I'm new into modding, a fan of CnC series etc etc... but I have an idea of "how to" give ra2/yr some new look and playing options...
If my memory isn't playing me, I think I remember that I played a CnC game (that looked alike red alert) past years ago, and you could make "researchs". I found that possible in RA2/YR, making a phantomic building with BuildLimit= set to 1 in rules.ini and a zero foundation in art.ini . Got that figured out. OK.
I'm currently making a mod that would re-enable researchs and upgrades and I'm looking for making it work.
How should it work?
- upgrades: when you buy an upgrade (armor, cloaking, firepower, unit speed, veterancy), you should "build it" and pay for it some ammount of cash (wich would be based on the "level of upgrade - not the point of disscusion), and place it any where where your troops are - ok, make adjacentsy greater than the map and you have that done. build and place it where you need it. it should make an crate arround it (or within the selected cell where you place it). one nice way would be that you have to place it near your base so you couldn't be outside enemy base building up your forces. ok, adjacentsy. spent a night looking after which crate delivers what, so, if u need crate ID's, I can post them to. If you have your own crate ID's, post them so I could check my list
- upgradeable units: when you make a research in armour, unit speed, firepower, rof, advanced weapons or something else, you should make a research on that specific problem, wich would replace the existing unit/infantry/aircraft/BUILDING with a new one, enabling you to use that upgrade directly. on some forums, I found this working through map ini editing. so, it's possible. the idea is to remake some voxels to give them "upgraded look" like new turrets, new body etc. example: upgraded armor "grizzly tank" should step onto the place of normal "grizzly tank", which should be used on every upgradeable unit (maybe even deliver unit specific upgrade researches), which would make a lot of new rules.ini entrys. a lot of work. however, not a point of disscusion. the point is - how to make one unit replaces another one after the "research" is allready made. I saw this kind of upgrades in a mobile phone java game called "total war" (or something like it). you could buy weapons attached to turrets of your tanks, units armor upgraded, buildings armor upgraded and so on...
- upgrades: is there a possibility, to make upgrades available through rules.ini? or you should edit every map in ra2/yr with triggers? if so, enabling it through map ini editing, how to make ra2/yr auto - create a waypoint for crate delivery on the specific place where your phantom building is placed, delivering the upgrade crate once (for every time you build specific upgrade, one crate only should be delivered) and ANY chance implementing it in RULES.ini (rulesmd.ini)? or you have to deliver it throug map ini editing?
- upgradeable units: how to force ra2/yr to replace existing unit/building with the one that has it's upgraded version? example: APOC (apocalypse tank) - standard version, firepower upgraded version, armor upgraded v., rof upgraded v., speed upgraded v., combinations (FP+AR, FP+ROF, FP+SPD, etc through a list of any possible combinations of this upgrades). after researching specific unit, old apocalypse shouldn't be any more buildable, but only the one with specific "research" level one. how to make that work? ANY chance implementing it through rules.ini/rulesmd.ini? or you have to deliver it throug map ini editing? [this, however, should work with improved building armor, upgrade research for a buildings that would give you greater building strenght etc, POSSIBLY with replacing the look of a building ON THE SCREEN).
- everything mentioned should be set to "AIBuildThis" set to "false" (AI, I presume, doesn't have any idea how this works and couldn't handle it) and incorporated through a way that delivers it in the "smallest package" for the benefit of possible distribution (rules edit rather that map package edit)...
), I would ask you to post your ideas with examples "how to" (yeah, I'm that much newbie) 
I'm looking forward for your ideas, apologise for my grammar, thank you for your time spending on even reading this and salute moding community x))
greets from Croatia (Europe) x))
