Command Conquer Remaster appears including public source code

Command and Conquer

Command and Conquer Remastered

For many years, games were primarily closed off in order to sell products that came from the modding community at the turn of the millennium as DLC. EA is now rediscovering the benefits of a modding scene and will make parts of the source code of the Remastered Collection of Command & Conquer public.

Specifically, the Tiberiandawn.dll and Redalert.dll together with their source code become open source under the GPL license in version 3, revealed the producer of the remaster, Jim Vessella, on Reddit. This ensures that the remaster remains compatible with projects such as Cncnet, which provides a platform for the multiplayer modes of the classic, and Open RA, a modernized, open source version of Alert Level Red.

Blizzard as an example

The decision was taken by EA as a direct result of "cooperation with a player council". Why the publisher cooperates closely here is hinted at, but can also be explored so easily. The classics have an established fan base, which actively maintains the titles and is an important target group for the revised version. At the same time, the attractiveness of a supposedly dusty ancient game increases when a variety of "expansions" is offered by mods (furthermore). A role model has already been set: Blizzard took a similar approach to the remasters of Starcraft and Warcraft 3.

By disclosing the two dll files, new environments and own units can be created in conjunction with the map editor. It is also possible to modify data, change textures and the like, and also change the gameplay sequence. As a finger exercise, developer Petroglyph has created a modding unit, Vessella writes: A mammoth tank for the Brotherhood of NOD that can fire nuclear bombs. Mods will only be usable in combat and recreate missions for single-player mode. They are distributed either through the Steam Workshop or an in-game menu, so buyers on Origin are at a disadvantage. You can download maps from the game, but you have to install mods manually in the game folder.

LAN mode comes later

Command & Conquer’s Remastered Collection will go on sale on June 15 with source code but no LAN mode. He had not made it into the game due to the Covid-19 crisis, wrote Vessella, but emphasized its importance. The LAN mode is therefore on the priority list.