Introducing RA Upgrades Mod

Soviet Hind / Radar Tech Longbow / Unit Upgrades

Information and discussion for custom maps and mods.

Should this mod develop further?

Poll ended at Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:19 am

Yes, I would like to see it advance.
6
67%
I don't care, do what you want.
3
33%
No, it's wasted time.
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 9

lawANDorder
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:20 pm

Introducing RA Upgrades Mod

Post by lawANDorder »

Disclaimer: This mod does not intend to be included in the default RA mod. It is an experiment that aims at restoration of RA95 unit distribution with the addition of a modern ingame upgrade system designed around the character of both main factions.

Welcome
Hello everyone and welcome to the RA Upgrades Mod thread. Below you find a description of the concept which was tried to comply with during the development of this mod. Afterwards each modification of the standard RA mod (release-20180307) will be mentioned and each upgrade will be mentioned including of all details that are relevant for gameplay.

If you prefer to try the mod instead of reading about it, go to https://resource.openra.net/maps/?categ ... grades+Mod, download a map that you like and copy it to your custom map folder. You should then be able to select the map ingame and play it online.

Basic concept
The idea behind the RA Upgrades Mod is to emphasize the character of Allies and Soviets, their playstyle and their strengths and weaknesses. While the mod intends to highlight their nature, it is also designed to fill in the gaps that result from an originally unbalanced unit distribution in RA95 and tries to improve the game experience by adding upgrades that counter the superior strength of one faction or counter an otherwise superior unit upgrade of one faction. Given RA95's unit distribution and game design this results in Allies becoming the faction that excels with superior anti air capabilities and unique support units while Soviets stand out with raw firepower and an incomparable variety of available aircraft.

About Upgrades
All Upgrades are produced in the relevant production queues, just like structures or units. Once an upgrade is produced, it will affect all relevant units no matter if they have been build before or are build after the upgrade was produced. Produced upgrades will disappear from the production tab and in some cases of leveled upgrades will unlock the next upgrade level.

Feedback
Use this thread for any kind of feedback and criticism or ping me on the official Discord. There is a poll you are welcomed to participate in.

Credits
Thank you for your interest in RA Upgrades Mod. This mod would not exist without the extensive help of (in alphabetical order):
  • abcdefg30
  • Graion Dilach
  • MustaphaTR
  • Nolt
  • Voidwalker
Detailed mod description
  1. Allies
    1. Aircraft
      • HIND
        General:
        • Stop the heresy
          Returning the Hind to Soviets is one of the core elements of the RA Upgrades Mod and follows the concept element of restoration of the original unit distribution.
      • CHINOOK
        Upgrades:
        Image
        • Chinook Vehicle Carry Upgrade - Enables Chinook to carry a vehicle.
          The chinook will work like a Carryall from C&C TS and can carry every vehicle except the Mammoth Tank due to an unfixed technical interference with the Mammoth Tank's Turret Speed Upgrade.
          • Cost: 2000 $
          • Prerequisites: Allied Helipad
          • Queue: Aircraft
      • LONGBOW
        General:
        • Prerequisites: Radar Dome
          Making the Longbow available at Radar Tech fills in the gap the removal of the Hind caused. The prerequisites are thereby equal to RA95's Longbow too.
        • Default armament: Anti grounds rockets only
          Taking away the Longbow's anti air armament from its default configuration is a balance decision that was taken to allow air to ground gameplay in the midgame. A fully armed longbow would easily shut down Soviet's air capabilities and removing anti air missiles from the default configuration facilitates an upgrade opportunity for the late game.
        Upgrades:
        ImageImage
        • Longbow Air-to-Air Missile Upgrade - Equips Longbows with Air-to-Air missiles.
          • Cost: 2000 $
          • Prerequisites: Allied Helipad, Allied Tech Center
          • Queue: Aircraft
        • Longbow Armament Upgrade - Effectively doubles ammunition capacity and fire rate.
          This Upgrade turns the Longbow into an even scarier tool of air dominance than it has been before. Given Soviets variety of available tools and their availability of cloaked MiGs, it certainly is one of the most powerful upgrades but will not lock the airspace entirely for Soviets. If anti air rockets are upgraded, this upgrade will affect them too.
          • Cost: 3000 $
          • Prerequisites: Allied Helipad, Allied Tech Center
          • Queue: Aircraft
    2. Vehicles
      • RANGER
        General:
        • Passenger bound upgrades
          The Ranger always was a support and not a combat vehicle. Other mods like SoScared's RAunplugged mod or MustaphaTR's RA2 mod already utilized passenger bound armaments. The RA Upgrades Mod takes a similar approach and replaces the Ranger's default machine gun with the Medic's/Mechanic's healing/repairing armament when both upgrade and passenger requirement is given.
        Upgrades:
        ImageImage
        • Jeep Medic Upgrade - Medics in Jeeps will heal infantry in nearby area.
          • Cost: 1000 $
          • Prerequisites: Warfactory
          • Queue: Vehicle
        • Jeep Mechanic Upgrade - Jeep Mechanic Upgrade
          • Cost: 1000 $
          • Prerequisites: Warfactory
          • Queue: Vehicle
      • MOBILE RADAR JAMMER
        General:
        • Utilizing a forgotten unit
          The MRJ's mobile cloak detection ability becomes more important due to Soviet's availability of cloaked MiGs. While it can detect cloaked MiGs in its default configuration, its upgrade will increase its detection range but only against the special cloak type cloaked air units use.
        Upgrades:
        Image
        • Radar Jammer Air Detection Upgrade - Increases detection range vs cloaked air units.
          The MRJ will detect cloaked air units in a range of 13c0, which equals the vision range of Longbow helicopters.
          • Cost: 1500 $
          • Prerequisites: Warfactory, Allied Tech Center
          • Queue: Vehicle
    3. Infantry
      • ROCKET SOLDIER
        General:
        • The allied anti air rocket soldier
          Although Allies have superior static air defences, they lack mobile air defence which leads to a static and sometimes boring playstyle. With Soviets having their Hind back, Allies are in desperate need of enhanced mobile anti air capabilities. The rocket soldiers anti air upgrades counter Soviets air abilities and are intended to allow Allies a more dynamic playstyle beyond the range of their AA Gun, even without Longbow's anti air capabilities. Funfact: The primary weapon of RA's rocket soldier is its anti air rocket launcher and not its anti ground rocket launcher.
        Upgrades:
        ImageImage
        • Anti-Air Missile Range Upgrade Level 1 - Increases attack range of Anti-Air missiles by 1 cell.
          • Cost: 1500 $
          • Prerequisites: Barracks, Radar Dome
          • Queue: Infantry
        • Anti-Air Missile Range Upgrade Level 2 - Increases tracking range of Anti-Air missiles by 2 cells.
          • Cost: 2000 $
          • Prerequisites: Barracks, Allied Tech Center
          • Queue: Infantry
    4. Structures
      • AA GUN
        General:
        • Added cloak detection versus cloaked aircraft.
          AA Guns will detect cloaked aircraft within a range of 6c0 which equals their range of vision. This only affects the special cloak type cloaked air units use and won't affect cloaked ground units. It was due to Soviets ability to get cloaked MiGs a necessary addition.
  2. Soviets
    1. Aircraft
      • HIND
        General:
        • The RA Upgrades Mod returns the Hind to Soviets, making it available for both Russia and Ukraine. If this mod evolves further, this might be changed in order to make factions more distinguishable in which case it would become an exclusive Russian asset. Upgrades for Hinds are branched, only one of two Upgrades can be produced. Once a Hind upgrade was produced, both upgrades will disappear from the production queue.
        Upgrades:
        ImageImage
        • Hind Armor Upgrade - Increases damage reduction by adding another layer of light armor.
          Damage reduction is effectively increased by the percentage value of damage reduction versus light armor defined for each weapon.
          • Cost: 2000 $
          • Prerequisites: Soviet Helipad, Soviet Tech Center
          • Queue: Aircraft
        • Hind Speed Upgrade - Increases Hind speed by 30%.
          Longbows will still be faster than Hinds with upgraded speed.
          • Cost: 2000 $
          • Prerequisites: Soviet Helipad, Soviet Tech Center
          • Queue: Aircraft
      • YAK
        Upgrades:
        Image
        • Yak Fire Rate Upgrade - Decreases reload delay of Yak machine guns.
          This Upgrade will turn the Yak into a scary strafing attack plane and enable it to fire all ammunition in one strafing attack. Currently both Russia and Ukraine have access to Yaks and its upgrade but in case that this mod evolves further, this might be changed in order to make factions more distinguishable in which case it would become an exclusive Ukrainian asset.
          • Cost: 2500 $
          • Prerequisites: Airfield, Soviet Tech Center
          • Queue: Aircraft
      • MiG
        Upgrades:
        ImageImage
        • MiG Cloak Upgrade - Gives MiGs cloak ability.
          The Cloak Upgrade fir MiGs will turn them once produced into ultimate map control units, providing Soviets with an answer to Allied GPS. Still fragile, it loses cloak while attacking or when severely damaged. Due to their very small cloak delay of 125 ticks, they are able to attack high value targets like artillery and evade unseen unless they are detected earlier by a mobile detection unit or static detection structures like AA guns or Samsites.
          • Cost: 3000 $
          • Prerequisites: Airfield, Soviet Tech Center
          • Queue: Aircraft
        • MiG Detection Upgrade - Gives MiGs cloak detection ability.
          MiGs with detection upgrade will detect cloaked units in an area of 7c512 cellsc and reveal generated shroud within their vision range. The upgrade is a viable counter to cloaked MiGs in the Soviet mirror match up as well as it is effective against Allied opponents that use Gapgenerators to hide their forces.
          • Cost: 2500 $
          • Prerequisites: Airfield, Soviet Tech Center
          • Queue: Aircraft
    2. Vehicles
      • FLAK TRUCK
        General:
        • The alien gets removed.
          The addition of the Flaktruck to the game was done to give Soviets a counter against Allied Hinds. Now that the Hind got returned where it belongs, the Flaktruck can retire - it has served us very well. The removal of Flaktrucks was necessary to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of both main factions. Considering how strong the Soviet airforce becomes in this mod, they are not allowed to have a mobile anti air cannon in their arsenal.
      • MAMMOTH TANK
        Upgrades:
        Image
        • Due to the removal of Flaktrucks, Soviets lack a late game anti air unit that can provide some anti air support. Upgraded turret speed will make mammoth tanks a greater deterrent against the opponents airforce while it helps to make this actually strong unit a viable late game asset.
          • Cost: 2000 $
          • Prerequisites: Warfactory, Service Depot, Soviet Tech Center
          • Queue: Vehicle
    3. Structures
      • SAM SITE
        General:
        • Added cloak detection versus cloaked aircraft.
          AA Guns will detect cloaked aircraft within a range of 6c0 which equals their range of vision. This only affects the special cloak type cloaked air units use and won't affect cloaked ground units. It was due to Soviets ability to get cloaked MiGs a necessary addition.
  3. All factions
    1. Infantry
      • All Infantry
        General:
        • Stimpacked Infantry without harmful secondary effects
          To make the game even more dynamic both Allies and Soviets were given two leveled speed upgrades. These upgrades will definitely be very important and thus players have to decide at which point in the game they opt for a break in infantry production to produce these upgrades. It is intended that due to this decision the early and midgame becomes multifaceted while it also becomes easier to move blobs around the map which benefits a more dynamic playstyle.
        Upgrades:
        ImageImage
        • Infantry Speed Upgrade Level 1 - Increases infantry speed by 15%.
          • Cost: 1500 $
          • Prerequisites: Barracks
          • Queue: Infantry
        • Infantry Speed Upgrade Level 2 - Increases infantry speed by 30%.
          At level 2, infantry is about as fast as a medium tank.
          • Cost: 2000 $
          • Prerequisites: Barracks, Radar Dome
          • Queue: Infantry
    2. Structures
      • REFINERY
        General:
        • Turning refineries into oil derricks
          Many maps show the phenomena that in the end game, when assets become really expensive, players lack sufficient income. Although unit preservation becomes more important due to that, utilizing high tier tech units is very difficult. In conjunction with the expensive upgrades of this mod and its focus on specialized units, it seemed that there had to be a late game economy upgrade. Although it is only rarely tested, the refinery cash trickle upgrade with the given values seemed not to overperform but helped to keep up a steady income in late game. If this mod will evolve further this is definitely a subject that would get more attention as binding it to refineries is somewhat flawed. It could get bound to a new structure that only serves the purpose of providing a small amount of steady income.
        Upgrades:
        Image
        • Refinery Cash Trickle Upgrade - Refineries provide income regardless of harvester dumps. Produces 10$ every 50 ticks.
          • Cost: 2500 $
          • Prerequisites: Refinery, Tech Center
          • Queue: Building
Last edited by lawANDorder on Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

eskimo
Posts: 333
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:59 pm

Post by eskimo »

Voted for option 2, "do whatever", but not in a negative way.


There's just loads of mods, balance changes and tournaments/events that seem to be happening recently. While I like the sound of these ideas I don't feel they stand out enough for me to host them, but would play them if hosted.

I really like SirCake's UOE mod, and is pretty fun too.

I like the way you're adding to the game, and not taking away. I feel the taking away bit really needs to be reserved for the actual Openra mod to keep balanced. Adding to the game increases fun and variety in team games and less tesla and arty walk.

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Sleipnir
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Post by Sleipnir »

Moved to the Mapping and Modding forum.

CatGirls420
Posts: 77
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:59 am
Location: Catia

Post by CatGirls420 »

This is a good idea. The one issue is the killing of nostalgia, however, this would introduce a multitude of levels and depths of varying strategies/tactics that can be used.

I know many of you dont value my word but if you haven't realized by now that i know what im doing/talking about, then you need to reevaluate yourself. You either coose to be blind or not.

The feedback from the community solidifies these beliefs.

lawANDorder
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:20 pm

Post by lawANDorder »

Although the mod is still pretty much untested, first games show that the Longbow armament upgrade and especially its effect on anti air missiles might be too strong.

Another thing I'm not sure about is if it is really necessary to remove the Flaktruck from Soviets. It needs more testing but in conjunction with the very powerful Longbow armament upgrade this could make Soviets to vulnerable to upgraded Longbows especiall ywhen they attack structures. Another way to fix this potential imbalance would be to allow Soviets to upgrade their Samsite, which is an approach that I would prefer.

The infantry speed upgrade seems to be a bit too much so this might be nerfed to 10%/20% speed increase (those do not stack, it's a total of 30% speed increase atm).

Refinery cash upgrade is also a thing that needs more attention but so far I like that players have the ability to buy more high tech units while a loss of them is still painful.

Other than expected, Soviets seem not to be overpowered which is something that surprises me, but again this all requires more testing.

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netnazgul
Posts: 507
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Location: Minsk
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Post by netnazgul »

For the soviet anti-air, you might consider SirCake's camo SAM sites as an upgrade, that will give some edge against longbows. Also look into increasing their tracking range and/or weapon range.

lawANDorder
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:20 pm

Post by lawANDorder »

netnazgul wrote: For the soviet anti-air, you might consider SirCake's camo SAM sites as an upgrade, that will give some edge against longbows. Also look into increasing their tracking range and/or weapon range.
I think I know how to do that, that's a cool idea!

eskimo
Posts: 333
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2017 9:59 pm

Post by eskimo »

I had fun playing this laat night so will jump in again when i see a lobby going. Though playing at that time of night hard for me to judge things correctly. Though the Longbow definitely stood out as overly strong

lawANDorder
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:20 pm

Post by lawANDorder »

eskimo wrote: I had fun playing this laat night so will jump in again when i see a lobby going. Though playing at that time of night hard for me to judge things correctly. Though the Longbow definitely stood out as overly strong
Glad to hear that you had fun playing it. While the armament upgrade for Longbows is really really strong and needs some more attention, Longbows themselves are weaker than they are in the default mod because they start without anti air missiles but have the same high cost of 2000$ - just a clarification for those who didn't play the mod yet or read the detailed description.

Eagle XI
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 3:00 pm

Re: Introducing RA Upgrades Mod

Post by Eagle XI »

I had imagine something like this, the upgrades would get researched by and reside in the tech-center(which would get limited to 1(and get lost if you lose it)), they would have their own sub-menu at the sidebar too.

zypres
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:50 am
Location: Bergen

Re: Introducing RA Upgrades Mod

Post by zypres »

was fun..... want more upgrades....

lawANDorder
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:20 pm

Re: Introducing RA Upgrades Mod

Post by lawANDorder »

Eagle XI wrote:
Tue Jun 05, 2018 10:59 am
I had imagine something like this, the upgrades would get researched by and reside in the tech-center(which would get limited to 1(and get lost if you lose it)), they would have their own sub-menu at the sidebar too.
Yeah, that would definitely be a cool thing to have per-building menus or a dedicated upgrade tab where you can research the upgrades. When I made the made the (map) mod I was not experienced enough to make it a stand alone mod which is required for UI changes, but if I come back to this project it is probably something I will look into. Thanks for the feedback!

Igncom1
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 7:40 pm

Re: Introducing RA Upgrades Mod

Post by Igncom1 »

Hello there!

Can I ask how you managed to make the upgrades? As I am looking to do something similar myself for a Mod I am making.

lawANDorder
Posts: 140
Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:20 pm

Re: Introducing RA Upgrades Mod

Post by lawANDorder »

Igncom1 wrote:
Mon Jun 18, 2018 7:41 pm
Hello there!

Can I ask how you managed to make the upgrades? As I am looking to do something similar myself for a Mod I am making.
Hi,

just download one of the maps and extract *.oramap with 7zip, then open rules.yaml. Let's take the infantry speed upgrade as an example:

Scroll down to upgrade.infspeed1, you will see that it inherits "^UpgradeActor" and is "Buildable" in the infantry queue, is "Valued" and uses "infspeed1" as its "RenderSprite". The icon for the cameo is defined in sequences.yaml for "infspeed1" (that is also the name of the .shp file you see in the archive). This all just defines our upgrade actor but won't upgrade any units. Scroll up to "^UpgradeActor", you will see that it "ProvidesPrerequisite@upgradename" (the part after @ does not do anything, you can use it to have multiple instances of a trait but in this case we just use it to remind us that "ProvidesPrerequisite" will use the actor's name as the provided prerequisite by default when no value is given. To summarize it, producing "infspeed1" will provide the prerequisite "upgrade.infspeed1".

Now scroll up to "^InfSpeed1": You see that we "GrantConditionOnPrerequisite" "infspeed1" when prerequisite "upgrade.infspeed1" is given. You also see that "SpeedMultiplier" will modify the speed to 115% when the condition "infspeed1" is given. To summarize it, when the prerequisite "upgrade.infspeed1" is given it will give the condition "infspeed1" that will enable our speed modifier.

The last we need to do is to apply the speedmodifier to our "real" actors, in this case we want to apply it to all infantry so we let "^Infantry" inherit our upgrade information from "^InfSpeed1".

The same method is used for all other upgrades. We can use any conditional trait ("RequiresCondition") like Armament, Carryable, WithSpriteTurret (that one is a bit hacky to upgrade turret speed).

I hope this helps you to get started, feel free to ask if you have any more questions.

Igncom1
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 7:40 pm

Re: Introducing RA Upgrades Mod

Post by Igncom1 »

You have helped me so so much! Thank you! This was the missing piece I needed to get the upgrades working.

I've managed to get the tech "Genetic Engineering" working, using the ship tab as my tech tab. The technology unlocks the "Gene Trooper" unit and gives all infantry the self healing trait from the mammoth tank. In my first attempt I accidentally gave it to them without researching the tech which was funny.

This is however all a gateway to adding a whole bunch of technologies to my mod! So thank you! I'll be sure to ask again if I have any issues!

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