C&C Community Roundup.

Banshee · Last edited by Banshee on Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:39 am; edited 1 time in total

Hello everyone. With all this Red Alert 3 hype, I almost forgot that there were other games and... community.

I've also been working hard on OS BIG Editor. The latest beta that you can get at the SVN includes some interesting features. You can now edit the files with Notepad or the default program set to the extension of the file. You can also view binary files as text and copy nodes inside the program (you cannot copy files to windows explorer using [control + c] yet). Now I'm properly coding the Real Time Edition, to be smarter than simply save the whole package once you edit a stupid detail, since the way it is currently implemented seriously lag the program.

And also, I'm gonna try to improve my english, starting on the next week, by returning to the english course (after almost 7 years (!!!)). This time I wanna get the Certificate in Advanced English (from Cambridge), to improve my curriculum and my english skills. I think that it will improve the quality of the news that I post at this site, since I still make a lot of sentence construction mistakes and usually misspell some words once in a while.

Anyway, let's get to the community news. Some are really old, but since I haven't covered much news in this month, I'll post anything that I find:

Kane Wrath's Community Summit:

-> Ghorkov, from Planet CnC wrote a big essay about his trip to EALA and what he has seen about Kane's Wrath, earlier in this month. I have to admit that a lot of what I've read on that brought me good memories and Red Alert 3 brought me hope to revive all that experience. It's a nice piece of text, specially for those who like a good adventure.

-> Zee Hypnotist, from CNCNZ.com, has posted another LiveWire with what he recorded during the community summit. It's not much different from our movies took at the C&C3's december 2006's summit, except that it is just one movie, properly organized and no secret content included. Check it out HERE.

Interviews and Roundtables:

-> Evo has interviewed Frank Klepacki on Evo-Gamer.com. Here's a snippet:

Quote:

Chris - Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 has just been announced and I have already seen numerous fans clamouring for you to do the soundtrack, can you comment on this?

Frank - The flood gates opened up on my fan mail right after that announcement.
Regarding RA3, I’ve heard about it just as you have, so I’ve not been contacted. Ultimately EA would have to ask Petroglyph to use me on it, and then it would be up to Petroglyph to allow it. If those things align, you better believe I would score that game, no question!

So, if Petroglyph release him of the cage, he would score a Hell March III. It would be ubersome!

-> CNCNZ's Round Table Discussion #5 was posted about a week ago. The topics ranged from Kane's Wrath to Tiberium and the announcement, which resulted on Red Alert 3. The roundtable included opinions from Sonic, Saracen, Zee Hypnotist | Lion, Fenring, Chickendippers, Chronojam, Hagren and myself. Check it out HERE.

Note: The questions arrived at my mail box before APOC announce Zone Runner (aka BlackHatAA, for the Medal of Honor community) as Tiberium Community Manager.

New Sites and Activity:

-> With the Red Alert 3 rumours and announced, Lion has ressurected RADEN, as he promised, since the day Mark Skaggs emailed the fans announcing Red Alert 3 back in the end of 2004. Now RADEN is being more visited than the uber CNCDEN.

-> The 'always polemic' BrianPrime has launched his own RA3 fan site: The Third Invasion. The site should cover all RA3 news and, as far as I know him, I wouldn't be surprised that, in the future, it becomes a great archive of beta material of the game.

-> Have you noticed that, in less than 2 days, the official Red Alert 3 forums got more posts than the official Tiberium forums got on more than a month? RA3 is pop! This is a fact.

Kane's Wrath and Tiberium Wars News:

-> About a week ago, APOC has posted some extensive information about the Scrin Ravager. It shows pictures, its role in the combat chain, upgrades, gameplay notes and even concept arts. It's a nice material.

-> APOC has interviewed Jim Vessela, who revealed some interesting details about how Kane's Wrath epic units plays. You can check it HERE and it takes about 20 minutes. For those who have any problem to understand the interview, check Hexetic's notes about it at PlanetCnC.

-> The Command & Conquer 3 League is almost over. There is only one match remaining: the final between MrYuri (or Dackel?) and ReLaTiViT that should be played soon. Too bad that the tournament site isn't updated anymore. Someone needs to poke APOC, I guess.

Modding and Tools:

-> jonwil is looking for help to decode the "flash" menu files used in C&C3. Since it is a proprietary format, EA can't release it to fans:

Quote:

I am looking for someone who can edit Flash files for some stuff related to the C&C3 UI I am working on. Basically it involves editing the main menu fla file (which I will provide) in Flash according to my specifications. Then I take the results and manually write code to spit out an APT UI file with the flash objects, script and so on that are present in the edited Flash file.

Red Alert 2 Mods:

-> While all of us have been discussing a proper YR 1.002 patch without reaching any conclusion, Omegabolt has done the action. He announced and released the Yuri's Revenge BoltPatch (9.5mb). Here's some of the features:

Quote:

- Incorporates UMP 1.002.
-Balances units.
- Improves visuals such as new voxels and SHPs.
- Improves performance.
- Improves AI.
- Improves some multiplayer maps, adding detail, fixing bugs and even adding tech buildings occasionally.
- Keeps single player support, and improves the Soviet single player mission 4 map.
- New IFV turrets and combos.
- etc

The list of changes is huge and you can read them all HERE.

-> Hogo has released the Beta Build 3 of Enemy Enhanced, a mod that improves the existing factions from RA2/YR and makes a killer AI. All that for a 51mb file.

-> C&C Shattering Skies is a new mod for RA2/YR that we are hosting, from GamingRoach, still under development that should make the game more realistic and modern warfare based on Ace Combat 4. He released some voxel renders made by the voxel editor, so far.

-> NightHawk is hiring beta testers for Third War, a modification that adds the Future Forces to fight against Yuri, Allies and Soviets.

Renegade/Stand Alone Games:

-> RA2: Apocalypse Rising blog received two updates in this month, covering Crazy Ivan, Tesla Reactors and much more.

-> Earlier in this month, Renardin posted a preview of CnC Reborn's infantry. Top notch stuff!

Generals Mods:

-> Contra's site was updated with a new unit, the USA C-130 "Hercules" Transport Plane.

-> Blitzkrieg II: The Finest Hour previews the V2, includes a movie with the unit in action.

Command & Conquer 3 Mods:

-> Middle East Crisis 2 was updated with some new concept arts, ingame shots and even a unit built in LEGO. And they are looking for voice actors.

-> CnC3 Pro v5 was released. It includes many bug fixes, ballance changes and other sort of improvements to make the game even more challenging and less based on spamming.

-> CnC Retarded 2.7 had been released. It makes the game more fun and... crazy, I guess.

-> CnC 2142 has hibernated, since they are unable to make some progress for a while. The full message is at CnC Guild.

And that's all, folks. I'll post more PPM related news later. Now I need to get back to this evil Real Time Edition feature from OS BIG Editor.