Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:32 pm Post subject:
And the so called TFD FAQ is a big legend...
Three months and one week and we still see no sign of FAQ. In order to remind you what I'm talking about, check this link. In november 8th, 2005, I've sent an email to Aaron "APOC" Kaufman with several questions regarding the recently announced The First Decade. I must admit that some of them were answered in these recent podcasts. However, no FAQ section was ever created for it, unlike what was promised by him. I'm re-posting the contents of the email here, now with the answers in red:
The november 4th announcement of the Command & Conquer: The First Decade has divided the community. While it's a great oportunity to become able to buy all old C&C games at once with a cheap price, some had higher expectatives of a new game and there are always those who thinks that it's another cash grabbing action. Anyway, I hope you can answer the questions below (at least some of them) to clarify some of the doubts that have arisen on C&C fans. Note that these questions are more focus on a fan point of view, which includes modders. The answers for these questions will be shared with every website related to Command & Conquer, through CnCCommunity.net (Webbies).
As far as I could understand (and please, correct me if I'm wrong), C&C: The First Decade will come with one DVD containing all Command & Conquer games for PC, except Sole Survivor and an extra material (interviews, videos from fans, etc). There is a dev team dedicated to make the games compatible with this DvD and with Windows XP.
Here's the questions:
Gaming focused questions:
1) Will EA release patches for those who currently own C&C games to update their games to run on windows XP? And if these patches are released, will they run on old Windows (9x/NT/ME/2000)?
2) Louis Castle informed on his interview that all games will already be patched by default. In january 1999, Westwood Studios has 'leaked' (since it wasn't officially released) a patch 3.03, also known as redalert99, which was available or supported at http://www.westwood.com/games/ccuniverse/redalert99. This patch removed (or would remove) the need of Westwood Chat to play Red Alert on WOL. Will Red Alert come patched with it, or 1.08?
- Red Alert comes with an ugly 2.0 ECSAM which is worse than 3.03, and without appropriate LAN support. Cool, isn't it? Ah, the best news is that you can't patch your TFD RA1 with 3.03 that has a working LAN. Nice, heh?
3) Will this DVD and its games run on older windows (9x/NT/ME/2000)? (Note: I know Generals does not run on Windows 95)
- I still have no idea about this, but it probably runs, considering that they haven't altered the games in a proper way.
4) Will The First Decade players be able to play the games online with those who own the original games?
- Yes.
5) Will the documentation be modified to mention XCC Westwood IRC Server instead of Westwood Online or even mention?
- Of course no. They are lazy, afterall... Correct me if I'm wrong.
6) Is there any possibility of patches for any game before or after the release of Command & Conquer: The First Decade, considering that there is a dev team dedicated to it?
- Generals received a patch 1.08 to make its multiplayer compatible with TFD and that's all.
- Who cares for these bugs? EA only cares for your pocket.
7) Is there any possibility of fans listening to remastered musics, from those created by Frank Klepacki (check his site at http://www.frankklepacki.com and his news about the musics available in iTunes) or improved sound quality, specially for older games?
- No way. They blame the fans for apparently prefer everything in the original way, although it's a lame excuse to make the patch be produced faster and cheaper.
8) Is there any possibility of fans being able to play older games on higher resolutions (1024x768, 1200x800 or higher)?
- No. Same reason than the answer above.
9) The internet gaming on the games pre-Red Alert 2 had a limit of 4 players per game. In that time, 56k dial up was still a news and conections from players were much worse than they are today. Is there any possibility of these programs allow 8 players in a game by default?
- No, for the same reason than ( 7 )
The next ones are more focused on modders:
10) Although Firestorm has added more features for modders, Westwood has also cut few things which wasn't used by the game. One of them is the Category=AirTransport which allowed modders to build aircrafts that transport passengers properly (instead of 'dancing' in the air when loaded with passengers). These lines were simply commented out and there are still reference to AirTransport in the game.exe (according to those who used a hex editor). In 5 years, no one has found a descent work around for this issue. Most solutions either have a dancing aircraft that can parachute passengers, aircraft that take off and land to drop each passenger, 'invencible in the air' aircraft or even the loss of Hover MLRS. Is it possible to remove the comments from this function? It would benefit more than 20 mods that are under development today.
- Who cares? EA doesn't.
11) Is it true that Tiberian Sun once had a feature that recorded games in a 'record.bin' file (or something similar) and it was cut from the released versions?
- No one will ever know that from EA guys.
12) Will Yuri's Revenge 'gamemd.exe' be modified?
- Yes, to support everything on one DVD.
13) Zero Hour, the only mod friendly C&C RTS, allows new factions to be built, however, the maps made in world builder have a little annoying limitation: AI only works with about 15 factions. After that, it does nothing. This limits modders to make a maximum of 3 new factions. Is there any way to increase or remove this limit?
- No, for the same reason than the one posted in ( 7 ).
Miscelaneous questions:
13) Is there any chance of EA adding the top 3 maps from Open Map Competition (for each game: Firestorm, Yuri's Revenge and Zero Hour) in this DVD?
- No, they are lazy.
14) Other than Louis Castle interview and fan home videos, what else will be included as extras? Anything that can be revealed to us?
- A poster that you can get in the internet and print at home. Ahh... I was almost forgetting: a bunch of new bugs were also included in the package, specially the one regarding the soviet FMVs in Red Alert 1.
Thanks in advance for reading (and hopefully replying) it and sharing these answers with the whole C&C Community!"
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Note that the Misc question 13) was suposed to be 14) and the 14) was suposed to be 15). And I'm repeating his reply:
Thank you for this long e-mail. I will add it to the Q/A list that I am going to publish on our official site. I am not going to hand all the answers to one site alone, rather I will publish an official document that everyone can see at once. I appreciate the effort here however, and will be sure to get these all answered. There are definitely a lot of questions, but the bottom line for us, is this is a great value for the community and those dedicated to the series.
And it's already been said by Louis, "you haven't seen the last of C&C", so everyone can relax a bit. We certainly are dedicated to the franchise. 23 million copies of C&C sold doesn't just float on by our minds :o)
Aaron Kaufman
Community Manager & Marketing Liaison
Electronic Arts LA"
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Do you like the Q/A? I have to answer them myself, because EA simply doesn't care. Take your conclusions. _________________
Mods, Mods Support, Public Researchs, Map Archives, Tutorials, A Friendly Community and much more. Check it out now! Last edited by Banshee on Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:05 am; edited 2 times in total QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 26 Nov 2002 Location: Algae Colony On Mars
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:40 pm Post subject:
Great FAQ, Banshee! I'm glad we got some helpful responses from EA, it certainly makes me feel confident that EA will continue to support Command and Conquer for many years to come! _________________
Quote:
This is sexier than what this forum was supposed to tolerate. - Banshee
Well done, sir. Well done. Although one nitpick: from newer info I've recieved, RA from TFD ships with "2.0 ESCAM" ... not 1.08 that was originally inferred. It certainly is an EASCAM alright! _________________ <center></center> QUICK_EDIT
Hmm, good summary there... I hope all those negative things will turn positive some day, though I don't expect it to.
And don't make Apoc look like a bad guy or something, because he isn't. He does a good job as a community manager in my oppinion. _________________ Tesla - Where positive energy meets negative energy QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:07 am Post subject:
Chronojam wrote:
Well done, sir. Well done. Although one nitpick: from newer info I've recieved, RA from TFD ships with "2.0 ESCAM" ... not 1.08 that was originally inferred. It certainly is an EASCAM alright!
Thanks for the info. I've updated the FAQ with it.
Another thing I've noticed that this XP support without LAN thing was released by Westwood a long time ago:
Silent Kane and Scorpio9a modified that thing to make it support LAN.
Tesla7zap wrote:
And don't make Apoc look like a bad guy or something, because he isn't. He does a good job as a community manager in my oppinion.
He really isn't a bad guy, Tesla7zap. The bad people are his bosses. They hire one community manager for many game series and he has to deal with everything and even more than that (he's also helps with movies there). In short, he is overloaded and he ends not doing most of things he says he will, due to lack of human resources. It's really a pitty. Apoc is a cool guy and insane to stay there at these conditions. QUICK_EDIT
EA does retain the right to make improvements in the product as described in their documentation, however it must perform substantially in accordance with the published specifications, the documentation and authorised advertising (i.e. they can not get rid of a major feature that is stated on the box, any advertising or documentation - they can only improve or add features).
i.e. the third party has the right to get up EA if they take a major feature out that is stated in the documentation and/or advertising.
EAs right:
EA does not have to warrant that the functions of the software will meet your requirements or that the software will operate error free or uninterrupted. You, the user, assume the risk of any and all damage or loss from use or inability to use the software.
So if the back of the box said the game has a specific feature, or official publications used to advertise the product publically stated that the game had a specific feature, and if this specific feature was not included in the game at all, you have the right to sue EA or get a refund of your money.
However if the feature does exist in the product and no documentation or advertising exists to suggest it will work with a particular O.S. , and if this feature doesn't work, then EA is not at fault and you can't sue and can't get a refund. _________________ NOD: "We hate GDI because they have taken all the green zones and only allow us to hide out in the crap yellow and red zones."
Me: "Well NOD shouldn't of freaken helped spread Tiberium everywhere, dumbasses!" QUICK_EDIT
EA would never sue a community site (if they did they would definatly end the CNC series). And Screw Aaron, he is a Electronic Arse after all. Oh he is overworked!!! poor him. He could easily find out the answers to questions. And easily post them somewhere. Would only take a few mins. _________________ Free Map Editor - Game Requirements - Stucuk.Net QUICK_EDIT
- Who cares for these bugs? EA only cares for your pocket.
A LOT, of bugs, could be resolved, in this version. But they don't decide to help the community modders, only to release TFD quickly. This is bad, IMHO. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Location: Flying into hostile territory
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:57 pm Post subject:
stucuk wrote:
Quote:
Quote:
EA would never sue a community site (if they did they would definatly end the CNC series).
And Screw Aaron, he is a Electronic Arse after all. Oh he is overworked!!! poor him. He could easily find out the answers to questions. And easily post them somewhere. Would only take a few mins.
First Quete:Damn straight they wont sue because they're afraid of us. If they sue all the others would rise up like a Cobra and strike them down like they are.
Second quete: Now your just being a cynicle jerk. Maybe if he had someone to help him *coughs* stucuk *coughs* stuff like this might happen less often or not at all.
Dosn't EA have the right to post pone a release date if the product is flawed?
PS. Sorry about the xtra larg sig trying to fix it _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Maybe if he had someone to help him *coughs* stucuk *coughs* stuff like this might happen less often or not at all.
Im currently single handedly supporting, maintaining and telling ppl how to mod Original War. I was the one who made it possible to mod Original War, b4 u could never mod it.
Think im doing enough for a community myself.
P.S im not even getting payed to maintain Original War
One thing that should be noted, gamemd.exe was hex edited by EA rather then completely recompiled, this means that the rock patch can go on and is not dead. (Renegade is the same) I belive that this is APOC's doing (He had been vary interested when he was told about the hacking that was being done to them), becuse TS atleast is completly changed and was not being hacked. So basicly Im saying that APOC has probabily done a massive amount of good for YR and Ren modding and should not be regarded as being weak for not being super human.
Quote:
And Screw Aaron, he is a Electronic Arse after all. Oh he is overworked!!! poor him. He could easily find out the answers to questions. And easily post them somewhere. Would only take a few mins.
Its always easier looking in from the outside. You nether know his life or him so you are not in the position to judge him. QUICK_EDIT
I am in a position to know presure. To have a community on ur back wanting more, wanting everything now(OW Community). Yet i have never said i was going to do something then never do it.
Id say im in a position to judge him.
Rule 1: never say you will do things unless u are 100% sure u can do it or would do it.
P.S he gets payed to do a job. His life is irrelevent, he works in an office(noone expects him to work out of hours. To create a FAQ wouldn't take long at all. So brining his life in the convo serves no purpose). _________________ Free Map Editor - Game Requirements - Stucuk.Net QUICK_EDIT
Just becuse your perfect doesnt make him so. And life pills over into your job it can add massive amounts of stress and degrade your work. _________________ "It's got that Droke style to it!" QUICK_EDIT
Im not sticking up for EA, im just saying there may be more to APOC then we know about. _________________ "It's got that Droke style to it!" QUICK_EDIT
He gets payed to provide a service to the community, not lie....... Wait... what im i saying. He works for EA, corce he is payed to lie. _________________ Free Map Editor - Game Requirements - Stucuk.Net QUICK_EDIT
He gets payed to provide a service to the community, not lie....... Wait... what im i saying. He works for EA, corce he is payed to lie.
No he get's paid for providing EA a service. If they say to do something he has to let the FAQ wait while he does it if he want's to get paid and keep his job. QUICK_EDIT
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And the so called TFD FAQ is a big legend...
