This is a quick update to the state of “more than four xbox controllers in cobalt”.

Due to the comments on the last post, I realized the fix was rather trivial.

In v125 all xbox controllers after the forth will instead be added as direct input devices. This means they will be slightly less featured, lacking force feedback and worse analog trigger support. But it will work:

I tried this with 4 wired xbox 360 controllers, and 1 wireless xbox 360 controllers using a usb-dongle receiver.

/thewreck

We are working on v125! Things that we have done to far include:

• Adventure mode
• Reworked gamemodes
• Polished and reworked maps
• Lots of new community maps included in the game
• Improved flow
• More options in game modes
• Optimizations
• How to play section
• Improved controls view

We are currently focusing mainly on game stability and optimizations.

Here are a bunch of progress shots:

Improved player setup flow

Improved level selector

Improved and updated maps and modes

Adventure!

Adventure!

Adventure!

Improved controls view

More big changes!

Welcome back!

Did you enjoy last weekend’s post? Well if you did, more awesomeness is awaiting you… so click that read more button now!

Reworked maps

That’s right! A lot of your favourite maps are getting a new look to raise their awesomeness level for this next release. Also, some maps have been improved in terms of design, as well. Take a look:

Hey! Isn’t that Frozen? Well, it doesn’t look frozen anymore, but it looks like there’s been some more changes aside from that, doesn’t it?

Capture the Plug: reworked

Capture the Plug has always been a gamemode that I’ve loved. However, the AI for it was never too good, and maybe you think that “something” was missing as well…

That is no more! The AI has been improved quite a lot, as I’m sure you’ll be able to tell. New Ai is capable of defending or attacking more properly.

Also… there’s even more changes to CTP! Big changes indeed!

As you can see in that picture, players now drop random upgrades on death, like in dynamic deathmatch.

All of this results in an awesome new way to play CTP maps! I’m sure you will all love it.

Characters!

What are characters? Well, these are what you pick on Team Strike, Challenge and (dynamic) Deathmatch maps.

Actually, that definition is a bit outdated now. Characters have also been added to the reworked Capture the plug mode!

And not just that, but there’s also a TON of new characters. And a lot of customization!

I wonder what each one does, exactly…

Aren’t those community maps?

Did you ever think there weren’t enough maps in the game’s Arcade? Then get ready for this… in this next update a number of dev-picked community maps are joining the game’s Arcade section! They will be ready for you to play right away just by updating/installing the game.

Also… if you haven’t yet, you should definitely try out Cobalt’s map editor! It allows you to create that epic map you always wanted to. if you need help or info, drop by the mapmaking section of the forum!

If you want to try out the great stuff that some people in the community have already made, check out Cobalt Vault here.

A last big change

…or at least for now! But hey, this one is a really important one. No, I’m serious. Get ready to throw away your old skills (or part of them!) and learn how to play Cobalt again!

Well, maybe that was a bit too much, but honestly, this is indeed a big change:

Rolling has been reworked.

Yes, you heard that right! Maybe you already saw Bopo’s tweet and have been trying to decipher its meaning? Wonder no more!

Before, when you pressed Z, you would roll. Instead of hurting you, bullets would be deflected! Time it perfectly, and the bullets would fly straight towards your foes. And sometimes you even recieve bacon.

That changes now. No, not the bacon. The deflecting bullets part. From now on, when you roll your metalface will have “3 parts” in which bullets can hit:

The very top of your head, which will reflect bullets.

The feet, which is now a weak spot! This adds a lot more depth to rolling and timing, instead of just spamming it.

The rest of the body, which will deflect bullets normally.

I have played a few matches using the new rolling system, and I like it a lot. Before, you’d have to keep shooting an enemy hoping that a bullet hit him between rolls, and hope that the reflected bullets would hopefully not kill you before that. Or if you were the one rolling, you just had to time your rolls to not be hit in between them. With the new system, all this rolling-spam action gets an update, but your skills need one as well. You’ll now have to think about rolling to the left or to the right, depending on which direction are you going, how far away the incoming bullets are… a whole new level of awesomeness!

That’s all for this week!

I truly cannot wait for v125 to be released to the public, and I’m sure you people can’t wait either.

However, I believe it shouldn’t take too long now. There’s still a lot of bug fixing to do, but remember that if the update is taking long, it’s because it’s going to be awesome, and probably almost-bug-free.

With all this said, let me know in the comments what you’d like to know next! At the moment there’s no more content for me to deliver in the form of a blogpost, but I’ll answer most questions that you guys write down there!

Hope you liked the post!

/janeator

Hello everyone! It’s time for a blogpost again! And this time, I bring you news about some big changes that some of us will get to test in the next prerelease so you can have an awesome experience once v125 is out!

Hit “read more” to learn more about these big changes!

Menu changes

“Booo, what is this! You said big changes”

Well, give me a minute here; I’m telling you, there’s big changes! This one might be a small one but it’s pretty awesome. See it yourself:

Now, pretty awesome, isn’t it?

Waves Survival changes

So, apparently some people weren’t too happy with the new Survival gamemode introduced in v123 and how it changed a lot of stuff, and well, how it added “gambling”.

Well, good news for you! And I guess it still is cool news for everyone who was happy with the new Survival anyway. See this!

Is that… new shops? And more maps?

Wow! Feels like Survival has been fully reworked again. Well it has… almost!

You will still fight waves of enemies and buy stuff constantly if you want to survive, just like in v124 Waves Survival… except this time, you won’t despawn. And that means buying stuff will be done in a different way: You’ll have to scout the map to find and unlock different shops where you can purchase different kinds of stuff.

Up to 6 new shops have been created, and they work in a different way than the old Waves Survival shop did:

• Each shop will have one kind of items, with better and somewhat more expensive items on the rightmost columns of the shop.
• Every round all columns will be refilled: If you didn’t buy anything from a shop’s column, the item on the top row will dissapear. So if you want to save a top row item you can’t buy for the next round, consider buying a cheaper item below the one you want!
• No gambling!

More news next week!

That’s right; come back next week, I’ll have more fresh news ready! I think today’s news are already pretty awesome.

However, if you’re not satisfied, here’s a gif by community member mkster in which he performs amazing tricks using one of the new melee weapons. Watch it! Rewatch it! Watch it again! Watch it ten more times! Once you’ve watched it that many times, I bet your skills will have improved a bit. Awesome, isn’t it?

So, see you next week!

/janeator

We’re back in action!

Hello everyone! Enjoying the new year?

Hit that read more button to see what I have for you today!

Cobalt visits Trunkopia

After 45 years in space, Cobalt has finally reached its destination… Time to go around visiting places and taking pictures of emblematic alien stuff!

Oh, a mission you say? I guess Cobalt can do all at the same time!

I wonder what those things looked like when they were alive…

Cobalt’s first touristic stop are some caves in one of the coldest areas of Trunkopia, where one can admire vestiges of an ancient age.

Who might he be?

Just arrived and someone’s already talking about the mission! Cobalt can’t enjoy a bit of touristic sightseeing without being annoyed right away, clearly.

It appears Cobalt was being awaited… some unclear business seems to be happening around the old Trunkopolis human colony, so Cobalt’s personal affairs need to wait.

Cobalt meets some robotic locals

Apparently they don’t seem to enjoy Cobalt’s visit, which is a shame. Maybe they would have been able to show Cobalt around.

The non-robotic locals seem to be a bit nicer

After leaving Trunkopia’s snowy region, Cobalt arrives to a somewhat crowded Mycelian town. In the picture Cobalt can be seen posing next to a famous museum.

However it seems that the locals are having some trouble as well… will Cobalt ever be able to relax for a bit?

Inside the old base and the caves

After leaving the town, Cobalt encounters some sort of abandoned base. It seems that the base is also the entrance to a small cave system, home to the baddies who attacked the Mycelian town.

Their building style is quite unique, so Cobalt decides to take a picture of it as well.

That’s not very nice of them

After some time spent shooting, rolling and collecting loot, it looks like Cobalt is about to reach the heart of the base…

While running around, Cobalt encounters some prison cells. Apparently some fellow mycelians were captured, and they tell agent Cobalt that some time ago the baddies that live here used to trade robot parts for prisoners. What would they even use those for?

The bounce-around tunnel

After finding a secret exit, Cobalt finds itself bouncing from wall to wall, the plants making it almost impossible to progress forward…

At the same time, it seems like there’s noise coming from the other end of the cave. Something important is waiting, Cobalt can feel it.

What will Cobalt encounter at the other end of the cave?

See you next time!

/janeator

How’s visiting family (or whatever else you do!) going? In my case, it’s keeping me quite busy!
However, I had enough spare time to check the Oxeye blog during the 25th!
What’s so important about that, you ask? Well, our dear community member Librus wrote a very interesting blogpost to celebrate such day and holidays!
Go read if you haven’t already! The link is here.

“Spartans”?

Cobalt says he has no idea what you’re talking about.

Cobalt might not be an ancient fighter about whom legends are written (yet), but every metalface who thinks of himself or herself as a decent fighter must be skilled in the use of sharp objects!
That’s where spears -and other stuff!- come in.

Pointy! Sharp!

In the new update a bunch of new melee weapons and equipment is going to be included. Isn’t that awesome? I feel like dueling someone every time I see the new swords. Wait, did someone say dueling?

Check that out! I won! Now who wants to duel with me?
Aw, seems like we’ll have to wait a little longer.

That’s all for this year!

And again the year comes to an end. Happy new year everyone!
I hope you enjoyed these small blog posts I’ve been doing until now. Hopefully now you want the next version even more!

Next week there won’t be a blog post, probably. The week after that… we’ll see!

-Janeator

Hello again!

Time flies, doesn’t it?
Today we take a look at a new feature to be released with the next udpate: Taming!

Don’t be a coward, jump into that beast!

And then try not to fall and get bitten!

Yes, that’s right! In the next update you will be able to tame wild, fearsome beasts like the Sabretooth Hamster and mount them to battle!
After a little while of standing in the beast’s back, however, they will stop looking fearsome to you. Maybe they’ll even look cute. But not to your foes!

The following video displays the ways in which an honorable rider tames beasts -this time a strange case of a non-aggresive Hamster, for which not as many practice is required- and rides them to battle:

Looks like our hero found a worthy opponent! Fair fight.

Sorry! That’s all for today!

Yes, this post is a bit short. But shorter means better, right? Right?
Oh well, guess I heard it wrong. Hope you enjoyed the post though! More next weekend!

Welcome back!

As many of you might know, guess or assume, in the next version there will be some new weapons for you to shoot, throw or slash into the baddies’ faces…

This week, I present to you two new curious throwables that can be quite useful in some situations.

Need help?

Beep boop, incoming!

Got trouble with too many enemies? Now you can call for allies that will teleport in faster than a rail bullet (note: not really) to aid you in your fights!

All this technology magic is done using a Robot Beacon, a small gadget with antenna that, once deployed, will emit a signal calling for help.

Spiky red glowing destiny caught mid-flight.

Is the room too full of robots? Did you run out of beacons?

Worry not, because here is the latest weapon designed by and for true hacking geniuses: the hack grenade!

This useful tool will allow you to hack whichever mechanical foe it collides with first, or the nearest unit within a certain range if thrown to the floor. See that predator? It used to mean trouble. Used to.

The hack grenade it’s also quite a better weapon than the hack device; it doesn’t force you to stand still waiting for enemies to kill you while using it. What does that mean? It means you can ride predators to battle! Those baddies will know what it feels like to face such a machine now.

In this video you can see how to use both of the above weapons for practical purposes, plus some stealth suit sneakyness!

That’s all for today!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog post. While shorter, I’m sure it delivers some of what most of you like the most: action!

Be sure to come back next week to check out what else Cobalt has in store for you!

/janeator

Hello!

Janeator here!

Trif has been quite busy trying to exfiltrate the Oxeye Headquarters and whatnot, so for now I’m in charge of posting on this blog! For those who don’t know me, I’ve been making maps for Cobalt for quite a long time now, and I also hang around a lot in the Cobalt IRC channel.

But that’s probably not what you are here for!
So hit that “read more” button for some…

Adventure footage!

Starting this week, for 4 weekends I’ll post something new -that you probably haven’t seen- on the blog.

Today, I present to you… The Seed! A fine Interestellar ship that Agent Cobalt will use to travel around space, or Planet Trunkopia in this case, and which will be your headquarters during this mission!
The seed is equipped with various rooms, each one with a different (perhaps sinister?) purpose.

Look at that impressive 3D display!

In the bridge you will find the ship’s computer, who also appears to be Cobalt’s only companion in this remote region of space. After 45 hard years for Cobalt, it appears the destination has finally been reached. Action, at last!
The computer doesn’t understand rolling and shooting, but you will be able to use it to check notes, write reports and consult the Galactipedia encycolpedia, for checking what that odd looking gadget you just found is!

So empty… for now.

In the armoury room (which also doubles as teleport room) you’ll be able to select the weapons and shield that you feel like using in your next landing. At first it will be empty, with only a Matter Prototype in it, but as you progress in your adventure you’ll find other weapons that will then be added to the armoury.
The ominous green screen in the middle of the room will allow you to teleport to different parts of the planet where your adventure will continue.

Change your looks! Also your stats.

The hulls room, located under the armoury room, will allow you to change your hull parts so that you can decide which stats to increase or decrease. This will allow you, in example, to run faster or be more resistant to certain effects.
The room also includes an upgrade station, which is useful for upgrading your weapons and equipment.

Having a good time.

Cobalt’s room isn’t exactly the most exciting room in The Seed, but it seems to fullfill its purpose. And I must say that Cobalt really looks to be having a good time being surrounded by plants and some good radio tunes. Is that Cobalt’s old house in the painting on the wall?

The corridor, useful for… walking?

The corridor… well saying it connects rooms pretty much sums it up. Apparently Cobalt also likes to have some plants in it as well. Nature! Neat stuff.
Also let’s not talk about the locked door.

Time’s up!

Sorry but that means this is the end of the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed reading/watching!

Be sure to tune back in during the weekends for more blog posts!

In fact, we’ve never been dead.

Since the last post we’ve been busy with distilling the game, starting our collaboration with Fatshark to bring Cobalt to Xbox and we’ve been to Minecon.

Being a small team with the main focus to have fun, the development of Cobalt has always been a bit haphazard where we’ve added stuff as we go with less focus on the bigger picture and more attention spent on what felt right at the moment. This has led to, in our opinion, a great platformer but it has also resulted in a lot of features that remain hidden to the average player. When a new player starts up Cobalt, he or she isn’t really introduced to what the game is about. There’s nothing to hold their hand and present them with the experience that is Cobalt, especially not as a single player. I’m not talking about a next-gen like dumbing down of game play, but a coherent presentation of the actual game.

What we have now is a whole bunch of puzzle pieces hovering in the air waiting to be placed in the correct spot. Since starting our collaboration with Fatshark we’ve been busy trimming and arranging all pieces in order to put them down in a presentable larger picture and an enjoyable gaming experience from start to finish.

Hit the jump to read more!

The first step in this process has been to polish the game modes that we have. Below is a short expose of what we’ve been working on.

TEAM STRIKE

Team Strike Buy Menu

Even though you can choose to play Deathmatch in teams we felt that Cobalt was missing a proper team VS mode.

We had Capture The Plug and even though it was fun at times it felt too chaotic and wasn’t really focusing on what Cobalt does best – combat. Being avid Counter-Strike players me and thewreck started toying with the idea of adding a round based mode where at the end of each round you get to upgrade your character somehow.

Enter Team Strike and the philosophy of locking down characters into classes instead of focusing on equipment drops spread throughout the maps. In Team Strike, each team is presented with a character selection screen at the start of each round. After each player has chosen a character suited to their playing style the round starts. Each player gain funds from kills, combos and team wins during the round which in turn allows the player to afford higher level characters. The team that reaches the goal amount of rounds wins.

We tried this game mode with 8 Mojangstas in the office and it was an instant success! We realized that simplifying things might be exactly what Cobalt needs.

We started looking into bringing some of the things we’ve learned from Team Strike into the other game modes.

SURVIVAL

Survival game mode

The original Survival mode was added as a stand-in mode for single player while Adventure mode was still in development. Since the very first play-through it has had some serious game design issues.

First of all – choices – there were too many of them! As a first time player you were introduced to a lot of new concepts – shops, upgrades, recycling, re-spawning and so forth.

When we observed others playing it for the first time we noticed it could be a bit overwhelming at times.

Secondly, the objective wasn’t clear enough. Sure, the game mode was called Survival so you could sort of guess that that was what it was all about, but there was never any feeling of progress while playing. You were constantly barraged by a never ending stream of foes and all you could do was try to survive for as long as possible. At the end you got a score, but you never felt like you had actually achieved anything. It was very much an unclimbable mountain.

We decided to try a tower defense-esque wave approach to Survival instead. In the current Survival mode the player is presented with a finite number of enemy waves of increasing difficulty, some containing bosses. If you fail to complete a wave you can choose to continue where you fell but with a sort of penalty to your overall score. Between each wave we added a buy screen similar to the one in Team Strike where each player chooses their character class and level depending on their taste and economy.

The classes can be custom fitted to match the theme of the map.

Again, while testing this game mode with Mojangstas and at Minecon it has reassured us that we’re on the right track.

CHALLENGES

In version 122, the Challenge maps were presented as map packs were the common goal was to complete the maps as fast as possible. When playing through the maps we felt like some of the maps were focused more on combat related strategies rather than speed which led us to redesign the whole philosophy behind challenges.

Instead of presenting them as map packs, we’ve put the maps into categories. Currently there’s a Combat and a Speed category.

The Speed category is pretty straight forward and focuses on just dashing through the map as fast as possible while the Combat category tries to challenge the player to engage obstacles, puzzles and enemies in the map. Like Team Strike and Survival, before each run the player gets the option to choose a class of character which in turn affects the end score. How exactly the scoring system works or how the different classes are unlocked is something we’re still working on solving.

DEATHMATCH

The common denominator for the new design in Team Strike, Survival and Challenges is the equipment handling. Instead of presenting the player with a buffet of equipment and choices to be made while playing, these modes now present complete equipment choices in one phase, while in the gameplay phase lets players focus their attention on using that equipment tactically. Since each player chooses their own equipment outside of the gameplay phase, a larger variety of items can be in play at any one time, while at the same time reducing the amount of items any one player has to worry about. You as a player only have to focus on one ranged weapon at any given time which gives you more time to focus on your specific weaponry and your specific strategies.

Deathmatch is not the same as the other modes though, and splitting up class choices between phases might not be the correct path here. We still would like to get some of the same positive effects. To achieve the higher variety while lessening complexity, our idea is to instead of having a fixed set of weapons spawn in any given map, the map designer places equipment spawn-zones throughout the map and selects a default equipment theme. These spawn points then spawn crates of equipment for the player to pick up. When you pick up a crate containing a ranged weapon, you discard the ranged weapon you’re currently using. This makes sure that you never have to worry about too many different weapons, which again puts the strategic choice to the moment of pickup. “Do I want to use rockets, or my current gun?”, and the tactical problems to later, “how should I best shoot my rockets?”.

Indicators will appear with a timer showing where and when the next crate will appear, giving players ample time to relocate and fight over control. This changes which locations on a map are of interest at any one point, resulting in a more dynamic and shifting game.

To add increased variety to the mode, at the start of the map, the game randomly selects the starting equipment which is shared by all players (Defender Hulls with jet shoes, or Stealth Hulls with shield belts?), making each match unique.

Our hope is that this will introduce a sort of controlled chaos to the game mode that will enhance the experience.

SINGLE PLAYER

What we’ve been talking about so far is a part of the game that is best experience with a friend or two to play with. This has always been the core strength of Cobalt. However, not everyone has a second controller to hand over to a friend, especially not on a PC or Mac.

Our biggest challenge with Cobalt has always been to create a cohesive, progressive and non-repetitive Single Player mode. It’s been a challenge because each approach taken so far has entailed A LOT of content creation.

Our current approach is to include all the work put into multiplayer game modes, Challenges, Survival and the Adventure mode in one continues experience. Our plan right now is to have them presented in a Super Mario Bros. 3 style world map in which the player can progress and discover the game and the story.

XBOX

As mentioned in the beginning, we’ve started working with the excellent guys over at Fatshark to bring Cobalt to Xbox. This is of course a challenge in itself and will involve a lot of work on both our and Fatsharks part, but the work put into the port will also benefit the PC and Mac version of the game.

If anyone of you saw the Cobalt panel at Minecon we mentioned something extra that has to do with our collaboration with Fatshark – Fatshark is going to give online multiplayer a go for Xbox. IF it would become reality it’s definitely something we would want for the PC and Mac versions as well. There are a lot of hurdles to overcome to make it a reality but the collaboration with Fatshark has definitely breathed new life into the idea.

Last but not least I would like to thank everyone who visited us at Minecon! Both me and thewreck had a great time playing with all of you and the experience infused us with a lot of ideas of how to improve the game even more.

Also I’d like to recommend you all to read this excellent interview Trif did with thewreck: Part 1, Part 2.

Next post we’ll be talking 123!

Love,

Kinten