Command and Conquer 4 Announced

[Darkeagle]

http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/commandandconquer4/news.html?sid=6213111&mode=news


Command & Conquer 4 is pretty different from anything we've done before. While we're staying true to the core of real-time strategy play, we've also dug deep into what makes Command & Conquer the series it is and come up with a game we're really excited to finally reveal [to] the world. The most immediately impactful piece of information is that with Command & Conquer 4, we're finally taking the story arc that began with Tiberian Dawn to its dramatic conclusion. After years of enigmatic references to "Kane's plan" and "ascension," we felt it was high time we pulled back the curtain and really explored the what, why, and how of this universe we love so much.

However, that's just the story. There's a ton more that's new to C&C4 besides--notably our class system, our RPG-like elements and persistent player profiles, our massively revised multiplayer backend, and a hundred other things worth talking about.

It looks like it will be good, i never really got into The series apart from generals, and i personally dont like red alert at all, but this has defiantly caught my eye.

Other Features Include:


Each Faction will be split up into Three upgradable classes

Players gain experience from single and multi player , that they can use in there single player profiles

Players will start with a basic number of units, then build up, to give the game a more gentle learning curve


Up to 10 players online at one time


This sounds like a great game, im defiantly up for buying it, anyone else going to join me?

[Colonel Mitch]

Maybe.

[Bloo]

"Hey look, we have a great new idea, lets make it more RPG based!" Is what most dev's say when they want to make a game different.

Meh, it looks like they just grabbed Dawn of War 2 and reworked it into the C&C universe. The "Attack Defend and Support!" styles especially.

[Chalex4]

These games are always hyped up to the extreme, and them like RA3 they are a total let down.

Let's just hope this is going to be as good as they say it is.

[D_K_Head]

...C&C...


nah.

[Target]

Yeh C&C have always been pretty good games even the weaker ones, doubt they'll ever make anythin as good as generals but I do like some features of Dawn of War. I may get it but will have to have a look at some more game play and reviews first. This may even get shown at i37???

Just looking at DE's link on the comments below,there seems to be a lot of hate for this game from people who have played it since the series began, and they have pointed out all the similarites between DoW and star wars battelfronts, at tbh i can see what they mean. CnC seem to be good at making 1 awesome, some ok and then 1 that just brings huge dissappointment after all the hype, maybe its worth waiting to see what the general consensus is and see if there actually will be anybody playing the game to do multiplayer :D

[Calneon]

- 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.
-APOC

Source (http://www.cncden.com/)

Looks like another one of EA's 'anti-piracy' schemes that punishes paying customers and does nothing to stop piracy. This time it's disguised as a progression system where singleplayer helps increase your rank, so you need to always be connected. EA seems to be missing the point, "You won't need a fast connection, in fact, you could be on age-old dial-up", the fact that you NEED an internet connection to play SINGLEPLAYER is bullshit IMO.

[Bloo]

Source (http://www.cncden.com/)

Looks like another one of EA's 'anti-piracy' schemes that punishes paying customers and does nothing to stop piracy. This time it's disguised as a progression system where singleplayer helps increase your rank, so you need to always be connected. EA seems to be missing the point, "You won't need a fast connection, in fact, you could be on age-old dial-up", the fact that you NEED an internet connection to play SINGLEPLAYER is bullshit IMO.

Who knows, maybe they want it to have a significant online presence as well? And anyway, I don't think its too bad that you need to be online to play a game. After all, that's practically what you have to do for any game bought over steam (yes yes, there is an offline mode, but try it, it's shit as anything).

[Target]

Its not that bad really, I mean pretty much everyone in the world has the internet of some sort and people who game usually have the internet spose it is a pain if u r internet is broken, but to most shuldn't be a problem

[Calneon]

Yeah I guess it's not a problem for most people, i'm just don't like the principle of bad DRM. If EA make it something more than just singleplayer ranks then it could be decent.

[Bloo]

Yeah I guess it's not a problem for most people, i'm just don't like the principle of bad DRM. If EA make it something more than just singleplayer ranks then it could be decent.

I believe the idea carries over to multiplayer, as you level up as it were, you get access to different units and different tactics and just general more complexity. This makes me wonder about balancing issues, but then again that may be why they're playing up the team multiplayer aspect.

[Calneon]

You shouldn't have to complete singpleplayer missions to unlock things for multiplayer. Period.

If that was the case you would need to complete singleplayer to have a chance at multiplayer, and you would constantly be facing players who can't compete because they haven't completed SP. Anyway, i can't wait to see how they're planning on doing it, because if i don't like it i simply won't buy it.

[Bloo]

Uhmm, the idea is that as you play, you unlock stuff. Period. Both are combined, so playing online helps you in singleplayer and vice versa.


EDIT: Sorry to say, but seriously, did you even read the gamespot article at the top of the page?


Essentially, whenever you play Command & Conquer 4, be it in single-player, co-op, skirmish, or online, you earn experience that collects in your persistent player profile. Within the profile, you use your experience pool to level up your classes, earning new units, structures, powers, and upgrades. Since your profile is persistent across the game, you can then take your new toys and put them to use in any of our game modes.

Seems pretty clear to me.

[Calneon]

Which I think is lame. Multiplayer should be stand alone otherwise it causes all sorts of balance issues.

Haven't spent 20 hours completing the singleplayer campaign? Then you can't use this unit in multiplayer while your opponent can, giving you an unfair disadvantage! I guess it doesn't matter if you aren't competitive in RTS, it's would be just like WoW, the longer you spend playing the game the better equipment you get which gives you an advantage in PvP. It works well in an MMO but I don't see it working in an RTS.

I'm not arguing that it didn't say that in the article, i'm just saying I think it's a bad idea.

[Bloo]

Or perhaps after 20 hours of playing on multiplayer and then that guy comes online, you'll be on an equal footing.

[Target]

Im sure people will just find the config file and change it some elses like they did with cod4 so they have everything, but if they can't then it could be a prob, you'll just have to complete the whole singleplayer, but tbh most people do this to learn how to play the game and find out which units r good and which are not.

[Calneon]

Im sure people will just find the config file and change it some elses like they did with cod4 so they have everything, but if they can't then it could be a prob, you'll just have to complete the whole singleplayer, but tbh most people do this to learn how to play the game and find out which units r good and which are not.
Playing singleplayer gives usually gives no indication of how good a unit is in multiplayer, besides the basic usage (eg. AA, AT, special abilities). I also doubt the ranking would be stored locally as it was in CoD4, as you will probably have a profile more akin in BF2.

Many people will play a bit of SP and then want to jump into multiplayer ASAP, after which the SP becomes a bore because MP is much more exhilarating.

EDIT: Ok this has somewhat satisfied me:


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.

[Calneon]

Teaser released (I hate it when people call teasers trailers).

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-debut-command/53140

Means nothing to me because I don't know the storyline :).

[Target]

The single player in C&C is usually really good and worth playin through and it does kinda help with multiplayer as u figure out which units are useful and actually worth building and gets u use to using different combos of units but obv multiplayer is more of a challenge and requires better strats :D

That trailers so pointless, massive build up to nothing :P

[Bloo]

The orb thing with the equations is probably Tacitus, a plot macguffin which is very important but I really can't remember why. Probably a more effective way of combatting tiberium.


EDIT: Also they're using P90's in the mid 21th century in an alternate reality where the events of Red Alert 1 happened. *shakes head*