Let's Play Command & Conquer Red Alert: Counterstrike

[TaxOwlbear]

Welcome to Command & Conquer Red Alert: Counterstrike! This is the first expansion for C&C Red Alert. It's in the tradition of old-style mission CDs: No new campaign, no new units (mostly), but many new and challenging missions.

 

The first mission of the Sarin gas campaign makes the start. It also sets the tone for the expansion: Knowledge of the mission helps a lot.

 

Allies Mission 1: Sarin Gas #1: Crackdown

[X3M]

I never had the intro video's with this expansion. So this will certainly be worthwhile to watch.

[Jacko]

You were confused as to why the civvies were hostile, but did you not see them dropping flares for soviet paratroopers?

Thats where the flamers were coming from.

[TaxOwlbear]

I never had the intro video's with this expansion. So this will certainly be worthwhile to watch.

Of course - what would C&C be without FMVs?

 

You were confused as to why the civvies were hostile, but did you not see them dropping flares for soviet paratroopers?

Thats where the flamers were coming from.

I didn't pay enough attention. I figured they were friendly because Carville mentioned that in the intro (even though that's from the PSX version). There is a mission where you have to evacuate civilians, but that's in the Greece campaign IIRC.

[TaxOwlbear]

This expansion gives us what everyone wanted: More indoor missions!

 

Allies Mission 2: Sarin Gas #2: Down Under

[Allen262]

 

You were confused as to why the civvies were hostile, but did you not see them dropping flares for soviet paratroopers?

Thats where the flamers were coming from.

I didn't pay enough attention. I figured they were friendly because Carville mentioned that in the intro (even though that's from the PSX version). There is a mission where you have to evacuate civilians, but that's in the Greece campaign IIRC.

 

I always thought those Civs where Civs from the Soviets base or Civs that welcome the Soviets into Greece. In the PSX they are hostile as well.

 

Also Sarin Gas #1: Crackdown was ment at one time to be a larger map. If you open it wth RAED and go past the east edge of the map you will see the complete east shore with waypoints. It looks like at one time a Truck was programed to load into a sea transport at the south than move north up the river than unload on the other shore where it would than move south again and exit the map at the vary south east of the map.

[TaxOwlbear]

Sounds plausible. There's more lorries in the Soviet base, but it seems that in the map's current version, they just sit there and never leave.

[Allen262]

The trucks are programed to leave after 10, 18, 25, 32, 38 and 45 minutes. They have no run trigger so you can "Zerg" rush the base and catch some of the trucks still sitting in the base.

[TaxOwlbear]

After all that stress, we are rewarded with a comparably simple build-and-destroy mission. I like that.

 

Allies Mission 3: Sarin Gas #3: Controlled Burn

[TaxOwlbear]

Don't we all love escort missions?

 

Allies Mission 4: Greece #1: Personal War

[Allen262]

Always liked Personal War. The next one not so much.

[Jacko]

Always liked Personal War. The next one not so much.

 

The first few times I played personal war was an adventure of going insane for a while.

Also those mammoth tanks (or one of them) on the bridge bugged out because of RA's attrocious TeamType recruitment system.

[Allen262]

Never had that prob.

[TaxOwlbear]

Always liked Personal War. The next one not so much.

It's the other way around for me, even though Evacuation turned out to be a lot tougher than I remembered it to be.

 

The first few times I played personal war was an adventure of going insane for a while.

Imagine playing it on a PSX without a Playstation Mouse... *shiver*

 

Also those mammoth tanks (or one of them) on the bridge bugged out because of RA's attrocious TeamType recruitment system.

I had the same issue. Only one Mammoth moved, and I'm sure it used to be both.

 

[Nyerguds]

I thought the mouse was an improvement over the controller?

[TaxOwlbear]

I thought the mouse was an improvement over the controller?

Oh, it absolutely is - hence my remark.

[Allen262]

It's the other way around for me, even though Evacuation turned out to be a lot tougher than I remembered it to be.

 

The lack of gun tur make it hard.

 

Imagine playing it on a PSX without a Playstation Mouse... *shiver*

 

Did. The first time I played C&C was in PSX.

 

I had the same issue. Only one Mammoth moved, and I'm sure it used to be both.

 

The map says both should move but who knows with what the patchs have done. It just best to seek around to the back side of the base.

[Jacko]

 

I had the same issue. Only one Mammoth moved, and I'm sure it used to be both.

The map says both should move but who knows with what the patchs have done. It just best to seek around to the back side of the base.

 

They are supposed to both move, but the map isn't designed for when you manage to not trigger the first mammoth thats destroying the village near the start. It recruited that mammoth instead of the 2nd one on the bridge.

 

Also fun fact, opening the mission in RAED and then immediately saving it causes the mission to crash on startup.

[Allen262]

 

I had the same issue. Only one Mammoth moved, and I'm sure it used to be both.

The map says both should move but who knows with what the patchs have done. It just best to seek around to the back side of the base.

 

They are supposed to both move, but the map isn't designed for when you manage to not trigger the first mammoth thats destroying the village near the start. It recruited that mammoth instead of the 2nd one on the bridge.

 

Also fun fact, opening the mission in RAED and then immediately saving it causes the mission to crash on startup.

 

Not sure. If recall right it cause you to lose the mission at mission start after RAED edits it.

[Jacko]

I just had it crash every time, presumably because the method of generating Stavros of a "lose when destroyed" teamtype just doesn't make sense within RAEDs logic limits.

 

Still, looking forward to more!

[Allen262]

I just had it crash every time, presumably because the method of generating Stavros of a "lose when destroyed" teamtype just doesn't make sense within RAEDs logic limits.

 

Still, looking forward to more!

 

Just tired. No crash or mission fail. I'm 99.9% sure RAED farking up missions depending on the system. Back in the days of XP with no service packs RAED worked fine. Each service pack seem to cause RAED to break some missions. Each update to the next service pack would cause a new set of missions that RAED would break when saved and the ones that use to break would now save just fine.

[Messiah]

Also fun fact, opening the mission in RAED and then immediately saving it causes the mission to crash on startup.

No, it doesn't?!

And you don't loose it at the beginning, too. :O

 

Did you check out what exactly messes up the mission for you? e.g. looking into the ini file for differences between both files, escpecially in the trigger/teamtypes section?

 

 

That just one mammoth moves now may be caused by the way the game selects the team type members: the original missions sort the list of units (most likely) up from the unit which was placed first, while RAED remixes the list: the most northern unit is the first unit in the list now. same with structures etc.

 

I don't know how exactly the members were picked by the game when the "create team" trigger is fired, but the order of the units may be important. does someone now more about this?

 

Another thing, RAED also mixes the order of triggers and teamtypes, each time when you change something on one of them.  O_o

[TaxOwlbear]

Anyway, here's the more straightforward Evacuation mission.

 

Allies Mission 5: Greece #2: Evacuation

[Jacko]

Weird, because when I removed the "Set Stavros as teamtype" trigger I didn't get a crash anymore. Oh well, not important.

 

Evacuation:

"This might be one of those Missions where I should use light tanks"

Amusingly this map I'd never use light tanks xD

 

And I always play it by just destroying the entire soviet base, I'm too lazy to load a bunch of civvies into transports.

[Allen262]

Weird, because when I removed the "Set Stavros as teamtype" trigger I didn't get a crash anymore. Oh well, not important.

 

Evacuation:

"This might be one of those Missions where I should use light tanks"

Amusingly this map I'd never use light tanks xD

 

And I always play it by just destroying the entire soviet base, I'm too lazy to load a bunch of civvies into transports.

 

I skip the entire soviet base. You can load the Civs on a APCs and run them to the north beach. The Tesla Coil will not have time to fire if you run one APC at a time.