Command & Conquer: Generals/Unused Content in the Expansion/Common and General Things

This is a sub-page of Command & Conquer: Generals/Unused Content in the Expansion.

Introduction

Unused text exists for some kind of introduction, explaining all the new units in the expansion pack. It exists for all three factions separately, written in the style of the respective faction, so it may have appeared in the campaign, before the first mission. The introduction itself is of rather old origin - it references units and abilities that did not make it into the game, which include:

The Microwave Tank is mentioned twice in the introduction script - first as the Microwave Tank, and then again, with the exact same description, as the "Warlock Tank", which may have been its original name. The introduction also mentions that it can disable units, which it can't do in the final version, probably due to balance reasons since it already fries all infantry.
Bunker Busters were originally intended for the Aurora Bomber. The voice that plays when the upgrade is finished is the Aurora's voice, and the introduction says that the Bunker Buster is an upgrade for the Aurora. It was probably moved to the Stealth Fighter because the Aurora Bomb's sheer power completely destroys most bunkers, eliminating the need to bust them, and because it fits excellently with the Stealth Fighter.
It is mentioned that the MOAB stuns units in the target area. Actually, even in the final game the MOAB tooltip claims that it has a stun ability, but it does not stun anything - it is just an enlarged version of the Fuel Air Bomb, which is pretty lame given its high price tag.
The Helix was supposed to drop a pair of napalm bombs - in the final game it drops a single one. The developers probably had coding difficulties which forced them to cut the dual bomb idea.
The ECM Tank apparently had a jammer which disabled all enemy drones near itself. It was probably removed because the developers noticed it causes serious issues with friendly fire, which made the effect backfire.
System Hack was a Chinese ability that allowed hackers to steal a random special power from the enemy. It came in two levels, which would have made the ability unique (all other abilities are either single, or three-leveled), but it was removed with no traces remaining.
The Elite Guard upgrade added RPG troopers to all GLA buildings. This quite obviously overpowered upgrade was eventually scrapped, but the garrisoned building models were reused for the Fortified Structure upgrade. There are also upgrade voices for the Elite Guard upgrade which are unused.

Help

There is text which contains some hints on the new units. They may have been used in the introduction mission above. They were cut because some of them were utterly pointless. They also note some stuff which has been changed in the final game:

The Avenger's laser pointer originally granted a damage increase, this has been changed to a rate of fire increase in the final game.
Apparently, a Chinese paradrop was planned which would drop Red Guard. In the final game, only the Infantry General gets a Paradrop.
Normally, the hero unit can be built only once. Infantry General, however, appears to have been exempt from this limit. This was changed back likely because it was very imbalanced and allowed you to obliterate an entire base at once.
The Sentry Drone Gun was originally an upgrade at the strategy center. The developers wisely changed it to be available from the War Factory, since it makes a normally useless unit at least useful in limited circumstances.
To the contrary, the Tactical Nuke upgrade was moved from the airfield to the Nuclear Missile Launcher, because it makes the Migs deadly one-hit-kill units.

Unused Text

A&rtillery Platform	Builds a large range artillery platform for defenses Power Required: 4

The Artillery Platform is a tech building which has a howitzer to combat enemy units. Apparently it was originally intended as a building for America. For one reason or another, it was decided to use the Fire Base instead. Note also that it used to consume quite a lot of power, while the Fire Base does not need any power which makes it useful in many situations.

The selection picture of the Artillery Platform is not found together with the other Tech Buildings, but among the American faction's selection pictures, which reinforces this.

&Propaganda Trooper	Produces propaganda to heal nearby units

This would have fit Infantry General the most. The obvious problem with it is that it makes his infantry a bit too powerful, with constant automatic healing and rate of fire bonus.

&Sniper	Camouflaged while not moving or shooting. Spots hidden enemies Strong vs. infantry Weak vs. light vehicles, scouts

A tooltip for the Sniper, which is mostly just a copy of the American Pathfinder and is used by the unique version of the Stealth General in the GLA campaign. Whether the Sniper was ultimately intended to be used as a playable unit for the Stealth General is unknown, but unlikely due to the redundancy with Jarmen Kell.

Low graphics detail

This belongs to a removed function called Toggle lower details. By using the equals key, you were able to automatically switch to lowest details, in case sudden lag appears or similar, which would then make this string appear in the message log. It was removed from the game though, because it actually has little to no effect, since in most cases lag is caused by pathfinding or scripting issues, rather than graphics rendering.

General "Tigress" Leiong Leang demands the use of all other technology to defeat her enemies

Uses the best of the best 
All heroes 
All superweapons 
Diverse generals powers 
Units drawn from all factions 
Advanced defenses

This text suggests the Boss General was available for Skirmish at some point in the game. It appears when you select her in Skirmish, which is not possible without modding the game.

Gattling Tank Training	All Gattling Tanks will be built as elite
Overlord Training	All Overlords will be built as elite

Tank General has the Battlemaster Training to make all his Battlemasters start as elite. The developers seem to have considered a Gattling Tank Training and an Overlord Training as alternate choices. However, especially the latter would be extremely imbalanced, which was probably the reason why they scrapped the idea.

Tank Hunter Training	All Tank Hunters will be built as veterans

This Tank Hunter Training is, according to the description, like the Red Guard Training, but it applies to Tank Hunters. The developers probably did not implement this one because China already has enough "training" sciences as is.

Cut General Info

Additional info was cut from the loading screen for each general's biography.

Birthplace / Station
General	Text
General Granger	Fort Belmont, Houston, Texas, USA
Dr. Thrax	Unknown
General Ironside	TBD
General Deathstrike	TBD
General Tao	Base Ox, Chengdu, China
General Alexander	Camp Franklin, Belfast, Maine, USA
General Kwai	Base Rat, Jinan, China
General Townes	Fort Union, Redwood Shores, California, USA
Prince Kassad	Tripoli, Libya
General Fai	Base Snake, Beijing, China
General Juhziz	Unknown
General Leang	Base Dragon, Lanzhou, China

Branch
General	Text
General Granger	US Air Force
Dr. Thrax	Unknown
General Ironside	.
General Deathstrike	.
General Tao	PLA
General Alexander	US Marines
General Kwai	PLA
General Townes	US Army
Prince Kassad	GLA Cobra Cell
General Fai	PLA
General Juhziz	GLA Scorpion Cell
General Leang	PL- Elite Forces

Class Number
General	Text
General Granger	07121969-HB
Dr. Thrax	Unknown
General Ironside	.
General Deathstrike	.
General Tao	Not applicable
General Alexander	178923478-HBGB
General Kwai	9999-3224536-5
General Townes	00010204-01KE0
Prince Kassad	Not Applicable
General Fai	2030-200403-1
General Juhziz	Not Applicable
General Leang	Unknown

Age / Date of Birth
General	Text
General Granger	62
Dr. Thrax	Unknown
General Ironside	33
General Deathstrike	TBD
General Tao	50
General Alexander	42
General Kwai	51
General Townes	TBD
Prince Kassad	34
General Fai	57
General Juhziz	36
General Leang	TBD

In addition, General Fai and Juhziz have text that's not normally seen:

Rank
General	Text
General Fai	General, Class AAA
General Juhziz	Not Applicable
General Ironside
General Deathstrike

Tactics
General	Text
General Fai	Advanced Infantry Divisions
General Juhziz	Explosives and Bombs
General Ironside	TBD
General Deathstrike	TBD

Command Centers

In the final game, the Command Centers of the individual generals are only differentiated by a symbol printed on the ground. However, every general was supposed to get a totally new Command Center specifically designed for that general. It was probably cut due to time constraints, but the normal models are all in the game and can be viewed with a model viewer.

Tank General's Command Center is the only one that's fully absent. Maybe they never got around to finishing him. Note also that the two other Chinese Command Centers have a green roof, whereas the normal Command Center has a brown roof.

For some reason, likely a modeling mishap, there's a power plant in the middle of the Laser General Command Center.

Airforce General
Laser General
Superweapon General
Tank General
Infantry General
Nuke General
Chemical General
Demolitions General
Stealth General

Generals Challenge

Generals Challenge is the prime example of how rushed this game was. Only seven of the nine generals in this game can be encountered in Generals Challenge. Infantry and Demolitions General are totally absent, even though they have a full voice set recorded for them, and the Demolitions General even has a partially completed map in the game files.

When you beat the six other generals in Generals Challenge, you'll have to encounter the Boss General. Originally, there were America Boss General, China Boss General and GLA Boss General, which you had to fight against depending on your general. All of these have complete voice sets recorded, and there are empty positions for those two generals in the text and the coding, but due to lack of time they were simply merged into one Boss General.

Additional graphics suggest that the base factions were available in Generals Challenge, additionally scripts in each map account for base factions.

Game Script

This game contains the entire game script in plain text. This includes all of the campaign text, the Generals Challenge taunts and the EVA voices. These were probably made as placeholders for speeches that were not recorded yet, or maybe for the voice team so they could appropriately record the speeches.

Unused Models

To do:
Many other models need to be added, I'M JUST FUCKING TIRED OF THIS ALL!

The expansion pack contains a heap of unused models, some of these models are pretty old, from before the game was redesigned such as buildings. While others are of newer origin meant for the original game but somehow slipped in Zero Hour.

AOM

This is actually a prototype version of the Greek Fortress from Age of Mythology, hence the model name "AOM". It is unknown how the model came to be in the Generals: Zero Hour files. Some of its textures are missing.

(Source: C&C: NProject Mod)

Prisoner of War

A model of a POW. This model is probably related to the cut POW logic from the original game and was meant to be used there since its texture is also found in the Sneak Peak. Perhaps Infantry you would've captured in the base game as part of the cut POW logic turned into this, however this is all speculation.

The Prisoner of War has a full unique voice set that was reused for the convoy truck, while cutting some lines.

He has a full animation set, minus death animation despite having sound files for dying. This could hint these POWs weren't killable.

Civilians on Bikes

Some unused models of civilians on bikes can be found in the files, they're named as if they are vehicles. They both have unique animation sets but are actually identical to each other.

A model of the scooter all by itself also exists.

Homeless Civilians

The game has three homeless civilians models originally made for the base game but only one is used. The other two go unused.
The model and texture of the first variant can only be found in Zero Hour although the texture for his shopping cart full of junk in present in the base game. He also has some unique animations.
The texture of the second variant can be found in the base game but the model itself is in Zero Hour only.
All of their textures are also present in the Sneak Peak.

Militia

It seems the base game was meant to have a Militia unit of some sorts. It's unknown if this was meant to be a hirable unit in Skirmish or a campaign exclusive. Nevertheless, it's pretty sad it never made it into the game. He has a full animation set.

Horse

A model of a horse attached to a cart, has a full animation set but some of them are broken. It's unknown if this horse is meant for the original game or was created for Zero Hour. Nevertheless, It seems that the developers wanted the game to be more lively.

Street Vendor

This model of a street vendor found in the prototype can also be found in Zero Hour files.

Crates

Some unused crates models, likely meant to be picked up by units, can be found in Zero Hour. They are:

UN Crate: Gives you funds when picked up, presumably.
Veterancy Crate: Probably increases the Veterancy level of whoever picks it.
Weapon Crate: No idea what this does, maybe a weapon bonus?
Wild Crate: Perhaps this crate randomly offers any of the aforementioned effects.

UN Crate
Veterancy Crate
Weapon Crate
Wild Crate

Civilian Buildings

Some of the Civilian Buildings found in the prototype can also be found in Zero Hour. These are pretty old leftovers since they don't have snow, damaged or garrisoned models.

Unused Tech Buildings

The expansion pack contains a number of unused Tech Buildings, some of these were created for, and later cut from the original game, their inclusion here was either by mistake or perhaps the developers considered adding them back for Zero Hour. The rest seems to have been created solely for the expansion pack but weren't added due to time constraints.

Repair Pad

The expansion pack added quite a lot of new Tech Buildings. A Repair Pad was also considered, where you could send your units to have them repaired. It never got very far, and while the Repair Pad does exist in the game, it does not appear on any maps and when you place it with the map editor, it looks exactly like America's Supply Drop Zone. A tech repair pad exists in the MD_USA04_Intro map, decoration around it suggests it was the same size as the supply drop zone.

Caves

These caves were removed from the original base game. They're fully functional in the Multiplayer Sneak Peek. They would work like the GLA Tunnel Network. With an unused script in the world builder, mapper could tinker how caves connect to each other.

Radio Station

Again, a tech building scrapped from the original base game. It had 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 units. Like the Caves, the Radio Station, alongside its special powers are fully functional in the Multiplayer Sneak Peek.

Supply Drop Zone

Because its texture is found in the original game, the Supply Drop Zone was either a tech building that was given to American or it was meant to be a natural tech version of the American Supply Drop Zone. Only the pristine model conditions exists, other conditions are found only as textures.

The difference between this model and the American Supply Drop Zone is that the latter is wider, has team colors and the crates are less and smaller.

Unused Ground Textures

Leaflet Drop

This ground texture was more than likely intended to be used for the American Leaflet Drop.

System Hack

This ground texture was planned to be used for the System Hack special power. When that special power was removed, the ground texture went unused as well.

Sneak Attack

This appears to be a relic from older coding, when the Sneak Attack was implemented as a special power. In the final game, it works like the Dozer and shows a preview of the Sneak Attack tunnel.

MOAB

The MOAB was apparently intended to get its own ground texture. However due to the way it is implemented, this is not possible.

Bomber

A similar ground texture, showing three bombs, is used for the various carpet bombers. This texture, showing a single bomb, is never used in the game though.

GPS Scrambler

This ground texture was intended for the GPS Scrambler. It looks quite unusual, maybe the arrowheads were intended to indicate the area of effect of the three levels.

Unused Sounds

EVA Voices

Certain upgrades, both old upgrades and new ones introduced in the expansion, have upgrade voices from the EVA. However, most of these upgrade voices are not actually used. Affected upgrades include Control Rods, MOAB, Neutron Shells and the Sentry Drone Gun.
The EVA was intended to warn you if a Daisy Cutter, an EMP Bomb or an Anthrax Bomb has been used. This would have made the EVA very noisy, and the removal of these warnings was a good step.
The expansion was supposed to introduce a system to transfer funds between allies, and request funds from allies. Therefore, there are several sounds related to funds transfer in the game files. However, it was not done due to time constraints.
The only mission where International Opinion plays a role is a Chinese mission. Therefore, the American and GLA voices relating to International Opinion are completely unused. Some of them don't make sense at all, like the GLA voice telling you to destroy your own structures to raise International Opinion.
Some EVA voices are obviously inspired by the classic Command & Conquer game - nevertheless, they went unused. These include voices like "Building lost", "Unit ready", "Base defenses off-line", "Select target", etc.

Other Sounds

The expansion pack introduced some never used upgrade voices for Cash Bounty and Infantry General's Minigunner Training. This means that either these were supposed to be upgrades and not sciences, or that sciences were supposed to get upgrade voices (while this is technically possible in the game no science makes use of it).

Supply Collecting

Supply collecting used to be a bit different originally. At the beginning of the game's development, all factions used an articulated truck and picked off supplies from a supply warehouse. It was changed, so all factions can get their own way of collecting supplies. The supply warehouse still exists in the expansion pack, is fully functional, can be damaged down to 1 hitpoint and the Chinese supply truck will even drive through it as originally intended. Of the trucks, only the American and the Chinese supply trucks remain. The American supply truck (complete with the original gold texture) was re-used for the second American mission where you have to protect the UN supplies from the GLA forces, but the Chinese supply truck is never used in the game, as the developers preferred the "single vehicle" design.

Placeholder Models

The game contains a whole lot of models which are just placeholders. Vehicle and building placeholders are usually a cube, while infantry use a rough model which looks like a LEGO guy.

ABEMPCann.W3D: Stands for EMP Cannon. This may have been a defense structure or a superweapon (most likely the former though).
ABParBmUp.W3D: Not sure. Possibly meant to be Particle Beam Uplink, but what is this supposed to represent?
ABRailGun.W3D: The Rail Gun appears in the game script too, but as an upgrade. Maybe it was also intended to be a standalone structure.
ABSENDRONE.W3D: Original Sentry Drone.
AIHGeneral.W3D: HGeneral appears for all three factions. Maybe it was the original hero unit, or some kind of commander.
AVMOutpost.W3D: Also appears for all three factions. Maybe a mobile outpost.
AVRepDrone.W3D: Original Repair Drone.
AVSniperD.W3D: A sniper drone, most likely. What its purpose was is not entirely certain.
AVStlDrone.W3D: Maybe stealth drone. Fits America the least, since they're not into stealth tactics.
AVTBD.W3D: Your typical placeholder file.
NBAnitTGun.W3D (sic!): More than likely an anti-tank gun. It would not really have fit in the game though.
NBFTurret.W3D: Looks like flame turret. It was probably planned as a defense structure for China, and has evidence in the prototype.
NBFireStrm.W3D: Unsure. fire storm or perhaps fire stream?
NBGHowitzr.W3D: Some kind of howitzer. China seems to have been a very different faction when they were first created.
NBGTower.W3D: Probably guard tower. Not sure what its purpose was.
NBNReactr.W3D: Original Nuclear Reactor.
NBPalace.W3D: Possibly the Palace that belongs to the GLA in the final?
NIHGeneral.W3D: Same as AIHGeneral.W3D.
NILOfficer.W3D: Some kind of Officer for China.
NIMongol.W3D: Another one referenced in the prototype game. Mongols, whatever they would have been, are very out of place in this modern war game.
NIRNinja.W3D: The Ninja also appears in the prototype. As above, it does not fit in at all.
NISlaveT.W3D: This actually shows two placeholders, so it was meant to be a group of people. Related to China in some fashion.
NITrooper.W3D: Possibly the laser trooper from the prototype. It is amusing to see Mongols and Laser Troopers in the very same faction, actually.
NVBrgLayer.W3D: This is the bridge layer. It seems to have been a vehicle, but in any case it would not have worked with the current game engine.
NVMOutpost.W3D: Same as AVMOutpost.W3D.
NVTBD.W3D: A simple placeholder.
NVTHowtzr.W3D: Possibly the train cannon from the prototype.
NVVTank.W3D: Seems to be the vulcan tank from the prototype. I could see this being in the game, but it probably lost to the Gattling Tank.
NVWarTank.W3D: A nondescript tank...
UBConYard.W3D: Original command center for the GLA.
UBFieldGen.W3D: No idea about this one.
UBMField.W3D: No idea either.
UBRadarJ.W3D: Something to do with radar. Either a radar building, or a stationary jammer.
UBRebelHQ.W3D: This could have been the original high tech building for the GLA, if one considers that the Palace was a Chinese building (see above). Of course, having an organization of any kind seems a bit odd for an underground terrorism group.
UBRocketS.W3D: rocket site, maybe. Could be a defense building.
UIAssasin.W3D: A left-over from the prototype, since its texture can be found there. This is the only model that isn't a placeholder or a low detailed LEGO guy. Carries a knife and a sniper rile, unfortunately his animations are missing or weren't even made .Maybe snipers for the GLA were considered at one point.
UIGFighter.W3D: Some kind of soldier. Maybe generic fighter, or something else.
UIHGeneral.W3D: Same as AIHGeneral.W3D.
UIHunter.W3D: A soldier with a generic nondescript name.
UIJunkman.W3D: As his name says, he would have probably done something with junk, but no real idea what.
UIMercinry.W3D: No idea at all.
UVAirAce.W3D: Possibly a planned aircraft for GLA.
UVAmmoTrck.W3D: Maybe you actively had to organize supplies for your troops? It would have been more realistic but also very annoying.
UVBuggy.W3D: Precursor to the Rocket Buggy, perhaps.
UVConvoy.W3D: Not sure what this is supposed to be.
UVMOutpost.W3D: Same as AVMOutpost.W3D.
UVSniper.W3D: It could be a sniper vehicle of sorts
UVSpy.W3D: Unknown what this could be, definitely a vehicle and not an Infantry unit.
UVTBD.W3D: Another generic placeholder.

Placeholder Selection Pictures

The game contains not just placeholder models but also placeholder selection pictures, which have written in them what was supposed to go in there.

Laser Cannon

This was probably planned to be a unique selection picture for Laser General's superweapon.

Cruise Missile

This was going to be the selection picture used for firing the unused Cruise Missile Silo. The leftover code uses the same selection picture that the Nuclear Missile Launcher uses, which is not very fitting.

Super Hacker

The Super Hacker of the Infantry General was going to get a unique cameo, but it was never finished.

Nuke Bomber

Probably planned as a selection picture for the nuclear carpet bombing of Nuke General. The image used in the final game shows an American B-52 bomber, rather than the Chinese cargo plane that the other Chinese generals have, which is quite inconsistent.

Toxin Terrorist

A planned selection picture for the Toxin Terrorist, which was yet again never finished.

Tactical Nuke Strike

No idea why that placeholder is there, since there's not just one, but two selection pictures of the Tactical Nuke Strike all there, and none of them are even used because the ability itself did not make it into the final game. It's possible the developers simply missed this one.

Tank Paradrop

A planned selection picture for the Tank Paradrop, since the one that's in the final game shows American Crusader tanks, which does not make much sense for the Chinese Tank General.

Upgrades

Capture building is listed as a strategy center upgrade.
Supply lines is listed as a supply center upgrade.
Neutron mines are called EMP mines.
Tactical nuke MiGs is listed as an airfield upgrade.
The subliminal messaging upgrade voiceline is lists the POW truck as the speaker.
Cash bounty, worker shoes, and fortified structure are listed as command center upgrades.
Radar scan is listed as an arms dealer upgrade.
A cut superweapon general point defense drone that costs 500.
A cut rocket buggy upgrade to give it toxin rockets for 1000, has no icon.

Battle Honors

The Domination and Streak honors are technically possible to get, but have such unrealistic critera nobody will have gotten them legitimately. The Endurance and Ultimate Honor honors are broken and not awarded when critera is met due to the game expecting the maps "Armored Fury" and "Scorched Earth" to completed which were C&C Generals maps but not included in Zero Hour. To fix this the player must add the following to their SkirmishStats.ini:

maps\armored fury\armored fury.map_4 = 5
maps\scorched earth\scorched earth.map_4 = 1

Graphic	Name	Criteria
	?	Unknown
	Domination Honor	Win 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 matches total.
	Streak Honor	Win 3, 10, 25, 100, 500, 1,000 matches without losing.
	Endurance Honor	Beat all maps against easy/normal/hard AIs.
	Ultimate Honor	Beat all maps against the maximum amount of hard AIs.