CnCSaga's Interview With Jon Van Caneghem

[Plok 320]

Zéphyr from CnCSaga.com has made a short interview with Jon Van Caneghem two days ago on the new Command & Conquer. Other than restating the campaigns which were announced a few days ago, Van Caneghem explained how the exclusion of oil as a secondary resource was due to the alpha testers' feedback and when can beta applicants expect their keys.

Stay tuned for more information from gamescom.

[Guest Rabbit]

Pretty happy with this decision. The oil / funds combination is more of an unnecessary annoyance that really lacks any need for additional strategy.

[Plok 320]

I would've liked to see that in action, though. Oil was an interesting idea, as there are RTSs that function great with two resources (Blizzard...). It would slow the game down a bit, but the game would definitely be more interesting to play.

[Nmenth 289]

Nah, it sucked. I know many games have two or more resources, but oil just didn't work. It didn't really add anything to the game and was just tedious.

 

Dropping oil was a good move and makes trying the alpha again a lot more appealing.

[Guest Doug]

Especially considering all the oil wells so far are placed right next to the supply stashes. Hopefully with this new move they'll move them around the map more, and give reason to take them.

[PurpleGaga27 39]

In RA2, there were Oil Derricks.

In C&C Generals, there were Oil Derricks.

In C&C3, there were Tiberium Spikes.

In RA3, there were Oil Derricks.

In C&C4, there was the TCN, but harvesting resources wasn't used in the game.

 

Although you guys agree with the removal of oil as a secondary resource, I hereby do have to disagree. COH, MEC2 and SC all had great reasons to use oil or gas as a secondary resource. Getting rid of oil brings back the traditional C&C gameplay and economy in the old times with no secondary resources, but it would have been more interesting to use oil to enhance the gameplay. If there's no oil to be used, what about the Oil Derricks for this C&C F2P? Credits are need to be used as a backup neutral structure.

Edited August 24, 2013 by zocom7

[Guest Rabbit]

I'm all for the concept of an oil derrick or tiberium spike as a second way of generating revenue. I do not like the idea of having to generate oil as a second kind of revenue. Oil Derricks and Tiberium spikes were in all of those games, yes, but they gave you money. Up to this point in the alpha, oil derricks gave you oil, and you needed both oil and money to buy certain items. Now it's just back to money, like the classic C&C games. They'll probably still keep the oil derricks as a secondary means of gathering money.

[Banshee 28]

Zocom7, it is possible to design good RTS games using multiples resource types. Unfortunately, that wasn't well designed in the alpha, where people complained so much. If you could play it, you'd see that you had two different resource types that exausted too much quickly and limited the amount of advanced units that you could build, so you were forced to expand the base very frequently and it ended up not being cool at all. That ended being too much bureaucratic and reduced the fun factor of the game, in my point of view. So, their one resource solution is much better.

 

Adding a new resource type may add macromanagement to the game, but it isn't bad, as long as you don't add a huge bureaucratic layer into it. Starcraft does it well with Vespene, which is used to recruit advanced units. That inspired Oil as second resource in the alpha.

 

What you have to take in mind are the differences between Command & Conquer and Starcraft gameplay style and its restrictions. Starcraft has a unit limit and you can build more lower tier units than high tier units. Command & Conquer has no unit limit. High tier units in Command & Conquer are vastly superior to low tier units. I'm not saying that this doesn't happen in Starcraft, but the difference between high and low tier units in Command & Conquer is superior than in Starcraft. So, restricting high tier units it to those who have oil would give them a vast advantage in game.

 

Anyway, considering the experience they had, adapting the Starcraft vespene in Command & Conquer wasn't a good idea. Perhaps it wouldn't have been that bad if the resources didn't expire as quickly as it did ingame.

 

I think that it would be interesting if they try to use a second resource type as a way to allow a different tech tree to be built or something in that sense that doesn't cause such a disadvantage to those who who are unable to harvest it for whatever reason.