Another old RA player

[Jay1]

Hello,
Yesterday I've played RA first time since my childhood.
Many thanks to Open RA team.

In 90s I was keen on C&C.
I've completed original C&C, covert operations and classic RA.
Yeap, they where not very good balanced(expecially C&C), but that was one of their advantages among all RTSs with "completely different" fractions that actually had equal units as Warcraft or KKND or many others (I like them too, but I consider this is their cons).

So let me share a few observations:

- I'm plus one on artillery shots too far. This dwarfs V2 rocket, which actually looks more like far shooter. Actually I think no need to cut artillery range, better to increase V2 range instead. This will look more realistic also.

- Hind is nickname for soviet Mil helicopter. It was for some reason moved to allies, ok, but please rename it at least. I like that now it looks different and larger than Longbow.

- If I remember correctly Chinook heli was on the soviet side also. It was available for both sides in skirmish mode. I can understand why It was moved to allies, but without substitution for soviet units ballance is shifted.

- If I'm not mistaken APC was on allies side only. Soviet real APC's are no way similar to M113, which I believe is the real world prototype for game APC.

- I like the improvments made on flamethrowing units, in original game they where almost useless.

- Nice to see desert among the maps for open RA, never understood why Westwood never used this type of map in classic RA.

In my opinion the steps should be taken for balancing existing units plus AI improvements (if this possible with existing engine) before addition of new units.

[BaronOfStuff]

Your memory serves you well regarding RA95's units, but things have been shuffled around in OpenRA purely for the sake of balancing things and cutting down on clutter (which is why only Allies get helicopter units now, with the Soviets getting the APC in lieu of the Chinook). Soviet airpower in RA95 was ridiculous compared to the Allies, along with most Soviet ground units also being far superior to their Allied counterparts; the Artillery in particular was practically useless if there were enemy units around.

I'm on the fence for nerfing the Artillery in OpenRA; while it does possess an incredibly powerful weapon and is generally far superior to the V2 for holding chokepoints and destroying base defences, it's also extremely volatile to surrounding units when destroyed (especially if clustered in groups) and it's painfully slow to manoeuvre if it's approached by enemy units. If something had to change, I'd actually leave its combat stats as they are and just increase the price slightly. The V2 could probably do with a slight range buff (one cell), but this may not be necessary.

Other stuff:
There was no desert terrain in the RA95 because the story didn't call for it!