A new mod - Command and Conquer: Civil Warfare

[Jacko]

In case you ever wanted something different to do, over the weekend, or on cncnet, or in general, I have a solution for you.

I have rebuilt and restructured my old mod which basically required a separate installation of RA (a bit inconvenient).

 

It tells the story of a country (basically a scaled down version of Europe) and how its Royal Family, who were once treasured by the people, were cast out and banished by parliament and its generals, and how they sought revenge on those who betrayed them.

The 'countries' that you can choose are actually the main counties/states of the nation.

 

You have the two armies - The Allied People's Army (APA - Allies) vs The Royal Black Hole Army (BHA - Soviets)

 

Both of these factions are totally different from the other.

 

The APA use conventional tactics and weapons that have been tried and tested for many years, thus they are stable, simple and averagely powered.

The BHA, however, use many discarded and prototype technologies that were either a bit ineffective, expensive, or were simply deemed too dangerous to use by the APA. A lot of their weapons are derived from flame or tesla weaponry.

 

The Goal of the APA overall is to protect civilians from attack of any nature, and to ensure the defense of the nation.

The Goal of the BHA however is to assume control of the country as part of their grand plan for global domination, where civilians and soldiers are generally seen as expendable.

 

The question remains, who will you choose to lead to glory, the fate of the world is in your hands.

 

Current Version - v0.95

 

Here is a beginners map pack containing an important readme and the source rules.ini. When you open the file you need to paste the maps into your Cncnet5  Custom Maps folder, in your RA directory -> Maps.

Good Luck everyone!

Jackos_Mod_Map_Pack_v095.rar

[Jacko]

The two armies work in different ways. This is close to a cross between GDI vs NOD and Allies vs Soviets. Either way it isn't the same so don't treat it that way.

 

The APA have good basic units that are at medium strength and can often win them battles before major casualties being to appear.

However the BHA begin with simple light scout units and face a tough start to battles. However their new flagship unit, the mammoth tank, as well as their tesla weaponry, can be deployed lategame to crush enemies when their morale is low.

 

The tech tree is also designed to work in 2 or 3 ways:

 

- Seperate technologies for Units and Structures, you may choose to turtle high-powered buildings or units, works like a double tech tree.

- Expensive buildings, so spamming buildings everywhere is a costly but often effective business

- Cheaper Light units and infantry, for scouting and small skirmishes, note that dogs now could form part of your strategy.

 

Other things to pay attention to:

 

-Nukes

Nukes are now a 1-hit kill to ANYTHING, thats right even a large army of mammoth tanks could be routed by a single nuke, but to counter this the waiting time for a nuke is a very long time. (it's a nuke not a little crap bomb)

 

-Engineers

Engineers are an instant capture to buildings, if you see an engineer within a group of enemy infantry, its a good idea to hit him first.

 

-Aircraft

Helicopters are a little bit less efficient in the mod, due to AA being unlocked after barracks, and come separately with helipads (i.e. you get an empty helipad). No airfields are currently in the mod, so no migs/yaks but I may work them in later.

 

Here are the bonuses for each county/state:

Allies - APA

 

England have elite units which are faster and more powerful, but are more expensive to deploy

 

France have units with much better armour but are slower

 

Spain produce cheaper units quickly but they are less powerful

 

Turkey operate cheaper units with a higher rate of fire, but they are slower and deal less damage per shot.

 

Both Greece and Germany do not get bonuses, as they are classed as the 'regular army'

 

Soviet - BHA

 

Russia does not get a bonus, as they are classed as the 'typical deployment unit'

 

Ukraine have faster and faster building units that do less damage

[Jacko]

Here we can see some sneak-peek footage of Lovehandles and I testing it out, thanks again to lovehandles for streaming and posting this to youtube.

 

Game 1: I was playing as the APA and Lovehandles as the BHA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3jE1LZ8QJY

 

Game 2: Another battle but this time we switched factions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3jE1LZ8QJY

 

A lot of the features can be found in these videos, but it's also worth noting some large balancing and game changes have already been made since.

[Jacko]

Already quick updates! v0.86 has now been released.

 

Fixed a major bug and a couple of balancing issues:

 

-Gap generator has been removed due to the fact the game crashes as soon as you build one (no Idea why)

-Stealth Tank missiles have had their damage and rate of fire dropped massively after someone 3 shot a conyard with one

-Stealth tanks are now more expensive (800 -> 1000 ) and have slightly less hp (200 -> 175)

-Rocket Launchers have had their weapon changed to what he rocket box uses, after I noticed I was using the wrong warhead type, also its range is less and does slightly less damage

 

These are the updates for v0.86, get more players and we can get more updates for v0.87

[Jacko]

More updates guys! This is a big update, so instead of going to v0.87 I may have jumped to v0.9 instead (not that it means anything to you guys anyway)

 

A large amount of playtesting has discovered a large number of balance and gameplay issues

This includes:

- Economy

- The Speed at which stuff moved (particularly for the BHA)

- Game Time and powerup timers

- A couple of rearranged tech prerequisites

- Stationary Base Defenses

 

Economy: Most Vehicles are now around 20-30% more expensive, with some rising more or less than that region (due to gameplay balancing) Ore logic remains the same with 700 per 28 'bails' of ore and 1400 for gems. Most buildings remain the same price

 

Unit Speeds: I feel Mammoth tanks, Flame Tanks and Stealth Tanks were too fast and have been slowed, whereas I thought Medium/Heavy tanks, rangers, Artillery and transports were moving too slowly, and have been sped up.

 

Powerup times: Nuke timer has been reduced by 20%, as has GPS and Iron Curtain.

 

A couple of tech requirement changes: Stealth Tanks now require the Unit Tech Centre and Flame Tank now requires a radar dome and a flame turret.

 

Stationary Base defenses: The costs and tech requirements of each defense are all the same as before, but power requirements have been raised so that a player has to be careful about spamming them.

[Jacko]

A few players have been confused by the tech tree recently - and I think I should elaborate on what I mean by 'double tech tree'

 

So I put together these png files showing you the building and unit prerequisites, to help you out.

 

Note the Bio Lab unlocks fancy buildings, whilst the other tech centre is used to unlock heavier units. This is important for the BHA, because they simply cannot keep going on just light tanks

 

NOTE: The Camo Pillbox Icon represents the 'Rocket Box' which is basically like an advanced guard tower from tiberian dawn.

[brandonvortex]

is this mod already alivable to download?

[Jacko]

not at the moment but soon I will upload the source rules.ini for everyone to use.

For now you can only get it on a few converted maps on cncnet5

[brandonvortex]

oh i see thanks

[Jacko]

Hey Guys sorry for the long wait, I have had a visit to the LHC in Cern, and done some college related stuff.

But I've uploaded a basic map-pack and the source rules.ini for everyone to use, you can convert your own maps.

See the top post.

[brandonvortex]

outstanding map really satisfied playing this, some units from Tiberian dawn , prety much the alliied have a pretty heavy tech while soviets have some low tech on their side, but still deadly

[AchromicWhite]

OMGWTF. You're name is my response to your comment.

Chill bro.

  -Liam

[Jacko]

I had people play it

I didn't give it enough time or push it on the lobby enough to get people interested much

[Karpet]

Are you illiterate? No, wait, I know. You are.

 

"it tells the story of a country (basically a scaled down version of Europe)"

 

If you are going to troll, at least try not to look like a retard while doing so, but your name already tells me what kind of person you are: a lonely troll.

[AchromicWhite]

OMGFTW, please don't troll on this website. We have a nice community that respects each other. Please don't ruin that.

If you have a problem with Jacko, deal with it elsewhere.

  -Liam

[Mussuy]

Hey Jacko, I like your mod. Sounds really interesting. I've seen that you've made a tech chain similar to the one that C&C3 has, which I find dynamic and refreshing. 

 

I have a question regarding the gameplay: Does the difference between the Heavy Tank and the Medium Tank justify that tech investment? RA Heavy tank is very similar to the medium tank both in terms of damage output and hit points, and the graphic appearance. I suppose you have altered the Heavy Tank stats already, but have you given it a different appearance changing its .shp? Changing the chassis would be enough.

 

In case you don't want to change the Heavy Tank appearance, maybe switching late tanks between factions could solve the problem; Light Tank > Heavy Tank Vs Med. Tank > Mammoth Tank.

 

Either way, good job!

 

 

[Jacko]

Whether not investing the money in the tech justifies having heavy tanks (it remains to be tested), there are a couple other units that are unlocked by said technology, so its still worth having. The heavy tank stats are supposed to sacrifice a tiny amount of speed for what is basically double firepower, but the difference between cost in terms of medium to heavy is actually quite low (med is 1000, heavy is 1400), so if you want to save money later in the game Heavy tanks are the way to go.

 

I used the C&C1 shps for the Medium tank because they looked better and also to try and reference to the fact that a Heavy tank was just a redesigned Medium with an extra cannon on board.

 

I also want to stick with the current vehicle layout because this "main tank" layout structure is what the entire mod was built on. It does work quite similarly with C&C3, which I liked a lot, and it often forces players to tech up to allow more elaborate strategies. Getting the balance right between pricings and effects is hard, but the Mammoth tank is supposed to be crazy powerful to make up for the fact you don't have that many of them.

 

The lack of interchangability and inability to add new units means creating the complete custom scenario I wanted is quite hard.

[Nyerguds]

I removed some of OMGWTF's posts. As White said, this is a friendly community. We will not tolerate one asshole ruining that.

[Mussuy]

(it remains to be tested)

 

Do you need someone to test it? Your mod looks great and I would gladly play it in a multiplayer match.

 

Edit:

What worries me about the heavy tank and the medium tank is the 'role overlapping'; two units belonging to the same faction with too similar roles that, in terms of gameplay, are the same unit. The heavy tank reminds me to the scrin's devourer tank of C&C3; stronger than the GDI predator tank (the tank of reference or 'medium tank') and more expensive, but still no match for a high tier unit like the Nod avatar or the mammoth tank. But in C&C3 the devourer tank and the predator tank belong to two different factions. The anti-armor vehicle that goes before the Devourer tank is the seeker, a mix between the GDI's pitbull and the Nod's light tank, that is no-match for predtors.

 

Actually, if you put in order each anti-armor vehicle in terms of strenght, you get this:

 

Bike (600$) < Pitbull (700$) < Seeker (800$) < Scorpion (900$) < Predator (1100$) < Devourer (1600$) < Avatar (2200$) < Mammoth Tank (2500$) < Tripod (3000$)

 

The difference between each unit and the one following it is too small to make one a hard counter to the other (using the same amount of funds), but if you take two units of the same faction you'll find that mammoth tanks beat predators using the same amount of funds, and predators beat pitbulls. Also those three units, while being anti-armor vehicles, each of them have a different role that goes beyond their hit points or firepower.

 

But, in Civil Warfare we have this:

 

Light Tank < Medium Tank < Heavy Tank < Mammoth Tank

 

And don't get me wrong; I love the idea of one faction having both the light tank and the mammoth tank, and the other having the medium tank and the heavy tank. The only problem is that, while the Royal Black Hole Army have two units with different roles that allow them to adapt and reply to more situations, the Allied People's Army can find itself in a situation where making med. tanks would be a bad idea, and there would be a good chance that making heavy tanks would be a bad idea too, just because they share capabilities and, what's more important, weaknesses, due to their similarity.

 

You can bypass it altering the heavy tank role; making it a tier 2 unit, making it significantly slower than the med. tank giving it some kind of mobile defence role (although the APA already has the turret), give it a secondary anti-air weapon like the mammoth tank making it able to defend itself against anti-vehicle aircraft that counter med. tanks, or whatever you can come up with that makes the heavy tank a different unit than the med. tank, not just a 'better' med. tank that erases the original one from existence once you hit tier 3, sending them to a one-way travel to the service depot.