Archived News from September 2003

September 30, 2003

-CannisRabidus

This is just a little 'in-between' news update to let y'all know where things stand. I've pretty much accomplished what I intended ('modding-wise') for the next private beta, and now I'm setting down to do some new AI additions. Details will be in the news post which follows this one. Also, the Cuban Beyond Revenge unit has been darkened slightly to more closely match Soviet colors, and as you can see it has its final name.

September 8, 2003

-CannisRabidus

The Development page has been updated with a list of changes in the private v1.61 beta. Current changes include tweaks and adjustments in several areas, but most notably include the addition of the latest Beyond Revenge unit for Cuba: In the pic the unit is called the "Shredder APC", but that will change because no one seems to like that name... What this unit will be finally named is currently under discussion in the forums. In the game, this is a high-capacity armored personnel carrier which has no real weapons, but it does have the ability to run right over enemy units, crushing them instantly. Also, Blade has graciously offered me the use of several modified Yuri cameo icons, giving them backgrounds which are more consistent with the better Yuri cameos in the game. In the past I have not hesitated to post teaser images of assets like this here, but given all the recent thefts I would be foolish to do that now. These new cameos will appear on the site once the next public release is made.

September 4, 2003

-CannisRabidus

Even more CNC Guild theft!! Given the many thefts of the past several months, and especially after the outrageous experience with CNC Guild ripping off my entire mod and renaming it as 'UplinkMods', and the attitude of CNC Guild in not removing the stolen content until they were shamed into doing so, I decided to take a closer look at what else this site "offers". For all the project sites that they host, they only have one single mod available for download, which is "RA2 Des08tor: Yuri's Return v0.82". I found that this mod also contains content stolen from CannisRules! What is even more amazing, is that Des08tor is the webmaster and owner of the CNC Guild network. Normally I would find it incredible for the owner of a network to be stealing from other sites, but theft is what I have come to expect from CNC Guild. I suppose this also explains why CNC Guild is host to so much asset theft. This news post serves as a public demand that CNC Guild stop stealing, and that the RA2 Des08tor: Yuri's Return mod be removed immediately. This blatant stealing must stop. I find no reason to work hard to create new original assets for CannisRules only to see them stolen by a site whose members are too lazy to make their own. I would imagine that anyone in this community who actually contributes to this community would feel the same. Asset thieves are parasites who steal from us all. Below is a list of what was stolen from CannisRules and appears in the RA2 Des08tor: Yuri's Return mod on CNC Guild. This list is probably not complete, since it doesn't list assets stolen from sources other than CannisRules. If anyone reading this has created assets for C&C games, I suggest that you download this mod and see if you are a victim as well. (If you are a gamer rather than an asset author, it might be a better idea to boycott the CNC Guild network entirely). Asset Stolen Filename(s) Author(s) Source Assault Flag building artwork, including rules and art code caflag.shp caflag_a.shp cgflag.shp cgflag_a.shp CannisRabidus CannisRules v1.5 Aircraft Pad building artwork, buildup animation, and cameo icon, including rules and art code gaapad.shp gaapad_b.shp gaapadbb.shp gaapadmk.shp ggapad.shp ggapad_b.shp ggapadbb.shp ggapadmk.shp apadicon.shp Sypher_5 and CannisRabidus CannisRules v1.0 Chaos Tank voxel and cameo icon, including rules, weapon, art, and sound code chtnk.vxl chtnkicon.shp chtnkuico.shp CannisRabidus CannisRules v1.0 Orca Bomber resized and recolored voxel and cameo icon orcb.vxl orcbicon.shp CannisRabidus CannisRules v1.0 Mutation recolored infantry animation and recolored Mutate animation, including rules and sound code muta.shp gendeath.shp CannisRabidus and Dark_Desolator CannisRules v1.0 Special Forces recolored infantry animation, including rules, weapon, and sound code spfr.shp CannisRabidus CannisRules v1.0 Skirmish AI control file, in its entirety!!!! aimd.ini CannisRabidus CannisRules v1.6 Obviously from the release dates of the various versions of CannisRules indicated above, Des08tor has been ripping me off for at least a year. The thing that pisses me off the most is the stealing of the CR AI file. Developing and testing AI attacks was months of work, and defines the character of how the mod plays against the AI. Yet this bastard simply takes it as if it is his. At least we know exactly how well Des08tor's AI project is going: It's progressing just as fast as I provide him with work to rip off!

September 3, 2003

-CannisRabidus

It was my hope that the event which sparked my last news post could have been much more easily resolved, but unfortunately I have to conclude that the problem may be ongoing. The reason I say this is because while the stolen content (the entire CannisRules mod) has been removed from the offending site (UplinkMods), the owners and admins of the hosting site (CNC Guild) do not believe that hosting stolen content is their responsiblity. Making matters worse is the fact that the hosting site also fought to keep the stolen content, and only removed it later on because of concern for their own appearance in this matter. Therefore I have every reason to believe that this or similar thefts will happen again. Since the CannisRules mod represents over one and one-half years of work, I am naturally extremely pissed off. In any case I am happy to report that development on the next version of the mod has not been unduly delayed by these outrageous events. In a future post I'll describe what's been done, which includes the addition of a new Beyond Revenge unit for Cuba. The "working name" for the unit is the Shredder APC, which behaves much like a grinding tank seen in other mods, but since it functions as an armored personnel carrier for Cuba, it offers the opportunity to use it to bring Cuban Terrorists right into an enemy's base. The unit will use a completely new voxel, and I'll have an in-game image of it next time.