it's not really important.

8.) I think that the descriptions should depend on the faction. With free thinkers like the Ronin, they should have competing companies, while the dummies are all manufactured from the mother controller or whatever and only need efficient logical descriptions.

9.) Bullet are fine as is.

10.) I don't know. Different options=good. Sometimes I want to play on my tiny laptop, sometimes I want to hook up to my TV.

11.) If jet packs are nerfed, keep diggers crazy. If jetpacks are still crazy, nerf diggers. Maybe make only some of the particles it spews do damage.

12.) Effects look good as is.

13.) Yes, but if you can do it, maybe make it so they can pass by each other. Kind of like a lot of plat formers where you can easily go through someone but you can never overlap for long.
If that's not possible let 'em trample each other.

In either case make sure you can collide with enemies. <-top priority

14.) Jetpack emission should be mild burns. Like touching the roof of a car in summer. Make it possible but not really an effective strategy.

15.) Jetpacks should use more fuel when you burst more. That seems to me to be the only really good option.

Another thing: make reload times short but not shorter than weapon switching (unless it's like a pistol or something). Think MW2, lol.

Edit: Adding to what Duh said: I don't think that the focus should be mainly preset loadouts, but have difference between units more.
-There should be accuracy specific to each unit. Like, Brutus can use a shotgun or Smg fine, but can't shoot for ♥♥♥♥ with a sniper rifle while Sandra wouldn't be able to survive up close long enough to fire her shotgun, but is pinpoint accurate with a sniper.
-Recoil should be specified for every gun, and recoil tolerance should be specific for every unit. Brutus shouldn't be so accurate with an LMG, but should be able to keep it consistent, keep it from recoiling too much. Firing an LMG for more than three seconds should break Mia's arms. Not super sure on this idea, though.
-Weight should affect everyone differently, even just due to mass math. Brutus unarmed should weigh three times as much as Mia, but should be able to jetpack half as high/long. Give both an RPG launcher and Mia shouldn't be able to fly at all while Brutus still manages some lift.

I think that one use grenades are dumb and all one use things should be replaced by launchers which recharge, even when not equipped. Or give grenades a mag of sorts, have three in a stack so it's easier to manage (keep a three pack at like 5 or 10 oz, grenades are pretty weaksauce right now).

Edit 2: Everything shouldn't be balanced with everything else. Just makes sure nothing is redundant, then balance faction to faction.
And Remember
FUN>BALANCE>REALISM

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion: The speed seems to be fine right now except when it lags bad.


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion: I'm fine with grenades exploding when you shoot them, guns on the other hand break too fast I think 4x what it is now


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion: Guns and units we just need a scale to base prices on as for bunker pieces/ modules they should be nearly free since they are a pre-battle building item


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: this should be determined by gravity or air resistance


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion: if they keep falling over and killing my cargo then they better be cheep


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion: tougher definitely, resistant to diggers but NOT invulnerable


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion: I actually think use a variety of styles so each group names things a little different


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion: short


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion: tracer rounds look white or pale yellow in real life (illegal in California) so I think they are fine


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion: 640x480 works pretty well for me


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion: mostly harmless against units/objects it should be a vary weak weapon and take a long time to go through concrete


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or something else?

Your opinion: if fire could be a glow (and glows animated) that might be pretty cool, but only if it doesn't slow down the game a lot


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: no but if they are on the other team then yes


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion: some damage so harmful not deadly


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion: KEEP IT AS IT IS PLEASE lol

How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

I'd like it if it ran at 0.8, but no particular reason other than difficulty. Being able to pause would be nice, especially if the AI was better so that your orders actually meant something.



How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

I think it should depend on/be a factor of cost. But generally weapons should break first.



How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

(Mass/2 + (AtomGroupMaterialIntegrity+DeepGroupMaterialIntegrity/2) - 80)/10 + GibImpulseLimit/200 + ImpulseDamageThreshold/200 + GibWoundLimit + JointStrength/25 - 2 (Can never go below 1)
Round up on all

(Should be implemented into the game so that a coalition missing an arm with 100 health gives less money when returned than a perfectly healthy coalition.)

Your average light coalition:
BODY: 42
HEAD: 9
ARMS: 5 (10)
LEGS: 12 (24)

Total: 85

This is just an example, but please come up with something.





How should weapon range work?

Having my bullet disappear on me where I can see it would really piss me off. If I can see an enemy I expect to be able to shoot at it.



Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

I'd expect crafts to be more expensive, being spacecrafts and all, and having them be so cheap makes it no big problem to crash them into enemies as cheap weapons of mass destruction. They should be sturdier, just a bit more, and more expensive.
That way players wont take their space crafts for granted.

You're really just taking them and giving them back anyway. It wont cost much if you don't put many holes in it. But if you destroy it, well... just like any company, they'll make you pay for the vehicle.

It would be annoying though if you never touched the craft and the AI decided it would be fun to crash into the ground.
I think the AI will have to be improved before we're willing to trust them with expensive crap.

Even if space crafts are expensive, you still have crates, which there should be more of in my opinion.



Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

As said previously, things in CC are usually cheap and replaceable.
Except for bunkers.

Until concrete sprayers are fixed/made more effective I think the bunkers should be much more expensive and much more safe.



How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

It should depend on the faction. They are separate, after all. Maybe Dummies/Robots/Tradestar should use serial codes, Ronin use names, and Coalition use acronyms.



In what style should item descriptions be written?

Explain the item, its weaknesses, and it's strong points. Keep it funny.



What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

I'm not sure. I'd say visible, but small amounts of trail length, bullets should be hard to see and dodge anyway.



What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

I play at 1024 x 768, it feels natural to me.



Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Cheap. Useful. Deadly.

Diggers rape units. Digger MOPixels should not be able to hit MOs.



What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Overthetop explosions = very fun to look at. I was extremely happy with the RPGs, bazookas, etc when I first started up B23. But please cut down on glows, because they can be very laggy, but otherwise, please make/use more effects.



Should soldiers collide with each other?

Neither bullets, jetpack emissions, or bodies should be able to hit each other. Otherwise they'll trample, shoot, and jetpack all over each other like they do now. It would make team work much more plausible.

If that is not possible at this point, keep actor collision.
It is your very last weapon when your AK-47 is shot full of holes.



Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

The emissions coming out of jetpacks are high in mass, and that mores them powerful weapons. Maybe even too powerful. Some jetpack emissions should be unable to hit actors. But dont take them out completely, it can be a useful weapon.

But even the jetpacks being flying death machines, it can actually be fun to know you have to look out to not hurt your team mates when using the jetpack. Sadly the AI does not know how to be careful, or even when to actually use the jetpack to land safely.



Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Same. Its fine as it is now. But, if you do take out jetbursting, please increase the flight time on jetpacks.

===========
FORM START
===========


1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion:
I love the game when it is around 0.8 to 1.0. When things are at full speed, it causes those fun little hectic moments you might not otherwise have had, and makes for a fun and interesting game. Where's the fun in seeing a dropship gib from across the screen and having 10 seconds to move out of the way? Sometimes it's just better to see your head ripped off and a spurt of blood rush out.


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion:
Seeing as how they take most of the hits, I'd say more. IRL people shoot at bodies, not guns.


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion:
Weight in gold divided by IRL price = gold oz?


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion:
Anything and everything you can think of. Can it kill something? Can it hinder something? Make it and use it.


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion:
It depends. Your bottom-of-the-line drop pods can be as cheap at 10oz, but, say, a massive dropship with turrents should go for at least 300oz.


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion:
Not invulnerable, but highly resistant.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion:
It's fine how it is.


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion:
They should be written in the kind of tone the person who makes and sells the items to Tradestar would write them. So, like, Dummys and Ronin would each have drastically different writing styles.


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion:
....Pixel glows mother ♥♥♥♥.


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion:
I can play at 1440x900 fullscreen, and keep it at 1280x720, I'd say 800x600. That way it can fit on virtually every monitor and still give you a good amount of gameplay to see.


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion:
A tool that rips through rock-hard earth should have NO problem at all ripping through a fleshy clone. It should kill units fast, unless they are metal or something.


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion:
To date the best fire/smoke effects I've seen are in the CRobotech Beta 3. It needs MUCH more of that kind of art.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion:
Realistically, they wouldn't in a battlefield. But remember, these are AI meat bags. Also, no collision would mean you can't kill your own guys. Maybe make the actors not hit, but projectiles still would.


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion:
Well, seeing as how a jetpack is an extremely hot expulsion of burning gas, yes.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion:
They differ already, so let that be up to the modders.


===========
FORM END
===========

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?
1.0, no question.

2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?
As Paul has said at some point or another, though a normal gun would take one or two hits to be out of service, we're dealing with a side view where much more of the gun is visible to us than to the enemy. As such, I feel guns and tools should take 5-10 hits based on the value of the weapon. Grenades should take quite a lot less, 1-3 hits is sufficient.
However, the GibImpulseLimit of the grenades should be increased greatly, to prevent them acting like mines.
All weapons and tools should have their deepcheck removed.

3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?
Weapons pricing: Should be based on the overall combat value of the weapon.
An equation should be devised based on the maximum damage (based on a standard clone or something), weighted by ammo, reload time, sharpshakerange etc, possibly with a usability modifier.
Tools should have a simmilar system. Its the only way to be properly fair.

4.) How should weapon range work?
LifeTime should never be used to limit the range of primary projectiles. It could be used in shotguns for _some_ of the particles if you randomised the lifetime (LifeVariation, lua style) but it should never fully nullify a shot.
Lua should be used to dampen sharpness over range (they could be removed upon hitting near 0 values, hopefully with some smoke or simmilar in their stead), gun spread should be used more, some sustained fire innacuracy could be introduced.
If terminal ballistics are introduced for "hollow point" rounds, this should be dampened with range also.
The current instant cancellation makes for a stupid damage curve.

5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?
If the craft has serious potential as a weapon, the price should be raised, but none of the current vanilla craft require much of a price hike.

6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?
Resistant, never impervious. Digging is integral to CC. With TLB's apparent raise in resistance, it should be better, but it'll likely need more playtesting.

7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!
Names should be faction dependant, but straightforward. Names should be memorable at least.
Serials could be used if they aren't pretentious, but I dont really have a preference with this. Shotgun to me is fine, as it clears up what the weapon is.

8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?
Cheezy commercial style with enough info to be helpful. Roundcount, base power, reload nerfs, the fact that it ♥♥♥♥ explodes would be nice.

9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?
Solid projectiles could generally use a trail to make them more easy to see. The base SMG bullet trail length was nice, heavy munitions could be both longer and have a trail if you felt so inclined.

10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?
I feel 400x300 x2 windowed makes it feel much more personal, but the menu would need remaking for that to work.
for 1x, 640x480 and 800x600 are common resolutions for me.

11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?
HELL NO DIGGERS SHOULD BE VIABLE FOR MELEE BUT PERHAPS NERFED MORE HEAVILY AGAINST ARMOURED ACTORS
for example, a coa heavy should take perhaps a second to die from medium digger to body, whereas a light/ronin would die in less than half a second.

12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?
Look at crobotech's explosions and go for that. For smaller explosions, mostly just smoke and a little fire is fine, for larger ones, smoke and flames. Particles with trails make explosions far more interesting as well.

13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?
I'm tempted to say no here, at least not with their own team. If this could be toggled that would be the best option.
IDEA: if they're "unstable" (status = 2?) they should, if not they shouldnt.
Craft should always collide.

14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?
Depends on what sort of jetpack. A smokey jet shouldnt, one based on plasma or fire should.

15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?
It should again be dependant on the jetpack, with very defined pros and cons to each kind of jet. It would make actor choice far more interesting (you could get a scout with an agile jetpack and no armour, or a heavy actor with barely any vertical coverage.

NOTE: Effects should be overplayed, it's what makes CC fun. If there's smoke, there should be lots of smoke (just be careful not to spam particles, use large ones where space needs to be filled, small ones for details and flourishes)

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Well, I'd like to go for 80% time scale, fast but not too fast.


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

More resilient than they are now

3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Abstain.


4.) How should weapon range work?

No lifetime limits, unless the creator decides to do it anyways.


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

The current crafts should be the bare minimum.


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Resistant, I'm tired of having a-holes digging though my walls like there is no god, and to halt decay from use.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Whatever the hell you feel fit.


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Not the commercial/humor style, stay the course.


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Abstain.


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

I'd like there to be a 150% default resolution.


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Yeah, have them be effective against terrain, and active munitions ( like rockets, and activated grenades ) .


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Take the core style of Crobotech's explosion.

13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Only if they are of different teams.


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Have it knock them around.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Delay the bursts.

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion: 1.0, becasue it's fun to turn the tides with one unit when you jet-ram into an enemy sniper, steal his gun, then headshot the guy going for your brain.


2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion: Grenades should be able to blow up becasue of gunfire, guns should not be destroyed by 5-6 bullets, but maybe have some spots of the weapon to be destroyed to reduce performance, like the scope of a sniper or the barrel of a shotgun, making the former into a not-so-long range sniper and the later into a sawn off. Shields should reflect small arms fire and take dents from larger bullets. Maybe be able to be pierced by powerful enugh bullets?


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion: guns should be priced according to size, "quality" and what the ammo would cost.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: Guns should be accurate, like, in 640x480, you should be able to take potshots at everything you see when standing still, but the bullets would get less accurate at ranges more than that.


5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion: The better defence the crafts offer, the more expensive should they be. And stuff like rockets should be cheaper than dropships.
Size should also matter, like, a tiny one-man rocket should be cheaper than one you can use to transport four fully armed troops.


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion: Yes, to a certain degree. The heaviest diggers should take a while to dig through a "regular" square of concrete.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion: For factions like the coalition, stuff like AR-62c for a compact assult rifle and HMG-71 for a heavy machinegun.
Ronin and similar factions could name stuff "weirder", like, leadstorm for a heavy machinegun and boomtube for grenade launcher.


8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion: Detailed and maybe some comments from the devs, like, "Try this on heads" -SOMEONE


9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion: Bullets should be black, tracers should be yellow/orange/glowy, BUT the regular bullets could have a trail that is transparent, but not too transparent.


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion: 640x480. No question.


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion: The heavy duty digging equipment should be able to kill people, but maybe have some drawback like forcing you to walk slow, while light ones don't harm you at all. Melee weapons would ofcourse have to be implemented for that to work.


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion: Minimalistic ones, with no fire. Fire is horrible, it rapes my computers. Bombs should hve shockwaves too.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: yes, or else you couldn't jetram people anymore


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion: no, it should be quite harmfull really, so you can just fly over someone and they die. Insta-fun.


15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion: maybe have it so that you can have three bursts, to get to a bit height, but from then you have to glide downwards.

1.) How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

Your opinion:
an idea would be to have the game run at a slightly slower pace, and also introduce "cannon time" where a player can slow down the entire game for a short time,(around 5 - 15 seconds) to make issuing commands easier. to balance this out, possibly add a limit to how often a player could do it during a game, with a "recharge".

2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?

Your opinion:
grenades should obviously take fewer hits, but weapons should be able to take quite a few. more expensive guns could explode when destroyed, like the rocket launchers or the destroyer cannon.


3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?

Your opinion:
generally its fairly easier, the bigger and more useful the item the higher the cost. an idea would be to have "higher tier" weapons either researched or become available later in a battle. items from other factions should always be more expensive than your own factions.
in the metagame one could possibly invest in research, to either reverse engineer a weapon from another faction or to simply make a new one, a cool way to do this would to have a set of randomly generated codenames for these projects so that players wouldnt always be sure what they are getting. another way to do it is to have a marketplace type system where prices fluctuate based on player demand and other random factors.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion:
weapons should have a maximum effective range, after which the bullet lose mass and sharpness and velocity.

5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Your opinion:
they should go up in price every time you purchase one, so as to limit spamming, the price would also slowly drop down.


6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnurable/resistant to diggers?

Your opinion:
it should be VERY difficult to get through, and it would take a large amount of time for even a heavy digger to get through.


7.) How should we name stuff? Should we use serials/code/type/acronyms/other conventions within the names of units, weapons and craft? If so, how would they look like? Any cool ideas on naming? Share!

Your opinion:
codenames would be interesting for things, before they player has encountered them. but its better to simply have standard names, influenced by each faction, eg tarantula as a more biological factions crab tank. its also nice to give things fake sciency terms like matter disintegrator and such.

8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?

Your opinion:
a little bit of history, and the functions of the weapon

9.) What would the best visual style for projectiles be? Especially bullets. Like what colors and how long the trails should be if visible at all?

Your opinion:i think the bullets look fine now, making them move faster would be nice though.


10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

Your opinion:
lower resolutions like 800x600 or a little big higher.


11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?

Your opinion:
they should act like the repeller gun against units and objects, but dig normally


12.) What would be the best style for explosions and fire? Minimalistic and realistic effects or over the top smoke and flames? Or somehow else?

Your opinion:
over the top smoke and flames for the bigger weapon(eg: UBER CANNON)


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion:
yes they should, but they shouldn't exert all that much force on each other, to make it difficult to hurt your own units. they should collide with enemies as they do now(with a little refinement)


14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Your opinion:
some should, but most should not.

15.) Should bursting with jetpacks be kept the same or limited with delay between bursts?

Your opinion:
it should be limited, but jetpacks being made more powerful the longer they burn.