Rise of the Reds – or ROTR for short – improves upon the C&C Generals formula while also adding its own distinct elements to it. Most notably, the mod adds two completely new factions, the tank-heavy Russian Federation and the defence-oriented European Continental Alliance. In addition, the three original factions China, USA and GLA have been greatly expanded and redesigned in a variety of ways, with several new units, buildings, powers and abilities to explore and combine in your in-game tactics.
Clocking in at a mere 6 tons in weight, this light scout tank is oddly reminiscent of the historical tankette vehicles that were developed between the First and Second World War, when the true military role of armoured vehicles was yet to take shape. Affectionally called the 'Hopper' by the PLA for its amazing agility and comical shape, the new vehicle entered service very recently. Whilst American military experts were quick to dismiss it for its anachronistic role and 'ridiculous' design, the Chinese like to point out that a single one of these vehicles is still more resource-efficient and quick to produce than a Humvee, to the point where Hopper Tanks are always built in twos. This allowed China to complete 10.000 units in a single year, which are now serving in the ranks of the PLA and a number of domestic police units. The Hopper can use its stubby 75mm cannon to destroy lightly armoured targets and draw the attention of heavier adversaries away from the actual battle tanks. Its armour is capable of resisting bullets, but doesn't stand much of a chance against larger calibres, let alone dedicated anti-tank weapons, making the Hopper a vehicle that is best used as part of a massive offensive. The crew consists of only two people: A driver and a commander, who also serves as the gunner. True to vehicle's function as a scout, the commander can be ordered to peek out of the hatch and spy ahead with his binoculars, substantially increasing the Hopper's sight radius at the cost of not being able to attack until the commander has re-assumed his position behind the gun. Amazingly for an otherwise low-tech vehicle, the Hopper Tank can also be equipped with depleted uranium shells and a miniature atomic battery.
Lego tank. I can't believe that these are the same people who have made those amazingly detailed models of Fennek and Wotan.
Remember that this is for the faction that has been depicted in a rather...goofy fashion ever since the original game. We merely stick to that style, because giving them realistic stuff like a ZTZ99 or whatever would look out of place next to all the 1950s style infantry units, nuclear powered Type 59s and airships that look like flying whales. You always have to remind yourself that this is Gens/ZH China, not 'plausibly futuristic RL China'.
I take it the role is similar to a modern day Scimitar or the FT-17
Honestly I expected this unit to get flak because it's not "ANOTHER GENERIC SUPER-HEAVY TANK LIKE THE OVERLORD". Just because it isn't so doesn't mean the quality and or thinking we have done behind it is any lesser.
These tanks can literally EAT through larger tanks in numbers. Think about the Propaganda bonus, horde bonus, and other upgrades that would make this vehicle a true force multiplier that merely compliments your other tanks.
We are meaning to play on the design of the Chinese in Zero hour and not cater towards the generic battle tanks that would deter this design concept.
Horde these up, and sure you can laugh at them, its a 2 man tank, but the Chinese player will be laughing at you're Sentinels being eaten up by 20 of these - easily. And god help you if you try using AT Infantry, prepare to become a speed bump as these things haul ***.
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I'm talking about the cartoonish appearance of this tank and lack of details comparing to other models, not about its role on the battlefield. Why not use something based on Type 63 - small light tank with 85 mm cannon? You could redone it a bit to make it more fit the Chinese style in the game.
Congrats. By suggesting some generic Cold War era 'Type random number', you're falling right into the 'China should be more like in RL' mindset that I just described. You're free to find the Hopper cartoonish, but you cannot deny that it looks a lot more unique than adding yet another tank that'd basically look like a slimmed down Battlemaster and pretending that it's toootally different. Because instead of just copying vehicles from SinoDefence, we like to come up with our own distinct designs; that's kinda why we have concept artists.
Also, this is a spam unit. It's pretty much the Red Guard among tanks. You're supposed to spam them and putting lots of fancy details on a unit that isn't just spammable but even MEANT to be spammed would cause performance issues. Rule of thumb: The rarer/more expensive a unit, the more detail it can have because the number of such units on screen approaches 1.
One thing we did do however was add -16- visually different model variants of this tank. Some of them have a searchlight on top, others have a flag, fuel barrel, trench hooks etc, so your Hopper blob as a whole would actually have a lot of details.
Because then it wont look like a Metal Slug and that would be boring.
ahh yes metal slug the game it was quite weird but awesome in my childhood memories.
no .. i like it till now.. i really love metal slug looks like shank 2
What do you mean? It doesn't look like a Metal Slug now.
Comrade,I mean the game not the vehicle.
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I'm answer to 8ft_Germicidal_Robot actually
Well it used to drive an overlord so...
Also bear in mind the significant size difference. While the pictures are scaled to take up the same room, this tank is a lot smaller, and therefore will look less detailed when magnified more.
I'd like to congratulate the ROTR team for having the balls to try something they knew might be unpopular to start with, because they thought it was cool and would work.
This thing is weird, beacause, on the one hand, the team attempts to bring realism and serious graphics into the game, like with the Russians and, of course, the ECA, and on the other hand they come out with this sort of thing. Please choose one art direction. This doesn't fit the style.
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So, battle rifles are fine but tankettes are a no no? How so?
This doesn't fit the Russian style because it's not a Russian unit. The same goes for the ECA. It does, however, fit the Chinese ZH style.
I wouldn't say the Wotan, Pandora, Sentinel, Tremor AGAS, Manticore, Bulldog, Tesla weaponry or Solaris system are particularly realistic.
The art direction in ROTR is faction-based, not overarching and we've explained it several times: China is the more goofy, anachronistic looking faction because it's been that way since Gens/ZH and we did NOT want to just rip their guts out and go 'lol hey guys, they now have ZTZ99s and QBZ95s!' just like any other generic realism mod out there.
We wanted to keep the elements that made them distinct in the original game and that requires us to give them some stuff that looks a bit odd compared to the more authentic-looking Russian and European designs, which turned out that way because we could decide on their art direction by ourselves.
This reasoning is also why the US won't get any plasma launchers, sonic cannons or Area 51 UFO units. They were high-tech in Gens/ZH, but semi-plausible, semi-exaggerated high-tech, not cartoonishly space age high-tech.
i think you are right, but i still fell sad that tey wont get any more lazer stuff.
Generals is a game about 2020s sci-fi USA verus 2000s republican nightmare terrorists verus 1970s China as seen by Richard Nixon in a fever dream. Anything else would break the tone!
Impressive description.
It looks like a toy! I bet these little things would literally get crushed by a Sentinel or Manticore XD
Sure but these are meant to be force multipliers - everyone expects that we were going to give China -another- big *** tank, when in fact we're taking measures to further compliment the gameplay style of the Chinese in Generals - hordes.
These come in pairs of two when you purchase them in the War-Factory, they're incredibly fast, they can crush infantry and take a few good hits but the fact they build faster than most AT infantry and most tanks, you can expect these (along with battlemasters) to completely OVERWHELM people in numbers - that coupled with the Nationalism upgrade (which increases rate of fire) and the Horde Bonus (an additional bonus with firepower) with propaganda (which further increases THAT) they fire almost like gattling guns and take out Overlords in a matter of -SECONDS- Sure you're going to lose a few of them but you have like 100 BEHIND THEM.
Thats the original point we're trying to do and draw the Chinese away from mroe dedicated, larger tanks that have almost become a staple and the "what everyone expects" every faction to have and would merely make it dull and boring just like any other mod.
We are going to add some other cool vehicles to China but it'll be until 1.82. A tank Destroyer to go ahead and mention it and a few others too =)
So if these things are so ******* scary...how do you counter? Artillery barrage? Air support? First strike? Colony drop?
They -are- made of paper basically :P
SHOOT THEM.
Like we said, they're great -force multipliers- that means they can be coupled with any strike force so you can gain your horde bonus faster and since their speed is so apparent you can strike areas where your slower tanks cannot in time.
Any good player I'm sure will realize how scary these little f*ckers can be. You get two for the price of one, they run over infantry, and jesus they fire fast and move fast. It's the rate of fire that scares me the most since one by itself is a scratch, but when you get 20 of them (and fast) it starts tearing up stuff like locusts.
How fast does it fire? Like a Machine gun? Or minigun?
Given the comparison to a gatling higher up, I'm guessing like one of those before they spin up properly.
And don't think that killing one is good, its all or nothing because when they are this OP of a starting unit-I assume they are immediately purchasable- rushes and defensive tactics are dangerous. I can see it now how I would build a nice attack force quickly in under 4 minutes or less- the time it takes USA G power to ruin a stock pile- of units- consisting of many 15pairs of hoppers, 9 tank hunter flak guys, 3 gay tanks and 9 volunteer squads, 3 airships, and if I have time I would add more units where needed, most likely gats or hops
damn, better hunker down in a city, load up the artillery or just move around them.
firewalls,kill all at once
Napalm firestorm, firewalls, artillery, and anything with splash damage in general all sound like excellent options, since I suspect this thing has all the armour of a rocket buggy.
I would bet that if you didn't take out the war factory before exposing a super tank to the crippling enemy base, that the enemy player will have built up 6 hoppers per factory to utterly shred your tanks at a gattling tech rate of fire.
Metal Slug! So I see the Chinese are getting recruits from the Peregrine Army XD.
HAHA damn dude i though the exact same thing as soon as i saw the pic :D
Well, even Chinese casualty rates can't be as bad as those of Morden's Army.
At first I thought this was a late April fools joke, LOL!
lol and this was my second though :P
If it exist, I'll buy it for my transport to my school :D
this one is so cute
When you look at it, you can't help but want to hug it.
awww, babytank :3
gotta really say this...CUTE!...
This thing is absolutely adorable.
soooo....no chance that this goes toe to toe with manticore and sentinel? darn!
No way I will destroy these tanks,they are too cute to be destroyed *__*
This: Metalslug.wikia.com
That's a really cute looking tank until i read it's description..."always built in twos...can also be equipped with depleted uranium shells and a miniature atomic battery"
Whoa, an army of armored nuclear redguards.
i thought this was a chinese drone. till i read it was tank and weighed 6 tons lol. also i dont really see a metal slug tank resemblance lol
Looks ridiculous, out-dated design, soft as ****, weak firepower BUT dirt cheap, built in pairs, gains horde bonus, high speed, high rate of fire, can be equipped with ******* nukes...
This tank is the very definition of "Lethal Joke Character" >:)
Someone might have been watching Dominion Tank Police while designing this!! (LOLing)
I found that old show in a decent quality and have been watching it, First thought upon seeing the pic and reading about it was it sounded like a "Bonaparte"(The small and I quote from actual show "Toy tank", that's what the police chief called it)
A warning to anyone who decides to watch it, PLEASE keep in mind the shows age before taking offense at some of the things in it. What was considered permissible back then was different from today's standards.....
I'm okay with this because everyone in the universe it's placed in KNOWS it looks ridiculous and just doesn't care because it's effective at what it's meant to do.
Truth is, the military has come up with more bizarre designs than this in the past, and often those designs have become the butt of many, many jokes among the soldiery. This is the perfect example of such a design, something that the Generals universe previously lacked. See it as a bit of comic relief for your soldiers. =p