Cortex Command
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About
Cortex Command is the primary project of Data Realms LLC. The game is still in development.
"In Cortex Command, you play as a prospector and explorer in a time where complete cybernetics and whole-body amputations are common practice. Your severed brain is able to control many different types of bodies remotely from its underground bunker: clones, robots, spaceships, defensive turrets, and so on.
A typical scenario starts with a building phase where you get to construct your own bunker complex from scratch. Then you need to mine precious gold from the deformable pixel terrain in order to buy more and better ships, soldiers, weapons, digging tools, and deployable defenses. Use these assets to defend your disembodied brain and destroy or bankrupt your opponent!
Control your team of remote bodies either directly or let the friendly AI do your bidding through real-time strategy elements built into the game. Play with up to four players in split screen -- 2 vs. 2 players, or all four cooperatively against the computer. Eventually, you can play the campaign missions together with friends..."
History
Cortex Command development started sometime within 2000, and was originally called D.I.R.T, by Daniel Tabar (a.k.a. DaTa, or Data), and a working alpha was released publicly some years later. Since then "Cortex Command" has gone through numerous changes and updates.
As the game carried on DaTa realized that he wasn't exactly the best artist and sought the help of Promster (a.k.a. Prometheus). Promster's graphical changes were implemented on the 27th of July, 2004 and gave Cortex Command the graphical style that it is now known for.
In 2008, he contracted several members of the community to do work for the game. These contributors included capnbubs, TheLastBanana and numgun. Following a huge amount of community support, CaveCricket48 was included onto the team, shortly followed by Lizardheim, and Abdul Alhazred.
In more recent times, the time lapse between public releases has been long, and it was for this reason, amongst other things, that the developer numgun left the team, and indeed the community. There was a gap of two years between builds 23 and 24, which was due to a lack of dedication from Data himself, and between those builds it was felt very much by the community that not enough had been accomplished. Following the release of build 24, Data improved his relations with the fans, and gave regular updates via his Twitter Updates. Very quickly build 25 was released, which was, by all accounts, a rousing success.
The project has been in development for a decade. It has been submitted to the Independent Games Festival four times, and the forth time it won two awards; one for technical excellence and the other an audience award. Cortex Command has a feature on the Great Games Experiment, and was featured in Play magazine. It was also one of the prestigious Humble Indie Bundles, where it was widely well received.
Modding
Cortex Command uses a simple variable-base object designing system to allow modders to create their own entities, along with lua for more complex features. Modding is easy to learn for Cortex Command, and currently there are many mods being released every day. Released mods may range from serious and realistic to fun and silly.
To find and download mods, you can go to Mod Releases.
For help installing mods, you can go to How to install mods.
Factions
Some of the factions that are featured in the game. Some of these have yet to be implemented and there are more to be revealed.
Trade Star is the company that transports their inventory from their shipping station. You are responsible for the safe return of their transportation vehicles. Any damage incured to their equipment will be taken out of your gold return.
These are standard, cloned troops. They represent typical military factions, and are usually clad in green. They are strong versus most gun fights, but are slow. They come pre-equipped with helmets, which can stand a single headshot before death. Their weapons come in a variety of types.
Cheap and easy to build, these robots can be used for light attack roles. The tutorial mission is your first introduction to these guys, you are given the task of maneuvering your dummies in a small obstacle course to get acquainted with the mechanics of controlling a body. Dummies are well-rounded, and are also light, allowing them to move relatively quickly, however they are easily defeated by stronger enemies and should not be depended upon to hold a base.
A collection of "rebels". They use antique weapons, and recruit civilians, prisoners, and the poor. Effectively, cannon fodder. Each type of soldier has unique characteristics which help it slightly with combat and effectiveness.
Whitebots / Techion
The Whitebots represent a somewhat elite faction. The current dropship and rocket belong to the Whitebot faction. They also have the brainmech. Although not shown in any game demonstrations to this point, they have been spotted in the opening cinematic in a conflict against the Coalition.
Most recently, the Whitebots are being called Techion.
A recently added race, made by Capnbubs. Although little data has been given about this new faction, it has been gathered that they are a heavyset faction, slow to move, but with impregnable armor. No weapons have been specifically introduced for them.
First encountered in a "Zombie Cave" mission, these putrid smelling foes stagger towards you in the shape of Zombies, which range from fat and skinny ones, to bare skeletons. Essentially, a massing party. The weapons this faction uses can be guaranteed unsafe, bad, and most importantly of all cheap.
Aliens
Aliens, sure, you really can't tell what the brain is can you? You might be a Zxolophlox controlling those human bodies, because human bodies makes nice organic meat puppets. The opening cinematic briefly shows various alien lifeforms that may be integrated into the game.
The critters that inhabit the gold-rich planet you're on. Unfortunately for them, your fighting and mining is killing them and is laying waste to their planet.
