Command and Conquer: Generals/Unused content in the expansion/Common and general things

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

This sniper was planned for the Stealth General. While it does exist in the game and can be placed on the map with Worldbuilder, it is mostly just a copy of the American Pathfinder. It would have made Jarmen Kell extremely redundant if it were trainable in the game.

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 hacking the game.

!Overlord Training
 * Gattling Tank Training
 * All Gattling Tanks will be built as elite
 * 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Caves
Caves were planned as a tech building. They would work like the GLA Tunnel Network. However, they were removed, maybe because the developers thought it wouldn't be of any use.

Radio Station
The Radio Station is the third unused tech building. 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. It did not make it into the game.

Supply Drop Zone
The Supply Drop Zone used to be a tech building. A duplicate model file including the "tech building" flag exists in the game files. It was later given to the American faction instead.

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.

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", "Insufficient funds", "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 and is fully functional, 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.

AOM
No idea what this is doing here. It looks like it comes from a game playing in ancient Rome (or Greece), and nothing like this game.

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. Maybe the developers intended China to be more like in real-life, where people work for the country under poor working conditions.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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: A generic sniper. Nothing to say about this.
 * UVSpy.W3D: Spies are something the GLA was lacking in the original game. This was remedied in the expansion pack with the addition of the Saboteur.
 * 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 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.