C&C4 Designer Jeremy Feasel Answers Fans Questions

[Sonic 293]

Command & Conquer 4 Designer, Jeremy Feasel, who you may have seen on BattleCast Primetime, has answered some of the most common questions raised by fans since the announcement of the new game. This is what he posted in a thread on the Official C&C Forums.

 

Hey everyone!

 

It's great to see all of the enthusiasm for C&C4! It's been in development for a while now, and we've asked ourselves many of the questions that you are posting on the forums. You'll see a lot more info coming up at the end of the month in PC Gamer UK, Gamestar, and other magazines, so be sure to check them out to get some exclusive info!

 

For now, let me tide you over with some quick responses to the hottest forum issues:

 

Q: If I'm facing a higher-level player, will their units be more powerful than mine?

 

A: Absolutely not. As players progress in levels, they will unlock units, structures, and upgrades that allow them to affect the game world in different ways. New units change the counter scheme or how the opposing player must use their units. Higher-tier units are not simply lower-level units with increased attack power. Consequently, a low-level player will have everything necessary to counter any unit in the game.

 

Q: Will C&C4 include upgrades?

 

A: Yes! All classes in C&C4 have a wide array of upgrades available to them. This includes global upgrades and upgrades achieved through other means.

 

Q: Will C&C4 use the SAGE engine?

 

A: C&C4 is built upon the same engine as Red Alert 3, with many additional improvements. More information on the advancements made to the engine will be forthcoming.

 

Q: Has the pathfinding been improved in C&C4?

 

A: A significant amount of additional code work has been undertaken to ensure that pathfinding in the presence of ten large Crawlers will not fail under extremely stressful circumstances. The pathfinding team continues to refine the pathfinder on a week-by-week basis.

 

Q: Will there be any base building in C&C4?

 

A: The defense class can indeed lay out a full base, which includes a wide array of different assault and support structures.

 

Q: Will there be epic units, similar to Kane's Wrath? Are the Crawlers epic units?

 

A: While there are many powerful and earth-shattering units in C&C4, all units ascribe to the counter scheme and can be defeated quite handily by even a low-level player's arsenal. While all Crawlers gain weaponry, the power of the Crawler is in its ability to produce units and structures, and you will find that they should not be left unprotected for long.

So, some interesting information there. Click here for the original thread.

[recover 2]

Q: Will there be any base building in C&C4?

 

A: The defense class can indeed lay out a full base, which includes a wide array of different assault and support structures.

It feels like he's dodging that one.

One can assume from this answer that the rest of the classes won't be able to build anything at all.

[Guest Stevie_K]

He is definetly dodging that one, but the fact that the fans questions is getting answered is awesome!

The whole crawler thing sounds a bit risky, I hope they can handle it. It saddens me though that only one class will be able to build a base.

Assault and Support structures? I guess there's no normal buildings anymore?

Edited July 13, 2009 by Stevie_K

[ORCaLoVeR 0]

So this is how C&C ends?

 

In a MMORTS with NO basebuilding?

 

seriously, this is lame..............

[Luk3us 63]

Its not an MMO.

 

Q: If I'm facing a higher-level player, will their units be more powerful than mine?

 

A: Absolutely not. As players progress in levels, they will unlock units, structures, and upgrades that allow them to affect the game world in different ways. New units change the counter scheme or how the opposing player must use their units. Higher-tier units are not simply lower-level units with increased attack power. Consequently, a low-level player will have everything necessary to counter any unit in the game.

 

Why does it sound like he's trying to say, no. When in reality he means yes?

[Guest Stevie_K]

Why does it sound like he's trying to say, no. When in reality he means yes?

 

lol. becouse he is making money here. By saying no and saying yes at the same time he get's both guys to buy the game.

[Nmenth 289]

The defense class can indeed lay out a full base, which includes a wide array of different assault and support structures.

I get the feeling that the entertainment value in actually building a base will be overruled by the other classes' strengths.

If the defense class sucks, no one will use it, even if it is about what made this series fun.

[Malevolence 6]

He is obviously dodging some questions, lol. I was visiting the official forums and I loled at the predicted threads and posts.

[ORCaLoVeR 0]

I get the feeling that the entertainment value in actually building a base will be overruled by the other classes' strengths.

If the defense class sucks, no one will use it, even if it is about what made this series fun.

Ofcourse, what can a defense class do?

 

offense is the best defense

[Koen 2]

Let's call the defense class the "turtle class" then. Oh no wait... that crawler looks an awful lot like a big turtle. Everyone will have to turtle :lol:

 

Also, Apoc posted a follow-up:

A few things to add to Jeremy's replies and some of your further concerns.

 

- C&C 4 has been in development for well over a year already, so, please put to rest any fears this is a 1-year project. Most games don't announce until they are around 1 year or less from release and either way, our development team will not put a rushed game out on the shelf. They've been working quietly on this project for a while now. We have had multiple RTS teams in the building so while Red Alert 3 was being worked on, a lot of early go-ahead-forward work on C&C 4 was progressing.

 

- As of right now, you need to be online all the time to play C&C 4. This is primarily due to our "player progression" feature so everything can be tracked. C&C 4 is not an MMO in the sense of World of Warcraft, but conceptually it has similar principles for being online all the time. While some may be taken aback by this, we've been testing this feature internally with all of our world-wide markets. We wanted to make sure it wouldn't take away any significant market or territory from playing the game. We have not found or seen any results that have made us think otherwise. You won't need a fast connection, in fact, you could be on age-old dial-up, and have the same single player experience as everyone else. Online all the time won't cause lag for single-player. We've also heavily worked on the online infrastructure such that people with slower connections will not lag other players with faster connections in Multiplayer.

 

What we are doing for multiplayer for the game and with our infrastructure for this game is unlike any we've produced before and I think you will finally see the culmination of a lot of key leanings from past projects in C&C 4, in this respect.

 

 

We can elaborate more on gameplay details after all the magazines hit, plenty of details for you to check in those! Gamestar will have a very extensive story.

[hapkido112 0]

this game is starting to sound bad. I may pass on this one and wait on ra4.

[ORCaLoVeR 0]

EA removes the Fundaments of C&C.

 

If they included this crawler thing like an extra game mode, then sure, it would be cool

 

But THIS?

common.

Edited July 13, 2009 by ORCaLoVeR

[hagren 0]

The fundamentals of CnC are massive vehicle battles and a lack of pop-cap, and that's still there. For everyone else, there's the defense class. In my opinion, a fresh re-imagining is positive, if you think about how many games used basebuilding in the past.

 

That I have to be online is bull**** though. Why can't they just deactivate the accounts for the time when I'm offline?

[Inferno 22]

I'm never offline, so idrc

[Mighty BOB! 5]

Why does it sound like he's trying to say, no. When in reality he means yes?

Hmm I could swear that the Gamespot interview, or another piece of info somewhere said that the XP could be spent on leveling both your classes but also your units, but I just re-read the relevant section of the Gamespot interview and it didn't mention unit leveling. So maybe the units aren't more powerful after all (aside from upgrades of course).

 

But yeah EA's sanctioned PR tends to be dodgy which is bad when you're looking for specific information.

[jamhaw5 0]

this game is starting to sound bad. I may pass on this one and wait on ra4.

 

What makes you think that Red Alert IV would not use the same stuff they are talking about now?

[Guest Stevie_K]

The reason we won't have many questions answered right now, and get some dodgy answers aswell, is that they are selling the information to many magazines right now. They can't leak the info before the magazines hit the streets becouse else no one would need to buy the magazines, and EA won't make money of selling info to them.

 

Basicly I don't have a problem with waiting for the info as long as they make more money from it and therby develop a better game

 

It's basic marketing and we are forced to wait anyways

[Wildshield 0]

I let it go of the flaws since its been a year. They better fix the problems and get more intel from pro's and fans when a beta is released. At least a beta, they need to for C&C sakes.

[Sonic 293]

Why do get the impression that when guys like APOC or Jeremy Feasel give us some information, which they are not obliged to do, you all seem to twist their responses to suit you doomed view of this new game.

 

Honestly guys this has be going on for so long now, every new C&C game just draws more negative crap. Just let the devs work on the game and quit referencing all this C&C traditional rubbish, fundamentals and so on. Its a new game, a new direction..... just accept it.

[Mighty BOB! 5]

Why do get the impression that when guys like APOC or Jeremy Feasel give us some information, which they are not obliged to do, you all seem to twist their responses to suit you doomed view of this new game.

Because they don't give precise information. Vague information leads to misinterpretation and speculation. Hence why different people see the same words meaning different things.

 

lol. becouse he is making money here. By saying no and saying yes at the same time he get's both guys to buy the game.

[Jarzka 1]

For me Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 were the latest "real" C&C games :]

 

Anything after that is EA's money making. They are selling these games with their names...

Edited July 14, 2009 by Jarzka

[Koen 2]

Because they don't give precise information. Vague information leads to misinterpretation and speculation. Hence why different people see the same words meaning different things.

Do you know why they give out vague information? The game isn't finished yet, so they haven't ironed out all the details. Things might still change a lot between the current builds and the final game in ~9 months. I'm sure they will collect fan feedback at CommandCOM and you will get more info then as well.

[Mighty BOB! 5]

Well yeah of course, but that doesn't change what I said.

[hagren 0]

For me Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 were the latest "real" C&C games :]

 

Anything after that is EA's money making. They are selling these games with their names...

Urgh...yeah, that's why fan feedback has been taken to heart after TW. The devs surely have no fun making these games, and they just compile a shoddy game quickly to cash in an easy buck. Also, they eat babies. With spicy ketchup.

 

In other words: Wake up! Gaming is business. They don't develop games out of the purity of their hearts, it's their work, means of earning money. That does not mean that they can't release a good or great game to earn those funds, or that Westwood made perfect games- they did not. Some people should take their rose-tinted glasses down. CnC3 was decent, RA3 was great, with varied map design, interesting units, creative humour and wonderful, wonderful music. Maybe it's you who should see past the label, because there are many games from EA which were or still are great, inventive or even innovative. It's not EALA who kept making games fo three universes with the same freaking gameplay concept or release the same game three times with improved graphics...

[Aaron Kaufman 0]

Hey guys,

 

Regarding how we disseminate information, we've just announced the game less than a week ago and thus we cannot, and are not obliged and ABLE to answer ALL of your burning questions.

 

Speculation, discussion, whether its positive or negative is entirely expected at this stage. Unfortunately, we cannot explain everything about C&C 4 for a number of reasons:

 

- we're still working on core design!

- 11 magazines are hitting at the end of this month, all with exclusive details, we (devs + me + 2POC) have to respect that

 

You guys should know by now, after how many RTS releases...that when we announce game we will never answer all questions upfront. But, we will do our best to answer what we can, dispel any false notions, and allude to further details.

 

So, with all respect, i've been here 5 years for you guys, you KNOW that we will be discussing a lot more, acquiring your feedback, and so forth.

 

For now, the concept of C&C 4 is gelling with you, and you are formulating presumptions, assumptions, guesses, and constructive opinions. That is great.

 

I want to leave you with this. I said this on our C&C Facebook page just a few moments ago in a similar thread. So for sake of simplicity, I will copy-paste:

 

"Providing the same game over and over again is not pushing the RTS genre forward, and certainly not going to grow the C&C community or audience. You can only get away with nostalgia so many times before you need to try a new approach. C&C 4 will still be "C&C 101" at heart, but we didn't want to make C&C 3.5. We understand completely some of the new concepts are "shocking", but if we don't take steps in a new direction, we're going to get left behind. We have a lot of details to share. Really appreciate the comments, all of them."

 

 

The central core of the C&C community, you guys, no doubt, you expect that nostalgic feeling every time you play C&C and I can promise you we are not taking a lot of that away. I do think it's important that we take new approaches while still aiming to please the core, and please the masses. You'll have plenty of time to retain more details, provided feedback, test-drive, etc.

 

-APOC