Rise of the Reds Update: A Change of Heart Options

[Shock]

Except I and any sensible China player would put them in Listening Outposts which don't die to the missile, and you can't even see them.

[Dangerman]

Except I and any sensible China player would put them in Listening Outposts which don't die to the missile, and you can't even see them.

IIRC you can see them when the hackers start making them (the dollar signs).

[Casojin]

Hmm....I was actually cheering the Russians in this war.
Alas, I now see them outnumbered by multiple foes.

[Cobretti]

I'll admit the Hopper Tank threw me for a loop at first, I honestly thought it was a joke at first. Though in concept it certainly sounds quite useful.

Also, the GLA has to be prepping something to hit the US at home, they only ever used a missile from that base in the first US Gen ZH mission to hit a naval port, I am expecting something far more terrifying from the GLA when it comes to an attack on the US.

At the end of the GLA campaign Generals the GLA did attack the US, China, and Europe with missiles from Baikonur but the one headed to the US got intercepted by a particle beam cannon.

[Serialkillerwhal...]

you put hackers in listening outposts.



EDIT: DAMNIT need to check if theres a new page first.

This post has been edited by Serialkillerwhale: 23 Dec 2012, 16:20

[MARS]

Few questions:

1. Is the Hopper cheap as in 500 cheap and you get 2 for that price?
2. Despite what Suvorov feels and wanting to make things right butsince Russia is supposed to get into a beating, will this mean that possibly the next update will have Aleksandr commit his grand, horrible act that pretty makes all sense of redemption in everyone else's eyes unreedemable?
3. Isn't a bit ironic (or hypocritical) for Tao to say Nuclear strikes on your own soil is cruel?

1. Hoppers are always produced in pairs, which costs 1000$; as such, one Hopper - even though you can't build them individually - costs a mere 500$
2. That event is still a bit further down the road, but the incident itself will be -very- identifiable as Aleksandr's handiwork rather than something Russia itself could be blamed for; still won't stop one faction from doing it anyway though.
3. Well, he still thought that the attack was justified. For all we know, Tao might be fully aware of what kinda damage his weapons used to cause but he still didn't hesitate one second when it actually came to using them.
He basically treated them as 'conventional' battlefield weapons despite the overwhelming horrors, kind of like how the higher brass detached from the frontline treated chemical weapons in WW1.

[Knjaz.]

It seems that Suvorov is losing the line, and leaving everything in the hands of a higher power. Only a miracle could save the Mother Russia of their enemies, now attacking on two fronts.
Although I do not celebrate it, this will be a great Christmas for me. Very nice additions, particularly the small Metal Slug-ish tiny tank!

Or a simple use of almost 5 decade old, Soviet-era battle plans
But I bet this won 't happen, otherwise storyline would end rather quickly.


Also, unlike ECA, Russian production capabilities are untouched, while ECA's ones are in literally non-existant after losing everything but Portugal, Spain and Britain.

P.S. But since there won't be Soviet-style WW3 nuclear warfare on Russian part in the story (I think?), I indeed wonder how they'll manage to end this war in a, sort of a "draw" scenario. Since if I'm not mistaken, team mentioned several times that the war will end with no clear winner.

This post has been edited by Knjaz.: 23 Dec 2012, 16:39

[Lobo Solitario]

hoppers are more of a firepower upgrade to your battlemasters(or gattling tanks), they are not really suitable as meatshield

So the Battlemasters' role will be meatshield while the Hoppers are cheap AT firepower with bonus anti-infantry ability?

[wargame10]

so these hoppers come out in WF eh

my question is how many will hoppers go out on WF?

1 or 2?

[Mr.Kim]

So the Battlemasters' role will be meatshield while the Hoppers are cheap AT firepower with bonus anti-infantry ability?

No anti-infantry ability for hoppers.

[MARS]

The gate opens, a Hopper rolls out, followed by the second, and the gate closes. It's not exactly rocket science.

[swVen]

Definitely enjoying the update.
Quite unexpected to see a Chinese Tank come out of nowhere, but eh, I did have a feeling that we do need some breathing space from the mirage of ECA units just appearing.

I quite like the hopper tank, and while I can see them a bit like a meat shield, I also see them as a fun armored asset in hordes.
The fact that you also mention that it can be equipped with nuclear reactors and shells do make me envision of possibly a rapid midget blob of death (if that even makes sense).
Entertaining, annoying, and probably hysterical on both sides.
Which makes it really tempting for me to cap. a chinese base on a comp stomp as ECA, get a Pandora, and drop one on this blob of death for the lulz.

The Commandos is definitely a genius idea. I'm guessing all Commandos will share voice, yet have a different armament? I especially like the idea of having the Armed medic, and the deployment of Fennek. All cloaked, pretty specialized, they seem like a very good harassment force.
Going to have a lot of fun with my buddy if I play ECA and I start dropping in Commandos for harassment and backed with Arty while he moves his main force in.

On the topic of voices, how do you draw support and actors for the voices? It seems like a lot of fun to do voices, I'd be interested in pitching as a volunteer, though the Dev.Team I'm pretty sure is pretty wrapped up with unit voices, and hard at work with hard coding and units.

[TheCeLL]

Id also be interested in doing voices
I do some awesome bad accents, like all games

[BLGMGL]

Cool update!
Commandos! Love them! Using spec ops units is really fun!
This tiny tank.... I think that this tankete makes China a real OP faction... I also disagree that China is easily beaten at the start up. Well placed bunkers will stop any T1 armour.

Let me guess some future developments:

1. China using Chinese immigrants will cause some unrests in Siberia, which will be the excuse for intervention.
2. I guess Suvorov will try to negotiate with the West to end the war as he understands that there's no way for Russia to survive the war if China enters the war (and let's not forget the GLA). But what will he offer in return?
3. I guess Russian first(?) female PM is somehow connected to one of the two younger Russian generals (Orlov or Alex).
4. Big blue box contains ROTR 1.8!

[TheCeLL]

4. Big blue box contains ROTR 1.8!

Thank you, Captain Obvious

[Lobo Solitario]

No anti-infantry ability for hoppers.

As in they're fast and run over infantry easily

[Guest_Vintorez_*]

...

I was wondering one thing - in a previous update it mentioned that the ECA nuclear attack wiped out 300,000 Russian soldiers - that's about a 5th of the entire Russian military - how would 1 Pandora using a tactical nuke be able to do that? Or was it a series of nuclear attacks - Pandoras, Vulcan neutron bombers, etc?

Also this is off topic, but regarding General Tao - I think it would fit lore-wise if it's revealed that he was the general who authorized the use of tactical nukes against the GLA in Europe (China Mission 1 in ZH), and was forced to resign because of it.

This post has been edited by Vintorez: 23 Dec 2012, 19:02

[MARS]

I was wondering one thing - in a previous update it mentioned that the ECA nuclear attack wiped out 300,000 Russian soldiers - that's about a 5th of the entire Russian military - how would 1 Pandora using a tactical nuke be able to do that? Or was it a series of nuclear attacks - Pandoras, Vulcan neutron bombers, etc?

It doesn't have to be one Pandora in the story. The nukes could have been launched by Pandoras, dropped by Vulcans, delivered by cruise missiles or any combination of these. The update states that it was a literal volley, consisting of at least a full dozen warheads and the losses account for those who died instantly as well as those who perished over the following weeks. 300.000+ is a large number (the initial Russian contingent at the start of the invasion was around approx. 3.9 million against 1.2 million ECA + 2.5 million local militaries below ECA task force standard) but it is fair to assume that both sides mobilise whatever reserves they have to make up for their losses throughout the entire war. 'Fall of Man' states that the fall of France would have pushed the ECA to an all-out conscription of 'all able-bodied men and women' which, in the most extreme case, would translate to 'teenagers and upwards' whilst the Russians also have a sizeable reserve if you account for paramilitary militias and reservists who were drafted during peacetime.

[ArsenalXA4]

I don't know if anyone's said it yet but the Hopper Tank really reminds me of the titular Metal Slug from the arcade game of the same name.

[Alex1guy]

Seems china IS moving towards pro-russia with the tone of the words there.

It's either the fellow easterners who fought them, the americans that use them as meat shields or the europeans that kicked them out.

So that or CHINA is the main baddy.

or it's a GLA scheme..............sorry had my tinfoil hat on.


Anyhow, Hopper vs. TOWvee, which one comes out a non-smoking husk?

How did you get China moving armour to the Mongol-Russian border and Chinese generals openly supporting he recent nuclear escalation of the ECA as a sign of Sino-Russian relations improving? Also, fellow easterners is a very gross simplification. Sino-Russian relations have rarely been... Amicable for very long.

On another note I kinda like the Hopper. It's like the little tank that could

Hackers in ROTR are pretty vulnerable, in fact, my favorite strategy is to launch a surveillance missile at a big group of them, and they all die >:)

Oh you're THAT guy

This post has been edited by Alex1guy: 23 Dec 2012, 21:29

[swVen]

How did you get China moving armour to the Mongol-Russian border and Chinese generals openly supporting he recent nuclear escalation of the ECA as a sign of Sino-Russian relations improving?

ALL LIES! The Chinese Armor are clearly bomb trucks in disguise! The GLA have amassed bomb trucks disguised as Chinese Battlemasters!
(end obvious sarcasm)

[obssesednuker]

I'm predicting that, territorially speaking, the war ends with the Russians holding on too Poland and the Balkans, but losing some of their territory in Central Asia and Mongolia to the Chinese.

[Erich Honecker]

For some reason i think the GLA is going to do a false flag attack on Vladivostok and make it look like China did it.

[Xofolez]

Given one can already spam Battlemasters and Red Guard on the scale of thousands of units, when I get hold of Chen there is going to be an ungodly Chinese tank rush possible...



The only limitation really is going to be the micro to baby sit the factories since you can't set them to infinite production.... Man I wish there was a button for infinite production, that would make my day!

Not sure I like the Hopper Tank model all that much, it looks 'rather gimmicky' and it is indeed reminiscent of Warhammer 40,000 Grot tanks, compared to other tankette designs*. I guess the major stickier for me is the use of a 'cast turret' as opposed to a cheap riveted or welded box design and fact that it looks woefully top heavy, and heavy in general which would be in juxtaposition with (likely) in game locomotion speed and roll.

That said, the concept is excellent and 'in theme', if unlockable at a suitable tech level and of a cost/build speed under the battlemaster then it is certainly a candidate for a spammable unit. However if Battlemaster/Red Guard are still more spamable, I think I'd still stick with the factory baby sitting because of the redundancy of multiple factories and ability to quickly change unit priorities over longer build queues. Above all, if the tankettes speed is not comparable with the other vehicle units then it will suffer as a force multiplier as they will have a tendency to clog up columns and/or advance ahead of the column ending up leaving them unsupported.

However we shall see them in eventual practice sooner or later.



For comprehensiveness in comment, I feel the Commandos and Fennec to be excellent additions, my only comment being if the Fennec has too much AT fire power it might detract from ECA tank and artillery use, people stockpiling the unit in the base for use with an attack group rather than being used in raiding operations.



*Some examplar comparisons

Ok obviously you very little RTS online experience... Rule one is rush it get rushed. The hopper will do the Chinese favor of resisting technical and TOWvee rushes as well as the conscript and redguard rushes... Idk what the rush style fir ECA will be but I am thinking the usual light vehicles which will get torn up quickly... The hopper is a great addition offering a quick and cost effective way to pull something out of ur ass when it's needed tactic. Also I know this exact design all too well, but usually as a black and yellow color design.... www.newgrounds.com logo perhaps? /supporters

Serialkillerwhale- As Canadians we choose one of 3 famed choices: immediately support Britain, eventual support of American operations, or Self-preservation (less likely since at this time USA is most likely dependant on our many many natural resources and lose our biggest costumer... MARS if you say that we merged with Americans to rescue the US economy, i will totally 100% say no not possible as that is a liability just like keeping Quebec around and away from the US control is bad enough... Very patriotically Canadian citizen here lol

I knew ECA would get some sort of reinforcements... But i thought you guys said it wouldn't be an elite one...

[Warpath]

As Canadians we choose one of 3 famed choices: immediately support Britain, eventual support of American operations, or Self-preservation (less likely since at this time USA is most likely dependant on our many many natural resources and lose our biggest costumer... MARS if you say that we merged with Americans to rescue the US economy, i will totally 100% say no not possible as that is a liability just like keeping Quebec around and away from the US control is bad enough... Very patriotically Canadian citizen here lol

Canada supports the USA in this one seeing that their part of the NAU but they won't be annexed/taken over by the US anytime soon.

That Hopper tank is cute, it looks like a little brother version of an Imperium Leman Russ, just make it larger then add one extra cannon on the front of the hull and add 2 MG turrets on the side and you've got a Leman Russ expy.

It looks like the Ruskies used their captured the Solaris satellite control station on South America on the US mobile base 'Spirit of Freedom' guys, oh and the US Particle can actually shoot down satellites as they shot down said satellite.

This post has been edited by Warpath: 24 Dec 2012, 0:21