Swaps all of the units and visual effects around so that all three factions can be played. The balance changes included in the mod address numerous long standing complaints about the original game while the faction swap provides a fresh experience to the gameplay. The mod has been built from scratch with full compatibility on all maps and missions in mind: Any map that worked with the original game will work with this mod. The campaign can also be played either as it was in the original (with the new balance changes included), or by using the previously inaccessible Terran units instead.

Report RSS Version 4 Changes

An in-depth list of the changes coming in version 4. Balance, graphics and AI galore in this release.

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REVERSAL VERSION 4 - CHANGE LOG


MOD CHANGES

  • The readme has been overhauled and now includes instructions on how to get the mod working for online multiplayer through tunneling services. This should work, but there are no guarantees. Remember to check the "Uninstalling" section of the readme if you do unpack your files and need to revert!
  • The batch (.bat) files included to launch the mod have been changed to use the Start command and won't leave a lingering command window behind. If there are any issues with these, the mod can still be launched through customized shortcuts, the instructions for that have been retained in the readme for this release.


MISSION CHANGES

  • Mission saves from previous versions will not be compatible with version 4.
  • Changed the allied Raptor snipers at the end of the first tutorial mission into Light Assault Infantry, so they'll help you destroy the convoy.
  • Engineer units are now available in Calling The Shots. This should make the mission less obnoxious to complete on higher difficulties. It also creates parity between modes as in Reversal you start with a trio of engineers instead of APCs anyways.
  • Corruptor Centruroids and Missile Clanguards are now available in Asphyxiation. This should make attacking the enemy LZ a more viable alternative for finishing the mission as Viron.
  • Changed the starting Assault Clanguards in Long Distance Call into Missile Clanguards. This allows you to meld them into Mortar units to bombard Terran forces guarding the landing zones, making them easier to deal with. In Reversal mode you start with a mixture of Deadeye and Dragon Legionnaires instead.
  • Corruptor Centruroids are now available in Dead But Dreaming.
  • In the Reversal mode Viron campaign, starting infantry in some missions are now Striders instead of Legionnaires. This has also fixed the minor issue where some of the starting infantry in these missions weren't appearing to group properly in the UI.


AI CHANGES

  • All of the skirmish AIs have been replaced with brand new ones, with carefully tailored AI stats and unit lists. This should provide a more engaging experience in Skirmish battles, and allow players to more easily decide what kind of AI support or opponents they would like. Details on each AI's behaviours are available in the readme file.
  • All of the new AIs can be deployed as either Standard (selectable factions) or as the unselectable third faction which changes based on which mode the game is running in. This preserves the three way battle feature of previous mod versions, and expands it to work with all AI profiles.
  • The AI now gets increased vision range on most of it's tank units, matching the range of the weapon in most cases. This should help it to be more effective with them.
  • Skirmish AIs will now upgrade their dropships' cargo and engines a bit more as the game progresses, making them better at bringing reinforcements onto the field if they have plenty of AP to spend.


GENERAL BALANCE CHANGES - WEAPONS AND ARMOR

  • Projectile speeds have been overhauled and standardized as well as being increased for most vehicles, making damage output more consistent.
  • Weapon accuracy values have been overhauled. Heavy weapons now have a small chance to miss infantry, especially at longer range.
  • A number of area effect weapons now deal full damage at the point of impact and reduced damage towards the edge of the blast radius. This applies to artillery units, Recon helidynes, Screamer helidynes, Missile clanguards, Scorcher turrets and anti-tank turrets. Note that the in game UI does not display the full damage on these units so the weapon values may appear misleading.
  • Anti-Tank weapons are now more effective against Vehicles.
  • Anti-Tank and Omni weapons now have the same effectiveness against super-heavy tank armor as they do against normal tank armor. Super-heavy armor retains its additional protection against other damage types.
  • Flame and gas weapons are now a bit more effective against infantry.
  • Reduced Fragmentation damage against infantry to compensate for their reduced armor values in this release. This should keep artillery weapons at about the same effectiveness as previously.
  • Infantry now have slightly less damage reduction when in a building or forest.
  • Light infantry no longer have an armor bonus, and infantry in general tend to have less armor than previously. Combined with the above, this should make them a bit easier to flush out of cover.
  • Armor facing ratios are now more consistent, and armor values on most vehicles have been increased.
  • The armor values of capturable turrets have been significantly increased, and they now have uniform armor to the front, sides and rear, with less armor on the top.


GENERAL BALANCE CHANGES - UNIT TYPES

  • Dropships are now faster at lower upgrade levels.
  • Helidyne speeds have been increased across the board, and view ranges have been increased and standardized.
  • Striders are now able to move through forests, and gain the same damage reduction as infantry from doing so. However they still count as vehicles for all other purposes: They can still be hit by missile weapons, cannot garrison structures, and do not have self regeneration.
  • Striders now have a very limited amount of stealth which only becomes effective when moving through forests.
  • Heavy artillery units have had their health values increased significantly, to be more in line with their high cost. Their armor values remain limited in comparison to tanks however.
  • Heavy artillery units have had their automatic targeting removed and must be manually aimed, a return to vanilla behaviour. This includes the Mobile Artillery, Imperial Howitzer and Mortar Centruroid.
  • Other indirect fire units have retained their auto targeting for this release. Notably, Mortar Clanguards and the Assault APC secondary mode.
  • Sentry guns have gained a limited amount of stealth and their damage output has increased slightly. This should make them a bit more useful as a deterrent though they are still easily dispatched by armored units.
  • Deployable sensors are now much cheaper, but also a bit more fragile.
  • Reduced the maintenance costs of all deployable structures.
  • The maintenance costs of most infantry have been reduced slightly, and their stealth values have received a minor pass.
  • Snipers and heavy infantry are now a bit more fragile, but also less expensive.
  • Snipers can no longer be picked up by a transport while in secondary mode.
  • Heavy APCs should now stay in between tanks and support units in a formation, rather than trying to go to the front.
  • All APCs have received increases to their armor values - on par with heavy tanks - and have had their weapons adjusted as needed. Note that their health values remain close to the old values.
  • Viron light vehicles have received a slight speed adjustment from 14 to 15, matching Terran hover units and the Light APC. Their heavier units remain at more standard speeds.
  • NSA and Terran engineers will now slowly repair themselves while in secondary mode, in addition to their other effects. Viron engineers now regenerate slightly faster in secondary as well.


SPECIFIC UNIT CHANGES

Version 4 has seen a near total balance overhaul to all units. Here are some of the more notable changes:

NSA UNITS

  • Light Assault Infantry: Slightly increased the primary weapon damage output.
  • Recon Terradyne: Now slightly faster and stealthier in secondary mode, allowing it to keep up with other ground units in a formation. This makes it a more survivable and thus useful spotter for NSA vehicle forces.
  • Combat Engineer: AP cost reduced from 450 to 400. This puts their value to cost ratio close to par with the other factions' engineer units.
  • Liberator Terradyne: Increased the overall damage output by about 10%.
  • Ravager Terradyne: Slightly increased the radius of the secondary mode armor bonus.
  • Assault APC: Secondary mode range increased to 200.
  • Mobile Artillery: Speed increased from 8 to 10, making them only as slow as heavy tanks instead of infantry.
  • Recon Helidyne: Damage adjusted such that it deals Fragmentation damage at the point of impact and Anti-Infantry damage in a larger radius, making its area effect less powerful against vehicles but also increasing its effectiveness overall against infantry.
  • Light Helidyne: Increased the weapon rate of fire. Total output is now about 90% of the Attack Helidyne's primary mode in comparison, but the Light remains unable to attack infantry targets and is significantly more fragile.
  • Transport Helidyne: The shield in secondary mode is now more effective, but the armor bonus has been removed. It remains noticeably slower in secondary compared to primary mode, although the speed was increased along with all other helidynes.

TERRAN UNITS

  • Dragon Legionnaire: Cost reduced to 250, along with armor, health and damage values to match. Now better fits the Terran theme of effective but disposable infantry.
  • Veteran Legionnaire: Renamed to Deadeye Legionnaire. Primary weapon range reduced from 150 to 120, meaning its only effective as a damage increase where most other targets can shoot back at it.
  • Combat Strider: Increased the accuracy of the primary weapon.
  • Missile Strider: Secondary mode reworked. Now has the same weapon as in primary mode, but is stationary with greater weapon and vision range. Primary mode remains unchanged.
  • Light Hoverdyne: Cost increased to 500 along with health and overall damage. Primary and secondary modes have been effectively swapped: Now has high speed, good damage but standard range in primary. In secondary, gains an armor and range bonus with reduced speed and damage output. Similar to the Recon Terradyne, the secondary is intended to make it more useful as a spotter in formation.
  • Engineer Hoverdyne: Frontal armor values increased significantly as part of the armor overhaul. Weapon damage was reduced slightly to keep it in line. Note that its secondary mode armor remains the same as in primary, so be mindful of which direction its facing if you plan to leave it deployed for a while.
  • Destroyer Hoverdyne: Increased the damage output of the secondary weapon to bring it more in line with the unit's cost.
  • Vanquisher Hoverdyne: Reduced the reload time of the secondary weapon from 5 to 4. Overall damage output remains low, but its a bit easier to time as you should now be able to consistently swap-fire it after every third shot from the primary.
  • Conqueror Hoverdyne: Health increased to 1000 and now takes up 5 slots in a dropship instead of 4. Secondary mode reworked to use a weapon similar to the Vanquisher's secondary which also deals Omni damage, has a very high damage output with slightly reduced range and significantly reduced armor.
  • APC Hoverdyne: Is now the only Terran vehicle (excluding striders) to have a rear armor value. This should keep it useful both as an infantry transport and mobile shield generator.
  • Imperial Howitzer: Speed increased from 10 to 12, again matching the value of the faction's heavy tank.

VIRON UNITS

  • Assault Clanguard: Cost increased to 200, along with health and damage output. This makes them solid line infantry for the Virons and also gets a bit more mileage out of Assault Pod drops.
  • Missile Clanguard: Greatly increased the speed and thus accuracy of the secondary mode rockets, but adjusted the splash damage so they aren't quite so powerful against groups of units.
  • Mortar Clanguard: Range increased from 240 to 300, and reduced the rate of fire significantly to bring the damage more in line with their cost.
  • Gun Centruroid: Cost slightly reduced to 400 and received a few tweaks to health and damage. Of note is that the side and rear armor is now the same between primary and secondary, gaining only a bonus to frontal armor in exchange for its immobility in secondary mode.
  • Engineer Centruroid: The secondary mode armor bonus is now more significant.
  • Mortar Centruroid: Increased the secondary weapon range to 400, matching the range of the primary mode.
  • Vindicator Centruroid: Cost reduced to 4000 and health to 800. Now also takes up 5 dropship slots and provides the armor and regeneration bonus in both primary and secondary modes. Secondary mode now has a small range bonus instead.
  • Corruptor Centruroid: Cost decreased from 800 to 750, but doesn't have the same armor as other heavy APCs in primary mode. Instead, it gains that armor bonus in secondary mode along with the existing gas cloud ability.
  • Thumper Centruroid: Now fires its weapon from a higher point on the model, allowing it to hit targets when there are minor obstacles in the way.
  • Screamer Helidyne: Weapon now deals Energy damage and damage output increased. Remains deadly to infantry, but is now more effective against tanks and structures. This makes it more well rounded and better value for its price. Note that it still cannot attack air units.
  • Contaminator Helidyne: Greatly increased its health and armor as part of the APC adjustments but left the damage output below par relative to its cost.

NEUTRAL UNITS

  • Imperial SAM site: Now fires its missiles in a much faster burst. Overall damage output has also been reduced slightly, but they are more effective at catching aircraft skirting their range and also at getting through the shields of the Transport Helidyne.
  • Anti-Infantry turrets: Range increased from 120 to 140 and now deal significantly more damage to infantry and vehicles. This should make them more valuable as a base defense, however they are still easily countered by tanks and air units.
  • Photon Gun turret: This rarely seen unit has been given a balance pass, and now has a weapon similar to the Centurion Hoverdyne.


GRAPHICS CHANGES - UI

  • The positions of unit command buttons in the bottom right of the UI should now be consistent across all factions and units.
  • The video message backgrounds for Alice, Warhurst and Rho have been updated to Terran colours in Reversal mode.
  • Changed some of the UI fonts in Reversal mode from cyan to yellow to match the rest of the interface.
  • Fixed some issues with the UI skins of all three factions, especially the Terran one which had issues with its transparency layer.
  • Rearranged the skirmish and multiplayer setup screen so that the AI selection menus could be expanded, negating the need to use the scrollbars. This has been included as an optional addon due to issues with localization, refer to the readme for instructions.


GRAPHICS CHANGES - DROPSHIPS

  • Fixed an issue where where NSA dropships under AI control would have all weapon upgrades visible at the same time.
  • Fixed a similar issue where AI Viron dropships would show no weapon.
  • The basic model Viron dropship now correctly displays all engine animations.
  • The Imperial Dropship now properly displays firing animations when upgraded.
  • Solved the issue where the Imperial Dropship's turret would always face south after upgrades instead of tracking targets or resetting forwards. It is now fixed forwards instead, a compromise solution since enabling proper tracking isn't possible.
  • Added new textures for upgraded models of the Imperial Dropship.


GRAPHICS CHANGES - UNITS

  • Most units with twinned weapons now have more appropriate weapon effects. This includes everything from Ravager Terradynes to stationary turrets. The rate of fire of these units has been adjusted to keep the particle effect count under control.
  • The tracers from sniper weapons now have a longer duration, making it a bit easier to follow sniper fire back to its source. This should make snipers a bit easier to deal with, given that most units have reduced sensor range and the snipers themselves have increased stealth values compared to vanilla.
  • Adjusted the texture for the Conqueror Hoverdyne so that the Imperial insignia on the front isn't as noticeably skewed.
  • Adjusted the Rocket Terradyne's texturing so that the launch frame isn't blocking one of it's missile tubes.
  • Retextured the Deadeye Legionnaire to make it more distinctive.
  • The Deadeye Legionnaire now uses the correct texture during its death animations.
  • The Engineer Hoverdyne's rear door should now always appear open when in secondary mode.
  • Fixed the animations of the Missile Strider so that it doesn't walk in place after switching modes anymore.
  • Swapped the projectiles of the Light APC and Liberator Terradyne secondary weapons, and tweaked their effects.
  • Adjusted the effects of the Destroyer Hoverdyne secondary weapon.
  • Improved the hit effects of Terran heavy tanks.
  • Fixed the Terran version of the Transport Helidyne used in the mission 11 cutscene so that the APC underneath is now firmly attached.
  • The Vindicator Centruroid's secondary missiles and muzzle flash are now red, matching the rest of its effect colours.


GRAPHICS CHANGES - STRUCTURES

  • Improved the weapon effects for both versions of the Anti-Infantry Turret (Terran and NSA).
  • Improved the visual effect of the Imperial Anti-Tank turret's weapon, and also fixed the issue where the effects would disappear if the impact point wasn't in the field of view.
  • Increased the size of the Pulverizer turret's projectiles so that they stand out more in battle.
  • Improved the hit effects of Terran anti-tank turrets (deployable and stationary).
  • The Terran deployable heavy turret now has a more appropriate death animation.
  • Remade the texture for the Viron version of the heavy turret.
  • The Viron deployable AT turret now uses the correct texture in secondary mode.
  • Fixed the Viron deployable radar so that the radar membrane now shows properly.
Post comment Comments
Jerkakame
Jerkakame

nice nice

I like the changes.

But there is one that bothers me, the removal of Artillery freefire. The thing that made me enjoy using artillery in V3 a lot. Like how they work in GC1.

Striders walking through forests sounds really cool.

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Flamecurse Author
Flamecurse

It would have been nice if GC2 had included a target priority table - some way to make artillery target infantry first, buildings second, and so forth, but as it stands there were too many instances of free-firing artillery dropping salvos into your own (or allied) units. Intestingly enough though, in GC1 you could give them a group attack order by ctrl band-boxing a bunch of enemies. This still works in GC2, they just never mention it anywhere. Select your arty, hold Ctrl, and box-select a group of enemies. Then move your units around however you want and they'll keep firing. Its not a perfect system and more micro intensive, but once you get the hang of it I've found it far superior to letting them auto-target. The band selection also means if you lose vision on one target they should just switch to the next without stopping.

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Jerkakame
Jerkakame

ah yea I used the box-select attack sometimes because GC2 lacks a attack move or a GC1 Defensive stance.

But about the artillery, if I didnt want to risk my artillery shooting my own units and do manual targeting in V3, I would put them on hold fire stance, like in GC1. I liked the freedom of choice.

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Flamecurse Author
Flamecurse

Understandable. Do you use the auto targeting more in primary, secondary or both? It is possible for me to enable it for one mode but not the other, that might be a good compromise to look at if I have to do another update.

Note that the auto attack is still enabled for the Assault APC secondary and Mortar Clanguard where it works fine since the rounds don't take quite as long to reach their targets.

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Jerkakame
Jerkakame

I think both.

Auto firing while being mobile in primary mode is nice, but I also used to put them in secondary mode in defensive positions to start shooting at approaching enemies while I was doing something else.

My friend didnt like the auto targeting in V3, not because of accidental friendly fire, but he said it made the artillery less micromanagement, more casual and easier.

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Chaotic-Entropy
Chaotic-Entropy

Brilliant, thanks

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European45
European45

Hello, all right, the Reversal 4 and 5 mod do not work, my operating system is Windows 10, every time I start the .bat it simply does not enter, or does not even open, when I add the command to the Ground Control shortcut 2, in the destination when loading the map opens and closes the map in the "load game"

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European45
European45

the command and this "start gcii.exe -mod gc2reversal4.sdf" it is simply not opening in Windows 10 and 11

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