Command and Conquer Oddities.

[X3M]

Mechs, I don't know. Waste of fuel I guess. If they where walkers like the dragoon, than it is for keeping the unit relatively small compared to the power it has. If done right, walkers should be able to get through terrain where normal tanks can't get through. Like a mechanised ant.

Even the walkers of star wars give me question marks.

 

The space station with gravity is a good question.

 

Aircraft into clouds? In a war zone, you don't know if there is another aircraft nearby. You might collide with others. Radar doesn't always help in this. On the other side, clouds give good hiding cover against certain AA weapons. So it is again a good question. But which game gave this question rise?

In real life (yes, I did fly for a short ammount of time) if your airplane has the simple instruments, you need to rely a lot on your visual skills.

 

Engineers are a cheap and efficient way in conquering an enemy base. You simply need to know how to use them efficiently. Although in real life, this is impossible. Some guy walks in and says, this is our structure now. I think it would have been logical if a commando could enter a building, and simply takes out every one. The structure becomes neutral. The commando comes out. And the player should send in other infantry. Just like how you can kill personal of tanks in generals, and then send in one of your own men.

Even Dune2 had more logic with infantry entering structures.

 

Tiberian is an alien plant that absorbs all minerals from the ground. These minerals are very high concentrated now. Thus tiberian is a good source to get your metal and other stuff from.

This is the only supposed to be, illogical thing of the game series. I think some other aspects of the game need to be explaned more properly by the creators. Just like why they have a hoover MRLS instead of a amphibious MRLS.

[TaxOwlbear]

What makes Tiberium special is that it makes the resources it extract so easy to harvest. A large chunk of Earth's crust consists of iron, but it's very even distributed so filtering it out costs too much energy. Thus, we have to rely on stuff like iron ore (and scrap metal). If we had a method of extracting iron from common dirt, that'd be awesome -  and Tiberium does not only that, but also makes harvesting the resources as simple as cutting wood.

[ore_truck]

 

Why would an army design a hoover unit, if ionic storms can disable it and let it drown?

While there is an APC around that floats.

Simply put the rockets on the APC?

 

 

Tiberium Veins protection.

[Nyerguds]

Really, the hover MLRS sinking when its hover mechanism is disabled by an ion storm is pretty obvious. It's a hover vehicle, not a boat.

[Allen262]

True but if Ion Storms are that bad it wouldn't be a bad idea for the to have a emergency float system that uses compressed air to inflate a bladder under and around the sides of the Hover MLRS.

[X3M]

ore_truck and Allen262 would have had a like from me if it was possible.

 

ore_truck has made a valid logical point that is from the game. Veins. This reason makes up for the risk of using the unit above water.

Allen262 because he simply agrees with me as well.

 

Nyerguds, would you use this unit in real life if you know that a storm would instantly kill it when above water?

Would you not rather use some sort of amphibious unit instead?

 

From my point of view, I would now rather have both the hoover MRLS and a amphibious MRLS as choices.

Hoover for going over veins, amphibious because the storms.

If you need to cross both, well, hoover is the best choice.

[Nyerguds]

Nyerguds, would you use this unit in real life if you know that a storm would instantly kill it when above water?

Would you not rather use some sort of amphibious unit instead?

Would you fly a helicopter in real life if you know it'll crash if you fly it into a hurricane? Same answer. Units have their function, and their weaknesses. If the environment is too dangerous to use it, it's up to you to decide to use it or not. I mean, it's not like ion storms are THAT common in TS

[X3M]

True. And perhaps it is that players expect the hoover MRLS to be used on water.

This due to the video that the game shows. (A faster, longer ranged, hoover MRLS)

 

In the game itself however, I never used the water path's if not needed. Which is practically every skirmish game. Only single player missions where designed in such way that the hoover MRLS had a good job in going by water.

 

But I do remember games where the ion storms shows up every 10 minutes.

Which is anoying as hell when using hoover/air.

 

Enough about the gaming experience. It is a choice for the player. In real life however, this unit would not be used. That is the odity.

[Nyerguds]

"Hoover" is a dam, the US president the dam is named after, the first FBI director and notorious commie witch-hunter, and a brand of vacuum cleaners. I think, however, that you mean "hover"

 

In real life however, this unit would not be used. That is the odity.

Come now. In real life, the unit would only "not be used" when working in potential ion storm environments. Exactly like helicopters would get the advice to stay grounded in that aforementioned hurricane :roll:

 

The point in the game is, the player is the one who gives that "advice". The player does the unit management. You're the commander who has to decide whether the potential rewards of using the hover units are worth the risk of making them cross water if there is a chance of ion storms. And overall, outside the threat areas, the units would probably be worth it, so it's generally cheaper to use these same units in the risk areas than design new ones to fill their role just for there. Especially since their role includes the ability to cross water.

[Milkey Wilkey]

don't forget they might also avoid triggering landmines (might not though).

 

2 odd things about RA: it can't decide, what aspect ratio it uses and it is not really a real time strategy.

 

1) while most of the graphics was designed to be stretched, some movies and screens where not. I also believe that cameos where made 1:1 for ra95

 

2) I mean "real" time. if you set game speed slider below 3 the game will run too slow compared to real life clock, and everything from 3 and above is just too fast. you can compare it by using in-game timer

 

also quite odd is that ore silo in DOS RA uses beta cameo

[Nyerguds]

1. This is a legacy issue, really; RA1 specifically seriously balanced between DOS and windows.

 

2. The alternative to "real time" is "turn based". Since RA isn't turn based, actual game speed modifiers are irrelevant.

[Milkey Wilkey]

2. The alternative to "real time" is "turn based". Since RA isn't turn based, actual game speed modifiers are irrelevant.

 

you do understand what I mean, no need to expand this far. it's just an oddity of ingame timer

[X3M]

Fine, its hover than. Your the Belgian guy, you're probably know better .

 

Next oddity, children may give the advice to an expensive equipment army to send the .... hover.... over water. While taking a risk for a storm to take it down.

Those 50 will be remembered.

 

 

The game speed oddity? Slow speed is slow time strategy. Fast speed is fast time strategy.

It is odd indeed that you can change the game speed. Maybe Westwood figured that some players might get bored?

[Rampastring]

The game speed oddity? Slow speed is slow time strategy. Fast speed is fast time strategy.

It is odd indeed that you can change the game speed. Maybe Westwood figured that some players might get bored?

Different preferences for the game speed are likely the biggest reason there. Nearly everyone agrees that the default speed (20 FPS?) of RA and TS is way too slow to be enjoyable, and most people play on 45 or 60 FPS.

 

Then there's the difficulty factor in single player. Naturally, the slower the game speed, the easier a mission becomes. In other words, if a mission is too hard for you at 60 FPS, you can drop the game speed to make it easier.

 

Another point is that the frame-based system of the game pretty much makes dynamic game speed necessary. If your system is too slow to run the game at 60 FPS, the game will slow down automatically. With that you might as well make the game speed configurable.

[Nyerguds]

Different preferences for the game speed are likely the biggest reason there. Nearly everyone agrees that the default speed (20 FPS?) of RA and TS is way too slow to be enjoyable, and most people play on 45 or 60 FPS.

Game speed depends vastly on screen resolution, though. The default install game speed of C&C95, being the middle of the bar, seems really slow, but on DOS C&C, you really need that, because you don't see all activity in the enemy base while also seeing your own on one single screen. After playing C&C1 and TS on quite large resolutions, playing Generals and C&C3 felt really restricted and frantic.

[Jacko]

After playing C&C1 and TS on quite large resolutions, playing Generals and C&C3 felt really restricted and frantic.

 

It really does. Was such a weird feeling.

[X3M]

Zooming out further and further.

Starts to feel like you play TA instead.

 

I rather play games where you wonder about "what's in the dark?".

 

[MattAttack]

Ok, I got an oddity.  It always bothered me that the Nod light tank was portrayed as Bradley, which is basically an APC with a turret.  I always thought the M-551 Sheridan was a much more appropriate choice:

 

Heck, I even found a video of one being air-dropped much in the style of the game (skip to about :30):

http://youtu.be/0UcaOwtiD5w

 

 

 

[Allen262]

The light tank for Nod never quite made since. If they wanted Nod to use a M2 Bradly they should have made it fire like the M2 dose using the TOW for heavy armor and the 20mm? or 30mm? for light armor. This was do-able in Tib Dawn.

[cn2mc]

Oh, that reminds me, that kind of airdrop technique Nod uses was perfected specifically for the siege of Khe Sanh during the Vietnam war - planes couldn't risk landing, because the strip was in rage of NVA heavy mortar, so they just buzzed the strip and either parachuted or hooked the cargo to a cable through the open hatch.

 

EDIT: On topic, yeah, IDK why they used the Bradley, but IIRC one of the cutscenes does indeed portray it as an APC.

[Allen262]

The Bradley is an APC as well. It can hold 6 or 7 men inside. The M2 was made to replace the old M113 APC (APC in TD RA1)

 

Cutscenes showing the a Nod M2 unload.

 

[MattAttack]

The Bradley is an APC as well. It can hold 6 or 7 men inside.

 

Yeah that was pretty much the issue I had with it was that it wasn't an APC in-game.  Perhaps that was their original intent, but it got scrapped. 

[X3M]

It would actually have been awesome if the light tank of NOD was an APC as well.

An APC with an cannon instead of a chain gun is still something original in the RTS series.

(hint for the modders out there)

[Rampastring]

(hint for the modders out there)

 

Play DTA. There the Nod light tank can carry one passenger

[Kilkakon]

One passenger? Let me guess, a suicide bomber?