Command & Cutie Mark: Harmonian Dawn (My Little Pony meets Command & Conquer)

[Commander Manuel]

(This thread might have to be relocated. Because I don't know what category this falls under. It's a beginner mod project that might end up professional.)

 

 

Command & Cutie Mark: Harmonian Dawn

 

The year is 2021 AE. . .

 

Equestria has been plagued by an invasive crystaline lifeform, known as Harmonium. Once thought to be the answer to industrialization in Equestria, has spread invasively across the land. Wars have been fought to control this adaptive lifeform, lives were lost.

 

In an attempt to advert the crisis, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's surviving heir to the solar throne, deployed a survivor of the Harmonian Wars, Field Captain Ion Cannon, an Earth Pony with countless tactical and leadership experience, into the past, a journey he is bound to never come back from. . .

 

Now, set a course back in time to 2012 AE. . .

 

After the events of the Season 2 Finale (and, I know this branches off into an alternate fanon reality, but then again, my subscription to the theory of parallel universes absolves my fear of temporal pardoxes), Ion finds himself in Canterlot nearly 20 years ago. He tries to get a word in with Celestia, but the guards would not let him. Shining Armor was about to put Ion in royal custody awaiting his punishment for his rash behavior, when Ion suddenly told him his future. Did Shining Armor acknowledge his foreknowledge? Yes, he did, and decided to give his testimony on Ion's behalf, despite how crazy Ion's foreknowledge sounded. But, Princess Celestia could, in fact, identify that Ion was from the future. And, decided to clear Ion of his charges, in exchange for explanation.

 

After hours of conversation in the castle. Celestia had an understanding of things prior to Ion's trek, such as the Meteorite that carried the ultraviolet Harmonium. But, how the changelings discovered it, first, was a totally new aspect to the situation unfolding!

 

Celestia figured even the Elements of Harmony could not delay the inevitable, unless Ion, as he told Celestia, would step in as the Commanding Officer of task force that Celestia made a decree to create it.

 

The decree was the "Equestrem Pro Carta" (Equestrian Defense Charter, in latin), and after approval by Princess Luna, it established the Equestrian Defense Initiative, and put Ion in command of given operations. The Mane 6 would agree to give Ion tactical operations, for as long as the "Changelinghood of Sin" and Cocoon are alive.

 

Three years into the War. . .

 

EDI is almost wasted, the Mane Six have been held captive by the Changelinghood, and Ion was relieved from duty. Let's not forget, Queen Chrysalis's right-hoof, Cocoon, attempted a coup on the Changeling monarch! The end result was Cocoon's banishment to neither the moon, nor sun, but somewhere in uncharted Equestrian influence, where Cocoon continues his plans, despite opposition. Ion thought all was lost. His last resort was to throw himself upon the mercy of the Changelinghood. Before the decision was cast, however, flipping through the cloud stations on his MVA, he was given a sublimnal messages through interference, both from EDI in which Celestia was offering him reinstatement, and Sin which was offering mercy on his life for his allegiance to the Changelinghood.

 

Faced with a difficult decision of fighting for a lost cause, or a chance to live under loyalty to what he thought was the enemy, Ion, in his mansion in Canterlot, look himself in the mirror and asks himself. "What's more important, conquest or peace?"

 

He, then said, "Since I may risk my life either way, I'll press my luck."

 

Then, he flips though the cloud stations one last time, to collect info from the interference, and begins to make his decision!

 

On that note, either way, you are the last hope for ponykind.

 

The project will focus development on the EDI Campaign, now. And the SIN Campaign, later.

 

What missions will be in store? You think it, we bring it! All missions will include Video Briefings and Influence Progression Maps, just like in the Orignal Campaign. Even Spike make an appearance, as EDI's top field operative. Cadence, maybe, just say the word!

 

EDI Campaign Objectives:

-Rescue the Mane 6.

-Recover the Elements of Harmony.

-Absolve the Cocoon and the Changelinghood from Conquest by Treachery and Nuclear Terrorism.

 

SIN Campaign Objectives:

-Conquer Equestria

-Take Advantage of the Harmonium (Feed/Harvest).

-Ultimately Gain Access to EDI's Superweapon. (I'll add you in the ending credits if you can guess what it obviously is.)

 

What I need:

 

Flash Artists and Animators!

Someone to do a conversion of the map of Equestria:

Voxel format artists for pony infantry.

Voice actors for the character that will debrief the player:

Princess Celestia

Twilight Sparkle

Applejack

Rainbow Dash

Rarity

Fluttershy

Pinkie Pie

Princess Luna

Cocoon

Dome (changeling)

Shining Armor?

Chrysalis?

Cadance?

 

I will do the maps, but not without insight from the fans of both Tiberian Dawn and MLP:FiM. Map concepts are an excellent way to experiment with how the locations' ambiguous references can fit into the map. I'd do the concepts, but I lack imagination. I will try to come up with some on my own, but your concepts will probably be better than mine.

 

Bear in mind, the entire map in question is only the contiguous portion of Equestria. That means no trips to the Gallopocos Islands, or Unyasi, EVER!

 

It's a project that probably needs progress for others to consider contribution. Lauren Faust might allow such a project, if we do it without any expense. It's a free project, you won't get paid for it. It's a crossover fan project, and you may choose to help out later if you pick up interest in it.

 

Wish me luck on the Demo!

[MattAttack]

Dude, is this 'My Little Pony' c&c?!? O_o I thought April Fools day was over!

[Commander Manuel]

This is no April Fool's joke, this is a project I'm currently brainstorming, atm. Looking for plot elements that fit into the fanon reality, while still maintaing continuity to the level of technology. In the story, Equestrian Tech advanced by 100 years in just 3 years into the war.

 

Yes, I understand it's a little girls' animated series, that has messages misinterpreted by the older male audience, thanks to sites like YT, but sometimes I feel like there's not enough action in the canon. That's why I wanted to bring out an abstract that Eydie Laramore used for C&C, back when Tiberian Dawn was being concieved.

 

It answers the question, "How does a world based on peaceful compromise from three species of pony handle the burden of war over an omnipotent, yet dangerous resource introduced by panspermia?" Actually, there are other questions raised by that:

 

• What might spark/escalate conflict between changelings under a mad-colt's power and ponies under the rule of two sisters?
  
• What if the spark or factor of escalation is traced back to a resource that represents wealth and power?
  
• What do you think is more important for Equestria, harmony and freedom or conquest and power?
  
• If either side promises a free world, in their contrasting viewpoints, what do you believe in the most that can fulfill the promise?
  

 

I don't mean to spoil the canon plot, since this is for the EDI Campaign, but Chrysalis will assist the EDI once you accomplish 2/3 of the campaign.

 

Speaking of which, I've also got an idea for EDI unit upgrades. For EDI Missions 5-9, when you rescue one of the Mane 6, she will brief the next mission and reward you with an upgrade for your units, additional units and/or structures, and/or new abilites that might make a difference further on. I was thinking of the following rewards for completing those missions:

 

Mission 5: Applejack

Unit Upgrade Rewards: Increased infantry vitality.

New Units/Structures Unlocked:

• Mess Hall/Stable (Infantry that enters inside will grab an apple-tastic meal. Infantry will remian inside for 8 seconds at highest game speed after entering. Infantry will exit structure with full health afterwards.)
  
• Apple Orchard (Needed to use following ability.)
  

New Powerup Unlocked: Rotten Apple Airstrike. (This powerup is a substitute to the conventional airstike, which is still available after destroying all SAM sites. However, instead of destroying all SAM sites, the RAA requires you build at least one Apple Orchard. After construction/cultivation, powerup takes 120 seconds at highest game speed to charge. Cooldown is halvened for each additional orchard. Since there will be no maximum limit on construction of this structure, there's a trade-off we must decide on: higher base cost of construction, weaker base damage, gradual expense of assets to charge power up, or a combination of the three. We might have to make the structure as large as the refinery or more to make the player think more often.)

 

This post will be annexed upon request, provided you have ideas for rescue bonuses, for the other five.

 

You can do it, it's easy to find ideas for unit upgrades and new unit/structure types. Last night, I dreamed about a Unit Upgrade you get after rescuing Rarity. Since Rarity is a generous fashion designer, I figured her research on carbon weave fibers, prior to her capture, will make infantry more durable to physical attack, and fire, but still weak vs. the chem warriors' harmonium spray.

 

I'd like for someone to make the pony infantry units, or at least tell me what I need to make the sprite replacement. How big is a typical infantry sprite? And, is it possible to just take a blank flank, shrink 'em, and crop to infantry bounds, edit it to compensate distortion from shrinkage and cropping, then provide movement and combat animations within bounds and limitations? It might be possible, but we need to make additional frames of anmation to make the infantry stand on their hind legs to fire their M-16s, throw grenades, and fire bazookas. We also need crouching and crawling animations, with their associated combat positions. The bloodshed death animations, might need to be either nixed or censored to keep controversy from escalating. Perhaps a clean and teen version of the mod will help satisfy the black and white nature of violence in games/mods. Remember the violent videogame media scare sparked by games like Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct and Quake? Of course, in game, the graphics pretty much going to be tame by today's standards. Unless you don't like ponies bleeding, then stick with the clean version, it'll just have the pony fall and lie dead for a second before it bamfs into magical ashes. Or simply make the clean death having the pony bamf into ashes.

 

Any more ideas? Post them and I'll it add on to this post.

[swisha]

I'd totally do some voice overs for you. Let me know when you get to that point.

[Commander Manuel]

I'd totally do some voice overs for you. Let me know when you get to that point.

 

Well, can you do Princess Celestia? I need to do two missions, for the demo. So I need one Campaign Theater sequence, and two Briefing Vids with Princess Celesita. We might add in Action, Victory, and Defeat sequences if there's time and Flash animators and artists.

 

I need an ad-lib of your best Princess Celestia imitation, attach at least one minute of your Princess Celestia voice. You must refer to the player as "General", "Ion", or both; neither "Commander" nor any snappy nickname for the player. Celestia almost always addresses her subjects with respect to their title, rank, and file.

 

What should be included in the ad-lib?

Anything that might spark ideas for the mod, just remain in-character. Ad-lib your own debriefing, if you wish.

 

44.1 kHz, 16-bit mono, is not required, but highly recommended for comparision of your Celestia voice to the Celestia voice of the original actor, I will give you a grade on your performance, if there's, at least, an 80% match. . .

 

Fluttershy: yay!

 

You are on your way to giving directives to Ion!

 

Good luck, and if you can't do Celestia, anypony else is fine, too, but the demo calls for the voice of Celestia.

 

CRITICAL UPDATE INTITATED: I'm doing the voice of the Magical Visionary Assistant, the Equestrian EVA, it's actually a magical scroll with computer-esque properties. The scroll is the key to commanding your troops, it is capable of access by all classes of equestrians, even earth ponies. All you have to do is say, "Initialize Magical Visionary Assistant" after unraveling the scroll, it can be used over and over again without vanishing into dust. Quick Question, do I have to recite EVA's Lines word-for-word on all of the preset speech.mix AUDs?

[Nyerguds]

You know, I'm fairly sure C&C1 doesn't even contain enough bright pastel colours to pull this off.

 

Also, C&C1 doesn't use voxels. It uses SHP.

[Commander Manuel]

You know, I'm fairly sure C&C1 doesn't even contain enough bright pastel colours to pull this off.

 

Also, C&C1 doesn't use voxels. It uses SHP.

 

Is there a way give the engine more color options? We could just make pony infantry all the same color scheme, just like clone troopers.

 

And is it possible to make campaign scenario unit upgrades that add on as you progress mission by mission? Like infantry have more vitality starting in Mission 5 and ongoing. I need help with the infantry SHPs. How do I get a galloping animation to fit in within the entire range of frames? I need a starting point, like an animated gif of a pony galloping in eight directions.

 

Another challenge, is replacing the operational theatre. It is on the same map for both campaigns, but progression is different. Where do you find the operational theatre components, and how do you modify the graphics without having to modify the code?

[Nyerguds]

Is there a way give the engine more color options?

Those colours you see are the ones used by the units and structures. This means, they're the colours shared between all theaters. In other words, ALL graphics, in ALL theaters, in the ENTIRE game use them. To change those colours, you'll have to reconvert every single unit, every single terrain tile, and all UI graphics used ingame to fit your new palette. AND you have to make sure not to touch any colours used in the generation of the ingame menus, like the grey frames, the green used in the fonts, etc.

 

 

And is it possible to make campaign scenario unit upgrades that add on as you progress mission by mission? Like infantry have more vitality starting in Mission 5 and ongoing.

Not unless the "upgraded versions" are entirely different units. And since you kinda can't add new units in C&C95, and the civilians have quite some hardcoded civilian behaviour, this is probably reeeeally hard to do without sacrificing existing soldier types.

 

I need help with the infantry SHPs. How do I get a galloping animation to fit in within the entire range of frames? I need a starting point, like an animated gif of a pony galloping in eight directions.

Sorry, can't help you there. I got the sequences of the infantry though, and I could give some pointers of where to find those in C&C95.exe, but that's it.

 

Another challenge, is replacing the operational theatre. It is on the same map for both campaigns, but progression is different. Where do you find the operational theatre components, and how do you modify the graphics without having to modify the code?

You mean the terrain? The "JUNGLE" entry is still unused, and can be filled in with a modified clone of any of the other theaters. Again though, editing its colours can have weird results on colour filters like the shadow generation, the movement flash, and the semitransparent edges of the revealed terrain, since they're all palette modifiers.

[Commander Manuel]

Wow, lotsa' limitations, Nyerguds! I guess, I could try the skew-merge method for both facing north and east frames to make the NE facing frame. All I have to do for the eight directional animations, make the animations in N,S, and E positions, skew-merge them for the NE and SE facing animations, then mirror the NE, E, and SE animations to finsh the set. I'll get to work on a preliminary frame, and perhaps I'll update this post. Sub this topic and keep an eye out for updates.

[pichorra]

Maybe if you convert your mod to Tiberian Sun? It got 16-bits Colors, and a better sound.

[Commander Manuel]

But TS is in an isometric view. I don't view in the skew. And I can't even create new units and structures without replacing any of them. Lest I implement them in the program's source code.

 

There's one other option, port the project to a more flexible game engine. Might be more work to set everything up, but at least I don't have as much pixel constraints for the infantry. Let me research some C&C1-esque RTS Game Engines. What I need is. . .

 

Support for video cutscenes.

Ability to enable upgraded units for specific missions in a campaign.

Support to create a pre-briefing map with certain missions branching out into options.

Esssentially, an open source C&C1 engine, that is moddable to all degrees.

[Nyerguds]

C&C1 has the simplest support for video cutscenes of all C&C games, actually. It's the only one that accepts and plays any VQA you configure in a mission without needing it in some internal data list.

 

Not sure what you mean with "a pre-briefing map" though. But I can't see any C&C1 mod/campaign project going anywhere unless you're already quite well aware of the possibilities and limitations of C&C1 mission making.

[AchromicWhite]

You could use the running dog from RA as a start point for your pony inf SHP.

[LordVen]

If this thread is not dead, i would be glad to voice act for any male characters/Do work on Betas. I'm actually hyped for this. best of luck!

[Nyerguds]

Pretty sure it was dead from the start... it relies on far too many things which are impossible due to engine limitations.