Things i found out during first games(suggestions/questions)

[TradeMark]

Hi, thanks for making such a great game, i enjoyed playing it a lot!

Here is something i found out when i played this game few times, i hope its not taken negatively, i'd like to help by user experience reports etc.


- building menus minimizes when you press the small icon it twice, doesnt really serve any purpose, (unless you are using really small resolution?). option to disable this feature would be great. (this is one of the things that annoy me most, i doubleclick it all the time in accident :D)

- scroll buttons to ASDW, and maximum scroll speed could be higher than its now.

- list of shortkeys to ingame help window?

- "your base is under attack" warning is missing?

- possibility to add markers on the map that you can use to point out something for your allies (and perhaps possibility to write into that marker), check out SpringRTS it has lots of good features like this.

- possibility to see the players pings and kick them from the game if someone is lagging.

- possibility to "ring" a player or the host to get his attention (in the battle lobby window).

- possibility to play on full screen, but in window mode (maximized window).

- map editor crashes "file not found exception".

- possibility to see player name when pointing at his base building or MCV.

- map edges should be sharp, it looks too much like the LOS mask and is confusing if the map really ends there, also it does cover parts of units.

- possibility to use original RA content and rules (i cant remember arties or lightning tanks :S), barracks/war factory should get faster building if you build many of them! you should be able to run over troopers! theres something wrong with dogs behavior; they dont attack automatically? and sometimes they stop moving even if i tell them to attack, maybe because of enemy goes under LOS ? this makes it really hard to chase some troops.

- didnt allies have a dog factory too? or was it RA2 where you could build a separate dog house?

- is the RA mod really the original? i feel like its a mix of multiple games, maybe i just cant remember correctly...

- possibility to press ESC to quit from menus. and when pressing esc at main menu it should ask "quit game?". also esc should pop up the options menu when you are ingame.

- some transparent menus (options/diplomacy) can be enabled at same time and thus overlap each other (ugly and confusing).

- the sell/repair buttons, energy status etc should be at left side of the building menu (easier to access). sidequestion: is it possible to mod the UI?

- the radar should be visible but disabled if you dont have radar dome (my first question was: where is the minimap :D).

- option to disable the game rendering from main menu (would start faster, and less lag if you are just waiting for a game, because you probably will switch windows then).

[Seru..]

Make p2p connect !!!

[beedee]

- possibility to play on full screen, but in window mode (maximized window).

This is already the default mode. We call it Psuedo-Fullscreen.

- map editor crashes "file not found exception".

Already fixed. This isn't the right place to report issues by the way, please use the bug tracker in the future.

- possibility to see player name when pointing at his base building or MCV.

I seem to remember tool tips with this feature already being there.

- possibility to use original RA content and rules (i cant remember arties or lightning tanks :S), barracks/war factory should get faster building if you build many of them! you should be able to run over troopers!

If it is different from the original RA it will most likely stay that way for reasons that have been outlined multiple times in several forum threads.

- is the RA mod really the original? i feel like its a mix of multiple games, maybe i just cant remember correctly...

No, we outright state that it is not.

- the radar should be visible but disabled if you dont have radar dome (my first question was: where is the minimap ).

Our behaviour is exactly the same as the original games in this regard.

Thank you for playing OpenRA and giving us your suggestions for improving it, we appreciate it but please refrain from making yet another gameplay suggestions thread when there is a perfectly good one here. We also reserve the right to ignore any bugs not posted on the bug tracker.

[TradeMark]

- possibility to play on full screen, but in window mode (maximized window).

This is already the default mode. We call it Psuedo-Fullscreen.

How can i enable it? i cant press the maximize button on windowed mode.

- possibility to see player name when pointing at his base building or MCV.

I seem to remember tool tips with this feature already being there.

Oh right, didnt notice this, nice!

- is the RA mod really the original? i feel like its a mix of multiple games, maybe i just cant remember correctly...

No, we outright state that it is not.

I think you should call it something else than RedAlert mod, if it is not the original. (less confusion)

- the radar should be visible but disabled if you dont have radar dome (my first question was: where is the minimap :D).

Our behaviour is exactly the same as the original games in this regard.

Why does it have to imitate the original behaviour even when its totally pointless here...? doesnt make much sense of not displaying the minimap box at the first game, but the rest games it will...

but please refrain from making yet another gameplay suggestions thread when there is a perfectly good one here

I'll post my next gameplay suggestions there.

[Sleipnir]

- building menus minimizes when you press the small icon it twice, doesnt really serve any purpose, (unless you are using really small resolution?). option to disable this feature would be great. (this is one of the things that annoy me most, i doubleclick it all the time in accident )

- possibility to press ESC to quit from menus. and when pressing esc at main menu it should ask "quit game?". also esc should pop up the options menu when you are ingame.

- some transparent menus (options/diplomacy) can be enabled at same time and thus overlap each other (ugly and confusing).

- the radar should be visible but disabled if you dont have radar dome (my first question was: where is the minimap ).

These have been/will be fixed for cnc in next release (when we land a completely redesigned ui). Some of these may also be fixed for ra.

- list of shortkeys to ingame help window?

- "your base is under attack" warning is missing?

- possibility to add markers on the map that you can use to point out something for your allies (and perhaps possibility to write into that marker), check out SpringRTS it has lots of good features like this.

- possibility to see the players pings and kick them from the game if someone is lagging.

These are all on our list of things to fix

- map editor crashes "file not found exception".

This is an unfortunate bug that crept into the last release See this thread for a fix.

- possibility to use original RA content and rules (i cant remember arties or lightning tanks :S), barracks/war factory should get faster building if you build many of them! you should be able to run over troopers! theres something wrong with dogs behavior; they dont attack automatically? and sometimes they stop moving even if i tell them to attack, maybe because of enemy goes under LOS ? this makes it really hard to chase some troops.

Artillery was in the original, but has been significantly rebalanced in OpenRA. The tesla tank was introduced in the expansion packs. The dog behavior is a known bug. We can (and do) load the original content, but we use a different format for our rules definitions. We are happy to support anyone who wants to build an "original-ra" mod but we don't have the time to maintain one ourselves.

- the sell/repair buttons, energy status etc should be at left side of the building menu (easier to access). sidequestion: is it possible to mod the UI?

One of the core design goals of the game is to be easily moddable. This includes UI

- possibility to play on full screen, but in window mode (maximized window).

I think beedee misinterpreted you on this point. We don't support "native" maximized mode, but you can resize the window size via the game settings to the appropriate size. It would be nice to support resizing windows on the fly, but this opens a can of worms with our rendering code.

[TradeMark]

Nice to hear most of the stuff is under work already.

- map editor crashes "file not found exception".

This is an unfortunate bug that crept into the last release See this thread for a fix.

Thanks, i managed to get it work now!

We can (and do) load the original content, but we use a different format for our rules definitions. We are happy to support anyone who wants to build an "original-ra" mod but we don't have the time to maintain one ourselves.

Does it really need any maintenance since the rules will never change?

Please think about using different name for the modified RedAlert mod for clarity. (or C&C if its not original either)

[chrisf]

The engine will continue to change underneath it.

[beedee]

Please think about using different name for the modified RedAlert mod for clarity. (or C&C if its not original either)

We only ever refer to it as "RA", never the "Red Alert" mod. What are we supposed to call it instead? Rouge Warning?

[TradeMark]

Please think about using different name for the modified RedAlert mod for clarity. (or C&C if its not original either)

We only ever refer to it as "RA", never the "Red Alert" mod. What are we supposed to call it instead? Rouge Warning?

It says "Red Alert" right on the top-right corner in the game window where you can choose the mod...

I dont know what you should call it, maybe something like "Red Alert Rebirth" ? or "RA Balanced" or simply just "OpenRA" or "Red Alert OS" (os as in opensource). etc... well, im not good at names

[FreakNigh]

Personally OpenRA and OpenCNC sound great to me. But honestly, they're a small team working for fun, don't harass them about trivial things.

[TradeMark]

I dont know if this has been asked before, but: how come C&C mod supports all the RA tiles, but RA doesnt support C&C tiles? i would like to make a desert map for RA, and C&C has perfect tiles for it. (they even look like RA tiles but with different palet so it would feel like RA after all).

[Harisson]

@TradeMark: Currently I have converted all tiles from CaC to RA1 and maked news (Water Cliffs, Cliff-to-Watercliff, Shores 3x1 3x1, Rivers 1x3 3x1, 2x2 passable bridges ) and all use right pallete, but there is problem with hardcoded higlights, that's broke all desert tiles in RA1 (desert tiles blink as water and desert water uses only 5-6 color (so, no shadow))... .

[TradeMark]

oh i see, maybe its easier to just change the RA1 tiles palettes manually to match desert colors more ? perhaps use the snow tiles and change palette from them as the snow looks a bit like sand in its appearance.

[Seru..]

copy the net code from the game spring

This game is opensource