V106 Alpha is ready, and it contains fixes and tweaks to the editor and game, as well as a new map by Frall!

During the past couple of weeks, thewreck has been working on laying the technological groundwork for the campaign. There has been (and still is) a bunch of structure dearly in need of restructuring, and that has become his focus. Kinten has been working on producing content for the campaign and realizing some of the concepts made by a man named Erik! What these are will be revealed in time - perhaps soon.

Frall has been streaming himself developing maps for Cobalt daily during office hours, central European time. If you are interested in seeing maps being made real-time, or if you just want to hang out in the chat with others and discuss mapping, that is a great place to meet up!


Change Log

Alterations:

• bots will now randomly pick between the available actors
  
• teleport and entrance targets can now handle multiple matches. Picked one is random if many.
  
• sped up vendor purchase speed slightly
  
• improved/updated space/nightsky rendering
  
• new map bird temple!
  
• Bug-Fixes:
  
• Pressing T after having a gamepad connected in the editor no longer crashes.
  
• going back and forth from the editor and menu could sometimes stop your keyboard from being able to control the menu
  
• Fixed editor crashing when making new locales.
  
• copying tiles from multiple layers would crash the editor
  
• tiles that are hidden as secrets now create their physics when discovered
  
• big gui in the editor now turns into multi column
  
• custom teams now work better
  
• some resolutions would have some overlap in the menu when selecting map.
  
• tile browser could have too big a surface in higher resolutions.
  
• editor failed to save and restore current selected layer
  
• certain ai concept could crash the game with certain actors due to a ai-concept default value initialization bug.
  
• ai would sometimes get stuck doing nothing.
  
• some optimizations regarding actor updates and theme updates.
  
• optimization for tile removal when using rain.
  
• debris heads are now considered part of the max debris count and will be removed as such.
  
• possible to select the same tile again in the tile browser now and have it close.
  
• space door sound was stereo and always very loud.
  
• rotation bug for fixed rotation tiles.
  
• smoothened menu preview loading
  
• Recompiled game.exe to get rid of new DirectX dependencies (the “missing dll” error message)

Additionally (and amazingly), the folder structure has changed! Your profiles, controls and maps_dev folders should now be placed in the cobalt folder under /My Documents/! You can either make new profiles, or you can manually move them to the correct folders. This also means that you must login again before play offline will work (since setting files have changed locations).

• Start game once to create the folders
  
• Locate your cobalt installation folder, usually at c:/games/cobalt
  
• copy the profiles, controls and maps_dev folders
  
• Locate the cobalt folder under /My Documents/
  
• Paste the copies folders!
  
• Your profiles, controls and custom maps should now be usable in the game again!
  
• The game now loads maps both from the cobalt folder (official maps), and from my documents (custom maps). If you place a map with the exact same name as an official map in the My Documents folder it will override the official map.

Note: If the launcher crashes after update, it has failed to replace the executable. You can download the installer from www.playcobalt.com, or you can fix it manually: Cobalt.exe.new will be in your cobalt folder. Remove Cobalt.exe and rename Cobalt.exe.new to Cobalt.exe. The cause is being investigated.

That's right, it's time for the highly anticipated v103 update! While there are a host of unlisted feature changes, the star of the update is, without a doubt, the new Map Editor - those who have not yet had the chance to make maps of their very own may find the official editor to be a bit more user-friendly than the old method. There is a detailed "My First Map" tutorial by Oxeye right here, if you're looking for a good place to start.

It's Valentine's Day! Aside from candy and cards, what better way to celebrate the occasion than with a gift from Oxeye Studios? Nothing could be better!

Frall has generously provided the community with a special new map, which is done in traditional Valentines stylings. Check out this unique gift from the developers, and let them know you love them too!

Yes, a new update is available right now! Version 102 is now live, and you can get it simply by starting up your client and letting it patch normally. What does it come with? We're glad you asked!

• Jet shoes are now additive instead of reaching speed. Jet shoes can be used while rolling in the air. While using jet shoes while rolling, you will slow down your roll a lot making you vulnerable, but it also gives you very interesting control mechanics.
  
• Throwing has been reworked. Charge time is now variable depending on how long you press which makes it snappier, throwing will try to push the throw towards your actor trajectory, giving more power over throw direction, as well as throwing in itself is more physical making up/down/backwards and strange middle of roll throws possible.
  
• reworked scope to be a bit more useful, as well as giving a little better bullet time bonus.
  
• auto aim now doesn’t snap back and forth frantically. If you have auto aimed against a target, and it goes behind a wall, you will keep aiming towards the last visible position.
  
• Rolling now slows down reloading by a significant amount..
  
• Simply moving against a conveyor belt will now move you, even if you are not grabbing it like a wall grab.
  
• Added more upgrades to slugger revolver, slugger cobra, slugger pipe and slugger breacher.
  
• Slugger revolver now starts as it should with no extended barrel, so there are now 2 levels. Tweaked it so that starting point is lower than normal, and ending point with max is higher than before.
  
• Tweaked all upgrade prices so that more expensive guns have more expensive upgrades. This is because I want it to be less obvious to get them, so that alternative spending possibilities are considered, and also follow better with the economy that you have when being able to afford expensive guns.
  
• increased price of matter army issue from 250 to 275.
  
• switched price of spike bow and price for spike bow repeater
  
• Sliding backwards up walls is now possible.
  
• Made air rolling backwards as easy as rolling backwards.
  
• Changed weapons on smooth jazz.
  
• The Plus can now be moved with explosions and applied force.
  
• Bomb is now called Thermal Bomb and has had its effect reworked. It is now not instant kill, instead it has damage over time. This makes is less good against tough foes like hamsters and predators. It will also not instantly kill you with shield but will wear your shield down faster than normally. Cost is 50 Volts.
  
• Stick Grenade and Grenade now cost 15 instead of 16.
  
• Improved the handling of the boomerang, also made it harder to hit with bullets.
  
• Tweaked waves in survival house, as well as added 3 new tiers.
  
• Added color blind modes to compensate for Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia.
  
• Reworked bird movement to be more fluent.
  
• Added bird wing and breathing sounds and animations for when out of energy
  
• Activated tile physics can now hurt actors!
  
• Elevators can now crush enemies if squished by them.
  
• Increased reload times for bird and shroom as well as lesser recoil recovery speed.
  
• Altered layout and weapons and ai paths on cannon arena.
  
• Missles have slightly more bullet time associated with it.
  
• new map by frall called voodoo!
  
• Safest Gate has been extended
  
• Klonk now deals a small amount of heat damage

Bug-fixes:

• Blowing up by a bomb no longer screws up the next life.
  
• Fixed crash with trying to join a controller with a removed preset
  
• Plasma assault upgrade names
  
• Fixed stage selection loading everything too early.
  
• Shop windows could be outside of level
  
• laser pointer getting smoke as laser pointer.
  
• fixed enemies being included in the aim over mechanic cause you to raise the gun above enemies instead of pointed against them.
  
• Bounced and deflected projectiles now correctly generate bullet time
  
• Fixed left gas bouncer in position on windy valley.
  
• Added repair broken weapon ai.
  
• Fixed hanging cords gathering speed invisibly, making them jump like crazy when activated. This would often make them render incorrectly too.
  
• Max upgrade level upgrades could be left in the upgrade bench.
  
• Did some optimizations for larger scale actor and ai code which in practice should mean smoother fps at later survival tiers.
  
• Fixed not being able to arrange bots into teams a second time without restarting the game.
  
• Sound at volume 0 now actually doesn’t play the samples. Also, made the sound volume curve exponential so that it has greater precision at low values.
  
• Strange rolling down wall and then not being able to slide up it again bug fixed.
  
• fixed buying weapon, buying upgrade, and then buying the same type of gun again.
  
• improved transition to main menu with transparent menu disabled.
  
• fixed upgrades not being buyable with many of the same gun. Still a bit iffy, but at least it works.
  
• added suicide distance ai to grenades.
  
• Bots should not drop plug for the purpose of throwing it against projectiles now.
  
• Hud elements are now adapted to screen resolution which fixes things like shops being outside of the screen.
  
• reload animations to shroom and bird.
  
• shroom not sticking to ground after punch anymore as well as wall climbing more reliable.
  
• the switches for the doors on the survival maps are now only usable by players.
  
• fixed mouse being visible when it shouldn’t

What do you think of the new features? Let us know about it!

<div class="right" style="margin-left:10px;"><img src="http://media.minecraftforum.net/content/cobalt/jinx1.jpg" /></div>Cobalt Clothing Now Available

Cobalt is developing quite a following, and internet clothing giant J!NX has taken notice. Now, you can get Cobalt-themed clothing! Now you can wear your favorite adventure platformer wherever you go - who knows, maybe you'll find other Cobalt players to invite over for a quick match or two! J!NX is already quite well known among the Minecraft playerbase for having a wide selection of Minecraft-related shirts, toys and other assorted goodies, and it's only a matter of time before their inventory includes a diverse selection of Cobalt goodies as well - you can start your collection now, and get ahead of the curve!

Who knows what the future of Cobalt collectibles could be? Maybe a Cobalt toy/collectible? If you'd be interested in that (and I know I would), you can always contact J!NX and show your support. Feel free to head over and check them out - you just might find other things you're interested in too!

We recently hosted a Cobalt-themed Stuntman Challenge, and it was very exciting! I personally combed through every entry we had, and there were a number of phenomenal videos submitted for the contest - so much so that it was very difficult to choose a winner. In the end, I decided on this gem, provided by Puffdot! It shows off some amazing stunts, clever use of in-game weapons and a custom map built specifically for the purpose - check it out!

________

You can see the full video right here. Interested in trying out this map for yourself? Head over here, and follow the installation steps, and you can be playing on it in no time!

Cobalt is now in version v101! To update, head over here and download the latest client! The list of updated changes includes the following:

• Edit control presets in settings menu.
  
• Switching team resets spawn point
  
• Bots can now be manually moved around if autoBalanceBots is off.
  
• “Bunny-jumping” to the left works as well as right
  
• Pressing esc/start while in shop no longer hangs input.
  
• Shop is no longer cut off out of camera when having moved around some.
  
• Bots no longer get stuck when trying to punch each other in really close combat. Should also fix similar problems with grenades and similar.
  
• Fixed offline indicator in corner not being accurate.
  
• Blaster splash heat effect goes through shield
  
• Shield belt is now slightly visible when activated, and a lot more obvious when it is powering down.
  
• Shield belt now works while animating activation.
  
• Grenade gun has 14% longer reload time.
  
• Blaster Ballet and Secret Hideout should now have better pathing.
  
• Added some tutorial rooms and modified some.
  
• Stores now restock even when items have been bought up completely.
  
• All VS maps now have all 4 teams enabled.
  
• Direct hits with Flashbang will now destroy a shield belt charge.
  
• Sound and music will mute when window not in focus
  
• Red robot (ninja) has a longer attack animation
  
• Phaser gun has slightly less bullet time associated with it.
  
• Variable throwing power with throwables works now. Tap quickly to throw weak.
  
• Shield belt does not have warning sound if it has never been charged.
  
• Bullet time is tuned to adapt more fluently to more players, also bullet time secondary range effect is now dependant on the source range, which makes for much more fluent bullet time in general.
  
• Added bullet time and auto aim options enable/disable in settings.
  
• Increased objective limit caps
  
• safes and revive stations no longer destroy input.
  
• changing settings with held down button is now a lot faster.
  
• Improved rolling behaviour against walls, (hold against wall and roll to fall down smoothly)
  
• Cobalt used to loose air control in some odd situations. Hopefully some fixed.
  
• Grenades and pickups now explode in lava.
  
• Added slight gradient to flashbang B&W effect
  
• Fist has slighly shorter charge up time and slightly longer range.
  
• A successful maxiumm charged fist hit will now give a bonus to the speed of the next fist charge up.
  
• Fixed converting of valuables getting stuck if leaving and returning to converter while ending.
  
• Predator jumping Ai improved.
  
• Guards no longer sometimes get stuck in a direction holding a throwable ready.
  
• Bindable reload action.
  
• Gyrojet gun tweaked balance wise, now slightly less forceful and slighly more expensive.
  
• Added player health option to survival. Anything except normal will force practice mode.
  
• In survival, if a player leaves, no more players can join mid-game. The max number of players having been present in a survival game are displayed below the score if above 1.
  
• Slugger Cobra has slightly more recoil and spread over long firing duration
  
• upgrade bench crash bug when re-entering upgrade bench while upgrading fixed.
  
• Some debug print messages did not render properly
  
• Can buy ammo and shower repeatedly by holding.
  
• Nano shower effect more clear, also hud disappears when using.
  
• Metalface sparks randomly when damaged
  
• Fixed jumping straight up on slopes being bugged.
  
• Fixed Ai bug where Ai’s would actually run towards dangers instead of from them.
  
• Picking up multiple ammo boxes before pickup animation finishes will add the numbers together to show total pickup.
  
• Bots could not pickup plug because they were holding throwables charged
  
• Rocks have a different damage curve, exponentially less with low speeds..
  
• Birds have a slower throw animation, which should trigger an earlier bullet time reaction.
  
• Added shield belt upgrades to be purchasable in the upgrade bench.
  
• Salvaged items can no longer be reloaded. Was a bug.
  
• Gas plants now deflect railgun slugs too. Also, bounced bullets can hit the shooter.
  
• Debug keys are now disabled unless you set “enableDebugKeys” to “true” in debug.cfg
  
• Increased slugger revolver fire rate a tiny bit, but slowed down reload speed a tiny bit.
  
• Slugger bullets now modify damage slightly by speed. In practice, this means pipe, and upgraded revolver will do slighly more damage, while breacher will do slightly less.
  
• Slugger Breacher has increased rate of fire.
  
• Added strong recoil to railgun, but also 33% longer reload and less bullet time effect.
  
• Modified Survival House difficulty curve.
  
• In Survival House, Ninjas no longer use the shield belt, have less guns in general, but now instead have the force device, which is an area of effect attack but also pushes grenades and projectiles away.
  
• Capital letters in profile name editing if you tap up
  
• Esc/start now pauses the game for everyone.
  
• Windy Valley now has infinite ammo as it is supposed to be.
  
• Fixed some input freeze bugs when going in and out of menues.
  
• Maybee fixed sound looping in menues error,, please report if it happens.
  
• The most a map can zoom out is now a Camera Mode configurable number.
  
• Added option in settings for following bots with the camera.
  
• Added deathmatch map Tomb.
  
• Fixed a bug with the auto-updater that make it impossible to download big files.
  
• Launcher isn’t frozen while it tries to log in
  
• Launcher now tries to set a valid screen resolution if 1280×800 isn’t supported
  
• Play offline, if valid, is available without logging in
  
• Fixed the change log being double (repeated twice)

In this article, I spoke briefly about my borderline obsession with the revolver. While reading your comments, I decided to check out a few other weapons, and two in particular caught my attention - the Matter Prototype, and the Phaser. During this video, I touch on both of these gems briefly. In the course of filming, I had an idea: "Why not see what the community has done (or can do) with stunt videos in Cobalt?"

Why not, indeed. So, without further delay, we proudly introduce the very first:


<span style="color:#B3FFFF; font-weight:bold; text-shadow: 0px 0px 10px #7CAFC5, -1px 0 #406AA6, 0 1px #406AA6, 1px 0 #406AA6, 0 -1px #406AA6;">Cobalt Stuntman Challenge</span>

Here's how it works:

• Create an awesome stunt video in Cobalt
  
• Submit it to our Videos section, with the category "Stuntman Challenge" selected. (Submissions should be entered by the end of the day on January 2nd, 2012 for consideration!)
  
• We review these videos and choose a winner, who will have their video spotlighted here, on the front page of the Cobalt Forum!

One thing to consider - music is optional in videos, but will make it tricky to do a proper commentary without having to remove the sounds completely. Videos can be of any length, so long as they focus on awesome stunts, kills or anything else that provokes a "wow" response! If this contest sees a positive community response, we may do more in the future, including larger prizes and more winners!

We look forward to seeing what you can do!

---

Curse is hiring! Do you want to join a dedicated team of people who love to play video games, and spend every working day immersed in them? Check out our job openings, and see if you have what it takes to work for a great company in the gaming industry!

<div class="right" style="margin-left:10px;"><img src="http://media.minecraftforum.net/content/cobalt/rev_banner.png" /></div>In the Survival game mode, many players swear by the Cobra, for its rapid-fire appeal. Certainly, the ability to blanket an area in slugs is a strong suit. Others prefer the phaser, for the raw killing power it delivers. For my part, I have fallen in love with the humble (and cheap) revolver. There are a number of reasons for this, but the following are certainly the most prominent.

<span style="color:#B3FFFF; font-weight:bold; text-shadow: 0px 0px 10px #7CAFC5, -1px 0 #406AA6, 0 1px #406AA6, 1px 0 #406AA6, 0 -1px #406AA6;">It's Cheap</span>

I'd be lying if I said the price wasn't a huge deciding factor. Costing a measly 30 power (compared to the Cobra's 80, or the Matter Prototype's 100), this gun packs a nice punch for one of the cheapest hand-held guns available. Ammo is also cheap (although, to be fair, most ammunition is), making this weapon ideal for the frugal fighting robot. Of course, the cost can be offset by:

<span style="color:#B3FFFF; font-weight:bold; text-shadow: 0px 0px 10px #7CAFC5, -1px 0 #406AA6, 0 1px #406AA6, 1px 0 #406AA6, 0 -1px #406AA6;">The Firing Rate</span>

I've always been a fan of accurate shooting; if you can place a slug into an enemy robot with one well-timed shot and it explodes into a billion tiny little enemy robot pieces, you have mastered the art of using the roll to aim, instead of the auto-aim feature. In the many hours I've lost to this game, I realized that the revolver forced me to learn how to aim better, since the ammo capacity is extremely limited between reloads. Of course, you may try the revolver and find that it just doesn't fit you, because it's too slow, or holds too few slugs, or whatever the case may be. That said, it retains one final advantage.

<span style="color:#B3FFFF; font-weight:bold; text-shadow: 0px 0px 10px #7CAFC5, -1px 0 #406AA6, 0 1px #406AA6, 1px 0 #406AA6, 0 -1px #406AA6;">Revolvers Look Awesome</span>

Yes, revolvers look awesome, especially with the barrel upgrade. Look at that little guy in the picture on the right. Stalking his feathery prey from high above, he refuses to settle for a gun without the visual awe that only a revolver can inspire.

Of course, revolvers may not be your cup of tea - what are your favorite weapons in Cobalt, and why? Tell us about it!

Do you play Cobalt, and make awesome videos of new maps, awesome battles or anything amazing? We've got a surprise for you then - our new Videos section is now open for submissions! How does it work? It's simple!

• Make an awesome video
  
• Submit it right here
  
• Once it's approved, it will be available for everyone to see!

Videos undergo a screening process for quality, to make sure they're awesome enough for everyone to see, and are Cobalt-related. So, what awesome ideas do you have? A map highlight, perhaps a Cobalt-themed skit, or a sweet battle with (or without) your friends? Show us what you can do!