Development Status of Red Alert Redux (Sept. 2022) news

Today we will feature some of whats currently done and the general plans with what to expect with a first release for the established tech tree and a possible campaign demo as the mod approaches a playable beta stage and several game engine code issues are currently being addressed. Below is a short demo video of the Main Menu GUI and the general atmosphere that is being established for the mod. Impactful first impressions are good, right? Yes, the mod is nearing playable beta status and footage of that will be coming soon as we know that has been highly anticipated.

Starting off, we want to make it clear we are leaning towards following the Dieselpunk art style done by Red Alert: A Path Beyond going for a more realistic tone with the sides using early 1950's to 1980's hardware and keeping the C&C Generals house color system instead of recoloring entire units. (C&C Renovato also did this, but never released) We got a lot of interesting ideas in mind that will be an enhancement to the original game with added upgrades and all new units. For example: The Allies will get a dedicated AA vehicle that will replace the Radar Jammer but also keep its function. The Soviets will keep the original Radar Jammer since its the same chassis as their Tesla Tank, though it may be slightly reworked. We also plan to use some modified variant of a Soviet BMP, MTLB, or GMZ vehicle as an APC/Mine Layer to further differentiate the Soviet version from the Allied APC (an M113). We are aware some purists may be upset, but please understand that Red Alert Redux is meant to be a re-imagining of RA1 to set itself apart from other mods and the official remasters recently released a few years ago, doing so also makes use of new assets and a fully 3D game engine instead of how Westwood reused the assets and game engine of the first C&C at the time so please don't expect everything to be identical (at least partially) to whatever was shown in the original game due to both artistic liberty and inevitable game engine limitations.

Tanya and an unnamed Soviet Commando

Another difference is the Soviets wont have a clone of Tanya for a hero unit. This is Tanya and a yet to be named Soviet Commando type unit. In-game both can one shot kill infantry and plant bombs. A fun fact is these two were put together using original C&C Generals/ZH game assets with custom textures and gun models. The texture for Tanya was actually taken from the RA cutscenes and applied on a slightly modified Black Lotus mesh and the Soviet Commando is a recolor of the China Officer mesh in Generals/ZH but using the Col. Burton animations. Volkov or Boris is on the shortlist for the Soviet Commando.

The GUI, & Ore Fields

As with TD Redux, it was decided to just keep the functioning bottom bar from the stock game and reskin it to give it that trademark RA1 Dieselpunk art style. (like TD Redux, a Control Bar Pro version will be developed at a later date) As for the Ore & Gems, coding is pretty much finished for the Ore Field spread system and the Ore and Gems are all implemented in the existing maps replacing the Supply Piles from Generals. Also the Ore/Gems "pieces" in the rendered piles will render and delete themselves accordingly thanks to reusing the Generals Supply Dock logic as the Ore Trucks interact with them.

Attack Dog Animations Completed

One of the more challenging things to do is animating infantry and "organic" objects such as animals due to all the dynamic animation states needed to look somewhat realistic in-game. It can be tedious and time consuming which is why many modders choose to simply reuse stock game assets or slightly modify them. They are finally finished. Note the different idle animations and whatnot. Thanks goes to VectorIV for the help on the basics. The Attack Dog texture was provided by photos of sgtmyers88's own German Shepard now immortalized in the mod.

New Terrain/Props and Campaign Map Templates

It was mentioned a while back how we developed a system to easily transform temperate maps into snow and vice-versa, so here is an expanded view of a demo mission map to further demonstrate this. We also updated many more of the base game's terrain texture tiles with higher quality textures and redone the temperate mission map texture palette as I thought these look much closer to a true 3D remake of the game it is based on. Also added was several additional snow props that we felt were lacking in the base game (note the rock clusters have proper snow models now) to help this mod implement the atmosphere of the European Winters of Red Alert.

Vehicle Showcase

The iconic Soviet Mammoth Tank and The "Stalin" Heavy Tank. The latter being a twin barrelled T-80U. The next generation in the famous line of Soviet IS series tanks in this timeline. Also the Mammoth Tank might not get its missile batteries at the start and instead be a weapons upgrade like what the Overlord Tank or Humvee in Generals has.

The Soviet Mi-24 Hind Attack Helicopter which is armed with Chainguns and can also get a Missile Pod upgrade. Though this may get edited to remove the nose mounted weapon and switch it to the wings to differentiate it further from the Allied Apache Longbow.

This is the Soviet Tesla Tank. A vehicle that utilizes Tesla technology delivering devastating bolts of electrical energy. The "bolts" shown will work in the same way as normal weapon muzzle flashes in-game thanks to how game code works.

Soviet Aircraft models graciously donated by Black_Drakon and converted for use in this project. The Yak-9 Fighter and the Yak-24 Transport Helicopter.

And a few of the Allied vehicles, a reused/modified M1A1 Abrams and M110 model from TD Redux (for the Medium Tank and the Artillery) along with the Apache Longbow and Jeep. (Ranger)

Authors Note: A project still in the process of finalizing is a re-imagining of the Light Tank. I never cared for the Bradley IFV being used from C&C1 yet again nor the use of a substantially outdated and outgunned M24 Chaffee or the out of place T-55 (a Soviet tank) seen in some other RA projects or the Remaster. Just for fun I did a little side by side comparison with some of my unused tank models to see how they would fit in the roles as Allied Tanks. (see below)

I know there has been extended discussions on here and on the Discord Channel on what would be the best "fit" and I know the M48 was not a Light Tank IRL but I'm just doing this as a comparison to the game sprites with what I have. The M60-120S (left) is a potential stand in for the Medium Tank while the M48 Patton (right) is a stand in for the Light Tank. The latter being an older model tank with the likes of the Mammoth Tank existing in this alternate reality, everything predating the M60 Tank and similar era vehicles might as well be demoted to a "Light Tank" with that thing around. And finally, it would seem more realistic as a low tier tank being pitted against Soviet armor as it also closely matches the game sprite. On the former I will probably stick with the re-textured M1A1 Tank Model from TD Redux for the Medium Tank. (IRL the M1 Abrams shouldn't even be considered a "Medium Tank" weighing in at nearly 70 Tons)

Lastly, plans are to hopefully get some kind of demo out in the next 4-6 months with the base factions implemented with some kind of Skirmish AI. All the units and buildings might not be included in this first release. Notable things that are up in the air still is the Iron Curtain, MAD Tank, and the Chronoshifting stuff as they are still being studied on how to best be implemented in the Generals SAGE engine. Naval might be postponed as well due to stability issues encountered with the recent Naval add-on in TD Redux that will be addressed in an upcoming patch for that mod which was used as a test bed for this project. Otherwise, I might try to include 3-4 campaign mission remakes in the demo like I did with the first release of TD Redux over a decade ago.

©2022 sgtmyers88 & the C&C Redux Development Team