SiRaLeX

Well, Deso-Miner-Push is a tactic too, most definitely. I've used it often enough. In fact, I'd wager to say I've used it more often than Deso-Apoc-Push. The problem is, miners are even more useless than apocs. So when there's no ore left, a RaNk #1 player uses his miners to push some desos with them. As said, desos don't hurt miners but they do hurt apocs. If the miners die - it's not a big deal, as you don't need them anymore once all the ore was mined. But if your sitting duck apocs die, it is a big deal because they are part of your army and you lose $ 1750 (they are expensive as fuck). Deso apoc push is a weak tactic and can be defeated, easily. That being said, when I was at my peak, I did use deso-apoc-pushes, in fact, even in final games for RaNk #1 (3-0 against Marko, I remember one of those games was deso-apoc that obliterated him). But my control was good enough to be able to push through against drones and anything RaNk #2 was able to throw at me at the time. Nowadays, my control is trash. Nonetheless, I don't recommend your average player to try apoc-deso.

That's weird, mate. I've never seen that. To hell with Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. I guess that only happens if you're running full-screen? But running full-screen breaks ALT-TAB compatibility for YR in those operating systems, anyway, so people are forced to use windowed mode. Anyways, you could try passing the window handle when getting the display context.

You don't need to modify the RA2 or YR executable to take screenshots of it. Not at all. You can take screenshots of the games just like you can take screenshots of the desktop (and pretty much anything else).

In my humble opinion, the best anti-cheat you can create or at least add is to add mandatory automatic screenshots for ranked games that are played on the ladders. There's really no going around it and if someone tries, then it's just a matter of time before they get caught. So that being said, by this definition, strong algorithm, there really wouldn't be a need to keep CnCNet closed source and whoever wanted to could contribute and help you, Rampa. The problem with XWIS at the moment is that there's a lot of disconnecting going on and a player who keeps ban dodging and using the control-opponents-units cheat. Often times the admins don't react quickly enough or adequately. Olaf is slow at implementing anti-cheating features. So if you get this done and consequently ban cheaters when they do these things in ranked games you will definitely have the edge over XWIS.

Maybe you should think about an automatic screenshot uploader for ranked ladder games, like Olaf has. Nonetheless, Rampastring and Tore, I respect you guys for your honesty and devotion, you're the guys that really make this site special.

I agree, man. Security shouldn't be defined by whether the code is open source or not. As soon as you're releasing your work it all boils down to simple physics, if the computer is able to read it a dedicated enough human will be, as well (albeit, it will be a little bit harder). If your code is open source, then honest people can help. If your code is not open source, then honest people can't help. In any case, your code not being open source doesn't really stop malicious people from abusing it. You're just hampering honest people's ability to help you. Olaf's auto screenshot uploader was never open source, in any kind or way, yet, I've abused it to flood XWIS with pornographic images en masse and it took me 2 minutes to figure out how. Honestly, if you have any sort or kind of education at all, you'd know that security is not defined by whether an algorithm is public, but by whether the algorithm is well designed and secure to begin with. In fact, the most secure encryption algorithms are all public. Things you hack up yourself, as obscure as they might be, will always lose to a tried and proven public encryption algorithm. Good game.

Nah, the game menus are from 2000 and clumsy af.

Desolators hurt apocs. Apocs get droned and you have a $ 1750 damage. I'd go as far as saying they are near useless in Sov vs Sov matchups. They can only ever work in Sov vs Ally, but Rhinos work in this case too. Only in combination with Desolators. Guess what happens when the Desolators die? Yep, the Apocs get butt raped by the Alied Army. In fact, they do worse than Rhino Tanks. Useless unit is useless. There's a reason nobody ever makes them. HINT: Apocs are very slow and they don't shoot while moving. Your opponent can make 3 drones (1500 $) for each of your apocs (1750 $) and he just has to get 1 in and you will be down $$$-wise.

Agreed. Exactly! Seems like you guys are heading into a wrong direction. As long as you're not not open but closed source, I can't help but regard you as a for-profit-organization (which you are) and hence can only offer you my help setting up ladder infrastructure (for RA2/YR) in exchange for $$$.

Sounds like a killer tactic. Has nothing to do with real, competitive, skills, though.

Yes, but how much faster do 2 war factories build compared to just 1?

Well, 12 harvesters for 1 player is definitely too much. First of all, miners cost money. A harvester costs 1400$, so if you have 12, then you've spent 16800$ on a unit which you can't really use to fight with (you can buy a lot of tanks for this money). I don't need to mention that more harvesters mine more money in the same time than less harvesters. But you have to take into account that more harvesters will deplete an ore patch faster and will end up mining sand when the ore patch is empty. Anyway, as a rule of thumb - in 2v2 matches (depends on map and rushing or not rushing) each player should have at least 3 miners. Some swear by 5 miners (that's the point at which they sell MCV for + 3000$). In competitive play, a player having 6 miners or more is quite rare. In 1v1, well, again at least 3 miners and depending on map you can get 4 miners. I'd say in 1v1 having 5 miners is useless, if you already have 5 then make a 6th. Now, you really shouldn't have more than 6 miners on all except the largest maps. On a very large map in 1v1 you can get up to 7, perhaps 8 miners but that's it. Never get more than 8 miners unless you really, really know what you're doing (it's generally not worth it on all but the largest of the largest maps, creates too much trouble managing miners, depletes ore patches too quickly, you can't build an army if you're busy pumping out 1400$ units)... Just my advice, I've only been 5 times RaNk #1 on XWIS Red Alert 2.

Hey Cory! They don't currently have anyone with the expertise to modify the game in such a way as to dump the game results from network games into a text file. Which is what they need to do, in order to get that ladder up. I could do it, and I offered to do it for them but I'd charge a hefty fee (my working time isn't free).

I am a "top pro" and I say that Allied > Soviet on RA2. That's assuming that you have two equally skilled players. Of course a "top pro" Soviet player will always defeat a "noob" Allied player on RA2, but when it's two "top pro" players versing each other, then the Allied player has the edge. And again, you're forgetting about the price. What does a Battle Fortress cost, $ 2000? I can tell you that 5 Rhinos cost a whooping $ 4500.

Braindamage confirmed. LMFAO!

In RA2, Rhino Tanks build slower than Grizzly Tanks (because they cost 200 $ less). So I guess Westwood realized that sovs were underpowered in RA2 and made them stronger in YR with tanks building at same speed and the Industrial Plant (which makes tanks cost less).

Apocalypse costs $ 1750 Kirov costs $ 2000 It is to be expected that they will have stronger armor. But they are slow as fuck. Apocalypse gets shredded by Mirage Tanks and badly outranged by Prism Tanks. How about that?

I've never seeen an Ivan Bomb planted on a Terror Drone. Might not even be possible.

I have several XWIS Red Alert 2 rank #1s, so it's okay, honey. I know what I'm talking about. Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9qnRu2sx2o This was played when my skill level was at its peak. I had killed all of my opponents buildings (except a power plant and radar). Then left for half an hour or so, let my miners collect $$$. You can see me planning a massive attack and eventually winning with a so called "flak bomb".

Crazy Ivan is poor, compared to Tanya. He can't even shoot, but suicides with a bomb when deathly injured. His bombs aren't as powerful as Tanyas, but he can plant bombs on Tanks and hence kill a tank or two. Unlike Tanya he's able to plant a bomb on Oil Derricks and move away, because his bombs don't detonate immediately like Tanya's do. Tanya planting a bomb on an Oil Derrick kills her. That being said, Tanya can kill any building immediately whereas Crazy Ivan can merely blow up simpler buildings, like barracks, air force command and battle lab with one bomb. Also his bombs can be defused by an engineer. I occasionally use him to blow up bridges, but again, unlike Tanya it takes a while before the bridge blows up... Showing once again, how underpowered the soviet army is compared to allied.

This is quite funny wrong forums, perhaps?

Ranked competition does, indeed, attract cheating. No-one can dispute that. I can guarantee that as soon as a game gets its ladder you will have people firing up their OllyDBG, WinDBG and IDAPro's, creating new cheats or modifying old cheats to work again. This is, as always, at the cost of the casual fair-player like myself. Who will then get "GG OwN3d, eazy". But that's not to say that I think competition is not viable. I do believe competition is possible. What has to be put in place before competition can thrive, though, is a proper anti-cheat with definite 100 % cheat detection and that's not an easy task. Before you have this, don't even bother with competition, you'll only be driving away players. I'd be willing to help you out, I'm a developer, I have created cheats in the past (the most destructive cheat for competition ever made for RA2 & YR), but I wouldn't help out for free either, sorry, time is money, but you know that already.

Who merged these two topics? Anyways, eating my after GYM meal... 4 McDonald's Cheezebgurgers. :rolleyes: Listening to... Rise Against - Life Less Frightening

Hey Friends, Let's this be a fun topic about what you are eating, right now! Right now, I'm eating "Sushi Box - Naniwa" purchased in my local LIDL. 4 x Hosamaki (2 with raw salmon, 2 with green pepper). 2 x Nigri (1 with raw salmon, 1 with cooked shrimp). 1 x California roll with surimi (fake crab) . The fish bottle has soy sauce in it. The green bag is wasabi paste. The clear bag is chopped up ginger. Wasn't bad, but too little fish and too much rice for my tastes. That salmon slice on top of that rice block looks way bigger than it was (it was very thin and so was the shrimp).

You might quite possibly be the best programmer ever, for all I know.