JVC about the Press Reveal of C&C

Posted by EA_CIRE, 11 Mar 2013

From Jon van Caneghem
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Hi everyone,
  I can’t state how excited everyone here at Victory Games is to have finally released more information and shown the gaming press our sneak peek of the game. We had great feedback from them (and from our community summit back in December) and are really looking forward opening up Command & Conquer to more people soon.

I want to highlight a few of the areas that we’re hearing great feedback on:

 
•   Our #1 priority and focus is on building a fun, balanced C&C game with old-school RTS game-play: base building, harvesting, and massive armies.
 
• A varied set of Generals to play as, opening the door to many different strategies and a whole matrix of possibilities within each game mode and each match.
 
• We’ve officially announced the Asia Pacific Alliance as our 3rd faction, rounding out with the European Union faction and the return of the Global Liberation Army.
 
• The impressive visuals and physics based destruction from the Frostbite engine really enhance the overall intensity of the experience.
• New game modes such as the cooperative objective based Onslaught mode, where you partner to fend off waves of enemies, are really fun.

I also want to dive a little deeper into what it means for C&C to be "free-to-play", and explain a bit about how Generals work in the new Command & Conquer. It’s our goal to give players full access to a fun RTS game with no barrier to entry. All factions, units, maps, and game modes will be available to everyone from the start. Our monetization will revolve around 3 core pillars, common in successful live services that want to avoid "pay to win" issues, and will be available with both earned and paid currencies:

 
• Gameplay – mainly the Generals, as outlined below, all balanced against each other.
 
• Customization – the ability to further personalize your Generals and other aspects of the game with varied visuals and audio.
 
• Convenience – for those with less time, the option to assist in leveling up faster for more choices.

Generals are the most exciting part of this new game to me. You may remember how Generals worked in C&C Generals Zero Hour, back in 2003. It’s very similar thinking – each General has unique advantages, and are balanced with disadvantages against all of the other Generals. We will be continuously adding new Generals for each faction, each with a combination of unique units, player powers, and taunts. Different Generals are ideal for different strategical play styles. Whether your strategies are typically around base defense, stealth, rush, tank power, or other – there are many different Generals to learn to play as and against.

Here’s an example of what you might see from a General focused on Air Power. This General comes with 2 specific Air Units that replace or upgrade other Units within their Faction. However, as with any RTS, there are trade-offs when it comes to modifying the tech tree; given that this "Air General" is stronger in the air and more capable of fielding aircraft early in a match, they are weaker on the ground, lacking certain high tier vehicles or upgrades that would otherwise form a key part of their endgame strategy.  Obviously, that is a relatively broad example, but we’re tuning and tweaking each General’s tech tree to make sure that they fit well within our overall game balance.

Beyond Unit and Upgrades, this "Air General" would also come with unique Player Powers, perhaps an Air Raid or similar large AOE direct-damage power that you can call in against an opponent. These "Generals Powers" are unlocked and upgraded throughout each match, increasing in power, effectiveness and even core functionality, and can be called upon to dramatically shift momentum during a heated battle.

Again, we are all very excited to build this game with the full feedback of our fans and our community, and want to reiterate that this is just the beginning. Being a live service, we have many years to continuously build upon and optimize the experience that we are bringing to you all.

If you haven’t already, you can register for the closed beta here.

Thanks to all of our fans and we look forward to seeing you in the game.
  Jon