Articles & Editorials: Tiberian Sun – The Way Forward

  • Date: 08/10/1999 | Author: Lord-D

It’s now been over a month since the release of Tiberian Sun. All of our hopes, our fears, and our wishes with regards to this latest instalment in Westwood’s masterful series were realized that day. While most people recognized it as a the brilliant game it is, others found problems. Yes the cut-scenes maybe weren’t all they were cracked up to be, in some places it lacked a little panache, there are numerous bugs (Though I put this down to the inherent novelty of voxel technology. Some people were pissed off because Westwood had sacrificed a few things in the name of balance and performance. These would be the same people who’s typical Red Alert ‘strategy’ was to play as Soviets, and build two factories, then about a million Heavy/Mammoth Tanks. But I digress the main focus of this article is were we as a community are going.

The first obvious area is Mods. I would like to declare my support for these fine products, right here and now. I haven’t had a chance to use them much yet (The one I had a chance to DL after I finished both campaigns wasn’t compatible with v.1.13) but I personally think Westwood wanted us to build these. Why else would they include the Art.ini files for the old style tanks, flamers etc. I am laying down a challenge right now for some aspiring Mod group to make a Tiberian Sun to Tiberian Dawn total conversion. All the pieces are there. It’ll just take a little diligence. I bet if you REALLY tried you could bring back the old air-strips, by getting Carry-Alls, or DropShips or something to deliver Nod units. One Mod group is currently holding a competition for whoever can manufacture the best representation of a Mobile Mine. This is how innovative ideas are brought to the surface. I have some ideas for this already, and if I can learn enough, and find enough time I might see if I can do something for it. There are talks of naval units being implemented, as TS seems to support them (The Amphibious APC would support this) and I’d just love it if someone could do a mod for Skabu (Community vets will know what I’m talking about. Anybody else can visit TS Empire the first TS site I ever visited, and it seems not to have been updated since. If you want the old story-line, the old units, and the old theories, head on over there.) This will be the long term livelihood of the community.

The next will be what has been the sustenance of the StarCraft community for so long. Multi-Player. Soon you’ll be seeing tourney after tourney, battle report, after battle report, and ladder interview after ladder interview. It will be extremely cool. Our own Kastro (Who’s been running the site in our absence it would seem :)) has started this trend. Strategies will be the dominant news. This will also stop people whining about useless units. Anyone who’s played SC will know that Vultures were useless to all but the most experienced of player. Everything else had it’s place, though vultures were derided, some used them to devastating effect. The same will happen with TS. Bitching about Devil’s Tongues? They’ll be torching your base in a few weeks. Scoffing at Harpies? They have huge ammo reserves that’ll be pumping into your base VERY soon, as your secondary attack wing of Banshees take out heavy targets, and they deliver pinpoint attacks. Same with Orca Fighters and Bombers.

Finally are the TS add-on packs we will be seeing shortly. There’s one in the works already. I’m thinking of trying to talk the CNCNZ.com boys into one, where I might do the films. We’re talking PROPER add-ons here! With video and everything. Better than the bilge that Westwood called Covert Ops, and Counter Strike. We should even be able to do a few new units, just for fun. The first generation of TS Map Editors will be with us very soon, and MIX Viewers will be able to get us into anything soon. The future is in our hands now. Firestorm will be a nice professional pack, but we’ll be doing some truly cool stuff.

All in all, the vacuum that some people have mistakenly detected in the community of late is about to be filled, and very quick. Oh, I forgot, there’s one more source of news you’ll be coming to. Articles like this. You can rest assured, CNCNZ.com will be leading the pack with this. My predictions are thus: RSN will become the main source of news for Mods, as it’s Webmasters seem to have a keen interest in them. BG:TS will become a site mainly concerned with on-line battling, with Battle Reports, some strats, and Webmasters all in the upper heights of the Ladder. TumSun will become a feeder site, reporting, as opposed to generating news. That’s not an insult, it’s a fact. There’s no offence intended. Meanwhile, CNCNZ.com is set to explode from the already large site it is, with it’s coveted Number 4 spot in our community, and will soon be competing with BG:TS and the like. We will be the article writers. The ones who process, digest, and intelligently comment on all the news, and developing trends, before giving it to you, the reader, in manageable sections. It’s all part of what made CNCNZ.com a little site running off some Kiwis local ISP, to the 300,000+ hit monster it is now.

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