More Mammoth Ministrations

So I went back and further messed around with the Mass Production Mammoth model, as well as came up with a breif description.

While the X-66 Mammoth Tank was a wildly successful battletank in the First Tiberium War, the costs involved in producing and maintaining such a gargantuan beast of a war machine kept the GDI from being able to field it in large numbers. The R&D Team behind the X-66 proposed a stripped down version, the M-66a Mammoth Tank (Mass-Production Type). The M-66a is roughly 3/4 the size of its predecessor and has only one 120mm cannon. In place of the other cannon is a mounted .50 caliber machine gun to protect the tank against infantry. The M-66a keeps the Mammoth Tusk missiles as well, although the launchers have now been angled back 15 degrees in order to intercept aircraft more effectively. With this new configuration, the M-66a could be fielded in battle at half the cost of the original Mammoth Tank, as well as being more maneuverable while only sacrificing a minor amount of armor protection. However the First Tiberium War ended before the tanks could be deployed to the front, and as such the M-66a became a relic, quickly handed down to second-line units and Special Forces teams around the globe. Many of these mass-production models were lost to time, some of them found their way into the hands of the Forgotten, and others were used by police forces in riots that occured as large portions of the Earth were evacuated as Tiberium’s hold increased on the planet.

Expansion Packs: For those Who Remember Them

Back in the day, by which I mean the 1990s, we didn’t have Downloadable Content. Instead PC Gamers would often throw down 30-50 dollars on a piece of software that usually would only work if they owned another piece of software. Crazy, you might say, but it’s true. They were called Expansion Packs. In the days of people citing $10 for 5-10 hours of extra gameplay as a ripoff, it’s hard for me to take that seriously considering the prices spent on Expansion Packs back in the day. So with that in mind it’s time to fire up the time machine of gaming knowledge that is my mind and find what I feel to be the best 3 expansion packs I ever spent money on. Also there will be spoilers.

Tiberian Twilight: The Case for C&C 4’s new subtitle

Almost two weeks ago months of speculation ended when EA announced the winning subtitle of their naming contest for Command & Conquer 4. To the delight of many and the ire of just as many, they picked “Tiberian Twilight” which was apparently overwhelmingly the majority of entries sent in to EA. The ire mostly comes from that pox upon vampire fiction and literature in general known as Twilight, which some people claim is what motivated the name choice. The ire from others comes from the fact that, despite the contest being partially judged on Originality, the name “Tiberian Twilight” is not original.

However I still believe that this is the right subtitle for this game, and I’m not just saying that because I was one of the many who wrote it in as a contest entry.

Great moments in Balance-Breaking history

Possibly the biggest problem that faces many game designers, especially those that design an FPS or an RTS, is making sure the game is balanced properly. In strategy cases that means no one unit will automatically trump all others no matter what, and in FPS cases the same applies for a weapon. Despite the best intents of even some of the greatest developers, balance-breaking weapons and units sometimes slip through the cracks, and I thought I’d take the time to point out some of the ones I’ve personally encountered.