New Horizons Version 12-B news

Greetings fellow Command & Conquer fans, I present you all with a treat; that being the latest release of the New Horizons mod for Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge, that being Version 12B (which supersedes Version 12A). I know, I know, the ‘A’ turned into a ‘B’, big deal, right? Well I assure you that it is, with many exciting improvements (some of which may not even be noticeable, but nonetheless exciting!). As always, I highly recommend reading the articles on the previous releases to learn more about what’s new, should you be interested.

What’s New

As I’m writing this, it’s late, and I’m tired. So the 1^st thing that comes to mind is I’m f**ked if I can remember haha! So I had a look at what was new in the last versions for a refresher.. Obviously with the release of Version 12, I introduced the 3^rd new playable country, this time added to the Allied/NATO faction. That country of course was Turkey, which has the 2^nd largest army of the NATO members, and is also a host country for U.S. nuclear weapons; making it an obvious choice that logically should be included. With the addition of Turkey, it was the first playable country to get it’s own unique development choices, which again, if you haven’t read the previous article, meant choosing between constructing two different foreign embassies, each offering their own perks (but cancelling each other out; so you could only choose one or the other!).

I had also decided to give all the existing playable countries more of their own unique technological development options, starting (in no particular order) with Britain. I have expanded this further, shifting my spotlight of focus onto the playable country of Cuba. I have made use of new Ares features, and as a result of which, playing as Cuba will give the unique option of building tunnels! After all, Cuba is a small country, yet it managed to stand up to the U.S., and maintain it’s sovereignty (something few countries in today’s world have managed to keep), after defeating the CIA-backed Batista dictatorship. In the spirit of South American guerilla tactics, standing against a far superior foe (or, a foe backed by superior forces), I seen it fit that the unique ability for this country should be that of tunnels. As such, it is possible to build underground tunnels which can be used to smuggle infantry stealthily behind enemy lines, or merely as a means to hide. This unique ability is limited in terms of amount of tunnels and entrances that can be built per player (after all, tunnels in real life do require much time and effort to build!), so don’t expect to shift a hundred troops at once through a small tunnel (or a parade of tanks)! The use, and types of tunnels *may* be expanded in future releases. As an introduction, it is possible to order a tunnel entrance to be made (near your base), but then to build the other end of the tunnel as it were, you will then have the option to build a utility vehicle, which you may send out (to deploy a hidden entrance/exit). The way it works ingame is units enter into a tunnel entrance, then you may order them out of either tunnel end. This can be very highly beneficial if done correctly. It is mostly useful to human players; I have preliminarily taught the AI to use them, but their use will be of course limited (though may improve in the future).

For demonstrative purposes, here is a real-life example of such a utility vehicle I’ve loosely modelled the tunnel-deployer vehicle on ingame;

Here is how this system works as seen in screen shots;

Sexy Overhaul Of Aircraft

One of the things I’ve been wanting to get round to doing the most, is finally focusing on getting the majority of aircraft to bank (that is, to ‘roll’) correctly when turning, plus in general making their behaviour more realistic. Some aircraft already did bank, whereas others flew level all the time even when turning; this has now been addressed. Flight characteristics of aircraft have also been adjusted so that they more smoothly turn; especially during dogfights, and evading missiles. Furthermore, I have visually overhauled many aircraft so that they look more realistic. I have also added a new aircraft; the Su-24 (Fencer) attack aircraft, which is an older workhorse of Soviet/CSTO countries (though is still used and modernised today).

Here is the Su-24 in real life;

And modelled & flying in game;

Other model overhauls

After overhauling many aircraft, I ended up taking another look at the Msta-S and PLZ-05 self-propelled artillery pieces, and decided to give them a remodel, making them more inline with their real-life counterparts.

Msta-S;

Msta-S in game;

PLZ-05;

PLZ-05 in game;

New Superweapon

Firstly, before talking about the new superweapon I’ve added, I’ll give a little background. I found an epic new nuclear blast animation which I have now made use of, thanks to ‘ppap11404’ from PPM. This new animation now supersedes the explosions used for the nuclear missile superweapon, as well as the nuclear strike available via the Tu-160. It is a massive, more realistic blast, and to reflect that, I increased the blast area of effect by 20%, which is a decision I did not take lightly, given the nuclear strike is the single most powerful weapon in the game. This immediately made me look at the available Allied/NATO faction superweapons (for balance purposes). Their weather storm superweapon, while not as outright powerful, is indeed longer-lasting, and has a wider area of effect. And after all, one would never expect bad weather to ever compare to a nuclear blast. Then there is the Chronosphere superweapon, which if used right can be very overly powerful in itself, yet when both added together seemed lacking compared to the 2 main Soviet/CSTO superweapons. So I decided, ‘I know, I’ll give them a New superweapon’. So I did. So now, if you play as an Allied/NATO faction member, and build an Advanced Airforce Research Facility (and presumably you play a game with Superweapons enabled), you will be able to request a Chemical Bomb Strike. Once you designate a target, two B-2 bombers will be dispatched, each carrying a powerful chemical payload, the blast of which will have an area effect that deals damage over a period of time. This will appear as a thick, poisonous chemical vapour, the animations for which I also implemented courtesy of ‘ppap11404’, also from PPM. Do bear in mind, that such a strike is not guaranteed; heavy air defences Can shoot down the bombers! Their chances are multiplied if used in conjunction with say, the parabomb superweapon(s), or general air and land unit attacks. Just try not to get your units caught up in such an indiscriminate weapon’s blast. As inspiration for this superweapon, I recalled that the U.S. still hasn’t destroyed all of their chemical weapons stockpiles (unlike Russia, which used to have the largest such stockpile in the world, until it’s stockpile was verified destroyed in 2017), and has no problem when terrorist proxies use them such as in Syria (only to then blame and attack the victim). Also, for those of you whom may miss the ‘old’ nuke animation, don’t worry; it is still used when certain facilities are destroyed. I also made a unique chemical bomb animation that gets parachuted from the B-2’s.

Chemical bombs dropped;

Chemical bomb strike;

Fixes

I’m sure I fixed/improved various other things, but I struggle to keep track… But I assure you they did happen!

Miscellaneous:

Last but not least, the mysterious Miscellaneous changes; various light debugging, and neatening of code/files has been done, as per usual, and of course I had to teach the AI how to use the new assets.

I sincerely hope wherever you are playing from, that you enjoy the new additions, as well as all the stuff from previous versions. As always, have fun!

Command & Conquer Westwood Fans
Red Alert 2 YR: New Horizons
C&C: Yuri's Revenge
C&C: Red Alert 2