Red Alert: A Path Beyond brings the exciting storyline and epic clashes from the classic Westwood Studios game, Command & Conquer: Red Alert to realm of first person shooters, with a twist. We've remained loyal to the style and feel of the 1996 classic, while integrating content from its expansions Counterstrike and The Aftermath with a bit of updated history to add to the mix. Built off the W3D engine Westwood Studios built for classics such as Earth & Beyond and Command & Conquer: Renegade finished up in 2001, we help bring the fight to you as you play out your role as any one of a number of infantry classes participating in team-based combat that often involves land, sea, and air combined-arms clashes that just don't happen in any other game. Oh, and did we mention it's FREE?
A server outage delayed release, so we've taken the time to pack in more changes, fixes, and performance boosts. Most maps see far better framerates, and many look a lot better. Included is a partial changelist for APB 2.1 which is undergoing final testing, plus graphical updates for this and later versions.
We recently had some downtime and have moved to what should be a stable host; let me know if you still see any problems cropping up. You might notice we are using a new domain (BluehellProductions.com) but you can go ahead and keep using APathBeyond.com or RenAlert.com if you wish. We still need to work out the details there with Crimson, who has hosted our site and IRC channel for the past several years and is responsible for those domain names. Do note that our IRC channel is still at the same place it has always been, on network irc.n00bstories.com at the #apathbeyond channel.
As we do the bulk of our testing (and a lot of development) on weekends, especially lately due to final exams for many testers/staff, the recent downtime and server migration has set us back slightly but we've got another double-edged sword to place the blame on: feature creep. The 2.1 balance adjustment patch has grown quite a bit as we play the game along with everybody else and watch your reactions, and as the TT engine development team works to fix bugs and solidify new features.
Trees and Performance
It's probably for the best that we've delayed. APB 2.1 is aimed heavily at reducing lag an increasing framerates. For example, on top of all the performance increases already announced (20% here, 30% there, 15% for another reason) we were able to increase performance on the map Zama by another 50% this past week.
Several new sets of trees are part of the reason, such as this smaller deciduous forest shown on The Woods Today. They help us look better, and get past the CPU bottleneck we have run into with vanilla APB 2.0 which translates directly to improved performance. Zama, for example, gained a 50% framerate boost despite adding probably ten times more actual trees, as the newer ones render much faster. The Woods Today now has much more actual woods, but yet again it will unintuitively run faster thanks to the newer trees.
Fabian and ChopBam did a good job with them. There are a few new kinds of trees, although you won't see them all in APB 2.1 as they would not necessarily fit into the existing maps. There are some new pine trees and some new poplar trees, shown here on this dark new mystery map.
Silo Destruction
The final 'base defense' style building to be fixed up, the Ore Silo now has its destruction complete, thanks to Cuddling. Have a look. First, a fiew from the back; then, a video of it in action.
Other New Buildings
A full set of new buildings won't be out until the next major release. In fact, it is pretty much the definition for being the next major release. Here are several buildings being worked on by ChopBam and one mostly complete by Cuddling, next to the old buildings for comparison. Remember, these won't be in APB 2.1, unlike the silo above.
The APB 2.1 Changelist
Here are a few of the things that have changed, gleaned from my (Chronojam's) own notes on the matter. Note that there are several other map changes, code changes, and balance adjustments not reflected here. Many of the map and code changes contribute to increased performance that has been alluded to over the past several news updates.
Reduced support pistol maximum firing rates (Beretta and Makarov)
Added slow auto-fire to all support pistols
Replaced Beretta with Silenced Beretta for Thief
Added quick auto-fire to Silenced Beretta
Increased pistol effective ranges to 50 meters (was 10)
Set build limit on Demo Trucks: 2 at any time (was 4)
Wait, the shcok troopers has a secondary fire..? I was kind of wondering that, but I kind of concluded for myself that both right and left mouse button fire was identical.
If you are playing 1.4 you will not find anybody to play with because everybody else is playing 2.0 and we've got no incentive to support the older version. We supported the older version by releasing a new version :V
you guys must use the models and the scale they are in the pics to make a red alert rts game, that would be so, so, so, so, so, so....... SO, SO, SO AWSOME!!!!! it really would be.
Don't Increase A-Bomb damage,it could not kill a CY in RA!!!!!!!
Don't Increase A-Bomb damage,it could not kill a CY in RA!!!!!!!
Don't Increase A-Bomb damage,it could not kill a CY in RA!!!!!!!
I'm a little confused on two of the bullets in the list:
•Created "Z Powerups" for Zunnie- Captain, Mechanic, Medic, Rocket, Sniper, Spy, Tanya
•Created unscripted "Z Powerups" as icons
What are these "powerups"? Are they to give Zunnie some kind of advantage or...?
I was hoping for the thief to be able to steal vehicles, though:
•Added new vehicle theft logic to Thief (a new ability)
Cool update .
^_^
LOL WUT?
(about the Silo Destruction video)
WOO HOO!
Wait, the shcok troopers has a secondary fire..? I was kind of wondering that, but I kind of concluded for myself that both right and left mouse button fire was identical.
play on beta, empty servers :<
Not really... The main server is mostly filled.
If you are playing 1.4 you will not find anybody to play with because everybody else is playing 2.0 and we've got no incentive to support the older version. We supported the older version by releasing a new version :V
I love it and my 4 Freinds love it too ^^
sorry for dubble post
Your dev Team and the Dev Team of Moddb.com
must be in future one team ^^
you guys must use the models and the scale they are in the pics to make a red alert rts game, that would be so, so, so, so, so, so....... SO, SO, SO AWSOME!!!!! it really would be.
Don't Increase A-Bomb damage,it could not kill a CY in RA!!!!!!!
Don't Increase A-Bomb damage,it could not kill a CY in RA!!!!!!!
Don't Increase A-Bomb damage,it could not kill a CY in RA!!!!!!!
I'm a little confused on two of the bullets in the list:
•Created "Z Powerups" for Zunnie- Captain, Mechanic, Medic, Rocket, Sniper, Spy, Tanya
•Created unscripted "Z Powerups" as icons
What are these "powerups"? Are they to give Zunnie some kind of advantage or...?
I was hoping for the thief to be able to steal vehicles, though:
•Added new vehicle theft logic to Thief (a new ability)
Looking forward to it! *drools on keyboard*