Command & Conquer: Generals/Unused Content in the Original
This is a sub-page of Command & Conquer: Generals.
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Contents
Sub-Page
 | Missions and Maps The original plans for various missions. |
 | Unused Sounds POW logic-related stuff, introductions, Force Move and other sound files that were cut from the final game. |
POW logic
You were at one time intended to collect POWs (prisoners of war) in this game. However, it was removed, probably due to time constraints.
All three factions have individual POW trucks designed for this purpose. Normally, only the American POW truck can be seen in the game, in the third USA mission where you have to protect the escaping forces. All three also have selection pictures and a full voice set.
You were able to capture all infantry units. All three EVAs have quotes for when the three heroes are captured. Most of the units have unused surrender animations, even the American and Chinese officers and voices for surrendering. However, surrender animations for the heroes are not available in the base game. Each faction had their own way of capturing infantry:
- America used the flashbangs to collect prisoners of war. Some removed voices for the Ranger directly reference this. The POW truck took them to the detention camp, where they powered up the CIA Intelligence special power.
- China used stun bullets to collect prisoners of war, which were removed from the final game. The POW truck took them to the Propaganda Center, where they powered up the Defector special power. This special power, still available in the code, converted enemy units to your side.
- The GLA used tranquilizer darts to collect prisoners of war, which were removed from the final game. The POW truck took them to the Prison, a building which was completely removed from the final game. There, it powered up the Demoralize special power, which made enemy units fire at only one fourth their normal rate, and also give Bounty debuff for enemies - "Players get this X the cost to build a unit that is delivered to a prison", as commented by developers.
Some leftovers of the old POW logic are still in the game:
- The Defector is still functional, and has a hook in the American Command Center (likely for testing purposes). If you add it to the game, it works as intended - select a unit and it will be converted to your side, after which you have a short period of time before it is considered an enemy unit by the opponent.
- The models of the Chinese and GLA POW Trucks, and the GLA Prison, have been removed from the original game, however they can be seen in the expansion, even though they're unused even there.
- Also there's an unused weapon bonus named, appropriately, DEMORALIZED_OBSOLETE. Despite the "OBSOLETE" in it's name it still works and some mods make use of it.
- The CIA Intelligence has some leftover coding which makes it have a longer duration if you capture prisoners, from the original 30 seconds up to four minutes. Since there are no prisoners in the game anymore, the code does not have an effect any longer.
- In the intro of the second USA mission, the pilot that bails out of his crashing Comanche plays his surrendering animation when cornered by GLA forces.
- When Rangers are ordered to attack units with flashbangs, they reference surrendering and putting "arms in the air".
GLA POW Truck
Chinese POW Truck
GLA Prison
Unused Textures\Images
Guard Icons
Each faction has unique guard ground textures designed for their faction. These are never used, as there is only one Guard button in the game, which uses a generic "guard" texture.
Fire Bomb
Fire Bomb was originally an ability for the Angry Mob, which would make it bombard an area with Molotov Cocktails. It's available only in the Multiplayer Sneak Peak, in the final game Angry Mobs automatically use their Molotovs.
Van
No idea what this is. It looks suspiciously like one of the possible variations of the Technical, but other than that there are no clues.
Conscript
This game was supposed to have conscripts, like in Red Alert 2. It is a very early leftover, since the selection picture uses the old 110x91 dimensions. They were replaced by the Red Guard during development.
Demolitions
This doesn't really belong anywhere. It also looks much, much different from the other selection pictures in the game. A large version of this exists in the Multiplayer Sneak Peek used as the Demo Trap portrait.
Radar Jammer
This actually belongs to a removed ability of the Radar Van, which allowed it to set itself and the near surroundings in shroud, similar to the Mobile Gap Generators from Red Alert 2.
Hover Drive
A cut upgrade for the old Crusader, which would upgrade the unit with a hover drive.
GLA Prison
Selection images for the aforementioned cut GLA Prison. This is where POWs would've been taken to, also houses the Tranquilizer Darts upgrade which made Rebels capture units.
Tech Buildings
Selection images of two cut Tech Buildings, Cave and Radio Station respectively.
- The Cave's model can only be found in Zero Hour and the Multiplayer Sneak Peek, it's fully functional there. They would've worked like the GLA Tunnel Network. Unlike the latter, a cave could made to connect to another specific cave rather than all caves. This is done via an unused script still in the world builder.
- Like the Caves, the Radio Station model is found in both Zero Hour and the Multiplayer Sneak Peek where it also works there. It was to have two special powers available to you after you captured it: the Communications Download, which worked like America's CIA Intelligence, and the Radio Jam special power, which cut all communications in the targeted area, preventing the enemy from controlling his affected units.
Prototype Textures Leftovers
These are leftovers of unit textures from before the factions were redesigned.
- Starlifter, a cut USA aircraft. It's model is missing here and only found in the prototype itself and Zero hour.
- American Supply Truck, back when all factions used the same method of gathering supplies. Interestingly it has a variant for snow weather.
- Chinese Buggy, it originally belonged to the Asian Empire before they were redesigned into China.
- Very old textures of the Quad Cannon, with two variants, old and oldblue.
Starlifter
American Supply Truck
Ditto, damaged
Ditto, in snow weather
Chinese Buggy
The first Quad Cannon, old
Ditto, damaged
The second Quad Cannon, oldblue
Ditto, damaged
Online Ranks
These were used to indicate your rank in online matches but since the servers are now defunct these images are no longer available.
Unused Cursors
Defector
This cursor was intended for the removed Defector special power. The removal of the special power made this cursor unused as well.
Guard
The developers certainly did a lot for such a small function of the game - they even devoted a unique cursor for the Guard function, however it is never used.
Heal
No idea what this was intended for. It could have been planned for the Ambulance, or perhaps used when you send injured soldiers to the barracks.
No Entry
When you cannot enter a building (because it is full, or for any other reason), the standard "invalid" cursor is shown. Therefore, this cursor is not used at all.
Out of Range
This cursor was intended to appear when you tell a unit to attack an enemy unit, but it is not within range of the unit requiring it to move up to the target. This would have been useful especially for artillery units, but for some reason it was removed.
Place
This could have been used as a cursor when you place a structure. It was left unused for whatever reason.
Sell
Sell does not require a target in the final game, as all structures have sell buttons to sell themselves. However, the developers might have intended Sell to work like in the original Command and Conquer, where you select the MCV, press Sell, and select a structure for selling.
Spy Drone
The Spy Drone has a unique mouse cursor all for itself! This is certainly very surprising, and it's easy to guess why this did not make it into the final game.
Force Move
You were supposed to be able to tell a vehicle to crush enemy infantry, rather than engaging them with its weapon, with a dedicated command button. It was scrapped for some reason. Most vehicles have a full voice set for the Force Move function, some of which became attack voice lines that don't make sense (e.g. Inferno cannon saying "No fire needed here" when attacking by its cannon, which lobs flaming shells)
Unused Text
COMMAND AND CONQUER GENERALS COMING: CHRISTMAS 2002
Command & Conquer Generals Coming February 2003
These were probably used to create game teasers.
The Communicator is not available in the Multiplayer Playtest
Another leftover from an earlier test build, presumably. The prototype has multiple comments referring to the Multiplayer test.
This is like a test string, dude
This is like a really long test string, dude. It makes sure that the word wrap and the spacing works
Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece as white as snow
And everywhere that Mary when, the lamb was sure to go
These are, quite obviously, test strings.
Major General
Lt. General
General
At one time, the ranks actually went up to eighth rank, instead of stopping at 5 Star General. They come just after the used rank names.
&Climb Cliff
It appears that there was once a button for Burton to climb cliffs with unique voice lines. There's a selection image for it in the multiplayer sneak peak. In the final game, Burton automatically climb cliffs and those voice lines for this action were turned into move voice lines.
Starlifter
According to Wikipedia, the Starlifter is a military strategic airlifter. It may have been intended as another cargo plane, for whatever reason.
Secret Police
An obvious leftover from the prototype, because the name is designed for the old sidebar interface. What this unit would have been like is completely uncertain.
Seismic Tank
Another one of these. The concept of a Chinese Seismic Tank sounds really cool, too bad it did not make it into the final game.
Prop Blimp
Shortened here but written out fully in its internal name, PropagandaBlimp. It seems that the Chinese faction used to be much different from what it is now.
| Cruise Missiles | Tomahawks can be given a flight-path |
|---|
This is a removed upgrade for the Tomahawk missile launcher which allowed you to control the Tomahawk missile by setting waypoints. Beside these text strings, there are several voices referring to the waypoints function, but at the end it was removed for whatever reason. It was cut pretty late in development as the upgrade is still available in the multiplayer sneak peak but doesn't seem to function.
Extra Fuel
Extra Fuel was a planned upgrade for America which allowed aircraft to stay in the air longer if they needed to land but had no airfield available to land on. As it has no accompanying description, it was cut early in development alongside its voice file.
Air Fuel
Another fuel upgrade for American but no idea how it differs from the previous one
Click on the ground to set waypoints
In the final game, waypoints are set by using the Alt key but it seems it was intended to have its own command button.
| Stun Bullets | Red Guard may try to capture enemy soldiers |
|---|
Stun Bullets is a cut upgrade that would've allowed Red Guards to capture enemy units as POWs with an equally cut weapon.
| Tranq. Darts | Rebels may try to capture enemy soldiers |
|---|
Same with Stun Bullets, Tranq Darts is also a cut upgrade that would've allowed Rebels to capture enemy units as POWs with the cut Tranq Darts weapon.
| Tranq Darts | Switches to tranq-dart weapon to capture enemy soldiers in the open |
|---|
This would've let the Rebels switch their weapons to tranquilizer darts but since the POW logic was cut, this weapon went alongside it.
| Stun Bullets | Switches to firing stun bullets mode to capture enemy soldiers in the open |
|---|
Same with the Tranq Darts, but for Red Guards.
| Fire Bomb | Use fire bombs on target |
|---|
This is a cut ability for the Angry Mob which would've allowed all members to attack a specified target with Molotovs.
| Prison | Used to hold captured enemy soldiers |
|---|
Probably meant for a command button to build the cut GLA Prison.
Pick up enemy prisoner to return him to your base
Return to prisoner holding facility
These two lines were used by the cut POW trucks of each factions for capturing POWs and returning to their prison buildings.
| Guard & Close | Order unit to move to guard a specific location, but not to pursue targets out of the area |
|---|
This is a fully functional button which is never used in the game. It works similar to the plain Guard, but the unit will not follow an enemy unit if it moves outside its guard radius. It was most likely designed with aircraft and artillery in mind (which are not really supposed to move), one wonders why the developers never used it.
| Fire 20mm Cannon | Fire 20mm Cannon at the target |
|---|---|
| Fire Missiles | Fire antitank missiles at the target |
Removed buttons for the Comanche helicopter. For some reason it got ground attack button for both of its weapons. The ground attack button for the Vulcan would have been absolutely pointless though, since the Vulcan has a range of zero and therefore cannot actually hit anything.
| Inferno Bombardment | Bombard a location with inferno cannon shells |
|---|---|
| Nuke Bombardment | Bombard a location with nuke cannon shells |
| Anthrax Bombardment | Bombard specified location with anthrax warheads |
| Explosive Bombardment | Bombard a location with explosive warheads |
| Tomahawk Bombardment | Fire tomahawks at a location |
Apparently, all artillery originally had ground attack buttons to have them target a ground location, instead of targeting an enemy unit. This was likely removed because in every other Command and Conquer game ever (with Generals as a non-exception), Ctrl+Clicking (ordering a force fire) on the ground will achieve the same exact effect, and uniquely to Generals, even in the fog of war. There wouldn't really be a purpose to fire blindly with artillery into the fog of war, let alone a dedicated button for it. These buttons are in the multiplayer sneak peak with their own unique selection images.
Rail Gun
Another prototype leftover, this time from the American faction. Apparently some kind of upgrade, but no idea really.
Anti-Tank Grenades
A Chinese upgrade. No idea who or what would get this.
IR Goggles
Again, for the Chinese. The goggles, they do nothing!
...they really don't, even in the prototype. Go figure.
Radar
The upgrade icon for radar for the GLA. The obvious catch with that is that the GLA does not actually have the ability to purchase Radar as an upgrade.
Overcharge exhausted
An unused feature of the Nuclear Power Plant. You can overcharge it in the game so it outputs more power, but it will damage itself in the process. Originally, it then stopped after a certain threshold and gave you this message. In the final game, it continues until it explodes.
All parking places are occupied
No idea at all.
| Center Base | Center the view about the player's base |
|---|---|
| Cheer | Commands your forces to exult over your great deeds |
| Create Formation | Create a formation of the selected units and they will retain it as they move |
| Create Team 0 | Creates team 0 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 1 | Creates team 1 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 2 | Creates team 2 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 3 | Creates team 3 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 4 | Creates team 4 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 5 | Creates team 5 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 6 | Creates team 6 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 7 | Creates team 7 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 8 | Creates team 8 from currently selected units |
| Create Team 9 | Creates team 9 from currently selected units |
| Deploy Object | Deploy selected object(s) |
| Follow | Toggle follow state of selected object(s) |
| Go to Radar Event | Center the tactical view on the last radar event |
| Guard | Set the selected object(s) into 'guard area' mode |
| Scatter | Scatter selected object(s) |
| Screen Capture | Take a snapshot of the game screen |
| Select All | Selects all military units |
| Select All Aircraft | Selects all Aircraft |
| Next Object | Select the next object |
| Next Worker | Select the next Worker |
| Previous Object | Select the previous unit |
| Previous Worker | Select the previous Worker |
| Select Team 0 | Select members of team 0 |
| Select Team 1 | Select members of team 1 |
| Select Team 2 | Select members of team 2 |
| Select Team 3 | Select members of team 3 |
| Select Team 4 | Select members of team 4 |
| Select Team 5 | Select members of team 5 |
| Select Team 6 | Select members of team 6 |
| Select Team 7 | Select members of team 7 |
| Select Team 8 | Select members of team 8 |
| Select Team 9 | Select members of team 9 |
| Stop Object | Stop the selected object(s) |
| Type Select | Selects units by type. Double left click a unit to select all of the same type |
| Center Team 0 | Select and center view about team 0 |
| Center Team 1 | Select and center view about team 1 |
| Center Team 2 | Select and center view about team 2 |
| Center Team 3 | Select and center view about team 3 |
| Center Team 4 | Select and center view about team 4 |
| Center Team 5 | Select and center view about team 5 |
| Center Team 6 | Select and center view about team 6 |
| Center Team 7 | Select and center view about team 7 |
| Center Team 8 | Select and center view about team 8 |
| Center Team 9 | Select and center view about team 9 |
| Set Bookmark 1 | Set view bookmark map position 1 |
| Set Bookmark 2 | Set view bookmark map position 2 |
| Set Bookmark 3 | Set view bookmark map position 3 |
| Set Bookmark 4 | Set view bookmark map position 4 |
| View Bookmark 1 | View bookmarked map position 1 |
| View Bookmark 2 | View bookmarked map position 2 |
| View Bookmark 3 | View bookmarked map position 3 |
| View Bookmark 4 | View bookmarked map position 4 |
With the exception of Cheer, all of these are commands which are available only as keyboard combinations. Since they don't appear in the UI, these strings are never displayed. Either there was a tutorial explaining all keyboard combinations in the game, or they were somehow available in the UI.
You don't have enough money to build that
You don't have enough money to make upgrade
These are not used as when you don't have enough funds, the button will turn gray and you will get a click noise when you attempt to buy the unit/upgrade.
The unit's production queue is full
This is not used for the same reason as above.
You can only select %d units at one time
Apparently there was a limit on how many units you can select at the same time. In the final game, there is no limit, you can select as many units as you want.
USA Mission 5 - River Raid Status: Incomplete
USA Mission 6 - E3 Revamp Status: Incomplete
USA Mission 8 - Devastate GLA Status: Incomplete
China Mission 5 - Firebomb GLA Status: Incomplete
China Mission 7 - Nuke-O-Rama Status: Incomplete
China Mission 8 - Last China Mission Status: Incomplete
These messages appear to be leftover messages from development, when the missions were not yet completed. They're the only ones that still remain. Some inconsistencies are there, they will be mentioned below:
- It says that the fifth American mission is "River Raid". River Raid is the sixth mission in the final game. A fifth American mission does not actually exist in the game, leaving an obvious gap in the row of missions. However, there is some evidence that it used to exist, including a pre-release video which shows a mission that does not appear at all in the final game, and may have been the lost fifth mission.
- What E3 Revamp refers to is unknown. It may refer to the real-life E3 event held annually.
- According to that last message, there used to be an eighth Chinese mission. This would put China in line with the other two factions (which also had eight missions designed for them), but due to a series of events, one mission was cut from every faction to make seven missions per faction.
WORLD BUILDER
Start the World Builder editor
This is in all caps, which suggests it was meant for the main menu. The developers seem to have planned to let you launch the World Builder from the main menu. The problem is that the game and World Builder together have massive memory usage, which was probably too much in 2003, when the game was released.
World Builder failed to load
Same as above. You no longer start World Builder from the game, and World Builder itself does not use the game text.
Chinese Hacker
Found among the game factions. No idea what it's doing there, and even less of an idea where it would be used.
Default Army
This is never shown or used in the game, and may be a placeholder.
A10-Strike Location Capture Building Make Defector Demoralize Disable Building Disable Vehicle Disguise As This! Dock Repair Enter Fire Bomb Burn Flash Bang Stun Bullets Tranq Darts Get Repaired Get Healed Hijack INVALID Laser Guided Missiles Make Carbomb Pick Up Prisoner Place Beacon Place Remote Charge Place Timed Charge Emergency Repair Resume Construction Return Set Rally Point Snipe Vehicle Stab Steal Cash TNT Attack
The entire set of "mouse" messages goes unused. These are the most likely to have shown up in-game, presumably in the mouse tooltip. Some of them are obviously leftovers from an earlier build (E.g. POW logic), others are of newer origin. In any case, in the final game the mouse tooltip always shows the name of the object the cursor is pointing to, so these are never shown.
DX8 Cursor Polygon Cursor W3D Cursor Windows Cursor
Polygon and W3D probably mean 3D Cursors, as they were planned for the game, which would replace your 2D cursors with actual models. The models themselves can only be found in Zero Hour and the multiplayer sneak peak. Presumably DX8 Cursor is for the standard 2D Cursors, while Windows Cursor replaces them all with the default Windows Cursor.
Officers Club Medal Player did not preorder Generals
Supposed to show up as a tooltip when you do not have the Officers Club medal (which is gotten by having preordered the game). This medal does not even show up when you do not have it, therefore this tooltip is not used.
<Enter Name>
Found among the science names. No idea what it was supposed to do.
Give My Science A Name
Please take the time to fill out my description located in Science.ini! Thanks a bunch
This is simply a placeholder used during development for sciences which did not yet have names and descriptions written for them.
Please take the time to fill out my description located in CommandButton.ini! Thanks a bunch
Similar to the above, but used for generic command buttons during development.
| Uncapped FPS | Allows frame rates above 30. Affects game speed so only recommended for benchmarks |
|---|
This is an unused function of the Options menu intended for the developers only, which allows you to disable the frame limiter in this game. It is hidden because it does not just affect the frame rate but also the game speed, which may be undesirable especially on fast machines.
Mouse Type
Another unused option, with an uncertain purpose.
| Assign New Hotkey | Assigns your chosen Hotkey command |
|---|---|
| Current Hotkey | Displays the current Hotkey for this command |
| Reset All | Resets all of your keyboard Hotkeys to default |
| Customize Keyboard | |
| Keyboard Options | |
| Alt+ | |
| Ctrl+ | |
| Shift+ | |
| Pick a category of keyboard command | |
| The description of your selected command | |
| Available commands for the current category | |
| Enter your new command Hotkey here | |
| The command this Hotkey is currently assigned to | |
These strings appear to be remnants of a removed menu that allowed you to change the keyboard commands and hotkeys of the game. It's easy to see why it was removed. Remapping these keyboard commands can possibly conflict with units training/construction hotkeys, which can only be edited by the game files.
Units and Structures
Agent
A Chinese infiltrator unit of some sorts. It's actually a very old relic from the prototype, it's not even used in the game and even one of the developers (In an annotation) wonders if it's used for anything. Its model and textures, alongside full unique working animations can only be found in the expansion pack and the Sneak Peak. Judging from what little remains of his code, plus his model, this unit would've been able to use wire cutters, perhaps for sabotage, and bribe units.
The way it looks doesn't match the rest of Chinese Infantry which could mean it's a remnant from before the factions were redesigned.
Bridges
Bridges were meant to be destroyable and repairable at some point of game development. If you change the bridge object and make it able to be damaged, you will indeed be able to damage bridges and most of them even have proper textures for being damaged. As for the repairing part, you were most likely supposed to repair bridges using the bridge towers. They still show up in the map editor but do not appear in the game anymore.
It's uncertain why it was removed, but the most likely reason was to prevent frustration on maps where bridges are the only object connecting two landmasses. Even though it is officially discouraged and no official maps do that, it's easily possible to create such a map with the map editor.
Crusader
The Crusader Tank was intended to have a machine gun for use against infantry. The reason for that is, quite simply, that the tanks can damage each other if infantry walk beside them. It was removed due to a design change though.
GLA Hole
The GLA Hole has an unused animation of the door opening, so the worker can go through and rebuild the building. Due to a programming error, this animation never actually plays, therefore the worker goes through the closed door.
Marauder
The Marauder was supposed to have a third salvage upgrade, which would make it armed with triple barrels, unlike other GLA units whom can be only upgraded up to two levels. It can be seen when adding the Marauder to a map in the world builder and also in one of the GLA missions in the expansion pack. It's unknown why it was removed but it could be because of balance or time constraints having to make three salvage upgrades for the other GLA unit.
Moat
A leftover Chinese building from the prototype, It's unknown how it functioned but perhaps it did just like real life moats used throughout medieval history. Most of its coding seems to be just placeholder, it's invisible but has a model in the expansion pack, however it's just a placeholder model of a large box with the word "Moat" written on it.
Paladin
For some reason, the Paladin's Point Defense Laser on its model was changed shortly before release. The old version can still be seen in the selection image and as well as in many screenshots of the game.
Ranger
The Scout Drone upgrade was originally for the Ranger. It worked just like the way it does in the final game, following its parent. It also had a significantly different model. The Ranger also benefited from two removed upgrades, The "Timed Grenades" and "Smart Grenades". Said upgrades can be seen in a playtesting video, It's unknown how they functioned. Perhaps they evolved into Flashbangs in the final game.
GLA Rebel and RPG Trooper
Originally, both unit models used the same texture., the only difference was, obviously the weapons they carried and animations. They can been seen in the intro of the game and some pre-release images.
This was changed in the final game, probably because they looked too similar and the player wouldn't easily tell them apart.
The texture however is still available in the prototype as well as the expansion pack but it doesn't fit any of the models because it uses old texture dimensions of the prototype.
The original texture...
...rescaled to fit the Rebel model in the final game.
Red Guard
The Red Guard was planned to have a bayonet to stab other infantry. The feature is fully finished, and it seems it got inadvertently removed while weeding out the POW logic.
Scorpion Tank
Internally, the Scorpion Tank is called LiteTank. For some reason, there's a duplicate Scorpion Tank with an object ID of ScorpionTank. It's unknown what purpose this partially implemented clone served. Perhaps the internally-named Lite Tank was a separate unit and that the unused Scorpion Tank model found in Zero Hour is for the real Scorpion Tank.
Secret Police
Again, a Chinese leftover from the prototype. It uses a hacker model as placeholder but other than it, there isn't much to it. What role it originally played is left for speculation.
Supply Docks
Similarly to bridges, the supply docks were also supposed to be able to be damaged. They all have proper models for the damaged states, and still have coding for healing themselves after a while. This would have also caused frustration if your supply dock was destroyed by the enemy and you would be left with no supplies.
Tunnel Network
The GLA Tunnel Network had no gun turret throughout most of the game's development, it's sole purpose was simply transporting units. It was given a weapon in the final game probably because the GLA had no anti-infantry base defense.
The selection image in the final game still shows the tunnel without a turret.
Interestingly, the turret on the tunnel is that of a Scorpion tank, with a shorter barrel and a different, blue texture. However the snow model for the tunnel network uses the original scorpion tank texture.
Walls
Walls were planned for this game, just like in the first Command and Conquer game. They are fully coded and can still be placed in the World Editor but are invisible because their models are missing (With the exception of the GLA Wall) and only found in the Expansion pack. Presumably they were removed because they needlessly slowed down an otherwise fast-paced game.
There are various straight and corner pieces for walls for all factions, as well as selection pictures and tooltips. Presumably you would build the walls using the removed line build feature, which allowed you to build buildings along a straight line. Each faction got a specific wall; according to the tooltips which are left in the game, they were as follows:
- America got a security fence. It blocks vehicles from passing and triggers an alarm if enemy infantry tries to pass it.
- China got a concrete wall, which just plainly blocks troops from progressing.
- GLA got a burning barricade. This one does not really block anything, but the fire damages units passing by.
Unused GUI Elements
Replay Control
Replay control was meant as a way to control replays. You could make the replay play faster or slower, pause the replay, or enable frame advance mode. It was removed from the game though, leaving you with no way to control the replay, but in the Expansion Pack a fast forward mode was introduced as a makeshift replacement.
Main Menu
The Main Menu also offers some interesting hidden leftovers.
- Apparently, it was planned that map packs would be regularly released which you could then download from the game. A hidden button "Download Map Pack" exists in the Main Menu and would presumably be used for this purpose. There's also an entry in the Windows registry called MapPackVersion which is presumably associated with it. It is always set to 10000, though.
- Similarly, updates were also planned to be downloaded from the Main Menu, as hinted by another hidden button "Get Update". But since updates cannot be installed anyway while the game is running, it was moved to the autorun menu.
- A clock was also intended to be visible in the Main Menu, as a small gimmick.
Options Menu
The options menu is surprisingly full of unused stuff.
- A hidden drop-down box would have allowed you to change the anti-aliasing. This is not possible in the final version.
- Apparently, the way you moved the camera was saved in replays and then reflected when the replay is run. This would have been useful for example for analyzing the player's navigation, but it has been removed from the final game.
- There is an option to disable the language filter! Anyone who has ever played an online game knows how annoying these are. This was presumably only intended for the game developers, and normal users probably were never intended to be able to switch it off.
- There is a button that reads "Keyboard Options". You may have been able to change the keyboard layout in this special menu. This would also explain the large amount of unused text relating to keyboard commands in the game, and also why the CommandMap.ini file, which controls the keyboard commands, is not saved in the game's data files, but instead extracted in one of the game's subfolders to be easily editable. The reason why it was removed may be to prevent keyboard commands from conflicting with the in-game button hotkeys, which cannot be edited this way.
- One hidden option in the advanced options menu disables the frame limiter, which normally limits the game speed to 30 FPS (or whatever you have it set to in the battle's options). The description says it is mainly intended for benchmarks and not for actual gameplay, because it does not just change the frame rate but also speeds up/slows down the game.
- There is a hidden text string that reads "Mouse Type". It's possible it was intended to allow you to use the fourth and fifth mouse buttons in the game (if you have them), but ultimately its purpose is uncertain.
- There are two hidden options "Draw scroll anchor" and "Move scroll anchor". The effects of these options are unknown.
Unused Special Powers
These special powers are relics of the old generals logic of the prototype, After the generals were removed, the developer team did not consider these worth keeping. Most of these are fully functional in the Sneak Peak.
Black Market Nuke
The Black Market Nuke was intended for GLA and would drop a nuke by plane. The nuke itself is not particularly strong, but the radiation field it leaves behind destroys most units in the area.
Terror Cell
Terror Cell works similar to Rebel Ambush, but it spawns terrorists instead of rebels. This has a great destruction power, and may have been too powerful.
Crate Drop
Crate Drop does nothing more than drop $2,000 worth of money. This seems like the most useless of the unused special powers, if only because America has much faster ways of resource gathering.
Coding
The entire game code is formatted with tabs and empty newlines and also contains developer's annotations and comments. Actually, there is a program available to the developers which strips all of these, they just weren't able to use it because they ran out of time.
There is also a file which defines several debug keyboard combinations, like instantly building all buildings, turning off the fog of war, and others. It is unknown whether these debug commands can be re-enabled.
There are also some old leftovers which are only evidenced in the game code:
MultipleFactory = 0.9
An undocumented feature of the code allows for a multiple factory bonus. It makes units be produced faster if you have multiple factories of the same type. The problem with this is that once you get enough factories, the build time becomes almost zero. This may have been the reason for its removal.
CommandCenterHealRange = 500.0 ; command center heals your/ally stuff this close to the command center CommandCenterHealAmount = 0.01 ; command center heals close by stuff this amount per logic frame
Apparently, the command center used to heal all friendly objects around it. This would have made defending a base very easy (especially with that high range, which outranges artillery easily), perhaps too easy, which may have slowed down this game unnecessarily.
;***NOTE*** ;A little history -- the MissileDefender now uses the assets of the TankHunter. ;The TH uses assets of the GLA tunnel defender, and the TD uses assets of the NEW ;MD. It was a design/art/code decision because the new missile defender animations ;don't suit that of a mobile/offensive unit with packing and unpacking.
According to this note left by a developer, the Missile Defender was given model of the Tank Hunter and that Tank Hunter took the model of the Tunnel defender, the latter was given the new Missile Defender model. This could explain why the Missile Defender model is prefixed with "N", which is used for Chinese units.
Lock On mechanisms
The game engine can allow for Jet units to act like actual stealth fighters, that is avoid being targeted by enemy units for a set time limit, after which enemy units can attack the aircraft normally. No unit makes use of such behavior in the game but it's fully functional if added to any Jet unit. Specifically, this block of code, part of the JetAIUpdate module, handles this.
LockonTime = [integer, milliseconds] LockonCursor = [object name] LockonInitialDist = [integer] LockonFreq = [real number] LockonAngleSpin = [real number] LockonBlinky = [Yes/No]
It's very possible that the developers intended for the USA Stealth Fighter to make use of this code, thus behave like the actual F-117 Nighthawk on which it's based off.
ProneUpdate Module
The ProneUpdate Module is a partially scrapped Module in the game's code. It's supposed to trigger the PRONE condition state in an object but it doesn't work and is not used by anything in the game. It seems the developers may have intended to bring back the Infantry prone mechanism from past Command & Conquer games to Generals and this module was probably meant to go alongside it. The Seal model found in the prototype has a number of prone animations, which were probably made for this prone mechanic.
ProneUpdate DamageToFramesRatio = [real number] End
Crate
In the final game, only the GLA gets crates for destroying enemy vehicles, which they can use to either upgrade the salvager's weapon, if possible, or get a level up or money. But originally, it was intended that every faction gets a crate for destroying elite or heroic enemy units. Destroying elite units would give either $1,000 or a level up to all surrounding units. Destroying heroic units would give either $2,500, a level up to all surrounding units, or instantly spawn two American Crusader tanks at the crate's position.
This was removed because it was imbalanced and also because it did not make much sense for China and GLA to get American tanks.
Faction colors
The GLA originally had red as their faction color, this is strongly supported by the fact that the selection images for some of their buildings and vehicles have the team color part painted red. That and many pre-release screenshots and videos show the USA fighting against red GLA. Lime green was also considered for the GLA.
The Chinese were instead green colored, something carried from the prototype of the game.
