ShockWave

ShockWave is a modification for the RTS game expansion pack Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, originating from 2004. There have been six released versions to date, 0.951 being the latest. It is quite 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.

Features
ShockWave adds a number of new units and abilities to each of the nine Zero Hour generals and their normal 'vanilla' factions. It also adds three completely new generals: General George D. Ironside (armor), General 'Tigress' Leiong Leang (special weapons) and General Mohmar 'Deathstrike' (salvage). These three new generals are of original design, but their names are derived from the 'boss generals' of the original Zero Hour, which were originally announced but removed, except for Leang, during Zero Hour's development. Also, the mod adds the two previously absent generals to face the player in the Generals' Challenge: General "Anvil" Shin Fai and General Rodall "Demo" Juhziz. The mod's main goal is to make the game more interesting to play by creating more diversity and balance between the different sides. The mod features mostly skirmish and multiplayer gameplay improvements.

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 changes to hard coded elements of the game. The development team stated that they want the mod to change Zero Hour into what it could have been if developer Electronic Arts had put more time into the development process.

Future
ShockWave has two scheduled/confirmed major releases left.


 * 0.96 is scheduled to be mostly a 'polishing' release, adding relatively little new content, such as models, skins and other effects, but adds significant improvements to balance and AI.


 * 1.00 is slated to become the first 'complete' release, with all the planned content finished. However, plans for adding navies for all the factions, may have been canceled as navies could not be executed properly in the SAGE engine. However, the navies have been confirmed to be built from a tech building. It has been stated that ShockWave development will likely continue after version 1.0, though at the moment nothing else is known.

The SWR Productions development team have stated that since the release of ShockWave 0.951 they are concentrating on Rise of the Reds. Development of ShockWave has slowed significantly since the switch to develop Rise of the Reds, however, activity in Shockwave has increased substantially after the release of Rise of the Reds version 1.5.

Critical reception

 * In December 2006 ShockWave was nominated for the ModDB Mod of the Year awards. In 2007 it was once again nominated, and received the Editor's Choice Award.


 * In March 2007 the "Lockdown MRLS" unit from ShockWave was awarded second place in a "Create a Unit" competition sponsored by EA.


 * In June 2007 ShockWave 0.93 was included on a CD in the German magazine GameStar, along with an article and a short gameplay video.


 * As of August 12, 2009 ShockWave is rated 9.5 on Moddb making it easily one of the best rated Zero Hour mods.