Paradox FAQ! news

Newer questions are at the top... because they're generally the ones that people actually ask.

Q: WHEN WILL THIS BE OUT/WHEN WILL THE NEXT RELEASE BE/WHY CAN'T I DOWNLOAD THIS YET
A: This was already answered below but I guess nobody reads this thing so maybe posting links everywhere will help. WE DON'T KNOW. Stop asking. None of us are professionals, we all have lives outside of the mod, and there are always delays. When we have a set release date, we'll tell you. Until then, asking JUST majorly ticks us (Kerensky287 specifically) off.

Q: Are you guys adding the Tesla Tank?
A: Nope. As easy as it would be to make it available, it's entirely redundant. The Soviets already have the Hammer and Apocalypse for anti-tank capability, the Tesla Trooper has the exact same secondary if you want to use it for some reason, and the Stingray is also land-capable if you feel you can't go without lightning guns. The Tesla Tank is just a glorified Hammer, and if we put it in it would do nothing but occupy a spot in the vehicle tab.

Q: What is Paradox, really?
A: Paradox is a total-conversion modification for EA's Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3. That means that we plan to take the core game and more or less flip it on its head. We'll be making enough changes to the gameplay that it almost counts as a separate game from the one it's based on.

Q: Changes, you say! What changes exactly?
A: For starters, we're adding a total of five (5) brand new factions. We are also adding a large number of units to the existing factions to make each one even more unique. For example, the Japanese faction is now getting two different war factories - one for vehicles, and another purely for the Mecha that the faction is so famous for. Click on each faction's symbol at the top of the page to see their army list and what they're about!

We're also adding a number of tech buildings to change strategic aspects of the skirmish game. For one thing, the tech buildings will not be gone for good when destroyed; they will either rebuild themselves or just become neutral when their health reaches 0 (we aren't sure yet). We are also plan to make new buildings for a variety of purposes - defensive, economic, and more.

Q: What does PДЯДАОЖ mean! It's like... Rdyadaozh or something!
A: It's not really Russian, it's faux Cyrillic. Read it as though it were Latin script. We've gotten SO many complaints about this when it's clearly supposed to be a play on Cyrillic text, just like the backwards R in "Red AleRt." None of us speak or read Russian, so when the logo was made the letters were selected based on their resemblance to "Paradox", written as such.

Q: This sure does seem like a lot of stuff. How long will it take?
A: For the full mod? A long, long time. But we realize that people want to see (and play) some progress, so we'll be releasing different "mod packs" to gradually get the entire mod out there. The first mod pack should be released within the year. We haven't had very much time to work with the SDK yet so we can't be sure, however. A more accurate release date for each mod pack will be announced closer to the time.

The planned order for mod pack releases is as follows:
1. Allied and Confederate units + buildings
2. Soviet and Order of the Talon units + buildings
3. Japan and China units + buildings
4. Protectorate and Syndicate units + buildings
5. Campaigns with full-motion video, if all goes as planned

Q: Will you be using the units from Uprising?
A: No. As far as Paradox is concerned, Uprising never happened.

Q: From the videos and content you've released, it looks like some units explode into wreckage from other units. Are you going to be adding custom wreckage?
A: Well... yes. Eventually. The thing is, custom wreckage is less of a balance/gameplay thing and more of a "this makes stuff look pretty" thing. It's important for the polished, finished product, but it's pretty low on the priority list. So yeah, it'll go in, but it isn't a huge worry right about now.

Q: What changes are you making to currently-existing units?
A: We're making a number of changes to the factions themselves, which you can see on their respective army list pages, but we are making a few general changes to the game itself. For example, we're currently (meaning, we've got it halfway programmed) trying to make air superiority units "dogfight", rather than just staying still and getting shot at. This will make them more effective against enemy bombers (they follow them rather than moving, stopping, firing, repeating) and make air-vs-air fights much more exciting.

We're also going to make defensive structures a little more durable. It seems ridiculous that you can lose 8000 dollars worth of guard towers to a pair of artillery units in seconds - the durability boost is just to give the player that little bit of extra time to respond, and to make turtling a viable tactic.

Q: I've been looking at the stuff you're planning to do, and I think [insert idea here] is stupid and/or impossible.
A: Very little on this Moddb page is final. It's entirely possible that we'll find things that we wanted to do but can't do within the limits of the RA3 engine... or that we'll change our minds entirely on. Information will be updated as our plans change, but what you see is what we want to do at this point.

Q: This sounds like a ton of work for such a small group of people. I have some skills that could help, can I join your mod group to help accelerate the release process (and give me a chance to test the game)?
A: Why, of course! Possibly! We're always on the lookout for new people who want to help out with the mod and if you PM either Kerensky287 or Open_Sketchbook, we will get back to you as soon as we can (which should be pretty quickly). Currently, we are desperately in need of programmers, and we would appreciate new modellers and texture-makers. Mappers would be nice to have as well.

Q: I have a question that seems like it would be asked frequently! Why the heck isn't it up here?
A: I'm sure this FAQ hasn't answered every question you guys have. If you have a question, feel free to ask in our comment section or forums; we'll answer it there, and if it's a good question, we'll probably add it to this FAQ as well.