C&C Labs News Wire

• Our affiliate CNC Series has annouced their new Clan System. It gives clans their own mini-website, which can be modified with your own control panel. Other features are:

  -Add and edit your own news and content.
  -Personal URL (www.cncseries.com?yourclan).
  -Automated member list.
  -Control and modify your members.
  -Send newsletters to all members.
  -Update various profile fields.
  -Specify what C&C games you play.
  -Recruit new members easily.
  -Create and control your own forum section.
  -Use your own online administration area

• Blitzkrieg II: The Finest Hour has released two new renders today, of the German BMW motorcycle and of the Russian light war factory.
• An Act of War has released two renders and one in game screen of the Paladin artillery.
• According to this story it's possible RA3 could be ported to the PlayStation Portable. While I highly doubt it, it's something to keep an eye on.
• CNC DEN has some pictures from a new mod, Tiberian Eclipse, as well as eight new ZH maps and 11 ZH replays.
• Imperial Assault has a number of new screens, including one of the AT-AT.
• Cold War Crisis has released a render of the US M163 "Vulcan" anti-air unit.

Rob, at our affiliate CNC Series has written a new article titled Trials and Tribulations. It includes interviews with Dario from Planet CNC and Lion from CNC DEN. It's very well written, and strikes home many of the aspects the webmasters (and general staff) have come to accept in the community. As always, here's a snippet.

"...Our community has many wonderful webmasters all with an array of many diverse talents. Maps, mods, strategy guides, articles - many of these have been created by the people behind our great community. Whilst our community may not be the most advanced, or the biggest, it certainly is one of the friendliest, with a wealth of information and resources to be found throughout. Being a webmaster is definitely a taxing experience - there are times when you just feel like pulling your hair out; particularly when you receive arrogant or obnoxious comments..."

On behalf of Generals World, I'd like to wish everyone who celebrates it, a Happy Easter. If you don't celebrate Easter, be sure to go to your local convenience stores tomorrow and buy the discounted candy. In fact, I think I just may do that.

• Chickendippers of CnC World passes along the following:

  After being offline for the best part of a year (10 months to be exact), the launch date for CnCWorld version 8 has finally been confirmed! All this procrastination has had a purpose though, version 8 is completely different from all previous incarnations of CnCWorld; the content is all new, the backend is all new, the layout is all new and all of the highest quality.So when is this magical date I hear you cry? Well, you will be able to see CNC World V8 on: Saturday 16th April! We will be having a special launch event with prizes to give away.

• Iron Curtain annouces that they will not have single-player campaign for the mod. They also have a new V2 render up.
• CNC DEN has 2 new ZH featured maps: Death on the Rhine and Battle for Fallujah, both by Golden Jay.
• Red Alert: A Path Beyond has posted the winners of their banner contest. See 'em here. They also have a new Power Plant render up.
• True War 2 has a MRLS render online.
• Battletech: The Capellan Solution has a new render and three screens of the DVS-2 Devastator assault BattleMech.
• Blitz 2: The Finest Hour has released a render of the IL-4 bomber.

What seems to be a mass exodus from EALA as of late continues with the news that Chris Rubyor, known as Delphi in the community, is leaving EALA for Petroglyph Games. He plans to work on their current game Star Wars: Empire at War. He sent the following email describing his decision to the community:

Hey guys,

Lots of stuff happening these days so I hope I don't catch ya off guard.

Well, I just wanted to let you know that I have resigned from my position as a Game Designer (Red Alert 3) at EALA. It was a tough decision, but one that had to be made.

I enjoyed my two years spent at the company. It gave me the opportunity to work with some great people and make some fun games (Zero Hour and Lord of the Rings: BFME). Sadly, I leave behind more than 10 years of RTS history which includes Westwood Studios and the C&C community. I remain confident that EA will continue to make unique and exciting games within the Command & Conquer universe.

What's in store for the future? I'll be heading back to Las Vegas to join the ranks of some extremely talented game developers and ex-westwoodian friends at Petroglyph. They have some amazing stuff planned and I can't wait to be a part of it.

Take care and stay in touch!
Chris Rubyor (aka Delphi)

Interesting that he slipped the name of the project he was working on in there: Red Alert 3? With the Westwoodians leaving, is there still hope yet?

I've just added a new modding tutorial written by All Stars staff member Jaymioz. The tutorial explains how to model and create infantry for the SAGE engine (used by games such as Generals and Zero Hour). Gmax, RenX, and a number of other modding tools are used by this very in-depth tutorial. The tutorial comes complete with screenshots for reference. If you've ever wondered how to create and animate new infantry for Generals, this is a must-read!

If you're interested, be sure to take a look at the Infantry Modelling and Animation tutorial!

It's been a while since I've done this, as Blbpaws has been nicely taking care of the polls over the last few months. Tonight however, I have for you a new poll that asks: What's most important for a C&C fansite to have?

This question has been asked before in various forms, but I'm once again looking for more input from you - the fan - as to what a fansite should focus on. We always find the results of these polls to be very interesting and undoubtedly take them into consideration when determining how to best operate Generals World. So please feel free to take a moment and respond to the question on the right side of the page - your input is appreciated.

As for the results of the previous poll, opinions of Electronic Arts seem to be distributed fairly evenly all around. It will be interesting to see if that changes in the future.

What is your opinion of EA as a company
Very High	16
High	10
Moderate	15
Low	10
Very Low	13
Total Votes: 64

Thanks to all of you who voted!

• CNC DEN has nine new ZH replays.
• PCTeen1 and others from An Act of War have been interviewed at CNC Files. It's a good read.
• Our affiliate CNC Series has a new article called Team Strategy, by Rob, discussing the elements of an effective 2v2 team.
• Project Perfect Mod has released Open Source SHP Builder 3.3. It has a number of bug fixes, and a few interface changes.
• MicScoTho has a poll he wants for this week, so I won't be doing that, and I am completely blameless (for once) for the late update. Expect it from him tonight or tomorrow.

Seems like the only news these days is from a mod, or from an employee leaving EA.

• Cold War Crisis has released an exclusive preview to the German website CNC HQ. The preview is in German, but there are also some screens.
• Call To Arms has released renders the Humvee EFOGM and some screens of Humvees and M109A6 Paladin howitzers.
• An Act of War has released a render of the redone US Supply Center.
• The Great Trench War has released in-game screens of the German howitzer.
• Battletech: The Capellan Solution has a slew of new renders.

(Thanks PETRODEN) The third Westwoodian in less than two weeks has left EA. Adam Isgreen, lead designer on Red Alert, Tiberian Sun and Firestorm, has annouced he will leave EA:

After spending 2 years out at EA after Westwood was "consolidated", with several abortive attempts to get a new C&C off the ground, EA and I have parted ways.

I'm heading back to Vegas to work with the already stellar group of ex-westwoodians and great new people that make up the staff of Petroglyph. I'm very excited by what Petro has been doing, and suffice it to say that C&C fans will not be disappointed by what's comiing in the future.... =)

The whole EALA adventure made me aware that a "big" company offers no more stability than any other, and at the end of the day, you should really do what makes you happy, because if you do great work, chances are you'll have that stability you're after anyway.

Stay tuned for more news from the Petro front... =)

A-

He says he tried "with several abortive attempts to get a new C&C off the ground..." Does that mean RA3 never made it off the ground?

Anyway, good luck to you Adam!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone out there! Here's the news from the day:

• Global Warfare was released today. It adds Canada to ZH, and it works with 1.03.
• CNC RenEclips has released their mod, C&C Shockwave, with over 300 new sounds, as well as many other improvements. Head here for the download.
• PlanetCNC has a new poll, the results of their last one, and a rather hilarious video of an army of technicians attempting to defeat a Flame Tank.

Ok, fine, and some of yesterday's as well.

• CNC DEN has a plethora of new maps, including a few for TS: Firestorm.
• Blitzkrieg 2 has a render of the b29 up.
• CNC Holland has released Beta 1.7, with numerous bug fixes and new units.
• Vietnam Reborn has a couple new renders, including one of the NVA Mig-17.
• Derelict Studios has annouced (yet another) new RA1 total conversion in the works, Iron Curtain.
• Deezire has released v2.4 of his famous Pro:Gen mod. It is designed for 1.03 for ZH.

Generals World should now be up and running at our new host, EasyCGI.

If you are seeing this message, then the cncgeneralsworld.com domain name has resolved to our new servers. It has for me, and within a few hours should resolve correctly worldwide.

Thanks for your patience and continued support! The forums are now back online as well!

Neo_James, from our affiliate CNC Series, has written an article about RA3 title RA3: Ideas for Change. In it he says:

I feel it would be pointless to regurgitate the oft-repeated laments of community critics about Generals not being a ‘true C&C’, but regardless of these voices it has to be acknowledged that Generals must act as a base from which to build the future. An unpolished work, Generals had good intentions, but got lost along the well-travelled route of big business. In terms of improvements, EA simply has to take the intentions of Generals and combine them with the clinical execution demonstrated in titles such as Red Alert 2.

Read the full article here.

First of all, big thanks are in order to Mike for his work in engineering this host switch. Now, on to the news!

• Project Perfect Mod has released Beta .9 of their terrain Expansion for TS.
• Red Alert: A Path Beyond is holding a banner contest. Go here for details. They also have two new wallpapers and a render.
• CNC DEN has a new featured mod, a new comic and new game replays.

• Rise of the Reds has released pictures of Russian T-90 and the S-300V Gladiator. Check 'em out.
• CNC DEN has a new ZH mission up, two ZH maps, called Bomb in Riyadh, as well as a cartoon by Krit making fun of Lion's map reviewing Hum-vee.
• An Act of War has released a render of the Avenger, now on a Humvee chassis. Also, tibmaker, from the CNC Pirates team will also help skin and model for AAOW now.
• Happy belated birthday to Cold War Crisis (March 8th). To celebrate, they have some new in-game shots up.
• RenAlert has released a render of the Allied Turret.
• I've updated the poll here. Here are the results from the last one:
  
  

  EA is releasing Patch 1.03 because they:
  Care about their fans, have seen the error of their ways, and will support all their games	6
  Wanted to release a patch because they care, but were too busy so they borrowed very heavily from the Aceton mod	9
  realize that they need to get back on the community's good side for RA3	23
  realized that they're support isn't like other RTS companies, and wanted to remedy that	14
  Total Votes: 52

Aside from the recent EALA/RA3 saga, here's the community news for the last few days:

• CNC Reborn has released two news videos that showcase the Mammoth MKII and Titan walking.
• CNC World Rebellion has released numerous skins of the t-84 tank. They want you to vote on which one you like most.
• Version 3.23 of the Open Source SHP Builder, designed for modding TS and RA2, has been released at Project Perfect Mod.
• CNC DEN has 6 new ZH replays, all from patch 1.03, as well as two maps for vanilla Generals.
• Derelict Studios has released a video showcasing all the mods that they host.
• True War 2 has a brand new layout, as well as a render of the M1A2 Abrams tank that will be in the mod.
• Call to Arms has released new renders of their Humvee.
• At PETRODEN, one of the partner sites of CNC DEN, Lion has interviewed Petroglyph Games President Mike Legg. Full interview can be seen at PETRODEN. Note: Generals World will not be covering Petro news in the future, as it is not a CNC game, but as 22 of the 27 employees who work there have worked at Westwood, we want to make you aware of their games.
• AircraftKiller, of the mod Renegade Alert has annouced that the mod will be switching engines...again. They will now be using the Battlefield 2 engine. Previously, the team had used the Source engine for Half Life 2, and before that, Renegade. Aircraftkiller had the following comment on the issue:

  It looks like we're going to switch over to the Battlefield 2 engine. It's graphically superior to Source and is also more user friendly. In addition to this, it supports vehicles for online play and also has heightmap terrain generation. Sorry to all of you who were looking forward to a Source version, but we go where opportunity is.

Electronic Arts spokesman Tammy Schachter confirmed that Dustin Browder will leave the company, and that Mark Skaggs will be taking a leave as well, but he will be returning "later this year." The story also says that:

While other web sites have stated that with Skaggs' leave of absence the fate of the new Red Alert game is in limbo or even cancelled, Schachter told Computer Games Magazine that the game is still under development, although it is still very early in its production. Schachter would not comment on a release date for the game.

Well, I'm not going to eat my newspost from yesterday, but the times may be a-changing. Head here for the full article from Computer Games Magazine.

Interesting news for today. Gamespy is reporting that Mark Skaggs, vice president and executive producer in charge of all RTS products and strategy at EA, "has left the company for an undisclosed amount of time to spend more time with his family." This follows the news of Dustin Browder leaving EA, as Generals World reported recently. Those two men were key components behind RA2, Yuri's Revenge, Generals, and Zero Hour.
The story goes on to say:

Skaggs...recently announced that his team was working on a new game in the Red Alert universe. However, the status of that project is up in the air, with rumors from a few inside sources saying that the game has actually been shelved.

If RA3 has indeed been canceled, or at least shelved, it is possible the CNC community would not see a game in all of 2005. One can only wonder how long the renewed interest in Zero Hour can last....Regardless, I think most would agree that EA should inform us as to their future plans, and aside from the plethora of "CNC 3" pictures over the summer (and EA's subsequent denial that that game was being worked on), Mr. Skaggs' e-mail to CNC fans and fansites in December annoucing RA3, and the recent patch for 1.03, EA has been strangely quiet on the CNC front. Does that mean the series has been dropped in favor of another game, or due to a lack of designers and producers? As always, "time vill tell."

Gamespy is reporting that Dustin Browder, a senior designer at EALA, and one of the men behind recent CNC games will leave EALA.

Dustin Browder, game design director for Battle for Middle-earth for Electronic Arts, will be leaving the company March 9 to join Blizzard as a senior designer.
Browder, who has been with EA since the Westwood Studios days, has worked on several RTSs, including Red Alert 2 and C&C Generals. He said he will be working out of Blizzard's Irvine office and will be answering to Rob Pardo, who has worked extensively on Blizzard's Warcraft franchise, most recently, World of Warcraft.

How will this turn out? It will certainly be something to keep a close watch on, especially with the development of RA3 on the horizon.

• Cold War Crisis has released renders of the Russian MI-26 'Halo' Helicopter.
• Vietnam Reborn has three new renders, showcasing the USA OH6 Loach, the USA C123 Fairchild, and the USA 105mm Howitzer.
• Halogen has a number of new renders up, including one of the Mongoose ATV.
• CNC Pirates has released a number of new screenshots. Check 'em out.
• Blitzkrieg 2: The Finest Hour annouces that the next version will be v2.5, coming at an unknown date. They also have renders of the 'Tiger Tank' up.
• Battletech: The Capellan Solution has three new screens and one render of the ENF-6M Enforcer III Mech.
• Frank Klepacki, composer of the music for all pre-Generals CNC games, has posted his March update on his site.
• An Act of War has pictures of the F22 Raptor up.
• Tiberian Aftermath has released a torrent of screens exclusive to Planet CNC.
• Tiberian Sun: Rishing is looking for graphics artists, including skinners, modellers, Animators, and UV-Unwrappers. If interested e-mail assassin at assassin@cnc-source.com.