C&C Labs News Wire

— Wednesday, July 31, 2002 —

Posted By: Mike at 3:28:23 PM ET

Yet Another Render

Wayne from CNCGN has made yet another Generals render. This time it's a cool render of the GLA Rocket Buggy. Here's a thumbnail:
To see the full-sized image, head here.

— Tuesday, July 30, 2002 —

Posted By: Mike at 6:08:48 AM ET

Vote

CNCDEN reports that the Golden Joystick Awards have begun! According to most people, they are among the largest online gaming awards. CNC Renedage and Generals are up for a few of the awards!
  • Renegade: "Game of the Year" & "PC Game of the Year"
  • Generals: "Most Wanted Game Of Christmas 2002"

  • So go cast your votes now!

    — Monday, July 29, 2002 —

    Posted By: Luckie at 8:00:23 AM ET

    Ladder

    It seems as if fan sites will be proided with a ladder, so web masters don't fret over the prices of buying ladder scripts. Here a quote from H. Bonin, the producer of Generals:
    Actually, what we've confirmed is that we will provide a "ladder kit" that will enable individuals (fansites, gaming rooms, players in general) to set up their own personal ladders. We'll provide the ladder...err...author...to enable various rules, passwords, options, etc. They'll also get to include anyone - even if its just for their closest friends. We're currently implementing the ladder kit so their will be more news to come in the near future.

    This quote appeared on CnC Bunker.

    I would also like to take this chance to thank anyone who has clicked our banner. Keep clicking everyone, and remember, you have to click one link on the page that the banner brings up. Thank you for prolonging the life of Command and Conquer Generals World.

    — Sunday, July 28, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 5:27:59 AM ET

    New Poll

    We have a new poll! Our latest question asks What do ya think about EAPs decision to not have an official ladder in Generals? Be sure to vote on the right hand side of the page! Here's the last poll's results:
    Are you going to buy Generals?
    Im pre-ordering!
    26
    28%
    Yep, once its out
    64
    69%
    Not sure yet
    1
    1%
    Definitely not
    1
    1%

    Total Votes: 92

    — Sunday, July 28, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 5:02:52 AM ET

    Generals Ladder

    Word has it that there will be no official Generals tournament ladder. EAP has decided to let the fans run their own ladders. Here is what Delphi had to say on the subject, courtesy of CNC Tomorrow:
    The Ranking system in Generals will be ran by the players not EA. So it will be up to the fansite/fans who host ladders to monitor them.

    LOL! Doesn't mean we won't patch the game, and that does not mean we won't link to the top 5 ladders around the community.
    Are you saying you guys can't trust yourselves to run an honest ladder?

    Yes look at our ladder, under staffed and very well ran. I've seen some killer fan ladders for UT and Quake, I think Generals could have the same.

    Sorry... But it's something new we wanted to try that has worked well for other games. Like I said, we will promote the top 5 most played ladders on our site. Since this is after all about fame and recognition you will still recieve it.
    I'm not sure whether this is a bad thing or a good thing yet. I guess that time will tell.

    — Sunday, July 28, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 4:55:12 AM ET

    News Roundup

    Here's the latest CNC Generals community news:
  • Tom from CNC Tomorrow has written an article about making Generals addicting and how to learn from the mistakes of Red Alert 2. Ya can read it here
  • Jim from CNC Series has an article with many great points talking about the possibility of having a Generals console port. You can read the article at this link.
  • Over at CNC Universe, PrototypeV has made a new render of the Generals Hummer. Here's a clip:

  • CNCDEN has a new render by Minh. Its of the American Patriot Launcher.

  • Generals Bunker has a new wallpaper up. You can check it out on this page.

  • That's all for now.

    — Friday, July 26, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 12:06:47 PM ET

    Federation Studios Article

    I just wanted to point out one other article on the community, written by Marshalus of Federation Studios. I encourange everyone to read the article, in particular other webmasters and staff members of sites, but it applies to everyone. Here is part of the article:
    Most of which just focus on what they feel are the problems that have been plaguing the community in the last year. I figured I might as well join the bandwagon, but instead take a different spin. For once, I want to focus on how to IMPROVE the community, not what is "wrong" with it.
    So, assuming that got your interest, read it here.

    — Friday, July 26, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 11:58:29 AM ET

    State of the Community Articles

    For anyone who still reads them, I have compiled a list of all the latest state of the WW community related articles.

  • Renegade Realm has an article titled: The State of the Community as I see it - Part Two written by Aircraftkiller.
    What about the poor war story writers? From the stories I've seen, they aren't worth a kindergartner's applaud. "Man jumps. Man shoots gun. Man fall down... dies. Super powerful laser gun kills man who made other man fall down and... die." Yes, I really enjoy reading a war story that seems more like 'Run, Spot, Run!' (On another note, Paradox from CNCG believes this: "Spot the dog is the pinnacle of English literature.") than a Tom Clancy novel.
  • CNC Tomorrow has an article titled: Community Views 2002 written by Topgun.
    Many “State of the Community” articles have been written. Articles on the “State of the Community” articles were written. And now articles on the articles on the “State of the Community” articles are being written. Many are just rants and many more offer no solutions and simply serve as either “flamers” or an “I’m pissed and here’s why:” article. Mark at C&C Universe has been the “Bill O’Reilly” of many of the current issues. And then there are the “President Bush”-type people who do not take a firm position either way, not wishing to rock the boat. But these are, in this journalist’s viewpoint, the main problems of “The Community.” Clearly, concisely, and bluntly.
  • WW Unleashed has an article written by virtualoctopus.
    The fact is, people, that some of us are worrying too much about the 'state of the community'. Really, is what we are doing here, creating and populating fansites that important? They aren't all going to dissapear overnight, and if they do, no one's whole life will be destroyed, and nothing big is going to really change. We can be concerned about what is going to happen to our favourite sites, but really, it's the webmaster and site owner's choice about whatever happens to their site. There WILL be CnC sites around for a while yet, with another game on the horizon, and continual interest in the previous CnC games.
  • CNC Universe has an article that's better than a lot of the other articles. It is entitled: Community Solutions Part II written by Shinano.
    Affiliates. What does that word bring to mind? A list jam-packed with links in the right sidebar of your favorite site? No, that's not quite it, I was sure it was on the left. Regardless, affiliates have degraded into nothing more than a huge solid block of links to every other relevant site in the community. In my mind, the idea of 'affiliates' needs to be redefined.
  • CNC Bunker has another community article this time by Elik.
    Now, let’s go on with the real issue. To write an article about some community, one should first define a community. People, who are used to complaining about things, often tend to forget the initial purpose of those things they complain about. The Command & Conquer community exists, like any collective, to offer the individual what he cannot obtain himself. One cannot create, all by himself, all the maps, war-stories, discussions, wallpapers, articles and news posts, which the community creates for him. That’s why, quite naturally, what we are used to calling “the community” was formed.
  • WW Unleashed has a different article written by TheKiller. You can read it here and as usual, here is a snip:
    Many articles I have read seem to indicate that the community is 'falling to pieces' or that the loss of a few influential members is causing a community meltdown of sorts. This quite frankly isn't the case and I will explain why. For every member that 'leaves' the community another two join. There will always be Westwood/EA Pacific fansites as long as there are games to support and there will always be fans to run them as long as the games are worth supporting. With Generals on the horizon and many other 'unannounced' games lurking in the background I can't see the community falling to pieces or going to hell quite yet.
  • Well, those are all of the community articles I could find. I would just like to post one last thing on this topic. Lion from CNCDEN and RADEN has posted his comments on all these "community articles". Here they are:
    Well let's see...community articles. Seems everyone has an opinion on the state of the community these days. Some are good and thought out, and others should have been flushed down the toilet at their concept, know what I mean? Frankly speaking, I don't think the average fan gives a hoot what state the Westwood community is in. They come to our websites looking for goodies for their game. If ya don't have what they want, they move on to the next site. Doesn't take a Master's degree to figure that one out. Fact is, people have a tendancy to complicate what once was really quite simple. Now every seems to think it necessary to analyze what's going on. And what is that you may ask? Don't ask me cause I ain't got no idea.

    I do know that life is what ya make it. Works for me.

    I mind my own business and update my two websites I have. Then I take some time out to entertain my cats, go to work, sleep, and get up and do it all over again.

    The state of the community for me is this: When I go online and my websites are working, then I'm happy cause the fans can get to them. Then I surf to other websites in the community to see if they are online. Yep...sure enough, there they are. So for today everything is working. Will it still be working tomorrow? I have no idea. I just take one day at a time and don't worry about tomorrow =)
    I couldn't agree more.

    — Friday, July 26, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 10:10:56 AM ET

    I'm Back

    I am now officially back from Canada! I'll have all the usual updates and more commin up soon, but first I just have to surf around the community a bit to see what's new news and what's not.

    — Wednesday, July 24, 2002 —

    Posted By: Luckie at 7:51:25 AM ET

    There's just nothing...

    Hey everyone,

    There is very little news around the site, and their isn't much in the way of real good Generals news, so if your bored with this lack of stuf to read and/or do, try one of the suggestions below.

    - We are currently standing in and around 15th on the Westwood Top 50. This just goes to show what can be accomplished when you work hard and do your best. Do you want to help out? Just click the WW Top 50 logo to the left and rate our site.

    - Remember clicking our banner will keep us around for years to come, suplying you with Generals info everyday.

    - Finally, you could learn to speak German and head over to our partner site. You can learn some German here. If you already know some German, you head over to their site right now. Just click here.

    — Sunday, July 21, 2002 —

    Posted By: Luckie at 5:53:41 PM ET

    Everything in one big nutshell...

    Hey everyone,

    Ash of CNCSERIES has posted a good article about the public relations problems regarding Command and Conquer. Here is a small peice of the article:

    In the past month, the Official Site was completed and set up to be viewed by all. After a beautiful Flash intro, catchy thudding music and a pleasing looking black layout, what was there? Not much, really. An information section that has been surpassed by most sites in the community and hasn't been updated once (nor since the original preview by the looks of it) with a rather.....poor way of worming out of it: a tag with "undocumented" stamped on it. Does this console you? I'm guessing it's supposed to radiate a feeling of militaristic background, but when you look beyond the graphics you see it for what it really is: a site with no info or new screenshots whatsoever. Essentially, it's a waste of space, the only purpose being to attract people to the name. Imagine it as a supermodel; simply draped over a superior product in order to catch attention. Sorry, but I've grown out of buying a product because of a pretty woman sat on top of it.


    You can find the rest of it here.


    Mark at CNC Universe had a responsive article to Ash's, here is a small exerpt:
     

    Westwood was never known for it’s brilliant marketing technique when Virgin owned it. Part way through development of a number of titles, EA purchased Westwood. This gave them access to EA’s huge money reserves and marketing resources. Needless to say that now Westwood has gained an untimely reputation of being a sellout and a mass marketing machine, not the precision engineering company that it once was.


    You Can find the rest of this article here.


    There are two new scanned pages of Generals information. Here is a small clip of it:
     

    And that's before you even consider the titular officer. As well as Red Alert 2-style hero characters, you'll also be able to take along a General who will open up more troop types and tactical options. Quite how autonomous these epauletted elites will be is yet to be finalised, but some of the names hint at their uses: Terrorist Cell General, BioWar General, Warlord General and so on. Is this the end of tank rushing in C&C?


    You would be able to see the rest of the article in our Miscellaneous Section of our Images Gallery but given the "situation" we can't upload them. So just click on the link below to access the makeshift image viewer. It's kind of crude but I only had 20 minutes to make it and I've been awake for over 16 hours straight now.

    Click Here to Access the Viewer




    That's it, If you would like to leave comments, i will respond, but for now, I'm out, it's definatly time for bed...

    Last edited by MicScoTho on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at 5:29:19 AM.

    — Friday, July 19, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 4:41:11 PM ET

    A few bits of info

    Here's a few bits of information before I leave for vacation.

    There's been a bunch of discussion about the release date of Generals. At first it had been being reported as November 14th, then it was pushed back to December sometime. CNCGenerals.com had reported that a source within EA stated that it had been now pushed back into February/March 2003. However, after emailing Delphi, CNC Series got this reply:
    Jeremey: I have been looking around the community, and there have been many rumored release dates for Generals, and I was wondering if you could shed any light on when the release date will be?

    Delphi: We are saying right now "at the end of this year."
    So that is where the release date stands right now.


    Paradox of CNCGenerals.com had this short Q&A with Chris (AKA Delphi) regarding the Official Generals Forums:
    Paradox: Hi Chris.
    I was wondering if you could give us a rough time when the Generals forums will be unlocked, and accept to registrations?

    Delphi: Sadly I can't. They will go live when we are ready. =)

    CNC Matrix has two new Generals wallpapers/fan art! Here's the thumbnails:

    CNC Bunker has reached 100,000 hits! Congrats to them!
    Well that will be my last news post for a week or so -- off to Canada first thing tomorrow morning.

    — Thursday, July 18, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 11:00:35 AM ET

    Official Generals Site

    A bit late in posting this, but here ya go...

    A bunch of sites around the community have found out that there is now an Official Generals Message Board. You can't register yet, but if you still want to check it out, go here.

    Also, the Official Generals Site has had a few updates. First of all, they have gotten rid of the introduction. They've also added a "NEWS" and "BOARDS" link, which both do nothing at the moment. It looks likey they are slowly getting ready to have a full Generals website.

    — Thursday, July 18, 2002 —

    Posted By: Luckie at 6:46:26 AM ET

    50,000 Hits

    We have reached 50,000 hits. A milestone in CNC Generals World history. I would like to thank everyone who has come, looked around, and even clicked our banner. Keep the hits commin and have a great day!

    — Wednesday, July 17, 2002 —

    Posted By: Luckie at 3:40:08 AM ET

    Wallpapers

    Hey Everyone!
    We have two new wallpapers. One of which was developed by me completely from the Official Generals Website. The other was developed by JuvScorpion.


    By the way, I would like to thank everyone who has been clicking our ads. We hope that by the end of the year we can pay for our hosting costs to keep our site around to see other days. If you visit on a regular basis and don't click our banner, please make an effort to do so. So, keep us around and click our wonderful banner ad. Thanx for visiting!

    — Saturday, July 13, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 9:12:24 AM ET

    Community News

    Here's today's news from around the CNC online community:
    • Wayne from CNCGN has made yet another great Generals render.

    • CNC Matrix has posted a new Generals fan art image:

      Head over here for the full sized image.

    • Westwood Unleashed has posted a small preview of Generals from Hyper Magazine.

    • The Taiwanese Generals Site has been launched by EAP.  It isn't Flash like the English Generals Preview website, but it has a good layout.  So, if you speak Chinese, check it out.

    • CNC Universe has a scanned in version of the interview that PC Powerplay had with Mark Skaggs.  A text version can be found at CNCGenerals.com right here.

    And that's all for CNC news for now.  I also just wanted to let everyone know that the Generals World Special Forces Clan website now has a new members section.  User account will be added to that later today, so check back for new on the [GWSF] site.


    — Friday, July 12, 2002 —

    Posted By: JuvScorpion at 4:53:00 AM ET

    Generals Movies

    Statik Vision has two large Generals videos on their site. They are a large 66 and 95 MB. They are the 13 videos released from Gamespot all in continuous order. So go check them out here.

    — Thursday, July 11, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 2:03:18 PM ET

    Alert!

    Here's another alert from Chris:
    ALERT! ALERT!
    There is another PC Game over at http://www.pcgcentral.com on the lower right hand side asking "What do you think was best PC game at E3 was?". We need all hands to cast their vote for C&C Generals.
    WOOT! WOOT!
    Chris Rubyor (Delphi)

    Well, what are you waiting for?

    — Wednesday, July 10, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 10:31:45 AM ET

    Generals Videos

    We've decided to add those 13 videos that were released on GameSpot a while back, but are now locked, to our Videos page. Most of you have probably already seen em, but if you haven't, you can download them here.

    — Wednesday, July 10, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 7:57:44 AM ET

    Partner Site Update

    One of the webmasters of our German partner site, Generals-World, wanted me to let you all know that they have updated their Generals information, including updated info on buildings, units, and the story. So if you speak German, head over to Generals-World and check it out.

    — Wednesday, July 10, 2002 —

    Posted By: Ash at 7:32:46 AM ET

    Modding Manifesto

    Shinano from CNC Universe has released another article he's been working on this afternoon. He goes into good detail about what the modding community needs with Generals, along with ideas for the tools themselves. Clip:
    A nice bonus is that EA Pacific is planning on releasing the editor several months earlier than the game. This will, I hope, allow everyone a chance to play around with the editor without getting bored of it. What I hope this will do is jumpstart a community of mappers sharing ideas. Imagine this, one guy finds a neat and novel idea for making a map much more interactive. He posts this on a community forum, and other mappers take note. Adding this to their own ideas, they come up with many different applications for the neat idea. The first week Generals is released, there's already plenty of cool and novel maps, as map makers have already had time to climb the learning curve. This sort of thing is EXACTLY what the community needs to thrive and flourish.
    Any mappers and modders out there, this mainly applies for you, so be sure to Read the Rest now.
    He makes a good point about Half Life as well, it's still being played (or rather, the modifications for it) so Generals and EA should enjoy this success as well. Hopefully there will be no need for petitions, we will be given what we need at the very start, and be able to get to grips with the software before the initial release. Will this mean the end of shoddy maps released at the opening of games? And will Statik Vision's mod be easy to create? Read on at this link again.

    — Wednesday, July 10, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 6:37:07 AM ET

    New Render

    Here's an awsome new Generals render, this time from CNCDEN:

    Click here for Generals Wallpaper!

    Click on the image to see the full-sized version.  It's available in both 800x600 and 1024x768.


    — Tuesday, July 9, 2002 —

    Posted By: Ash at 11:55:54 PM ET

    Mininum Specs

    Well this should cancel out many threads on every forum going....
    Pentium 2 400Mhz
    700 mb of hard drive space
    16 mb graphics card
    128 mb of RAM
    A mouse and a keyboard (obviously)
    8 speed CD-Rom drive

    Hmm, I can't say for sure just yet, but the MHZ might need to be bumped up by 200 MHZ (600) and a GeForce 2 32MB minimum.
    Can your ageing computer take the strain? Or will it keel over and die when it sees the box?

    — Tuesday, July 9, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 8:41:48 AM ET

    Message from Delphi & Community News

    Delphi wanted to pass along this message...
    ALERT! ALERT!

    There is a new PC Game poll over at http://firingsquad.gamers.com/ on the lower right hand side asking "What PC game are you most looking forward to?". We need all hands to cast their vote for C&C Generals.

    Good luck and God speed!

    Chris Rubyor (Delphi)
    Online Community Manager
    Command & Conquer
    Electronic Arts/Westwood Studios
    Today's Community News:
  • Lion from CNCDEN has made a new Generals wallpaper.
  • Generals Xtreme has a new article up discussing the community called: The Circle's End?. You can read the article over here.
  • Federation Studios and Eclipse Modding Network have merged together. The site name will be called Federation Studios, and Eclipse will become the Federation Studios Eclipse Project Group.

  • — Tuesday, July 9, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 5:15:53 AM ET

    New Screenshots

    Two new screenshots have been released by GameSpot. Here they are:
      

    The full sized images are also in our Images Gallery: Screenshots page.

    — Tuesday, July 9, 2002 —

    Posted By: Ash at 12:41:25 AM ET

    Gen Top 100

    RZawl, the Webmaster of CnC G:Net has set up a Generals Top 100! You can look here, so submit your site and get the hits rolling in!

    — Monday, July 8, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 5:01:29 PM ET

    New Poll & Some Community News

    We have a new poll asking Are you going to buy Generals? Vote on the right side of the page. Here are the last poll's results:
    What do you like best about Generals?
    3D Graphics
    29
    30%
    Sage Engine Effects
    13
    13%
    New Units/Structures
    28
    29%
    New Storyline
    7
    7%
    Futuristic Real-War Theme
    19
    19%

    Total Votes: 96

    And now for some community news:
  • GameSpot has posted an interview with Mark Skaggs. You can read it at GameSpot here.
  • Cliff "Devinoch" Hicks, community manager for Renegade, has left Westwood for a job at Maxis as community manager for SimCity 4. You can read what Cliff had to say over at the Renegade Forums. Good luck Cliff (I love SimCity)
  • Wayne from CNC Generals Nation has once again made another render... this time of the Flame Tank.
  • MHR from Westwood Underground has made an awsome Generals Winamp skin! Check it out here
  • Delphi has said this regarding the Official Generals Forums:
    Delphi: It means more mods will be watching the board and cleaning off the spam, etc.
    Question: Will these people be like Mobius, and never show themselves, like Zeus, and occasionally relax and talk about sports and stuff, or you, and just delete things?
    Delphi: Yes a big meanie like me who deletes things.

    You'll never see them, but you will notice more topics related to Generals.
    That topic can be found here.
  • CNC Bunker has had yet another interview with people from the community. This time they have intervied Rob of CNC Series. Click here for the interview.

  • — Sunday, July 7, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 1:45:08 PM ET

    Nightly Community News

    Here's some community news for ya'll tonight:
  • The original GameSpot preview of Generals can be found on the EB Games website here. (This info thanks to CNC Universe)
  • CNCGN has a new article written by Ash titled Armed to the Teeth. You can read that over here.
  • CNCGN also has another render by Wayne, this time showing the F22-Raptor.
  • CNC Generals.com is in need of staff.
  • Renegade Generals reports that the Official RA2 Forums will be eventually closing down.
    Transnote >> Can you advise on if the RA:2/Yuri discussion forums will be closing in the near future? There is much speculation on this and no clear answer.

    Delphi >> Yes, they will eventually all be shut down per EA. =(
  • And now some Generals World news...
  • I have redone/fixed up the logo and login/logout images for our forums. They look a LOT better than before now. Join our Forums Here!
  • The [GWSF] Clan is officially accepting members! Wanna be a part of the first CNC Generals Clan?? Then go here to find out how to join.
  • We are looking for war stories (AKA fan fiction). If you have a war story you want to submit, you can email it to me. You will be given full credit for it, of course. We have few war stories already, written by CNCGW staff member Eternity. You can read those on our War Stories page. We'll have more war stories by Eternity soon.

  • That will be it for community news this evening. Don't forget to post in our forums and if you are thinking about buying a new PC game, be sure to support our website and buy it through our online store!

    — Saturday, July 6, 2002 —

    Posted By: Ash at 4:36:24 AM ET

    Community News

    A few things that's happened recently...

  • CnC Zone is back up with a cool new layout, very nice job Armyrulz30 and the guys & girls there!

  • CnC Series has 7 Ra2/YR maps for download, reviewed by their new reviewer Bio_Energy. Several did well in the test, so make sure you get them!

  • CnC Matrix has many new skins as usual, I think Independance Day inspired a few!

  • WW-MW's contest has ended, the winner will be notified shortly. I don't think I won

  • RADEN has chapter 6 of Chron0 Duston's war story, Commando's & Airstrikes!

  • CnC Den has two new skins, be sure to get them!

  • — Friday, July 5, 2002 —

    Posted By: Ash at 12:48:04 PM ET

    Mark Skaggs Interview

    CnC Community News has had an interview with Mark Skaggs. Here's your little teaser...
    7. If you take a look on to RA2, you will recognize that there are many, many cheaters and game-washers. Do you have any plans for generals like anti-cheating tools or better and longer support, so that this cheating-wave won't overrun WOL?
    [Skaggs, Mark] We've been working on this since Yuri's Revenge and have built some critical components into the new engine to eliminate the possibility of the cheats we've seen so far. That being said, hackers and cheaters won't go away so we'll have to continue to keep up with them even after we ship.
    It's a very interesting interview, which gives some straight-forward answers rather than the usual mystic and floaty half answers we've come to expect, so make sure you read it right now. Thanks are due for CnC Universe, as they found it out first. Cheers guys


    — Thursday, July 4, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 4:17:41 AM ET

    Updates

    I've just made a bunch of back-end updates to CNC Generals World.  This includes a new news system.  I will email news updaters about how they can log into the new system shortly.

    Links