Red Alert 2

Best way to play RA2 on a moden PC

Discussion about the game and its default mods.
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Michaelc1985
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Red Alert 2

Post by Michaelc1985 »

Hello all,

I was wondering what would be the best way to play RA2. With RA being rebuilt so well, is there any chance of RA2 being done next?

Thanks

Michael

DomoTheRussian
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Post by DomoTheRussian »

As far as I know, Teberian Sun is the game that's about to be added into OpenRA roster soon, but there is not much information at the moment.

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

Don't hold your breath for either mod. TS is very slowly making progress, so I ve read, but still is not near completion at all.
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Graion Dilach
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Post by Graion Dilach »

What I can add is that by the time TS will be available, the engine will also be closely capable of handling RA2 - most of the RA2 (and YR) features were crappy alterations of TS ones (Ion Storms to weapon storms, Ion Cannon to Genetic Mutator, bouncing to shrapnel).

The main issue of RA2 is that it was never released as freeware, being in a much more grey area than everything else.

Technically though, the most complex RA2 features would probably be the Chrono Legionairre (although with the new disabling-refactor, this might get resolved earlier than I would have expected), Magnetron, mind-control and spawners. Everything else are just fluff and OpenRA can already mimic them to an extent.
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avalach21
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Post by avalach21 »

Graion Dilach wrote: What I can add is that by the time TS will be available, the engine will also be closely capable of handling RA2 - most of the RA2 (and YR) features were crappy alterations of TS ones (Ion Storms to weapon storms, Ion Cannon to Genetic Mutator, bouncing to shrapnel).

The main issue of RA2 is that it was never released as freeware, being in a much more grey area than everything else.

Technically though, the most complex RA2 features would probably be the Chrono Legionairre (although with the new disabling-refactor, this might get resolved earlier than I would have expected), Magnetron, mind-control and spawners. Everything else are just fluff and OpenRA can already mimic them to an extent.

Please don't even bother with the "features" units or anything whatsoever from Yuri's Revenge. RA2 vanilla plays so well and is nearly perfectly balanced. Yuri's revenge added in a bunch of lame stuff that completely unbalanced the game. The only reason I liked Yuri's Revenge was because RA2 would only support 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 games, while YR would support 3 v 3 and 4 v 4.


This brings up a question I've been wondering. The current Red Alert mod for example, has all the Aftermath's units included, so for RA2 and TS should we expect them to have Firestorm and Yuri's Revenge's units by default? I'd say with how drastic Yuri's Revenge changed Vanillia RA2, it should almost be it's own seperate mod from Vanilla RA2... What are the current thoughts on this topic from the OpenRA masters behind the curtain?

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Graion Dilach
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Post by Graion Dilach »

avalach21 wrote: Please don't even bother with the "features" units or anything whatsoever from Yuri's Revenge. Yuri's revenge added in a bunch of lame stuff that completely unbalanced the game.
Those "bunch of lame features" are what made Yuri's Revenge among the most modded C&C game, with the modding scene still being active even today. YR was the sole C&C which received stable and truly noteworthy extensions like RockPatch/NPatch(Ext) and Ares which pushed the limits of what the engine is capable of. (Yes, TS has HyperPatch and ETS, but the former only got some bugfixes and air transports semiworking and the latter ended up too unstable to be considered for a major project. These days the CnCNet hacks also gave TS a spin, but the level of the possibilities through that is still less than NP/Ares). YR paved ground for projects like Mental Omega or D-Day.

I can understand that from a player's POV, YR was a mess which only added the possibility to select your starting location and alliances on the lobby screen for a ruined Soviet faction, but OpenRA encourages modding and the YR features are quite handy at that front.
avalach21 wrote: This brings up a question I've been wondering. The current Red Alert mod for example, has all the Aftermath's units included, so for RA2 and TS should we expect them to have Firestorm and Yuri's Revenge's units by default? I'd say with how drastic Yuri's Revenge changed Vanillia RA2, it should almost be it's own seperate mod from Vanilla RA2... What are the current thoughts on this topic from the OpenRA masters behind the curtain?
TS will indeed come with the Firestorm content included, but it's more likely that RA2 and YR will end up separated, at one side due to the drastic metagame changes it involved, with content issues added on top. In any case, the current RA2 project is strict RA2.
avalach21 wrote: RA2 vanilla plays so well and is nearly perfectly balanced.
>useless units (Apocalypse, Terrorist)
>useless countries (Germany, notIraq Soviets)
>Soviet strategy: BUILD RHINO TANKS
>near perfect balance

True that YR was less balanced, and RA2 Allies actually has a metagame, but I wouldn't call that perfect at any chance. I am really hoping for an OpenRAified RA2 gameplay longterm in that project instead of what WW gave.
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avalach21
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Post by avalach21 »

Graion Dilach wrote:
avalach21 wrote: Please don't even bother with the "features" units or anything whatsoever from Yuri's Revenge. Yuri's revenge added in a bunch of lame stuff that completely unbalanced the game.
Those "bunch of lame features" are what made Yuri's Revenge among the most modded C&C game, with the modding scene still being active even today. YR was the sole C&C which received stable and truly noteworthy extensions like RockPatch/NPatch(Ext) and Ares which pushed the limits of what the engine is capable of. (Yes, TS has HyperPatch and ETS, but the former only got some bugfixes and air transports semiworking and the latter ended up too unstable to be considered for a major project. These days the CnCNet hacks also gave TS a spin, but the level of the possibilities through that is still less than NP/Ares). YR paved ground for projects like Mental Omega or D-Day.


I can understand that from a player's POV, YR was a mess which only added the possibility to select your starting location and alliances on the lobby screen for a ruined Soviet faction, but OpenRA encourages modding and the YR features are quite handy at that front.
Haha I agree with pretty much everything you said. Thank you for elaborating my thoughts. I apologize for my negligence towards YR's impact on the modding scene, but thank you for reaffirming how much YR broke the relatively solid Meta found in Vanilla RA2. I have no issues with implementing behind the scenes features that YR brought to the table.. I more so meant please don't let getting a functioning Magnetron, Mastermind or any other lame YR unit hold up a public release of TS or RA2 in any sort of way whatsoever.
Graion Dilach wrote:
avalach21 wrote: This brings up a question I've been wondering. The current Red Alert mod for example, has all the Aftermath's units included, so for RA2 and TS should we expect them to have Firestorm and Yuri's Revenge's units by default? I'd say with how drastic Yuri's Revenge changed Vanillia RA2, it should almost be it's own seperate mod from Vanilla RA2... What are the current thoughts on this topic from the OpenRA masters behind the curtain?
TS will indeed come with the Firestorm content included, but it's more likely that RA2 and YR will end up separated, at one side due to the drastic metagame changes it involved, with content issues added on top. In any case, the current RA2 project is strict RA2.
Tiberian Sun was a bit of a wreck balance-wise IMO and Firestorm did a bit to remedy that, so I would have no objections with Firestorm units being the norm for TS.

I am glad you said that RA2 and YR will likely be separated as they are so drastically different in Metagame.
Graion Dilach wrote:
avalach21 wrote: RA2 vanilla plays so well and is nearly perfectly balanced.
>useless units (Apocalypse, Terrorist)
>useless countries (Germany, notIraq Soviets)
>Soviet strategy: BUILD RHINO TANKS
>near perfect balance

True that YR was less balanced, and RA2 Allies actually has a metagame, but I wouldn't call that perfect at any chance. I am really hoping for an OpenRAified RA2 gameplay longterm in that project instead of what WW gave.
Ok so I exaggerated a little, definitely not perfect balance... but at least SOME semblance of balance. Yuri's Revenge just completely destroyed the usefulness of an entire faction (Soviets)... so in my book that's a disaster. I have no objections with tweaking RA2 in the same way RA1 has been via OpenRA to enhance balance and attempt to make all units have some utility in one way or another.

I'm not sure Apocalypse tanks are 100% completely useless, but yea why bother when you can just get Rhinos and some flaks for AA.

Desolators were clearly the best I agree, but demo trucks can be fun and aren't entirely useless. Def won some games with an early terrorist strike too.. so sure generally not a good idea to bet on that but I wouldn't say 100% useless.

I'm not really sure what to say about the Tesla tank. Not sure what role it's supposed to fill...

Germany completely sucks. America and Korea are great. GB's snipers are super useful too. What's the deal with France? Obviously the grand cannon is amazing but back in my day most people would try to ban France. Is that still the case?


Anyways thanks for sharing your thoughts and answering my questions :D

eskimo
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Post by eskimo »

RA2 is playable online still, the near exact way you remember. But it isn't as varied and in depth as openra.

I'm not sure if we'll see tank dancing like we used to in the original, if we even see RA2 ever being finished.

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