Cortex Command
From Data Realms Wiki
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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..."
Story
Earth would never recover. Once peaceful, the world was awash in bloodshed, wracked by wars backed by holy men. And in humanity's darkest hour, the boldest decisions were the only ones left.
The rush of war forged a curious symbiosis between man and machine. Cybernetics led to casting off the entire body. Brain and mind melded with machines, the person became more spirit than creature-- one mind, but one body was no longer its limit.
This new form offered the only escape from the corpse of our world. Needing life support only for a brain, it became possible to build interstellar rocket ships for the decades of flight needed to reach new worlds. And as this interstellar era dawned, so did peaceful contact with other intelligent life in the universe. In time, interstellar trade flourished, and with it rapid expansion. Humans again knew peace and prosperity.
But war always comes home. Expansion created an ever growing hunger for resources. So, once again, all prepare to fight in order to assume... Cortex Command.
Techs
Note: Techs replaced Factions in Build 27. Techs are distinct groups with their own set of units, equipment, and even vehicles as well as access to Free Trade products. Access to buying other Techs's items may or may not be allowed in the final game. The player acts as a kind of local commander or franchisee of one of the Techs competing with the others.
Coalition
A militarized organization, the Coalition produce a large array of units and weaponry to choose from. They are versatile and powerful, making them a strong ally or a dangerous foe.
Dummy
These robots were originally designed as test subjects for weapons, vehicle safety measures, and other lethal experiments, but an AI controller became sentient and broke off from its manufacturers, starting a new line of robots and weapons to defend itself.
Ronin
Rag-tag parties of bandits who prey on weak and unsuspecting explorers. Their soldiers are unarmored and weapons primitive, but they manage to get the job done.
Browncoat
A strong mercenary group who are fearsome when confronted up-close. What they lack in range is made up for in durability, allowing them to close distances while soaking bullets.
Imperatus
More recent than Browncoats with even less known. Imperatus field only heavy infantry robots and currently are the only Tech with their own brainbot (all were Trade Star's before Build 27). The heavy-calibre Bullpup Assault Rifle is their signature and, so far, only weapon.
Free Trade
This is the "default tech" as any buyable item not assigned to any .rte tech will be in the top-level of the Buy Menu. You cannot campaign as Free Trade, nor are they part of skirmishes.
Free Trade is a super corporation which owns and operates TradeStars, including TradeStar Midas which transports everything you purchase in the Buy Menu. They also sell a few units and weapons of their own as well as most all the tools available.
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.
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.
Techion / Whitebots
Until recently, the Techion were being called Whitebots. They represent a somewhat elite faction. The current dropship and rocket were said to belong to the Whitebot faction included as a stub in previous Builds. Although not shown in any game demonstrations to date, they have been spotted in the opening cinematic in a conflict against the Coalition featuring a large and powerful-looking brainmech. They also appear in artwork depicting them land from a MK1 Dropship.
Became "Culled Clone" units sold by Trade Star as of Build 27. They formerly were a faction first encountered in a "Zombie Cave" mission also featuring a Ronin hit squad. Any connection between the groups is speculative, but both are distinguished by a lack of armor and offering cheaply bought units and equipment.
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.
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.
History
The first recorded development of Cortex Command started on the 22nd February 2001, 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.
The time lapse between public releases has occasionally been extensive, 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.
Build 27, the last public testing release before the full version of the game, incorporated a nearly fully working campaign, and de-activated the ability to injure team-mates, amongst other modding tools.
The project has been in development for eleven and a half years. 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.
