18 replies to this topic

[FS-21]

Since "1.0" is a nice number for a mod version & since I haven't played the original YR campaigns since I started C&C:Reloaded (too many years) I decided to spend the last week restoring the Campaigns missions, fixing wrong animations, fixing scripts aiming against wrong factions, instant-win when the missions start or converting desert missions (mission 4 of both YR campaigns) into TS terrain & disabling some new C&C:R units depending of the mission. Not much more new info since they are the original missions.
Additionally I increased "a bit" the number of units of some AI scripts so future feedback will be welcome (related to bugs, unbalanced AI...) .

If my memory isn't wrong, Ares save/load function not works yet. For that reason I converted the screen like the campaign selection screen of Tiberian Sun (courtesy of Ares, I like it ) & I enabled every mission of YR, so you can play your favorite maps in any order or start in one & continue until the end... play it as you wish those 14 missions
Additionally this screen could allow me (In the future) to add new campaigns (RA2, TS, FS...) but for now in this 1.0 release of the mod I think that is sufficient:

About the original background, since I didn't play in a long time I don't see it bored so if I change it will be in future mod releases.
In resum, C&C:Reloaded will not be "multiplayer only" anymore...

Edited by FS-21, 21 July 2011 - 04:34 PM.

[nathancnc]

Great job, keep up the good work!!!!!!!!

[assasing123]

excelente... es posible talvez restaurar el sistema de seleccion por region del command and conquer tiberian sun, donde uno escogia en un mapa la siguiente mission y esta afectaba las siguientes?

excelent, is it possible maybe to resote the map seleccion funcionatlity by region used in TS as to allow you to choose your next mission on a map, and that depending on what you choose the next mission is affected?

[FS-21]

Since I'm not a map maker I didn't investigated about it & I don't know if that was possible but I don't remember that feature in any mod I know so is possible that isn't allowed. If what I said is true then if I restore some TS maps they should go in a linear way, including the secondary missions.

[Speeder]

TS mission selection by region is not possible in YR, even with Ares.

[FS-21]

Ok, an interesting update:
I converted & tested the original 24 Red Alert 2 missions. Those missions will use the game stats from the mod & to not alterate too much the gameplay I disabled a lot of new YR additions (GGI, Battle Forttress, Siege Chopper, etc).

(For now...) we'll have 14 YR missions + 24 RA2 missions = 38 official selectable missions compatible with the mod.

But now I have a little problem: What about the RA2 videos? I noticed that YR videos for the missions use the same names of the RA2 videos...
To not produce errors in the missions scripts if I add them in total it would increase ~460 MB ( AND the ~115 MB of the C&C:R)...

A possibility could be to 2 versions:
- "Full" release (current mod size + ~460MB for all the RA2 videos).
- "Lite" release (current mod size + ~100 MB for only the in-game videos, included the end videos of both campaigns).

...
...
...

Same question if I'm crazzy and I convert successfully the TS / TS:FS missions (unfortunatelly, in this case some missions would not be included due to game limitations & I didn't forget a know problem of new EVAs for new sides in Ares).

Comments are welcome

Edited by FS-21, 07 August 2011 - 06:42 PM.

[nathancnc]

You could do like a patch that will change over the Movies01.mix and Movies02.mix so that they both have different internal filenames for all the videos inside them.

This small patch would only end up being a few MB, but it would take a very long time to apply it when enableing the mod.

Tell me what you think!

And if you do convert the TS/FS missions, you can legaly provide a video download link to the TS/FS video mixes, as the games are both freeware now.

Edited by nathancnc, 09 August 2011 - 04:03 AM.

[generalcamo]

You would need to put them anyway: The RA2 movies are not on the Yuri's disk!

[nathancnc]

Oh ya, sorry, I always copy all mixes over from the discs to avoid needing them for missions.

Also The First Decade Versions, the mixes are all copyed over by default.


You could have it ask for the file location during patch, and people could insert their disc, and viola!

[FS-21]

The problem that I see about patches is (tell me if I'm wrong):
More complexity to install the mod because you are asking to get those movies0x.mix files from both RA2 disks & then to do the patch...

I don't know how should be done but if the patch is done by a binary comparison between the original video files & the new files... in this case there are other languages that will fail in this process (for example, in older mod releases, C&CBoy made a traslation of the mod in french).
In another case, If the videos are extracted from the .mix files , renamed & inserted again in .mix files I don't have the knowledge/time to do a program to do that but in both cases I see an innecessary complexity to create the packages just only to save some MBytes... at least this is my opinion (I could undersand 6 years ago but inet connection speeds should have increased during this time, specially if you want to watch online videos in pages like Youtube ).


Now just for curiosity I checked the C&C:R Launch Base packets size of both versions for RA2 videos to make a reference of what I said (ignore the "old" package is just to compare the new sizes with the old package without any mission) :

As you can see any of the videos I uploaded in my Youtube channel are larger than the "basic" install, that could be one of my reasons to ask opinions

[nathancnc]

I think if people really want the videos for the RA2 missions, then they will download the extra MB's.

I didn't realize the complexity, especially with other languages.

[FS-21]

Hi again,

Time to update this topic with a little question, how should be better to show TS sub-missions & main mission in the campaign screen?
Currently I used "part x/y" with mission 3:

Edited by FS-21, 13 October 2011 - 11:54 AM.

[nathancnc]

I'm not sure if the YR engine will allow anything more than a list, but you could do it like this

3a
3b
3c

for missions with multiple parts

[FS-21]

Finally, to end the topic I started months ago & if nothing wrong happens until the day of the 1.0 release the single player mode will have available 14 official YR missions, 24 official RA2 missions & is possible that 15 official Nod missions from Tiberian Sun too. This is a picture from the last Nod mission:

(From ModDB gallery, click to enlarge)

To enjoy the maps I was forced to add some unplanned Nod buildings like the Missile Silo, & other SW.
Unfortunatelly I was unable to adapt missions 5a & 8a due to the use of Train bridges but 15 TS missions isn't a bad number considering that snow maps & maps with train bridges weren't included in the begining of my plans.

Finish the Score screen & checking that those 53 missions still works will be my 2 priorities until the release day.

[Speeder]

I don't think those selectable missions were linked with each other in any way, so perhaps part 1 and part 2 isn't the best way to mark them.. perhaps 13A / 13B, like Nathan suggested is a better way.

[nathancnc]

Is it possible to just remove the train completely? I don't remember the missions exactly...but I believe the train was not an important part.

Also, I would assume that the GDI missions will be coming at a later date, like version 1.1 or something.

[OmegaBolt]

Good work on the missions. Really why dont you use Gangsters Rewire stuff, it would look so much better than the ugly upscaled TS gfx.

[FS-21]

In TS when you have multiple choices you don't choose one map or another and then go to the next mission (ok, the Mission 9 you must choose to play only 1 of the 2 maps for the campaign), is or you do the main map of the mission or you do auxiliary maps before the main map. giving you benefits in the main map.

The problem I see with nathancnc idea (3a, 3b, 3c) is that is impossible to identify main, secondary & terciary mission except for the the order in the missions list, looking something like this:

Mission 1a
Mission 2a
Mission 3a
Mission 4b
Mission 4a
Mission 6c
Mission 6a
Mission 7b
Mission 7a 
Mission 9b
Mission 10a
Mission 11a
Mission 12b
Mission 12a

Usually, when I see "3a, 3b, 3c" I think in "3a -> 1º map, 3b -> 2º map, 3c -> 3º map" when in reality is "3a -> 3º map, 3b -> 2º map, 3c -> 1º map" and if in addition I check the order of the list I wrote then I'll think that first I'll play the main map & after the auxiliar maps
They reason of this is because I want a every map to be played in a linear way (if you want play from a specific part of the campaign).

Good work on the missions. Really why dont you use Gangsters Rewire stuff, it would look so much better than the ugly upscaled TS gfx.

Because I like the original graphics and not fan-made graphics.
I love a lot Gangster's work (TS terrain, buildings, etc) but the objective of C&C:R mod is to play with the original factions, the "original feeling" when you see it in action. Rewire has a different goal to me & it wouldn't be the same to me if I play with a close-copy of the original graphics (I'm very nostalgic, sorry).

Upscaled graphics, after a intense treatment to remove bad pixels looks like the original... the only problem (sadly) is that not all is done with that process, only the most visible parts but anyway this is a thing I want to do slowly in my free time, for example I want re-do the TS map graphics but this time with calm & fixing bad pixels from the resize, some animations with a lot of frames, infantry (I'm 99'9% sure that this is the last thing I'll touch in my life as modder )...

Edited by FS-21, 18 January 2012 - 11:23 PM.