C&C Labs News Wire

— Wednesday, July 29, 2009 —

Posted By: Gren at 4:00:19 PM ET

New Red Alert 3 Map - Battlebase X

Battlebase X

By Clone11b

It looks like Clone11b has taken a break from converting RA2 maps to Red Alert 3. But he's come up with this wonderfully detailed original design. The map is available in our downloads section and the thumbnails below reveal that Clone11b maintains his usual high standard with this map.

Map Description: The idea behind this map was to say that this is part of the fortress that would be the place to hold the Japanese soil that the Emperor insisted should be carried around for him, for when he has to visit the fortress.
Battlebase X is a 4 player map with each player starting in the corners with a nearby expansion on the water. Between each of the starting locations are plenty of structures for garrisson purposes, along with Ore Nodes and Tech structures. The middle X island contains 4 Oil Derricks, and 4 Observation Posts, along with 2 extra Ore Nodes.

 

Download: Battlebase X


— Sunday, July 26, 2009 —

Posted By: Drummin at 11:10:23 PM ET

New Generals Map: Silent Storm

Silent Storm
By: good_weather


Brilliant!
Amazing!
Wow!!!

These are some of the words that come to mind when playing this new Generals map by good_weather. The scripting on this map is superb giving you many options of game play while being neat, organized and very well done. It's like looking under the hood of a finely-tuned race car. The thumbs below will open larger shots of his work.

Good_Weather describes the map like this.
The players are located in a territory of the Middle East, which is segmented in three levels. The players will start on the middle level. The lowest level is situated in the middle of the map. The middle level is surrounded by the higher level, which is located on the edge of the map. On the far edge of the higher level is rail route.

Every player will begin the game with two supply docks containing $40000. Additionally there are $30000 in each corner and four supply piles are located along each side of the map.

Furthermore the map contains a sea with an island in the middle. On that island the host is able to configure the rules of the match, such as super weapons, en-/disable aurora, en-/disable trading. In case trading is enabled a small peninsula will appear, on which the players are allowed to exchange money. Also keep in mind that while the peninsula is connected with the mainland through the game, the first island will disappear after 30 seconds to prevent the USA from fortifying it, since the GLA will be unable to reach it.

Specification:
* Dimensions: 360 x 450
* 1763 Objects
* 1 Train
* 8 Oil Derricks
* 12 Supply Docks (8x $30000, 4x $20000)
* 16 Supply Piles (each $3750)

Additional Features:
* higher camera
* elapsed time is shown
* adjustable rules: Allow Aurora, Super Weapons or Trade
* Scud-Bug FIX, Tunnel-Bug FIX, Anti Drop-Zone-Bug System, Anti Shadow-Fly System

Have Fun! Feed Back is welcome!

If Generals is your game, download Silent Storm now!

Last edited by Drummin on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 12:22:02 PM.

— Saturday, July 25, 2009 —

Posted By: Gren at 12:33:00 PM ET

New Red Alert 3 Map - Assassin's Shadows

Assassin's Shadows

By TiberianFiend

Small, but with very high levels of game-play and fun, TiberianFiend has produced this brilliantly designed 4 player Red Alert 3 map. Set at night, the map really portrays a Ninja-type environment, but you must play this map against other Commanders for full fun and enjoyment - simply a must-have map. So visit our downloads section and get it now. The thumbnails below will give you a preview.

Author's Description: This next map has been an idea I have toyed around with for a while. Its a 4 player map that requires a higher level of tactics to play. It Has Ninjas ZOMG!

The players on the map can have a choice of being in teams = 2v2, or have a “Free For All” match, any which way will require advanced Tactical thinking.

Each player will start off in a corner of the map. They will have a Japanese Barracks which they can use to build either General Infantry and/or Ninjas/Shinobis to conquer your enemy.

    The rules are that:
  • - Your funds can only reach a maximum of 5000 credits with a slow increase of credits over time.
  • - Your barracks and theirs are subject to the maximum number of 3 infiltrations before you die. Your objective is to last to the end of the match by infiltrating your enemy’s barracks before they can do the same to you. (3 times)
  • - If your barracks is infiltrated it will be reinforced with 5 Elite Shinobi Guards. Not only will your barracks be protected by them, but also a Nano-Shield will protect your barracks for a large amount of time during it's powered down state. (But don't think the power down period will offer protection completely with the shield alone)
  • - Any enemy units that are inside the shield during activation period will be instantly killed, friendly units will be fine.

    In addition to extra credits, you will be provided with three top level support powers as follows:

  • - Desolater Air Strike - Level 3
  • - Emperor's Rage - Level 3
  • - Chrono-Swap

    This map has lots of cover, trick your enemy by sneaking past his/her army to take the barracks down.

    It is highly recommended that this map be played with other human Commanders.

    Enjoy and have fun!!!

     

    Download: Assassin's Shadows

Last edited by Gren on Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 7:36:36 PM.

— Thursday, July 23, 2009 —

Posted By: Drummin at 3:27:26 PM ET

New Generals Map - Rail City

Rail City
By lgbtrainkid

No sooner had we loaded up Death Valley to our download section when lgbtrainkid sent us the latest copy of his Rail City map. This Generals map is set in a rural setting with trees, trestle bridges, a train and small towns. He describes the map as follows.

Four player map with four Oil Derricks and a Refinery. It has a railroad going around each base. Make sure not to leave or build any thing on the tracks! I have tested this map and the AI doesn't usually build stuff on the tracks.

It has Roads, bridges, forests, fields, cars, and towns, all with moderate to high detailing.

Download Rail City

Last edited by Drummin on Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 7:29:27 PM.

— Thursday, July 23, 2009 —

Posted By: Drummin at 12:24:58 PM ET

New Generals Map - Death Valley

Death Valley
By lgbtrainkid

We're pleased to announce another great Generals map. lgbtrainkid says that he is new to using World Builder but has produced a nicely detailed map for one of his first efforts. We hope to add more of his work soon. He describes the map as follows.

Two player map with four Oil Derricks and a Refinery. It has a town down in the valley, forests and a destroyed city but mostly open flatlands above. Also has moderate city detailing.

Download Death Valley

Last edited by Drummin on Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 7:29:12 PM.

— Thursday, July 23, 2009 —

Buenos Aires

By Predatore

This is the newest, highly detailed addition to the Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath maps sections by Predatore. It supports both Skirmish and Multiplayer.

Map Description: This map is a blue zone city. It has symmetrical start locations and tiberium fields, over an asymmetrical city layout. There are 4 green tiberium fields, 4 blue tiberium fields, 4 tiberium spikes, and a lot of buildings.. It is a very detailed map: +5600 objects and +3300 waypoints (roads, sidewalks, etc.) and there are birds and trains moving. There is a lot of strategy involved in this map. Try to get a blue tiberium field for you as soon as you can. Be warned of Scrin motherships; they can rule on this map.

Download: Buenos Aires (Tiberium Wars | Kane's Wrath)


— Wednesday, July 22, 2009 —

Posted By: Gren at 10:11:38 AM ET

New Red Alert 3 Map - Tokyo Harbour

Tokyo Harbour

By Agro0

A new map by a new Author. Agro0 has sent us his polished 6 Player Red Alert 3 map, which not only offers great fun in-game, but leaves quite a lot of decision-making to do by the players. Do you help your team or concentrate on your own Forces? Agro0's Tokyo Harbour is now available in our downloads section. Click on the thumbnails below for a preview of this author's creation.

Map Description: Tokyo Harbour is a map for six players. Each player gets two Ore Nodes at the beginning. The more Ore Nodes you want, the harder they will be to get. In the middle of the map there is a big city with many places to hide your troops.

The bridges in the map are intentionally set low so that Naval and Amphibious vessels have no access. Players will need to decide if they want to destroy their bridge for team assistance or if they want to retain land access.

The map allows many ways to combine the abilities of the different factions to get an advantage.

Of course, the map can be used for skirmish mode as well as for multiplayer.

 

Download: Tokyo Harbour


— Sunday, July 19, 2009 —

Posted By: Drummin at 3:25:10 PM ET

New Zero Hour Map: Evil mod 3 no cash 4 players

Evil mod 3 no cash 4 players
By E-3

The latest addition to our Zero Hour download section is a clever Multiplayer-only map full of surprises and featuring a great intro movie. Below are some shots from the intro movie.

Authors Description:
This map was a crazy idea of pure evil. You have to survive over 70 mines on this map and you only have 2 units, 1 Technical and 1 Paladin tank to take out the mines. You also have a free lotus for 55 secs but she's evil. Nukes fire on her and if you let lotus live after 60 secs 50 nukes blow up in your base. Also if you leave your base by lotus she blows up your base and there's a real evil boss on the map if you kill evil boss well you don't want to know.

Download Here


— Saturday, July 18, 2009 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:22:07 PM ET

'The Power of High-tech Warfare' Final Zero Hour Release

 

The ever-talented DetoNato has released the final version of his Zero Hour mod, The Power of High-tech Warfare, hosted on C&C Labs. Here's a quote from the release:

This is the last version of TPoHW for Zero Hour, since we want to close this chapter once and for all to focus on more important things for which we otherwise have not had enough time. We fixed the most important bugs and some balancing stuff as well: we optimized the gameplay and added most of the button images. So we hope that you still have some fun with this last version of the mod. A big thanks goes to team and to everyone who supported this project as well! Also I have to thank all the fans of this mod! It was a long, exciting and quite a bit stressful time.

 

And here are some screenshots:



You can learn more about the mod at its site, or download it here.


— Friday, July 17, 2009 —

Posted By: Gren at 1:04:13 PM ET

New Red Alert 3 Map - City Under Seige

City Under Seige

By Clone11b

Yet again Clone11b has taken a classic RA2 map for a conversion to Red Alert 3. He has also created an Infantry Only variation, both in one download and now available in our downloads section. The thumbnails below show the detail and quality that Clone11b produces.

Map Description: City Under Siege is a 4 player map without any water, originally made for Red Alert 2. Players won't need to move very far to expand to other Ore Nodes, as these are mostly located near your starting positions. The map has plenty of buildings to garrison and both sides of the map are separated with a wall, which has 3 points of entry to the other side. Naval Yard construction is disabled.

The download for this map also includes a second Infantry Only version (excluding Rocket Angels) for an all-out ground assault.

 

Download: City Under Seige


— Thursday, July 16, 2009 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 7:08:09 PM ET

News Roundup

Here's the latest from the front:

  • A likely C&C 4 release date is March 30th, 2010 (thanks Sonic), and some retailers are posting this on their sites. This of course makes sense, as that is the last week of EA's fiscal quarter, and EA tends to release games towards the end of the quarter.  C&C 3, Kane's Wrath, and Uprising were released in March.
  • Louis Castle, considered by some to be one of the original founders of C&C after Brett Sperry and Joe Bostic, has left EA. More details here. There is now no one from the original C&C team working at the company. What a brave new world.
  • Red Alert Patch 1.12 is out. Get it at the official site or through your auto-updater in-game.
  • A second release of Middle East Crisis 2 is in development.
  • The always-likable chickendippers from CNC World has announced a new contest. Basically, you have to blow things up in a major way--something we all enjoy at times. More details here.

— Saturday, July 11, 2009 —

Posted By: Mike at 4:30:06 PM ET

The Forgotten Mod Interviewed at CNCDEN

Blbpaws, mod team leader of our in-house C&C 3 Tiberium Wars mod The Forgotten, has been interviewed by Lion at CNCDEN. The interview includes some newly released in-game screenshots and concept art for the mod. Here's a taste of the interview:

Lion: Are there any special features that your mod will have that will make it stand out against other mods in the C&C community?

Blbpaws: In addition to the unique faction and story, we've introduced a lot of new gameplay mechanics that we think people will enjoy. There are quite a few of these, but I'll give three examples here. First, Tiberium Fiends are back, but as part of a neat unit, the Beastmaster. Essentially, even though Tiberium life rages wildly, certain members of The Forgotten have a special connection to them. These wise community members, known as Beastmasters, have spent years working with Tiberium life. When the time comes to fight on the battlefield, they'll guide their Fiends into battle with you. Should they get killed on the battlefield, though, their Fiends will no longer obey your orders.

And here's an interesting bit about the mod's story:

C&C 3: The Forgotten Concept Art - Berlin Ruined Our biggest innovation comes in the story. I'm not quite ready to talk about the details of it too much yet (we'll show you a lot throughout the summer), but I think we're pushing the envelope of what mods can do, and pushing it a lot farther than any other mod has pushed it. We have spent hours and hours on the story--we have seven people who primarily handle bringing the missions and plot to life, plus my contributions--and I'm confident that it will be something very special in the end. In fact, here’s something that maybe will give you a hint of where we’re going, mood-wise. It’s a piece of promo art created by Kane Nash, and it shows the scene of a key battleground in the mod’s story. Of course, I can't tell you or show you the details or even how we use this art, but when we do, you'll see what I mean when I say we're pushing the boundaries.

I enourage you to read the interview in its entirety at CNCDEN. Also, be sure to check The Forgotten mod's website for screenshots, videos, and details about the mod.

 

Last edited by Mike on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 8:31:23 PM.

— Friday, July 10, 2009 —

Posted By: Gren at 12:05:43 AM ET

New Red Alert 3 Map - DC Uprising

DC Uprising

By Clone11b

Well Clone11b has been pretty busy of late and has sent us another Red Alert 3 map, and again it's another Classic Red Alert 2 adaption. This almost identical remake is now available in our downloads section. For a peek at the high detail, click on the thumbnails below.

Map Description: DC Uprising is possibly my favourite RA2 map which is why I decided to make it for RA3. This map is good for all vs all matches and each position offers different advantages. Each player starts with the usual 2 Ore Nodes and has 1 nearby for expansion.

Enjoy

Download: DC Uprising


— Thursday, July 9, 2009 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 8:07:56 PM ET

C&C 4 Officially Announced

C&C 4 turns out to be exactly as we all thought. Here's the official announcement from EALA today:

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Behold disciples of Nod, the end is soon upon us. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that, after almost 15 years and 30 million games sold, EALA is bringing the award-winning Tiberium series to an epic conclusion with Command & Conquer™ 4. Shipping in 2010, Command & Conquer 4 will introduce a multitude of innovations to the to the classic fast and fluid Command & Conquer gameplay while retaining the core compulsions that fans have come to love over the series’ history. Introducing new class-based gameplay, mobile bases and persistent player progression throughout all game modes, Command & Conquer 4 offers players new, innovative and compelling strategic depth.

“Command & Conquer is a powerful franchise with an amazing 15-year legacy. We are thrilled to bring the dramatic Tiberium saga to a conclusion in Command & Conquer 4. This game is designed to give fans all the answers they’ve been looking for,” said Mike Glosecki, Lead Producer of Command & Conquer 4 at EA Los Angeles. “With its objective-based multiplayer mode, persistent player progression and all-in-one mobile base, players will experience Command & Conquer like never before.”

The story of Command & Conquer 4 takes place after the events of the critically acclaimed Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars™. The year is 2062 and humanity is at the brink of extinction. With only six years left until the mysterious crystalline structure Tiberium renders the earth entirely uninhabitable, the two opposing factions – Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod – inevitably find themselves in desperation for the same cause: to stop Tiberium from extinguishing mankind. The unthinkable becomes reality and Nod’s enigmatic leader Kane takes off for GDI headquarters. What is Kane planning in the heart of his enemies’ base? Command & Conquer 4 draws the epic conclusion to the beloved Tiberium universe, where fans will learn the fate of Earth, Nod, Tiberium, GDI and most importantly, Kane’s motivations behind his decade-long plan.

In addition to the two campaigns on the epic battles of GDI and Nod, which players will get to conquer alone or in a cooperative mode, Command & Conquer 4 will also feature a new 5v5 objective-based multiplayer mode, promoting teamwork and cooperation and delivering a social real-time-strategy experience never seen before in a Command & Conquer game.

Command & Conquer 4 is being developed at EA Los Angeles and will ship to retailers in 2010 for the PC. The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB or PEGI. For more information about the game, please visit www.commandandconquer.com or follow the community and development team on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ea_apoc. The July 24th episode of BattleCast™ PrimeTime will give fans the latest news and exclusive information on Command & Conquer 4. Additionally, Gametrailers TV will exclusively reveal the first cinematic trailer for Command & Conquer 4 in its July 23rd episode on SPIKE TV.

GameSpot has an interview with Sam Bass on C&C 4 as well and there's a Battlecast Primetime announcement video at the official C&C site.

Obviously this is big news, and there's some news within the news if you look between the lines carefully enough. We're working on checking some of this stuff out now, and we'll let you know as soon as we can run some of it down. In the meantime, enjoy the news that C&C 4 is on the way!


— Wednesday, July 8, 2009 —

Posted By: Phe0n1x at 11:56:23 AM ET

Official C&C Announcement Via Mailing List

Earlier today I received an email from the C&C mailing list proclaiming that some time in early July (please note that "early July" is nearly half over) there will be an announcement about something. A new game? A new series? As fans, we will have to wait and see. For those of you who did not recieve the email I will post the text with the correct links below about this self-proclaimed "Mega-Bomb". Enjoy!

It was on August 31, 1995 when the Command & Conquer franchise was introduced to the world with Tiberian Dawn and propelled the real-time-strategy genre in to the hearts of each and every one of YOU. Now, Command & Conquer fans, after 14 years, and 18 games across the Red Alert, Generals, and Tiberian universe, someone very near and dear to the heart of the C&C franchise will soon have a message for you, to be communicated world-wide in "early July". Make sure to bookmark CommandandConquer.com, as this person will drop his message at just the right time.

— Saturday, July 4, 2009 —

Posted By: Phe0n1x at 2:00:24 PM ET

Happy 4th of July!

We at Generals World and C&C Labs would like to wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July!


— Wednesday, July 1, 2009 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 8:48:53 PM ET

New The Red Alert Screens

Over at The Red Alert, we have some great new art--12 screens worth--from Tsumetai to show you. I think, in this case, pictures speak louder than words. Hopefully this brings back memories of 1996.

Last edited by Blbpaws on Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 12:50:08 AM.

— Wednesday, July 1, 2009 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 7:06:02 PM ET

New CNCNZ Roundtable and Blitz II

I wanted to point you guys to the new CNCNZ Roundtable, an excellent community feature that lets varying viewpoints be heard each month. This month featured quite a bit of discussion on the news we broke two weeks ago about the floated description of C&C 4. I participated, as well as webmasters from around the community. You can read the full thing here.

Also, the mod Blitzkrieg II, recreating World War II in the Generals engine, has made it to a release point. The mod is quite large--more than 700mb with each side having more than 50 units--and you can learn more here.

Links