Rise of the East 2.1 Released! news

Hey folks! It's finally here! This is by the the biggest update to this mod and a huuuge upgrade to its predecessor, 2.0. A lot of work has gone into this so I hope you enjoy - if you do please make sure to leave a review! :)

First things first, this version is not standalone and requires files from your Red Alert 2 directory in order to function. Please follow this link here for installation instructions and troubleshooting.

With that out of the way let's jump straight in:

What's New

The changelog is huge, so I'll just leave the link to its journey here which includes changes leading up to release. (beta & revision changes etc). I'll cover the major changes and additions in this article:

• YR Remastered Campaign
• Save and Load Games
• Full Client Support + File Updater
• ReShade Support + Client Integration
• Balance Overhaul + Release = Tournament
• Custom Map Editor
• Website + Unit Description/Guide

Worthy mentions:

• Lots of new maps + some exclusives
• Exclusive artwork made just for Rise of the East!
• New Units and Support Powers
• Permanent Upgrades
• Weather Effects

Remastered Campaign & Save/Load Function

That's right! As we move into the future and start creating Rise of the East's very own campaign and story line, the original Yuri's Revenge campaign has been remastered and enabled. Featuring new graphics, weather, terrain, units and AI difficulty updates as well as some China and GLA easter eggs.

Cooperative multiplayer campaigns have also been enabled and can be played single player if you don't feel like playing with friends.... or strangers. One big update is the ability to choose Coop AI difficulty in the lobby, rather than picking different game modes.

To top it off, 2.1 brings back the Save and Load function for both, single player campaign and skirmish!

CNCNet Client Update

The client has been completely revamped with a new look and a ton of new features thanks to Kerbiter's fork of the client. To name a few we now have:

• Client/Game File Updater
• Map Editor & Statistics
• ReShade Integration
• Cooperative Lobby Options
• Player Ping Indicators
• Ingame Font Language Options:
  • English/Latin
  • English/Cyrillic

The client will now search for and install updates just like the YR client does! Never download an update manually again :) unless you really want to of course then you know where to find them.

I've also included the Map Editor with this update because it's custom to the mod itself, adding Asia to the countries list etc.

There are additional steps to take to get the map editor working with the new terrain so be sure to check out the Q&A at the end of the help page here.

Weather Effects

As promised, 2.1 comes with a few weather effects to play with. Currently they are locked to specific maps but if feedback is positive enough I'll add them as a dropdown option on the client, applicable to any map.

Balance Overhaul & First Tournament

After almost 3 months of balancing, we believe it's at a good enough place to host the first mod tournament. Stay tuned for details in the future but here's what you'll see:

• 1v1 Tournament
• 16 players maximum
• $200 USD prize pool
  • $125 - 1st place
  • $50 - 2nd place
  • $25 - 3rd place

The biggest change in the overhaul was the implementation of a medium Rock, Paper, Scissors approach - where most units will excel at their specific role while some will have dual roles but be less effective. This was implemented to promote the use of all units and unit types, and to add diversity in the battlefield.

To compliment the changes above, a separate Tier structure has been added to all factions. We felt that teching up was way too quick and wanted to prevent T3 spam early on. As such, to make higher tiers appealing, most T2/T3 units have special abilities and/or upgrades.

T2/T3 units also take less damage from T1 units, just to give them a bit of an edge but not enough to make T1 redundant.

ReShade

As mentioned in previous articles and teased countless times in the images page, most of you know that ReShade profiles are available with the mod and can now be enabled via the client Options - meaning you no longer have to fiddle around with downloading, moving or deleting files manually.

Here's a reminder of how RotE's ReShade (right) looks compared to vanilla.

Permanent Upgrades

Revisiting this part of the last article as it is a key aspect of gameplay in 2.1. This release brings permanent upgrades to the table, ranging from unique unit upgrades to global buffs to unit classes. Permanent means that even if the building is destroyed, the upgrade will remain.

Here's some of the upgrades you can expect:

See how the upgrade system works here:

What Else?

For those not bothered going through the changelog, 2.1 also adds:

• Unit Remakes
• Unit Abilities
• Custom unit voices
• More, more!

Unit Descriptions & Guide

The website is still work in progress so unit descriptions are not available except for Allied Structures, but it will have useful info such as the snip below:

Unit Abilities

Another big aspect of 2.1 is T2/T3 unit abilities. I won't spoil all of them here so I will just describe a couple in detail:

What's Next for RotE?

Over the next few patches I will focus on more graphic improvements, bug fixes and balance changes. Most will be just improvements on existing graphics such as new flags, fixed building colours/corrections and other improvements, etc:

The next major update will see GLA enabled for multiplayer with 2 subfactions; Scarab Cell and Scorpion Cell. We'll also have our first single player GLA Challenge map where players will face Dr. Thrax.

• Scarab Cell is the core GLA faction, not prioritising any specific weapons but they do favour scavenged, bulky units such as the Marauder Tank and the Battle Bus.
• Scorpion Cell, led by Dr. Thrax deploys heavy use of toxin weaponry. Most units have one or more toxin/chemical modification.

It will also feature all new East Asian buildings designed in 3D and from scratch, taking the mod to the next level, GLA will later receive the same treatment meaning we will move away from converted C&C Generals assets and into exclusive RotE assets.

To recap, here's a glimpse of what's to come in the future:

• Brand new, exclusive visuals and artwork
• Complete GLA implementation
• Single player campaign & Challenge maps
• Rise of the East lore/story write up and much more

Thanks for tuning in to this wall of text and I hope you enjoy the release. Make sure to leave a review if you enjoyed the mod :)

Cheers!