Command & Conquer Remastered Collection | Welcome back Commander [C&C1+RA1]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Command & Conquer Remastered Collection | Welcome back Commander [C&C1+RA1]

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

This might be a good time to mention the C&C story thread over in Sci-Fi Wi-Fi: Just what the gently caress was happening in Command and Conquer. It is an exceptional read.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2020 20:29

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 01:47

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

I'm only a few missions into the GDI campaign but so far this remaster is very good.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 21:50

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Cool Gamer Tips for the Stolen Property (Belarus) GDI mission:

Don't ever stop, just keep going. You just need to reach the crate inside the base - attempting to fight anything is a fool's errand because the enemy can airdrop infinite enemies via helicopter (plus they have a tank, you don't). Make sure a grenadier is alive for the fence.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 23:26

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

All I have are humvees and grenadiers, meanwhile the enemy has a bunch of light tanks they can roll over my entire squadron with.

Yes, this is classic C&C alright.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 23:55

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Do not attempt to play Tanya's missions in RA on fast speeds. Those loving dogs.

I'm sure they're good dogs but please don't eat my mission-critical soldier.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 01:47

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

I've been looking into the enhanced cutscenes and videos. The old games used MIX archives and the videos were VQA (which is meant to stand for Vector Quantization). An in-house Westwood format, used in everything from C&C to Nox.

The remaster stores all the new video files in Petroglyph's MEG archives and the videos are in BIK and BK2 (Bink Video) format. It doesn't seem like Handbrake or VLC can open BK2 files. The original cinematics are all there, weirdly. \CnCRemasterded\Data\CNCDATA\ has folders for all the original discs (except RA's Soviet one?) - there's even an installer for Westwood Chat on one of them.

Nichael posted:

I think the answer to this is no, but is there anything in the Remaster that is new story wise? Like does the bonus gallery have anything on that front?

Only a few missions that were exclusive to the console releases... so no, nothing brand new.

ErrEff fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Jun 6, 2020

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 19:13

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

For anyone that wants to look into the archives and/or fiddle with mods:

Original C&C/RA mod tools: XCC Utilities (most of the download links there lead to XCC_Utilities.exe, which installs a suite of programs for extracting, viewing and modifying the old MIX data files)
Petroglyph mod tools: Petrolution MegEditor (for opening MEG archives)

And here are the Steam Workshop upload tools as provided by the devs. (Direct link)

Finally, here's a Nuke Tank Sample Mod on the workshop.

power crystals posted:

I just wish that opening the jukebox didn't stop playback for some insane reason, who decided that?

The jukebox is also shared between both TD and RA for whatever reason, so you can't have two different playlists.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 21:01

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Sininu posted:

Is the TD skirmish really limited to 4 players despite having maps with up to 8 slots?

Found this explanation on Reddit, from the devs:

quote:

We did experiment with that legacy functionality (Allowing more players than the map would recommend), but it just led to players spawning on top of each other and everything got messy. So we've decided to take a more modern approach, and setup each map for a max number of players with the ability to choose those starting locations. There will still be 8 player maps in Red Alert for larger games.

All the official maps in TD are 4 player but I downloaded a custom one that gave me 6 slots.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 23:19

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

I have more nostalgic feels for TD so that's what I've focused on more but RA is also really great.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 04:24

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Argh, this Allied mission 10 where you go inside the command center, while cool, is perfectly engineered to piss the player off. So many gotcha dog placements and patrols.

I know that you need to go south to get Tanya but once you get there the 20 minutes you had in the mission are suddenly 10, and you need to go to 4 stations in each of the corners. This is a micromanagement nightmare.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 12:35

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Yeah, I guess I'll have to do the preceding mission again. I got a really good run where I got three of the four launch consoles but I could not make it to the fourth one in time.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 12:57

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Yeah, this will quickly become a problem as more mods get released and they all start conflicting.

Drone posted:

Any way of extracting the new soundtrack from the game files? These remastered tracks, like the originals, fuckin' slap.

Yes, use this to open and extract all the files from MUSIC.MEG.

ErrEff fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Jun 7, 2020

# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 18:58

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Funcom nabbed an exclusive game license that spans like 6 years or something.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 20:06

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Fishbus posted:

I made an 8 player map for RA, it always crashes when you fill up to 7-8 players in an AI skirmish.

Works fine in standard maps, even made a quick 8 player map test and it crashes.

This happens with any custom map you make. Suuuuuuucks. I just wanna make a massive comp stomp map!

Made one myself and the same happens here. Doesn't depend on which slots I fill or spots I pick (I was thinking maybe only the P0-P3 entities worked), it's just that if the lobby has more than 4 players it won't work. Mine hangs on the load screen forever.

But with 4 players it works just fine.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 00:10

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Hard difficulty is indeed busted.

I found this in CONFIG.MEG, called DIFFICULTYADJUSTMENTS.XML - it's hard to tell if this is actually configuration for the Remaster, it might be 8-Bit Armies leftover stuff:

code:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<Difficulty_Adjustments>

	<Difficulty_Adjustment Name="Easy_Default">
		<Credit_Multiplier>0.75</Credit_Multiplier>
		<Strategic_Build_Time_Multiplier>1.5</Strategic_Build_Time_Multiplier>
		<Land_Build_Time_Multiplier>1.5</Land_Build_Time_Multiplier>
		<Damage_Multiplier>0.5</Damage_Multiplier>
	</Difficulty_Adjustment>

	<Difficulty_Adjustment Name="Normal_Default">
		<Credit_Multiplier>1.0</Credit_Multiplier>
		<Strategic_Build_Time_Multiplier>1.0</Strategic_Build_Time_Multiplier>
		<Land_Build_Time_Multiplier>1.0</Land_Build_Time_Multiplier>
		<Damage_Multiplier>1.0</Damage_Multiplier>
	</Difficulty_Adjustment>
	
	<Difficulty_Adjustment Name="Hard_Default">
		<Credit_Multiplier>1.15</Credit_Multiplier>
		<Strategic_Build_Time_Multiplier>0.9</Strategic_Build_Time_Multiplier>
		<Land_Build_Time_Multiplier>0.9</Land_Build_Time_Multiplier>
		<Damage_Multiplier>1.1</Damage_Multiplier>
	</Difficulty_Adjustment>

	<Difficulty_Adjustment Name="Hard_Scripted_Mission_Default">
		<Credit_Multiplier>1.3</Credit_Multiplier>
		<Strategic_Build_Time_Multiplier>1.0</Strategic_Build_Time_Multiplier>
		<Land_Build_Time_Multiplier>0.75</Land_Build_Time_Multiplier>
		<Damage_Multiplier>1.5</Damage_Multiplier>
	</Difficulty_Adjustment>

</Difficulty_Adjustments>

There is a lot of cruft from past Petroglyph games in there, so it's sometimes hard to tell what is being actually repurposed and what are unused leftover files from Grey Goo, 8-Bit Armies or Conan Unleashed. Most are labeled as CNC but a few have vague titles like GameConstants.xml and you can spot a few specific C&C references plugged in there. And sometimes you find funny comments:

code:

<StoneExpirationMultiplier> 1.0 </StoneExpirationMultiplier>
<!-- Adjusts stone timers on a global level 1.0 is normal.  DO NOT TOUCH THIS NUMBER (EVEN YOU CHRIS) WITHOUT SEEING ME FIRST! - PAT-->

3 DONG HORSE posted:

I am extremely triggered by Light Scout

If you haven't already seen it, there is a mod that changes it back to Hum-vee.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 18:39

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Some hard mode observations:

Grenadiers can one-shot a minigunner before he ever comes into firing range. They can also defeat a dune buggy in a full health attrition battle and survive with a sliver of health.

A single minigunner can take out a light tank because no matter how many times you try to alt-click him he will like 95% of the time manage to walk out of the way.

Two mammoth tanks squaring off against one another will result in the enemy one surviving at around 40% health. This is probably similar for faceoffs between other identical units that don't do crazy burst damage.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 23:37

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

axeil posted:

I also would put this up on the Steam Workshop if anyone could tell me how exactly I would need to package this.

If you have either of the available Zoom mods, they seem to be structured in the same way you'd need for this. You'd just stick the full CNCRULES.INI into the Data\XML\ path - the JSON files will be generated by the upload program. Oh, and the uploader is here.

(Disclaimer: I am not a workshop expert)

HardKase posted:

No Autosave. I've grown so used to it, i quit a campaign 4 missions in and lost all my progress *facepalm*

You can quicksave with Ctrl + N. If you fail you need to go back to the menu and manually load it.

ErrEff fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Jun 9, 2020

# ¿ Jun 9, 2020 04:46

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

I decided to run the First Decade version of C&C on Origin, just to get a better feel for the improvements to this remaster. Surprisingly it worked without any tweaks, though I used scaling to fix stretching. Petroglyph did a great job, I was already missing many of the features in the first few seconds of the initial GDI mission.

But what I'd totally forgotten about was the "sneak peek" stuff in the updated version of the game. There's trailers for Red Alert, Lands of Lore 2, Blade Runner and Tiberian Sun. Westwood sure was busy back then.

Made an attempt at playing TS but that one requires patches just to get past the menu screens.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2020 21:50

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Escape Goat posted:

With the Saturn/PS1 discussion, I looked up the N64 version of C&C. Woof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0dCOwh8gNo

N64's weaknesses are on full display with the texture detail and lack of storage for FMV. Pretty interesting port though, 3D models!

And a MIDI soundtrack... that's not bad?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWbl4KBpZW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBOn3zG8Wdg

I'm impressed at how they got around the animated cutscene limitations by simply re-enacting a bunch of the cutscenes in-engine. Like... it's horrible but they loving tried.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP3xhddUDKI

It's too bad about the music because the N64 supported audio streaming at that point in its lifespan but for some reason the game didn't use that tech, even though it was a Nintendo-published game.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2020 04:33

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 01:47

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Insert name here posted:

With the current popularity of battle royale games it's finally time for C&C Sole Survivor to take its rightful place as the greatest C&C game of all time

I was just thinking this the other day. Isn't Sole Survivor a very early example of that genre?

# ¿ Jun 10, 2020 20:19

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