New Red Alert Mod: Command & Conquer: Civil Warfare

[Sonic 296]

A new mod for Red Alert, yes you read that right, has been released. Command & Conquer: Civil Warfare features two armies, the Allied People's Army (APA - Allies) and the Royal Black Hole Army (BHA - Soviets). This mod also includes a lot of different balance tweaks to the original Red Alert.

 

 

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.

 

You can find out more about the Command & Conquer: Civil Warfare mod for Red Alert right here.

[Gben 20]

I like this quote at the link:-

 

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)

 

Sure to make Nmenth happy, or at least happier, maybe a grin, less grumpy... hmm I'll settle for the silent treatment.

[Nmenth 291]

Not so. Nukes are not that overpowered. If they wanted to make it more realistic, they should have increased its blast radius, but one-shot killing an army of Mammoth Tanks is just stupid.

 

At ground zero, a nuke could certainly take out a tank, but much beyond that, and all you're doing is knocking off its antennae, headlights, and whatever else is sticking out. Especially when you're talking about a super-heavy tank like the Mammoth.

 

During early Cold War days, nuclear weapons, especially the infamous neutron bomb, could be seen as effective anti-tank weapons because the radiation would easily kill the crews. Modern tanks are being built to protect against radiation (and chemical/biological weapons), making this tactic outdated. Neutron bombs aren't even taken seriously anymore.

[Nyerguds 102]

Not so. Nukes are not that overpowered. If they wanted to make it more realistic, they should have increased its blast radius

I'm not sure that's possible in the Red Alert engine...

[Nmenth 291]

Yes, I'm aware of the very limited engines the earlier C&Cs had and don't actually expect anyone to increase the blast radius, but increasing damage to one-hit kill everything is not a valid alternative.

[Iran 12]

Increasing the blast radius is easy.

[Gben 20]

Nmenth - silent treatment - silent treatment - silent treatment.

Take the hint.

 

Nmenth...

How big is ground zero?

How many MBT's could you fit into ground zero?

How many would survive that ground-zero-encounter with that nuke?

[Nmenth 291]

How big is ground zero?

How many MBT's could you fit into ground zero?

How many would survive that ground-zero-encounter with that nuke?

Since ground zero is a hypothetical one-dimensional point directly below the explosion, it has an area of exactly 0 (regardless the unit of measurement). That most likely isn't going to provide you with the answers you seek, so I did some other calculations instead.

 

It is difficult to measure distance in C&C due to scaling inconsistency, but assuming the Medium Tank is about 10m long, each cell is slightly bigger at maybe 12m wide. I checked out a RA1 nuke on a YouTube video and it looks like it covers 7 cells, making the blast a whopping 84m wide.

 

Of course, that is only the range at which the shockwave is still damaging buildings which would require a pressure of about 15kPa at least. So if the pressure dropped off from 15kPa at the distance of 42m from ground zero, the yield of the bomb would be around .0001kt, making it one-hundredth the power of the smallest nuclear device ever built.

 

A .0001kt bomb would have an overpressure in excess of 100kPa, which might be effective against tanks (it'd wipe out reinforced concrete at any rate), up to 10m away from ground zero. Since tanks are about 10m long, we can assume it could take out up to four tanks if they were parked in a square and the nuke hit right in the middle of them, or one tank if it was a direct hit. But keep in mind, the 10m long tank is a main battle tank, not a Mammoth.

[Nyerguds 102]

Increasing the blast radius is easy.

Without editing the exe?

[Guest Stevie_K]

Wouldn't most nukes decimate the entire playable map if they where to simulate the real deal?

[Nmenth 291]

Well you'd be using tactical nuclear weapons on a battlefield rather than strategic ones, so the yields would range from .01 to 1kt. A 1kt nuke would have an effective blast radius of about .8km (1.6km total width). I believe the maximum RA1 map was 126 cells wide, which at 12m per cell is 1.5km. So if a 1kt nuke was detonated in the middle, yes, it would decimate the entire playable map.

 

The ideal yield in RA1 would probably be around .01kt which should completely cover your average base. Of course the fallout would probably end up killing all of your troops too, but if you're fighting on such a small battlefield, using nuclear weapons at all isn't really a very good idea. As this is a game, the suspension of disbelief should permit a nuke of this scale.

[Gben 20]

Nmenth - appreciate the effort you've gone too for the sums. What is the relationship between a crater left after the bomb and the blast radius?

 

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And using established RAilsm - Nmenth do you think it's a good game mechanic that a (quote) nuclear missile (unquote) can destroy all/any unit/structure in the circle? And do you think a long timer is a sufficient counter to such a mechanic? What about a quasi-firestorm counter - a temporary hardening of structures which can be triggered by the player at certain intervals?

[Nmenth 291]

The size of the crater could be pretty variable depending on the altitude of the detonation. Most nukes are airbursts as they can cover more area when the Earth isn't absorbing a large amount of their energy. This makes the size of the crater more dependant on the altitude than the yield.

 

I do not think it is a good game mechanic. I don't think there is any way to make a horribly overpowered weapon like that "balanced".

[Gben 20]

So remove from game or rename it to... um... tomahawk cruise missile?

 

Personally I like the ideas of really expensive and long timer as the balance-er for super-destructive 'super-weapons'.