WW3MOD - RA total conversion for realism

[freadyfish]

Okay, so I've been working on a complete re-write of Red Alert including engine. It totally works now, but it isn't "done".

I only have so much time and I am writing this post to see if someone with a similar vision want to help out.

The vision: Added realism and more dynamic gameplay while keeping the Red Alert feeling. Hell March playing and everything.

For example:

- Units shoot further. Like much further. They no longer have to walk up to the enemy's face. Range of an Abrams tank is currently 25 cells. And it works great, in case you're sceptical! Especially since I removed the zoom limit (because why not??) But I don't dare telling you how far an Iskander mobile ballistic missile launcher can fire or you will think I'm crazy. Also, most shots actually misses at long ranges but they can still suppress the enemy - reducing their combat effectiveness. In tactical engagements this allows you to not always focus all your brainpower on making sure all your units are firing as much as possible, but sometimes you can have one group suppressing the enemy while the other closes the distance and makes an effective kill before the enemy have time to react properly. There is room for lots of cool and big brain gameplay here!

Btw: Did you know just how many rockets a Hind helicopter gunship can carry and fire in short order? Besides being a transport and having a big gun, ofc.

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- No more base building, sorry but it's all about the frontline. You are a battlefield commander. You are not the supreme commander who has to worry about power plants, you are in charge of a single Company/Battalion (depending on your computer strength lol). Your units spawn at your map edge and your objective is to drive the enemy back and capture the sector, cutting of their possibility to reinforce. If you just love base building and can't live without it we might be able to arrange a checkbox for that.

- All units have limited ammo. Supply trucks are no longer just money donating devices. This introduces a new gameplay where cutting off a group of enemies from their supply lines might be the easiest way to defeat them. Btw, all weapons have realistic loadouts. So a Grad MLRS now fires 40 rockets, then has to go rearm. Either to the map edge where it is technically "sold", meaning it was rotated out of the battle safely. Or you can build supply centers (MCV) that deploys and can rearm vehicles and infantry. I have some improvement ideas here.

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- Units can hide. No, I dont mean cloaking on/off. I mean that every single unit has a visibility from 1-10, that increases if you move/fire/etc, decreases if you lay down and dig in for a time. Sight/Fog is also progressive so it fades slowly making it harder to see infantry than tanks for example. Also currently working on a "shadow caster" which IMHO might just be the coolest thing for C&C since the Tesla coil. Shadow casting means that units' sight is blocked by objects. So you can hide a platoon of soldiers behind a forest for example to set up an ambush for when the enemy comes around the corner. Oh and btw, infantry can walk through(hide in forests now - because it kinda makes sense right?

I could write a hundred of these to cover everything that is changed but I'll stop there.

Start a conversation! Tell me what you think, tell me your ideas, and tell me if you start feeling like you might be interested in helping out. Everyone is welcome to "Do your part!", be you Ukrainian, Russian, American, European, Chinese, or even Swedish (god forbid). Here we fight each other in-game, not outside of it.

And btw, yes, the "story" I have in mind for the mod is of course that the Russo-Ukrainian war escalates. Sorry if that offends anyone Furthermore, if there is ever any campaign I think it should end in nuclear apocalypse no matter if you win or lose, as some kind of poetic war=bad thing. Also a good excuse to show animations of nukes because who doesn't love those. Then the next game, WW4, is based on the dystopian vibes of Tiberian Sun, but instead of toxic Tiberium there are nuclear blast zones contaminated with radiation. But okay, stop me, one thing at a time.

I intend to create a ModDB page sometime soon just a bit busy modding. If anyone is awesome at doing graphical work that would be so helpful because it takes too much time for me and could really lift the whole thing visually. Also currently looking for someone good with the process of saving data to the map.bin file, I need to store some shadow caster data there (>1MB). Let me know if that might be your thing because I am not too familiar with binary streams.

[RedPilled]

Oh man, this is my kind of mod. This sounds awesome. How's it coming along?

[fake)calm]

Thank you for your work! Looking forward to updates.

I personally really wouldn't mind a RA mod where Ukraine is promoted to Allies and is replaced by Hungary and China in soviet bloc either or RA2 mod in the same vein, except even more lighthearted.

But what you're making is absolutely next level!

[Pouloupoupy]

Yeah nice ideas I just tried to add new units to openra a few days ago for the first time, I want to add modern weapons one after one...

[freadyfish]

Sorry I haven't been keeping track of the forum lately and I've missed your answers. I'm glad to see some interest!

So I've kept working on it but the speed of my development is not great lately, so even with just a few things left I can't give any release date predictions. I'm always recruiting if anyone needs a side project to work on.

Feel free to try it, you can download it from github. Use the dev branch for the latest somewhat stable version:

https://github.com/WW3MOD/2023/tree/dev

There is a "download zip" option in the green "Code" button/drop-down. Run launch-game.cmd to build and launch the game.

Air units are disabled now, I'm working on them in a different branch - Adding acceleration and smooth turning to helicopters, etc. Some things left to do there.

It's totally playable and quite balanced. The ai isn't very smart but it never was right. So try a game with some friends if possible.

Would gladly hear your thoughts

[Gadderach]

This looks very interesting, I like a few of the features you mentioned
- Limited ammo, supply lines, this is very realistic as one of the tactics used in land warfare of to cut of the supply of the front line.
- Progressive fog, I think the current shroud although an important part of the game play is outdated, an example, why is it that if i line up several groups of infantry in a defensive line then leave them they are all killed by other infantry in attack mode, totally retarded!
- Infantry hiding behind cliffs/trees and being less visibly is also realistic.
One thing I'll say about extending the firing range of some units such as artillery, if you do that then the game play just becomes about artillery bombardment, ie line them up and force fire into the shadow.
Also the 'deployable radar vision truck' whatever it's name is, i think it give TOO much vision, vision should be earned.
I dont think the style of the units should change nor too many 'specialist' be added, keep it familiar, I dont play TD for that very reason.

Lastly, one feature I'd like to see is a 'king of the hill' / capture the flags style game play, ie if there was 9 flags & team 1 captures 6 of them then they win, or capturing 2/3 command centres & holding for 1 minute wins the game, i think this give incentive & also clear objective as to what each player in a TG should be doing. Current team games are the extremes of camping or aggresive expansion both of which are unrealistic.

And finally - "No more base building, sorry but it's all about the frontline" what could be an alternative is to reduce building time of buildings by 50% or less, but reduce the speed of the MCV to turtle pace and possibly the damage it can receive, also non redeployable.
I think base building is fun but the waiting is tedious.

Looking forward to the finished product!

[freadyfish]

The mobile sensor vehicle has been repurposed as a counter battery radar / acoustic sensor. It will reveal the position of enemy artillery and rocket artillery when they're firing. The idea is that over reliance on artillery can be mitigated by this ability. I had it working but I've noticed it's currently broken, working on a fix.

The game modes you are suggesting sounds good, right now the only objectives are the capturable buildings that gives money. But it doesn't feel realistic, so I have been looking for alternative objectives. It is btw possible to adjust how much money the buildings give, all the way down to 0%. This can be used to limit each player to their passive income (adjustable) only, making economy a non factor if desired. Personally I like lowering it, making it more about battle tactics, but some other objectives could absolutely make it more dynamic and fun.

I have experimented with having all structures be made from MCVs, and you just deploy them to start building. I've also made a somewhat working "sandbag-layer" which works just like the minelayer (currently disabled in dev branch, work in progress). With a slowed down constructing animation, buildings would take some time before being operational. This could work much better for gameplay as you can't just pop up a turret wherever you need it in seconds after paying for it. Also allows you to build anywhere as long as you can get your construction crew there first.

[Pouloupoupy]

It wooooooorks ! Thanks a lot for your last push update, that time I could start the game !!!
I used the SDK 9.0.303 and the game worked on first try after running launch-game.cmd

Guys, you definitely need to try his work. @fake)calm, @RedPilled, the game is working now !

Gameplay changed a lot from original game (at least from what I seen from my first try, on River Zeta WW3 map, that lasted 2 hours ! (me and an AI VS two AIs, speed at 150%)). And guess what... it was really fun !
Well, @freadyfish already made a lot of new units ! (and gameplay mechanics)
I also tried the air branch, it also works, but not for all aircraft (I only tried Allies).

@Gadderach

One thing I'll say about extending the firing range of some units such as artillery, if you do that then the game play just becomes about artillery bombardment, ie line them up and force fire into the shadow.

As @freadyfish said, he added some "counter artillery" mechanism thanks to the "Ranging system" vehicle. I only played a two hour game on one map, but with these ranging systems, I did not feel (too much) harassed by enemy artillery.

Lastly, one feature I'd like to see is a 'king of the hill' / capture the flags style game play

do you know the battlefield franchise game ? They use a system of tickets with takeable flags, like, say 5 flags. If each side has 2 flags, no one wins tickets. If a side has 3 flags and the other side has 2 flags, the first side win a ticket each seconds and the other side lose a ticket each seconds. Each side starts at, say 500 tickets. The first side who have 0 tickets lose the game. Could that be okay for you ? The number of takeable flags is different for every maps, some have 2, some have 3 or 5 or whatever. Usually, each side has one flag that is not takeable (spawn flag), but some maps gives the possibility to take even the spawn flag, and tickets would lower very quickly then...

That game is promising. I would be happy to help out, I found @freadyfish's _TODO.txt in the game folder, so if I have time, I know what to do , but I'm new to OpenRA modding, and the last mods I made was only new vehicles/textures for GTA SanAndreas and Freelancer, so... it was 20 years ago
And I have to leave for a few days...

Great work @freadyfish ! Of course a lot has yet to be done, but still I can't wait to have time for a second try of the game on that version. Also I can't wait for new versions, and for starting to add some stuff to your work, if I can... I may start by making a ModDB page, that mod, game, mmh total conversion deserves to be known !

[freadyfish]

Thanks pouloupoupy!

I've played a lot of battlefield, 4 and 1 mainly, and a ticket system is a great idea, it should work well I think.

I'm also away currently, until 1 august, but let's do some planning after that! Even with limited modding experience I'm sure we can find things to do. AI tools are so good now they can do all the coding basically. And there are always maps needed to be done if nothing else.

Got your PM and discord request, will write you there!

Anyone else wants in just let me know, it will be a fun workshop i think