Command & Conquer: Generals/Unused Content in the Original
This is a sub-page of Command & Conquer: Generals.
Contents
Sub-Pages
 | Missions and Maps The original plans for various missions. |
 | Unused Animations Unused animations, mostly of Infantry units. |
 | Unused Graphics The GLA attempted to liberate the world, but these graphics were left in the dark. |
 | Unused Sounds POW logic-related stuff, introductions, Force Move and other sound files that were cut from the final game. |
 | Unused Text Unused text strings for various cut functions. |
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, including the unplayable American and Chinese officers as well as voices for surrendering. However, surrender animations for the heroes are not found in the original 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.
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 found in the expansion pack files, albeit unused.
- 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 directly reference surrendering and putting "arms in the air".
GLA POW Truck
Chinese POW Truck
GLA Prison
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)
Units and Structures
Agent
This is actually a cut Chinese spy/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.
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.
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.
Partisans
These three unused infantry units are categorized as civilian units in the Worldeditor but their missing models found in Zero Hour suggest they're GLA units. Because the models they use are missing, they can't be selected when placed in a map. They don't have weapon sets and no selection images.
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 but it may
Unused Coding
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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
