OCTOBER NEWS Part 1

PC Fan : Will units carry over?
Erik Yeo : Certain units can carry over in certain missions. The original plan was for veteran units to carry over, but when I was playing around with it, I found myself purposely not finishing missions so I could increase my guys' levels. And then I realized "how the hell am I going to balance this?!" We'd never know what the players got! We could've put a limit on what the players could carry over, but that sucks.
PC Fan : How long does it take for the subterrainian APC to get from one side of the map to the other?
Erik Yeo : It depends on the size of the map. But it does take them a significant amount of time, because they're very slow and they can't go under water.

• Order Games Now!
• Order Strategy Games Now!
• Command and Conquer
  • Command and Conquer for Windows 95
  • Command and Conquer for DOS
  • Command and Conquer White Label
  • Command and Conquer for Mac
  • Command and Conquer: Sole Survivor (win95)
  • Command and Conquer: The Covert Operations (win95)
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert
  • Red Alert for Windows 95
  • Red Alert for DOS
  • Red Alert Domination Pack (win95)
  • Red Alert: Counterstrike (win95)
  • Red Alert: The Aftermath (win95)
• Starcraft (win95)
• Quake II (win95)
• Tomb Raider II (win95)
• Jedi Knight (win95)

$creamer : What is the forgottens' leader's name ?
Rade : We'll reveal this on our web page.

$creamer : Will the special unit(like Tanya) be male or female, which side will she be on and what's her name ?
Rade : There are several special units, some are male, some are female.

$creamer : How strong is the gate ?
Rade : Like a wall, more or less.

$creamer : Can you build on roads ?
Rade : No.

$creamer : What is Chandra's role in the game ?
Rade : He's McNeil's right hand man.

$creamer : Is the music in the trailor movie the theme song for TS ?
Rade : Nope.

$creamer : When you say the mayor will help you, do you mean that he is a living charactor(a real actor) ?
Rade : The mayor is not an actor, he's just an element in the game, which will help you if you treat his city well.

$creamer : When you choose to take the hard route(not take any side missions), won't you lose some of the cut-scenes or bits of the story ?
Rade : You won't lose track of the story if you don't take any side missions. We've been careful so this won't happen.

$creamer : The jump-jet infantry...will they have a certain amount of fuel to fly with and if it's finished it's finished or will they be able to refuel or has it got nothing to do
with fuel ?
Erik Yeo : I'm still playing witht the jump jet infantry, but I won't do anything like fuel. Too much data to remember for the player. (I know I wouldn't want to remember which jumper had what fuel.)

$creamer : Are you still working 16 hours a day ?
Erik Yeo : Always working. Even when I think I'm not. :)

PC Fan: One thing that I really liked about StarCraft was how you could select all on one unit type...
Erik Yeo: Yeah, we've included that feature in the game as well as the "last message" feature that takes you to the place on the map where the last transmission occurred. So, when you hear "harvester under attack," all you have to do is press the space bar and it'll take you right to that spot.
PC Fan: Will you have to pay for these missiles or will there be a time limit?
Erik Yeo: There will be a time limit in multiplay - one every 11 minutes. The chemical missile's a little different. There are certain elements in the game that Nod can harvest beyond the Tiberium that they use in the chemical missile. Once they've harvested enough of this material, they can launch the missile toward GDI. Where ever it lands, it can create more of this material - but the material isn't worth anything to anyone else except for Nod. If I was GDI and someone dropped this missile in my base, I'd be in a significant amount of trouble.
PC Fan: How many mutants do you receive?
Erik Yeo: You get three. The mutants are called "The Forgotton", but I can't remember the specific names for the commandos right now. It had to do with the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse but I trashed it because we ended up with three mutants instead of four. Originally, there was to be four. We also considered calling the commandos the "Dustmen". We'll settling on something. Basically, we've got the vehicle hijacker - he can steal any vehicle. There's the sniper, she's female. She's also one of the main characters you'll see in the cutscenes. Any infantry unit can be taken out from incredible range, plus she's very fast. The last one, "Ghostalker" is a heavy weapons expert. He can blow up buildings, do C-4 stuff, and has a heavy rocket launcher that can be fired from long range. So imagine a mission were you use one of them to swipe an APC. Then you load the other two into the back and you drive that into the enemy base because it looks like theirs to them. So they're like "oh come on in." And you come in and start wasting everybody (laughter fills the room)!

Spartan: Describe the first GDI mission to our readers.
Yeo: Okay, we've got a field of Tiberium here with some green light showing us that it's glowing. There's some drop troopers coming to rescue this lone GDI soldier who's been left over after Nod's massacred the Phoenix base. This whole first mission actually takes place right as the intro ends, so everything ties in together. We've now got movies that show here in the sidebar (the mapscreen). They help move the story forward and tell you what's going on. Also, if the mission suddenly changes, because sometimes you'll trigger something that creates an event, the movie will pop up and give you new orders. Sometimes it'll just be a soldier spouting off something like he's discovered something for the first time or if he's ambushed. There's a lot more story going on in-game now and you'll recognize that right off the bat in the first mission.
Spartan: So, I'm assuming Nod will ultimately get a crack at that GDI spacestation?
Yeo: Oh yes, in huge firework fashion! The ending cinematics for both sides will be spectacular. You know, burning up in the atmosphere, whole planet (gestures with his hands as if something's blowing up). It's going to be over the top, but that's what people want to see: lots of stuff blowing up!
Spartan: How do the controls work this time around? I assume you haven't changed the interface too drastically...
Erik Yeo: We've adjusted the controls quite a bit. You don't have to move your cursor to the side now to scroll around the map. You can just hold down the right click button and you've now got fine control over where it scrolls and how fast it moves.

Of course, EVA (GDI) and Cabal (Nod) now have more information for the player too, so you won't hear things like "Unit under attack," instead if it's something important like your harvester you'll hear "harvester under attack" or "base defenses under attack" or "production facilities under attack". That makes a big difference.

The third alien race, the forgotten will play a prominent role in single and multiplayer games. A trio of highly trained mercs can be hired in exchange for medical supplies or ammon found buildings and such. This trio consists of a thief who can hijack vehicles, a long range sniper, and a heavy artillery expert who can take out buildings. Together, this little team makes a very potent and dangerous threat. Imagine stealing an enemy's APC, loading it up with those mercs and then invading the enemy base! I smell lots of good strategies with these guys...