The Art of War Documents

On this thread the TAOW mod team will release important documents which will explain a Lot about the new changes which will be implemented, this thread will be constantly updated so expect it to change regularly.


If you want to fully learn about all of TAOW's full features, read on:

To better explain these questions the "The Art of War" (commonly abbreviated "TAOW") modification team have decided to release some public documents that will list our main objectives/priorities and ideas which we are planning to include in the latest TAOW versions.

We will explain the different points which we want everyone to be aware of, we'll obviously start off with the "basics":






The Art of War is a Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour full conversion, this means the main Zero Hour (ZH) will serve as the "host" for TAOW and generally all it's content will be completely replaced by our own (vehicles, game systems and most of ZH's basic concepts/assets in general will be modified as well).
We can even say that the the main similarities between both "TAOW" and "ZH" is the game engine itself, the rest will be generally modified (from the slightest detail to the higher noticeable ones).


TAOW's main objectives is to create a battlefield and storyline that will be as realistic and believable as possible while using Zero Hour's game engine and physics.
In other words: We want to push Zero Hour's game engine to the limit with the objective of making it as realistic as it could ever be.


The basic "build base - gather resources - expand base - build army - attack" game concept will be completely changed, TAOW will be much more focused on direct tactical action rather than actually "building" your base ingame, this means we won't actually "build" our forces the old way, every unit will be deployed by their respective transports (generally by air on most missions).
Tanks, infantry, air support will be all deployed from the "outside", this means we can't "build" infantry, tanks and planes/helicopters by "standard means" (using barracks, war factories, etc.).


Just as we stated earlier, TAOW's goal is to be as realistic as it could ever be, this means we will do some deep changes in Zero Hour so TAOW will deliver a completely different gaming experience than Generals and most mods.
To keep it realistic, TAOW will change many standard concepts, the third section (Gaming) will talk into specifics.




TAOW's storyline will be placed on a different "universe" than General's, this means TAOW's story won't have any connection with Generals and Zero Hour's stories in any way.

"The Art of War" story will be placed on an hypothetic future where several important events have happened worldwide, here are some (very) important examples:

- The European Union was merged into a single unified nation, with a more centralized control, the decisions are taken by a special committee composed by the most important politicians of each country-member (the Presidents, Prime-Ministers and other extremely relevant political duties so to speak), the "head/president" of the European Union is based on the current "shifting policy", member-countries become the "head" of the EU within a certain time-basis (similar with the current policy, a certain country will be the "president" for a certain amount of time), the president (person) of the special committee is elected by all of it's members on a certain time-basis and will directly coordinate EU in crisis situations;


- Most important to TAOW's storyline, the European Union merged all current European Military Forces together, forming the Extremely-Strong "European Armed Forces" (divided by several branches: the Army, Air Force and Navy, for example), while each country's Armed Forces are still considered singular (to keep up with their old traditions, like chain of command, and each countries traditional values), on the battlefield, all members act as a single force (thus forming the united EU Military);



- Since the formation of a single unified European Military, the political relevance of NATO began to decay;

- Certain events will cause much friction between the world's superpowers, eventually resulting in conflict.




TAOW will be heavily modified in every sense, many new gaming aspects will be brought into light.

One such example is our own customized and revamped skirmish mode, our mod team wants to make sure we have many 'game modes' to allow the players to undergo skirmishes which are adapted to everyones "tastes".

There are several modes which are confirmed so far, however the team is planning to add some extra ones (to further customize the skirmish mode), the main difference between different game modes will be, obviously, their specific objectives and nature.

In standard ZH skirmishes, there was basically one objective: "To wipe out the enemy", TAOW, on the other hand, will throw in many new tasks to keep the player focused and occupied.
There are the standard "Search and Destroy" modes, but with many new extras.

Game Modes:
- The Campaign mode will be playable by all the three main factions (European Union, United States of America, Russian Federation) and will show a unique perspective of the conflict accordingly to each one of the factions;

- The Skirmish mode will have several mission modes, each one with their own particular objectives:
• Naval Mode (next topic);
• Capture and Secure Mode;
• Objective Mode;
• Conquest Mode.

(note that these are the confirmed game modes so far, the team is planning some more)


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A capture and secure map has a specific area or structure that needs to be captured and secured by the players. The area or building is created or selected on the map similarly as the way player starting points can be chosen on the selection screen.

A player deploys the army and goes after the area, or structure or even both, and must capture it (or them). To capture an area, a player must move at least 3 units into the area (while obviously making sure no enemy units are in it, otherwise it won't capture).
These units must then stay on that location for a certain amount of time.
A message will be displayed saying: "TIME UNTIL CAPTURE:".

While it may sound easy, the opponent have the same chance of winning as the player, this means the player who uses the best tactics has the best opportunity to win.
The AI will be obviously specially coded not to let the player succeed. This means the AI will try everything in it’s power to stop the player from capturing the area (forget about the standard "old school" ZH uncoordinated attack waves).

When a player haves units in the area (while securing it), the defending player will gain extra "Reinforcement Points" and the timer will start (thus being able to call in extra reinforcements to aid in the defense).
Any Collateral Damage (e.g. killing or harming civilians) will penalize the player.

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The Objective Mode is composed of specially themed maps with emphasis on special objectives.
Players deploy their forces and compete to successfully accomplish a series of special objectives and tasks.
The AI will be specially coded for this particular mode as well.
At the end of the timer, the player who successfully accomplish most objectives, wins.

There are several match lengths: 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes...
(from the quick rush map to the long "war of attrition" theater of warfare).

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Another one of the standard TAOW game modes is the "Conquest Mode".
Although it basically looks like the casual game type that Zero Hour originally had, the AI will be tweaked tremendously (we can actually call it a "smart AI" lol).
Also some "extras" will be included to further enhance and differentiate this mode from the CAS and Objective modes.
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One new mode in which much emphasis is being placed is the "Naval Mode", just as the name implies, we want to add a special mode based on naval combat using current and advanced cutting edge sea-based technology.

However, since we do not wish to make this mode so linear (ship vs ship), we will also add many more features. One such feature is the amphibious and marine combat. In order to capture the most tactically relevant positions on the battlefield, the player will need to assemble special amphibious landing forces to occupy and protect those locations from the enemy.





Capturing those locations is vital, since many new support equipment will be called in once the area is secure (land-based mobile Anti-Ship Missile Launchers - aka: 'ASM's' will be brought in and will make the adversary think twice before wanting to continue their current naval battle or launch a landing force (backed up from the sea) to immediately neutralize enemy ASM's and call their own Missile Launchers to attack the enemy armada).





The Naval Aviation will be just as essential to grant players the victory, there will be an extensive air cover which will be deployed from Aircraft Carriers and Amphibious Assault Ships.

The player will need to be flexible and coordinate all his support in order to succeed, the main component will be:

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There will be many ships with diverse armaments, ships will be extremely well armed (from Anti-Air weapons, to Anti-Ship Missiles, Cannons, etc.)
There will be diverse ship classes to suit certain roles.



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The core of each players naval force, the Aircraft Carriers are vital for the success of any faction by providing a great number of different supports.
These are extremely well protected and each player will start with one.



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The Amphibious Assault Ships/Carriers are vital and play a critical and unique role, these will deploy all Landing Forces and Amphibious Vehicles (such as the AAVP-7A1 or EFV) and will also carry a number of combat aircraft.



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Landing Forces will consist in special infantry (Marines, for example) and Vehicles, many will be carried from the Amphibious Assault Ships and deployed by special Landing Crafts (such as the LCAC - Landing Craft, Air Cushioned, shown in the image) and some will be directly deployed from the Assault Ships (amphibious vehicles like the AAVP/EFV).



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This is the Air Component for the Naval Mode, the Naval Aviation will be responsible for the support of all operations and players will quickly need to learn to use it to achieve victory.
Many Ships will deploy Helicopters, while the Aircraft Carrier's main role will be to carry and deploy planes and the Assault Ship will deploy both.

Désolé mais je ne parle pas super bien anglais..
Je voulais juste savoir si dans ce mod de zero hour on purra construire des bases militaire ou nan?
merci a vous

Au lieu de «les usines de guerre» (War Factories) ou la «Caserne» (Barracks), les unités seront déployées par des avions de transport ou des hélicoptères.

Sur les missions navales, il y aura des navires spéciaux qui nous permettra de déployer nos troupes de transport amphibie.

dans le but que se soit plus réaliste.C'est super bonne idée.
donc j'ai mis un fichier à votre disposition sur filefront (= frencharmy), si sa peut vous aider.
n'hésitez pas si vous avez besoin d'aide pour des idées ou autre je me ferait un plaisir de vous aider.Hésitez pas

Voici deux petits exemples:



(S'il vous plaît noter que ces images sont plus âgés, nos véhicules ont été améliorés depuis lors.)



(Par ailleurs, vous pouvez regarder l'ensemble de l'image en cliquant sur "Voir l'image".)

Nous avons l'intention de faire de ce mod original tout en se concentrant sur la réalité autant que possible. (Et amusant à jouer.)

Merci beaucoup pour votre soutien, nous avons vraiment l'apprécier.

what about the arabs?are they just gonna look to the north and see the fire works and go "woo hoo,the infidels are killing each other!!"

Lol , well TAOW won't include the Middle East (at least on the story mode, and not at this time at least).

However, there will be skirmishes on the Middle East (most vehicle will have a special "camouflage" per terrain type), and we will diversify the battlefields.

(We don't intend to focus on the Middle Eastern situation because that's really common on a lot of mods these days, a cliché so to speak).

yup, however, we do have something top secret involving a large group composed a rebelious force. were not gonna reveal to much. In TAoW they are called "The Resistance". they will be there in many areas maps and battles. they are controlled by the computer. they will try and stop you from accomplishing your goals. They are against the war and against people invading their territory. So during a battle you may find yourself fighting 2 groups of enemies. The resistance and your main enemy faction 8)

u'll find out more soon.

Heads up y'all, the Document was updated, check the second post 8)