Shockwave (mod)

C&C: ShockWave is a modification for , beginning development from 2004. There have been six released versions to date, with 1.1 being the latest. It is critically acclaimed and is played competitively online by fans. In February 2008, it was one of the ten mods to receive the Mod DB Editor's Choice Award. It also has dual platform support for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems.
== Overview ==
ShockWave adds a number of new units and abilities to each of the nine Zero Hour generals and their normal 'vanilla' factions. Many of the additional units are based upon ideas that were clearly intended to be included in Zero Hour's original release.
Numerous unit voices, sounds and art references to these missing units can be found within the game's . BIG files. Barring very few exceptions, nearly all of the missing upgrades, units and buildings have been introduced in some form within the ShockWave modification.
Among these include the Laser Comanche for Townes; the Hypersonic Aurora for Granger; the Advanced Particle Cannon for Alexander; Fusion Reactor and Weapons-Grade Uranium shells for Tao's tanks; the Demo Battle Bus for Juhziz and the toxin Scorpion for Thrax.
In addition to the extra units, Zero Hour originally intended to present the player with three (not merely one) boss generals in the Generals' Challenge, and include missions featuring General Fai and General Juhziz (which were missing from the final release). Playing the Generals' Challenge mode in unmodified versions of the game will eventually see the player stand off against a Chinese General named Leang, who commands the technology of all three factions at the end.
However, the boss Generals Ironside (of the USA) and Mohmar 'Deathstrike' (of the GLA) were eliminated before the game's release, although their voiceovers and portraits are contained in the game files (but lacking a challenge map). In addition, General Fai's (of China) challenge mission was also removed. However, General Juhziz (of the GLA) still had a partially complete challenge map. All three of these boss-generals have been modified and included in ShockWave, utilizing the tactics and abilities for which they were supposedly originally intended to command. The Generals' Challenge mission featuring General Juhziz was completed and added back into the game (but General Fai's mission was not).
ShockWave is a partial conversion and thus aims to not change the feel and backstory of the original game. It is comparable to most expansion packs for RTS games in its initial setup, but without patches to the hard-coded executable. SWR productions staff have stated that they wish for the ShockWave to be thought of as what Zero Hour may have been, had Electronic Arts not cut short the development time.
== Features ==
*Several in-game vehicles can now move over water. These includes the Crusader (with hover engine upgrade), Shatterer, Troop Crawler, BDRM-1, BDRM-2, and Krait.
*USA Spy Drones (deployable via a Generals' Power) can now be given move orders, unlike in Zero Hour.
*The Generals' Challenge campaign has been reworked, incorporating each factions' new units and features, and allowing the player to play as the three new generals (Leang, Ironside, and Deathstrike). In addition, General Juhziz's mission (which was partially complete but scrapped from the final release of Zero Hour) is now available in Generals' Challenge. General Fai, General Ironside and General Deathstrike have all received their own challenge map.
*All campaign missions from Generals and Zero Hour have been reworked and made available, except for the mission Jarmen Kell And The Forty Thieves which is currently unavailable due to technical difficulties.
*In-game taunts (unique to each unit and faction) can now be accessed from each faction's Command Center, or from specific units.
*Skirmish mode now has every map from the original Generals and Zero Hour available to play, and also includes modified ShockWave versions of the default maps, which make use of the new tech buildings unique to Zero Hour.
== Development ==
=== Future ===
ShockWave has one scheduled release remaining, tentatively declared by SWR mod-leader The_Hunter to be 'sometime before Christmas 2010.'
* 0.96 was originally slated to be released shortly after the 0.951 patch; this additional patch would've seen further model and texture updates as well as the inclusion and replacement of units for particular factions - notably, an update to Alexander's Enforcer and the addition of an anti-air upgrade for Tao's Overlord. With more than a year passing between official announcements, 0.96 as an external release was stated to have been trashed in favor of expedience on the final release.
* 1.1 is the final announced release for the ShockWave mod. Due to stated difficulties in properly testing their addition - together with a lack of available time and manpower - the oft-touted addition of naval warfare has been confirmed to be cancelled. This last update will feature as many new textures, models and programming fixes that can be managed, though whether SWR plans to support ShockWave with further bug removals and error corrections after this release is currently unknown.
Although SWR originally halted the 0.96 release to concentrate on quickly releasing a version of their Rise of the Reds mod that included both the Russian Federation and European Continental Alliance as playable 'vanilla' sides, this goal did not come to pass. Work on Rise of the Reds was ultimately put on hold to see a final update made to ShockWave. In Summer 2012, work on Rise of the Reds restarted.
* 1.2 was released to celebrate the 11th anniversary of ShockWave in the downtime after the 1.86 patch for Rise of the Reds was released, and included some enhancements from Rise of the Reds like Supply Dock and Oil Derrick variants, a few reworked units, an improved launcher, numerous bug fixes, and many other improvements. This followed by the 1.201 hotfix that fixed some bugs and crashes with General's Challenge introduced in 1.2.
== External links ==
* Official website
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