Command & Conquer 4
EA answered your questions.
Command and Conquer 4 lead designer Sam Bass and senior producer Mike Gloseki have been answering your questions live on Eurogamer this afternoon.
You quizzed the duo about the end of a famous storyline, the change in cut-scene tone and whether the secret of Tiberium was hidden in Kane's goatee, to name a few. Ellie even managed to get a "who is fitter?" question in.
Thank you to all who took part and asked questions, and apologies to those whose queries remain unanswered.
What follows is the full transcript of our live interview, with the earliest questions and answers presented first.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
A% Super Moderating Hero: Good afternoon, dear Eurogamer reader! Sam and Mike are with us now, and we're nearly ready to begin.
Q%Petrarch%4294% The Tiberian storyline is where C&C all began - with that coming to a close, does this mean this is the last we'll see of GDI & Nod? And can you tell us about this climactic end to the story?
A% Sam Bass: This is definitely the end of the Kane-GDI-Nod-Tiberium saga - while the universe may continue, we felt that the time was ripe to bring the story that began in Tib Dawn to a satisfying conclusion. Can't tell you what happens at the end though... But I can tell you that we've been plotting this for a long time, and that we think you'll find what we've come up with pretty cool.
A% Super Moderating Hero: Hello Mike, hello Sam! To begin with, could you please tell us a little bit about yourselves and why you are so famous?
A% Mike Gloseki: Haha, I didn't realize that I was famous. About me, I've been a developer for about 18 years now and with EA for the past 9. Before EA I worked at Hasbro Interactive for 4 years and Virgin Interactive for 4 years before that. I guess my biggest claim to fame is that I was a game tester on Dune II.
A% Sam Bass: I'm Sam Bass. Born in London, raised outside Oxford, moved to California back into '95 to get into games. I've been at EA for 7 years, and started working on RTS with Battle for Middle Earth II. I think I'm mainly famous because no one can place my accent, causing them to assume that I'm from a post-national future.
A% Super Moderating Hero: You do have a funny accent, Sam!
A% Sam Bass: Yep. England plus 15 years of California has left me unplaceable.
Q%onegoodman%68874% Isn't the knowledge to Tiberium really hidden inside Kane's goatee, and the Tacitus is just a fancy Christmas decoration to avert attention from the truth?
A% Sam Bass: It's a little known fact, but Joe Kucan actually markets his own brand of goatee fermented cheese - "Kucan Gold" - so there's no real space for the secrets of Tiberium. As for the Tacitus, the secret there is that it's really just a lightbulb with a bit of tape on it. Looks lovely on a pine tree though.
Q%jiveguy%1018% Who would win in a fight between a goatee and a soul patch?
A% Sam Bass: A Van Dyke.
A% Mike Gloseki: Ha ha, it would be a tie!
Q%SeesThroughAll%16335% Are you aware of how displeased consumers are with the internet connection requirement for playing the single player campaign, where it should not be necessary at all? Can't you simply store a player's profile locally until the next time the player connects online, and update the information at the server, instead of forcing us to keep our laptops connected at all times, and thus restrict our possible single player gameplay time?
A% Mike Gloseki: Well, we are always paying attention to our community. There's actually quite a lot of benefits playing our game online: your progression through the game is tracked and you can resume your game on any computer in the world as long as you log in. It also allows us to ensure that the game sessions are fair; that everyone has actually earned the items that they are bringing into multiplayer matches.
In addition, you do not need to have the disk in the drive to play the game. I'm always losing my game disks...
Q%Ryboy%165370% Hi Sam, Hi Mike. Has your decision to add some RPG aspects into the new game have been drawn from recent successes with Dawn Of War II?
A% Mike Gloseki: Actually, we decided to bring the RPG elements to C&C 4 before we new about the feature set for DOW II. We really wanted to offer something different for our game.
A% Super Moderating Hero: What form does the persistent progression take? What kind of abilities will we unlock? Are there avatars?
A% Mike Gloseki: The key thing about progression is that it is a global feature in our game. Everything, You can earn in single-player games can be used in online and vice-versa. One of the cooler things is that if you get stuck in a campaign mission, you can go play some skirmish or a multiplayer match to earn some new abilities that will make it easier for you to beat that mission.
A% Mike Gloseki: Super Moderating Hero, we're actually saving those details for a little bit later on in the year!
A% Super Moderating Hero: Oh Mike! Can you give us a teaser?
A% Mike Gloseki: Haha, I wish I could!
Q%deshmon%60602% What happens if I'm playing the single-player campaign and I loose my internet connection, will I get thrown out of the game? And what happens if I play on laptop and either have no connection when travelling or lose it often when travelling through tunnels? Am I shafted, for want of a better word?
A% Mike Gloseki: If you lose your internet connection then you will have a period of time to re-join before you are dropped from the match. You can certainly play on a laptop but will need an internet connection to do so.
A% Super Moderating Hero: Why decide not to support consoles after making such big strides in the area?
A% Mike Gloseki: We've actually only revealed PC plans at this time.
A% Super Moderating Hero: So we still might see console versions?
A% Mike Gloseki: Right now we're focusing on the PC and have no further announcements to make today.
Q%Ellie%11726% Why isn't Gemma Atkinson in C&C4 like she is in Red Alert? Also who do you think is fitter her or me?
A% Sam Bass: We haven't made any talent announcements. Oh, and Ellie, every time.
Q%Petrarch%4294% Will Joe Kucan be given the opportunity to direct cut-scenes again? And can you give tease or tell us who will be starring alongside him? Is Kiefer Sutherland in it?
A% Sam Bass: Nope, Joe isn't directing this time around. However, we've made some significant changes to how we're doing our cinematics this time around, with an emphasis on a dynamic, mobile first person POV and a shift away from camp into a grittier, more realistic space.
Can't talk about the cast though, or I might mysteriously vanish while out walking one evening.
A% Super Moderating Hero: Mike told us recently to, "Look at [C&C4] as an RTS with a little bit of an MMO in it." What are the MMO bits? Furthermore, what are the multiplayer modes? And Q%onegoodman%68874% asks if you plan expand on the persistent battle for territory mode that he can't remember the name of?
A% Mike Gloseki: Actually, the MMO bits refer to our global progression system. As for the MP modes, we're still working on them so aren't quite ready to talk about them. The name of the mode that you're looking for is Global Conquest from RA2, but we're not planning to expand on it at this time.
Q%Webboy%350440% What is the reason making you guys abandon the traditional resource collecting system? Is it because of the plot? What will we be doing now instead?
A% Sam Bass: From a plot perspective, Kane has allied with GDI to build a "Tiberium Control Network", allowing humanity to harness the power of the alien energy source without suffering from the devastating environmental side effects. This is a huge part of our narrative, as well as being the context for our revisions to the CNC resource system.
A% Mike Gloseki: We're actually looking at evolving the genre with how our resource or income system mechanics work in C&C 4.
A% Super Moderating Hero: Can you give us a clue as to what that means? How it'll work?
A% Mike Gloseki: For resources instead of harvesting, you actually capture a structure that generates your income.
A% Super Moderating Hero: I'm afraid Sam and Mike have to leave us very soon as they have meetings, and we wouldn't like our interview to delay the release of the game.
A% Super Moderating Hero: Are there plans for an open beta? Might Santa bring it with him this Christmas?
A% Mike Gloseki: Unfortunately we can't talk about beta plans this early in our project.
A% Super Moderating Hero: Well I suppose we had better let you get off. Thank you very much for joining us, Mike and Sam!