C&C Generals English Patch 1.8

Issues addressed:

1. FORCE FIRE - CHINA's Gattling Tanks can no longer force fire through buildings.

2. RALLY POINTS - Added rally points to the GLA Tunnel Networks.

3. IMPROVED ONLINE STATS - Made improvements to the code that tracks statistics and disconnects in online games.

4. CRASH FIX - Fixed a crash bug related to the Particle Cannon.

5. DESYNCH FIX - Fixed a mismatch that occurred when ordering a unit to attack right after they exited a building.

6. REGION ACCURACY - User tooltip in the Custom Match lobby now correctly displays the user's region.

7. HERO RADAR ICON - Jarmen Kell, Black Lotus and Colonel Burton now have a special icon on the radar map.

8. CHAT SOUND EFFECT - Added an audio cue to the communicator to alert users to an incoming message.

9. TEXT FIXES - Fixed text errors in the tooltips for USA Drone Armor and CHINA Nuclear Tank upgrades.

10. FIREWALL PORT OVERRIDE OPTIONS ITEM - Firewall Port Override values can now be set on the Options menu from the Main Menu.

The game will need to talk to external servers that use the following port numbers. These ports need to be open in your firewall in order to play on Generals Online:

TCP ports: 80, 6667, 28910, 29900, 29920

UDP ports: 4321, 27900

If your firewall does not allow outgoing packets to open ports to incoming traffic, or you experience problems connecting to other players, you will have to specify which port you want Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour to use for communicating with other players. To do this, go to the Main Menu and then select Options. There is a box labeled ‘Firewall Port Override’. Assign the port you want to use to the port override entry. After you enter a port number, be sure to hit Accept.

You will need to open the chosen port in your firewall for communication with players external to your firewall or NAT device. If you use the port override feature, the port you have chosen can not be masqueraded by a NAT device.

“Direct Connect” does not support firewalls.

Version 1.6

Issues addressed:

1. FIREWALLPORTOVERRIDE INI ENTRY - repaired this entry so it functions correctly. See section 2.1 of the Readme for more information on using this INI entry.

2. ALT-F4 MULTIPLAYER EXPLOIT - Quitting the game during a multiplayer match using Alt-F4, as well as Ctrl-Alt-Delete or the Alt-Tab menu, will now correctly give the user a disconnect stat.

3. CHINESE AND KOREAN IME WINDOW ORDER - Re-prioritized the Korean and Chinese IME windows on the Save/Load screen so they now sort on top of all other windows.

4. SCUD STORM ANTHRAX BETA BUG - GLAs Scud Storm now has the correct damage radius when upgraded with Anthrax Beta.

5. CHINA GATTLING TANK BUG - Chinas Gattling Tank now correctly moves slower when it is damaged.

6. MULTIPLAYER LOBBIES The lobbies have been renamed to allow people to congregate based on the type of game they want to play, not their region. These lobbies are:
+ 1 vs 1
+ 2 vs 2
+ 3 vs 3
+ 4 vs 4
+ Free4All
+ ClanWars
+ Asia
+ Europe
+ N America
+ No Supers
+ Mod Maps
+ Newbies

7. GENERAL BALANCING ISSUES:
+ Chinas Gattling weapons now require Line of sight to fire.
+ Chinas MiG cost increased from 1000 to 1200.
+ Chinas MiG Armor cost increased from 500 to 1000.
+ USs Cold Fusion Reactor Control Rod upgrade cost decreased from 800 to 500.

8. QUICKMATCH RESOLUTION The resolution for QuickMatch games is no longer limited to 800x600.

9. BEHIND BUILDINGS GRAPHIC - Addressed a problem where unit occlusion was causing people with older video cards to see invisible units.

10. ALTERNATE MOUSE INTERFACE - Added feature to allow players to play with right click action interface. Movement and actions are handled via right click on the mouse. Also changed arrow keys to support map scrolling.

11. GEFORCE FX GLITCH - Fixed a glitch that caused some graphics corruption to appear for owners of NVIDIA's GeForce FX video cards.

12. CRASH FIX Fixed a crash that occurred when you disable the behind buildings feature in the advanced options, exit the game, re-enable the feature in the advanced options, and then load a map.

13. CHEAT HACKS Fixed the ability for players to cheat by giving themselves automatic build, upgrade, and Generals powers buttons. Also fixed the ability for players to hack their Generals points in multiplayer games.

Version 1.5

Issues addressed:

1. STAT RECORDING INACCURACY: Made sure the online stats are tracked correctly. Initial disconnecting players will be tracked and wins/losses will be correctly tabulated. One note to remember: At the Disconnect Voting screen players MUST wait for the count down to finish. A player that exits this screen before the count down is done will receive a disconnect. Also, the voting button has been removed from any 2 player game Disconnect Screen.
2. US BARRACKS EXPLOIT: Lowered the number of Rangers that appear after a US Barracks is destroyed.
3. BUGGY MISSILE TRACKING AFTER UPGRADE: Made sure the missiles continue tracking targets after the player upgrades the Rocket Buggy.
4. RELOADING COMANCHES, ROCKET BUGGIES: Made sure the Rocket Buggy and the Comanches can reload reliably.
5. GLA FAST BUILD BUG: Fixed exploit that allowed multiple Workers to speed structure build times.
6. DOUBLE PLANE WEAPONS CAUSE INCORRECT DAMAGE (All planes): Made sure that targets take damage correctly when multiple ordinances hit a target simultaneously.
7. SOME USERS ARE SEEN IN THE WRONG GAME LOBBIES: Fixed this so that “phantom” users wouldn’t be seen in misc. lobbies.
8. GENERAL BALANCING ISSUES:
• Bug fixed in MiG damage code where upgraded napalm did too much damage to targets.
• GLA Bomb truck health up from 220 to 250.
• Worker health up from 100 to 140.
• Tunnel Network gun damage increased from 10 per shot to 15 per shot.
• Overlord build time increased from 20 to 25 seconds.
• Scorpion Tank now builds in 10 seconds instead of 14.
• GLA Arms Dealer build up time decreased from 50 to 40 seconds (ini seconds, not game seconds.)
• Tunnel Network Build Time improved from 20 seconds to 15 seconds (ini seconds, not game seconds.)

Version 1.4 - 3/10/03

Issues addressed:

- Changed the rules for disconnections. Now, only the players who disconnect from the game or physically lose their connection to the Internet are charged with a disconnect.
- Added a new three-minute rule on Generals online. Now, online matches need to be played for over three minutes in order to record a win, loss, or disconnect. This is to discourage players from artificially bolstering their rank and stats through a dummy account.
- Fixed occurrences of the same game appearing multiple times in the lobby. Generals now actively removes duplicate games in order to make finding and joining matches easier.
- All the chat rooms in the custom match lobby now have their own dedicated list of active games.
- Fixed improper disconnections from the game lobby. You should no longer see the "Lost connection to Generals online" error when your connection is still active.
- Fixed language filter stability.
- Added a new command line for mod developers that lets Generals run user-created content. Simply add the "-mod" command line after the generals.exe target path, followed by the name of any user-created .big file or user-created directory. The correct path would like this: "C:\\Program Files\\EA Games\\Command and Conquer Generals\\generals.exe" -mod MyGeneralsMod.big. All user-created content must be placed in the "Command and Conquer Generals Data" folder within your "c:\\Documents and Settings" directory.
- Fixed the missing artwork for the "random private" rank in Generals online.
- Fixed the rank hack where some players appear to have a higher rank than they should.
- Increased the allowed time for game to negotiate matching between players.
- Fixed some instances of the "serious error" crash.
- Added a new 4 player Multiplayer Map: Rogue Agent
- Implemented the following balance changes:
• Tunnel Network build speed increased from 5 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Marauder hit points increased from 430 to 490.
• Stealth Fighter hit points increased from 120 to 140.
• Explosion damage done by Chinese Nuke Tanks when they are destroyed is reduced from 25 to 10.
• Nuke Cannon changed so it moves the same speed when damaged, not faster.
• Aurora speed increased from 90 to 120 after it drops its bomb. Damaged speed increased from 60 to 120.

Serious Error info:

If you encounter this error frequently, you may also send an email to seriouserror@ea.com to help us diagnose the problem. You will not receive a response as this email is exclusively set up to help us collect data. Make sure to include EAsy System info which is located in your installed directory. You should also include your ReleaseCrashInfo.txt file which can be found in your Command and Conquer Generals Data folder.

Make sure to check the message boards at www.generals.ea.com for user suggested workarounds.

Fixes in v1.03:

- QuickMatch stability and matching
- General connection fixups behind routers (multiple players behind the same router, refreshing the player IP after a failed connection)
- Refresh button added to Custom Lobby
- Game List/Player List no longer pops to the top occasionally
- Player List no longer jumps, etc. making it difficult to click on a name
- Communicator requests addition of buddy to both players. Also, incoming messages get a sound effect
- Spaces in front of games in Game List no longer allowed
- Game Lists/Player Lists alphabetize in upper and lower case
- Ping tolerance icon adjustment to make more useful
- More accuracy in number of players per game in Game List

Fixes in v1.01:

- Improved the online chat lobby lag
- Fixed the ping indicator in the chat lobby
- Added some more lobbies to spread out the load
- Fixed the accuracy of the games info displayed in the chat lobby