C&C Labs News Wire

— Saturday, August 31, 2002 —

Posted By: Mike at 5:54:59 AM ET

Where's Harvard?

There has been a lot of speculation recently as to where Harvard Bonin is. Rumor has it that he has been traveling abroard, presenting Generals. I've received confirmation from one of the webmasters of Generals-World.de that Harvard is currently in Germany at some kind of games convention, or at least he was yesterday. Generals-World's staff met with him, had an interview, played Generals, and took many screenshots (to be released in a few days). It is also known that Harvard will be traveling to England for a games convention there sometime soon as well.

— Saturday, August 31, 2002 —

Posted By: Mike at 5:49:03 AM ET

Community News Update

Here's the latest news from around the CNC Generals online community:
  • CNC Generals Nation has a new layout!  Black, orange, and gray.  Personally I like everything except the top banner, but that will just take a little getting used to I guess.  Anyway, head here to check it out.

  • Westwood Unleashed has a new wallpaper up, made by RcaMumba.  Here's a thumbnail:

    Click the image to view it's full version.

  • Jamie from WW-Unleashed has put together some information from the Official Generals Message Boards.

    Info on the Generals editor:
    The editor will be the same editor the dev teams uses. You will have all the power they have to create maps, ingame movies, and scripted missions.

    Will the editor be made by EA?
    The editor is a product of EA much like every game a developer produces under the name.

    Info on the beta:
    It's not going to be a "DEMO" it will be a "BETA."
    No eta as to when it will begin, that I can talk about just yet.

    Info on online play:
    It will be Game Spy only, no WOL. When I say Game Spy I mean it's the backend that powers matching.
    There will be no Game Spy arcade to use. It will feel just like RA2 and Yuri's revenge when you log in. GameSpy is just the networking stuff running behind the scenes. Does that make sense? There will be no GameSpy Arcade (a secondary program) to play Generals.

    Info on generals features:
    Generals will have full replay capabilities, save them until your heart is content.


    • There's your latest CNC Generals community news!

    — Saturday, August 31, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 5:34:33 AM ET

    Generals News Roundup

    Over the past week or so there's been several inverview and new previews pertaining to CNC Generals. Here's the latest interviews:
  • Our German partner site, Generals-World, has had an interview with Harvard Bonin, co-executive producer of Generals. The interview is in German, but I'll see if I can get an English version to you sometime this weekend. In the meantime, you can use AltaVsita Translation here for a rough translation.
  • Doc from XRA2X has conducted an interview with Delphi regarding the use of GameSpy instead of WOL. Here's that inverview:
    Doc: Why has EAP decided to let GameSpy handle all the online games? I think about 50% of the people prefer WOL, and 50% prefer GameSpy to play Westwood's games online.
    Chris (Delphi): Question, if it's intergrated into the game, what's the difference? Game Spy is far better equipped to handle this traffic with staff and 24 hrs a day monitoring. Trust me! With the code improvements and Beta Generals will be rocks solid by ship. =)
    If they integrate it into the game, I guess it makes sense to me. I would still rather have EAP make their own awsome online multiplayer matching system, but that would only further delay the game's release.
  • On this thread in the Official Generals Message Boards, Chris mentioned this about a replay feature in Generals:
    Delphi-EA: Generals will have full replay capabilities, save them until your heart is content.
    Japorms: Whoa awesome, Generals seems to be getting all the features absent in other cnc games. cool
    Delphi-EA: Features that will be carried over to all C&C games to come
    Sounds like a neat little feature to me!
  • Slavik of Planet CNC conducted a large interview with Mark Skaggs. Here's part of that interview:
    Q: In the video made in Germany, 'Generals Online' was mentioned. Is this a new matchmaking service?
    A: It's a new online component, but, it's something we are going to talk about later. There are still some things we need to get together and collaborate on before we can talk about it.
    Head here to read the rest.
  • And yet another interview: this time conducted by Boom? of CNCNZ.
    Boom?: C&C Generals looks great from the screen shots, but it lack one thing, the menu, do you plan to reveal this meun before the release date?
    Delphi: Yes, in future shots. =)
    Boom?: Are you going to make sure the Generals Forum doesn't spam up like Renegade and Red Alert 2 one's did? Or its going to be over taken by Havoc wanna be's?
    Delphi: We'll do what we can to make sure it's a clean place. =)
  • One final interview with Chris, this time once again on the Official Generals Message Boards. Read this thread to see the 12 questions.

    • And now for links to all the latest previews. Only one of them has any new info for the Generals fanatic, but if you're relatively new in the CNC Generals Universe, then they're all worth a good read.
  • UGO has a Generals preview. This is the preview that actually has some new info, so be sure to read it here.

  • Gamers Europe has a new CNC Generals preview here.

  • Computer and Video Games has a short article, plus a video (with no new footage) here.
    • Phewf, that was a long post. That's it for Generals news for now... a Community News post is comming up shortly.

    — Friday, August 30, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 1:39:41 AM ET

    Generals Test Run

    Some of the staff over at Generals-World.de, our German partner site, were lucky enough to be able to play the alpha version of Generals over in Germany with Harvard Bonin. They've posted quite a bit on their site, for those who speak German. Right now they are still at the convention, but when they get home they will be releasing many screenshots ... stay tuned for that in a few days. I'll have em posted right away once they're released.

    — Tuesday, August 27, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 10:21:40 AM ET

    CNC Bunker

    CNC Matrix is now CNC Bunker! Sipas from Generals Bunker has added a new site to the Bunker Network... CNC Bunker! They have a great layout and all of the awsome content from CNC Matrix. Be sure to check em out!

    — Sunday, August 25, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 5:12:44 AM ET

    CNC Matrix Down

    Malc from CnCMatrix asked us to post this message:
    CnCMatrix is currently down due to bandwidth problems again, we currently have something new in the pipeline which will hopefully be really cool. We weren't planning to launch it until next week but it looks like it will launch sooner as of the bandwidth problems with CnCMatrix.

    I will explain more in a few days when we are almost ready to launch.

    But don't worry CnCMatrix will return but with some changes.

    Malc
    Webmaster/Owner
    www.cncmatrix.com
    Hope you get your site back up and runnin soon!

    — Saturday, August 24, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 5:41:49 PM ET

    Official Generals Website

    The Official Generals Website has now been updated. There are now links to "News" and "Boards". Also, the screenshots on the site are now 4 different ones.

    — Friday, August 23, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 3:43:52 PM ET

    Official Generals Forums

    The Official Generals Forums are now open!! Register now and join the tidal wave of people!

    — Friday, August 23, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 1:10:32 PM ET

    New Preview Article

    According to news posted on the not quite yet Official Generals Website Newspage, there is a new preview up at CNC Planet. Here's what was posted at the official site:
    On August 21st, 2002 gaming press from all over Europe and the United States were invited to sunny Irvine, California for a chance to take part in C&C Generals boot camp. During "Boot Camp" all attendee's had the chance to play Generals and sit down with members from the team for one on one interviews. One lucky site from the C&C community, PLANET CNC, had the chance to attend and this morning they have posted up their preview detailing the event along with new screen shots.
    And here's a snip of the article:
    Tuesday night came in great fashion as the other press members and myself were greeted by a convoy of hummers. This convoy ranged from the normal, every day hummer, the brand new H2 hummers, and even a stretch hummer limo. It was truly awe-inspiring and set a good tone for the rest of the trip. Mark Skaggs, Harvard Bonin, and Amy Farris got out of the limo to greet everyone. After the introductions were done all around we boarded the various vehicles (I got in the stretch because well, it looked the coolest). We popped the cork on a few champagne bottles, had a cheer to Generals and we were off for the restaurant.
    Click here to read the rest of the article.

    — Friday, August 23, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 9:17:47 AM ET

    Getting ready for a new site launch?

    It looks like the WW/EAP web team is getting ready to update the Official Generals Website. I stumbled upon this test page last night. It is the same as the current site, except it has links to News, Boards, and it has different screenshots. Note: The News and Boards links actually work now. Check out this future news page. Looks like a lot of testing goin on . The Official Generals Message Boards are still closed.

    — Thursday, August 22, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 3:51:13 AM ET

    Release Date & Screenshots

    GameSpy has a new preview of CNC Generals up, complete with lots of new screenshots! 10 new ones, to be exact. Here's a snip of the article:
    The Command & Conquer series has always been one of the RTS standards, with many copycats trying to compare themselves to what C&C has done so well -- namely, a cool story, interesting units and a lot of replayability. The latest incarnation of the series is Generals, and EA Pacific invited us in to give the single-player game the once over to see what we thought. The immediate conclusion is that Generals should add a few new wrinkles to the genre that will leave RTS wannabes again nipping at their heels.
    You can read the full article right here. The GameSpot screenshots page is here. You can also view the 10 new screenshots, plus many more, in our Images Gallery: Screenshots page.
    As for the release date, Mark Skaggs said:
    The game was originally slated for release around Christmas, but was delayed until Jan. 21, 2003, because of the tremendous amount of detail the team is adding to the game. "We don't want to rush it. We want to make sure we can deliver the game we want."
    Well, that finally clears up release date discussions, for now anyway.

    — Wednesday, August 21, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 12:21:27 PM ET

    Generals World Forums

    Update: The upgrade is complete! There's a few new features, so check the forums out here. I'm currently working on the forum design/colors though, so if stuff doesn't look right, bear with me .
    I'm currently upgrading our forums, so they will be offline for the next half hour or so. I'll post a message when the upgrade is complete.

    — Tuesday, August 20, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 11:32:31 AM ET

    Delphi Email

    Delphi has sent this message to us via email!

    Hi guys,

     

    I just wanted to give you an update as to what's going on in the world of C&C. Tomorrow we are hosting a huge press event at EA Pacific to promote C&C Generals. Both online and print magazines from all over the world will be in attendance to play some of the first solo missions from the game. Expect to see online coverage and new screen shots appear on the web by late Friday PST. Luckily I'll be on hand to capture pictures and share the Generals experience with everyone. Rumor has it Humvee's will be picking up guests from the Hyatt hotel and driving them to dinner. A real military convoy! Woot! Almost.  ;)

     

    In other news, we are making final preparations to the Generals preview site to include a news section and of course the link to the "live" Generals "official" forums. Webmasters will receive a special note from me on Thursday containing more details.

     

    Cya!

     
    Chris Rubyor (Delphi)
    Online Community Manager
    Command & Conquer
    Electronic Arts/Westwood Studios
    "The time has come to destroy GDI..."
        -Kane
    If I can, I will post news Thursday as soon as I get the email to keep you all informed.  I can't wait for the new screenshots and the new information that is sure to go along with them.

    — Tuesday, August 20, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 11:27:52 AM ET

    Delphi Speaks

    Sorry for not posting some of this earilier. I'm hard at work on our new layout, which will include a brand new downloads system and lots of administration features (for me and my staff ). Anyway, on Sunday Malc of CNC Matrix asked Chris (AKA Delphi) this question:
    Malc: Are you giving a day or a week in which the Generals forums will go live?

    Delphi-WS: Yes I will make my annoucement tomorrow. =)
    Well, no announcement came yesterday. Malc asked Chris why there was no announcement, and he responded:
    See now you know why I hate to giving dates. My announcement had to be postponed for a day or two.
    Today however, Chris did post this message on the CNC Universe forums.
    As for the beta, more details to come explaining in better detail the number of participants and when it will actually occur.

    Sorry about the date, things never seem to pan out the way we want them to.

    At this moment we are planning on having the official forums go live by this Friday. Also, we are having a huge press event at EAP tomorrow with tons of new screens shots expected to be released online shortly after.

    I hope this helps. =)
    As for the beta, Doc at XRA2X asked Chris if he could talk a bit more about Mark Skagg's exaggeration of a million beta testers for Generals. Here was the respose:
    Doc: Westwood is going to have a beta for Generals which is going to involve millions of people?

    Chris: No, if and when we do the beta it will be limited just like Renegade. Post launch though we will have millions of fans supplying feeback. Get it? =)
    Hopefully the forums will actually be open by Friday this time . I'm anxious to learn more about this Generals beta test that will probably occur. Well, that's it for now.

    — Saturday, August 17, 2002 —

    Posted By: Luckie at 12:06:53 PM ET

    Community Awards

    Yes, the community awards have started, and you can go vote. There are a total of 13 categories. Although the categories did disapoint me, we want your oppinions. Head over to our forums and tell us what you think. If you want to vote, go here.


    For anyone who wants to know, we are not up for any awards, but thats ok, maybe next year.

    — Friday, August 16, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 3:44:08 AM ET

    News Update

    Here's the latest CNC Generals news:
  • Generals Bunker has a new domain name - www.generalsbunker.com -- and have cncbunker.com reserved for a new CNC site they will be creating. They have also launched the Bunker Network.
  • IGN.com has had an interresting interview with Mark Skaggs. Here's part of that:
    IGNPC: How does the story get going?

    Mark Skaggs: The first chapter starts off with China. China in the future is no longer run by hard-core communist overlords, but instead it is run by technocrats. These are guys who grew up being aware of the broader cultures and ideas that exist in the world. They grew up with MTV and the Internet and so they want to be a part of the world and are keen to try and get along on better terms with the rest of the world. These guys are really smart and more open to working with other nations, which means China is in the game. These guys realise they have to play along and stand up and be good guys and to be a respected superpower they have to clean up the problem of the GLA sneaking about in Asia.
    Click here to read the rest of the article!
  • The initial pages for the 2002 Westwood Community Awards are up! See CNC Universe for details.
    • That's all for now. I'm currently hard at work at our new layout, so stay tuned for loads of updates.

    — Sunday, August 11, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 4:18:45 PM ET

    CNC Community Awards

    It's that time of year again! This year's CNC Community Awards will be hosted by C&C Universe! Here's the full scoop:
    This years Westwood Community Awards are fast approaching and are hopefully going to improve dramatically on last years which pulled in large audiences and heavy voting. They are kindly hosted this year by C&C Universe.

    The awards themselves are going to be similar to last year in that visitors will vote in a number of different categories but the results themselves will not be shown until they are announced at the end of the voting period. Some of the categories will also be different and this reflects the changes in the community over the past year.

    The information page regarding the awards is most likely to go up mid week and the awards themselves start on:

    Saturday 17th August 2002
    CNCNZ, last year's awards host, has the 2001 Community Awards winners archived right here if you want to see the past winners.

    — Saturday, August 10, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 10:31:27 AM ET

    Generals Bunker

    Generals Bunker has a cool, brand new layout for their site! They've also got a new news system, poll system, a new download feature, and even new content. Be sure to go check em out!

    — Friday, August 9, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 9:34:09 AM ET

    Yet Another Video

    I've come across another video at EA Community.de. Our download link for it is here. The video shows Harvard Bonin discussing online multiplayer in Generals with people he met with in Germany. It talks about quick matches, custom matches, a bit about ladders, and lots of other Generals info. Its another long video - over 17 minutes long. It is also poor quality because it was filmed with a hand-held camera. The sound quality is somewhat poor as well. The video is good for the information that Harvard talks about.

    Here is some new information (or at least new to most people) that is included in the video:
  • During online games, huge amounts of data will collected and stored on the multiplayer servers in order for developers to know what needs to be improved. Such data includes: how many times one unit kills another, which generals won the most, how much money has been collected, and what side won the most. All this data will be totaled, averaged, and used to improve overall gameplay.
  • Harvard hinted that they might have Linux support, if they deem that that is nessicarry.
  • When you install the game you will have the option to send EAP a lot of information, including system settings, etc.
  • When asked: Will you support the game for a period longer than three months? Harvard responded that he can't promise anything, but that they may be able to have a developer keep working on making sure that Generals is running smoothly for up to 18 months.
  • In the Generals Multiplayer section, there will be a "Meta Browser". On the first screen, there will be a record of how many people are online and over the last week which side has won the most. Also on that screen, there will be buttons for Custom Match, Quick Match, etc, plus a button for managing ladders. They are still working out ladders. The main multiplayer screen will be, according to Harvard, the "community center", in a sense.
  • In Quick Match, you will be able to see the number of times a player has had disconnects during online games. When it searches for an opponent, you will be able to filter out players who have had greatly excessive amounts of disconnects. For quick matches, other data will also be available, such as win/loss percentages.
  • Harvard also talked about sometime called Battle Honors, which he described has "persistant accomplishments."
  • You can get certain "Battle Honors," which are special images/icons next to your name in multiplayer, when you achieve certain goals, such as finishing the solo campaign, beating all the skirmish maps on brutal, or having a ceratain win percentage.
  • Generals will store personal statistical information about you and your opponents on EA Pacific's servers.
    • Lots of new info. To hear the whole discussion, download the video.

    — Thursday, August 8, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 12:08:27 PM ET

    New Generals Video

    Well, it isn't entirely new. Lots of bits and pieces of it have been released over the last few months. But now, finally, the video shown at E3 has been released in its entirety - complete with a commentary by Harvard Bonin! The video was released on a German fansite, CNC Community. I've uploaded it into our Videos page. The direct download link for it is here. I decided to write up a description of what is shown in it, and some of the points Harvard talked about. Here it is:
    Complete Generals E3 Video with Commentary by Harvard Bonin
    Length: 17:14 minutes
    Quality: Fair

    Major points of what is shown:
  • Scenes of GLA assassinating diplomat
  • GLA assassins being destroyed
  • Chinese command center
  • A nuke being constructed
  • A bulldozer, and a building being built
  • The Chinese radar upgrade
  • Chinese tanks are destroyed by GLA Tunnel Networks
  • Chinese troop crawler attacking Tunnel Networks
  • Migs destroying GLA Tunnel Networks
  • Dam being destroyed by Rocket Buggy
  • The flood that follows, and the town being underwater
  • A Chinese nuclear launch that destroys the remaining GLA forces

    Information explained by Harvard:
  • You choose your General once you start each mission.
  • You use the Command Center to choose your general and the specific units that you build.
  • You will not know what enemy has picked for a general until you see their base.
  • There will not be a shroud in the game.
  • They are looking for a way to have infantry units "pop out of the screen a little more" because when you zoom out you can't see them as well.
  • The units and buildings in Generals will look more to scale than the units and buildings of previous CNC games.
  • The USA and China will have bulldozers. The GLA will have workers, which are basically peons.
  • The bulldozers will build and repair buildings, repair bridges, and clear mines.
  • The GLA workers will build and repair buildings as well as collect resources.
  • Each buildings' scaffolding is animated while being built.
  • Units and buildings have upgrades which are important. They were put in to add more strategies to Generals.
  • China has a radar upgrade.
  • The GLA has a mobile radar unit.
  • They are putting emphasis on having differences between the sides.
  • Each side has a specific quality, such as:
  • When destroy USA buildings: rangers pop out.
  • China has mines upgrade for buildings.
  • GLA: when you destroy a building, a cave is kept underneath it and if you don't destroy the cave, a worker will rebuild it.
  • The GLA has no power or powerplants. They were going to have windmill powerplants, but the idea was scrapped.
  • When Chinese troops are in a tight place, they will have better firing power and will be faster.
  • Pilots on the USA side (in tanks and aircraft) will be able to retain veterancy and get into other units after their unit is destroyed.
  • GLA will do just about anything, including killing civilians.
  • Generals is: "a war game; not a squad game".
    • At the end of the video, it says: "Coming Christmas 2002." Of course, this was the same video shown at E3, so that information is probably old.

    — Tuesday, August 6, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 4:33:41 PM ET

    New Generals Wallpaper

    We've got a new wallpaper for you to download tonight!  Its a cool brand new wallpaper by Luckie.  Here's a thumbnail of it:

    Be sure to download it from our Wallpaper page!  It comes in three sizes: 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024.

    — Monday, August 5, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 3:35:12 AM ET

    Community News

    Here's a bit of community news to start your day:
  • Wayne of CNCGN has made a cool Generals Screensaver of his Generals renders that he has made. Download it from CNCGN here.
  • CNC Generals.com has found a possible SAGE engine demo. They've got three screenshots over there that go along with it. I'm a bit skeptical, though it does have a reseblance to terrain seen in other Generals screenshots, and it is definitely from Westwood. Anyway, be sure to check it out.
  • The Taiwan Generals Forum is now open. Since I don't know Chinese,I can't read a single word of it, of course. Well, hopefully this means the English version will be opened soon.
    •

    — Sunday, August 4, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 10:42:41 AM ET

    Generals Info

    Most of you are probably aware that Harvard Bonin recently traveled to Germany to present Generals. Our German partner site, Generals-World.de has found a 3 page article at Ice-Bird.net (another German site) discussing what they were told during their interview with Harvard. I've put together the major points of the article:
  • The vehicles and infantry units are beautifully animated.
  • Civilians no longer stand around as in other CNC games, but now show fear of an advancing army.
  • Units and buildings can be upgraded.
  • Unlike other strategy games such as Warcraft III, you will be able to select and build virtually as many units as you like.
  • In order to play well, a GeForce 2 card or better will be needed.
  • There will not be a navy in Generals, though there will be air units able to move over the entire map.
  • In the version shown, the level of difficulty could be adjusted in three stages.
  • The campaigns (either 24 or 29 missions total) will each contain an intro video and serveral other video sequences throughout the campains.
  • As for Custom Matches/Multiplayer, there will be a new feature that will be able to predict how many disconnects or lags your opponent may have.
  • So that Generals can be better balanced, EA Pacific will have statistics about how often each side won and how often/easily one unit kills another. This way, the game may be more evenly balanced in a shorter amount of time.
  • Harvard Bonin expressed that EA Pacific intended to support Generals much longer than other CNC games have been supported.
  • Everything in Generals (up to those partially somewhat exaggerated explosions) works quite realistically without becoming too strict.
    • A lot of the information was already known, but some is new. I'm interrested in learning more about the multiplayer feature that supposedly can predict how many disconnects an opponent might have. Hopefully EA Pacific's idea of getting online statistics to better balance the gameplay will work well.

    — Sunday, August 4, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 9:56:51 AM ET

    Planet CNC Interview

    Planet CNC has recently had an interview with Chris Rubyor (aka Delphi) conserning Generals.  Here is a snip of that:

    Q: I'm guessing you noticed this recent onslaught of State of the Community articles that are, for the most part, nothing but rants. So please, as Online Community Manager, tell us what you think about this.
    A:     These articles are a great way for some community members to voice their opinions on topics of concern. We do take them to heart and do what's necessary on our end to make any changes in our plans and community efforts. With a community of this size, you can expect their to be vocal individuals.

    Q: Is there anything you can tell us about the near future regarding Westwood's endeavors? After that staff hog we call Earth & Beyond Online is done?
    A:     Sure! Hmm, well, umm no.
    Head on over here to read the rest of the interview!

    — Thursday, August 1, 2002 —

    Posted By: Mike at 11:57:13 AM ET

    New Generals Info

    Word has it that Harvard Bonin paid a visit to the staff of GameStar.de, a German website. They have posted what he said on their website, but it is in German. A site called Evil Avatar was able to translate the major points of the article. Here they are:
  • The game will be different from Red Alert 2, more story-driven (comparable to WC3).
  • Loads of cutscenes - done with the in-game engine.
  • Best looking RTS graphics engine to date, lots of particle effects, detailed vehicles and buildings.
  • Minimum Requirements: 800Mhz machine + Geforce 2 card
  • Perfect combination of units being the key to success, not mass.
  • There'll be characters with special weapons/skills, such as generals with devastating bombs. They're not to be seen as units on the screen though, just as icons.
  • The multiplayer mode will feature a ladder system.
    • The requirements certainly differ from what Delphi had told the community. The requirements Delphi had posted a few weeks back were:
    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
    He had also said that the processor speed might need to be upped to 600Mhz and the graphics card could be a GeForce 32MB minimum. 800 Mhz is probably too high for most people if their computers are more than a year or two old.
    Thanks to CNC Series for this news.

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