There's a new roundtable discusion between several well-known C&C community members, hosted by CNCNZ. What's so special about this roundtable discussion? Well, it includes me as one of the participants. It is a must-read, because it is not every day that I apologize about something.
Click here to round the CNCNZ Roundtable Discussion #3

Koen

The real-time strategy game SunAge has gone gold. It will be available starting November 30th in the UK, The Netherlands and a number of other European territories. People from Northern America can either get the download version of SunAge through Gamers Gate, or they can wait until early 2008 when it will show up in regular stores.
So what are you waiting for? Go check out the trailer and gameplay footage of SunAge! Alternatively, you can check out information about the in-game units here or about the resource system in a GameReplays article.



Koen

I've updated TibEd 2 for C&C3 with several bugfixes and all GDI and NOD units and buildings are now in. The ordinary download links still point to the Generals/Zero Hour version. If you're interested in beta-testing, download it from here and give feedback in this forum topic. No documentation is available yet, but using TibEd should be a lot friendlier than using the Mod SDK directly. However, there is no GUI yet as in previous TibEd versions. While I am building all the core support for C&C3 into TibEd, the friendly GUI will follow in a future version. I'm first ironing out all the problems for you all using this beta version ;)

Koen

Nuff said. I had the pleasure to attend the prerelease party of SunAge in The Netherlands two weeks ago. After having played the game, I can tell you that it is great! My takehome message to other RTS developers: it's not the graphics, it is the gameplay! The graphics in SunAge are 2D and very crisp, but the real strong point has to be the gameplay. On a map you will find four different resource types: blue, yellow, green and red. To build aircraft, you are going to need yellow resources, but for the nukes, you need red. So, which resource are you going after? How are you going to harass your opponent? Are you going after the base resource (blue), or are you going to prevent him from building more airplanes?
It is hard to capture the game in a few lines of text... so that's why you should have a look at the SunAge prerelease party video! The colors are slightly off compared to the real world, because video cameras tend to capture too much blue, but it has game footage inside. And keep watching until the end for a good laugh!
SunAge will be released on November 2nd in North America and Canada. In Europe, it will be released on November 9th. So everyone, this is the RTS you should pick up for easy-to-learn but very deep RTS gameplay!

Click here to go to the SunAge website with more footage of the game!

Koen
PS: TibEd 2 for C&C3 is still being worked on, but right now a rather annoying bug is being tracked down. Need to squash the big ones first before improving it further ;)

Next week I will be visiting the prerelease party of SunAge. While the game is slated for a release on November 2nd (or November 9th, depending on your location on the globe), I will get a chance to play it together with the lead designer at this prerelease event (at least, that's what they've told me)! So, be sure to check here on TibEd.net on Saturday October 6th for exclusive details on this, by the looks of it, great 2D real-time strategy game!

Koen

I've updated TibEd 2 for C&C3 to work against the C&C3 Mod SDK v2. The ordinary download links still point to the Generals/Zero Hour version. If you're interested in beta-testing, download it from here and give feedback in this forum topic. No documentation is available yet, but using TibEd should be a lot friendlier than using the Mod SDK directly (though it is not as friendly (yet?) as previous TibEd versions).

Koen

Interested in testing the latest version of TibEd? Then download the current testing version from this thread on the TibEd support forums. It contains the first version supporting C&C3. Please try it and provide feedback on what needs to be improved!

Koen

You can now download the Windows version of the original Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn from the EA website for free. The game will only be available for download during September, so if you do not have it, download it now!
The completely rewritten C&C: Tiberian dawn editor in TibEd 1.64 was made without knowing this free download was coming, but it is a great coincidence! So start modifiying the original C&C to your liking now with TibEd 1.64!

Koen

New releases of both TibEd 1 and TibEd 2 are now available. In TibEd 1.64, the C&C: Tiberian Dawn editor has been completely rewritten, a bug related to The First Decade has been fixed and there have been several usability improvements. In TibEd 2, the new project form has been redesigned and several critical bugs have been fixed. Continue reading below for more information on these new releases, or click here to go to the downloads page.

What's new in TibEd 1.64

• Complete rewrite of the C&C: Tiberian Dawn editor: new units and buildings, warheads and extra settings. Also, German and French language versions of the game are now supported
• The First Decade editions of C&C: Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert 1 can be launched from TibEd without receiving an "Insert original disc" error.
• Significant speedup in cameo loading for C&C: Tiberian Dawn.
• Sorting of unit/infantry/building lists is now saved across TibEd sessions.
• You can now press Enter in the editor list at TibEd startup to select an editor, instead of having to use the mouse.
• Improved Vista compatibility

What's new in TibEd 2 beta 4b

• Redesigned new project form on startup
• Keys can now be deleted (right-click on the key name)
• BUGFIX: No longer crashes when editing a value twice in a row
• BUGFIX: Adding strings in Generals/Zero Hour now sets the name of the string correctly
• Upgraded internal components to newer versions

Click here to download TibEd 1.64
Click here to download TibEd 2 beta 4b

Koen

An upcoming Real-Time Strategy game you may not have heard about yet, SunAge, has launched a new website. You should check out this game - it will feature 2.5D graphics, which remind me of the great looks of Red Alert 2. The game is scheduled for release within the next two months.

Koen

On the right hand side of the screen, next to the news, you will see a new sidebar. This sidebar lists the most important games that are supported by the current versions of TibEd 1 and 2. This should make it more obvious to newcomers that TibEd 1 supports different games than TibEd 2. The images are the courtesy of Cody-7.

Koen

The first episode of Command & Conquer Television, Battlecast Primetime, contained the announcement of an expansion for Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath. It is scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2008.

Koen

A teaser has just been released on the official C&C3 website: next week we will see the debut of C&C television called "C&C HD". Spoken out in words, that sounds like Command & Conquer Hi Definition. Due to the large "Battlecast Primetime" I am thinking we will see a summary of one or more great C&C3 matches every episode - with commentary. I would not be surprised if we will see interviews with key people from EALA as well. I'm thinking all the video equipment bought for the C&C3 in-game cutscenes had to be put to good use, so community manager Apoc confiscated it for our viewing pleasure.

In news related to TibEd, a beta version of TibEd 1 can be found in this thread on the CNCNZ forums. A stable release is planned soon, but time is in short supply so I cannot give an ETA yet. It contains major improvements to the editor for C&C'95: Tiberian Dawn and several fixes for the games included in The First Decade pack.

And remember, you can still send in your maps to the Open Map Competition for C&C3 for another two weeks!

Koen

Several updates from across the C&C community:

• After the release of patch 1.05 for C&C3, the C&C3 No Logo Mod still works fine. If you use the in-game updater, the mod will remain active. If you use the downloadable version of the 1.05 update, you should reinstall the mod (but no updates the mod itself are needed to support the new version of the game).
• 
  The Open Map Competition 4 has started. It is a community contest with many prizes. The contest is exclusively for C&C3 maps. Only maps for C&C3 without symmetry are accepted - there are plenty of symmetrical maps available in the game already. The competition deadline is August 20th, 2007. For the duration of this contest, we will have a special OMC button here on TibEd.net.
• Greg, from the C&C3 development team has posted an update on things we can still expect (news reached me through CNCNZ). It contains a reference to the Mod SDK for C&C3 (required for anyone who wants to make non-trivial mods for C&C3): "I can't give you a specific date for the release, though I can say it's far along in development and is in the process of being tested and documented."

I am still processing the update by Greg. Not sure how I feel about it: it is good to get an update... but on the other hand the vagueness of the timeline worries me. My personal timeline says that if the Mod SDK is not there during my holiday in the first week of July, then the next opportunity for me to work on anything related to C&C3 is October... but by then Universe at War will be upon us...

Koen

Do you like waiting 10 seconds for the EA logo movie to play when C&C3 starts?
If not, then you should definitely check out the C&C3 No Logo Mod!

Initially I made it for personal use, but I am sure other people will like it, so I packaged it up in a nice, tidy installer. It will check if your game is at the right version (1.1 or higher is required) and install and activate the mod. It comes with an uninstaller as well.

Koen

I have updated the TibEd 1 series. The user interface received minor tweaks for Windows Vista. Also, a bug has been fixed where the General section of RA2: Yuri's Revenge could not be opened using the manual editor. Because Windows Vista will not let unprivileged programs (such as TibEd) write in the game folder, it places copies of the files in the user account. The game should pick up these changes, for the current user account only. Please let me know if you experience problems with TibEd 1.63 under Windows Vista.
TibEd 1 can be used to edit C&C: Tiberian Dawn, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 1 and Red Alert 2. And of course, this new version still supports the new The First Decade compilation released last year.

Click here to go to the downloads page

Koen

Well, the following quote is good news.

EA Predator on the official C&C3 forums:
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.

This is very interesting. Although I would like to point out that (just to point out that I am not sneaky enough to bring a recorder in my pocket):

• We were in a press room with about 15 people, it was very crowded. It is my take that if you talk to me in a press room, it is safe to assume I might write something down, no? I have not signed a NDA or anything...
• I only recorded the three lines on the (possible) expansion pack, where Amer didn't actually confirm anything. He was just looking very happy while we talked about it. I took a picture of his happy face :) The recording was done using a digital camera which I was holding my hands (and waving around). I really wanted to make a video out of my interview like all the other fansites did, but I was too stressed out to hold it still and point it at Amer. And I forgot to turn it on when Amer started talking to me. Oops. You can see the footing if you want, but it is mostly the wall next to Amer instead of Amer himself, and only the last few sentences on a possible expansion pack (I am asking the questions, and he is evading them).
• I really must take a stance about hearing the fragments "if and when", "struggling with the build tool" and "it is a matter of resources" within a few sentences. I asked for an elaboration on the "if" word because I wanted to be certain about the shocking news I'd just gotten. I leave open the option that maybe Amer was not yet briefed on the latest about the Mod SDK because he was travelling for promotion events...

I think I have written enough about C&C3 modding the past few weeks. Now the right course of action is to wait for the release of C&C3, play it, get our hands on the now-committed-to Mod SDK some time after the release of the game. And then we mod...

Koen

This weekend I visited the German launch event of C&C3. I have shocking information on mod support in C&C3 and a picture of Amer Ajami's face while we talk about a 'possible' expansion pack. Suffice to say, this article is a must-read! It is titled Mod 'support' in C&C3: Don't shoot the messenger.

Note that this article can be seen as a follow-up to my comparison of C&C3 mod support and Supreme Commander from last week, only this time I have substantial new information!

Koen

Well, I just got surprised by an e-mail by Electronic Arts from The Netherlands that I have won two tickets to the C&C3 Launch Event in Germany. I submitted TibEd.net last-minute to this fansite contest. And I won :)
Hopefully I will get a chance to talk to some people and bring mod support to their attention. It is the first time I am attending such an event, so I do not know what to expect. Just need to practice C&C3 some more, because I have seen multiplayer games on the schedule. I think we will get to play the final version of the game, because it has gone gold.

Koen

In this news post I will give a brief overview of the state of mod support of the upcoming C&C3 and the 1-month old Supreme Commander.

C&C3 Mod Support

Before the first C&C3 community summit back in December, news on mod support on C&C3 was still scarce. Life was good. We only heard a faint quote that the game was switching to XML files instead of the (ancient) INI files: finally! Then, in the C&C3 demo, we have observed that there are still several INI files left... and we are cannot find where the unit settings are. Actually, we do know they are probably in some manifest file, but it is some weird file format. It will take weeks to decipher it all. The alternative is waiting for a Mod SDK to be released by EA. The Generals Mod SDK was released just 3 years after the initial game release. The First Decade edition of Generals still has broken mod support 13 months after release. So if I read that EALA is moving towards a system of patching where C&C3 would receive LOTS of SMALL patches, fairly frequently... then I have to take that with a grain of salt.

Unfortunately, we have another great quote to make things worse:

Steppo wrote:
I had also asked them about the ability to mod Command & Conquer 3. I myself had been hoping for something a little more user-friendly than the traditional BIG replacement that we've been tormented with for several years on end, preferably something more like an in-game browser or mod-switch utility. Alas, there is no such plan for that in the future.

So, here we have a definitive answer on one of the top requests from the mod community: please give the users of a mod an easy way to select between different installed mods! But no, we have to cobble up our own tools which are not compatible with other tools and which break when a new game version is released...

Supreme Commander

I really only need one quote by Chris Taylor to sum it all up:

Q. On a scale of 1 to 10 how flexible is Supreme Commander going to be for modding? A 1 being able to change basic things like unit stats such as cost and health, and with a 10 being able to easily convert the entire game into something else.
CT - I would really hope that we are in the high end of that scale, at least an 8 but hopefully a 9. We know there is something we overlooked that was hardcoded in the game, but that doesn't mean we can't release an update to correct that. SupCom was not only architected to support modding, but we build something we call the mod manager right into it... and though there will be wrinkles to iron out, we are very excited about this approach.

There even is a special Mod Developer Support Forum. I have received more support from them in one week than I got from Westwood/EA in the past 7 years. Wow!

Closing remarks

If I were to rank C&C3 mod support right now, it would score 0 on the 1 to 10 scale. We cannot even change unit stats such as cost and health in the demo. I urge EA to reconsider their position on mod support. If they are not willing to put resources into support for mods, then I do not see why I should spend weeks on reverse-engingeering stupid file formats. I know others in the modding community will continue their work, but I will not if it has to be like this.

Use this link if you want to share your thoughts with me

Koen

I have been playing the C&C3 demo, and I am quite excited about how the Tiberium saga will continue. Unfortunately, we will have to wait another 3 weeks before we can find out... I will post my verdict on it as soon as I get my hands on it :)

Koen

A week ago the strategy game Maelstrom was released. Unfortunately, that game really disappointed me. Yesterday we saw the release of Supreme Commander. I've been playing the demo of that game a bit. I am really fond of how the game plays: there is a very steep learning curve and I know I haven't even seen half of what the game offers.
Somewhere in March, it will be time for C&C 3: Tiberium Wars. It will be interesting to see if this game can meet the expectations that have been growing for the past months.
I do know one thing however: I have absolutely no idea if I have time to create an editor. I will not commit to anything (unless I am bribed by, say, a visit to a certain community summit). I guess everyone is allowed to have their own unrealistic dreams...

Koen

Feeds for your newsfeed reader have been added to TibEd.net. You can now stay up to date with the latest news through RSS and Atom feeds.

Koen

I have been working hard on my MSc thesis during the past months. Starting March 1st, I intend to start working on my PhD. I will not have a lot of time to work on TibEd after that. Creating an editor for C&C3: Tiberium Wars is not in my current plans.
Perhaps I could be bribed with an invite to the C&C community summit. Given my lack of connections within EA and missing PR team, I wouldn't know how to get invited though.

Want to share your thoughts with me after reading this post? Use this forum topic!

Koen

Valid XHTML and CSS. TibEd.Net design created by Van de Sande Productions. The site and it's contents are © 1999-2023 Van de Sande Productions, except for the files (and other contents) that are © of the respective owners. TibEd.net is not affiliated with or endorsed by Westwood Studios, Inc or EA Games, Inc. Any trademarks used on this site are hereby acknowledged. Should there be any problems with the site, please contact the webmaster.