Discuss Tiberian Dawn: Ground Zero Official Q&A Thread!

[Killing_You]

Well, it seems you all have a lot of questions. And with these questions shall come answers! Welcome to the official Questions and Answers (Q&A) Thread for Tiberian Dawn: Ground Zero!

Feel free to ask any question that you have- any at all- and myself or ICE will answer it! There are no wrong questions, so long as it relates to GZ, so ask away!

[NodGuy]

Will GDI get the gunboat?

And this is awesome guys! I am so excited. I truly hope you keep the units authentic and matching the cut-scenes from the game. That has always been a dream for me.

[Killing_You]

1 minute ago, NodGuy said:

Will GDI get the gunboat?

The Gunboat is not planned for the first release. We do plan on eventually having it, however, and it will be included in some form.

2 minutes ago, NodGuy said:

And this is awesome guys! I am so excited. I truly hope you keep the units authentic and matching the cut-scenes from the game. That has always been a dream for me.

Thank you! Accuracy to Tiberian Dawn is one of our goals. 

[Metaridley]

Are new modeled visceroids in the game (renegades model is pretty ugly)?

Airstrike Power for GDI? Nods Nuke could be a base destroyer and ion canon a One-Building Finisher so it would be logical to balance it with a second power for GDI.

Dinosaurs for the Game? (APB gets Ants so Dinos for GZ!)

will be game exclusive new units in this game? (like APBs Captain and Shotgunners)

Will you use some assets from APB and TSR (as example, the walls in TD are exactly the same as in RA1 so it would be logical to use them for the bases)?

[Killing_You]

1 minute ago, Metaridley said:

Are new modeled visceroids in the game (renegades model is pretty ugly)?

Visceroids are not in yet. When they come (we're still not sure if they'll be in the first release), we're probably going to give them a new model.

1 minute ago, Metaridley said:

Airstrike Power for GDI? Nods Nuke could be a base destroyer and ion canon a One-Building Finisher so it would be logical to balance it with a second power for GDI.

Airstrikes and super weapons will not be in the first release. They will be in a later patch.

1 minute ago, Metaridley said:

Dinosaurs for the Game? (APB gets Ants so Dinos for GZ!)

That would be cool, however we won't really focus on them. If they happen, it'll be because we had spare time to devote to them. But on a personal note, I would certainly like to have them.

1 minute ago, Metaridley said:

will be game exclusive new units in this game? (like APBs Captain and Shotgunners)

Aside from the Medic, most likely not. We should have a blog out within a week detailing infantry classes.

1 minute ago, Metaridley said:

Will you use some assets from APB and TSR (as example, the walls in TD are exactly the same as in RA1 so it would be logical to use them for the bases)?

Most likely. I don't want to officially say which in case we change our minds, but shared assets is a high probability.

[Cat]

Is there gonna be a Mobile HQ mode?

Are weapons seen/mentioned in the manual or cutscenes in the game? (Beretta, the commando's shotgun, etc)

(if helicopters are in the game)Can the Engineer or Commando hijack passenger-less transport helicopter?

[Killing_You]

20 minutes ago, Cat said:

Is there gonna be a Mobile HQ mode?

Currently, we only plan to have C&C Mode for first release, but adding more game modes afterward would be cool. I'm not sure what you mean by Mobile HQ mode, though.

20 minutes ago, Cat said:

Are weapons seen/mentioned in the manual or cutscenes in the game? (Beretta, the commando's shotgun, etc)

The manual and cutscenes will be used as reference material for development (for example, the Minigunners will have the GAU-3/M16 for GDI/Nod, respectively). However, the Commando will not have a shotgun.

20 minutes ago, Cat said:

(if helicopters are in the game)Can the Engineer or Commando hijack passenger-less transport helicopter?

That's... actually an interesting idea. It won't be in the first release, but it is something we could look into later.

[GraYaSDF]

1 hour ago, Killing_You said:

I'm not sure what you mean by Mobile HQ mode, though.

He probably means MCV mode where you need to defend your own MCV and defend your base too, while attacking hostile MCV and buildings. When you are losing MCV, no matter how many buildings left, you lose the match. It is kind of forgotten gamemode introduced in C&C Renegade Sole Survivor:

 

Even if it is not that Cat is talking about, then I would love to see this gamemode, I love escort tactics, it is intense.

Edited January 5, 2019 by GraYaSDF
Mobius (not MCV) gamemode canceled by Westwood Studios, and I would love to see that too, see gamemodes.txt

[KevinLancaster]

Mobile HQ mode was part of Nyerguds patch:

The unit appears in the Capture the Flag (CTF) multiplayer mode of Command & Conquer when bases are disabled.
Normal CTF games spawn the players' MCVs with a flag attached, which is placed next to the construction yard on a flag pedestal when the MCV is deployed. When a player manages to steal the flag from its pedestal and bring it to their own, the 'resign' function triggers for the player whose flag was captured, causing all their units and structures to explode.
The mobile HQ compensates for the lack of fixed base positions to steal/capture flags in no-base games; its destruction triggers the 'resign' function for the owning player, again causing their immediate destruction.

http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Mobile_headquarters

Note that AI players will get a Mobile HQ in Capture The Flag mode too, since the AI never has a base, and technically the Mobile HQ mode is simply CTF mode without bases.

http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106/patch106c_r3_en.html#toc_8.2

Edited January 5, 2019 by KevinLancaster

[GraYaSDF]

Thanks for the info, Kevin. By the way, when I was thinking about which GDI and Nod vehicles to choose for AI-tanks, I discovered that Mobile HQ was also an experimental unit in Interim Apex. It has a special script "z_MHQ_Death_Endgame", and if that vehicle is destroyed, the opposite team wins the match.

[Killing_You]

Alrighty. Well, that definitely sounds like an interesting game mode! Can't guarantee that it'll be in the first release, but it'll definitely be something we look into!

[MPRA2]

10 hours ago, Killing_You said:

The manual and cutscenes will be used as reference material for development (for example, the Minigunners will have the GAU-3/M16 for GDI/Nod, respectively). However, the Commando will not have a shotgun.

actually, you know whats funny? I did a little looking into the infantry build icons, the PDF Manual of the game, and some screenshots of infantry used in the TD Cutscenes and...

The flamethrower literally uses an M3 Grease Gun which is weird I seriously don't know why they'd do that aside from not being able to use an actual flamethrower. (the chem warrior also uses the M3) Looking at a CG rendition of a Flamethrower: I believe the correct model of the flamethrower to be either an M1A1 American made Flamethrower

or the LPO-50

 

The Minigunners use the Gau-3, Calico, M16. Other than giving a "sidebar selection" option for the "rifleman" unit, I cant see how randomly giving someone one of the 3 guns would work without complaints of "balance". I would however, model each gun to have a slight damage value difference, fire rate difference, magazine capacity difference, etc to balance out each weapon and make it so that not everyone just (for example) chooses the Gau-3 because it fires faster or does more damage. (which to my knowledge, all 3 weapons serve with 5.56mm ammunition in the TD universe)

On the Commando however. To keep it "as canon and fun as possible", I would just give the commandos a variation of a sniper rifle/battle rifle, and instead of the SMG you mentioned earlier, give them a slightly tweaked Cobretti AR-70 with a silencer on it. the AR-70 isn't non-canon to the TD universe, and was used during the first tiberium war, however wasn't widely used outside of commando forces until late-war (near when Renegade took place). the Cobretti would use a 12.7mm round, which would do slightly more damage against infantry. I would also suggest giving it a 50 round drum magazine to balance the gun out.

Apologies for the images being all over the place.

 

[Killing_You]

3 minutes ago, MPRA2 said:

actually, you know whats funny? I did a little looking into the infantry build icons, the PDF Manual of the game, and some screenshots of infantry used in the TD Cutscenes and...

The flamethrower literally uses an M3 Grease Gun which is weird I seriously don't know why they'd do that aside from not being able to use an actual flamethrower. (the chem warrior also uses the M3) Looking at a CG rendition of a Flamethrower: I believe the correct model of the flamethrower to be either an M1A1 American made Flamethrower

or the LPO-50

APB's using the LPO-50, so we'll be using something else. Right now we're looking at the M9.

3 minutes ago, MPRA2 said:

 

The Minigunners use the Gau-3, Calico, M16. Other than giving a "sidebar selection" option for the "rifleman" unit, I cant see how randomly giving someone one of the 3 guns would work without complaints of "balance". I would however, model each gun to have a slight damage value difference, fire rate difference, magazine capacity difference, etc to balance out each weapon and make it so that not everyone just (for example) chooses the Gau-3 because it fires faster or does more damage. (which to my knowledge, all 3 weapons serve with 5.56mm ammunition in the TD universe)

That's not the plan. GDI Minigunners will have the GAU-3, while Nod will have the M16.

3 minutes ago, MPRA2 said:

On the Commando however. To keep it "as canon and fun as possible", I would just give the commandos a variation of a sniper rifle/battle rifle, and instead of the SMG you mentioned earlier, give them a slightly tweaked Cobretti AR-70 with a silencer on it. the AR-70 isn't non-canon to the TD universe, and was used during the first tiberium war, however wasn't widely used outside of commando forces until late-war (near when Renegade took place). the Cobretti would use a 12.7mm round, which would do slightly more damage against infantry. I would also suggest giving it a 50 round drum magazine to balance the gun out.

We don't want to use Renegade weapons.

[M.Waqar Younis]

will the game be in 3D or 2D/2.5D?

(apologies if this has already been answered/known)

[Killing_You]

4 minutes ago, M.Waqar Younis said:

will the game be in 3D or 2D/2.5D?

(apologies if this has already been answered/known)

3D, same as the other projects.

[M.Waqar Younis]

10 minutes ago, Killing_You said:

3D, same as the other projects.

Yayy!!!

can you tell what it will look like?

Generals?

C&C 3?

Generals 2?

or something completely different?

[Killing_You]

Just now, M.Waqar Younis said:

Yayy!!!

can you tell what it will look like?

Generals?

C&C 3?

Generals 2?

or something completely different?

It's not an RTS. It's an FPS, same as APB, AR, TSR, ECW, IA, and BFD. You can see some early screenshots in the announcement thread.

[M.Waqar Younis]

Just now, Killing_You said:

It's not an RTS. It's an FPS, same as APB, AR, TSR, ECW, IA, and BFD. You can see some early screenshots in the announcement thread.

wow, I never knew there was this thread here!

Thank you!

Good luck!

[Jeod]

You told me that this was kind of your way of learning how to develop on the w3dengine without the inexperience intervening in the more advanced ongoing projects, did I get that right? Is this project more of a sandbox sort of thing (for now), that shouldn't take away resources from existing projects like AR and Reborn?

If so, how much of a complete greenhorn are you willing to accept to the dev team? Are we talking "what's a model" greenhorn, or "what's a dds file" greenhorn, etc.? In short, I'm seeing this as a "if you don't know jack about w3dengine but want to learn, this is where you board the train". Correct me if that's the wrong outlook please!

[Killing_You]

Just now, Jeod said:

You told me that this was kind of your way of learning how to develop on the w3dengine without the inexperience intervening in the more advanced ongoing projects, did I get that right? Is this project more of a sandbox sort of thing (for now), that shouldn't take away resources from existing projects like AR and Reborn?

In a sense, yes! Part of the reason we kept it simple is because we don't want to impede the progress of AR or Reborn, but rather develop naturally alongside them.

Just now, Jeod said:

If so, how much of a complete greenhorn are you willing to accept to the dev team? Are we talking "what's a model" greehorn, or "what's a dds file" greenhorn, etc.?

I suppose it depends on how willing you are to learn. While you wouldn't be brought on with a snap of some fingers, we could definitely have a few conversations. Get you learning what to do and how to do it. 

[ChopBam]

@Jeod joining any of the projects grants you some exclusive access to staff and resources that you wouldn't otherwise have. So I'd say go for it if you're interested!

[Cat]

About the Mobile HQ part, yes I was talking about the one in Tiberian Dawn where you start with the MHQ unit (it looks like the MRJ from Red Alert) and 1-50 other units (depending on the Unit Count setting) with no MCV. You need to enable Capture The Flag mode and disable Bases mode to play it. I think Nyerguds patch only made it more simple to choose from the menu.

On 1/5/2019 at 4:17 PM, Killing_You said:

That's... actually an interesting idea. It won't be in the first release, but it is something we could look into later.

Yeah but it's not my idea since it's doable in C&C. It was an intended feature as some missions involve stealing enemy helicopter to sneak around. I know it won't have much use since it's rare for a commando or engineer to come across an enemy helicopter but I think it would be fun if minor side abilities are included as well like how APB Tesla Tanks could jam enemy radars.

 

One more question: Is Frank Klepacki's music gonna be in the game?

Edited January 8, 2019 by Cat
typo

[Killing_You]

3 hours ago, Cat said:

Yeah but it's not my idea since it's doable in C&C. It was an intended feature as some missions involve stealing enemy helicopter to sneak around. I know it won't have much use since it's rare for a commando or engineer to come across an enemy engineer but I think it would be fun if minor side abilities are included as well like how APB Tesla Tanks could jam enemy radars.

I wasn't aware of this, to be honest. It's definitely something we could look into.

3 hours ago, Cat said:

One more question: Is Frank Klepacki's music gonna be in the game?

We'd be insane not to! 

[wolf]

Is that the renegade alpha flametank?

[Killing_You]

5 minutes ago, wolf said:

Is that the renegade alpha flametank?

Yes, although it is a placeholder and not intended to be the final model.

[OrangeP47]

On the topic of music (and contributing to this thread  ), and this actually goes for any mod on here really, have you guys ever investigated partnering with some of the actual RTS mods to "borrow" some of their soundtrack?  Twisted Insurrection has a pretty badass one, with several remixes of TD songs (and other games in the series).

[Killing_You]

3 hours ago, OrangeP47 said:

On the topic of music (and contributing to this thread  ), and this actually goes for any mod on here really, have you guys ever investigated partnering with some of the actual RTS mods to "borrow" some of their soundtrack?  Twisted Insurrection has a pretty badass one, with several remixes of TD songs (and other games in the series).

Not to my knowledge, but that's actually a great idea!

[big iron]

Will TD: Ground Zero feature game mechanics from RA:APB? (Dynamic Accuracy, Simultaneous health and armor damage, etc.)

[Killing_You]

39 minutes ago, big iron said:

Will TD: Ground Zero feature game mechanics from RA:APB? (Dynamic Accuracy, Simultaneous health and armor damage, etc.)

There are a few features (such as dynamic accuracy, sprinting, and crouch stealth) that we do plan on implementing.

[NodGuy]

On 1/4/2019 at 2:02 PM, Metaridley said:

Airstrike Power for GDI? Nods Nuke could be a base destroyer and ion canon a One-Building Finisher so it would be logical to balance it with a second power for GDI.

Ion Cannon can always have a bigger radius. Just look at these videos: