Additional Secret Missions?

[VamPyroX]

Remember when Tiberian Dawn had those secret dinosaur missions and Red Alert had those secret giant ants missions?

 

If Westwood (and EA) had continued to implement secret missions to Red Alert 2, Tiberian Sun, Generals, etc... what secret missions do you think would have worked out well or fit the theme of those games?

[Nyerguds]

Had? they still have them

 

TS has the secret power grid mission, though.

 

It's already a sad thing that they didn't continue with alternate choices for missions. The increased complexity of the engines and maps seems to have severely cut into map development time.

[VamPyroX]

Had? they still have them

 

TS has the secred power grid mission, though.

 

It's already a sad thing that they didn't continue with alternate choices for missions. The increased complexity of the engines and maps seems to have severely cut into map development time.

"had" "have" Whatever... you know what I mean.

 

What secret power grid mission?

[Nyerguds]

I honestly don't remember the details, but there's one mission with a train, where you can go to the secret mission by loading your troops into the train instead of completing it the way you're supposed to... or something like that. You end up in a mission where you have to take out a Nod base full of power plants, in an area with tons of tiberium infestation.

 

Here's a playthrough of the mission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wth6rotondA

 

[edit]

 

A quick google for "Mine the Power Grid" quickly tells you how to unlock it.

[VamPyroX]

I honestly don't remember the details, but there's one mission with a train, where you can go to the secret mission by loading your troops into the train instead of completing it the way you're supposed to... or something like that. You end up in a mission where you have to take out a Nod base full of power plants, in an area with tons of tiberium infestation.

 

Here's a playthrough of the mission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wth6rotondA

 

[edit]

 

A quick google for "Mine the Power Grid" quickly tells you how to unlock it.

That's new to me! I almost did it but didn't. Now, I know to do it next time!

[VamPyroX]

I honestly don't remember the details, but there's one mission with a train, where you can go to the secret mission by loading your troops into the train instead of completing it the way you're supposed to... or something like that. You end up in a mission where you have to take out a Nod base full of power plants, in an area with tons of tiberium infestation.

 

Here's a playthrough of the mission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wth6rotondA

 

[edit]

 

A quick google for "Mine the Power Grid" quickly tells you how to unlock it.

That's new to me! I almost did it but didn't. Now, I know to do it next time!

With this in mind, are there any other similar missions where you have to do something specific within a level to unlock a secret mission?

[Jacko]

Maybe a slightly secret mission (or anti-secret or something) is that GDI commando mission where you get an extra mission if you decide NOT to destroy the enemy airstrip.

[VamPyroX]

Maybe a slightly secret mission (or anti-secret or something) is that GDI commando mission where you get an extra mission if you decide NOT to destroy the enemy airstrip.

I've done that one before. That's something they should implement more often... where you have to work harder if you fail a mission or parts of a mission.

[Nyerguds]

An interesting exploit is that you can start with a gigantic cash bonus in mission 8 if you decide not to skip mission 7, with the classic endgame-harvesting trick. Especially if you got the Repair mission as #8, this is reeeally handy

[VamPyroX]

An interesting exploit is that you can start with a gigantic cash bonus in mission 8 if you decide not to skip mission 7, with the classic endgame-harvesting trick. Especially if you got the Repair mission as #8, this is reeeally handy

Are you saying that if you blow up the airstrip in Mission 6, you will skip to Mission 8 with the default amount of credits to begin with... but if you blow up the wrong building, play Mission 7, harvest as much money as you can before completing Mission 7, then begin Mission 8 with whatever you earned in Mission 7?

[Jacko]

that's exactly what happens, you get a fraction of the money you finished the last mission carried over (most times).

Another similar thing is if you pick the right variant from Nod #7  and do all the tiberium you can do Nod #8 with a buttload of starting cash. (I once started it with $4000, so there was no need to sell my mcv at all )

[Nyerguds]

Are you saying that if you blow up the airstrip in Mission 6, you will skip to Mission 8 with the default amount of credits to begin with... but if you blow up the wrong building, play Mission 7, harvest as much money as you can before completing Mission 7, then begin Mission 8 with whatever you earned in Mission 7?

Yeah, as Jacko said, a certain percentage is carried over. The campaign seems to contain strategically placed baseless missions to reset that, making sure you can't simply harvest tons in the first missions and keep carrying large chunks of that over all the way to the end.

[VamPyroX]

Are you saying that if you blow up the airstrip in Mission 6, you will skip to Mission 8 with the default amount of credits to begin with... but if you blow up the wrong building, play Mission 7, harvest as much money as you can before completing Mission 7, then begin Mission 8 with whatever you earned in Mission 7?

Yeah, as Jacko said, a certain percentage is carried over. The campaign seems to contain strategically placed baseless missions to reset that, making sure you can't simply harvest tons in the first missions and keep carrying large chunks of that over all the way to the end.

Hmm... I'll have to check that out.

 

It just happens that I'm currently on THAT 7th mission... before I even read about this!

[Nyerguds]

if you put the game to full speed (without limiting framerate through cnc-ddraw) to make the tiberium grow, and then harvest it, empty silos with build-cancel, let it regrow again and so on, I easily got to around 500-800k credits, which IIRC got me started with some 30k extra in the next mission

[Jacko]

That is utterly ridiculous haha.

I could imagine this being really really useful when doing the 2nd-to-last Nod mission, because then you won't have to worry so much about stupid harvesters on the last segment

[AchromicWhite]

How did I not know about this?...

...at all.

  -Liam

[Nyerguds]

White: Even the ant and dino missions?

[AchromicWhite]

Oh, I know about those xD haha

But, nothing about carry over cash.

[Nyerguds]

Yeah... it's a setting in the map's Basic setting, if I remember correctly. There's "CarryOverCap" and "CarryOverMoney". I assume the first one was meant for carrying over tiberium capacity, but seeing as that would require the mission to start with silos, it is kind of useless, and, in fact, never used. Silo place is kind of irrelevant with the build-cancel trick anyway.

[VamPyroX]

Yeah... it's a setting in the map's Basic setting, if I remember correctly. There's "CarryOverCap" and "CarryOverMoney". I assume the first one was meant for carrying over tiberium capacity, but seeing as that would require the mission to start with silos, it is kind of useless, and, in fact, never used. Silo place is kind of irrelevant with the build-cancel trick anyway.

The percentage carried over will remain the same regardless of how much cash I have on hand WITH or WITHOUT silo use?

 

For instance, if I didn't use the build-cancel trick and saved $100,000... versus ... used the build-cancel trick and saved $100,000... would the carry over amount still remain the same?

[Nyerguds]

Umm...

1. I said CarryOverCap isn't used. So why bother asking about silos? As I said, it's irrelevant.

2. CarryOverMoney, as the name implies, just looks at your total money at the end of the mission. You will obviously have tons more money if you regularly clean out your silos so you can harvest a ton of tiberium once more. I did mention the cycle for this was "let tiberium grow, harvest tiberium, empty silos with build-cancel, repeat", didn't I? Emptying your silos is the process of converting physical tiberium to virtual cash

[Nyerguds]

Just found out there's a hidden part in the first Red Alert 2 tutorial mission. Not really an extra mission, but certainly an easter egg. You can unlock it by ignoring the objective(s) and instead destroying your own Construction Yard, which gives you an Engineer, and using that to repair a broken bridge which you normally can't get across

 

At the moment you cross it, you get the message "you're not supposed to be here!" accompanied by a cow's moo-sound. This sound can be triggered a few more times as you explore the map with the helicopter which you get in the hidden part.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APpeAVFqV8w

 

This shows only the first cow weirdness. There's another farm in the upper right corner, which does not explode, but again plays the moo-sound when you garrisson it.

[Eisengeist]

RA2, possibly only with Yuri's Revenge, at least makes a nod (no pun intended), back to TD's dinos with the multiplayer map Monster Movie.  It has a bunch of T-Rex's running through and a huge dino in a pool of water.  The T-Rex's only seem to fight you if you get in their path and attack them.  The other dino seems to be invincible and instantly kills a unit just if you move to a spot directly south of it.

[Jacko]

I think arguably the First soviet mission in YR does that enough with the dino attack segment. Plus theres that cool easter egg you can do where you can acquire your own friendly T-rex.

[AchromicWhite]

I didn't know about the friendly T-Rex...