Release 1 Public Beta is GO! news - Red Alert 3 Paradox mod for C&C: Red Alert 3

If you haven't noticed (and it's pretty hard not to), we've released an open beta of the first release. As of this writing it has not been authorized on ModDB, but it has been uploaded to FileFront as well. The latest release, patch 0.91, is only avaliable here!

Along with a slight site re-design and the creation of a website dedicated to the mod, we've also come up with a couple of promo videos for your entertainment :D

The Features

- A whole brand new faction to play with: The Confederate Revolutionaries.
- Two new buildings and 2 dozen new units for the Allied Nations.
- Dogfighting and directional armour mechanics.
- Veteran status abilities and retextures of many Vanilla RA3 units.

What's Missing

- Infantry for the Allies.
- Several new units for both sides are missing.
- Unit voices.
- Some new unit cameos and ability icons.
- Confederate Superweapons.
- Confederate Top Secret Protocols.
- Confederate UI.
- Collapse models for most units.
- Unit information videos.

Why is it missing?

- Infantry aren't in-game yet due to the sheer amount of work it takes to make them. There's something along the lines of 114 animations per infantry unit in the original game, and while we've been working diligently, we decided that using infantry placeholders that functioned properly were better than no infantry at all. We'll replace the infantry placeholders with the proper models as we complete them.
- In some cases, we've run into problems with units we added to the game. Often they don't attack properly, their secondaries don't work, the animations associated with the model gave us problems, etc. While we were in development, we focused on units that were absolutely essential, so that the build we released would be as balanced as possible.
- In some cases, we don't have unit scripts for some units, but the majority of unit voices have been recorded. A lot of people were surprised that the mod was so small - this is because the voices have not been put in-game. They won't be put into any of the betas, but will be featured in the first release.
- Unit cameos and abilities are in-progress, and the majority of them have been completed, but our coders did not have time to put them in. They aren't exactly game-breaking.
- Superweapons are modeled, coded, and have been delayed to some game-breaking issues with them.
- Protocols apparently aren't possible to implement, but we've been trying some workarounds with no success AS OF YET. Though we haven't tried everything.
- The modding community that has any experience with the Red Alert 3 Sage engine has been extremely unhelpful regarding the HUD and UI for the Confederate faction. Implementing them may or may not be possible, we would really appreciate any information regarding this.
- Collapse models aren't exactly game-breaking. They are more or less a graphical thing and are therefore lower-priority.
- See above regarding the unit videos. After all, we have a wiki for detailed information on every unit ever, so we might not ever get around to these videos.

Community Response

We've found that there are many commenters who say they are disappointed with what we've released. Most of these people seem to be newcomers rather than the dedicated fans who have helped us along the way, so in some cases they might be misinformed. However, the trend seems to be the following issues:

- Can't install the mod.
- Expected there to be 8 factions in the First Release Public Beta.
- Expected there to be voices, proper unit icons and abilities, collapse models and other graphical elements in the game.
- Expected all units for the factions to be in-game and functional.

I'll note that only the final complaint actually resonates with us, as the first two are answered by reading the Readme file included in the RAR, or by reading the FAQ and the third complaint has no effect on actual gameplay.

Our Response to the Response

Our philosophy while developing this mod has always been transparency and open-ness to the community. As soon as we finished a model, we uploaded images of it to ModDB or our wiki. We provided two polished mini-mods as a proof-of-concept to show the community that we had something worth their time and becoming a fan of (especially since most Red Alert 3 mods come and go with no content released whatsoever).

So, we decided a few months ago that we would release more content on a specific date - which is usually a no-no (we release content when it's done). Sure, everything might not be completely finished, but by the date, we had accomplished 90% of what we wanted to do and produced a functional product as a chance for the community to weigh in on the new faction's gameplay.

Right now, we are STILL the only Red Alert 3 mod with ANY new content added to the game WHATSOEVER. And we've accomplished this with absolutely no budget and within just over a year from the release of the software development kit. We are terribly under-staffed and inexperienced, and I am very surprised we have made it so far and our team hasn't collapsed (as is common with so many mods).

So, when people say we are disappointed with the content we have produced... Personally, I am not offended. It's mostly that the newcomers are uneducated, and hopefully they can still become fans if they desire to learn more. If not, then we won't waste time worrying about them.

We're giving people a chance to get their talent at playing Paradox showcased on our weekly Paradoxcast. Send us your replays, or post them on the forums, and we'll show off the best games on Sundays at 8pm -5 GMT. We're really looking forward to seeing some awesome matches and creativity of Red Alert 3 players out there.

I'd also like to mention that our unofficial meeting place for playing games in Red Alert 3 Paradox is in Casual 17, so stop by if you want to play against actual people, or to team-compstomp with Paradox units.

Finally, I would like to give a huge thanks to all the people who HAVE been supportive of us and continue to be our fans. You guys are the people we're releasing content for, and it's the reason why we have a "content is better than no-content" mentality. We hope you enjoy our beta, and we also hope you help us out by sharing your opinions on the beta on our forum.

Sincerely,
Ferriswheel42, on behalf of the Paradox Team.

THIS JUST IN:
We have a new installer that will automatically set up the mod files for you (not that it was difficult to begin with). Just extract the folder in the RAR to the desktop with WINRAR, and place the installer inside the folder. A double-click on the installer should start the process automatically.

Installer can be downloaded from FileFront:

32-Bit
Gamefront.com(32-bit).exe

64-Bit
Gamefront.com(64-bit).exe