A Special Announcement from EA

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Moaddin
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by Moaddin »

I played all Command & Conquer parts and there is one that was the best of all of them:

Command & Conquer Generals (with Zero Hour)

To play this again in a remastered Version would be a dream comes true!
I was very very sad when I heard about the Discontinuation of the Developement of Generals 2.
Of course this would be the next dream: A next Version of Generals

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NodCommander
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by NodCommander »

Consider yourself watched closely, EA! If it is a real and honest thing you are after doing, you certainly have my positive attention. But we, as fans of the original series, have been burn so many times over the last decade that it is hard to not default to be sceptical.

I am positive towards this approach though, so please do not take my comment as a negative response.

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AlienWeaver
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by AlienWeaver »

Hi and i am newly registered here (i was used to register before sleipnir's stuff moves to OpenRA), anyway i think this topic made me think of something, ya know that i missed the older series of command and conquer, but i always wanted to see a sequel for c&c renegade that is based on the cancelled renegade 2: battlegrounds, red alert 2 and tiberian sun, i heard c&c 3 and red alert 3 are non canon to both of them, so which is why i always wished this, wonder who would be the main hero commando in renegade 2 battlegrounds, i expected tanya from ra2 world be.

Judging from the very first post by the owner of the forums, i think remastering cancelled c&c games would be a good idea like renegade 2: battlegrounds, we need an FPS c&c game these days, but of course not only that, but also the real sequel for c&c 3 which is the tiberian incursion, this one is a canon, unlike c&c 3 tiberium wars, same goes to ra2 and ra3, i was thinking westwood's red alert 3 would have been better for being a canon, and that's all i wanted to say..
Meow ;)
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Smitty
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by Smitty »

The number one thing I want to see from a reboot is a return to plausible story telling. Red Alert was my top game as a kid, and even though you had the campy bad accents and tesla death lasers the world still felt real. I felt like I was saving Europe in the Allied campaign. RA2 broke that sense of realism quickly with Yuri's mind-control MacGuffin and shark teeth zeppelins attacking NYC. RA3 just devolved into 'LOL BOOBS AND BEARS'.

I'll break down some specifics of how I would bring back verisimilitude to the franchise. I'll talk about this in Red Alert terms, but I believe the same concepts can be applied to the Tiberium universe.

- Don't set the campaign in the United States. Bring the story back to Europe. Especially if there's a USSR involved.
- If you have a Tanya or any female commando type in the story, remember you're casting for a badass, not a sex symbol.
- Don't have the EVA agent flirt with the player! I thought RA3 was absurd to the point of offensive. The player is a commander, not an anime harem protagonist.
- If you do have a powerful MacGuffin in the story, don't show your hand right away. RA2 had a major story telling flaw where they threw the mind control stuff at you right away. The invasion of the US itself should have been the first threat, followed by the mind stuff. Red Alert handled this perfectly, by having the Allied player hold off the hordes of Soviet armor, then once you felt like you've turned the tide of the war, you have to save the world from a massive nuke strike. That's great story telling!

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avalach21
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by avalach21 »

Smitty wrote:
Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:21 pm
The number one thing I want to see from a reboot is a return to plausible story telling. Red Alert was my top game as a kid, and even though you had the campy bad accents and tesla death lasers the world still felt real. I felt like I was saving Europe in the Allied campaign. RA2 broke that sense of realism quickly with Yuri's mind-control MacGuffin and shark teeth zeppelins attacking NYC. RA3 just devolved into 'LOL BOOBS AND BEARS'.

I'll break down some specifics of how I would bring back verisimilitude to the franchise. I'll talk about this in Red Alert terms, but I believe the same concepts can be applied to the Tiberium universe.

- Don't set the campaign in the United States. Bring the story back to Europe. Especially if there's a USSR involved.
- If you have a Tanya or any female commando type in the story, remember you're casting for a badass, not a sex symbol.
- Don't have the EVA agent flirt with the player! I thought RA3 was absurd to the point of offensive. The player is a commander, not an anime harem protagonist.
- If you do have a powerful MacGuffin in the story, don't show your hand right away. RA2 had a major story telling flaw where they threw the mind control stuff at you right away. The invasion of the US itself should have been the first threat, followed by the mind stuff. Red Alert handled this perfectly, by having the Allied player hold off the hordes of Soviet armor, then once you felt like you've turned the tide of the war, you have to save the world from a massive nuke strike. That's great story telling!
+1...

The reason C&C became such a breakway success really is that intangible magic Westwood had, being able to achieve a believable & immersive universe... On one hand the Chronosphere is a ridiculous concept but in RA1 they pull it off in such a way that it is somehow plausible. The original C&C also had an amazing, almost prophetic story to tell.. and while you got to play with some cool tech.. it all seemed like a truly plausible parallel universe. Tiberian Sun took a lot more liberty with its further in the future sci fi universe but it still gave off an epic and immersive story and atmosphere.

RA2 really is the anomaly... even when I first played it at 11 years old, I thought it was a bit too ridiculous with mind controlled squids and combat dolphins... even something like the mirage tank, while fun as heck, seemed just a little too far fetched to make much sense. But you know what? The game play was still amazing.. and even with all the goofs and gags, RA2 still told a coherent and engaging story. Yuri's Revenge IMO just went way too absurd, both in story and gameplay.. and I honestly prefer vanilla RA2 much much more than YR. Yuri's faction just seemed lazy and poorly designed.

After EA forced Westwood to close, Generals was the next entry and honestly the game was half decent.. but it was sooo generic. The universe/story was not engaging at all whatsoever, so it really didn't capture me. C&C 3 was a nice step in the right direction, and again it was a nice attempt to get back on track, but it still didn't have the level of detail and thought that Westwood would put into their universe & storytelling. RA3 was just really bad IMO.. I couldn't even finish the game because of how cheesy & dumb it was and how it took all the worst aspects of RA2 and pushed them to the max.

I played the C&C 4 beta and I just couldn't believe what I was playing so I never even purchased that.

Westwood was truly a magical development house and I imagine it would be quite hard if not impossible to capture the magic they were able to... it really is important to pay attention to the little details in story building and universe creating to make an immersive and believable world that the player can get lost in. I 100% agree with Smitty in that regard, and honestly, the mechanics of the game & balance are obviously important, but that kind of stuff can be tweaked over time in patches and updates.

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Blackened
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by Blackened »

The way I see it EA is on strike 2 for Command and Conquer. C&C4 was the obvious big miss. Rivals is the second. There is a lot of rabid hate for EA right now so It's a very delicate situation. With that said, it can be overcome and here's my pitch on how to do it.

Start with the remaster of the classic games. RA2 is a great option for this. Tons of people always bring up how RA2 was their favorite and most memorable. This is an easy hit. Now if you want to take the OpenRA approach and "modernize and rebalance RA2, go for it! You will definitely need to have a classic version though. It is a common complaint about OpenRA that it deviates too far from the original. But there is so much potential in rebalancing as it injects some new life into an old game. Because at some point the nostalgia for it will run out.

The next step is Red Alert 4. This would undeniably be a huge announcement with a lot of hype at a proper new CNC title. For this to land It's gotta be done right which means a few things:
1) Take your time. CNC isn't going anywhere in this state. It's not a game that needs yearly releases. RTS's aren't going anywhere either. You could take a few years to develop it and make it worth it.
2) Return to the roots. The Tiberium universe was always darker and grittier with a more serious tone. RA tended to be semi serious and cartoony. Even in the first games, TD had a substance that poisoned everything and was centered around a megalomaniac that seemingly worshiped that poison. RA Had a megalomaniac too, but it also had a girl with pistols taking on an entire army, Einstein being a silly old man, plus all the wacky units/buildings. Etc. TS had the "planet is doomed vibe" and RA2 had dolphins and mind controlled squid.

Go back to the semi serious cartoony feel. Have a good singleplayer campaign. Have a fun story. Bring back the traditional cnc resource management, where there are ore fields/mines instead of Ra3 style. Having an in game map editor is very nice too-- coming from someone who really likes map making.

3) Micro transactions have to take a back seat and if they MUST be part of it make it cosmetic only. Skins, voice lines, whatever, but if they affect the gameplay in anyway the game will flop.

After Red Alert 4 the ball is really in your court. If it goes well you could considering going back to the Tiberium Universe. Or relooking at Generals again. Or maybe a breathe of fresh air and add a new lineage to Command and Conquer.

If I had to make a final pitch it would be this: Develop a Renegade 2. I remember the hype when the Tiberium FPS had come around. I was extremely excited because I've spent more time playing renegade than any other game. Renegade didn't do well not because it wasn't CNC like but because of all the bugs, poor campaign, and did I mention bugs. Renegade is extremely unique. There aren't a lot of similar type games on the market. Here's how I would go about it:
Take the same renegade system as is for a second game. I.E. You have a set base that provides certain things. You damage/kill the enemy for points and money. You use that money to buy better equipment and ultimately try to kill the enemy base. Once a building is destroyed you lose access to what it provided. I think keeping that all ingame is important. You don't need a leveling system. That was one of the beauties of the original Renegade.

If you wanted to go for the improve the existing method you could try to add the commander seat like some games have done and turn it into a rts/fps. I think the problem with other games in this genre is they don't have an existing base to work with. Anyone who has played a CNC game knows that you build a base, collect resources and build an army. You already have that foothold. I think this could be limited to 6v6, 11v11, or 26v26 for the real hardcore types. 5v5 with 2 commanders on either side would work very well. I could see it being an esport easily.

Lastly cosmetic micro transactions would be huge here regardless of whether you modernize or stick with the original formula for Renegade. The amount of reskinning and such that happened in Renegade was astounding. Countless people made skins and passed them around. Cosmetic micro transactions would coexist quiet well and could replace a leveling system. With all the different characters and vehicles and buildings and weapons + any emotes or other sort of things you guys would want to add it would feel near limitless.

--Someone who has been playing cnc since Tiberium Dawn

T1000peX
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by T1000peX »

I really hope that there will be ports on the Playstation 4 or Playstation 5.
I really enjoyed playing on Playstation 1 and Playstation 3 in Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.

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ZxGanon
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by ZxGanon »

EA is on a very difficult task and I´m not gonna lie I wouldn´t wanna switch with them.

If they remaster the game by changing graphics and content than the "old" coomunity part hat wants to have the nostalgic feeling will outrage about any slight change that has been made.

On the other hand the "competive" community that wishes to play an exciting multilplayer with tons of depth and interesting strategies and up to date controls and hotkeys and updated UI and HUD.

As Orb already described in his post before before there has been 1000 of hours been played on older CnC and what their mutiplayer mostly featured was unit spamm of exactly 1-2 units.

I mean come on Tiberian Sun was literally Titan spamm only and Nod was marked as unplayable in 1v1 (except if you wanted to headstart with a massive handicap).

So yeah EA is in the need to implement two sets of rules that contain a switch between nostalgic gameplay and the other one being updated modern gameplay assets + gameplay depth.

I mean if Greg Black is gonna be involved in this game than I´m sure the modified multiplayer is gonna be neat (he was the Gameplay Deigner of CnC3 and that game had the best gameplay depth of all Command and Conquers). Also he is my god.

Goztow
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by Goztow »

As a C&C player for the last 21 years (I'm getting old :( ), I have a lot of input for you. I hope this helps. Please bare in mind English is my 3rd language.

First of all: thank you so much, Jim, for this announcement! You cannot believe how this made my day.

Here are my different lines of thoughts. I do realize this might ask for a significant amount of ressources.

* about remastered versus new game: I think you should eventually do both, but start with remastering the original games. So to all people talking about a new game, I'd say you're off topic for the moment. First remaster the old games, get people playing C&C again and then think about new games in the series
* about the public you're aiming for, I think there are two different target groups. First are people like us here, who grew up with the original games and are between 30 and 40-45 now. Yes, some of us are 60+ as well, let's just admit it right away ;). They're looking for nostalgia, they want to recognize the feeling they had when they played the original games. The 2nd group are a younger group of gamers from 12 - 25: people that haven't necessarely ever played C&C and who we want to get into the series so they will buy future C&C titles as well (read my optimism :) ).
* about C&C games: it's absolutely important to remember C&C Renegade. I've played C&C Renegade for hours every single day - clan based - between 2003 and 2012. No FPS game ever came close to the experience the original C&C Renegade gave. It would be a big mistake to forget Renegade. I'll come back on this later

* you have started right by posting on the openra forums because openra gives you a lot of great lessons that I'd like to spell out for you:
- controls, GUI, pace. Some of my colleagues may disagree with me here, but I firmly believe one of the reasons why openra "works" despite the hugely outdated graphics is that it has modern, fast paced gameplay and controls / GUI. Noone is waiting, today, for red alert's single unit build line.
I read on reddit that you designed the GUI for C&C3. You do not need to look any further: C&C 3 had - by far - the best controls / GUI for RTS C&C that I can remember.
- "nothing beats the original" and "C&C is "serious business". Yes, I'm playing the nostalgic note here. This doesn't mean we want a copy-paste of the original, but the original game needs to be recognisable in the units, the atmosphere. There's a reason - in my opinion - why openra started with Red alert 1, other than technical reasons. Red alert 1 is remembered as a game where you'd really get into the skin of the commander who needs to either save the world (allies) or - even more fun - conquer it (soviets). I remember at school my friends and I - being 14 years old - discussed our tactics, not as game tactics but as realy "generals" in the army. This was true still for Red alert 2 - though the FMV's were already quite a bit over the top, it was unfortunately no longer true in more modern C&C
- keep it simple, have a level playing field. With openra, I can send a text to a few friends and have a game 5 minutes later. After one or two maps we can simply stop. If a new friend wants to try it, he knows the basics on how to play the game after less than 15 minutes. The game setup is simple: build or protect your base, harvest ressources, destroy the enemy. Everyone can grasp the concept and base game play. But at the same time, people with 1.000 hours of gameplay can still invent new strategies / combo's.
Important: everyone starts with a level playing field. There's no ranking, no unlocking weapons. We all start as an equal commander, our startegies will make the difference. This is true for all C&C games, including Renegade and this has always been an important part in the fun factor in my opinion. No need to grind for hours just to unlock a weapon.
- balance: for some reason that's beyond my grasp, many classic C&C games were rather balanced without falling into paper, scissors, rock - units. GDI was heave firepower based, Nod was stealthy and hit and run. But both factions still balanced out mostly! You'll need to stay close to the original games, but be inspired by the community changes to correct the balance slightly. For example: adding infinite infantry ammo in Renegade was a great call
- about the platform: I strongly believe you should use the same platform to remaster all RTS C&C games. This means: same game graphics engine, same GUI, same controls, same online environment for all games but obviously different units, different atmosphere, different need for tactics. If you use one platform to remaster all games, then one could even imagine playing online matches with RA2 allies versus C&C95 Nod. It would be HELL to balance that out, but imagine the fun factor!
- about the graphics: the openra group really doesn't care, but the group of youngster you want to get involved will probably care. I doubt you can stick to original 2d graphics (like openra does), though I personally wouldn't mind lol
- about AI: a lot of us like to stomp comps. Please give us a challenge ;).

* about game content: single player and multi player are obviously both a must. For the remastered games:
- I'm going to take a risk here and advize you to not include all games. I'll let others give you more input about that, I'm personally very biased towards: C&C95, RA1, RA2, YR, Renegade, C&C3.
- add all content from those original games and create a new expansion pack for each game you remaster. Attention: the original missions might need to be redone a bit to fit with the new game play controls and pace. This expansion pack will expand on the original game with new missions - dare I dream of new FMV's with some of the original actors - new maps (to make it easy: there's also a lot of quality fan made maps), maybe even a new faction that could be inspired by some of the other remastered games. The new missions could possibly add missing links in the stories between the games
- have a single player mode where you can play all remastered game missions in a set order that makes sens, where the new expansion packs link the old games with each other. Instead of the usual 10 hour single player mode, you'll end up with a huge single player experience
- For multi player: balance is obviously key. Don't forget about us comp stompers who need a decent AI ;). Anti cheat needs to be kept in mind
* about C&C Renegade: I do realize that remastering a FPS may be very different than remastering the RTS games. Maybe you should simply considering putting Renegade in its current form, including the community patches (www.renegadeforums.com --> get in contact with jonwil from the Tiberian technologies-team), in the pack or - even better - release it for free on origin. There are still servers, players, people who care about the game around only waiting for new players to come and enjoy it. The online platform is maintained by xwis, online registration needs to be made easier though. Please refer to the renegade community on renegadeforums.com for more input. It may seem a bit dead there for now, but I promise that if you make a post on there, you'll see a lot of people pop up ;)
* I think this doesn't even need to be said, but if you could get Joe Kucan and Frank Klepacki in the project, for the expansion packs, that would be gold. I agree with what someone said above: we don't need professional acting, but we do need FMV with "serious" acting. I like to make the comparaison with star trek the next generation. There was a lot of "sci fi" stuff in there, not with the most known actors, but the acting drew you into the atmosphere. We need c&c star trek acting ;).

I may add some more ideas later on, this is a good base set to start with, I think. Can you give me some feedback on feasibility?

DubbelDrank_NL
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2018 2:37 pm

Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by DubbelDrank_NL »

Here are my pointers for EA:

Do's
HD graphics
New (remastered) x.1 surround soundtrack bij mister Frank Klepacki himself
Old-style mouse controls
Support MOD's
Online and LAN support, including private server
Lots of private LAN game options (superweapons, crates, pushable MOD's,...)

Don'ts:
Unable to play without internet connection
Lootboxes
Ingame microtransactions
Pay to win
Pay to advance
Did I mention no lootboxes?

Maybe's
4K graphics
(Reshoot the) cutscenes in HD
Discount for all owners of the original C&C 2CD box :)

Wyld1USA
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2018 2:59 pm

Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by Wyld1USA »

Goztow wrote:
Sat Oct 13, 2018 10:00 am
As a C&C player for the last 21 years (I'm getting old :( ), I have a lot of input for you. I hope this helps. Please bare in mind English is my 3rd language.

First of all: thank you so much, Jim, for this announcement! You cannot believe how this made my day.

Here are my different lines of thoughts. I do realize this might ask for a significant amount of resources.

* about remastered versus new game: I think you should eventually do both, but start with remastering the original games. So to all people talking about a new game, I'd say you're off topic for the moment. First remaster the old games, get people playing C&C again and then think about new games in the series
* about the public you're aiming for, I think there are two different target groups. First are people like us here, who grew up with the original games and are between 30 and 40-45 now. Yes, some of us are 60+ as well, let's just admit it right away ;). They're looking for nostalgia, they want to recognize the feeling they had when they played the original games. The 2nd group are a younger group of gamers from 12 - 25: people that haven't necessarily ever played C&C and who we want to get into the series so they will buy future C&C titles as well (read my optimism :) ).
* about C&C games: it's absolutely important to remember C&C Renegade. I've played C&C Renegade for hours every single day - clan based - between 2003 and 2012. No FPS game ever came close to the experience the original C&C Renegade gave. It would be a big mistake to forget Renegade. I'll come back on this later

* you have started right by posting on the openra forums because openra gives you a lot of great lessons that I'd like to spell out for you:
- controls, GUI, pace. Some of my colleagues may disagree with me here, but I firmly believe one of the reasons why openra "works" despite the hugely outdated graphics is that it has modern, fast paced gameplay and controls / GUI. Noone is waiting, today, for red alert's single unit build line.
I read on reddit that you designed the GUI for C&C3. You do not need to look any further: C&C 3 had - by far - the best controls / GUI for RTS C&C that I can remember.
- "nothing beats the original" and "C&C is "serious business". Yes, I'm playing the nostalgic note here. This doesn't mean we want a copy-paste of the original, but the original game needs to be recognizable in the units, the atmosphere. There's a reason - in my opinion - why openra started with Red alert 1, other than technical reasons. Red alert 1 is remembered as a game where you'd really get into the skin of the commander who needs to either save the world (allies) or - even more fun - conquer it (soviets). I remember at school my friends and I - being 14 years old - discussed our tactics, not as game tactics but as realy "generals" in the army. This was true still for Red alert 2 - though the FMV's were already quite a bit over the top, it was unfortunately no longer true in more modern C&C
- keep it simple, have a level playing field. With openra, I can send a text to a few friends and have a game 5 minutes later. After one or two maps we can simply stop. If a new friend wants to try it, he knows the basics on how to play the game after less than 15 minutes. The game setup is simple: build or protect your base, harvest resources, destroy the enemy. Everyone can grasp the concept and base game play. But at the same time, people with 1.000 hours of gameplay can still invent new strategies / combo's.
Important: everyone starts with a level playing field. There's no ranking, no unlocking weapons. We all start as an equal commander, our startegies will make the difference. This is true for all C&C games, including Renegade and this has always been an important part in the fun factor in my opinion. No need to grind for hours just to unlock a weapon.
- balance: for some reason that's beyond my grasp, many classic C&C games were rather balanced without falling into paper, scissors, rock - units. GDI was heave firepower based, Nod was stealthy and hit and run. But both factions still balanced out mostly! You'll need to stay close to the original games, but be inspired by the community changes to correct the balance slightly. For example: adding infinite infantry ammo in Renegade was a great call
- about the platform: I strongly believe you should use the same platform to remaster all RTS C&C games. This means: same game graphics engine, same GUI, same controls, same online environment for all games but obviously different units, different atmosphere, different need for tactics. If you use one platform to remaster all games, then one could even imagine playing online matches with RA2 allies versus C&C95 Nod. It would be HELL to balance that out, but imagine the fun factor!
- about the graphics: the openra group really doesn't care, but the group of youngster you want to get involved will probably care. I doubt you can stick to original 2d graphics (like openra does), though I personally wouldn't mind lol
- about AI: a lot of us like to stomp comps. Please give us a challenge ;).

* about game content: single player and multi player are obviously both a must. For the remastered games:
- I'm going to take a risk here and advise you to not include all games. I'll let others give you more input about that, I'm personally very biased towards: C&C95, RA1, RA2, YR, Renegade, C&C3.
- add all content from those original games and create a new expansion pack for each game you remaster. Attention: the original missions might need to be redone a bit to fit with the new game play controls and pace. This expansion pack will expand on the original game with new missions - dare I dream of new FMV's with some of the original actors - new maps (to make it easy: there's also a lot of quality fan made maps), maybe even a new faction that could be inspired by some of the other remastered games. The new missions could possibly add missing links in the stories between the games
- have a single player mode where you can play all remastered game missions in a set order that makes sens, where the new expansion packs link the old games with each other. Instead of the usual 10 hour single player mode, you'll end up with a huge single player experience
- For multi player: balance is obviously key. Don't forget about us comp stompers who need a decent AI ;). Anti cheat needs to be kept in mind
* about C&C Renegade: I do realize that remastering a FPS may be very different than remastering the RTS games. Maybe you should simply considering putting Renegade in its current form, including the community patches (www.renegadeforums.com --> get in contact with jonwil from the Tiberian technologies-team), in the pack or - even better - release it for free on origin. There are still servers, players, people who care about the game around only waiting for new players to come and enjoy it. The online platform is maintained by xwis, online registration needs to be made easier though. Please refer to the renegade community on renegade forums.com for more input. It may seem a bit dead there for now, but I promise that if you make a post on there, you'll see a lot of people pop up ;)
* I think this doesn't even need to be said, but if you could get Joe Kucan and Frank Klepacki in the project, for the expansion packs, that would be gold. I agree with what someone said above: we don't need professional acting, but we do need FMV with "serious" acting. I like to make the comparison with star trek the next generation. There was a lot of "sci fi" stuff in there, not with the most known actors, but the acting drew you into the atmosphere. We need c&c star trek acting ;).

I may add some more ideas later on, this is a good base set to start with, I think. Can you give me some feedback on feasibility?
Awesomely put Gozy! This is exciting news Gozy couldn't have said it better.

Cheers let's get it done.

Raz
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2018 3:15 pm

Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by Raz »

I just want to mention, that EA took down a Sim City 2000 remake by DMCA takedown because it used their dated old assets. So they now want to cash in again and ask the community and on reddit what we think? Are we fine with loosing OpenRA when their lawyers start taking OpenRA down? Do we want lootboxes?

lawANDorder
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:20 pm

Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by lawANDorder »

Raz wrote:
Sat Oct 13, 2018 9:32 pm
I just want to mention, that EA took down a Sim City 2000 remake by DMCA takedown because it used their dated old assets. So they now want to cash in again and ask the community and on reddit what we think? Are we fine with loosing OpenRA when their lawyers start taking OpenRA down? Do we want lootboxes?
Nothing has changed, it's cool that Jim stated EA had no intention to take down OpenRA, but really, at the end of the day we/they (I'm rather new) are in the same situation like all the years before. If they want to escalate, there is not much the community projects can do. It won't be unexpected and we'll find a way to go on. OpenRA is more than the RA in the name. Even if we have to play with MS paint artwork for some time, so be it. We have new mods in the making and the engine is powerful as never before. We have a loyal community, we have a great lead dev and dev team and many contributors who have fun to be involved. We came for c&c but stayed for OpenRA. Not EA but we, the players, contributors and devs decide where we go. Let's see what happens.

fir3w0rx
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by fir3w0rx »

EA_Jimtern wrote:
Thu Oct 11, 2018 5:52 pm
[...]We're looking forward to partnering with your community to deliver the best C&C experience possible.
Hi Jim,

I usually agree with the saying

"You can't please everybody all of the time"

This is one of those rare times when you actually CAN please everybody. In short, if your team includes:
  • The original single player campaigns - Even without adding new missions, just enhanced versions of the originals (but of course, time permitting, additional missions are always welcome)
  • An OPTION to switch between the new balanced version (with speed/attack/defense tweaks), and the classic version (with bugs and all!).
  • Really good modding capabilities - Modders and fans of C&C mods currently make up the largest group of the fan-base (and don't forget that the ground breaking genre, MOBA, started off as a mod!)
fans of single player missions who don't care about competition, hardcore fans of the classic version, players that want balance and fairness, and also the creative modders who will be there for us after EA abandons us once again :P (Just joking, I understand that it's a business after all)... will all finally be happy, and maybe even stop bugging you guys for a new C&C! (I said maybe :lol:).

For what it's worth, I've been a fan of real-time-strategy since Westwood's Dune 2 (the grand father of RTS) and have played single and multiplayer in a lot of the other games of the same genre, read through literally hundreds, if not thousands, of topics related to C&C (including this one).

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Sire
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Re: A Special Announcement from EA

Post by Sire »

For my crazy thoughts on the subject...

Remasters are nice. If remasters are to occur, I would like to see Red Alert 2 and Tiberian Sun remastered. Updated graphics, sound, balance changes, and so on would be welcomed. Having mod support would be my #1 priority, because I see C&C alive in the hands of the fans and dead in the hands of EA. (I am still salty about EA killing Westwood and the C&C franchise. They also killed Bullfrog and Pandemic who also made amazing titles.)

However, I see most of the existing C&C games under the care of various mods and fan projects. The original titles (Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert) is covered by Open RA. Tiberian Sun has its own take with Twisted Insurrection, while Red Alert 2 has Mental Omega. Renegade has Renegade X. I am unfamiliar with the Generals series and do not know how RA3 and C&C 3 hold up. C&C 4 does not exist. (I will admit gameplay-wise 4 was okay, but it was definitely not a C&C game.)

I suggest a reboot and start at the beginning. This time though, maybe follow with the one of the original concepts to merge the Red Alert and Tiberian universes together. As for my suggestions...
1. FMVs are a must. I like the serious tones from the original Red Alert and the Tiberian Sun stories. RA2's FMVs have their own charm with the humor and the like. RA3 was terrible, and I forgot what happened in C&C 3. (I did not ever get to play Kane's Wrath, so I have no opinion on that.)
2. Single player campaigns are also a requirement. If one is looking for inspiration, I'll say Mental Omega's campaigns are pretty awesome as they have fun and varied gameplay. The stories also all intersect and it is amazing to see how everything progresses!
3. Full modding capacity is also needed. Not only modding keeps games alive (look at Red Alert 2 or the Total War games), it can sell units years after the original release date.

If I were to backpedal and focus on a remaster, I would suggest...
1. Take the OpenRA route, which means not everything is exactly like the original. Yeah, the Soviets have a Flak Truck and the Allies have the Hind in OpenRA's Red Alert. There have been changes to balance, but these changes make for an overall better game. If players want the originals, play the originals. (Diehard fans will mod in original values if there is enough demand. Just focus on the remaster.)
1A. On that note, make the original games easy to access for those who wish to play them, or at least point them in the right direction.
2. Add some new single player missions, like Covert Operations and Counterstrike.
3. Full Mod Support. It speaks for itself.
4. Please get Frank Klepacki back for remastering the soundtracks. Some new tunes could also be pretty cool!

Either way, I hope it all goes well. Thanks for reading.

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