C&C Labs News Wire

— Saturday, December 31, 2005 —

Posted By: Luckie at 3:29:00 PM ET

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish all the loyal C&C Fans out there a happy new year. If this last year was the best year of your life so far, I hope you're next can top it. If you're last year has been one of hardship (we're C&C fans and tend to know this well), then I hope the coming year will be full of pleasant surprises and fun to make for a much better year.

Of course, Generals World will be around and we'll keep bringing you what you need for C&C plus a few added bonuses. Quite honestly, this next year is going to be an interesting one for Command and Conquer. It may not be revolutionary in game design but the franchise is still alive (to many people's surprise after EA bought Westwood) but 2006 may be remembered as the year of C&C past. This year will be a good time to look back at the games that the franchise was built on and the mods that made it a community.

Command and Conquer may have a bit of a different direction than when it started but Semisonic put it best in the song Closing Time: "Every new beginning is from some other beginning's end".

— Friday, December 30, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:35:18 PM ET

Frank K interviewed

While not about C&C per se, Frank Klepacki, creator of all C&C music pre-Generals, has been interviewed about his work on Empire at War. Here's a snip:
M4G: You have over 14 years of composing under your belt. What has been some of the highlighting moments in your music career thus far?

Frank Klepacki: Aside from Star Wars, which is clearly the biggest highlight, it would be obvious to say the Command and Conquer series was a joy to work on and I never would have guessed that I would develop the loyal following I have as a result, and am grateful for that. So I continue putting out that style of music I created on my own solo albums which are available on my website, as well as in all the digital download services. Also working on Dune 2000 and Blade Runner were great moments for me. It was nice being recognized by Hans Zimmer for how I reworked his scores for The Lion King, and I loved the PC Gamer music award for C&C Red Alert...
Read the full thing here.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Saturday, December 31, 2005 at 12:48:05 PM.

— Monday, December 26, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 1:40:17 PM ET

CWC Demo

The Cold War Crisis team has released a new demo, featuring a single player mission and lots of video. It weighs in at a hefty 166MB, but is a nice look at a mod that's been in development for 21 months now. Get it here.

— Wednesday, December 21, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 4:45:45 PM ET

All-Stars Beta Testers Announced

The following have been selected to particpate in the All-Stars closed beta test.
  • EmpirioN
  • NotJoelShapiro
  • Swiss Knight
  • generalx
  • Ptar64
  • AuroraAlphaHL2
  • kankakee
  • flanque
  • p-unit19
E-mails are being sent out to all who applied with more details. Thanks to everyone who expressed interest!
Last edited by Mike on Thursday, December 22, 2005 at 1:16:24 AM.

— Monday, December 19, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:01:43 PM ET

Community Roundup

Haven't done one in a while:
  • New site CNC Fantasy has a new "Beginner's Terrain Pack" made by their staff member soader. It includes 50 terrain models.
  • Congrats to CNC Reborn on winning the Visual Delight category from ModDB. They have two new videos on their site, including one from an internal Alpha.
  • CNC DEN has seven new ZH replays and a ZH shell map pack.
  • Just want to remind everyone that today is the last day to apply for All-Stars beta testing spots (as I'm typing this, there's just under six hours to go before the deadline. Update: The deadline has passed.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 5:15:59 PM.

— Friday, December 16, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:01:27 PM ET

Generals 1.8

Aaron passed along the following announcement:
Hey everyone,

This is a critical update that I would like everyone to alert their communities with if possible. Yesterday we released patch version 1.8 for Command & Conquer: Generals, which addresses a critical issue related to Command & Conquer: The First Decade.

Exactly how it reads in the readme file included with the patch:

-Compatibility patch to support multiplayer with C&C The First Decade.

This patch is being released for technical reasons related to the upcoming The First Decade version. Without this patch, people with The First Decade version will be unable to play multiplayer games with people with retail versions. This does not affect Zero Hour in any way at all; this is a Generals specific issue. So next time you log online to play C&C Generals, the patch will automatically install.

We understand the desire for other changes to be included in this patch for Generals; however, for technical reasons and to ensure everyone could play online with the different versions of Generals between The First Decade and the retail version, we absolutely needed to create a quick patch early on.

In other C&C news, we now have official “well-run” boards for all things C&C at the official site for The First Decade. I will be starting to proactively communicate on our boards, so be sure to come by and start some threads!

Visit The First Decade website here.

All the best,
APOC

'Every day is community day'

— Thursday, December 15, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:13:19 PM ET

All-Stars Looking for Beta Testers

Update: The deadline has passed. We're going over the applications now. Generals World's own mod, C&C All-Stars, in development for over a year and a half, has finally reached its beta version. We're looking for between 5 and 7 outside testers to play and test the mod for us. Testers will enjoy the following benefits:
  • Access to the mod before it is released
  • Access to the internal staff forums and administration sections
  • A special All-Stars Beta Tester title in the Generals World forums
  • Inclusion in the mod's credit section
  • Ability to find bugs and shape the balance of the mod before it is ready for public release
We're looking for talented people who enjoy playing mods, are familiar with All-Stars and what we are trying to do, and have a critical eye for design, bugs, and game balance. Experience in other mods in any capacity is a definite plus, though not required. We will be contacting you by the 20th with any questions or clarifications about your application, and we will post the list on the 22nd of December. Any applications received later than 11:59pm EST on the night of December 19th or missing information will be discarded. If you have questions, you can e-mail me at Blbpaws@cncgeneralsworld.com. Good luck!

Blbpaws
All-Stars Mod Project Coordinator and Lead Designer
Last edited by Blbpaws on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 5:16:43 PM.

— Wednesday, December 14, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 1:34:23 PM ET

Updates at the DEN

Been a slow time for news recently, but CNC DEN has a number of new updates. First, they have a new wacky mod for Zero Hour that has new music, a new layout, and a number of tweaks. In addition, CNC DEN also has a new shell map, small news on a number of mods, and nine new Zero Hour replays.

— Saturday, December 10, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:37:05 PM ET

New Feature at XWIS

The Strike Team guys, admins of XWIS, the server which is now used for all the older C&C online games, have passed along the following info about a new feature:
The new detailed XWIS Online Page is now hosted and linked on Strike Team. It features more details on hosted games available including standard map names (for RA2, YR and TS). If you click on the player/clan you will be linked to the specific XCL ladder information for the player/clan. Click on the different Servers available at the top of the page to see who is online on your favorite CNC game.
This will work with all the C&Cs prior to Generals.

— Saturday, December 10, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 12:56:58 PM ET

C&C Dawn in Flash

Imran has created a very nice little Flash game for two players online (no singleplayer support yet). It's called C&C: Reloaded, and has TD graphics, but all new code. The size is only 2MB, and, while it's still in the developing stages, it's fully playable, provided you have someone to play with. Try it out here.

— Saturday, December 10, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 7:55:51 AM ET

CNC World Turns Six

CNC World celebrated their sixth birthday this week. Aside from server problems a while back, they've been a contributing part of the CNC Community all six years. Congratulations to chickendippers and the entire staff!

— Thursday, December 8, 2005 —

Posted By: Mike at 5:28:32 PM ET

C&C: The First Decade Website Live

The Command & Conquer: The First Decade official website is now live. You can visit it here.

The site doesn't have much of anything new in terms of news about the compilation at this point. It does however feature some nice flash as well as some screenshots and renders from C&C, past and present. CommandAndConquer.EA.com now points to the First Decade website.

EA also appears to have created a message board for the new release. (On a technical note: why is the message board under the http://forums.easports.com domain?)

Regardless, you can check out the newly released site here.
Last edited by Mike on Thursday, December 8, 2005 at 10:29:43 PM.

— Thursday, December 8, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 10:44:18 AM ET

One year after RA3...

One year ago yesterday, Mark Skaggs, producer of Red Alert 2 and considered to be in charge of the next C&C, announced via community e-mail that Red Alert 3 would be the next project in the C&C Universe. Clearly, it hasn't happened, and Skaggs has left EA to form his own studio, Trilogy Studios. You can see the page we made last year for the announcement here. One year has passed, and I think the only thing we can be certain of is EA not doing RA3 for a while, if ever.
Last edited by Mike on Sunday, December 11, 2005 at 4:42:20 PM.

— Tuesday, December 6, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:07:38 PM ET

Modding Tool Updates

Talk about two new modding news is making its way around the community. First, Waraddict, Minh, and W3bb0, all from CNC Series have given the details and download of their new Advanced Mapping Program:
The Zero Hour Advanced Mapping Program (aka Zero AMP) allows the addition of numerous newly coded assets (we take care of that part) to the World Builder without the program being needed to play maps made by it. Better yet! Everyone is invited to submit their suggestions or helpful ini code in the Zero AMP Forum to be added for the next Zero AMP asset update! And it doesn't stop there, the best Zero AMP created maps submitted to CNCSeries will be included in the updates so as to share inspiration!
CNC Series has the download.

Second, Stucuk has announced his newest project, the UPHPS Updater. Here's the details from his post on CNC Community:
What is UPHPS Updater?
UPHPS Updater is a project which's goal is to provide the user with the latest versions of Tools/Mods for CnC. It features resume support so downloads can be resumed at a later time and if the connection with the server is broken it can resume the download.

Whats the projects status?
The main client has all the basics already finished. It is nearly ready to be released. But what's lacking is listed mods and tools.

When will it be released?
Currently there is no set release date. It really relys on how much contents are added to the list.

Is my mod/tool compatible?
The system requires that the mods/tools installers create a registary key with the program or mods version and remove it when uninstalled. This is so the client can work out if the 'software' is installed and if it needs a patch.

See NSIS for a free Installer.

How do i get my mod/tool listed?
Currently the only way to get a mod or tool listed is to contact me (Stucuk) via stuc_uk_2000 [ At ] hotmail.com

Can i get my CnC Fansite added to the banner rotation(aka 'ad bar') bit?
Yes, all CnC Fansites can be added for free. All you need is a 468*60 banner. Contact me (Stucuk) via stuc_uk_2000 [ At ] hotmail.com if you wish your site to be added.
More details at the site.
Last edited by Mike on Wednesday, December 7, 2005 at 4:30:01 PM.

— Saturday, December 3, 2005 —

Posted By: Mike at 8:58:00 PM ET

The First Decade Site Discovered

(Thanks CNCNZ) IJK_Principle, the webmaster of a Czech Command and Conquer fansite, has discovered the URL of EA's C&C The First Decade site. The site, however, is by no means complete. It does feature a nice horizontal-scrolling Flash bar showcasing all of the C&C titles included in the Command & Conquer: The First Decade gamepack, though.




You can see the site-in-progress for yourself (unless EA takes it down) here.


Edit: They've now taken the site offline.
Last edited by Mike on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 at 9:45:47 AM.

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