In year 2047, the alien crystal element - commonly known as "Tiberium" - began blanketing the Earth. As war continued over the past century between the European Union (EU) and the Pan Asian Coalition (PAC), Tiberium fields continued to grow, changing the course of Nature forever. The year is now 2142, and the dawn of a new Ice Age has thrown the world into a panic - a global threat that nobody has ever expected. In "Command & Conquer 2142", the two military superpowers will collide - in an epic battle for the last habitable lands. The math of this war is simple: Some will live, most will die.
Following my news update, I've hand-picked a few render shots to show what we've accomplished over the 6-month period back in 2007.. we especially went through the troubles of sealing an agreement with EA that allows us to port BF2142 to their C&C3 engine!
You didn't make that. That's the exact same model and skin from Battlefield 2142. That also goes for the other "renders".
perhaps you should read the description first.. we signed a deal with EA earlier in 2007 which gave us the freedom to port from BF2142 as we see fit, as long as the mod remains free of charge for everybody :)
having said that, these models were rendered back then (2 years ago!), we now have a bigger and better team workin to replace these models, so to maintain the BF2142 feel ^^
Can I just clear something up here? You are saying that you or your company have signed a contract with EA for the rights or export of content from BF 2142 to your MOD?
Can you (if you have) look on the contract and tell me the name of the person who has (PP) the document.
We're not a company - just a team of like-minded hobbyists from all around the world, aiming to reproduce the sensation of BF2142 in CNC3 ;)
The CNC2142 team does have a black-and-white notification from EA, stating as long as...
- members of the group are using genuine copies of BF2142 & BF2142:NS
- everything we use from BF2142 & BF2142:NS is properly credited; and
- remains free for people to download, without having to cost them fiancially
.. then they see no problem with us using the concepts or content from BF2142 and BF2142:NS.
However, as I don't even know who you are, please do understand as responsible team leader, I'm afraid I would not be able to give you such sensitive information.
So as I think im reading this right you are saying you have a (hard copy) as in a letter or email from EA Main branch or EA LA? Saying you can use EA products IE BF 2142 Code and reproduce in another format IE C&C3.
Reason Im asking is I work for EA, in the UK. Its not a problem just would like a name of the person who has sent you ether the email or letter.
Yes, we have one hard-copy of the consent that EA main office sent us almost 3 years ago when the project first started. The representative did note that we could use any resources from BF2142 & BF2142:NS as long as we know now to find them ourselves - meaning we could really just extract things like models, textures, sound effects and so on as we like. However, we do not have access to the core BF2142 engine source codes, and never will because CNC3 uses an entirely different system. In fact, most of the 3D models, textures, animations and other fx effexts that you see now are created by the CNC2142 team ourselves.
As for your identity, as cool as it may be - I still see no effective reason as to why I should disclose such sensitive information to you.. and given today's economy, even I personally doubt if the representative is still in the same position, in the same office as he was when he gave us the consent 3 years ago. Sorry for the inconvenience.
I understand the reaons why your not giving me the name of the person who has signed that letter, But to be honest with you if you have been given permission to use at will EA licenced CODE for modding there really shouldnt be a problem. I have emailed the woman at EA Main, and asked her to find if anything about this, only due to alot of people saying they have the rights and the go ahead from EA when they dont.
On the other hand I have just been emailed and told that as long as you dont sell or gain any money from this it really doesnt matter if you do or dont have permission from EA, the only thing I would say is change it 10%, then no one can say anything about it.
Thank you for your reply :)
I am glad to hear that the EA Main office representative lady contacted you with the similar message that I received from my EA Main contact person / representative about 3 years ago. We definately wouldn't attach this mod with any pricetag whatsoever, because to be honest - at the end of the day, the success of this project is based upon fan support and feedback, and we do want to see it succeed! For me personally, regardless of legal issues I think if mods cost money to play, their chances of hit a big success in the gaming industry would be considerably smaller than what it is today.
I also do want to thank you for bringing this point up, because with your EA worker status, fans should now feel more comfortable that we are operating with consent from an EA representative. Having said that, most of the models we're using in CNC2142 now are actually modelled by our team members, so that's good!
And truth be told, as I mentioned since our consent is actually dated back from almost 3 years ago, if your EA Main lady finds anything at all, we'd love to be able to have an updated consent just for the sake of keeping things updated. If it is possible for you to relay that message to her (as she's handling your CNC2142 info request), that'd be super!
Thank you :) you're a much better person than I thought, hahaha.
Hi sorry I didnt reply sooner, have been busy with work. I must just say Im not here as an EA Rep, Im only here because I like MOD's.
I can if you want email the EA Public Rep to have a look and have a chat, but only if you want.
By the way I have been asked to ask around and where better then here, what could EA do to make MODDING easyer and better for the end users IE YOU.
Yes, if I could have an email conversation with the EA Rep sometime, that would be very much appreciated! And as for how to make mods easier, I'd suggest the following:
- ModSDKs for games should come with better help files. Currently speaking, these tutorials from EA often skip alot of steps here and there, making it understandable for only more experienced users. But then if we think about it, if a modder's already experienced, he/she probably wouldn't check the help files, right? ^^
- EA currently overviews mods for their different titles under different websites, for example, Command & Conquer 3 mods are all listed under the C&C website. While I know EA's been trying to step up their efforts to support mods, the way they're doing it makes it *look* like they haven't done much because everything is seperated between different websites of EA. I think they should have a completely seperate website, EA Mods Central for example, and then list the mods they find unique/nice under different game titles there. So when customers want to look at a mod (say for C&C3), they can simply go to the Mods Central website, look for C&C3 in a list or catalog, and find everything relevant from community project titles, to the ModSDKs and tutorial files for the game, so on. This will definately make EA's efforts look more condensed and spike a better punch :)
- Giving special awards / mentioning of mods more frequently on their official websites would also be a great way to show EA takes interest in the modding community. EA sponsored mod tournaments anybody? ^^
- Lay down rules relevant to modding and so on right from the start, perhaps as part of the user manual or EULAs, so that when people want to mod, they would've (well, should've) understood that they'll need permission or other conditions fulfilled before they start a project.. instead of posting questions on the forums, most probably answered by fellow users who may not actually know what needs to be done.
- finally, they need more employees like YOU! good work haha, i'm glad you're asking me this stuff because it tells the community EA takes mods seriously, gives us just that much more motivation to work on our projects you know ;)
Hi, I have spoken to (John) the EA Rep that will at some point come and have a look and talk to you.
As for your ideas, we have started a site for the C&C fran, and a load of forums just for that game and for Modders,. So would I be right in saying you as a modder would like more like that or just an area on the EA site for modding in gen?
As for more staff like me well at this moment in time there is only one staff member that does what I do and thats me, lol. Part of EA UK, is to try and get out there and talk to fans and modders of EA games, I will pass your message on to my boss, see what he says lol.
Also just to give you a little insider news, EA Games is thinking about a new C&C game, I dont know if you know but EA have (as of C&C4) endded the Tiberian games, but we are looking to carry on with Red Alert for one more game, and we are looking for feed back if Gernerals would be somthing that you and your modders would be interested in? If so we would be asking for modders to come up with new units they would like to see in game, you would also get to name them. sound like somthing you would be interested in?
Hi, thank you for the whole contacting EA Rep thing, we're really grateful for the help :)
Regarding the site idea, I should've probably structured my point more clearly. Basically, I was trying to say while we love how EA has a site for the C&C fran, and a load of forums just for that game and modders.. we often find duplicated threads for very similar problems, yet only one or two of them might have been answered correctly. I think EA's efforts would be way more appreciated if there's an actual dedicated sub-website/portal of the C&C fran website just for C&C mods. It's sorta like how Sony has a general website for a laptop series (this in our case would be EA's C&C fran website), and smaller promotional websites for some of the more specific things. The C&C modding portal should definately have a link to the existing modding forum, with other things like "mod of the month" articles, interviews with mod teams/leaders and maybe even modding tutorials like the ones here: (http://cnc3.net/itemlist?type=1)
And wow, all of my friends and I LOVE "Generals: Zero Hour". In fact, we still get together and play it through the Internet every now and then. While some people might've disliked the fact that Generals doesn't have any live action cutscenes like other C&C games, we are totally fine with that to be honest hahaha. It was one of the best looking games back then, theme & gameplay were both terrific, campaign was definately nice (so nice China had to ban it hahahah) - it definately deserves its E3 award. I'd love the oppertunity to work on the next Generals as a proud representative of the CNC modding community :) If there's anything more regarding this which you'd like to discuss more privately, please feel free to private message me or email! It's on my profile :)