Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 10:02 pm Post subject:
C&C: The First Decade FAQ? Watch out!
Today I've sent an email to Aaron Kaufman with all doubts that I had about this First Decade DVD. I've gathered 15 questions, covering gaming, patches, windows XP, modding and even OMC. The email was too long for him, so he barely paid attention to more than 2 lines from it, but he managed to reply with an attempt to gain some time and rewrite the questions and answers. So, I'm posting them here for, in case they appear in their FAQ, you know the original questions. Prepare yourself: Long text detected!
(Note: I might have made some spelling mistakes, as usual. English is not my native language)
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?
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)
4) Will The First Decade players be able to play the games online with those who own the original games?
5) Will the documentation be modified to mention XCC Westwood IRC Server instead of Westwood Online or even mention?
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?
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?
8) Is there any possibility of fans being able to play older games on higher resolutions (1024x768, 1200x800 or higher)?
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?
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.
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?
12) Will Yuri's Revenge 'gamemd.exe' be modified?
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?
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?
14) Other than Louis Castle interview and fan home videos, what else will be included as extras? Anything that can be revealed to us?
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). But, here's 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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So, that's it.. I'm looking foward to this Q/A, because I trully doubt that half of these questions will really be featured on it. And, as I've told him in my email, I really published both emails in the webbies, but I'm not going foward on spreading it around, since none of the questions were answered yet. QUICK_EDIT
i wonder how they want to get everything on a single dvd? (or is it something double layered?)
as imgs of TS+FS and RA2+YR take something above 4 gigs...
and old games in higher resoultions...
don´t think that they want to make this
but a 800x600 for td and ra1 would be nice...
I think there will be DVD's for each series. 1 for TD+Covert Ops, 1 for RA1 + Counterstrike + Aftermath + Retaliation, 1 for RA2 + YR, 1 for TS + FS, 1 for Generals + ZH and 1 for bonus. It's gonna be a bit of a compilation, like C&C Worldwide warfare was, but with DVD's for each different engine. QUICK_EDIT
I think it's more than possible it will fit on one dual layer DVD - You have to bear in mind compression will likely be much more effective now for on the discs than it was for the inital releases of these games. The most I belive they'll make it is three DVDs. QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:19 pm Post subject:
$39.99!!! Freakin sweet!
That means I will have triples of RA2, doubles of TS,FS,YR,RA1 and Aftermath...
I doubt EA will directly answer these questions though...
Is there any idea on the release date? _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 10:20 pm Post subject:
C&C: The First Decade Press Release wrote:
Scheduled for release in February 2006, the title celebrates the 10th anniversary of this innovative franchise. This special collector’s edition will include a dozen of your favorite C&C games spanning over the last ten years plus a bonus DVD of commemorative video features.
_________________
Mods, Mods Support, Public Researchs, Map Archives, Tutorials, A Friendly Community and much more. Check it out now! QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:23 pm Post subject:
Oh sorry about that. Next time I will read more carefully.
I will began saving up for it. _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
But, assuming it's DVDs of each series and/or a SINGLE DVD... how the hell do we get the old games to recognize the new CDs? Unless it comes with a patch for everything already installed. A bit of a "2 cd hack" as opposed to a "no cd hack" QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:52 am Post subject:
Firestorma wrote:
is the first decade being sold in australia?
Yea, it will certainly be sold there too .
And thanks for everyone who thinks that I'm "the best admin ever'. Maybe you guys need to research some other admins too . There are a lot of sites with great people behind it. Some might be even more dedicated than I am. QUICK_EDIT
Also Known As: evanb90 Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Location: o kawaii koto
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 7:52 pm Post subject:
Hey, at $5 every two weeks, i can afford it in 16 weeks!!!
But I have 30 to 40 dollars currently available to me...(probably will be gone by end of month) _________________ YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead DeveloperStar Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007) QUICK_EDIT
Damn...I would so want to buy it, but...WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO LIVE IN THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE!?!? will I ever even have the oportunity to see it? _________________ QUICK_EDIT
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C&C: The First Decade FAQ? Watch out!
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. There are a lot of sites with great people behind it. Some might be even more dedicated than I am.
