[Mishkin]

Well actually, I'm pretty sure EA is gonna change jack shit for the final game. We all witnessed their shoddy coding work in Generals/Zh, and I'm sure it'll turn up here too.

I can't wait to play around with it...

So is this XML anything like INI editing and I'm glad that they got rid of .wnd's fucking headache that was.

[jonwil]

Except that WND files have been replaced with APT UI which are binary files that aparently use some variant of Flash in there somewhere and which no-one has been able to even begin to edit yet.

[IHM]

We can only hope EA make a set of tools for C&C 3.

[DeeZire]

Originally Posted by jonwil";p=&quot

Except that WND files have been replaced with APT UI which are binary files that aparently use some variant of Flash in there somewhere and which no-one has been able to even begin to edit yet.

I wouldnt say that - I edited one of the APT UI files in BFME to get more spells displayed for skirmish and multiplayer games - normally, there are more spells in the singleplayer campaign than in other modes so I changed the APT file so theres the same number no matter what mode you play in The APT files mini Flash applets, kinda like self contained applications that communicate with the engine, passing info to & fro.

Download and play my BFME mod to see it in action, shitloads of people were asking me how I did it - it's simple enough, albeit time consuming, but with a hex editor its easy if you know exactly what youre looking for and what you want to achieve.

[IraqiPeopleRocks]

Nice Advert

But meh, WND editing is much easier than using a silly HEX Editor ....

[Mere_Mortal]

Originally Posted by Mishkin";p=&quot

We all witnessed their shoddy coding work in Generals/Zh, and I'm sure it'll turn up here too.

Damn right, Lord of the INIs will probably agree too :lol: Comments a'plenty (including ommitted code), repeated code on ZH (separate objects for each General, this only helps an editor), thousands of 0.00 occurrences in ParticleSystem and others...they could've lost maybe a few hundred megabytes by trimming their code. Not to mention the actual layout of the object files making them almost incomprehensible.

Then there's the Art modules...seperate entries for each weather condition when instead they could've used a single entry per each ConditionState and have something like "SnowModelDamaged = Model_SD" in addition to the default model. Again this would've saved a lot of space.

[Mongoose]

I personly can't wait myself to see what a mess this going to be, i can already tell from EA's past 'Masterworks' that it's going to be a bloody mess that will only make things more troubel-sum for us modders.

On a good note i do belive it isnt gonig to be all hell, i'm sure EA will realese some tools even if it takes a year or two.

[Wize]

It's all wishful dreams and desires. I'd like to put my neck out and say "Sure, it'll be easy" but given a poor track record and broken promises (Just look at the Rise of the Witch-King patch (ergo, non-existant patch) ). EA has unfortunately built an empire on making the wrong choices, with the wrong people and not following through on their word.

Take BFME1 for example. Mark Skaggs and Dustin Browder. Without a doubt 2 of the best Westwood employees ever. They were present on BFME1 and it was a great game, then look at the sh*thole BFME2 became when that was released, not to mention RotWK. It's a track record of absolute pathetic ability and what makes matters worse is that the dev team has barely changed. EA is still going with their "winning formula" because their formula is to re-make C&C into their vision. I remember explaining to my friend Mike Verdu's real blog meaning on technology:

"When Mike Verdu made that blog about technology, he wasn't giving us a reason for why GDI went backwards, he was shouting out to the community that things have changed. No longer is C&C a westwood creation and it won't ever will be. THis is EA now and it's EA's way, so you forget mostly anything that should be even remotely likely, because EA are turning this world on it's head. It's a sad fact but EA have done all this to tell us that it's over, it's EA's game now, on EA's way. Like it or lump it, they don't give a shit".

In regards to modding, it's still the same. I'm sure many of you remember the fabled "Generals Ladder Kit" (Insert Edna Crabapple's "HA!" Here). A Mod SDK that game out for 1 game a year after it was released, that was also "designed to be for" games released years before. Imagine if that SDK was necessary to mod Gen and we'd had to wait all that time?. I'd like to see I can' see EA being this moronic and braindead as NOT to include strong and functional support but then again, i've seen them make worse decisions. So take it with a grain of salt. Personally, I believe that the age of modding inovation is long dead now. We may have some form of straight out of the box modding, but otherwise I wouldn't be expecting anything on the level of say Blitzkreig anytime remotely soon.

[Mongoose]

Well, this dose raise a good point, it seems EA will have killed off the modding community if they do what they have done over the meny years. This makes me very upset to think about about since i spent meny years of my life modding CNC.

However there is a good side to this, there are still plently of bright minds out there who can think up and mange and good mod but it might not be for CNC this time, more than likly people will port over to supcom and get the same effect ifnot better so not all hope is lost.

[Wize]

I do like to be optimistic, but there's a fine line between optimism and insanity and I don't like to cross it.

And granted with SupCom, but I find it's way too slow and not what I prefer. I've gone to Dawn of War Editing for now, which I much prefer. A good C&C Mod for Dawn of War would have huge potential (IMO)