Red Alert 3.03 "p" series

[hifi 0]

Hi,

 

I've been working with CCHyper and lately with AlexB to port some of the changes from CCHyper's now defunct 3.04 and bug fixes from AlexB's ARDA project.

 

The reason behind this is that I think there is a need for a stable 3.03 which is 100% compatible with the most widely used version without the fancy features of ARDA. The features currently missing from ARDA are the unit build crash fix and -LAN and -INTERNET arguments. However, I expect AlexB to make a proper fix for the first in ARDA and add support for -LAN and -INTERNET in the future.

 

3.03p1 was released to private testing, a bug was caught in the patch itself and later fixed. 3.03p2 includes CCHyper's -LAN argument for CnCNet and also additional -INTERNET argument.

 

The unit build crash is when you hit the maximum limit of allowed unit type but try to build even more, all players in the current game will crash. The most usual occurance of this was with air vehicles as their limit is fairly low in the default rules.ini.

 

Red Alert 3.03p2 patch by hifi <3

---------------------------------

This patch updates your Red Alert 3.03 to 3.03p2.

 

Bug fixes:

* [Maximum] unit build crash in multiplayer

* Instruction Error with Fences on Upper Map Border (ported from ARDA by AlexB)

* Crash When Projectiles Leave The Map (ported from ARDA by AlexB)

* Problem Related To Tags (ported from ARDA by AlexB)

 

New features:

* -LAN argument to go directly into Multiplayer mode (ported from CCHyper's 3.04)

* -INTERNET argument to go directly into Internet login

 

I'd like to thank AlexB for sharing the fixes and helping me rewrite them! Also I love you, CCHyper <3

 

Press ENTER to continue or Ctrl-C to cancel.

--------------------------------------------

 

Download the patch from http://hifi.iki.fi/c...hes/ra303p2.exe

 

The lastest version of this patch and all other patches that I've compiled are always available at:

 

http://hifi.iki.fi/cnc/ra/patches/

 

Worth noting is that you need a clean "ra95.dat" from ra303eng.zip (the official 3.03 patch) to apply any of the patches. The redalert1.com package exe is NOT compatible with this patch as it was based on an alpha version of CCHyper's 3.04 which had conflicting changes. If you are using the redalert1.com package, you need to download ra303eng.zip, unzip ra95.dat, and apply the following patches: 303p2, forcenoam, forcenocs, deinterlace 1 or 2, fix cursor bug v2 and movies2. Finally rename ra95.dat to ra95.exe and it should work just fine except it has no icon. If you are not using cnc-ddraw, you don't need to apply the cursor bug fix.

 

Note to CnCNet players: If you start playing with this, you won't crash but anyone else will without this patch if any of the bugs is encountered.

 

If you find any problems, please post to this thread. If you encounter any crashes during normal gameplay, take an note of the instruction address. When possible, find a way to reproduce the crash so fixing it would be a lot easier.

 

Extra points for retesting with ARDA and notifying AlexB too if the bug is not fixed in ARDA yet! ARDA also generates a good debug dump of the error which is very useful.

 

That's a long post, didn't proof read, sorry.

[PurpleGaga27 40]

I hope you will add the following additions into the future patch (thanks to Vistha): http://forums.cncnz.com/topic/16477-hi-res-patch-testers-needed/

[Sonarpulse 1]

So this is a good ole' binary patch, like 3.04, and TD 1.06? Sweet.

Also, I imagine that Arda will eventually work with this too?

[hifi 0]

Also, I imagine that Arda will eventually work with this too?

 

Nah, I'm expecting AlexB will implement everything feasible in Arda itself, that's way better than trying to fiddle with compatibility and different versions.

 

3.03p is about making subtle changes in the executable itself that won't affect the gameplay a lot. Those are bug fixes mainly.  Possibly a better hires than ra95-hires was if AlexB helps me a bit.

 

And zocom, I can't use Visthas work without permission. Also he didn't share any "sources" for anyone to use.

[KevinLancaster 1]

Will there be 1 installer for this eventually?

Will it be integrated into the main package on redalert1.com one day?

Is (/will) the England/France and assorted other bugs (such as those in this list http://ra.afraid.org/html/extra/cheats.html) (be) fixed?

[hifi 0]

Will there be 1 installer for this eventually?

 

I will distribute a fixed exe with everything when p3 is released to avoid patching hassle. That's essentially the installer.

 

Will it be integrated into the main package on redalert1.com one day?

 

Yes, after it is thoroughly tested. I encourage CnCNet players to play with p2 to test out the fixes and overall stability.

 

Is (/will) the England/France and assorted other bugs (such as those in this list http://ra.afraid.org...tra/cheats.html) (be) fixed?

 

Eng/Fra: Nope. The bug is in rules.ini.

 

Others: Maybe, if they don't cause out-of-sync errors when fixed and me or AlexB or anyone else capable finds the cause.

Edited February 16, 2012 by hifi

[KevinLancaster 1]

Would you ever consider changing the rules.ini, like giving England the Helicarrier and France the Phase Tank to balance it out, or would that affect game balance negatively?

 

EDIT: Is there anything special you have to do besides changing the tech level in aftrmath.ini to get the Helicarrier in the game? I changed the owner to "Owner=england" as well.

 

EDIT 2: Strangely, it works with "Owner=allies" but not "Owner=england". Also, I was looking at the comments for the different country bonuses and realized that for ROF, Westwood themselves said that a larger number means a slower ROF so for France it was must have been a typo on their part, so changing the rules would be justified. The inverse armour for England still makes no sense, however, and maybe giving them the Phase Tank (with a tech level of 9 like it was in the campaign) would be a better way to go than changing how the values are read.

Edited February 17, 2012 by KevinLancaster

[hifi 0]

Would you ever consider changing the rules.ini, like giving England the Helicarrier and France the Phase Tank to balance it out, or would that affect game balance negatively?

 

EDIT: Is there anything special you have to do besides changing the tech level in aftrmath.ini to get the Helicarrier in the game? I changed the owner to "Owner=england" as well.

 

EDIT 2: Strangely, it works with "Owner=allies" but not "Owner=england". Also, I was looking at the comments for the different country bonuses and realized that for ROF, Westwood themselves said that a larger number means a slower ROF so for France it was must have been a typo on their part, so changing the rules would be justified. The inverse armour for England still makes no sense, however, and maybe giving them the Phase Tank (with a tech level of 9 like it was in the campaign) would be a better way to go than changing how the values are read.

 

Those are the kind of things Arda is for, IMO.

[r34ch 1]

May I ask what's the goal of this project?

 

From what I gather this is focusing on fixing bugs and adding hi-res to the game, so wouldn't a rules.ini change to those countries still count since they're bugs? So couldn't the p3 installer just replace rules.ini with a 'fixed' version?

 

Good work, look forward to p3

[Gjay 0]

Please include full height build-bar in highres-mode, as in arda. :-)