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NProject Mod

An enhancement mod for Generals Zero Hour

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Presentation Outline

- Introduction

- What is NProject Mod

- What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

- NPM Asset Fix Process

- Concerns with Community Patch

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Introduction

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Introduction

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Introduction

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What is NProject Mod?

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What is NProject Mod?

- NProject mod (NPM) is a mod for ZH made by n5p29

- Started in 2006, added to ModDB in 2008

- An enhancement mod, focusing on fixing bugs, improving game quality

- Made some roster and balance changes, with the goal making all the generals more well rounded

- Fixes and changes are based on online references, playtests, and user reports

- All balance changes were done with utmost care, making sure they fit in the default ZH gameplay as seamlessly as possible, without pushing game balance too far

- Back in the day, a bit before my time, there was a C&C modding forum created by DeeZire, in that forum DeeZire made a thread named “Coding Mistakes by EA”, in which most if not all the ZH modders at the time would write down all the issues they’ve found while modding the game

- The top contributors of that thread were later considered to be the pioneers of ZH modding (DeeZire, Beng, Fritz, The_Hunter, Yayo01, and many others) imagine Oppenheimer but for ZH modding. This list was the primary reference for the bug fixes in NPM, and other mods of the time

- This and multiple references were used to determine the validity of changes

- All this to say, each change is carefully considered and viewed from multiple perspectives, not just decided randomly

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What is NProject Mod?

- Revived cut content: unused units, missing challenge maps, expanded options menu, worldbuilder mesh mold tool, etc.

- Added Boss General as playable faction in skirmish

- Regarded as the top enhancement mod for ZH among other ZH modders, due to the number of fixes and attention to detail

- n5p29 himself is a well respected modder, who’s worked on a number of different mod projects, including ROTR

- The mod is still growing even today, but due to it being worked on only by n5 for the most part, progress is slow

- Unused units: Toxin RPG Trooper, Hypersonic Aurora, Scorpion APC

- New original content: Flame Tank, Twin-Gattling Tank, Siege Cannon for Tank Gen

- Flame tank is a tougher Dragon Tank with two flamethrowers, Twin-Gattling Tank is self explanatory, the Siege Cannon is a pseudo artillery unit, added to help Tank Gen deal with turret spam better, particularly EMP patriots, Unlike Infernos, they are direct fire units, so they require line of sight, and cannot shoot over obstacles, this was done to limit its capabilities, and retain Tank Gen’s “lack of proper artillery” weakness, and also to keep more in theme with Tank General

- World builder only content: Tomahawk Storm, ICBM, Detention Center, POW Trucks

- Internally we have a meme “NPM is the best mod for ZH modders” because it seemed that the only people who actually appreciated the mod were other ZH modders. NPM was not very popular with players, compared to other mods like ShockWave or Contra

- Scorpion APC: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/scorpion-apc-for-stealth-general#imagebox

- Siege Cannon: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/tank-general-siege-cannon#imagebox

- ROTR Spy Plane: https://www.moddb.com/mods/rise-of-the-reds/images/chinese-spy-plane

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NPM Milestones

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NPM Milestones

- Fixed “almost all” bugs in the game (at least all that can be fixed through modding)

- Restored all cut ZH content and polished them to fit properly with the existing gameplay

- Revamped existing faction assets both to fix bugs and elevate them to match the quality of newer content

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NPM Milestones

- People who have played mods before particularly Pro:Gen or more recently ROTR are familiar with the “mod version” of the POW system

- You upgrade your infantry with special weapons that turn infantry into crates which said infantry or special POW trucks can collect, which then gives you money

- This is NPM’s attempt to reviving the cut POW mechanic, and as you will see it is a bit different from what you have seen in other mods

- Basic infantry can be upgraded with special weapons that allow to make enemy infantry surrender

- These surrendering/subdued infantry then can be captured and turned into Prisoners by POW Trucks that are buildable from Detention Camp, Propaganda Center, or Prison

- The POW trucks can only capture surrendered infantry, and will crush normal infantry you try to collect

- These captured Prisoners then can be ordered to enter said prison collection buildings to get certain perks

- For now the only perk is money, in the future it can be expanded to other things

- That said currently these are not available in the mod regularly, and can only be accessed through world builder

- This was done before the source code release, using only raw INI bashing, now that the source code is out mechanic can be further refined, polished, and expanded

- ModDB Link: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/videos/new-pow-mechanic-test#imagebox

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NPM Milestones

- Added Boss General to skirmish, complete with updating her arsenal to be consistent with the other ZH generals, and giving her working skirmish AI

- Added the missing Demolition General and Infantry General challenge maps

- Demo Gen challenge map was an unfinished map found in the game, while the Inf Gen challenge map is a modified version of a map made by Vocux which is available from C&C Labs

- For those who have played a boss gen mod in the past, or have tried to add boss gen themselves, you’d know that some of her units acted differently compared to the same unit used by other generals, this has been fixed in NPM. In addition, some changes were made to give her more of a fighting chance in skirmish mode against the other ZH generals

- She was strong in challenge mode, but weak in skirmish mainly because of her tech tree, which required her to build the superweapon of a respective faction in order to get their higher level units

- The Demo Gen challenge map was an unfinished map found in the game files, it was fixed up and updated by DeeZire, and later added to NPM as well.

- The Infantry General challenge map is a modified version of a popular challenge map made by Vocux (downloadable from C&C Labs)

- New maps for the US and GLA Boss Gens (Ironside and Deathstrike) were also planned at some point, but were scrapped due to engine limitations�- Infantry General challenge map: https://www.cnclabs.com/downloads/details.aspx?id=1565

- NPM Infantry General Challenge Intro: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/videos/infantry-general-challenge-intro#imagebox

- NPM Demo General Challenge Announcement: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/new-challenger-has-come#imagebox

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NPM Milestones

- Started focusing on civilian asset fixes in 2018

- Fixed and improved all the civilian buildings (coding fixes, texture fixes, model fixes, etc.)

- Re-enabled missing model condition states due to coding mistakes, and created brand new models and textures for those that were actually missing

- Fixed the codes from any possible coding mistakes

- Remastered all the models to fix any model issue (shadow bleed, incorrect smoothing, incorrect material settings, etc.)

- Shadow Bleed: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/shadow-bleeds-everywhere

- Adding missing model conditions, re-enabled those that existed in the game files already but were unused due to INI errors, and created brand new models for those that were actually missing (mostly snow and night states)

- Fixed the issue where garrisoned troops would fire from the center of the building rather than using the proper fireport bones

- Link relevant: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/fixed-fireports#imagebox

- Recentered models that were outrageously off center, and fixed their collision box

- Link: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/fixed-building-collisions#imagebox

- Implemented a new system for garrisons where larger buildings have more fireports, while smaller buildings had less

- Also made more buildings garrisonable that weren’t in the base game

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NPM Milestones (4/5)

- Fixed all the codes and broken animations for civilian units, including some never before seen (horse cart, scooter, etc.)

- Fixed models that were invisible ingame, unused, or just plain broken

- Terrorist converted vehicles also have a new system where larger vehicles had bigger explosions, and chemical trucks left toxins

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NPM Milestones (5/5)

- Enhanced trees and shrubberies. They can now “all” be properly crushed and burned. They can also be destroyed by AoE weapons

- Re-enabled a lot of missing/invisible shrubs and bushes. Added unused trees and shrubs as well

- Fixed civilian props (barrels, crates, lamp posts, etc.). Fixed models, codes, textures, etc.

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NPM Future Roadmap

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NPM Future Roadmap (1/2)

- Last public release of NPM was 4 years ago (Sept 2021), a lot more stuff has been done since then

- There will be a new public release “soon”, both to update the now ancient public beta, and to celebrate the new 1.05 update and source code release

- Even after all the asset fixes there is still more work that needs to be done, including balance tweaks, fixing the campaigns, etc.

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NPM Future Roadmap (2/2)

- Even with its dedication to keep everything as vanilla as possible, demand still came for a “fix only” version of NPM without any of the new additions or cut content

- However removing all the new content will rob NPM of its identity

- So the decision was made to split the project

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NProject Lite

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NProject Lite (1/3)

- Inherits all the “necessary fixes” and improvements done in the main NProject mod

- Additional content, not found in the original game, will not be included

- Boss General will not be playable

- All playable factions will be reverted to their vanilla ZH rosters

- In case new fixes are discovered in the main branch, this version will be updated as well

Lite

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NProject Lite (2/3)

- The idea of releasing a “fix only” version of NPM has been around since 2012

- The idea came not only because of the demand for a “fix only” version of NPM, but also because of the hope that other modders would use it as a good clean base for their own mods, without having to reimplement all the base game fixes themselves

- Preparations were made to prepare for the split, there were still a few “necessary fixes” that needed to be made to the main NPM mod

- This was when Super Patch, and later the Community Patch was announced

Lite

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NProject Lite (3/3)

- NProject Lite shares many similar goals with the Community Patch project

- Depending on how the Community Patch goes, there might not be a need for a separate NPM Lite version

Lite

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

- All the fixed civilian assets shared so far (structures, units, props, shrubs, etc.)

- Recentered civilian structures and props with fixed collision boxes for improved pathfinding

- Updated ZH maps with all the recentered civilian assets, moved back to their original places

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

Original

Recentered

Fixed

- The recentered civilian assets were fixed by first recording their original coordinates in ZH, before being recentered, taking note of the difference in their centerpoint, then making an excel sheet that would automatically calculate the corrected coordinates, and even the rotation angle, for the new recentered object

- For some civilian structures we also rotated the model so that the entrance would face forward, which could be helpful for mappers when placing down structures

- Now I understand that these fixes might not be wanted for the first release of community patch, because of the focus on compatibility and preventing mismatches, which is understandable. We are willing to have each asset reviewed for mismatch, and have their addition delayed if needed

- NPM has finished the work of adjusting the recentered models for all the normal ZH maps

- However, testing is still needed, ideally by people who are more familiar with how the maps play then we are

- We are also open to providing our recenter tool to mappers who need it

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

Original

Fixed

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

Original

Fixed

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

- Fixed faction assets (WIP), and fixed cameos for these assets

- Shown here is a the US Chinook (Left ZH, Right NPM), as you can see the model has received some improvements to make it less boxy, but the overall look is kept

- Also fixed cameos for various ZH units: We have a minigunner with an actual minigun, albeit held in a very unrealistic way, we have several units and structures using their actual ingame model instead of random google images, most of the GLA stuff was fixed so that there team color spots are actually colored green and not just white like in ZH, fixed China Airfield cameo that shows the new helipad added in ZH and also no longer showing the yellow parking bones like in the original

- Chinook update: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/addons/fixed-cameo-pack-for-zh-v2

- Fixed Cameo: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/fixed-cameo-pack-for-zh#imagebox

- Full cameo comparison: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.451804191824315.1073741830.424781064526628&type=3

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

- Fixes and changes, vetted by other modders, player feedback, other “enhancement projects”, and our own testing for over several years

- As I mentioned in the last meeting, though it probably went unnoticed, we also reference changes in other “enhancement projects” like Super Patch, 1.04+, and 1.06, when deciding on our own fixes and balance changes for NPM

- Shown here are the Scud Storm toxin particles actually showing the correct level of Anthrax that the player is on, also a comparison between the normal Cold Fusions Reactor, Laser Gen’s Advanced Cold Fusion Reactor, and SupW Gen’s CFR with Advanced Control Rods

- Perhaps this is new to some people here who have not played mods before, but for modders these are some of the “necessary changes” for mods, most if not all of the popular mods will have these changes, which again highlights the desire for an NPM lite, so that new modders will not have to go through all these fixes themselves

- Scud Storm anthrax effects: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/new-gla-scud-storm-goo-effect1#imagebox

- Different CFRs and Control Rods: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/control-rods1#imagebox

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

- A pool of revived and polished cut content ready to be added to the game

- NPM also has a large pool of cut content, that has been fixed and polished, ready to be added into the game as bonus content, if the patch ever decides to do that

- Because let’s face it, fixes are improvements are great, but they will not be enough to attract players, because most players want new stuff, this is why the ZH modding community has existed for so long

- Of course many ZH players are also averse to change, but I know from experience that most of them are ok with just reviving cut content, so there’s a potential marketing opportunity there

- Shown here is the famous Heavy Toxin Tractor model, based on an earlier concept for the toxin tractor, which has an actual model and textures that can be found in the Generals Alpha build 98 that was released some time ago

- Regular mod enjoyers might have seen the model around in various mods, but are unaware of its origins

- As you can see the model used for NPM has been heavily edited to fit into ZH, and to make it more consistent with the other GLA units, especially the default Toxin Tractor

- ModDB Link: https://www.moddb.com/mods/nproject-mod/images/heavy-toxin-tractor#imagebox

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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What can NPM offer to the Community Patch?

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Questions Break

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NProject Mod Asset Fix Process

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NProject Mod Asset Fix Process

- n5 posts about a new issue on Discord

- We discuss the issue on Discord, then n5 tests possible fixes basedour comments/feedback, what others mods have done, and his own judgement

- Once the optimal fix has been decided, there is a period of ingame testing, going through all the possible relevant cases

- Once n5 and everyone else is satisfied with the fix, the fix is cleaned up and logged, then we move on to the next issue

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NProject Mod Asset Fix Process

- Models and textures are imported into 3ds Max and checked all around

- Models and textures are checked together to prevent tunnel vision and making unnecessary fixes

Case Study: Train Station

NPM

ZH

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Case Study: Train Station

NPM

ZH

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Comparison Images

NPM

- Lack of organization, officers in charge

- Lack of urgency

- There seems to be a lot of bias towards Xezon and Super Patch. Me and n5 were once part of Super Patch, and we left due to “creative differences”, so we don’t really feel comfortable seemingly having to work for Super Patch again�- We had hoped that with community patch, that things would be looked at again from zero, comparing works from multiple ZH enhancement projects, not just Super Patch, so we’re slightly disappointed that it seems this isn’t the case

�- Modders do things very casually, we rely in a simple permissions system where we just ask for each other’s stuff. We also use this permissions system to protect our work from bad actors

- Art assets take a long time and much effort to make, it’s not an exaggeration that we treat them like our own children, and are very protective of them

- For an artist, having to give up his main file, such as a .PSD file, brings many negative connotations. It’s usually a sign that their client is planning to cut them out or replace them either with a less demanding artist, or more recently, with AI

- Atm, it feels like Super Patch and by extension Community Patch is trying to do exactly that by using Mod Loader, and possibly other tools, to make it so that anyone can just edit any of the art assets at any time without needing the artists’ consent or even their ability. While I can see how that might make things more “efficient”, there is a risk of design inconsistency as it changes hands between multiple users, and all the underlying design concepts will be broken, become chaotic, incoherent

- I understand that there are aspects of this that has to do with legal reasons, and I agree to abiding by those, but I don’t see needing to comply to Mod Loader and Super Patch standards as one of those

- Some of you may think this is silly, and would rather that we just stop bringing this up and comply, however, In every small niche community, unique cultures develop, you are free to reject these cultures or even think they’re “stupid”, but without respect for culture, there can be no diplomacy, we can’t be the only ones adjusting to everything

- At the very least, I suggest we get a proper art director, who’s an actual artist/designer to decide on the best way to handle art assets, and not just have Xezon decide everything. I nominate myself for this job, since we’ve been assigned to complete the texture fixes, and I assume other art related fixes, anyway

- No voice for the voiceless is both literal, in that people who don’t use voice in meetings get ignored for the most part, and also figurative, as it seems like the people who know Git more, or just people who talk more in general get ahead, while everyone else gets drowned out, and since there aren’t really any officers in charge, except maybe Legi, there’s no way for these voiceless members to get their points across except maybe by making a meeting, or bugging Legi, and I don’t think it is a good idea to bug Legi for everything, as a moderator of several servers myself, I understand that this can be very stressful

- Atm it is kinda depressing that words get thrown around like “this patch is for the whole community”, but in reality it seems this patch is only for some, specifically people who have no problem talking and sharing their opinions freely, everyone else just has to “git gud”

- Atm the server is very chaotic, people are just doing whatever, starting their own sub-projects, sharing their own standards to whoever will listen. From my experience setting up the basic plan, and assigning officers in charge of different parts of the project is done on day one. I understand the desire for free idea generation without any limitations, as Xezon, Legi, and others have explained to me in the past, however I still feel that things are a bit too free and chaotic atm, and there’s risk of people not wanting or being too lazy to switch gears later on, if we only decide on proper boundaries and organizational structure later

- Also, while it is true that we don’t have a deadline, that is not exactly correct either. Worker motivation has a limit, fan anticipation and interest in the project has a limit. In a few months, in a few years, are all the people here gonna be as motivated as we are now? Will our commitment to quality control still be the same? Will the fans outside still care about this project, or will they just move on to other things? Perhaps some of you are committed to working on this project “for all time”, but I don’t, I would prefer if we can show “something” by the end of the year at least

- Brush me off or call me paranoid and/or controlling if you want, I have lived long enough to see many different mod and game projects rise and fall. I can’t help seeing all the red flags and hearing warning buzzers sounding in my head, and not do or say anything about them

- I do hope there is at least one person at the top who is considering all these things. Most people don’t need a “quadruple A” experience, most people will be happy with just a very polished “double A” offering

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Questions Break 3

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The End