Beowulf's Rules mod for C&C: Red Alert 2

Oh yeah, I friggen love this mod. The feel of it is awesome.

I'm not out to win any contests but thanks all the same I guess. :p

I'm still working on some things here and there. I have 2.2 slated for release here soon, when I finish up the YR version of this mod series. A fully polished 3.0 is also being planned out and may address a few things but 3.0 will simply polish the mod to reduce as much duplication as possible.

- The Airstrip was designed with Red Alert in mind, hence its more simplistic design. I've been using it for years and absolutely love the thing to death since it works so well. It's just a runway when you get down to it.

- The Apocalypse Tank original stays. I actually like it, though it may receive a few enhancements by the end of the mod. But the overall design won't actually change.

[EDIT] I actually posted it here so I would gain some more exposure. Not thousands of downloads a day or anything but enough to have more people try it out.

*continued from the post below*

This is the second part of the post below this post.

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Don't nerf the apocalypse, please. Its slower speed compensates for its higher damage.

Yes, keep the range of those special tanks (Abrams, apoc, Korean special, others) the same to maintain balance in reach.

I haven't found use for the allied laser infantry.

I like how IFVs and AA need several shots to take down some planes.

Generally, try to avoid having units whose roles overlap too much. The more powerful one is used and the less powerful one is never used, which is bad because it causes superfluidity and interrupts the tactical nature of the game. Personally I think the two soviet $2500 artilleries and the two Allied $2500 anti-tank tanks are too similar in function and purpose, taking away from the uniqueness of the countries that possess these units. If you can't find any way to make them different, you can make their damage/armor exactly the same, so then they become an aesthetic perk.

Psychic beacon looks like it was designed to be a civilian campaign building, so its style does not perfectly match that of the other soviet buildings. Maybe some small tweaks? Up to you.

I like how the allied special tanks' tank shells only make make that kind of small explosion.

Also, the Soviet $2500 flamethrowing tank does not seem to have a clear role. If it is anti-infantry, then the cheaper ones seem to do a better job and at that point in the game infantry does not pose such a large threat, unless you wish to increase its effectiveness or lower the cost. Or, you can even reduce the time it takes to build it (if that's possible)

I've noticed that the Abrams tank beats any other Allied special tank 1-on-1, including the German one which seems to have the exact same role.

With unholy alliance on, the German special tank becomes superfluous alongside the Abrams. Is there a way to change this, such as reducing the German one's cost or making it have a different role from the Abrams?

Also, I see you've preserved the apocalypse's role as the champion in tank vs tank battles, which I like.

And, the Deathshard artillery seems to have trouble getting the debris to fly out from the target location when attacking.The debris seem to land immediately beside the point where the main artillery shell lands. Every once in a while though, the debris does fly out properly.

Also, the green aura on the nuclear reactor seems to cause more lag than without the aura, though not significantly.

Another thing, during long games against easy AI I've found that after a while the AI gets a bunch of tanks but seems to lose track of them, leaving them inside the base beside the factories. It even went to the point where his entire base was crowded and units had a hard time getting out.

Also, is there a way to toggle the decals (explosion craters) left on the map by tanks and debris? They seem to add lag when there are tons of them around.

I've noticed a slight general trend of units becoming more powerful. Don't let this continue too much or else units will eventually become more and more lethal to the point where keeping a set of units alive becomes hard.

Response to the second one.

- I never nerfed the Apoc. It was only made better. It will always be the King of Tanks. But when I said changes, I mean design changes. The power will remain the same.

- The Allies special tanks are all pretty much on par with one another. No better than the rest but the Mirage Tank is still more effective at dispatching armor. However, for an extra kick, the heavy tanks are there.

- Mid-game mini siege. Try them in IFVs.

- Each of the heavy duty units have something to make them less effective so their use doesn't dominate, and namely it's cost and build time. The big specials take a long time to finish, even with several factories.

- Deathshards are weak and very inaccurate; the Rad Artillery isn't as potent against structures as the V3, taking several to be more effective than just a pair V3s; the Abrams Tank is expensive, somewhat slow and the projectile takes time to hit its target; Panther Tanks are the same but less potent on vehicles and shorter than artillery range.

- The Psychic Beacon was used as a Soviet base structure in several missions so I don't see any need to change it.

- Ah, Cuba's Inferno Tank. It's still mainly geared towards anti-tank warfare but it is effective against infantry as well. It leaves fire behind, and it also has a suicide function, which is quite potent.

- The Abrams Tank was designed to be the Allied heavy tank, but it's still no match for Soviet might. And it's $2500 so it's still a huge investment that may, or may not, pay off. The high cost is what keeps the extra specials in check in most cases.

- Germany's Panther Tank is geared towards an anti-building and anti-defense role instead of anti-tank. Use it on a structure, does more damage to them than any other non-artillery unit in the game.

- Naturally. The Apoc is the King of Tanks.

- Yeah. The Deathshard is hit and miss. I fixed that by a good margin in Yuri's Revenge and am still working with it in Red Alert 2. 3.0 should address a few of these issues.

- Haven't noticed any slowdowns with Reactors.

- 2.2 should hopefully address the AI issues a little more. I'm still trying to work out the AI so it uses the units it has built up instead of making new ones all the time. But this is RA2, the AI is far from perfect.

- Unfortunately no.

- I actually nerfed quite a few, but many were made better to be more useful. The scale went up a few notches to make things more even so it's still the same.

Just blame Olaf for not updating it. =]

Haha. I could but it still works well, and even runs on Vista so it doesn't need any big changes.