Major Patch Launching Today and Patch Notes

Fellow Command & Conquer fans,

Today we’ll be launching our third major update for the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection.  As I described in my post last week here, we feel this patch will have achieved the vision we had for the game when we first started development.  As such, we wanted to let the community know we anticipate this will be the last patch for the game.  The goal for this patch was to deliver some final touches we had originally envisioned for the player experience, and further position the game for the community to have the resources available to make enhancements in the long-term.

Below you will find the key improvements in this update along with the detailed full list of Patch Notes.

Loading Screen Details:

As requested by the community since launch, this update includes key information now displayed on the loading screen for Multiplayer and Skirmish games.  The loading screen will display the Minimap, your starting location, and the players in the match.  We hope this improvement helps orient players when they start a match, plan their opening strategy, and get a sense of who they’re facing off against in Quickmatch games.

Beacon System:

We’ve added a Beacon system so teammates can ping each other during the course of a match.  Players can place a Beacon by tapping the new button above the minimap or using the associated hotkey.  Each player can have one Beacon placed at a time, and the latest placed Beacon will last 30 seconds.

6-Player Support for Tiberian Dawn:

We’ve officially added 6 player support for Tiberian Dawn Skirmishes and Multiplayer.  Maps which previously supported greater than 4 starting locations are eligible for the new player count, which should carry over into User Maps as well.  Some of our community members have also expressed an eagerness of trying to mod larger map sizes and up to 8  player games with the new code built into this patch.

Local Replay Support:

A new tab has been added to the Replays / Observer menu for “Local Replays”.  This will display all the replays you have present in your local replays folder and allow you to play the replays while offline.  This should provide a viable flow for players to host / share replays within the community and view them long into the future.

Map Editor under GPL:

As you may have seen last week, the Map Editor has now been released under the GPL version 3.0 license.  In addition to being available on Github, this patch provides the code in the local install folder alongside the TiberianDawn.dll and RedAlert.dll files.

Ladder Reset and Matchmaking:

Once we have confirmed the stability of the patch release, we will be resetting the ladder in both games.  This time around, we will also be resetting each player’s Matchmaking Rating, which should effectively set everyone back to pre-launch status.  We are also rolling back the Matchmaking search range and timings to the June launch settings.  We hope these changes provide for a better Quickmatch experience in Season 3.  Again, this reset will likely happen in the next few days.

Mod Compatibility:

I’ll then reiterate this message from our previous Patch Notes.  Because this patch includes updates to the TiberianDawn.dll and RedAlert.dll files, it’s likely that some previous mods will no longer be compatible with this updated version of the game.  Modders will need to update their mods with the latest code and refresh their mods on the Steam Workshop.

Once a mod has been updated on the Steam Workshop, players will need to follow a few steps to update and reactivate their mods:

• Disable the mod in the Mods Menu
• Unsubscribe from the mod in the in-game Workshop Mods menu
• Quit and restart the game
• Re-subscribe to the mod via the Workshop Mods menu
• Activate the mod and restart the game as prompted
• The updated mod should then work as intended

Players may experience some issues if they try to activate mods which are not updated to the patch version.

Detailed Patch Notes:

With those items in mind, please see below for all the updates made in this patch:

New Features:

• Added Loading Screen details.  Key information has been added to the Loading Screen for Skirmish and Multiplayer matches.  The loading screen will display the Minimap, your starting location, and the players in the match.  We hope this improvement helps orient players when they start a match, plan their opening strategy, and get a sense of who they’re facing off against in Quickmatch games.
• Added 6 player support in Tiberian Dawn for maps with greater than 4 spawn points.  This should apply to both Official and User Maps.
• Added a Beacon System for players to ping teammates during Multiplayer.  Players can place a Beacon by tapping the new button above the minimap or using the associated hotkey.  Each player can have one Beacon placed at a time, and the latest placed Beacon will last 30 seconds.
• Added Local Replay support.  A new tab in the Replays / Observer menu will display all the replays you have present in your local replays folder and allow you to play the replays while offline.  This should provide a viable flow for players to host / share replays within the community and view them long into the future.
• Map Editor released under GPL.  The Map Editor has now been released under the GPL version 3.0 license.  In addition to being available on Github, this patch provides the code in the local install folder alongside the TiberianDawn.dll and RedAlert.dll files.

Quality of Life Improvements:

• Increased the viable range of the Map View Scroll Speed.  The first several ticks now represent the previous settings, with the ability to scroll 3x faster at the new max speed.
• Engineers should no longer be able to capture buildings during their sell animation
• Reduced the brightness of the Nuke explosion and added a ramp up / ramp down
• Made it so hitting the [ESC] key will now close dialog boxes in the Map Editor
• Added the ability to have Intro, Win, and Lose videos in User Maps for Tiberian Dawn
• Replays should now pause when hitting the [ESC] key
• Added the ability to override the CNCRULES.XML file
• Added the ability to force the Remastered graphics mode for mod flexibility
• Added the ability for Mods to create customizable hotkeys
• Adjusted the second player default team color in Quickmatch Red Alert to Light Blue for better text legibility
• Updated several German translations based on feedback from the community members at United-Forum.de

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where the Mobile Gap Generator was permanently replacing shroud
• Fixed an issue where the game was forgetting your previous Skirmish settings upon returning to the Skirmish menu
• Fixed an issue on Tournament Ore Rift where players could capture the Church building with Engineers
• Fixed an issue where User Maps were not being downloaded if attempted multiple times
• Fixed an issue where not all the units were being selected with the “Select All Units” hotkey
• Fixed an issue where the Orca would sometimes switch to a single-shot instead of a burst
• Fixed an issue on the Load Game menu where the mission names were incorrectly shown in localized languages
• Fixed a crash on the “Blackout” missions
• Fixed an issue on Nod Mission 13 where the Airstrike would only occur once
• Fixed a crash when quitting a replay session
• Fixed an issue where the Player Requires Map text was misaligned
• Fixed an issue where the mouse click SFX was heard twice in the Mods menu
• Fixed an issue where spawn points of a previously selected map were appearing on User Maps in the lobby screen
• Fixed an issue where players would receive a “Syncing Map Failed” dialog when joining a game with a User Map
• Fixed an issue where a User Map title was not being displayed in the Observer menu
• Fixed an issue where Ore was regrowing even when the Ore Regrowth slider was set to zero
• Fixed an issue where a guest player was unable to join a LAN game which was switching between official and User Maps
• Fixed a crash when player certain User Maps online
• Fixed an issue where the Stealth Tank would display a selection box around the unit in legacy graphics mode
• Fixed an issue where selling a building right as its destroyed will generate both units from the selling and destruction action
• Fixed an issue where the “PlayerControl” ini key was getting removed in the Map Editor
• Fixed an issue where vehicles being built after a Tesla Coil were occasionally taking less damage
• Fixed an issue where the building deployment area was not updating properly in legacy graphics
• Fixed an issue where the Tiberium / Ore regrowth was shown incorrectly for Quickmatch games in the Replay / Observer menu
• Fixed an issue where the Obelisk of Light laser would get stuck on the screen
• Fixed an issue in the Map Editor where player owned pre-placed buildings were getting incorrectly assigned to the AI
• Fixed an issue where a black screen was observed when deleting a saved game
• Fixed an issue where the Sellable and Rebuild options were missing in the Map Editor
• Fixed an issue where certain mods were not getting updated in the mods list after subscribing
• Fixed an issue where “Base under attack” was heard when some neutral buildings were attacked
• Fixed an issue where the Credits tooltip was not displaying for certain modded units or structures
• Fixed an issue in the Map Editor when dragging objects out of the available map space
• Fixed an issue in the Map Editor where waypoints Flare and Home were shown incorrectly
• Fixed an issue when searching for a Replay with a space in the player’s name
• Fixed a crash when sometimes clicking on the Launch button in Observer mode
• Fixed an issue where there explosion sound effect was not playing for Advanced Guard Tower and Mammoth Tank rockets
• Fixed a crash where sometimes the server would receive an out of memory error
• Fixed an issue where enemy AI units would sometimes wander to the top left corner of the map

We hope this update improves your experience with the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection.  Thanks for your ongoing support over the course of the project, and we look forward to seeing what the community continues to create in the months and years ahead.

Cheers,

Jim Vessella

Jimtern

This announcement and roadmap may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content.  We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible.