C&C Labs News

While I’m delighted that people are having a blast with the single player campaign and skirmish modes of the game, I’m disappointed that we’ve had some teething problems with the online multiplayer. Most of our customers are able to play on-line, but I know that a number of you are having trouble - and I owe you an apology. Some of you can’t connect to C&C Online and others are having issues once on-line. This is unacceptable, especially for a product that we designed for competitive multiplayer game play. I am sorry that you are encountering problems and I want you to know that the development team is working very hard to understand the issues, fix the bugs that affect the largest numbers of people, and roll out patches as quickly as possible.

We have issued one patch already and we have two more in the works. I believe we have a bead on the issues that affect the most people and I expect that we will solve these problems in a matter of days.

Just to be clear: Not everyone is having problems playing on-line… the majority of people are able to get online, play games, and a have a great time. For those that are having problems, please bear with us. We will fix these issues and make C&C the great online multiplayer game it was designed to be – and we ask for your patience as we work through the issues.

-Fixed an error that caused the list of available matches in the Custom Match Lobby to constantly refresh to the top of the list.

-Improved the patching process to ensure all players are prompted to receive the latest version of the game when attempting to play online or using the 'check for updates' feature in the C&C3 Control Center utility.

The man himself	Power cord madness. Yes, it got worse.

• Xiphod's Writeup (Planet Age of Empires)
• Chronojam's "Into the Beast" Writeup Parts I-III (A Path Beyond)
• Pyros' Impressions (resident Canadian)
• Puzzabug's Revenge - video complete with some sweet flowers and a description of how he trounced me in the first 1v1 round (C&C Files)
• Steppo's Writeup (PlanetCNC)
• Popcorn2008's Summit Photos (EmpireAtWar.Net)
• Nateobomb's Summit Photos (EALink Pre-order Contest Winner)

Well, what can we say, TODAY IS THE DAY!!! Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars is finally here! After 7 years of waiting and ridiculous amounts of speculation, sweating, nerve-wrecking Kane defying OMFG its finally here, yea yea yea, alright, look, just make sure you pinch yourself again because it really is true, Command & Conquer is BACK!

As you may have expected from the teaser on our website we are indeed publishing a day 1 patch TODAY which will address some very important fixes and exploits. I also want to note that we are already working on patch 1.02 which will technically be our first major patch with balance changes, more bug fixes, added maps, etc, and more than like, alternate mouse setup. That is slated for late April. But today...you get to download patch 1.01 :o)

IMPORTANT NOTE: We have made an option in patch 1.01 that will allow you to turn off the Kane Edition skins if you'd like. This is purely a matter of preference, so if you want the normal skins, download the patch and have at it!

Go here to see the change-list: http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?messageID=1980832&#1980832

Here are a couple reviews that I've noticed around the net:

Gamespot gives C&C 3 a 9.0:

Regardless of your history with Kane and his cohorts, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is one of the finest real-time strategy games in years. It's also a triumphant return to form for the series, because it's more than just a graphical update--it's an exciting, well-tuned experience with enough that's old and enough that's new to thrill old-timers and newcomers alike. Suffice it to say, you should play this game, and expect to be playing it for a long time to come.

IGN gives C&C 3 an 8.5:

Add models that are clean and crisp, even at an infantry level (not something they got right in 2003's Generals), and you've got a beautiful game. When two large armies come crashing together in the middle of a battlefield, it's pretty hard not to be transfixed by the incredible fireworks display. These visuals many not make a difference to the hardcore that only care about unit stat differentials and build times, but the general public will find that this is one of those titles that becomes more fun because of the quality of the visuals working together perfectly.

-- Anyone who has the full retail game installed will be upgraded to Participant level when you register the game. This will allow you to participate in BattleCasts (playing and commentating), as well as plan future matches through the online scheduling system, and participate in clan life.
-- If you have the game installed you will also be able to spectate live matches as well as watch archived BattleCast matches.
-- We will be making a free, downloadable BattleCast Viewer available, which will allow you to spectate live matches and watch archived replays. We haven't made any announcements about when the Viewer will be ready. It's not exactly imminent but I don't expect it to be too far out either. Is that vague enough for you?
-- The game has already shipped out to a few retail stores in Europe. The game ships out today to stores nationwide and will be available for purchase everywhere on Wednesday.

Command & Conquer
- GDI: watch | download
- Nod: watch | download

Red Alert
- Allied: watch | download
- Soviet: watch | download

Tiberian Sun
- GDI: watch | download
- Nod: watch | download

Tiberian Sun - Firestorm
- GDI: watch | download
- Nod: watch | download

Renegade
- Cinematics: watch | download
- Havoc Takes on Westwood: watch

Find out what components you need to play Command & Conquer 3 at its very best.

Game Settings
You don’t need much of a computer to run Command & Conquer 3 well, but you’re still going to have dial down a few settings if your computer isn’t on the bleeding edge.

Graphics
Command & Conquer 3 looks great and doesn’t require the latest and greatest in terms of GPU power. We tested out 16 cards to help you narrow down your search.

CPU
Command & Conquer 3 doesn't ask for much in terms of processing power if you've got an Intel Core 2. But if you're putting along on a low clock speed Athlon 64 or Pentium 4 you might want to move up to something a little quicker.

Memory
The game requires 512MB of RAM, but we recommend you get a bit more. To find the sweet spot, we tested the game out with 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, and even 4GB of system memory.

As the article continues, it explains the best setting for screen resolution and detail and then displays the difference between each setting. This comprehensive article explains every aspect of computers so that you are able to play Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and the quality best suited for your computer.

The first thing that hits you in the face when you start the game for the first time is the amazing presentation that has gone into its menu system and FMV's. Yes, we have returned to the glory days of Full Motion Video with real life actors for this game bringing back a certain nostalgia and love for the older titles in the franchise. In the cast list we have the likes of Josh Holloway (Lost), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), Michael Ironside (Starship Troopers) and of course Joseph D. Kucan, face of the enigmatic Kane (yes, somehow he is still alive!). Production value has quite obviously been high on the agenda, but does it work? Gladly the answer is yes. Personally I found the briefings in Generals to be very dull, the addition of the FMV sequences really spices-up matters and draws you into the story. After playing the demo through to completion I felt the need for more, so in that respect the snippet of gameplay offered really did its job well.

Just want to let everyone know that C&C 3 is now available online.

Happy Gaming!

Worldbuilder for Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars will be available here for direct download in early April after the game is launched.

Worldbuilder for Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars is the toolset that the game's designers used to create all of the single-player missions and multiplayer maps, and we're making it available to our player community. Worldbuilder will be available right here for direct download in early April after the game is launched.

Question: Why is Worldbuilder not included with the shipped version of Command & Conquer 3?

Answer: We made various changes to previous versions of Worldbuilder during development of Command & Conquer 3, which needed to be documented. Furthermore, references to previous projects and old functionality needed to be removed both from the software and the documentation. As a result, we wished to take extra time to best prepare Worldbuilder for its intended audience. Worldbuilder is a fairly small program that references all the artwork and other assets already built into Command & Conquer 3, so we believed that providing the toolset on a download-only basis would not overly inconvenience those looking forward to it.

We are absolutely committed to releasing the latest version of Worldbuilder for Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars in early April, and you will be able to download it right here directly from our site. The Worldbuilder download will include a detailed instruction manual (100-plus pages) that is intended both for beginning map designers as well as advanced and returning Worldbuilder users.

We all know about the traditional observer mode. Eight players start a game, and one lowly shmuck gets to watch it from afar, without any real interaction. EA's taken care of that now with the new Commentary Mode. With this, they're trying to usher in the new "RTS as a Sport" era, making RTS games more apt for "mainstream" tournaments such as CPL and CGL, where games like CounterStrike and Unreal Tournament once reigned supreme.

Here's how it works. The Commentator starts up a game, with all settings aplomb. The participants in the match then join that game, and then the observers afterwards. The observers have the option of viewing the game from multiple perspectives. They can view the game as if they were any of the eight commanders, watching building placement, camera location and rotation, etc. They can view the game in "traditional" style, viewing whatever, whenever.

-OR-

They can view the Commentary. This streams audio to your PC from the Commentator's microphone via VOIP, and the commentator can actually draw on the screen like some haphazard telestrator from a broadcast of Monday Night Football with John "Grab the hamburger" Madden. You can draw in upwards of six colors, and erase at will.

The matches can be observed by hundreds, if not thousands of gamers, and the bandwidth is supplied by GameSpy directly. Thusly, you don't need to get an "HLTV" server set aside for each game.

Then, I brought up the subject of the new XML files in C&C3. These XML files are the replacement of the INI files in Generals. However, they are compiled using a build tool into the data files that ship with the game. These compiled files, from the analysis of C&C3 by the modding community, no longer look like easy-to-edit XML files anymore. Amer mentioned that Apoc has been bugging them every day about the mod SDK. This mod SDK has to include the original XML files that are used to build the game and the build tool itself. I do not know if the original 3D models are also needed, because the modding community really does not know yet what exactly is in the compiled files.

And then, I was startled by what Amer said 'it really is a matter of if and when the mod SDK is released'. Apparently, they are really struggling with the build tool. I asked for a clarification on the if, because it came as such a shock to me. It really depends on the resources whether they are able to release it. Personally I understand that the team has limited resources, I myself have limited time as well, but reading about the BattleCast gimmick upon my return home, I have to wonder. I guess mod support will not attract the same amount of positive press. So justifying resource allocation to that is a lot harder...

On the subject of an in-game mod manager, Amer could be clear that this is not going to happen for C&C3 ('use the command-line'). Maybe for a future game, but there are so many things they still want to do. Again, it comes down to resources. I guess that is why the command-line parameter for using mods in The First Decade edition of Generals is still broken after 13 months: resources.

We are absolutely committed to creating a new MOD SDK for Command & Conquer 3 and getting that in your hands in as efficient timeline as possible with our resources. Our development team is currently rotating on vacations now that the game is gold, we need some breathing room and a break after a long-hard project! But, work has already started on the SDK, and that simply means starting to analyze how we can open up the new build pipeline to you guys with something accessible and easy to understand.

I am working closely with some of the top modders in the community to ensure we're including the best tools and assets, so you needn't worry that we're only doing this internally. We realize a lot of great community mod tools are out there and we want to embrace that knowledge and work together.

IGN has recently released an article of the single-player campaign they got a chance to play. Here is a snippet:

GDI and Nod duke it out in the first four acts almost exclusively until the Scrin show up and start slaughtering the human population in order to set up shop and rape the planet for tiberium. Once both GDI and Nod campaigns have been completed (either can be played first and almost work better swapping back and forth between missions), players will have the chance to play the bonus Scrin campaign that lasts four missions and is significantly shorter than the other two campaigns.

You can read the full article Here.

Play.tm: C&C introduced us to the tactic of building super-massive bases and stockpiling tanks for about two hours, then steamrolling across maps in about 45 seconds. This tended to be more like armed capitalism than an RTS. What gameplay tweaks have you introduced to encourage more fluid play?

Jason: We really focused on getting the player into combat, and out of the base. The average battle lasts closer to 20 minutes now. When the match starts you have to aggressively expand to nearby resources. There simply aren't enough resources in your starting base to win by turtling up. If you sit back and milk your starting resources you'll quickly find the opponent expanding across the map. This will only end in a large force coming to overwhelm you. This means that lots of small encounters will happen all over the map as players fight over precious resources between their bases. Typically we've seen first encounters begin around the 3 minute mark, with constant conflict after that point. Units build very quickly and get to the battle fast. It is always very dynamic.

Besides the control scheme, the 360 game will feature exclusive multiplayer modes, as well as support for the Xbox Live Vision camera. We had the chance to check out the modes and the camera functionality and were impressed by how they're coming together. The game features four multiplayer modes: siege, capture the flag, capture and hold, and king of the hill. Siege seems like it's going to be a recipe for the fun kind of multiplayer disaster. A five-minute energy wall will be erected between you and your enemies, preventing anyone from attacking. In that time you'll have to build like the wind in order to prepare for the inevitable onslaught from your foes. Capture the flag is pretty straightforward and challenges you to find a hidden flag on the map and get it back to your base. Once collected and dropped off, the flag respawns and the process repeats until you meet a set amount of points. King of the hill requires players to hold one point in the middle of the map for the longest time. Capture and hold is a team-based variation on that theme and requires a team to hold five points on a map for the longest period of time. The games will play out on one of 20 included multiplayer maps, with more likely to come via downloadable content on Xbox Live Marketplace.

According to a tester assigned to the Command and Conquer 3 test team, Command and Conquer 3 went gold late last week and is on schedule to ship on March 26th, 2007. This is great news that I’m sure all CNC3 fans will appreciate. The official announcement from EA will be up shortly. The tester did have to say however that there will be a patch on launch day to address multiplayer stability (sync errors), Scrin balance (they are currently overpowered) and to combat piracy by short fusing the first crack.

• Some have been having trouble with the video/audio synchronization in C&C 3. Community Manager Predator has posted a temporary fix on the C&C 3 Official Forums.
• Also on the official C&C 3 site is an article spotlighting the making of the Scrin's Annilihator Tripod in C&C 3 from an art perspective. It discusses everything from concept art, to modeling and texturing, to animation. It's definitely a nice piece for those of you looking for a behind the scenes look at the art of the game.
• dAt Project Perfect Mod, Banshee has released a version of his Open Source BIG editor that lets you look through the C&C 3 files from the demo. A future version will let you add and edit them, but the current version is good for modders just trying to get a feel for things under the C&C 3 hood.
• Our affiliate GameReplays has created a new replays' section for C&C 3. It also explains how to get the replays working for the demo, for those of you interested in getting better immediately.
  
• Legion Hardware has an article examining hardware performance for the C&C 3 demo. They intend on updating it once the full game ships.
• Expect a further report from our webmaster Mike today or tomorrow about the C&C 3 community summit, which he attended.

Hey everyone,

Well, its been a hectic weekend getting ready for our second Community Summit which I am currently hosting here at the studio. I've been swamped in running this event which is going fantastic, that is the primary reason I have not been online at all through the weekend or yesterday. I'll be back as usual on Wednesday to get to everyones concerns and questions, but some important things while I have a moment to spare:

-the demo bug regarding the unit spamming, this is a bug wich is FIXED in the retail version of the game. Its actually quite funny what you guy have been able to amass, we get a kick out of the YouTube videos, I mean who doesn't like seeing 50 carry- alls on the screen! But I did want to clarify, this bug is fixed...as are many others which you have been reporting. Specific AI bugs associated with beating the Brutal AI quickly, if not completely fixed for the retail client, it will be in our first patch which will be out VERY soon after the game release, more on that when we get closer.

-the demo bug threads with crashes reported and other specifics, this is great data, please remember to post your system specs if you get a crash. A lot of you may not be meeting the minimum requirements with your graphic card or memory, so before we determine if its a new bug, post your specs so we can rule out your computer if neccessary! Other than that, please keep the threads going, we're listening and i'll be pro-actively taking the top issues later this week once everything settles down.

-the website will be getting some fresh content before the end of the week, just a general statement :o)

-there is a newsletter and podcast coming within the next two weeks

And lastly, I do want to say that a lot of your critiques about the demo are things we are seriously listening to, and while its still extremely early, we fully respect some of the more popular concerns. Moving the radar back to the command post however is not something we would likely do. Thats a massive game change and we wouldn't make such a change right now only from the demo. With regards to alternate mouse setup, yes for the millionth time we're stronglu considering it for the first patch, i'll keep you posted. Walls...walls are not 100% lost in C&C 3 but we've explained and will explain further in the next podcast why they are not there. That said, its not something we couldn't add back in through a patch, but we need to see lots of gameplay first before enacting such a move. So, just lettig you know, its not technically impossible, but for right now, it would not be wise until there was TONS and TONS of more gameplay.

Alright, we're putting the final last touch on the game, so its been quite crazy, bear with us

Many thanks,
Predator

The AI accommodates different play styles through customization. Simply select an AI personality that matches your style of play and you're good to go. Or, have the AI randomly select a style of play and see what strategies get served up. Customizable AI solves the age-old dilemma of past RTS games, where people with different styles of play got frustrated by the uniform tactics of the AI. A player who likes to turtle will be constantly frustrated by a fast AI rush--and vice versa. In Command & Conquer 3, you can let the computer go with what it thinks is the very best strategy, or you can give it a predisposition to use certain tactics and strategies.

In a recent internal meeting at EALA on February 23rd, 2007, it was announced to the project team leaders of all EALA projects that the Crysis engine would be moving in-house in the very near future. Speculation began to arise internally about a Command and Conquer Renegade sequel seeing that the EALA studio is primarily known for RTS titles and Crysis is a next generation FPS engine. After discussing this with an EALA employee who wishes to not be named, it was stated that there is an extremely high chance that Electronic Arts’ LA studio will be developing a new FPS Command and Conquer title for the PC. It is not known if the title will be a true sequel to Renegade or a new stand alone IP however EA is very serious about exploring the options of the Crysis engine with current IPs.