Beta Release 1 - Feedback Please, Beta 1 Released Options

[Daz]

Well boys and girls, here’s Beta Release 1 of It Came From Red Alert!
Download Link (7.18mb .zip)

I think I’ve pretty much got everything in that I want to include. I’m sure something will come to me now that I’ve released, but that’s bound to happen.
This excerpt from the release notes (full version available by clicking “Manual” in the mod launcher) should cover anything you need to know.
Or you can just scroll to the few pictures at the bottom

It Came From Red Alert!
Beta Release 1
A mod by Daz
-----------------------------------------What's this ICFRA Beta Release 1 thing all about then?

This is the first beta release of my Red Alert mod.
The mod aims to bring Red Alert into the Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge engine. I intend to replace all units and structures, bring in the RA sounds and other key elements like the infantry remains. It's likely that I will make a campaign map or two for each side at some stage too.
Whilst the mod's name is a reference to the B-Movie style screen from the Counterstrike ant missions, it is unlikely I'll be bringing the ants back for another crack at fame. It could happen though, if I get bored and fancy making some shp ants.

This first beta release has all of the non-graphics coding done (although alot of that is done too), the AI coding has been modified to make the AI use everything it should and not use things it shouldn't. The AI is not final by any means however. Some graphics have been introduced but these are certainly subject to change, some are placeholders that are not necessarily anything like the final version will be whilst others are early versions of the final graphics - this is in more detail below.

-----------------------------------------You say this is a "Beta Release"?

Yes, I have spent a good few days testing this myself as I went along adding and changing things and have squashed all the bugs I can find.
I'm now handing over to the public to try and find any problems so I can fix them for the second release. It gives me chance to work on the graphics and in an ideal world would mean only two beta releases before Release Version 1.

I'd like all feedback posted in this topic on the Revora Forums (http://forums.revora.net/index.php?showtopic=42170), this topic also details areas which may contain bugs. If you don't have a Revora account and for whatever reason refuse to register for one you can send feedback to this e-mail address (icfra@dazw.co.uk)

-----------------------------------------So what's actually in there?

All weapons, warheads, units and structures have been modified to use the RA attributes (strength, speed, cost, damage, etc).
The tech trees have been made to match the RA ones.

All selection, moving, firing, exploding and squishing sounds have been replaced, aswell as some miscellaneous ones.

The skirmish countries have been modified to match the RA countries as much as possible. Some of the tags do not carry over into RA2 however, so alternate bonuses have been put in place from what is available.

Some ingame graphics have been changed, these are either first versions of the new art or placeholders and so are likely to change.
New ingame art is as follows: Artillery, APC, Light Tank, V2, Ore Truck, MCV.
New ingame placeholder art is as follows: Medium Tank, Yak, Hind, Radar Jammer, Ranger, Demolition Truck.
Any instance of a structure or unit using original RA2 art is a placeholder, except for infantry which may remain unchanged.

Some UI graphics have been changed, these are likely to only have small modifications in their final versions.

The blood from RA has been added, however it just the original animations resized by 150%. I haven't decided if this looks okay or if I am going to have to make new blood graphics.

There may be some other changes that have slipped my mind. If you find any let me know so I can include them here.

Here are some screenshots of the early versions of the new art.

A nice little Allied taskforce - 5 Light Tanks, 2 APCs, 2 Rangers and 2 Artillery units.

The Artillery units managed to take out one power plant then bit the dust via Tesla Coil and V2 rocket (they make that lovely kaboom sound though, so it's fine). The Light Tanks took out the V2, but the rocket was already reaching the Artillery unit.

A trio of V2s, supported by Mammoth Tanks (yes it's the Apoc art, but I wasn't going to send in V2s on their own ).

This post has been edited by Daz: Dec 1 2006, 11:49 PM

[Mr.Graffitti]

Great job!

[MCV]

Edit by Daz:
What the hell, I clicked add reply and it edited this post instead :S
That's very odd.

This post has been edited by Daz: Dec 2 2006, 12:48 PM

[MaryJo]

I'm sound freak, so i'll ask. Does your TC include new sounds?

btw, looking good!

[Daz]

Tanya things changed for next release - buildlimit was accidental as I had two BuildLimit tags (no idea why) and had only removed one, swimming and firing was oversight.

Shock troopers actually only have .5 more range (3.5 rather than 3), it's in the RA1 rules. I'd not changed the Trooper's weapon at all though, done that now.
Charging removed.

MRJ was a very last minute addition. I've just checked now and it actually chrono removes the building entirely after a while (like the Legionnaire would). I've fixed that by killing the damage but it still use the temporal effect.
What did you mean by a disable weapon?

Thanks for the feedback.

And yes it includes sounds.

This post has been edited by Daz: Dec 2 2006, 01:57 PM

[Jeeves]

IIRC, the jamming will work even if the weapon wouldn't actually cause damage. You just have to play with minimum damage and your warhead verses/weapon damage and you should be able to keep the effect without the glitch.
Although using EMP from the RP could work too, probably a bit more easily and then you could add a nice little lag between destroying the jammer and getting the radar fixed

[orald]

I love RA so much! Now hurry up so I won't have to see any RA2 art anymore!

[MCV]

The "disable" weapon is a warhead unused in Red Alert 2, but often used in non-Rock Patch mods such as MO 1.2 to emulate an EMP effect.

What it does is that it fires a beam that will disable the target from doing anything, and when the beam is broken, the disable effect is stopped.

There is an tutorial at Genobreaker's site.

[Daz]

The only tutorial I could find uses the temporal effect.

[Rattuskid]

Having wondered about the 'infector' effect for a while I finally got around to pokin my nose into the MO 1.2 inis. Basically, it's a very high damage locomotor beam with ROF=1 and the locomotor of a true aircraft (MiG, Harrier). The effect is basically immobilization, although the unit still sometimes fires.

[Daz]

Surely it won't work on a structure then?

[orald]

So I've had some time to test this, and here are some balance issues and bugs I think should be looked into:

1. Yak is way too weak- now only attacks a single target instead of having some spread(was great for infantry groups in RA...and about only for that ) and can't even take out weakly armored buildings. I still play RA so I know 4 Yaks should usually blow up a power plant.

2. Helicopters are just Harriers in behaviour, so they shoot too fast(the downside of helis in RA is not being able to just shoot in one pass and now it's gone).
I tried Hinds selecting a group hinds with my cursor and couldn't.
Also aircraft should be manually repaired in depots like in RA and TS, sounds annoying but why wait for them to slowly heal in the airport?

3. I think the harvesters move too fast, is the speed kept the same as in RA?

4. The Cruiser's cannons are way too accurate, they can hit Ukrainian(with +speed) harvesters which move like IFVs and still kill them in one volly. You need a spread more like a Jagernaut I think.
Is that why they don't auto-shoot enemies in range, for balance?

This post has been edited by orald: Dec 2 2006, 11:07 PM

[Daz]

1 and 3 - All the numbers are the same, though I have just noticed that the Yak in RA has Primary and Secondary set as ChainGun. I'll test if that makes any difference in a moment.
It totally didn't occur to me to have Yaks strafe (they use the same weapon as the Hind), I'll clone the weapon and if strafing isn't possible i'll give the Yak's gun some cellspread.

2 - Again, numbers (rate of fire in this case) are the same as RA1. The Longbow has omnifire off and 'curly shuffle' is on, I don't know of anything else that can be done. I left airportbound=no on the Hind by accident which is why they weren't selectable, i'll fix that.
The aircraft logic in RA2 is different to RA, so there's limits to how accurate they can be.

4 - I'll try inaccurate=yes on the cruisers. They do auto target, they certainly do when I play anyway.

Thanks for the feedback.

Edit:
Tried the changes mentioned above:
Cruiser is better with inaccurate.
Yak double weapon seems to have worked, 4 now destroy a power plant and with cellspread it can take out groups of infantry.

This post has been edited by Daz: Dec 2 2006, 11:57 PM

[Moon Pine]

So Fast the Beta comes out!!
Good Job Daz

[need my speed]

It doesn't work! Some buildings and cameos are like RA1 buildings and cameos (as it should be), but some buildings are invisible or looks like the buildings of RA2 YR. And some cameos are missing cameos and most of the units looks like RA2 YR units. I've deleted EVERY .ini file so why it doesn't work?

[Daz]

I have no idea, this is the only report of that problem.
Buildings graphics haven't changed at all, all ALL cameos should have changed.
Most of the units do look like RA2 YR units though.

There are 6 or so INIs that are meant to stay in your RA2YR directory by the way, such as RA2.ini.

All I can suggest is uninstall and reinstall Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge

[need my speed]

The units looks like RA2 YR units and acts like. And the game works, the sound works, the discription works (but the country information is bad), but it won't let me play with all those nice RA1 units. Maybe this is because I have The First Decade?

[Daz]

It might be related to TFD, I think I've heard of it not supporting mods correctly.

[MCV]

I got TFD, and it works nicely, however, the first time I tired it, I still had the Mental Omega bugfix (expandmd98) lying in my folder, with interesting results. Are you sure you don't have anything like that?

[Rattuskid]

The curly shuffle still works, you just need a lot of ammo, Fighter-no (so it doesn't dump it all in one shot) and FlyBy=no so it doesn't try to fly over the target.