Changelog
Engine
- Added pathfinder Debug overlay visualization A* search cost per cell in player color tints
- Attempt to improve A* algorithm
- Add "Assign Teams" lobby drop down button for admins to randomize teams
Added hidden settings to the GUI:
- Cap Framerate checkbox and FPS limit
- Autoplay music after map load
- Sound engine backend drop down selection box
- Performance graph text update rate
- Show bot debug message checkbox
- Slow trait report threshold slider
- We now use Travis Continous Integration and enforce a strict no compiler warnings policy
- Adapted to dpkg's "--instdir"-like options to allow installations of different openra next to each other on Debian GNU/Linux
Better AI Bots:
- Removed the AI attack bottleneck where the whole squad had to be killed completely before a new one was started
- Units will attack/rush/retreat based on own and opponents health/speed using fuzzy logic while staying in squads
- Protect harvesters and base buildings when they are attacked
- Place defense building in the direction of the enemy
- Place refineries in vicinity to the nearest ressource fields
- Support for aircraft and ships
- Try to kill off unprotected enemy targets with aircraft
- Don't ignore percentage to build for units in yaml configuration
- Will maintain adequate numbers of refineries and silos
- Will now try to use super weapons
- Added a cap for maximum building count
- Give the users some hints in exception.log when crashing due to desyncs
- Log projectile destination (innaccuracy calculation) and nextScanTime (auto-target) to debug.log to investigate desyncs
- Added Shroud, CreatesShroud and RevealsShroud as well as AutoTarget and ScaredyCat (panicking infantry) to syncreport.log
- Refactoring: cleaned up code duplication to ease the addition of new renderers
- Added a new reset exploration developer cheat (like hide-map crate, opposite of give exploration)
Support for classic mods (not yet packaged):
- Speedup production queues if multiple of the same building exist
- Engineer capture rules which require/do damage at first
- Fixed CustomBuildTimeValue related desync
- Added a trait to turn off fog of war
- Separated spy disguise and infiltration for thief
Red Alert
- Added Survival01 mission
- Added unused actors for legacy map import (thief, chan, general, mobile radar jammer)
- You can now define the LoadScreenImage in mod.yaml and easily replace it with your own
Command & Conquer
- Vehicle speeds adjusted, now 80% on clear, like tanks
- Husks burn 10 seconds now instead of 40
- Tanks UnitExplodeSmall now by default
- Blue tiberium now poisons infantry
- Crates no longer provide MCVs if you already got one
- Levelup crate removed
- Crate lifetime increased
- Increased shroud for Buggy, Bike, LTNK and APC.
- APC speed reduced 10 -> 9
- MLRS speed increased 6 -> 7
- Rotation speeds increased for: bike, buggy, jeep, APC, stnk, ftnk, ltnk
- Bike speed increased on clear, reduced on road
- MCV now slightly slower
- NOD buggy hitpoints reduced 140 -> 120
- Temporarily disabled AI building of HPAD and FIX since they can't use them
- MCV are not buildable anymore to workaround base-walking and turret spam
- Scaled back tank firing rate a bit (was 2x, now 1.5x)
- Reduced Artillery damage vs. wood from 75% to 50%.
- Slight tweak to recon bike damage (25 -> 28)
- Slight tweak to Stealth Tank damage vs. heavy armor (100% -> 90%)
"MCV are not buildable anymore to workaround base-walking and turret spam"
An FYI, you shouldn't disable a feature just because it's cheese. If Blizzard did that with StarCraft, Protoss wouldn't have Pylons or Cannons anymore. Zerg wouldn't have Zerglings, etc.
Base Walking is a pretty legitimate and expensive strategy. On the chance it works, you win. But it can usually be scouted ahead of time and can easily be prevented.
As well as punishing players that do this, your also punishing players like me that just like to build nice bases and building multiple ConYards helps with that.
Anyway, speaking of building bases, OpenRA needs a Singleplayer save feature. =)
Aside from cheesing, a forward base can be an essential tool in normal games too (for production and repairs), given the map is big enough or consists of seperated islands. Not to mention that "hidden" backup bases can be a golden investment. I would prefer not to have barracks-creep my way to a forward position or start a large scale ferry service when an enemy turns out to be better defended than I expected. Unless you give me Supreme Commander styled transports that can be used in combination with waypoints to create automatic routes, then I won't mind ;).
The feature will be fixed soon.
If you want to expand your base, you still can. Just redeploy your construction yard into an MCV and move it to the new location. You don't have to worry about losing your MCV too much because it will pop up in your next crate if you lose it. (Crates come fairly often).
The reason it is temporarily disabled is that basewalking is insanely good with multiple build queues. With say 5 MCVs (only $2000 each in OpenRA), you can save up many turrets in your build queue and deploy them all near an enemy base at the same time. Keep in mind that C&C 95 did not have multiple queues, only sped-up production, which is not as powerful.
The future solution will incorporate a maximum build radius around construction yards, and probably a cooldown time before placing new structures around an MCV.
Then solve it by using the original stats for units.
I'm fairly certain that in both RA1 and C&C, MCVs were 5,000.
Also, why give Nod the Guard Tower? They have the best Anti-Infantry stuff.
You CAN'T balance games by Rock/Paper/Scissoring. You have to consider what is already in the game.
Also, instead of creating stupid limits just change stats. Weaken defenses. Or even remove the build queues for the normal games and let people use them for their own mods.
In Red Alert 1, the MCV cost was lowered to $2500. This is what "should've been" all along. $5000 is absurdly high for a vehicle, and makes base expansion prohibitively costly. The new cost as it is is fine, and around where it should be.
OpenRA will have both a "C&C-Classic" mod and a C&C mod for OpenRA. The C&C-Classic mod will have *exactly* all the same values as the original game. If you want an authentic experience, go play that one. Meanwhile, the main C&C mod is modernized and made to reflect what years of RTS experience after C&C has taught us. It's much more fun, while still being true to the spirit of the original.
There is no need to weaken defenses. That would actually ruin things, because the game is quite well balanced as it is. Changing the stats of multiple units is far more radical than simply imposing a restriction on how far you can build from your construction yard (about 10 tiles away). For most games, the player won't even notice.
We have to face the fact that the original game just wasn't that well thought out for multiplayer. It was one of the first RTSes ever that supported multiplayer, and it was rushed to market before being fully polished. Its focus was on singleplayer. Multiplayer was not really refined or balanced--it was made in an era where they had little RTS experience. The fact that Nod had no guard towers in the original doesn't mean they should be removed. They actually fit quite well.
Once you try playing with the cooldown you will see it is fine. It will only be around 8 seconds. It will have no noticeable effect on gameplay, except for players who try basewalking across the map very quickly.
I agree make it optional in the options to choose if the player wants it enabled or disabled. Removing core features is always a bad thing.
Also not sure about the cool down thing. Sounds like an easy work around on cost of game play. If at all limit the maximum turrets someone can have maybe 15-20-30 per player.
We support a build limit for missile silos and heroe infantry so this might be a sensible approach for modders.
I still can not get the game to work... it worked on my old 32bit laptop and this laptop has a way better processer, grpahics card, more ram and it is also windows 7.
Check the frequently asked questions at Github.com