CNCNZ.com Roundtable #18 - March 2009

[Sonic 297]

Its the final day of March so that means its time to post edition number 18 of the CNCNZ.com Roundtable. It kind of follows on from last month with some more Uprising questions. In this month's Roundtable we discuss, Uprising - overall thoughts, Expansion or Booster packs, Downloading Uprising, the Red Alert 3 Mod SDK, the next C&C and the GDI Kodiak in Battlestar: Galactica.

 

Here is the panel for this month.

• Sonic - CNCNZ.com Webmaster
• Luk3us - CNCNZ.com Forums Moderator
• Lion - Red Alert Den
• Chickendippers - CNC World
• Banshee - Project Perfect Mod
• Chronojam - Red Alert: A Path Beyond
• TheGunrun - CNC-Live
• Blbpaws - CNC Generals World

Click here to read Roundtable Discussion #18.

[General Kane Nash 0]

EA should have done this kind of booster packs long ago instead of wasting money in to support online gamers, seriously, this game is what like 75% of the CNC customers (customers, not the community) want, so people wont waste like 2 hours waiting to enter in a game which last 5 minutes with a bike rush.

 

And of course we wont see guys spamming stupid balance threads which end ruining singleplayer, which is the worst that can happen to the CNC.

[BioBen 3]

Another great roundtable, I do hope EALA read these, as they show a good overall opinion of the C&C community.

[Sonic 297]

Yeah APOC reads them and offers feedback if need be, usually by e-mail to everyone who participated.

[Malevolence 6]

EA should have done this kind of booster packs long ago instead of wasting money in to support online gamers, seriously, this game is what like 75% of the CNC customers (customers, not the community) want, so people wont waste like 2 hours waiting to enter in a game which last 5 minutes with a bike rush.

 

And of course we wont see guys spamming stupid balance threads which end ruining singleplayer, which is the worst that can happen to the CNC.

 

I still couldn't make up my mind if booster packs are consider a good thing or not. At the end of the day as long as the developers does a good job with the product that pleases the majority of the fans, I'm fine with either booster packs or expansion sets. What I really dislike in this booster pack was the idea of making it as an online exclusive thing with no news on retail DVDs, and the worst part with EADM having one year download limit which I'm b*tching about because I don't see their logic of one year limit nonsense where other online store services provides unlimited since you paid for it.

[G Daddy 2]

This is now mentioned on the official C&C website

[Gben 20]

Great Community Round Table Sonic... It's hard staying up to date with the community when you're still busy playing the latest game!!!

 

Here are some of my random thoughts.

 

- Well I certainly benefit from the focus on SP attention, but I agree with Blbpaws comments about EA's power to provide a centralised vision/product and in that sense they missed the opportunity to provide a complete expansion pack. I think it was a mistake to include the co-op in some form, it wasn't perfect in RA3, but the concept had merit and should have been continued. Challenge mode in Co-Op *would* have been great and a whole other level of replayability. I hope someone can mod that in soon. This was better than nothing, but I would prefer a more balanced expansion that included sp and mp components.

 

- I think a four-mission campaign was a waste of resources though. Instead of 3 mini-campaigns, why not use the Blizzard method of a 12 mission campaign with each faction taking 3-4 missions each to tell one coherant story. Or here's a good idea, give everyone 3 missions in the story, it doesn't even have to be in blocks, and then when you get to the final mission of the story, you could make it a choice of the same battle from the faction of your choice! This would keep it in line with the C&C method or alternative endings. I think the Soviet story was the most interesting, I would have expanded that more. Allies was dumb. I can't even remember the Empire one.

 

-Challenge mode. I regret not having more freedom in pursuing your own tech tree order. I still wish you could start with just the equivalent of Allies MCV and PK's and work your way up from there. So a challenge to build up your chosen faction in mirror matches, then taking your existing army against the other factions. Earning bonus points by using inferior armies against tougher ones. As a minor quibble, the FMV's seem about 10-15% too short. I think about 5 more seconds in most of them would make them perfect, but they seem to choppy for me. I've done about 5 missions so far.

 

- I went through the same experience as Luk3us with the download. It seemed like a rather obvious step was missing from the initial log-in steps before downloading. But once you got it going, everything has gone swimingly. I just need to back-up my copy. I don't mind this method as long as it substantially cheaper than a retail version to compensate... but I would still prefer a Retail version if given a choice and within 10-15% price difference. But armed with my experience the next EA download would probably go smoother.

 

- I still need to backup my digital download, but the comment about plain DVDr with handwritten text breaks my heart. Someone should run a competition to create artwork for the Uprising DVD backup disc!

 

- Mods... I look forward to the envitable retro ra universe mods but I hope we get some original stuff as well. There's always a chance.

But I think the GOLD will be in someone who masters the a mod in the CHALLENGE mode.

 

- Generals still seems to be the universe most obviously needing a return in some format or other. But I would expect a RA3 MP booster pack first. There's lots of rumours flying around, I would hope the team takes a break from C&C and RA3 and spend more time on brainstorming rather than rushing a cash cow ip out the door.

 

EDIT

 

When I think of the roundtable, I think of Dr. Strangeglove...

Edited April 16, 2009 by gben