Kane's Wrath II (Upcoming) mod

Do you still feel like to play version 1.00 for many different reasons apart from the visual graphics matching units performance?

Do you prefer classic RTS over sports game (e.g., RA2 over Starcraft, Dune Emperor over Warcraft III, RA3 Uprising over Age of Empire, etc.)?

Don’t you just love the spirit of Obelisk?

Wouldn’t you just enjoy the diversity of more than 3 factions with all their units different in one way or the other?

Do you just have that little sweet spot in Kane's Wrath, that little unit, a little building or some synthesis in your military which just lights up the entire game and you feel can just play this game for eons?

You my dear, if your answers to the above questions are ‘YES’, I proudly present you my favourite work – a Kane's Wrath mod which is envisioned as a ‘CNC4’, in remembrance of the end CNC series. Apparently, it is not Tiberium Dawn, just an art of picturing CNC4 to suffice the attemptation.

This MOD page is under rewriting development to do with its related publication. Content will be added for more visual entertainment and comfort of reading.

Version 2.86x has arrived for both Steam and original CD versions! The NOD harvester glitch has been finally fixed especially with the fellow patched maps (to be uploaded) by Cilene :0 (hopefully)

Since this MOD page has been out, Version 2.86x is a final version achieving its ideal for its own sake. This means it is stable and no further changes required. Players can focus on other development such as maps design and strategy contemplation with this steady base.

However, it is possible any adoring end-users would challenge for a newer version based on the MOD principles (which will be demonstrated through time). Those principles are fundamental to define the spirit of this MOD and embrace their eternal evolution.

Anyway, pardon me that I did not have the luxury to go through an exhaustive list of changes and tweaks. Below are the key highlights which would guide a commander to understand their troops, a complex beyong complex issues.

The Installation, anyone received the MOD please at least read this section as a mandatory to setup your MOD correctly. This would save your time, effort or frustration from any potential troubleshootings.

The overall procedure of the installation is simple: EXTRACT, PASTE AND REPLACE THE GAME FILES.

Wait! There is more to do before you can enjoy the full benefit from both hardware and software sides!

1. This MOD does not need a 3rd launcher or installation taht requires administrator privilege. However, it is necessary to BACKUP your original game folder for rolling back in the future.

1.1 Otherwise, you may need reinstallation or Steam integrity check for the original 1.02 game.

2. A good thing about this MOD is that other MODs can override on top of it so you don't have to uninstall it in order to test other MODs' new functions.

2.1. Please ensure the integrity of all this MOD's files being installed. Files from this MOD are all necessary and may associate each other for stability and smoothier experience. It is a work of years - literally years (if not many) and a R&D spin-off from the Big Bang MOD I highly regard. Feel free to try that MOD with all new units and fresh strategies.

2.2. Instaed, this MOD does not focus on creating the new but to harness what has already existed. There were times of subtle tweaking and changes which cannot replicated and recorded anymore.

3. Caution! You MUST MAKE SURE YOUR IN-GAME SETTING GRAPHICS IS ABOVE ‘Medium’. This is due to the MOD itself does not contain low-res textures or LOD alternatives. Thus, lower graphics settings may result in error messages and failures of launching Kane's Wrath.

3.1. If failures do happen after installation (i.e, getting an error message saying file corrupted or missing builds), just roll back to the original Kane's Wrath and choose your graphics setting first.

3.2. You can maximise all the in-game graphics settings. However, the in-game 'anti-aliasing' is not recommended. This is because CNC3 is an old game and its engine does not compete with your graphics driver's anti-aliasing. Let your driver's anti-aliasing override CNC instead.

3.3. If you are using an nVidia card, it is also suggested to set-up 'Image Sharpening' for your 'cnc3ep1' (and cnc3ep1.dat) in the nVidia Control Panel. Some values for you to choose:

'Sharpen 0.64, ignore film grain 0.24' to match the MOD page images

'Sharpen 0.52, ignore film grain 0.14' to stress some detail rednering

3.4. Also, make 'Max Frame Rate' in your graphics driver to '32' or '34' FPS if the uncapped FPS is too fast. Using the in-game slider to control the game speed is fine but it is highly recommended to use your graphics driver to set up the good performance standards.

4. Finally, once these perquisitions have been fufilled, decompress/extract all the files into your root game folder (where your 'CNC3EP1.exe' is) and (have to) replace any existing files.

5. That's done, Commander! Happy hunting!

Intelligence Database Upgrated (WHAT'S NEW)

- replacing unit

+ adding unit

{ALIEN}

Alien Sepheric Wall (+++ Scrin, Reaper-17 and Traveler-59): a simple Tier One but effective defense structure.

+ While busily dealing with humans' reaction to Alien visits, Scrin took great interests into the earth evolution, just as Kane predicted. They couldn't comprehend the human concept of wall throughout its history but found fascinated in countries' delibration of the forced physical seperation which served effectively military purposes. Aliens did not have walls thus took the concept and manifest within their own force field.

Visceroid Squad (- Reaper-17): A tank like infantry of Tier One which is strong but unstable in its attacks. It gains health boost instantly and its Tib spitting weapon has very slight healing effect. It can sense invisible units once getting too close while being weak against most vehicles crushing.

- This little unit was adopted by Reaper-17 from an indigenous species and evolved during their time on the earth. When R17 firstly arrived on the earth, they suffered from the great hostility of humans where they lost most of their buzzers. Reaper-17 has the longest staying on the planet earth. Through time, they discovered the indigenous visceroids; tamed and communicated with them intelligently, thus born the 'Visceroid Squad' to replace their original buzzers.

Mother Visceroid (+ Reaper-17): Bigger than a normal visceroid, a suicidal unit carrying a huge explosio, Tier Two Plus.

+ During the time on the earth, Reaper-17 helped visceroids to evolve into a more sophisticated creature which eventually compensates Reaper-17's greatest shortage of their infantry types. A sudden explosion in the backyard have made Reaper-17 individuals feeling more like their human counterparts.

Banshee (+ Reaper-17): A storm-rider like unit of Tier Two with a long attack range of reach; an infantry like aircraft unit which cannot be easily blocked by anti-vehicle missles.

+ Reaper-17 kept scouting around the earth environment trying to compensate the lack of unit types design among all other factions. They eventually found the secrets of NOD. With their CABAL and LEGION originated from the same alien source as Reaper-17, Reaper-17 has managed to recover the lost arts of technology and took it on into its new era.

Scrapbus (++ Scrin and Reaper-17): A tank unit of Tier One with thick health and a front dozer blade to crush any enemies.

+ The arrival of aliens has accelerated environment changes and the evolution process of the earth. Not only the aliens started to utlise artifacts found on the planet, but also new types of species emerge and started to choose their side of different factions. Scrapbus maybe one of the first its kind where aliens started to drive school buses...

{NOD}

NOD Wall (+++ Nod, Black Hand and Marked of Kane): a simple Tier One but effective defense structure.

+ 'We must build walls to keep our secrecy!' as Brother Marcion said.

+ 'Walls are what makes a RTS classic.' Kilian Qatar

+ '...' Kane

Nod Flame Tank (- Nod): replacing Black Hand Flame Tank with Scorpio armor, purifying flame secretly applied, Tier Two.

- The loyal Nod faction has been unsatisfied of their flame technology being patent and supplied only by Black Hand. Members have been talking about Black Hand leaders' treason aligning with GDI's interests and decided to deviate from the ONE NOD policy. The first thing symbolises this success is the change of Flame Tank which is more agile and better armored.

WIP...

Game Changer WIP...

blockage of incoming damage makes an artillery. This follows RA2 setup where all the long range artileries such as V3 rockets and aircraft carriers can be mitigated through defense system.

In this case, Assault Planetary Carrier finally became an artilery or there is no point for it to be a real carrier. This serves strategic purposes for both defense and offense for Scrin and Traveler-59 commanders. As much as the Carrier is immense looking, its force field sheild can withstand the strongest blows to stress on Aliens' superior (in a way) technology.

1^st, music is converted from A440 to A432 standard with new music added from CNC series. Whoever knows what this means hears it correctly and may sit back and enjoy the new in-game music.

2^nd, performance boost with better utilisation of 4GB RAM. This is why you would notice the replacement of the game execution file. Please set your in-game ‘FPS Limit’ on your Graphics Driver Panel. The ideal value for my Quadro card is 34 (which should be the same for you). Bear in mind, RTS games are usually not animated above 30 FPS.

3^rd, easter egg – the main menu in-game has 2 BGMs now. Music handling RAM is also improved. Try or try not to find out 😊

4^th, manually repairing buildings and structures are generally improved. This is to make players’ active base defence engagement more effective.

5^th, drones’ repairing ability is improved depending on which faction and what type of the drones. Please research the best solution for yourself.

6^th, oh yes, the Obelisk of Light, its laser is thicker and reaching certain artillery with beam charges. The firing speed boost reaches the maximum its full animation allows (any faster firing rate would result in deficient animation). Now it makes sense that everyone would use the beam charges in PvP.

7^th, Black Hand (BH) has its own Air Tower so that its engineers can equally reach remote places in some naval based maps.

8^th, following the point 7^th, however, adding of Air Tower to BH does not shift the overall battlefield ecosystem and does not potentially weaken the ground unit emphasis of the CNC3KW universe. Instead, BH still does not have air against ground force and new BH Condor provides a new controlled solution to balance between air- and ground-forces.

9^th, silos generate revenue to compensate the potential defect of NOD harvesters. The harvester glitch is not guaranteed fixed for NOD factions only. Other factions are just fine with their harvesters.

10^th, economy adjustment, tier 2 and 3 technologies are getting harder to reach in order to layer out the periodical strategies and dynamics of the battlefield. This gives a good rhythm in the gameplay and flow.

^11th, GDI base defence structures have slightly faster deployment and a thicker armor against anti-structure weapons.

^12th, Voice of Kane, in the messiah’s vision, boosts the attack range of vehicles. Therefore, it does no longer provide any damage boost or other aura effects to the infantry. Players can commonly deploy them across your important bases as a key strategy to transform vehicles into structural defence system. This is from observations that my friend used Ghost a lot for base-defense while it was sad seeing Ghost being easily wiped out by for example Juggernauts. The boost of attack range is unique in-game and it layers out different tiers of artilleries.

^13th: Storm Column is boosted with a better attachking range and damaging system. This layers out a fine overall defense reaching strategy. Storm Column sits in as a simple effective solution.

^14th, GDI buildings look more robust, so they are tougher to bring down. NOD power plant provides least power at the beginning but boosts tremendously in the later tech. It is the weakest structure. Same with Alien power plant due to they are building it in the different humanitarian environment. GDI power plant is the strongest structure providing the most power at the beginning but less later in comparison with other factions.

16th, Temple of NOD now fires Tiberium nuclear power, no more old-fashioned stolen GDI nuclear deployment system. NOD finally gets its feet on some serious cutting-edge Tiberium detonation. Dr Giraud's 'compliment' not gone wasted.

17th, multi-language support; you still keep your local language after installing this MOD. You can supply your game language to me to help me to fix any missing language strings.

Faction Principle - MOD Rules:

Changes made by this MOD are governed by a series of rules derived from the original game 1.00. These rules shall not be breached and must be comprehensively followed. Therefore, calling for changes or balance must be defined and logicalised under the principle of the rules.

1. No permanently greyed out button in any item within a faction.

This means all technology requirements (except hidden or bonus technologies) are satisfied within their own faction. There is no greyed out tehcnology or skill which would need from other factions to enable.

Case-A.1 (fixed): Reaper-17 EradicatorHexapod has permanently greyed out teleportation as the faction itself lacks a Commando unit. To not to violate other rules in this section combined, the best solution has been replacing the teleportation with buzzer attachment which is normally used throughout Alien factions. As a compensation, Reaper-17 EH gains an exclusive blueshards technology.

2. Any units boost comes with reducing of another property within the same unit.

This is to avoid simplistically changing the original balance as like a sports game update approach. Rather, it digs into the rabbit hole to consider an unit in relation to all other units, structures and faction configurations.

Case-A.2: GDI Golumn Cannons maybe the most robust structure to withstand burning impact. However, it has a secret hole which makes it vunlurable to a specific unit.

3. Majors should retain their slogans from the version 1.00 game and the MOD can only seek to actualise their ideologies, not to undermine.

Case-A.3: Mobility - GDI comes with 'slow and steady'; NOD comes with 'dark-tech and fending'; Alien comes with 'the most advanced and overwhelming'.

Case-B.3: Accessibility - GDI has the most robust ground force on earth to push frontlines; NOD has the most advanced based-defense strategy to shadow themselves into surprise outcome; Alien conquers above the ground is secondary to none.

4. Factions should retain their characteristics from the version 1.00 game and the MOD can only seek to harness the characteristic, not to metigate it.

If you scrutinise the game, commanders might find each faction follows certain rules to build up their own military organisation.

The first faction has all the vital technologies and the most balanced within the Major. The second faction focuses on vehicle and ground units and push the Major's symbolic technology into its extreme. The third faction focuses on infantry development and push the Major's most cutting-edge technology into its extreme.

Case-A.4: Gdi has all the vital technology i.e., Rail Gun (Major Symbolic), Sonic Wave (Cutting-edge Zocom R&D), infantry types (from light to the most heavily armed and to the elite), vehicle types of all ranges as well as aircrafts.

Case-B.4: Steel Talons, by sacrificing cutting-edge R&D, pushes Rail Gun to its extreme and owns the most fierce ground units within the GDI Major.

Case-C.4: Zocom, by sacrificing the symbolic technology, pushes Sonic Wave to its extreme and owns the most complex infantries in within the GDI Major...

...tbc

I will keep update this page and more insights will be listed.

Download: (DM/Comment & no source for those scepticism)