It's here, a release I have very much been looking forward to do; New Horizons Version 8.A.
Key Changes:
Artillery
Artillery systems now have a range advantage greater reflecting their capabilities in real life (scaled down approximately in RA2 terms). Some units are also accompanied by appropriate reload time increases, such as MLRS's. This allows for a more strategic gameplay.
Unit Overhauls
The Allied/NATO 'Grizzly' tank has now been replaced by the real life counterpart so to speak in New Horizons, and is now the M60A3 Patton; besides the Abrams, this is perhaps the main tank of NATO's armies, and is the main tank in the 2nd largest army of any NATO member state (Turkey). Additionally, the Allied/NATO rocket buggy has had an overhaul, and is now modelled after the one based in another game of the CnC franchise (I forget which exactly, Generals I think), complete with a turret (credit directly to cxtian39 for uploading this on PPM).
Environmental Concerns
Yes! That's right, New Horizon's has just gone green... Sort of. The original game had 36 types of trees/bushes, but One of them (for reasons unknown), was broken. Up to this point I have left the environment alone (from the original game), so I assume it was a bug from the original game. The tree in question was invisible in all maps, but I have now modified and fixed it so that it displays. Also, if you consider that some trees are only meant for certain environments (e.g. a cactus in a desert), then in reality a map has less than 36 tree varieties to play with, and so by restoring this one I have saved up to between 5-10% of the environment... Heroic, I know.
Music
Fans of this mod may appreciate the fact that in previous versions I have included a vast extension of music tracks, from various other games of the same franchise. This time I have added music from a legendary game which is now unfortunately abandoneware, that of Warzone 2100. This was perhaps the greatest strategy game of all time, not just for the amazing strategic gameplay, or the fact you could control each individual unit in 3rd person if you wanted, or that you could design units, or even the fact it was 3D; this game had a truly outstanding soundtrack. I have now added it in NH. WZ2100 was an amazing game, available on the PS1, as well as on PC (in fact it is now an open-source game available for PC!). Credit to the original composer; Martin Severn, for these 3 fantastic tracks.
Miscellaneous
Wow, I can't believe I knew how to spell that, but yes, there are Miscellaneous other changes for you to enjoy, such as the fact that in creating the load screen for the 1st new campaign mission I accidentally screwed the load screen for the new country of Belarus in Skirmish mode, and that has now been fixed. Also the campaign mission has been enhanced, the AI has been tweaked, oh and the Soviet/CSTO faction now has a mobile recovery vehicle to supplement the lighter, now slower-repairing repair drones. Enjoy.
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