I realize someone else posted my e-mail to the Community Leaders, but its the same message I intended to post on here. And of course, I wanted to have my own official thread about it. At this time, I'll leave everything with what I said below, Per "Goodman" Bonomi will be on here soon, he is a "Goodman" indeed, please treat him well =)
I realize I was never perfect, but I always did everything with the best intent and with my best efforts under any circumstance...
I’ll never forget my first act of duty as the C&C Community Manager, I got Zero Hour patched! The community reaction was like peace had been restored to the world! It was from that point on that I felt like my journey as your Community Manager truly began…I wish I could end this journey with patching Zero Hour again and Kanes Wrath, but alas, here we go...
My friends, my community, my 2nd family
You can read the rest of his final speech here on the official forums, and don't forget to bid him farewell; he has been a great leader of the C&C community!
CNCNZ.com has posted their latest roundtable discussion, and I would like to thank Sonic for inviting me into my third roundtable discussion. The 28th roundtable returns to pass final judgement on Command & Conquer 4
After years of dedication to the C&C Community, Lion, the webmaster of CNCDEN and RADEN has announced that he will be retiring today. It is unsure whether someone will be taking over his sites or not, but I am mirroring their current state just in case. I will miss the daily visits to his websites, Farewell Lion!
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After more than a decade of being a part of the Command & Conquer community and webmastering the DEN websites, I have decided to hang up my webmaster title. I don't have a big speech planned, other than to say I've had a super great time over the years. There have been some ups and downs in the C&C community, but for the most part, all has been good.
I want to say thank you to all who have visited and supported the DEN websites. I've had much help from C&C fans over the years. Thanks to Westwood Studios and now Electronic Arts for the C&C games. I've enjoyed playing them. Goodbye and best wishes to all.
Upgrade to Patch 1.02 for Command & Conquer 4 right now. This patch addresses various network/disconnect issues, adds auto-save to Campaign/Skirmish if a network disconnect occurs, support for Worldbuilder, and most importantly, skirmish/custom match tunable options such as lethality, time, victory points, and more. A wealth of gameplay tuning fixes have also been addressed. To patch, simply launch Command & Conquer 4, and the update should take place automatically over a short time in your launcher window. The full change-list is posted down below.
Patch 1.02 Change-List
Campaign/Skirmish progress is automatically saved if a network disconnect occurs
Various bug fixes in relation to crash/disconnect issues
Skirmish / Custom Match Tunable Options:
Lethality
Time
Victory Points
Goal Point Multiplier
Unit Kill Multiplier
On/Off Map Reveal
On/Off Random Crates
Worldbuilder framework added to game (Map Transfer, in-game support, etc.)
Numerous gameplay fixes related to shell UI and in-game
The worldbuilder as mentioned above is also availble.
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Command & Conquer Headquarters is also proud to release the official Worldbuilder map-making tool for C&C 4. You can now create as many 5v5 multiplayer or custom maps to your hearts content and share them with the Command & Conquer community via our message boards and our wide array of fan-sites. This Worldbuilder tool released is the same exact in-house tool our developers use to create single-player and multiplayer maps. It can be used for basic map-making, and the most advanced extraordinary designs. If this is your first time using Worldbuilder for any of our games, please be sure to read some of the introductory documentation included with the download. You'll need it, Commander! Get mappin!
EA's freeware release was a pain to install. It was comprised of a Tiberian Sun folder directly copied from The First Decade. It also had a bunch of batch files and registry files people had to install. This caused a lot of confusion, that left many people with nothing but a broken game. Thanks to The Command & Conquer Communications Center and CnCWorld.org for creating and hosting the video files!
In North America Tiberian Twilight has hit the shelves, and is shipping to those who have ordered it. Other countries such as Europe, New Zeland, and Austriala have to wait until the 19th. Below is the launch trailer, and APOC has posted a small release update on the official forums. Lets get gaming commander!
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Hey everyone,
Today is essentially our soft launch day as the game starts to roll out world-wide this week. We are keeping a close eye on the forums here for major issues. Please note, this being Day 1, we will do our best to attend to all critical issues.
Have noticed some launcher complaints, am looking in to this.
Also, if anyone is wondering about stats/leaderboards on our website, we will be putting those live on our site by next week. All of your stats are being stored, so no worries, just wanted to update on the website side of things so you know we have ladders, etc incoming soon.
And finally, we are working on releasing Worldbuilder.
After a long stretch of no unit profiles, a new one has surfaced; the Nod Avatar. After a community requested redesign, the Avatar is back with its anti tank firing arms. Ususally equipped with two, it can be upgraded to four arms to deal twice the damage to enemy vehicles. The full profile can be found Here
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Legendary Nod figure Brother Marcion designed the original Purifier Warmech as a manifestation of his own combat achievements during TW-II, designed as much to strike fear in the hearts of his enemies as to dominate the battlefield. In preparation for TW-III, Nod engineers took Marcion's original concept to a new level, creating a much more adaptable and versatile monstrosity; a veritable manifestation of Nod's forces on the battlefield.
A mod is already in the works for Renegade X! This mod addes all three aircraft from Renegade (Orca, Apache, Chinook) into Renegade X with updated graphics. The renders look awesome, check out an ingame video below. This mod will include aircraft enabled maps that will be seperate from the maps included in Renegade X.
The latest developer ansewers are here, these ones deal with player handicaps, the counter system, and how to quicky go from one game to another.
Will C&C4 have any handicap settings such as those seen in C&C3?
Currently, there are no handicap settings. Given that the design of CNC4 is more flexible than in previous titles, allowing less experienced Players to get involved in the multiplayer experience without going head to head with top tier micro masters, so we felt that handicap was less necessary for CNC4 and instead dedicated our time to getting the overall game balance as tight as we could.
How will lower level players compete with players that have all units unlocked?
CNC4 balance uses a different model to our previous games – here, the higher tier units, structures and powers are designed to provide a greater variety of tactical options to the Player, rather than functioning as game enders. As such, a full CP cap of Tier 1 units is more than capable of holding their own against a full CP cap of Tier 3 units, but the higher level Player will have more choices in terms of how they choose to execute their plans.
Will friends be able to jump from game to game with each other?
Yes. CNC4 has a party system, allowing groups of Players to hook up and move from match to match (be it PVE, PVP or Campaign Co-Op) together.
How easy is it to identify what units to make to counter the enemy?
We’ve gone to great lengths to clarify the combat chain in CNC4. We have detailed tooltips for each units, clearly marking out the functionality of each unit.
In addition, if you have a unit selected, the enemy unit your chosen combatant is an ideal counter to will be marked with “crosshair” icons. Furthermore, if you select an enemy unit, the central UI area displays which of the units within your class are the correct counter to it. It’s a pretty robust system, working hand in hand with our increased focus on affordance (visual design indicating functionality) to create a clearer picture of how the battlefield works.
What is the hardest AI in C&C4 like?
Hard. The AI builds off of the already powerful system we developed for CNC3 and then evolved with RA3, resulting in a challenging, interesting opponent at all difficulty levels.
Sorry for the confusion to all of the C&C fans reading the previous posts. This is a single player development video, the video above is the Acention trailer.
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Did you miss this video, Commander? If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to watch it now! Join Lead Single-player Campaign Designer Sam Bass, Producer Jim Vessella, and Game Designer Jeremy Feasel as they take you deeper in to the single-player story and mission design in Command & Conquer 4.
Another question and answer post has been made of the official forums. This one is just some general infomation on C&C4, which includes the mention of the game only shipping with about 12 maps.
How long does it take for each Super Weapon to charge?
Each superweapon takes a total of 4 minutes to charge to maximum power. However, after only 40 seconds, you can fire off a weaker version of the superweapon. The GDI Ion Cannon has a total of 6 charge levels, with it taking 40 seconds for each level. So, the longer you wait to fire your superweapon, the stronger it gets, until it reaches maximum strength after 4 minutes.
Is there a limit to how many Commandos can be on the field at once per player?
Each player has a limit of a single commando, just as in previous games.
Can a defense player select multiple structures at once to target a single enemy unit?
Yes, C&C 4 now allows you to band box select multiple defensive turrets to give orders to all of them at once. You can also select multiple structures through shift click, and any of the other multi-selection mechanisms in C&C 4. However, defensive turrets are not included on the various unit selection hotkeys, so you won’t have to worry about accidentally selecting your structures.
Will the Defense Class be able to power down their own structures?
The defense class does not have a way to individually power down their structures. However, if the defense crawler is destroyed, or dismantled, their structures will lose power until they deploy again. Also, if a player changes classes, their remaining defensive structures will stay on the field, but they will be unpowered unless the player switches back to the defense class.
Around how many maps will be playable in Skirmish?
There are a total of a dozen multiplayer and skirmish maps, set in all of the various regions in C&C 4: Polynesia, PanAmerica, Arctic, and Junktown.
How does the experience of single player missions differ from the Domination mode style combat of multiplayer?
While we share a lot of gameplay elements with MP – notably the Crawler system, respawns (which are limited in Campaign), Tiberium Crystals as an upgrade mechanic and the proximity method for capturing Tech Building – we have applied one of the key tenets of CNC4’s design, Player choice, in a very different, campaign specific way. Simply put, once you hit the campaign proper you’ll find each mission to be less a sequence of scripted events than an AI driven “possibility space”, populated by a variety of custom design AI entities – not just the skirmish AI - with varying allegiances, creating what we like to think of an “AI ecology” in each mission. We then layer objectives – not all of which involve labs – and some light scripting over the top, and let the Player get down to business. Since everything is reactive and AI driven, completing an objective is less about working out what the designer wants than taking in the situation at hand, making your choices (class, what units to build, what tactics suit your play style) and then taking a stab at it as you see fit. We take it as a mandate to accommodate your choices, no matter how out of left field they may be.
How did C&C4’s Crawler system change the way single player missions were designed?
The Crawler was instrumental in kick starting the new design process described above – by providing each Player with a mobile base, we are no longer able to so accurately predict Player location and critical path, which in essence invalidates standard scripting as a method for gameplay generation. Combine this with the class system, which means that we can’t even predict what units the Player might have, and AI was pretty much the only route to go.
Does a mission change depending on if you have a Co-op buddy or if you are going solo?
Yes, the missions are rebalanced for two players in co-op.
The alliance to build the TCN between GDI and Nod will be tested in C&C4. Will we see any inter-faction struggles, such as GDI vs. GDI?
Yes, without giving too much away, there is a lot of internal conflict on both the Nod and GDI sides throughout CNC4.
How do spawn locations fit into the missions or effect a mission’s objectives?
It depends on the mission – some have multiple spawn points across the map, others limit you to a specific starting area and others again allow you unlock additional spawn points as you progress through the mission. The Objectives themselves do not vary based on spawn point, but how you go about completing them does vary.
As an early Valentine's day gift, EA has released Tiberian Sun with its expansion Firestorm to freeware! They have also opened up a special classics page on the official Command & Conquer site. You can download this now from C&C Sector's Mirror or from the classics page at CommandandConquer.com
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Set in the early 21st century, Tiberian Sun once again pits the Global Defense Initiative against the Brotherhood of Nod in a struggle for control of the planet. With an epic storyline that unfolds as play progresses, players learn the reasons behind the worldwide outbreak of Tiberium and what happened to the notorious Nod leader Kane, who was presumed dead at the end of the first Command & Conquer.
