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 CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY - RESULTS ADDED 
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Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:44 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
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 increase in game speed. I'm a face paced rts and fps fan so that's probably why. I feel like this is the perfect way to make the game get in motion faster, because when stuff starts to happen it gets a bit slow anyways. Also this is the only way i was able to 1v2 some friends (the new game speed+shotty=win).


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

Your opinion: Almost all metallic guns should be almost impervious to regular slug based weapons, but the energy based weps should cook through them fast.


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

Your opinion: Objects should be kept low as to encourage complex base design. Guns should be more expensive and less disposable. Units should have more of a price difference since some are vastly superior for about the same price (unless we are going to split the faction options up for campaign).


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: Gravity should be the limiting factor here. If we use a gravity based weapon range, we just need to make the shotgun spread more drastic the farther it travels.


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

Your opinion: The crafts seem to have the right pricing at the moment, but there should be a 10% loss in credits when sending a craft back. For fuel costs if nothing else.


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

Your opinion: It seems semi resistant at the moment but that may be due to the thickness. Resistance seems to be the only realistic option here.


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: Serial/code sounds very interesting for Robot factions, while acronyms could be used with most clone and ronin things.


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

Your opinion: The object naming system should vary based on what Faction. Robot faction things should be strictly fact based, While ronin should have description on an almost strictly emotional level.


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: Please make them shorter. The green tracers on a machine gun should be the only bullet with a trail THAT long. Keeping them visible if only slightly will need to stay if you want to keep the frantic firefights as impressive though.


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

Your opinion: I play on a widescreen but it seems the game should be kept for low resolutions (mostly for the player to have less of a sight advantage over the ai)


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

Your opinion: They should be kept this dangerous vs squishys, but Robots should be very resistant.


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: Almost everything is good as is. More smoke would add a realistic war torn vibe that I feel is needed at the moment.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: This should be player preference if anything. friendly/friendly should be in options while friendly/enemy should always collide.


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

Your opinion: There should be fusion based jetpacks for all humans, and the current fire based jetpacks for robots. Fire based doesn't effect robots as drastically while almost instakilling humans, and vise versa.


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

Your opinion: A delay between bursts is the only way to limit player abuse. The jetpacks should be able to boost a unit slowly upward even with a full inventory as to negate the need to abuse the current bursting.


Mon Mar 15, 2010 5:54 am
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
♥♥♥♥ I can't believe I missed this thread completely.... I kind of partially branched away from the main questions to kind of link it to content tweaking as it seems like this is basically a more focused content/gameplay tweak thread. I guess I started writing in my designer state as I left all values blank but gave good descriptions. added a bit more info on values and stuff.
numgun wrote:
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 think the timescale is irrelevant, and perfectly fine as it is, but that it should be talked about in terms of gameplay speed (which is only partially related to game timing). I think the game should be fast paced, action-like, yet it should take a reasonable amount of time to win a round, gold should last longer, so that you can easily buy many troops throughout the course of the game but you should have to mine which should take quite a while, and it should be time consuming to dig into a base -> doors should be easier to break through than tunneling. also I believe craft should have a return delay before they can be used again, but you can have three separate crafts at once, but maybe have an express weapon delivery system, that actors can not be bought from. basically keep the gameplay the same, make spamming loads of troops at once harder, make mining mandatory BUT INTERESTING (protecting miners), make soldiers harder to kill. I think getting the right combination of actor hardiness, terrain hardness and craft timing will set the game to the right timing whilst providing intense action and epic moments (waiting for a vital delivery, etc.)

2.) How resilient should weapons/tools/grenades be? How many hits can they take before breaking?
Your opinion: no tools and such forth should break from petty falls (AND PLEASE no actor collision when not held! many times have I crushed a weapon I meant to pick up), I'd like weapons to be slightly less fragile, though as with the above suggestion on craft timing and hardier actors it might not be so much of an issue unless you're getting your ass kicked.

weapons should take more damage unless the delivery method is improved, even still maybe slightly more hits before it brakes.

3.) How should items and objects be priced? How to determine the cost of objects (guns, units, bunker pieces/modules)?
Your opinion:crafts should be expensive due to the technologies of safe atmospheric entrance etc, guns and stuff should be relatively cheap, units should be a lot more expensive and last longer, bunker pieces is another issue I think the current base building system is bad and I don't really know what price they should be but I think an entirely different terrain construction method should be in place.

for actual pricing I think that you need to set some kind of base price for each thing, kind of how science works comparing everything to hydrogen for example, I think you should decide the "base price" for the object then compare everything that falls under that object category to the base.

4.) How should weapon range work?
Your opinion:I think weapon range should be limited for more action, sniping is alright but the AI is too stupid to retaliate unless they can see you, there should be some stuff like a bunker guard (automated turret) module that has a long range that is supposed to be hard to get close to and destroy, sniping it from a distance would be lame as opposed to charging in maybe throwing a grenade focusing all your firepower on it with a number of casualties but succeeding.

I think using spread to limit the effective range before you are spraying all over the place is pretty poor, a better way of doing that is recoil instead of spread, of course spread is still a factor that can simulate shaking and shotguns etc. but realistically it's only really noticeable from large distances in most guns when actually aiming, the accuracy of the degree of spread needs to be increased imo, a better method is just making the bullet slow down, but I think ~1280 (two screen widthlengths) should be the average distance the bullet travels before embedding into the ground

5.) Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?
Your opinion: more expensive but a LOT harder to destroy, destroying it should be a great achievement and the landing zone should be reasonably well protected, as loosing it would be bad.

6.) Should bunker concrete be impervious/invulnerable/resistant to diggers?
Your opinion: not entirely, but it should be extremely hard, the point is to try to direct players through and around enemy bases, maybe throwing down some c4 to blast through small walls.

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: nonono, acronyms are retarded IMO, I honestly have NO IDEA what all the grenades are in your ballistic weapons mod even after multiple games with them, bad thing entirely. A lot of weapons that do have acronym style names are usually referred to by their "regular" name anyways because people recognise them a lot easier, code names take time to learn.

8.) In what style should item descriptions be written?
Your opinion: I'd like the immersion of a sales catalogue but in a more practical style , maybe showing rounds per clip, features, possible attachments(hehe, please?) and stuff.

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 have to say I'm actually a great fan of your colour coded bullet speed guide, white is fast, red/orange is slow, excellent. also I've kinda taken this idea and want to use it in one of my own games, with a plasma variation, colour represents plasma temperature and also the brighter the glow the faster it is. also trail length represents speed (kind of obvious, trail length is effectively rendering the blur of in-between frames that our eyes can't fully distinguish).

10.) What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?
Your opinion: I like small screen, it intensifies the action, requires you to scout etc. I dislike bigger screen play but I guess many others will disagree.

11.) Should diggers be effective only against terrain, but do nothing to units/objects? Should they be harmless against soldiers?
Your opinion: I believe so, they are way too overkill, maybe making them a lot harder to break but a lot more expensive whilst keeping the actor rape level the same would be the way to go, as you're going to want to be mining 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: less regular particles, make the particles do a lot less damage to terrain, but damage actors a lot, but make a shockwave that does a ♥♥♥♥ ton of damage to either regardless (of course this would only be very large on stuff like c4/missiles)

13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?
Your opinion: yes and no, same team actor collisions are a general annoyance, but you shouldn't be able to pack in an unlimited amount on the same space, maybe allow two to pass each other if they are on the same team, the third will gently push but not collide.

14.) Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?
Your opinion: Deadly and harmless at the same time, rockets should be deadly no question, but then you need to fix the steering and item launch distance/speed, but actors jetpacks should be harmless.

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


Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:16 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

I like a faster paced game. But I do love slow motion when something epic is happening. Though sensors like that would be hard to get.

The pace it is going at right now is great. Give the players higher moblity and climbing, though that has been proably said before.



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

As much as a hate grenades exploding in my hand. I believe that grenades should be low. Tools medium, and weapons, hard. Depending on the quality also. An undead Blunderbuss should not take more then a coalition assault rifle.


Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?
Expensive, there has to be a good reason to return it, and think twice about how far you should drop your soldiers from the front.



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

There could be another way to handle this. Possibly having a 'stress' on the digger. While it digs through dirt, gold, and hopefully skulls of undead hordes it should have no 'stress' But as it digs through rocks and concrete the 'stress' should build up. And eventually cause the digger to explode. A way to relieve the 'stress' is to sit down and cool off. Giving the defence time to counter your digging.

Other then that. Concrete has to be extremely reslient.


In what style should item descriptions be written?

Humerous annoucement. Though different modders have different styles.



What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

I would like a zoom in / zoom out (Though this might make average pistols a sniper) Or maybe a minimap. Which I believe is on the way.


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

Not harmless. But not so harmful.


Should soldiers collide with each other?

I think that you and your team mates should be able to 'pass' one another. But you wouldn't move to the side for an enemy.



Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Not harmful. Very annoying.



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

As much as I love it. It is a cheat. But its the only way I have for getting heavier guys out of a hole.


Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:04 am
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
===========
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 think the game feels best at a value around .05 deltatime. After tinkering with the terrain properties I've been able to get it so that everything isn't sinking into the ground.


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

Your opinion: As far as weapons, certain weapons should be more resilient than others, maybe based on price (expensive weapons break easier). Also, more elaborate weapons might be easier to break than simpler ones. For example, a minigun would be more resilient than a laser rifle, but less resilient than an AK47 due to the high number of vulnerable mechanical componenets. I think tools should in general be more resilient than weapons, but grenades (Not bombs) should be easy to break/explode, just hard to hit. Maybe they might only explode if caught within another explosion, missile command style.


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

Your opinion: Longer range or higher damage weapons, such as sniper rifles, semi-auto shotguns, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, etc. should cost more than SMG's, pistols, or grenades. Units could have base role sets (EG support, assault, medic, engineer, whatev) which are equally priced, and players can pay more for more advanced types of each combat role, or for more heavily armored special units.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: Everything works fine as is to me, but I think bullets specifically should do less damage and have less force the further they travel.


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

Your opinion: I think there should be a range of cheaper craft and more expensive craft. Cheaper craft would be risky, but might serve better for weapons delivery, while more expensive drop ships or drop pods would be able to ensure a successful deployment of combat units.


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

Your opinion: I think the concrete should be only slightly tougher than it already is, but otherwise I think it's pretty fine.


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: If you're going to use serial names, make the menu more faction specific, so that you can see the units and weapons of one specific faction at a time to avoid confusion and improve game flow.


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

Your opinion: A short description, followed by pros and cons.


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 bullets look fine as is, maybe shorten the tracers a little.


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

Your opinion: I think it's best at 1024x768 or 800x600


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

Your opinion: They should be able to harm soldiers with little effect on flesh and no effect on armor or shields. This far in the future I'm sure they could make it happen...


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: Explosions look pretty good, but they need to be less particulate. It's a waste of resources to render a bunch of tiny dots you probably won't see anyway.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: Only with members of the opposing team. Otherwise, no.


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

Your opinion: Same as above.


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

Your opinion: Should be kept the same, but should regenerate from the point you let go of the boost button instead of just returning to full. If this is already so, a way slower regeneration rate, but still lets you boost any time as long as you have fuel. Maybe expending all of your fuel would result in a few second delay, which would keep flying down a lot more and encourage more "Tribes"-style ski maneuvers.
===========
FORM END
===========


Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:15 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
Oh god, bursting should just use more fuel. Why hasn't that been done, with a variable to tweak how much? Surely it should take 30 seconds, you just need to add another variable to the AEmitter class, and read it when doing the jet fuel calculations.


Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:58 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
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: ~0.75 would be fine.


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

Your opinion: First of all, grenades (or most of them) shouldn't explode when hit by bullet or stepped on. Weapons are good as they are, only make it a lot less probable to be destroyed while being hold.


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

Your opinion: Craft (500 and more oz.) >> bodies (not less than ~150 oz.) > guns (less than 50 for basic ones, no upper limit for uber). Small bunker with one enterence, 2-3 firing places about the pirice of a Craft.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: Let's not be too strict for the 'realism for the sake of realism' thing. I'm OK with bullets suddenly disappearing. 3 screen range for rockets and heavy sniper, 2 for machineguns, 1,5 for standard rifle, 1 for submachine gun, and 0,8-0,6 for pistols and shotguns.


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

Your opinion: EXPENSIVE. Player would need to watch over it and transportation would be an important target for the enemy.


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

Your opinion: Definetely. Making siege techniques/weapons/machines another important part of the game.


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: Names should reflect faction's ym, philosophy?


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

Your opinion: Humorous. CC is not serious, survival horror.


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: Make only trails visible (varrying from yellow-white for slow ones to red for one-hit-kill ones), bullets (almost) invisible.


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

Your opinion: 800x600 - 1024x768


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

Your opinion: DEFINITELY YES. Shooting >> melee. Always.


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: Let's not be too strict for the 'realism for the sake of realism' thing. C'mon, give us some eye candy, weeeee!


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: Make a button what when held, makes one on a side, unable to shoot but able to being hit and walk 'through' other bodies. Also nice method to avoid human-flying-torpedoes :)


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

Your opinion: No, in most factions (or very little).


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

Your opinion: Cut the bursting. Make walking faster.


Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:32 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
How fast should the game go? If you're familiar with the term "timescale", then tell what value would work the best?

0.97 to 0.9 is a good zone. Allows the game to speed up and slow down with enough reaction time. Plus, while I'm not sure about this, if the game has a slow enough timescale, there won't be as much stress and the system to catch up. Again I would have to check into this more.


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

Overall the materials should determine the damage resistance.
Weapons should have the highest res. out of the three, followed by tools then grenades. Only armored grenades should have some resistance. [ Up to one shot of small arms fire ] Care should be taken on explosive and energetic weapons and tools. Energy weapons should be the most resilient as they tend to be dense with material.


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

That depends on the worth of gold to the Tradestar and how factions in turn get their equipment ( In house R&D vs. Outsourcing ) There are a lot of factors here too. An exchange rate to go by would be wonderful. Only the value of gold per ounce or pound can determine what we would price the items by.
For the faction themselves - an outline would have to be made. Naturally units and equipment have different logistical and strategic value.


How should weapon range work?

Shot power and barrel length. So far the current settings have good "weight" on the projectiles



Should craft/transport be expensive instead of cheap?

Good question. I lean to the more expensive side for gameplay because these are the only type of units that deliver and move easily across the stage. Overall the prices should be based on value of craft and should not be so cheap that they become fodder nor expendable. They are key assets of strategy

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

If researching or buying better materials is in the works, then the condition is solved. Added I foresee modders making their materials as well.

As the game stands at B23, base concrete should be highly resistant. Only special tools break bunker materials

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!

Two ways this can go: faction-specific or something like a Tradestar registry
...Or both!

Here's how. The registry can allow a nine spaced moniker to go by.
first three spaces are the faction acronym, second is the letter and numbers for what the unit/equipment/item is, and the final set can be extra slots for info.

Example:
Faction A has a new tank with 2 types, a new craft with sub-modules, and a new unregistered category.

-In Registry-
FnA-GVT-LT1, FnA-GVT-LT2 -- FnA-AV_-0N1, FnA-AVS-SM1,2,3,etc. FnA-NC#-___

Definitions:
FnA = Faction A, GVT = Ground Vehicle Type, LT1 = Light Tank version 1
AV_ = Atmospheric Vehicle Slot, AVS = Atmospheric Vehicle System
-SM1 = Sub Module One
NC# (or _ ) = New Catergory
...and so on.
Just like the Navy has letter categories for each ship and how each letter after the first further determines the role and usage.

Universal definitons are the key to this format; description should supplement this format to create a complete identity of a item.

In what style should item descriptions be written?

Here's is the part that make the process easier. If making a universal system is a tad much, factions will define the item here.

Example:
FnA-NCA-IRF
FactionA's New Infantry Rifle
Designed for such and such
Good, Bad, and a note if needed


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?

CC excels in this section, no changes needed.


What resolution is Cortex Command made to be played at?

640x480 is a good middle ground. Multiple screens should adjust without lose native resolution.


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

Diggers should only affect non-armored units, bunker systems and parts, and objects.


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

Scaled explosions are a good choice. Various small, medium, and large size sprites to create the desired effect. Minimal effects for the small fires and embers. Animation scripts for the most serious explosions.

Should soldiers collide with each other?

It would be nice if allies would have a pass function or a off screen step.

Should jetpack emission be deadly/harmful to others?

Yes. Infantry should have a different type of jetpack though. Their packs don't have a good initial acceleration. Maybe having a initial burst then a prolonged exhaust would lessen collateral damages.


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

There are some kinks to be worked out, keep the burst


Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:41 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
Note: I'm somewhat new to Cortex Command, having played since B22. Also, to keep my opinions "pure," I deliberately didn't read the other posts in the thread.



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

I like it at 1.0; things like traveling and digging for gold just seem to take forever with lower values.


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

Grenades and similar items should blow up at the slightest provocation. Light weapons and tools should be very fragile, heavy weapons like rocket launchers much less so. I don't like the tendency of units to crush things by standing on them; everything should be much more resistant to that sort of destruction (forget what it's called).


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

Realism should take a back seat to game balance. If an object is really weak or really powerful, it probably makes more sense to buff/nerf it than it does to give it a very high or very low price.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Arbitrary range cutoffs should be large enough that they merely prevent bullets from staying in the air for a ridiculously long time. This is supposed to be realistic, after all. Effective range should instead be restricted by air resistance, gravity, and accuracy.


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

Yes. Rockets and dropships should be expensive enough that they are impractical to use as direct weapons. This would make drop crates much more useful, too. I also think that craft needs to be much easier to pilot and that autopilot needs to be much better; all your craft exploding is one of the biggest deterrents to rookie players.


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

Yes, bunker concrete should be pretty much impossible to breach without special items (presumably expensive and single-use). Obviously this would lend itself to abuse what with the whole "build your own bunker" aspect of the game, but I'm sure there's a good solution for that; I just haven't though of it.


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!

Exotic names and serials should be used, but VERY sparingly; that way they'll sound flavorful, as opposed to just plain stupid.


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

Advertisements on TradeStar products only, completely deadpan serious for everything else, and concise in both cases.


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?

I like bullets as they are. Colors should remain in the lighter grays and yellows. Trail length should depend on power, which would probably simplify to velocity and mass. Fading the ends of trails into the background would be nice (wait, do they already do that?).


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

It feels best to me from 640x480 to 1024x768.


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

They should harm soldiers, but they shouldn't tear them to shreds in microseconds like they currently do.


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?

Something between the two. I think the explosions should have less dense particle effects than they do now, but the smoke should hang around for longer.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Making it so they only collide with soldiers on opposing teams might work. Failing that, maybe only if they're going faster than a certain speed?


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

Harmful, but not nearly as powerful as it is currently. It seems to be a bit too long-ranged, too.


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

What's the point of having bursting in the first place, again? Why not eliminate the bursting mechanic (which doesn't work at all like it should, from my understanding) altogether and just make sustained jetpack use more powerful?


Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:52 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
I don't know whether you're interested in long detailed answers or not, so I'll elaborate if I think it is needed.
Perhaps you should consider making an online query instead of posting this on the forums.

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

My opinion: I've found that when I play the game on my labtop (it's fairly decent), when the game slows down to a timescale of approximately 0.3 to 0.5 I enjoy myself the most. Below 0.3 tends to get annoying, expecially in case of explosions. But as it is right now I believe the game is paced too fast. You have to act pretty quickly to keep up the pace.

This will always be a matter of opinion though. You shouldn't spend too much time on this, as long as you don't make the game ultra-slowmotion.



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


My opinion: This is a tough one. I find it annoying when my gattling-gun breaks because of a few blaster-rounds from a dummy far away, but I'd find it even more annoying if my actor died. Perhaps you should raise the resilience of both?


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

My opinion: I don't know about bunkermodules, but I think the guns are a little too expensive, like you said yourself.


4.) How should weapon range work?

My opinion: I have no idea.


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

My opinion: This really depends. Problem with pretty much all the current crafts, is that there's a huge risk of your units dying when you drop them off. Either this be due to thrusters, (in case of a rocket) the rocket falling on the unit, or just bad manoeuvrability, the craft simply isn't worth the money right now. '
I personally use a teleporter from WWM (I think), due to it being unable to destroy my dear units.

Conclusion: Improve the crafts and let them be expensive. Right now they're really troubling to use, and are only worth something as weapons.



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

My opinion: Yes. For the love of god, I love the strategic element of Cortex Command. If in any way you can improve/broaden the strategic aspects of CC, please do so. Implementing resistance to diggers bunker-wise can only be an improvement.


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!

My opinion: I have no clue whatsoever. I'm sure somebody else have ideas.


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

My opinion: I prefer the humorous texts written by authors of my currently installed mods. The "♥♥♥♥ do I need to read all that"-element of purchasing stuff is moot, as you only read it once or twice, then you just remember what the damn gun does.


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?

My opinion: No comments on this one either.


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

My opinion: 640 by 800 pixels is my favourite. 800 by 600 is good for a stationary computer. 1024 by 768 tends to make the text a bit too small. It's like loosing some of the details each time you zoom out. Sure, you may be gaining a wider perspective, but I prefer it the native way.


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

My opinion: Diggers are for digging. As previously stated, never refrain from adding aspects to the game. In my opinion the diggers should do damage to units, but they shouldn't have any way near the shredding power they have atm.


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?

My opinion: Can't really say. When a rocket smashes into the side of a bunker with high speed, you expect a large explosion with debris and gibs all over the place. Sure, this may slow down the fps for a short period, but that is unimportant to me. Large explosions rock, and you can't replace them with smaller ones just because of the lag.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

My opinion: Friendly soldiers shouldn't, enemy soldiers should.


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

My opinion: Jetpacks are so hard to aim with that you deserve the damn kill if you manage to kill somebody with it.


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

My opinion: Prevent bursting. Weight should be kept in focus.


Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:11 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
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'm not sure what is meant by 'timescale', but if it means the pace or speed in which charactors move and the general motion of things, I really do not think that is anything to worry about. But, if this is reffering to the length of the game; a good game can never be too long.

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

Your opinion:
Well, robots i would imagine have much more mass than a human. Durability for weapons such as assault rifles right now is really fine, but larger tools like the concrete gun should have much more durability in proportion to their size (also it looks like they are made of some strong metal or carbon fibre or something). Grenades should be able to withstand a robot walking on them due to their shape and i would imagine a grenade would be very dense. But really durability of items isn't anything to worry about either, it would be different if they exploded the second if so much as a feather dropped on them.

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

Your opinion:
At this moment, that is very difficult to say due to the value of gold and the resources required to fight the enemy, as credits/money do not stay with the player when finishing a campaign mission, there is not much value to collecting it at the moment.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion:
I'm not really sure what I could add to that, the weapon range at the moment is fine how it is. The only thing i can say is that a way to improve it currently would be adding an 'aim function' instead of having to wait for the robot to feel like he's ready to start aiming after a while when he feels relaxed enough. The aim function could be executed when a specific key is pressed which is dedicated for it, and would them make the robot assume a firmer or more effective posture depending on the weapon at hand.


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

Your opinion:
Craft in the game right now are more like a taxi service, transportation shouldn't really be very money consuming; unless you destroy the ship in which you would be fined for being responsible for the damage done. If you can eventualy buy craft which permenantly station themselves under your command unless sent back into outer space, then at that time it would be more authentic for craft to be expensive.

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

Your opinion:
I don't think they should be invulnerable to diggers as that would limit the diversity of the gameplay, strategic or otherwise but making them more resistant to diggers would be wise.

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 should depend on the droid or the faction which produces them, but having a complicated name of a robot being like 'DH-6650.1nine' if these robots are being sold in the mainstream domain would not be very good sales tactic. Cars or jets aren't named as mundane IDs, and niether are graphics cards or other technological things, but that does not mean to say that they cannot have a more inventive name than things which are sold in the world we live in at the moment, and there should be some sort of meaning behind it rather than just calling a robot 'Black steel model 3 2nd series'.

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

Your opinion:
A more comprehensive but truthful business approach to describing items for sale for aesthetical purposes but also being explicit at the same time.

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:
That should really only depend on what the projectile is. Bullet based weapons are fine, but perhaps weapons like the blaster could have less generic projectiles, right now I don't have any ideas to make a suggestion for that though.

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

Your opinion:
Well, it's built for various resolutions, but the game right now only doesn't look right in higher resolutions because everything is made to fill the extra space rather than having a better visual quality for things at a more engaging and closer distance.

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

Your opinion:
I also think that, that would extremely reduce the diversity and dynamics of the combat gameplay. What's a bigger problem is that, since the disadvantage of diggers being used as weapons is their range, the AI isn't cunning or self aware enough to either anticipate someone comming towards them with a close range device or, that even if they have ample firepower to have the advantage over the person with the digger, they still cannot seem to atleast put up much of a threat.

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'm not sure minimilistic, but having realistic explosions or flames is much more astute than excessive effects

13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion:
Having robots collide with each other makes the gameplay more diverse, but is also a problem at the same time when it is impossible for them to navigate around their comrades while in tight passages. A way to solve that without decreasing the diversity, and also make it more convincing would be to have friendly robots move out the way of each other further away from the camera into the slight background after having time to react. So either, if you blast down a corridor with your jetpack at high acceleration, you can danger friendly robots or be able to make a projectile of yourself for the enemy.

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

Your opinion:
Right now that is also fine, but having craft jets toast craters in concrete like ice cream isn't very realistic.

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

Your opinion:
A brief delay would be more realistic and more challenging to control (in a good way), but that can make elevating up steep surfaces impossible in some cases, so perhaps being able to statically mount walls or ledges while waiting for the jetpack to be potent again would be not only captivating but useful aswell.

But, in my personal opinion, I don't think these questions are really perhaps important or eliciting enough to the gameplay or the development of the game, they are rather general or insignificant (as in, the function or feature which is being considered for debate)

I had trouble grasping on composing this post in my current state, so I hope it is helpful enough or understandable. I have alot of difficulty wording or expressing things accurately which can sometimes or often result in misunderstandings, so hopefully it is anticipatable when mentioning that.


Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:30 am
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
A note: I have only ever seen/had B23, so adjust expectations accordingly

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 think the current speed is fine, but there should be an option to change the game speed before the game starts


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

Your opinion: Depends on the weapon, but I think that durability should be considered in the cost of items. More potent stuff should, in general, be tougher, except for lasers and such. Tools are included in this.


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

Your opinion: uuuuuhhhhhhhh.... maybe make bunkers less costly if you buy bigger sections, rather than make them from smaller ones.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: I think that most guns should have a full effect range of about 2 or 3 times the range of the last of the aiming dots. After that point, for bullets, air resistance and gravity should start working on them (slightly) and their firepower should decrease (slowly) until they are just fast-moving chunks of detritus. Lasers and possibly some other energy based weapons should expand, spreading out their firepower, and also lose firepower (slowly) per each amount of width (say, pixel), and their brightness would show how power dense they were.


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

Your opinion: Depends on the craft.


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

Your opinion: It should be *almost* impervious, but see question 11 for more.


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 think Coalition: serials Dummy: acronyms and/or industrial names Ronin: nicknames


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

Your opinion: Factual, fairly exact, 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: bullets are already not bad, but you could try single pixels with long and/or short tails. I like the idea of color coding all attacks for effectiveness.

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

Your opinion: The current default is good, but I think that it should just give you maybe a little more than the ai's sight range, and maybe make that adjust to the resolution, and make resolution an in-game option.


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

Your opinion: Diggers should affect troops/actors little, but slightly more against heavier armor. However, one of those new close combat weapons could be a digger with high "pushback," a small clip (1-2 seconds worth of ammo), a reload about half as long as the clip lasts, massive firepower, and the ability to fairly quickly cut through even a bunker's hardest materials. Over all? A weapon that will easily get you killed, because of frequent reloads, but can get rid of enemies quickly too.



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 explosions, but also more over-the-top effects for more potent weapons.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: I think small, friendly things should bypass each other, like soldiers and drones, but everything will always collide with say, a dreadnought or dropship. All enemies should still collide with each other as before. I say the small, friendly things should bypass each other because soldiers on the same network should be able to get out of each others way (but some things are just too big to get around). You should also work on soldiers not shooting friendlies.


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

Your opinion: Yes, but only the more powerful ones. Those on soldiers and such would only push others around a little.


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

Your opinion: I think each unit's jetpack should have a minimum ignition value, such as 25, 50, or 75% of their total thrust capacity, and the current fuel value should be preserved, with a fair regeneration rate.


Thu May 06, 2010 10:54 am
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
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 its at right now is pretty good


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

Your opinion: Weapons and tools should be able to take a fair amout of bullets, more than they currently can. I find I am scavanging for weapons too often because they break so easily from getting shot, bombs or granades should be really one of the only things that can destroy a weapon/tool with eas. Grenades, I like how they are in terms of taking damage but for all three weapons, tools and granades, they should not be able to be crushed by the actors.


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

Your opinion: Well the more resilient/reliable/complex the object the more it should cost.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: Weapons projectiles should continue on their path until they strike something, fly out of the map or untill gravity pulls it down. Now of corse gravity would have no effect on say a laser but the other two would apply.


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

Your opinion: As I said above, the better the craft the more expencive it should be.


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

Your opinion: Low digger- Can barely get through concrete. Medium digger- Can get though the concrete easier then the low but still takes some time. High digger- Is good at concrete but still has some dificulty with steel.


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: Doest matter to much to me as long as its organized and ledgeable.


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

Your opinion: Its good the way it is.


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 are good the way they are they just need to be faster. As for all the debris, its great as is.


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

Your opinion: Small resolution is good, better graphics but the otions currently available are good.


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

Your opinion: They should stay as is but have a much tougher time getting through structures, especialy well armoured ones. And yes they should deffinatly be harmful to actors.


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 like how it is but it needs a bit more over the top smoke and flames effect.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: I like how they do but i just keep crushing my soldiers. So they should colide but actors on the same team should not be able to, at all, harm each other through collision. But on the other hand when actors of oposing teams collide it should do some damage.


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

Your opinion: Same goes as above. Should only hurt enemies.


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

Your opinion: Kept the same but should be a lot easier to fly around. I always seem to struggle especialy with the heavier troops.


Wed May 12, 2010 2:33 am
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
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: This is a hard one to answer mainly because the value I say will never be the speed the game actually runs at; The optimization on the particles is very bad which will always cause explosions and digging to lag the game.



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


Your opinion: Guns should only take damage if they are large, this is because the focus is to kill the enemy and not disarm him. Furthermore why should a bullet that hits somebody's head also hit their gun if it were lower. Also guns should not collide with actors


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


Your opinion: Use an In-game math equation which multiplies the guns ammo count by its damage and then take 25% off. This way when you pay for an expensive gun, you know it will be worth it. Bunker item's cost are good as is.



4.) How should weapon range work?


Your opinion: As it does currently


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

Your opinion: Only if the transport is reliable (drop-ship over rocket) and fast. Add more to the price if it can shoot


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


Your opinion: No


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: As it is currently


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


Your opinion: With stats and small amount of information.


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: Motion blur is out for this one I suppose so as is.


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


Your opinion: Wide-screen 1680 x 1050, This way actors can be high quality. Then lower resolutions are just zoomed in more.


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


Your opinion: The companies that make the diggers wouldn't be making much money if the workers that use them could accidentally rip apart a co-worker


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: as is



13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?


Your opinion: Same team actors should not collide with each other, aside from bullets


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


Your opinion: It already is but it should be reduced


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


Your opinion: Add a delay


Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:54 am
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
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:Fine as is


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

Your opinion: Small weapons should be stronger seeing as they are more compact but larger weapons shouldn't be weak they should be able to take about 5-10 hits


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

Your opinion:Guns shout be cheap except unbalanced weapons , units very cheap because they are just copy's controlled by a brain floating in water , modules should have like the first 5 free and then any thing more should have a price some of as don't want a giant base just somewhere to put our brain


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion:Pass


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

Your opinion:You should be able to buy a cheap one time craft for those financially dire times , but craft that you use for large army's or tanks should be very expensive


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

Your opinion:A heavy digger should make it through but just barely , other diggers about half way , you should have special weapons for breaching 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:Dummys code things like M225 , Ronin awesome easy to remember names like Shredder , and coa very military time names like the Serpentine Sam missile


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

Your opinion:Something like Rounds - 25 Aim distance - 25 m Mass - 2.5kg


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:Bullet Colour should be all kinds of colours makes things interesting , as for the trails some weapons shouldn't have them others should , sniper should have like a smoke trail , and things like pistols and SMGs shouldn't have one


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

Your opinion:I play at full screen , smaller would probably be better


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

Your opinion:Your pointing something that shreds rock in someones face it's suppose to turn him into teeny tiny pieces


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:The bigger the bang the happier the customer


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion:Yes


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

Your opinion:Yes if you are going to have a flamethrower on your back as propulsion you should be able to kill people with it


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

Your opinion:Heavy units should keep the bursting but units that are light shouldn't have it


Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:28 pm
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Post Re: CORTEX COMMAND GAMEPLAY SURVEY
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 think the current speed (1/1 timescale) is perfectly fine; any slower and I find myself making stupid mistakes because I'm acting like I'm moving at regular speed when I'm not; sometimes I misjudge a speed of a clone I'm controlling or a landing rocket and it looks fine at lower speeds, but if played at regular speed you'd see that it's gonna burst when it impacts. Also, at lower speeds, I tend to end up making mistakes with the jetpack, overshooting my targets.


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

Your opinion: Cheaper weapons, like basic pistols, SMGs, shotguns, etc. should only take a few hits to break, because they'd be cheap and mass-produced. Then, if you're using heavy weapons such as rocket launchers, mortars, etc. they're considerably larger, probably more protected, and therefore more resilient. The bigger, more massive weapons shouldn't be indestructible, but they should be able to take a beating. Maybe double what the cheaper, lower-end weapons can take. As for tools, they shouldn't take too many BULLETS to break, but they should be able to survive heavy impacts and other tool-related hazards. Explosives should explode like they're supposed to whenever they're shot; I don't want to lose all those moments where I shot a grenade someone is prepping to throw, and I get to watch a beautiful goresplosion.


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

Your opinion: Determining all things should be based on effectiveness at what they're meant to do. A low-penetrating pistol with a small clip and low rate of fire should be cheap, while a full-auto, large clip and high power should be more expensive. Also, heavier weapons should cost more because they do more damage per shot, capable of taking out more than a few enemies in a single shot/clip. Tools should be relatively cheap, other than things like Heavy Diggers. Then, for bunker pieces, the more punishment they can take, the more costly they should be.


4.) How should weapon range work?

Your opinion: Right now, the fact that I can blindly fire a Gatling gun and wipe out tons of enemies without aiming is a bit of a problem. The way it should be handled shouldn't be lifetime, it should be that over a distance, bullets slow down, lose penetrating power and drop (but only over incredible distances). As for projectiles such as rockets, it's fine the way it is right now, and the only thing that should EVER be done to restrict projectiles being...projected...by propellant should be that MAYBE over extreme distances they run out of propellant and drop. Not a necessity by no means, however.


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

Your opinion: I think transport should generally be more expensive than cheap, unless you're talking things like dropcrates or really fragile craft. Troop transport rockets should be relatively expensive (at least 200oz) so that people don't just summon tons of rockets and rape your army, but the option to weaponize a few over the course of a skirmish should be available. Dropships should be MORE expensive, because right now, unless you're close enough to take out an engine, it's pretty well-protected and resilient enough to scavenge from the battlefield.


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

Your opinion: I think that light diggers should be only able to cut through what they were made to cut through: dead people, bits of craft, and dirt. They shouldn't do ANYTHING to bunkers. As for medium diggers, they should be able to damage concrete, but not very well. Like, you'd have to be persistent to actually make a sizable hole. Heavy diggers/high-power diggers should be able to go through concrete with relative ease, but be pretty much unable to breach steel unless you spend a LONG time trying. That way it leaves open options for more intelligent uses for explosives (using them to break into bases).


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 should change based on the faction. More militaristic factions, such as the Coalition, should call them by what you'd expect them to be called. Maybe a number and a type of weapon, that sort of thing. Less 'official' factions, like the Ronin, should be more slack. Take the RPC. I wouldn't call it that for Ronin, I'd call it the Shredder or something cliché but sensible for the weapon at hand. Finally, robotic factions like the Dummies should name their craft/units/weapons/tools with numbers that show that they're very computerized.


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

Your opinion: They should be a mix between outright technical information and affectionate descriptions; some of the item descriptions right now are misleading, but I like the style they're written in as of now.


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: Right now it's like all you're doing is firing tracers. I think that the bullet visibility should be at least a little lower. The trails should be shortened, and as for the colors, it really depends on the weapon. Right now it's fine how it is: the basic bullets from most weapons are yellowish, as you'd expect them to be, while energy weapons have different colors and glow effects. Projectile weapons that fire rockets right now are handled perfectly and should stay the way they are.


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

Your opinion: I play it at the default resolution, but I've seen my brother play it at the same resolution as my monitor (1900x1280) and he can basically see the entirety of a base, where everything is. That's completely retarded. I think the resolution it's currently at is fine.


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

Your opinion: They shouldn't be epic melee weapons of ultimate close-range rape, but the fact that they can easily tear up earth means that they've got some power behind them. For realism's sake, they should be toned down a LOT but do some damage; if you're stuck in a room with a digger, and you have an unarmed opponent, you should be able to win that fight without having to stomp them.


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 mixed with realism; I don't want explosions to be basically giant fireballs that make craters, but I don't want there to be hardly any effects at all. Right now I think it's a pretty good balance, actually, and I like the way it is, currently. Maybe a little more smoke, but that's all I'd change, personally.


13.) Should soldiers collide with each other?

Your opinion: If soldiers couldn't collide, then I wouldn't be able to leap onto and crush people, and that'd make me unhappy. Yes, they should, no matter what.


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

Your opinion: I don't know what you even mean by this; I've never damaged someone with a jetpack at all. So no, not really, not unless you jetpack right on their face.


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

Your opinion: Bursting should only be available if the unit in question has a VERY small fuel reserve, and so in that case it would be necessary.


Sat Jul 03, 2010 11:42 pm
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