Plok

ESRGAN looks way too artificial and plastic-ey, not gonna lie.

Jim Vessella has made his first update on the C&C subreddit since the COVID-19 outbreak. Despite all teams working from home, the Remastered Collection is on track for release and is in the process of finalization. However, the shipment of collector's editions by Limited Run has been delayed for autumn, but customers will be getting their Steam keys on June 1st, and can cancel their preorder via Limited Run's Freshdesk page if they so wish. Here's the full update: Fellow Command & Conquer fans, Before we begin, we hope everyone is staying safe and healthy through this unprecedented time. I apologize I was unable to deliver an update in April, as our teams have also been reacting to the impact of Covid-19, and prioritizing adjustments to our process so everyone can continue developing the game in a safe environment. For this update, I wanted to outline our latest status with the game’s finaling effort, and also address some of the impacts Covid-19 has had on our development. If you remember back on March 10, we revealed our trailer and announced the launch date of June 5 for the Remastered Collection. This was such an exciting day for us on the development side, and we were humbled by the positive reactions from the C&C community and around the industry. But over the following week, local governments here in California began enacting shelter-in-place orders, and by March 17 the large majority of our development teams around the world were working remotely from home. At the time we were unsure what impact this would have on our velocity and ability to final the game. However, I’ll simply say the development teams at Petroglyph in Las Vegas, Lemon Sky in Malaysia, and across EA have done a phenomenal job maintaining momentum and a commitment to quality over these past two months. I’m so proud of the teams, and because of this dedicated effort, we were able to achieve our goals and are still on track to launch the game on June 5. We hope the launch will provide an entertaining event for all of you to experience, especially for those of us who may still be staying safe at home in June. With that in mind, this past week we did receive some unfortunate news regarding the impact of Covid-19 on our physical Collector’s Editions. We originally had every intention of being able to deliver the Collector’s Editions alongside the June 5 launch, but the virus has caused significant manufacturing delays from Limited Run’s overseas vendors. Because of this, we wanted to let the community know the Collector’s Editions will not be shipping out until later in the early Fall. Trust me, we are as bummed about the delay as you are. We wanted to highlight a few important points and provide some options going forward: You will still receive your Steam key via email starting June 1, so you will be able to pre-load the game and play the minute it releases. As a token of appreciation, the team will be including extra Limited Run trading cards with all shipments. All purchasers should also receive a direct email from Limited Run, providing this overview and keeping you up to date on the status of your order. We also understand this is a difficult financial time for many people, and personal situations may have changed over the past several weeks. If for any reason you want to cancel your Collector’s Edition pre-order, please contact Limited Run by May 26, 2020 to fulfill this request. You may contact Limited Run at any time via their site at limitedrungames.freshdesk.com if you have questions to help through this process. What I can say is that Limited Run has a deep commitment to quality for the final delivery. I’ve been able to provide feedback on all the items, and I couldn’t be more excited about how the editions are coming together. Limited Run has been humbled by the passionate demand from the C&C community, and wanted to share these words with all of you: “As fans of Command & Conquer ourselves, it was an honor to be included in its historic anniversary. While we always hoped the campaign was going to be a success, the response has absolutely blown us away. We appreciate your understanding with the Covid-19 situation, and are going to include some extra Limited Run trading cards with all shipments for your patience. Thanks for making us a part of the Command & Conquer legacy, and thanks to all of you for your support!” Now, to provide some further insight into the past two months, our focus has been on bug fixing and reacting to player feedback. We’ve continued to work with the Community Council as they playtest the daily builds, and even had an ongoing “Top 10 Council” label in our Jira database to ensure we prioritized their most important items (amongst hundreds of pieces of their feedback). Our QA teams have been actively going through their finaling checklists, and this week we are preparing the game for submission to our certification team. Then alongside the game’s development, we’ve been more actively engaging with the media to showcase the game, which you may have seen in coverage articles over the past two weeks. Our goal is to get the word out to as many gamers as possible, and hopefully we’ll continue to build positive buzz leading up to launch. So, by now you should all know I love to tease you about upcoming items. Well, we do have a few more surprises about the Remastered Collection to share prior to launch, some of which will hopefully answer a few of your remaining outstanding questions. Be sure to keep an eye here on the subreddit for the latest info : ) In the meantime, please stay healthy and safe, and thanks again for all your support and feedback. Cheers, Jim Vessella Jimtern

To be entirely fair, Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order was a turning point. They also let Respawn Entertainment do their thing and make a game they wanted to, no microtransactions and other BS, and was the first EA game since Crysis 2 to come on Steam. Fans rewarded them with good sales and reception. Call me a fool, but I think they're waking up to some issues.

With Microsoft leading the way with Age of Empires Definitive Editions, and now EA getting first-hand experience, only a moron wouldn't learn the lesson.

https://cncnz.com/features/technical-support-help-guides/fully-updating-the-ultimate-collection/

Mere hours before the launch of C&C Remastered Collection, a group consisted of major Command & Conquer communities (us included) and content creators have launched C&C Community [sic], a website that's intended to be a hub for all Command & Conquer content. Using centralized feeds from CNCNZ.com, Project Perfect Mod, the C&C subreddit, Twitch and YouTube, this will be the homesite for anyone new or returning to Command & Conquer. Visit the site now at https://cnc.community/

And all the exploits that were fixed along the way in TW

Don't forget the bug introductions

Aside from one last update from Jim Vessella on the C&C subreddit, we now have an official message from Kane himself!

https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-remastered/classified-intel The "classified intel" linked to in the trailer

GenTool, xezon's extension for Generals and Zero Hour, has received a new update, version 8.0. Here's what's new: New features: Added Replay Controls bar at bottom of the screen in Replay mode Added feature to set a Time Pause (JK) in Replay to Fast Forward (F) to Added Mod support for player colors in multiplayer.ini that will work with Money Display Added censorship of IP addresses for Replay and Text files uploaded with GenTool Fixes / improvements: Fixed a crash on game launch with Zero Hour The First Decade installations Fixed an issue where GenTool notification popup would never disappear after game launch Fixed an issue where game controls would freeze at match start Fixed an issue where Generals would freeze on shutdown Fixed an issue where WindowZH.big and Window.big could no longer be patched Fixed an issue that would log file names incorrectly in gentool.log file Fixed an issue that would generate images for upload after game session was completed Fixed an issue that would break Upload Mode when toggling its menu option Removed LastReplay.rep functionality in Upload Mode Removed the ‘You are using a cracked binary’ GenTool message Added Display (Menu) options 19, 20 Changed Frame Step (O) replay functionality to no longer turn off Fast Forward (F) Changed font type and size of Ticker and Event message(s) Changed MDS+ Text to no longer show when GenTool Display (Menu) option is turned OFF Changed MDS Popup to display player names with player colors Changed MDS Popup to longer show button information Refactored replay parsing code If you already have GenTool installed, you can update it by simply running Generals/Zero Hour and exiting. If you want to do so manually or you do not have it installed yet, you can download it from the GenTool website or from here at CNCNZ.com.

GenTool, xezon's extension for Generals and Zero Hour, has received a new update, version 7.8. Here's what's new: New features: Added player rank (*) and experience points (XP) to Money Display Enabled Money Display for match observers Enabled full access to Camera Height and Camera Pitch feature for match observers Fixes / improvements: Fixed a crash on game shutdown caused by the use of a DirectX 8 to DirectX 9 wrapper Fixed an issue that would show Money Display for players sometimes Fixed an issue where Camera Height feature could be exploited in LAN matches Fixed non-functional ranked maps if game client was started without internet connection Removed observer player entries from Money Display Removed cnc-online.net popup message when launching the game with GameRanger Reworked GenTool key input manager Improved Match Timer to show the actual match progress instead of passed time Enabled full compatibility with Zero Hour Contra Mod Upload Mode: Fixed a directory issue when uploading files Upload Mode: Fixed errors 23, 35, 56 at begin of upload session Upload Mode: Increased quality of uploaded images Upload Mode: Decreased upload session retry wait time from 120 to 60 seconds Upload Mode: Removed minimum replay size limit (5 kb) from upload session Upload Mode: Improved contents and formatting of replay text information Upload Mode: Improved upload session success message to show full upload url Updater: Fixed broken patching of Window.big or WindowZH.big for some game installations Updater: Removed broken map.ini from [RANK] Australia ZH v1 Updater: Disabled installations of ReadMe txt files Updater: Implemented new *.dat format for generic patch files If you already have GenTool installed, you can update it by simply running Generals/Zero Hour and exiting. If you want to do so manually or you do not have it installed yet, you can download it from the GenTool website or from here at CNCNZ.com.

Right now, Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection is available for preload for all those who preordered them on Steam, Origin or through Limited Run Games. This means the game's files will be on your hard drive, but encrypted until the official release time (Friday, 5 June at 17:00 GMT). Also, the source code has already been posted and made publicly visible on Github, written in C++. To access the repository, click here.

These have been known for a while. Animations from Chinese fans have ended up in bootleg mobile "Red Alert games", including Tencent's RA Online.

Haven't played C&C Untitled, ask its devs.

Version 1.06 mainly fixes balance issues and bugs specific to units. The most you can do regarding game stability is installing GenTool and hope that its memory leak fixes are enough for your style of play.

In yet another update on the C&C Remastered Collection, Jim Vessella posted about a hot topic among fans - mod support. While C&C games have mostly been moddable thanks to community tools like XCC Utilities, FinalBIG, OS BIG Editor, and numerous others, with only late SAGE games getting semi-proper mod SDKs, this time we'll get full support in the form of one open-sourced DLL per game, and even a sample unit for learning how to mod the new release. Also, he acknowledged the community's desire for LAN multiplayer, but said it will not be in the launch build, though it might pop up in an update. Here's the full update: Fellow Command & Conquer fans, Since the announcement of the Remastered Collection, one of the top questions from the community has been if the game would provide Mod Support. Given the incredible C&C community projects over the past two decades, we appreciated how important this was going to be for the Remastered Collection. It’s time to finally answer the question around Mod Support, but it first requires the reveal of a special surprise for the community. Today we are proud to announce that alongside the launch of the Remastered Collection, Electronic Arts will be releasing the TiberianDawn.dll and RedAlert.dll and their corresponding source code under the GPL version 3.0 license. This is a key moment for Electronic Arts, the C&C community, and the gaming industry, as we believe this will be one of the first major RTS franchises to open source their source code under the GPL. It’s worth noting this initiative is the direct result of a collaboration between some of the community council members and our teams at EA. After discussing with the council members, we made the decision to go with the GPL license to ensure compatibility with projects like CnCNet and Open RA. Our goal was to deliver the source code in a way that would be truly beneficial for the community, and we hope this will enable amazing community projects for years to come. So, what does it mean for Mod Support within the Remastered Collection? Along with the inclusion of a new Map Editor, these open-source DLLs should assist users to design maps, create custom units, replace art, alter gameplay logic, and edit data. The community council has already been playing with the source code and are posting some fun experiments in our Discord channel. But to showcase a tangible example of what you can do with the software, Petroglyph has actually created a new modded unit to play with. So we asked a fun question - “What would the Brotherhood of Nod do if they captured the Mammoth Tank?” Well, one guess is they’d replace the turret with a giant artillery cannon and have it fire tactical nukes! Thus the Nuke Tank was born. This is a unit which is fully playable in the game via a mod (seen in the screenshot above), and we hope to have it ready to play and serve as a learning example when the game launches. Alongside Mod Support, I wanted to be transparent and address a feature which many of you have also been passionate about, which is LAN Play. Earlier this year, we had every intention of including LAN Play in the launch version of the game, but sadly this feature did not make it in time. Unfortunately LAN Play became the key impact of the Covid-19 situation as we realized the challenge of developing / testing a “local area network” feature in a workplace time of social distancing. We understand this feature is vital as both an avenue to play mods in multiplayer, and also to serve as a backup in case the online systems are ever down. We’re bummed this one got away, and will continue to keep this on our priority list going forward. Now in terms of discovering user content, we wanted to take full advantage of the PC platforms to streamline this process. For Steam players, we’re utilizing the Steam Workshop for sharing both maps and mods. Players can subscribe to maps and mods directly in the game’s Community Hub within Steam, or utilize in-game menus to browse / download content as well. Origin players can use the same in-game process for downloading maps but will need to manually install mods into their respective folders outside the game. For both versions, once you’re in the game, you may navigate to the Options / Mods tab where you can then activate the mod. We’re aiming to put together further documentation on uploading content and the entire UGC process around the launch window. Overall, we are incredibly excited to see what the community creates over the coming months. We anticipate some fantastic content for the Remastered Collection itself, some great updates in current community projects as they incorporate the source code, and perhaps we’ll even see some new RTS projects now made possible with the source code under the GPL. One final note we want to emphasize - we’ve done our best to bug fix and prepare these UGC systems for launch, but we have no doubt that once thousands of you begin creating and sharing content, some quirks will be discovered. Please continue to share your experience once the game launches, and let us know how we can continue to improve these tools for your benefit. We look forward to seeing all of you on the battlefield in less than three weeks, and in the meantime please stay healthy, safe, and thanks for all your support and feedback. Cheers, Jim Vessella Jimtern

Indeed. The EA account registration at first launch does raise a question or two.

Having too many units on the map and not crashing the game is an achievement on its own. It's just the engine being shit.

Fandom is a hub of fanfics and catastrophic writing.

Yep: Now if they make a good LAN option in an update and the EA account DRM isn't a roadblock for future-proofing, this will be so so so so so awesome.

Perhaps a more "pure" form of Tiberium augmentation?

Try the GenPatcher, it's a new thing: https://www.gentool.net/download/tools/GenPatcher_v1.1.zip

PATCH v1.02+ by CrazyGDIFan123` Here at CNCNZ.com, we value community contributions, particularly those which improve existing games. Thus, we support unofficial patches by the community. The Kane's Wrath 1.02+ patch was made by the CrazyGDIFan123` (a.k.a. CGF123), with map contributions by Predatore, Zypherbullet, and Technique. It is distributed in the form of map packs that have the changes (seen below) applied, and run on top of the regular 1.02 version to enable quick switching back and forth without having to leave the game. In CNCNZ.com game nights, this will be the selected patch for multiplayer (unless mods are used). An important warning: these maps do not transfer in the multiplayer lobby, meaning that all players need to download and install the map packs manually. Also, mixing different versions (e.g. Release 5 map pack 1 with Release 6 map pack 2) will cause compatibility issues when playing or observing. While a patch form that affects singleplayer and all multiplayer maps exists, it is mainly unsupported and the latest build seem to be broken. Either way, do not apply this patch at the same time as the map packs. Below are the links to the latest build available at GameReplays (no other variations are permitted on C&C:Online), as well as the full changelog (verbatim). Download links: Release 12d (9 Oct 2017) - Map pack 1 - 1v1 maps Release 12d (9 Oct 2017) - Map pack 2 - 2v2 maps Release 12d (9 Oct 2017) - Map pack 3 - 3v3, 4v4, and Control Zone maps Changelog BUGFIXES XP bug/inconsistencies fixed for various units. Fixed MoK Cyborg EMP bugs. Fixed R17 Tripod charged reserves bug. Phase Field timer no longer freezes when the Phased unit is EMP'd. Fixed Shadow glider/attack bugs. Shadow/Specter bombard beacon placement and cursor radius bug fixed. Specter bombarding no longer kills friendly beacons. Mechapede segment mixing bugs fixed. Mechapedes can now use rallypoints. Fixed disproportionate money gained from Hexapod killing a Mechapede segment. Fixed BH/MoK Fanatics dealing lower damage than vNod. Fixed Stormrider damage vs certain subfaction units (Pitbulls, APCs, MRTs, Wolverines, Bikes, Stealth Tanks, Gunwalkers, Seekers) to match that vs respective vanilla faction units. [25% damage decrease vs these subfaction units] Subfaction heavy infantry (T59/R17 Shocktroopers, Zoneraiders, BH Blackhands, Tibtroopers, ZOCOM/MoK Commando) no longer take full damage from Cloaking Field. Fixed bug exploit with Epic units being affected by Prodigy AoE Mind Control. Scrin/R17 MCVs can now be teleported by Mastermind/Prodigy. Ion Storms no longer prevent placing of buildings underneath. Units teleported via Mastermind to an Ion Storm are no longer killed. Subfactions' base defences can no longer be mind-controlled by MM/Prodigy. Snipers no longer attack vehicles and structures. Orca Sensor Pods attached to friendly vehicles are no longer removed by friendly drones. Fixed target priorities for Hammerheads, Seekers, Devastators, Fanatics. ZT/ZR jumpjet ability now uses Commando/Blinkpack style cursor. Jumpjetting ZT/ZR no longer crushable by T3 units. Scannerpacks ungarrisoned range bug fixed. Corrupters, Flame and Sonic weapons can now kill friendly husks via force-fire. ZOCOM Shatterer Overload Beam wave speed increased to match regular wave. Ravager Tiberium Agitation now also affects vScrin Devourers and Corrupters. Veteran Snipers can now spot for Juggernauts from within transports. Fixed slower harvesting rate for ZOCOM/ST Harvesters. Fixed health inconsistencies with ZOCOM/ST Ox transport. Fixed invincible controllable Ox transport exploit. Fixed reload sounds for Hardpoints upgraded GDI Orca/Firehawk and ZOrca. Fixed Tib Vein Detonation money deduction bug. Fixed bug with Redeemer getting stuck when attempting to garrison it with a lone Confessor or Disciple from an upgraded squad. MoK Avatar husks now correctly spawn MoK Avatars. MoK Bikes can now be commandeered by Avatars. ZOCOM Conyard now properly spawns ZOCOM Riflemen and Engineer when sold. Fixed ordering of upgrade buttons on ZOCOM and ST Command Posts to match vGDI. Heroic Tungsten Slingshots now have red shell tracers. Tungsten impact particles no longer appear at lowest graphic detail settings. Delays on several abilities reduced: Jumpjets, Rig/MCV packup, Flametank/Mantis preattack delay, Orca Sensor Pod deploy delay. Fixed Tib Spike collision box to prevent shoot-through bug. Slight tweaks to some unit movement behaviors for better response (smaller turn radii, slightly quicker acceleration/braking times). New visual effects for Railgun Accelerators, fixed Kane Edition 'Pink' Juggernaut texture bug. MAP CHANGES/FIXES (available in Map Packs only) Fixed inconsistent build and passable terrain on Unsound Investment. Slightly re-positioned start fields and nearby props on Tournament Dustbowl for more fairness between the two player positions. Reworked Subways on Battle for Middle Egypt. BALANCE CHANGES Global Repair Drones can now repair allied units in team games. GDI Global Stealth detection range for Sensor Pods attached to vehicles reduced 30% Sniper Team deals 2x damage to Black Hand Disciples (making them one shot them) Steel Talons MRT now has targeting cursor, infantry evacuation button and more responsive repair drone. Movement speed normalized with that of APC. Repair radius increased as per notes Titan deals 50% extra damage vs Mechapedes Railgun Accelerators cooldown reduced 210s to 60s. No longer affects enemies EMP Grenades upgrade available at Command Center (requires Tech Center), cost/upgrade time $1000/45 seconds Nod Global Shadow Team Strike support power now spawns Shadows with a 5 sec delay Reckoner speed reduced 120 to 105, GUN armour vulnerability reduced 55% to 40% Tiberium Vein damage per second reduced 100 to 60, cost reduced $4000 to $3500 Catalyst Missile leaves GDI/Nod harvesters heavily damaged (cannot one shot kill from full health) Black Hand Confessor pre-upgrade gun range reduced 325 to 300 (matches Charged Particle upgrade range) Drafted Confessor squads have 4 members (previously 6) Fixed Confessors not detecting stealth, fixed Confessor XP MoK Awakened squad/member ranges tweaked for better consistency. Overall attack range increased 20%. Scrin Global Seeker GRENADE armour vulnerability reduced 50% to 40% Gunwalker/Shardwalkers deal 3x bonus vs Cultists Traveler-59 Disintegrator GUN armor vulnerability increased 75% to 85% Prodigy health reduced 20% Neutrals Mutant Marauders range increased 20%, attack damage increased 10%. Cannon armor resistance doubled (normalised with other infantry). Now stealthed while moving in Tiberium. Mutant Hovels health increased 50%, repair rate increased 4x. Mutant spawn/exit time removed.

Not unless someone cancels their copy.