OpenRA – Classic strategy games rebuilt for the modern era
openra.net
openra.net
OpenRA's killer feature is the extremely fast installation of a reliable cross-platform game that anyone can understand in ten minutes, that works in even the most skinny hardware... The perfect combination for an impromptu LAN party, where having fun with friends right now is more important than gaming depth and graphical sophistication.
I now see what the creators did there. I didn't think about it when I was a kid.
The nuke truck was made the Ukrainian unique unit only in OpenRA.
Original RA had a tendency to devolve into tank spamming. That takes skill. But it's closer to tactical than strategic. Does OpenRA deal with this in any way?
Hopefully Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 can be added to OpenRA one day. It seems like it's something the lead developer of OpenRA works on in his spare time, when he's not fixing bugs or tweaking things in OpenRA itself
WARNING
MILITARY SOFTWARE DETECTED - TOP SECRET CLEARANCE REQUIRED
His mom was very curious as to what the hell we were getting in to.
ENCRYPTION CODE REQUIRED - YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO COMPLY.
WHERE IS THE DAMN BOOKLET?
Not RA specific, but this is by far one of the best game design tricks.
Players are so trusting that if you tell them they need to hurry up they will.
Quick to download, quick to install, no real setup or tutorial section, cross platform, runs on anything, timeless graphics, easy to understand gameplay, lots of custom game options including AI, etc. And of course, it's fun.
I've tried to find the FPS equivalent of this, but it's been much harder, surprisingly.
[1]: https://zero-k.info/
Always skirmish, 1v1, powers disabled (no nukes) I play GDI, CPU is NOD.
Takes me 20 minutes, I win 90% of the time but have to focus or else I lose easily.
It's my crossword/sudoku/wordle/puzzle/meditation/mental reset.
It’s been a while but I honestly feel like that helped me train my focus back then.
Red alert is mostly tanks and dogs. Production is very simplified. Units are very similar.
In starcraft strategy defined as "what you want to do" is deeper, since there are more poasibilities to expand. Also much more unit mix (not sure if this counts as tactic).
I appreciate the simplicity of the game, but also the small details that make it fun. And that a typical game rarely lasts more than 20-30 minutes.
Most of the games it's the usual route of eating all players from BL to TL and then moving to TR and BR and the same time. I managed to bring the average time down to 12 minutes, with the best time around 10:30, but sometimes it's manages to catch me with the pants down, if I do something wrong or just take to long to do the essentials.
Like OpenRA it's open source too.
Disclaimer, I'm one of the devs for it.
Any plans to allow custom AI mods and units? (I haven't played it in a few months)
Units we want to and there's currently something called "tweakdefs" that gets you halfway there.
I miss the days when the text and images were just there without all the fade ins.
What is the relation between BAR, Recoil and Spring?
Recoil is a rename/fork of Spring
BAR is a game using the Recoil engine (ZeroK is also a game using the Recoil engine)
Not so speak of BAR and the various Spring Engine projects.
There is a lot of TA nostalgia going around, at various levels of scale and graphical fidelity.
https://www.moddb.com/mods/command-and-conquer-generals-evol...
Huge thanks to the devs, this game was a big part of my childhood, and thanks to them it is a part of my kids childhood too
Not the same goals but still enables playing the old C&C games on modern hardware.
edit:nvm it has been done :) https://github.com/OpenE2140/OpenE2140
I do need one of them to get with the program and actually build an army instead of 100s of dogs though.
I remember distinctly about the amazing cinematic cut scene in RA for that era of technology. The engineer probably geeked out with a lot compression hacks. I thought they were skipping every other line of rendering but still retained the illusion of a full video.
It's those fast paced heavy metal riffs that goes so well with seeing conscripts being sent into a meat grinder.
And there seems to be some market for nostalgia around selling old games. We can see new versions of old consoles, bundles of old games (with preconfigured emulators), ...
https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-duration.htm
So we are solidly inside the copyright window.
Sounds reasonable.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1699050/Sanctuary_Shatter...
I'm glad they do, just a bit confused
https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_Alert#c... (referenced EA news link dead, doesn't look like archive.ph has a clean snap) https://www.openra.net/legal/
- Resources
Without resources (eg. Net national income) you cannot support a national defense.
...Limited resources lead to conflict.
...Exploit and defend distant resources to preserve your domestic reserves.
- Capability Evolution & Resiliency
...You must pursue advanced capabilities that surpass or match your adversaries, and if you manage your resources properly this is achievable.
...Your infrastructure must be configured dispersed, redundant and secure.
- Combined Arms
...Combative units need a mix of capabilities to overcome defenses, unless you overwhelm (swarm) your enemy - which carries resource risks.
- Long View
...One can easily win a battle or two and lose the war without a long-term plan.
- Intelligence
...You cannot know how your capabilities measure up against your adversaries without good intel. This often means sacrificing units for a look into your opponent's capabilities.
If RA theory and gameplay were mandatory in Congress the United States would be better positioned to both deter and compete with its global adversaries.
Surely these "global adversaries" are a myth? Isn't the US Military like 3 times the size of the 3 next largest militaries combined or something?
There is no bogeyman except within, as far as the US Military goes. I'm not stupid - I know there are threats to the wellbeing of US society and citizens, but they aren't _existential_ threats to the US. Meanwhile the list of "de-throned and/or de-fanged by the US" nations is huge.
I think the one critical lesson missing from the "RA Theory" is you need to continue to live, and there is more to life than just squashing your "enemies."
Thankfully, our other grand national pastime happens to be making new enemies!
With a 3x military, we can afford to make 2x enemies and still come out ahead.
"Cha-ching!" --Tanya
The PLA is larger. The PLAN is larger. China is situated far closer to the likely contested areas.
> _existential_ threats
Your head is firmly embedded in the sand. If you care you need to do some reading. A shortcut to your learning looks something like this: The CCP's ascension and probable downward spiral is only reversible through control over resources contested by the West and regional players. The parties cannot cooperatively resolve the disputed issues because more resources are required than are available and no viable alternatives exist. War is probably coming, perhaps inevitable, unless one of the key players implodes domestically.
Pretty much only if you count number of active duty troops. USA outspends China significantly, and the number of tanks, warships, planes, etc. is vastly in favor of the USA, not even to mention nuclear warheads.
US costs are far higher for almost everything, and the PLA obfuscates their spending. I wouldn't rely on this assumption.
If you listen to Zeihan, you'd be convinced china is on the verge of implosion due to it's demographic crash. I think he's a bit too deterministic, but it does lend credence to the 'now or never' idea that china is, in fact, serious about invading Taiwan by 2030 as things only get worse for them from there...
Invest in your economy early rather than on an early defense. Just survive the first wave.
I take out harvesters (vehicles) first which disrupts my enemies ability to purchase military equipment.
Artillery is a game changer but needs support from small arms and scouts to increase the "sight" or range which will trigger a response.
I target power plants second, which disrupts radar, slows production and most importantly disables air defenses.
Troops / units are most effective when micro-managed.
A fighting force with diversity almost always wins out over a force dominated by one unit type.
Knowing what direction your enemy will attack from is critical.
By the time you've built very advanced weaponry, you should have already won a conventional war.
Probe your enemy for base weaknesses before attacking.
Don't waste your time repairing, just build new.
The car would get a flat tire on the way, and the engineers would spend hours arguing about how to fix it and whether operations would be "more scalable" if we designed a car that didn't have tires at all; Then the commander would call them to see what the heck was going on and they would all get nosebleeds from the stress.
What do you use them for?
Most of the people in congress are more calculating and competent than they look. They are largely clever and socially adept, and have smart people around them. The problem is that the incentives for public speech are misaligned.
That's why it's rarely what the politician says that matters - it's what they vote for that counts. And largely, The pentagon and NSA tell politicians what they need and they get it.
[edit]
Seriously though RA3 had:
- An eventual Oscar winner (Simmons)
- Two people with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Takei, Hasselhoff)
- An Emmy winner and Tony nominee (Curry).
- The first appearance of Gina Carano
All to further a plot that is absurd even for a video game, with a presentation that is possibly peak "pandering to teenage males."