C&C Developer Diary: Beyond the Battle Part 2

[Plok 327]

The sequel to the first Beyond the Battle Developer Diary has been uploaded on the official C&C YouTube channel. This one guides us through the development cycle of an old favourite from the first Generals game - the GLA Bomb Truck, from concept to balancing. You can see it in different forms, angles and concept art in 1080p HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xenASaskdTI

Stay tuned for more.

[Plok 327]

The design is pretty nice, but I find the nukes a bit too weak/small. Nmenth's not gonna like this one bit

[Nmenth 291]

I wasn't even going to bother watching this, but since you invoked my name, I did anyway.

 

Did they ever actually show it detonating? It just looked to me like they were all getting destroyed with the only actual explosion ever shown at 3:39.

 

Regardless, I have more of a problem with the continued lack of realism. And of course to head off all those idiots who take the word realism by face value, I'm talking about suspension of disbelief level realism here, not real life.

 

A terrorist faction should not have full-scale nuclear weapons. Terrorists should use dirty bombs, they are called the "poor man's nuke" for a reason.

 

They said in the video these guys don't really know what they are doing, so how am I supposed to believe they managed to build functional nuclear devices? Nuclear weapons are extremely difficult to build and operate. Common sense should be sufficient to figure that out since there are only a measly eight countries to have successfully become nuclear weapon capable in the 68 years since the world entered the Atomic Age.

 

Well obviously they aren't functional nuclear devices... A bomb as large as the one they put into those trucks should be able to wipe out the entire map, but since the GLA don't know what they are doing, I guess they fizzle on every single attempt, which is a massive waste of resources and will guarantee this is the last game to feature the GLA as they will run out of money in about two minutes of building those money pits.

 

 

All that being said, this nuke truck still isn't as ridiculously stupid as the anti-vehicle toxin bomb.

[Plok 327]

Well obviously they aren't functional nuclear devices... A bomb as large as the one they put into those trucks should be able to wipe out the entire map, but since the GLA don't know what they are doing, I guess they fizzle on every single attempt, which is a massive waste of resources and will guarantee this is the last game to feature the GLA as they will run out of money in about two minutes of building those money pits.

Like I said

[Guest Stevie_K]

Your'e getting old, and your increasing knowledge about the world seems bound to conflict with things in games not behaving as they probably should in the real world.

 

I don't mind silly nuke trucks. It's an exciting unit, and I do not believe that people who can take Generals for what is (not very serious), will have a problem with it.

I think we are going to see more examples that this title is going to sacrifice realism in favor of better gameplay and more fun.

 

On another note, this was a really good developer diary.

[Nmenth 291]

A game doesn't have to throw suspension of disbelief out the window just because it isn't very serious. Red Alert 2 was even less serious and its demolition truck was a dirty bomb.

 

I should probably clarify though, the last sentence is the most important part. If they want to have terrorists with full scale nuclear devices, I'll just roll my eyes and caulk it up to a history of anti-nuclear technology propaganda that has made the common peon think the world has been teetering on the edge of a nuclear wasteland since World War II and anybody with a little uranium can build a nuclear bomb. I really just wrote the above because it seemed Plokite_Wolf expected it and I couldn't let him down.

 

However, if these developers keep thinking research is only for students and scientists, and try to pass off something so absurdly stupid as anti-vehicle toxins, I'm not going to just ignore it. I'm not asking for much, reading a dictionary is hardly even research anyway... How low to I have to set the bar for them?

[Guest Stevie_K]

Awesomeness, entertainment, excitement and exhilaration are keywords that are likely being prioritized higher than realism, common sense or even whether something as ridiculous as tank destroying acids makes any sense at all.

 

For the most part, I personally prefer things to make sense as well, but I can't say that I don't understand why Victory Games have chosen to design some aspects of the game through the imagination of a 10 year old. There's a large audience that finds these seemingly ridiculous game elements great.

[Nmenth 291]

something as ridiculous as tank destroying acids

An anti-vehicle acid bomb would be far less ridiculous than the anti-vehicle toxin bomb they came up with.

[Guest Rabbit]

Or frankly, just good ol' fashioned carbomb would be pretty neat. Pack a car with enough artillery shells and you've got an anti-everything in the immediate radius.

[Johnnyxp64 20]

the only think i impho agree is that there is no explosion to be consider WOW a small "nuke like explosion"....nop...the VFX guy has to do a bit more on that

i understand the consept that must be a bit of a failure but wtf, this explosions where just like all of those where destroyed!

[Guest Stevie_K]

An anti-vehicle acid bomb would be far less ridiculous than the anti-vehicle toxin bomb they came up with.

That's actually the one I meant.

[Nmenth 291]

In that case, I hope you just typed the wrong word and don't actually think acid and toxins are equivalent.

[Guest Stevie_K]

I am aware that there's a significant difference. It was a bit late, and I admit that I know close to nothing about toxic and acidulous weapons in the first place.

[Nmenth 291]

You don't need to know anything about them as weapons, toxins are just inherently biological by definition.