More Archived News

 

.::Site Updates     Posted 2-18-03 | 9:16 PM | DontGivUp

Just to let all you guys know, I've been busy as hell trying to balance everything that has been going on lately and haven't had time to manage the Barracks.  It will probably be like that for a few more weeks.  I did have time however to process all the new FAQ questions I have received.  I have also received tournament sign up forms and have saved them and set them aside for when I have to organize a tournament.  I also added a new link to the fan site list.  Unfortunately Ojo has been out of the loop for a long time and his return to the Barracks any time soon is questionable.  Look for another update in a few weeks, though I may find more time during this week. -DGU

.::Big News is Here     Posted 2-1-03 | 5:56 PM | DontGivUp

Well, sorry about the delay everyone.  Here is the big new I promised over two weeks ago.  Before I get to that however, I feel that it is important to say that our hearts here at the Barracks go out those who died on the Columbia earlier today.  You will not be forgotten.    Now to the news.  I had the article typed up a long while ago and had plans to add to it, however I just couldn't find the time.  So this is what I have.  I decided to just make the email I received about this big thing with a little bit of stuff added to both ends of it.  Some of you have surely heard about it and are probably wondering what the hell I'm doing posting stuff you already know, but from my understanding, most of the community is unaware of it. Recently, it was brought to my attention of this neat little thing called C&C Tiberian Dawn meets Star Wars: Total Conversion. It is a special mod that is not yet complete but from what I have seen shows great promise. I have was lucky enough to be able to email some questions to the creator of the Mod and he gave me some very thorough and in depth responses. Here is what he said: Wow... I didn't know the Barracks was still being updated. I remember visiting  the site a long time ago; even before I started modding C&C (I was making  missions back then). Well... about the mod... most of this is in the text file starwlog.txt that's  included in the mod (it's my logbook...), but anyway... First of all, it's NOT a C&C Gold mod. It started in 2001 as a DOS C&C only  mod. I made it Gold compatible before I had C&C gold though... after all it's  just adding the icons and the title screen, and making a few minor  modifications in the install program. I bought C&C Gold from my cousin last summer... that helped me to iron out the  bugs that I couldn't fix before. The thing that started it all was a small ZIP-file I found on some site. It  contained three structures and two units: The shield generator, adv. shield generator, Millennium Falcon (as building)  and the Speeder bike and Sandcrawler. That might not seem like much, but it was the biggest and most original mod  for C&C that was ever made. The only other C&C1 mods I had seen were a small  pack with two rather boring modifications of the Rocket Launcher and SSM, and  Andrew Griffin's (great) Flame Dancers campaign, where the oil pump was  replaced by the Flame pod, a flamethrower guard tower. That last one was quite a milestone for me too though... the first thing I  ever did in modding was making a build-up animation for that Flame Pod. > What was the inspiration that inspired you to do this? The inspiration behind the mod... well that's not so clearly defined. I just  started working on it because the Harvester was replaced by the Sandcrawler,  but the refinery's GFX were still the same, so that the  Sandcrawler seemed to turn back into a Harvester to unload... I just found it  looked stupid and 'updated' the Refinery's graphics. And then it just gradually continued. In the (rather -very- crappy) Morming  Tea mod for C&C Gold I found an icon of the Turbolaser turrets you see on the  first Death Star. However, the building itself was nowhere in the mod. So I  decided to try to actually make that turret. When it was finished I replaced  the turret's sound and the GFX of the projectile and the barrel flash, to  make it more real in battle,  When I saw that the tank bullet and barrel flash were the same for all tanks I  actually started to think about changing them all to SW units, and the idea  of the Total Conversion started to grow. It was never done before, but it was  done lots of times for RA. And since the graphical modding of C&C is exactly  the same as for RA I knew it had to be possible. > When do you think you will have the Mod totally complete? About a week ago I thought I would complete the mod (to my capacities) once I  made the AT-AT; the big Imperial Walker that would replace the Mammoth Tank. Since I have no 3D tools I have always made my stuff by hand in Paint Shop  Pro. That's pretty hard for the 32-image unit rotations, but it went well  until now. But the AT-AT was a bit too much... I never started it because I knew it would  be such a huge lot of work. And then I found Suricata... Suricata posted on the forum of the Red Alert Archive ( http://ra.afraid.org )  about a number of ships he rendered to use in RA. I saw what he was capable  of and asked him if he would render the AT-AT for my mod. He agreed... and as you can see on the site the AT-AT he made looks really  cool. But the mod isn't finished yet... Suricata asked me if he could render some  more stuff for the mod. I also had vague plans to replace the Humm-vee and  Nod Buggy by two kinds of Speeder bikes. He wanted to render them for me, so  they'll be added too. > How many units/structures do you plan on replacing? I don't know if I'll ever really complete the mod. I never really had a vision  of what I would add. I made a text file with ideas once but most of them were  impossible for me at the time I thought of them. But I really wanted to add  more units; I once downloaded all RA mods I could find to look for Star  Wars-related graphics. The only thing I found was the TIE bomber; and I used  it to replace the A-10 bomber. The mod kept growing... and it will probably  keep growing like that. Slowly, but with a Total Conversion as final goal. So I'm planning to replace nearly all units and structures. The major problem  is finding Star Wars alternatives for them. Basic things like a Construction  Yard, a Repair Bay or a Weapons Factory will most probably not be replaced. Also, weapons like the Flame Tank's Flame Thrower are difficult to replace,  since there are no flame throwers in SW. No matter what I add, there are a few things that will always characterize the  mod though: 1. I will never change unit settings. Creating a new game balance is terribly  difficult, and I'm not experienced with that. And it prevents multiplayer  compatibility with people that don't have the mod installed. 2. I will not use units/structures from episodes I/II/III. Only IV, V and VI. Like that I can really make the mod so that GDI is the Empire, and Nod are the  Rebels. I will also not invent new SW units that are not mentioned anywhere  in the movies or on Starwars.com. After all I need pictures from the movies  for my C&C Gold icons :) 3. Missions. I will probably make a few more SW missions. For now it's only  the Battle of Hoth (from the perspective of the Empire), but I think I'll  make an Endor mission too, where you play with the Rebels and have to destroy  the Death Star Power Uplink (Adv. Comm Center). However, I will probably not  make a campaign. I just finished High School, and I don't have as much free  time anymore now that I'm in College. And it's been a while since I made C&C  missions... I'll have to practice a bit first. As my mid-term exams start next week there probably won't be much updates...  but when I get the AT-AT's shadows done I -will- update the mod and the site. I've always been trying to get the C&C1 community back... I'm glad to see my  efforts don't seem to have been a waste of time. Oh...and you have a very good nickname :) Nyerguds Proud C&C1 mod maker :D This is clearly one of the greatest things to hit C&C in a long, long time. And since this mod is multiplayer compatible, you will be able to play with all "new" units and still maintain the wonderful balance that the game is known for. I'm also happy to report that Nyerguds has a deep file archives that we hope to intergrate with the Barracks' own archives of files. We will not likely post any more new files however, until we make our move to our new domain over at www.cncnz.com. I have also posted a link to Nyerguds website on the nav bar at left. At his site you can check out all of the units that he has created and the units they replace. You can also download the latest version of the mod. Head on over and check it out. Please note however that we here at the Barracks have not yet personally tested the mod and therefore cannot be held responsible for anything it does to your computer.