cn2mc

Such a dolt that chem. How can you know if it's a unique playing experience? Literally nobody has played the map, I only posted a pic.

The nuke and ion cannon can be combined with flyers and other attacks to pretty much the same effect. I really don't see an issue with having a single plane airstrike available every couple of minutes and being forced to keep your comm. centre up and running to have it. But I'll also say this again: I'm against all changes that are not bug or issue fixes, so there you go. Map specific mods? Sure, when we can eventually do that.

Eh, one or maybe even two planes should be OK, I wouldn't call that insane. You can also move men and light units out if you get a warning like you get for the nuke. I'm pretty sure there's even a recorded EVA line in the .mix files for incoming planes that is never used.

That doesn't work with TD as it does with RA. It's very possible in theory, but the implementation of working .ini rules in TD is not so certain, and it's certainly not happening soon. 99% of the discussions in topics such as this one are on an 'in theory only' basis. You can scout what you need to scout with helis by leapfrogging too. And also there's the bug where you get to see part of the opposite edge of the map when you build too close to yours. Only works horizontally, I think. The point I wanted to make but actually didn't is that you can move your AA as the air attack comes, or you can just place your AA a square or two away from the important buildings and not right beside them. That way, if they didn't get initially scouted you can keep them hidden.

The A-10 doesn't scout. Enemy units firing at it from the ground reveal the terrain.

Plane units in C&C cannot land like helicopters, and modding the A-10 to be a heli screws up the way it throws bombs. So, no. You can't have it as a unit. Potentially an airstrike, activated like the nuke or ion cannon, might be possible to hack in. If sometime someone does that, I'd say 1 plane. Maxed out airstrikes with 3 planes, as White says, are kind of overkill, because they can blow up a CY and neither the nuke or ion canon can do that in multi.

GDI: 1 - humvees, 2 - tanks, 3 - men, 4 - orcas, 5 - chinook/apc, 6 - cargo. Possibly another team for defensive infantry (I've got q set to a team instead of 0). Sometimes both 2 and 3 will be tanks and men, sometimes I'll attach APCs to 1. It varies. Nod: 1 - buggies, 2 - bikes, 3 - tanks and/or men, 4, 5, 6 - as above, probably, I rarely play Nod. I set special teams for scouting stealths. Each gets its own team if they're not moving together.

Nice. The road markings on the original pic look thicker though, and at 1 pixel yours kind of screw with the details of the rest of the bridge, which are awesomely done. If making them thicker doesn't work, you can always get rid of the markings altogether. Kilk, I'm 100% sure the A-10 has been done years ago, probably by Nyer.

The classic tank rushes look similar, but the 1st factory comes earlier and the 2nd can also come before your 3rd ref. That is, if you get 3 refs at all and not sell your CY. Of course, this is because most original maps have little tiberium. For GDI, 3 refs first, with added spare power and barracks is pretty much OK for a high econ map. The best part of it is you don't give Nod a real target early by delaying the WF. With Nod your main concern is probably having the economy to feed your 2 strips, so I guess go for 4 refs before the 2nd one? You have to be careful not to overextend. Having a 2nd strip and not benefiting from it because you've spent all your cash on refs is bad. Usually you will lose one of your strips that way. Generally, with both factions, having less refs but more cash when your 2nd factory comes up gives you better odds of defending said factory and turning it into an advantage.

The trick is to force the bazookas out and then find a way to kill them. Else you might end up losing your apaches, or being seriously limited in their use, while GDI retains their men. So you're now behind in cash and ground units, you lost your air advantage, and GDI has an even stronger defence because of the rocket men, and possibly an orca.

The threat of apaches means less cash in general and less base building time for your opponent because he needs more barracks to defend, and that delays his build. A good player, like I pointed out in another thread, will not overproduce bazookas though. He'll just have the barracks ready and will keep an eye on you to check if you're building pads. The apache is a very good unit, but really a hard choice for Nod - it's worth 5 buggies or 3 bikes. And if you don't make it worth at least as much, you're behind. Building one at the start can a) kill scouts; b) force some barracks and bazookas out if the enemy thinks you're going for a rush; c) damage harvs and generally harass; d) transition into a 2nd and possibly 3rd apache and start doing some serious damage. Apaches are not good against tanks, but they do deal a fair amount of damage to harvesters, so if the factories and CY are out of reach they're prime targets. One apache is a mosquito, but two can get a harv down to yellow. What I'm saying is: apaches build quickly and you don't really need to commit. Build one, use it, see how it goes, rinse, repeat. And then, as White says, if you have the cash, build some more.

Or shoot the stacked guys. When infantry are on the move they tend to stack on top of each other in the squares they pass until they reach their destination. This way you can do 2 kills with 1 shot, even with a no-spread weapon like the commando's rifle.

Two separately controlled helis is doable, but a very serious commitment both in cash and micro. Might just as well go for 3 and a base bust. The biggest problem with apaches is the large ammo load and the way TD's air units are controlled. Firing at a stream of men running towards your base and constantly having to retarget the apache to keep it in the air and dealing damage is much more tasking than sending out 2-3 orcas to snipe a tank. 1 click vs. a dozen. Being an almost exclusively GDI player, I do, very rarely, use two teams of orcas. That's either if I'm short on pads because I lost my CY and I can rotate the reloading easier, or I just have so many orcas that having them all in one group is overkill.

Ya, no, you can't really have 3 apache groups and switch them up, and target individual men, unless you play at slower speeds. Sounds good on paper, but you really get swamped. So if you go for that, better build 1 apache and make it pay for itself and force out bazookas, etc. The MLRS is no real threat to orca/apache.

OK then: AGT builds are not uncomfortable or hard for GDI. Bazookas are. And with Nod, you can only force those out with apaches. Otherwise, you described pretty much the only two possible ways to use apaches - knockout rush and single heli harass.

So, you give yourself 4 answers, and then ask the question? Point?

Build orders are only related to the strategy you choose to open up with, not with anything else. If you can stick to your strategy or your opponent manages to throw a wrench in it, that's another question. But generally, most of the 'big decisions' are usually made before you even get a decent scout in. So no. No such thing as an optimal BO. Space and amount of resources on the map will at most squeeze in an additional refinery in whatever you're doing. On your other question: some of the most devastating rushes are in fact 2fact or 2strip + sell CY. The trick is to hide you're doing it until you can just roll the enemy over even in a trade. The moment he sees the sell, he knows, even if he can't see the second factory or your entire army, so it's best pulled off if he hasn't scouted your CY.

I'm pretty sure the client supports both folder-based and name-based search currently, so it's a matter of simple file arrangement. Just slap an 'official' tag on the maps or create a 'CnCnet approved' folder or something. The bigger problem, as was pointed out in other threads, is the actual selection. This is also one of the topics that regularly come up and find no real solution, but yes, the system where everybody can publish an infinite number of maps and variants thereof is indeed turning out to be a bad option. Maybe have the client keep 'approved' maps up and clear the custom folder once in a while like a cache, IDK. Also, the fact that maps get crazy names when downloaded in the CnCNet folders doesn't help with the manual weeding out of unnecessary ones.

Yes, to me full or almost full mech. seems to be the way to go once Nod get enough SSMs. Of course, on more open maps you'd still want infantry roaming about and chasing off bikes and buggies that try to flank you and stuff. Regarding X3M's comment: I'm not trying to deny anybody their fun. I was just pointing out that this topic has been discussed a lot in the past with basically the same propositions and the same results, i.e. nobody even tried it. It would be more fun to actually do these easy mods and try them out by using hamachi, old cncnet4 (if the server still works that way) or some other alternative. Then the topic can also be constructive, because you can report back and say 'we changed so and so, and got this and this result.' It just doesn't seem to me like a right thing to do, to involve the developers and potentially the entire community in the testing of these changes when in fact all you need is a few skilled players to do it (which are apparently available). Otherwise, I have nothing against this discussion or the joy it brings people, as you see I even actively participate. It's just that it keeps going around in circles. I'll do my bid: I've always said that a) allowing helicopters to be targeted in flight, or b) at least giving the player the ability to set them to guard mode, like the AI can, will fix a lot of early GDI apache problems. b) seems realistic, a) not so much.

Oh, the MLRS (like AGTs) is almost completely useless vs. GDI, another tank would be better to have. It's going to suck for Nod because GDI would be able to do pushes with no/little infantry.

cue openra

MRLS at radar would be OP for GDI. Also, the topic is not progressive. As I said, it's repetitive.

Starcraft is a geat game, but it took half of the concepts from C&C. I'd like it if everybody stopped bringing up starcraft and their great knowledge of game design, which amounts to posts in forums, and just played. This is the I-don't-even-know-which time we had this thread. My answer is always the same. I'd not change a thing. If anyone else wants to change C&C: make a mod. Play.

In practice though you kind of have two tanks by the time they come. And men.