Welcome to Command & Conquer Labs

The drumbeat of progress continues at C&C 3: The Forgotten, and we're proud to announce that, in addition to the full campaign, we're also going to be including some custom-made skirmish maps. These maps give us the freedom to explore some neat gameplay elements while not being as strictly tied down to the story. They'll be a great place to practice before trying some of our more challenging misssions, or to just explore the full Forgotten tech tree. Today, we'll showcase three of them: GDI Space Command, Unfriendly Skies, and Alpine Valleys, all created by our staff member Predatore.

For those looking for a change of base from the desolate settings of the mod's Red Zones, look no further. GDI Space Command showcases the hub of GDI's extraplanetary operations, a site of tremendous strategical importance. Intricate levels of detail will make you appreciate the surroundings, but don't take your eyes off the battle for too long in this combat-heavy map.

Similar to some of the darkest missions from the campaign, Unfriendly Skies takes place in a battlefield where Mother Nature herself is also an obstacle. Devastating and unpredictable Ion Storms sweep the terrain, confronting all involved and demonstrating that in this war, even the quietest moments can quickly turn deadly.

 For those who like long battles, Alpine Valleys is an excellent choice. The map features a realistic day-night cycle, as well as ample opportunities for explosive combat between all four factions.

You can see more screenshots from these maps and the rest of the mod on our media page.

One other bit of news: the current release date we are aiming for is sometime in mid-September. We've made a great deal of progress with the mod, and I can say we're probably well over 90% done, but it's this last push that will make this mod all it can be, and we're going to give it everything we've got. Thanks for your patience, and we hope it's worth the wait. If you think you can help us get there faster, fill out a beta tester application.

Our goal with "The Forgotten" has always been to make the C&C story, and the story of a very specific group of people, come alive. We're doing that with high definition videos, with additional background fiction, and with our immersive campaign. We've shown off our theatrical trailer before, and our story artifacts, so today let's take a look at 12 new screens from missions 4 and 5, created by Predatore and Drummin.

Mission 4 is an immense yet beautiful challenge. You must defeat both Nod and GDI forces and clear the coastline, though you have a variety of ways to accomplish this task. The Red Zone itself poses its own challenges, however, as deadly ion storms, variable lighting, and intricate terrain confront all involved. Here are three screens (five more are available in the moddb image gallery or on our media page):

Mission 5 is a very challenging mission that features an intense fourway battle between GDI, Nod, the Scrin, and The Forgotten with an intriguing web of uncertain alliances. Set in an expansive map around the ruin of a mostly-destroyed city, players will need to use every aspect of their forces and strategies to meet with success. Here are three images (again, more available in the moddb image gallery or on our media page):

We're making great progress on the mod, and we're looking to add a few beta testers. If you think you can provide high-quality feedback, fill out a Beta Application now!

CNCSaga.de has interviewed Greg Black, the Lead Balance Designer for C&C 3 and Red Alert 3 about his depature from EA, C&C, and the process of making games there. It's a great read, and here's a bit of it: 

CNCSaga.de: In the past, when you have worked for EALA you have developed some Command & Conquer titles like Tiberium Wars or Red Alert 3. How do you appraise these titles on your own view? What do you think about them? What was good?
Greg Black: This is a somewhat tricky thing for me to answer. In truth I was probably the harshest critic of our games on the EALA RTS team. I got started with C&C back in '95 and was instantly hooked. I loved the story, loved the gameplay, loved the setting, and loved Kane (in a totally platonic way). For me C&C was something of a sacred game and I desperately wanted to do the series justice with all the C&C games I worked on. Unfortunately although we had a very talented team of passionate gamers, EA simply would not give us the time we felt we needed to make a truly great C&C game. In the case of C&C:3 our development cycle was something like 11 months. Compare that to Blizzard or Relic who was spending 3-6 years on their RTS titles. Our longest development cycle was 18 months on RA3, but at that time the team was split in half and added another platform (PS3), so the extra dev time was kind of a wash. EA simply needed us to keep cranking out games to keep the LA studio afloat while many its other teams floundered. So to answer your question I was not happy with how C&C3 or RA3 turned out, our games were always rushed, our engine technology aged and degraded over the years, our path finding was horrible, our online implementations were embarrassing, and ultimately our games did not, in my view, live up to the orginal C&C, or RA2, or Generals (which I also worked on but in a very lowly capacity).

I do however have to give credit to the development team. Given the circumstances under which we were making these games, (crappy tech, super compressed schedules) I think what we were able to ship was quite impressive. Unfortunately the gamer who just spent $50 on our games doesn't have any clue how much time we had to spend on them or what the internal politics of EA were at the time, they can only see what is in the box.

CNCSaga.de: What do you think about Command&Conquer 4? Many people are saying C&C 4 wouldn't be a C&C. EA wouldn't have made big efforts. But you are a C&C-expert. What do you think about this?
Greg Black: It's unfair of me to pass judgement on C&C4 as I did not work on it nor have I played the final game. I was however at the studio during much of C&C4's development and have played pre-release builds. The important thing to know is that C&C4 was never meant to be a true Tiberium universe canonical game, but rather an experiment in online play. It originally started as out an Asian market online-only version of C&C 3. At some point the company executives decided it made the most business sense to add a single player campaign, call it C&C4, and put it in a box. The team of course protested this change in direction but the decision stood. The team did what they could to make a good game given the realities inside EA, but ultimately it was the product of a dysfunctional corporate culture.

Full thing here.

Popular German C&C fansites United-Forum.de and CnCSaga.de are hosting a 3-on-3 C&C 4 map making contest!  Winning maps will be promoted by EA and may even wind up in an official map patch. If you're in Europe, the contest even has some prizes you can win.

The English version of the contest details can be found here - check it out.

We have two new structures to show off today over at our in-house mod, C&C 3: The Forgotten. You can see the Tiberium Silo and Tunnel Network, as well as an interview with the German speaking community. Those of you who do speak German will want to head to CNCSaga.de for our first ever foreign language piece. In the interview, I provide some background on both this mod and our other mod, The Red Alert, as well as modding for C&C in general.

For those who prefer English, we have the Tunnel Networks to explain. For The Forgotten, they work slightly differently than in past C&C games; each tunnel network node is activated by a support power, and must be placed within a certain distance of another node or of the Construction Yard. The tunnels allow The Forgotten to move up to three units at any one time across the map at high speed. They were created by Andy Littleton and Tsumetai. We also have the Tiberium Silo, which stores the Tiberium collected by The Forgotten on the battlefield.

For those who prefer the universal language of pictures, here you go, fresh shots of a Forgotten base, the tunnel network, the Silo, and an up-close screen of the Sidewinder (as always, you can see more on our media page: