Kane's Wrath II (Upcoming) mod

Do you still feel like to play version 1.00 for many different reasons apart from the visual graphics matching units performance?

Do you prefer classic RTS over sports game (e.g., RA2 over Starcraft, Dune Emperor over Warcraft III, RA3 Uprising over Age of Empire, etc.)?

Don’t you just love the spirit of Obelisk?

Wouldn’t you just enjoy the diversity of more than 3 factions with all their units different in one way or the other?

Do you just have that little sweet spot in Kane's Wrath, that little unit, a little building or some synthesis in your military which just lights up the entire game and you feel can just play this game for eons?

You my dear, if your answers to the above questions are ‘YES’, I proudly present you my favourite work – a CNC3KW mod which is envisioned as a ‘CNC4’ in remembrance of the end CNC series. Apparently, it is not Tiberium Dawn. Therefore, to avoid confusion (which might have already been the case whatsoever), this page uses ‘Kane’s Wrath II’ (KW2) for references.

Version 2.86x has arrived! The NOD harvester glitch has finally been fixed! :0 (hopefully)

Since this MOD page has been out, there has been an attempt to release a final version which means totally stablised and no further changes needed so that players can focus on other stuff such as map design and strategy researching. Unless the MOD principles (which will be written at the end) have been violated such as viceroids don't do damage or even heal enemy vehicles (in an early version), 2.86x would be supposedly another final.

Anyway, pardon me that I won’t go through an exhaustive list of changes and tweaks, neither it is possible for me to list them. It is simply complex. However, I am providing you some intriguing insights so you can make some sense of it.

The Installation (please at least read this section to setup this MOD correctly to save your time, effort or frustration if you decide to embrace this MOD):

0VERALL PROCEDURE: EXTRACT, PASTE AND REPLACE GAME FILES.

Wait, there is more to do!

1. This is not the ordinary MOD you might have seen in the community. It does not need 3rd party software to install or launch the game. However, it is crucial to BACKUP your original game folder for any future rolling back or using other MODs.

1.1 Otherwise, you may need to reinstall the game using your original CDs of Kane's Wrath. I know it might be simpler in Steam where you can recheck the integrity of an installed game.

2. A good thing is this MOD stays transparant and does not require elevation of administrator permission. It might be a better solution for security reasons and flexibility of using this MOD.

2.1. However, please ensure the integrity of all the MOD files installed. Files may associate to each other while missing/altered components may cause glitches or instability.

2.2. Results of these MOD files are from years of experiments, literally years (if not so many), certainly not one day or few months patches, and a major R&D spin-off from the Big Bang MOD. Yes I highly regard that MOD, too. Thus there were times of subtle tweaking and changes I cannot replicate once again and every file is part of the necessary and I do not applaud bloatware business.

3. Caution! You MUST MAKE SURE YOUR IN-GAME SETTING GRAPHICS IS ABOVE ‘Medium’. This is due to the MOD itself does not contain low-res textures or LOD alternatives. Thus, lower graphics settings would result in errors and failures of launching the game.

3.1. If failures do happen after installing (i.e, getting an error saying file corruption or missing builds), you have to roll back to the original Kane's Wrath and set up your graphics settings as above. You can simply maximise all the in-game graphics except 'anti-aliasing' and 'shadows'. CNC3 is an old game engine and it is way better to use your Graphics Driver anti-aliasing option instead. 'Shadows' in CNC3 from 'High' to 'Ultra High' does not efficiently utlise your graphics card. All these settings can also be manually set in your game profile INI files.

3.2. If you are using an nVidia card, I may also suggest you set-up 'Image Sharpening' in your nVidia Control Panel. An ideal value is 'Sharpen 0.64, ignore film grain 0.24' to match those DESC images. Also, make sure 'Max Frame Rate' is '34FPS'. These values are by far an ideal discovered. Feel free to test out other values for your own different cards and screens.

4. Finally, once these perquisitions have been fufilled, decompress/extract all the files from the package and put them into your game folder (where your 'CNC3EP1.exe' is) to (have to) replace any existing files.

5. Now you can see why backing-up your original game files is important at the first place. If you want to get rid of this mod, simply replace back with your original game files. Bonus! You maybe able to play this MOD with other MODs overriding it.

6. That's done, Commander! Congratulations to your first little step which is the giant leap of your CNC R&D technology!

Enjoy!

Below are some highlights and setting tips for any new comers manoeuvring in this MOD. I look forward to seeing people find new discoveries since I am way blinded from the potential the complexity wields. I hope you may enjoy the reading as well. Have wonderful time and that’s all I ask for.

1^st, music is converted from A440 to A432 standard with new music added from CNC series. Whoever knows what this means hears it correctly and may sit back and enjoy the new in-game music.

2^nd, performance boost with better utilisation of 4GB RAM. This is why you would notice the replacement of the game execution file. Please set your in-game ‘FPS Limit’ on your Graphics Driver Panel. The ideal value for my Quadro card is 34 (which should be the same for you). Bear in mind, RTS games are usually not animated above 30 FPS.

3^rd, easter egg – the main menu in-game has 2 BGMs now. Music handling RAM is also improved. Try or try not to find out 😊

4^th, manually repairing buildings and structures are generally improved. This is to make players’ active base defence engagement more effective.

5^th, drones’ repairing ability is improved depending on which faction and what type of the drones. Please research the best solution for yourself.

6^th, oh yes, the Obelisk of Light, its laser is thicker and reaching certain artillery with beam charges. The firing speed boost reaches the maximum its full animation allows (any faster firing rate would result in deficient animation). Now it makes sense that everyone would use the beam charges in PvP.

7^th, Black Hand (BH) has its own Air Tower so that its engineers can equally reach remote places in some naval based maps.

8^th, following the point 7^th, however, adding of Air Tower to BH does not shift the overall battlefield ecosystem and does not potentially weaken the ground unit emphasis of the CNC3KW universe. Instead, BH still does not have air against ground force and new BH Condor provides a new controlled solution to balance between air- and ground-forces.

9^th, silos generate revenue to compensate the potential defect of NOD harvesters. The harvester glitch is not guaranteed fixed for NOD factions only. Other factions are just fine with their harvesters.

10^th, economy adjustment, tier 2 and 3 technologies are getting harder to reach in order to layer out the periodical strategies and dynamics of the battlefield. This gives a good rhythm in the gameplay and flow.

^11th, GDI base defence structures have slightly faster deployment and a thicker armor against anti-structure weapons.

^12th, Voice of Kane, in the messiah’s vision, boosts the attack range of vehicles. Therefore, it does no longer provide any damage boost or other aura effects to the infantry. Players can commonly deploy them across your important bases as a key strategy to transform vehicles into structural defence system. This is from observations that my friend used Ghost a lot for base-defense while it was sad seeing Ghost being easily wiped out by for example Juggernauts. The boost of attack range is unique in-game and it layers out different tiers of artilleries.

^13th: Storm Column is boosted with a better attachking range and damaging system. This layers out a fine overall defense reaching strategy. Storm Column sits in as a simple effective solution.

^14th, GDI buildings look more robust, so they are tougher to bring down. NOD power plant provides least power at the beginning but boosts tremendously in the later tech. It is the weakest structure. Same with Alien power plant due to they are building it in the different humanitarian environment. GDI power plant is the strongest structure providing the most power at the beginning but less later in comparison with other factions.

1^5th, Assault Planetary Carrier is an artillery, period, or why the fork a carrier? It is the most reasonable update since its aircrafts/bullets can be blocked down anyway.

16th, Temple of NOD now fires Tiberium nuclear power, no more old-fashioned stolen GDI nuclear deployment system. NOD finally gets its feet on some serious cutting-edge Tiberium detonation. Dr Giraud's 'compliment' not gone wasted.

17th, multi-language support; you still keep your local language after installing this MOD. You can supply your game language to me to help me to fix any missing language strings.

Faction Principle - MOD Rules:

Changes made by this MOD are governed by a series of rules derived from the original game 1.00. These rules shall not be breached and must be comprehensively followed. Therefore, calling for changes or balance must be defined and logicalised under the principle of the rules.

1. No permanently greyed out button in any item within a faction.

This means all technology requirements (except hidden or bonus technologies) are satisfied within their own faction. There is no greyed out tehcnology or skill which would need from other factions to enable.

Case-A.1 (fixed): Reaper-17 EradicatorHexapod has permanently greyed out teleportation as the faction itself lacks a Commando unit. To not to violate other rules in this section combined, the best solution has been replacing the teleportation with buzzer attachment which is normally used throughout Alien factions. As a compensation, Reaper-17 EH gains an exclusive blueshards technology.

2. Any units boost comes with reducing of another property within the same unit.

This is to avoid simplistically changing the original balance as like a sports game update approach. Rather, it digs into the rabbit hole to consider an unit in relation to all other units, structures and faction configurations.

Case-A.2: GDI Golumn Cannons maybe the most robust structure to withstand burning impact. However, it has a secret hole which makes it vunlurable to a specific unit.

3. Majors should retain their slogans from the version 1.00 game and the MOD can only seek to actualise their ideologies, not to undermine.

Case-A.3: Mobility - GDI comes with 'slow and steady'; NOD comes with 'dark-tech and fending'; Alien comes with 'the most advanced and overwhelming'.

Case-B.3: Accessibility - GDI has the most robust ground force on earth to push frontlines; NOD has the most advanced based-defense strategy to shadow themselves into surprise outcome; Alien conquers above the ground is secondary to none.

4. Factions should retain their characteristics from the version 1.00 game and the MOD can only seek to harness the characteristic, not to metigate it.

If you scrutinise the game, commanders might find each faction follows certain rules to build up their own military organisation.

The first faction has all the vital technologies and the most balanced within the Major. The second faction focuses on vehicle and ground units and push the Major's symbolic technology into its extreme. The third faction focuses on infantry development and push the Major's most cutting-edge technology into its extreme.

Case-A.4: Gdi has all the vital technology i.e., Rail Gun (Major Symbolic), Sonic Wave (Cutting-edge Zocom R&D), infantry types (from light to the most heavily armed and to the elite), vehicle types of all ranges as well as aircrafts.

Case-B.4: Steel Talons, by sacrificing cutting-edge R&D, pushes Rail Gun to its extreme and owns the most fierce ground units within the GDI Major.

Case-C.4: Zocom, by sacrificing the symbolic technology, pushes Sonic Wave to its extreme and owns the most complex infantries in within the GDI Major...

...tbc

I will keep update this page and more insights will be listed.

Download: (DM/Comment & no source for those scepticism)