C&C Labs News Wire

Aaron Kaufman, the Community Manager for ZH, said the following about the latest patch.

We understand this patch has been desired for a long time by the community and we’re extremely excited to be able to provide that to you guys. By no means is this a ploy to further entice you in to buying into the Command and Conquer franchise, nor is it in response to any of our upcoming RTS competitors, all of which we highly respect. Patch 1.03 is something we have had in mind for a long time and we were able to finally develop it for the community recently.

Aceton and the EA supported German community team did not lobby for this patch anymore than the rest of the community has been for quite a while. We saw some remarkable and respectable work in the Aceton Balance Modification and felt it would be great for the community to use it in-part as a model for patch 1.03. This patch has been in development for at least a month, completely in house, and has seen extensive QA testing hours. By no means was this developed by anybody outside this development team.

I’ve seen a lot of rumors on the boards about these issues above but I wanted to firmly put them to rest, so the excitement for the patch can takeover. Credit is definitely due to Aceton and the EA supported German community team for their inspiration, but we greatly appreciate the support for patch 1.03 from the entire community and are truly excited to finally be able to provide that to you guys. We hope you enjoy this patch and continue cranking out your online hours for Zero Hour.

Interesting, to say the least.

After months upon months with seemingly no hope for a new Zero Hour patch, EA has released patch v1.03 today!

Patch 1.03 for Zero Hour can be downloaded from EA's public FTP here.

Electronic Arts reportedly relied heavily on the German ACETON Balance Mod for this patch, which includes numerous improvements and bug fixes. Most noteworthy is the fix of the unfinished building exploit, commonly referred to as the "SCUD Bug". A number of balance issues were also addressed. Patch 1.03 changes the prices of a few units, and the Generals World Generals Profiles pages have been updated accordingly.

For full details on what the patch affects, view the updated launcher.txt file in your Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour folder after installing the patch.

Enjoy!

This poll update is rather late, and I've run out of excuses as to why, so we'll head straight to the results:

Have you ever considered starting a fan site?
Yes	10
No	19
Total Votes: 29

Also, from now on, I will update the poll every two weeks, instead of (claiming to do it) every one. This makes it easier on me, and allows you guys more time to vote.

Thanks to all 29 of you who voted!

EA has released info that patch 1.03, for Generals: Zero Hour, is on its way. Here's the press release:

Mark your calendars for FEBRUARY 28, 2005..."THE DAY WE STRIKE BACK"

To the supreme commanders of the Command & Conquer(TM) community, On February 28, 2005, please initiate online play of Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour or visit generals.ea.com for a direct download of the 1.03 patch.

On this day, we will support the Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour community at large with a direct strike! Partnering with community allies, we reached out to seek the assistance of the German Command & Conquer community to develop a significant patch. This update will dynamically change the balance of the game based upon the combined deep analysis and feedback from these avid fans. Intelligence also reports that the recently released ACETON-Balancing-Modification, developed exclusively by gamers and known extremely well within the community, helped to underline the core design of the patch.

"We recognize the hard work put into the ACETON modification, and the fantastic analysis and feedback from the EA GAMES(TM) supported Community Team in Germany (www.communityteam.de)," said Harvard Bonin, Senior Producer at EA Los Angeles. "While this patch addresses the most common cheats and technical errors seen in recent months, it is going to give Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour a dynamic face-lift inspired by community feedback."

For full details on patch v1.03, please visit generals.ea.com

As your new Major General of Community Operations for the Command & Conquer series I will take every liberty to ensure that this community is heard and protected. If you'd like to be among the first to hear about the latest in the Command & Conquer universe in the coming months, please direct your friends to sign up for this newsletter, and stay tuned.

Reinforcements have arrived!
Aaron Kaufman
Community Manager

In other news,

• Imperial Assualt, a ZH mod, has elected to join Derelict Studios.
• The Great Trench War has released some pictures of the German War Factory.
• Rise of the Reds, a ZH mod, has released pictures of 2 new structres that will be in the mod.
• Vietnam Reborn has three new renders up, including one showcasing the F4 Phantom.
• Planet CNC has some assorted files up, including some maps for ZH and some skins for Renegade.
• CNC DEN has two new maps, both from Jack Axonitis, and a new poll.

News Roundup

• In the biggest news recently, Lion, from CNC DEN has e-mailed a number of his contacts at EA. None of them could confirm the making of patch 1.03. Scorpio9a, a reputable community member, insists that the patch is coming. We'll have to wait and see.
• CNC DEN also has new ZH maps, new ZH replays, and a new ZH shell map.
• Halogen has some new renders up.
• Project Perfect Mod has released version 2.4 of Return of the Dawn, a TS mod. Check it out.
• (Thanks CNC DEN) A rather funny comic has been circulating the community about EA. Certainly brightened my day. ;)
• An Act of War has some Humvee renders up.
• CNC RenEclips has some new screens of their mod, CNC Shockwave.
• Matze has passed along the following annoucement.
  

  I've released FinalBIG 0.35 beta, which you can download at Wagnerma.de Now supports INI Editing for Generals/ZeroHour and SuM. Basically I'm trying to make modding easier and faster, while keeping full flexibility. For example, you now don't have to search for a single ConditionState anymore. Instead, you just right click and there will be a list of fitting states. Screenshots of this are available on my site. It is quite much work to support all modules. That's why I'm searching for people that are willing to help add those modules. You don't need to have programming skills, just a good knowledge of the INI files. I'm keeping all modules inside finalbig.ini, so it's easy to add new modules to FinalBIG. If you want to help, just visit the forums on wagnerma.de, where I have posted some tutorials regarding finalbig.ini.
  thanks...
  Matze
  

  He has also released v.36 today; get it at Wagnerma.de.
• Planet CNC has a new poll up.
• CNC Reborn has some new renders up.
  Last edited by Blbpaws on Monday, February 21, 2005 at 4:06:31 PM.

No more problems with the forums. Minor server tweak out, I assume. And in the news, Paris Hilton's Tmobile sidekick got hacked. All of her notes, address book extries, pictures (including some very questionable ones - emphasis on 'very' and 'questionable') and even some voicemails are popping up online. Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls... be careful what you put on your technology ;) Generals World will not provide any of our users with a direct link to anything from this hack, as we do not condone hacking or the posting of nude or private pictures. I will however save you a step in google-ing for you: Here.

We understand that there are some issues with the Generals World Forums right now. We are trying to sort these out. Please be patient. If you do get an error message, refreshing the page should solve it momentarily. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused, and we are trying to remedy the situation.

Been forever since we've had one of these. Oh well, better late than never:

• CNC Den has three new TS maps, all by KaneLivesInDeath.
• Blitkrieg II and The Finest Hour have merged. More details here.
• Westwood Online was briefly down, but the problem seems to have been fixed. See this topic for details.
• CNC Unleashed is looking for newsposters and content managers. Send them an e-mail at webmaster@unleashed.ws if you're interested.
• Red Aler: Regeneration has two new wallpapers up.
• Epic Generals,billed as 'war on a frightening new scale' with much larger armies, has been released.
• Vietnam Reborn has new renders up.
• Zero Hour for Mac has gone GOLD! More details from Aspire Media. You can pre-order here. The game is due February 21st, 2005. CNC RenEclips has a ton of new, completely free and usuable, models.

I updated the poll today. Yes, I know I was a couple days late, but due to the fact that there still are only 24 hours in a day, there's nothing I can do. On to the results!

Will Tiberian Twilight ever be made by EALA?
Yes	15
No	9
Let's hope not...	7
Total Votes: 31

Thanks to all 31 of your who voted!

I updated the poll today. I must say, I do think that RA3 will feature live action cutscenes, simply because EA knows the marketing power it holds with the name, and will use it, and its characters as much as they can. Anyway, the results from the last one were not surprising, and here they are:

Should RA3 have live action cut-scenes?
Yes	37
No	14
Total Votes: 51

Thanks to all 51 of you who voted!

Here's some of the recent community news:

• Matze has released version .34 of FinalBIG. You can download it from WagnerMa.de.
• CNC NZ has started a fan fiction section, and they've added their first story, "Doctor Minnerov" by BWare.
• CNC Series has a new article up, called "Don't Call it a Comeback." It's well written, and discusses the idea of attempting to play RA2 again.
• CNC DEN has a new map pack (available for Gen and ZH) called Close Quarters Map Pack. They also have a new "Superior Boss" mod,a new movie map, as well as a new poll, and a new edition of the DEN Gaming Network newsletter.

Deafwasp of CnC Source is reporting that he has received word from someone who wishes to remain unnamed that "EA is working on a huge patch for Zero Hour, which is based off of community feedback."

If true, this is good news for Zero Hour and the C&C community. Keep in mind however that this is in no way official, nor has it been confirmed by Electronic Arts.

• Blitzkrieg II has released several new screenshots. Click here to check them out!
  
• The Great Trench War has released some great new renders. Click here for more info!
  
• CNC Series is in need of staff. They need a news poster. If you are interested, then click here. This what they require:

  -Be a registered member of the site. -Be able to speak and write competently (emphasis on the latter). -Be able to spend 10-15 minutes every day browsing pertinant sites in the communtiy looking for the latest unsubstaniated rumours...I mean news. -Any other menial task that pops into my head (Alright, that's not really a requirement).

  
  
• Anthrax of CNC Source has released his remix of Demolition, from C&C Dawn. The mp3 is located here (7.3mb).
  
• IGN is confirming that a new C&C game is on the horizon. When visiting the University of Florida campus, EA let slip the current projects that they are working on:

  While providing an overview of their business and internship opportunities on Thursday, January 27, EA talked openly about the previously unconfirmed From Russia With Love, confirmed another James Bond game in development at EA's LA studio, an RPG sequel to Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, two new Sims 2 expansions, a new Command and Conquer RTS, and best yet, a non-sports game from football development studio, Tiburon.

  
  
  Well, thats all I have time for today. More updates soon if someone wants to do some :) (Hint hint)
  Last edited by Luckie on Thursday, February 3, 2005 at 9:35:45 AM.