Rise of the Reds Blog Update 21 Options

[The_Hunter]

This week, we've got one more GLA vehicle variant as well as some visual variety for the Chinese Gattling Tank:









We would also like to use this opportunity to provide an official statement on the future of the navy in ROTR. As some of you may have picked up from a premature comment by one of our beta testers, we have indeed decided to scrap the navy, effective with the release of 1.85. It was a decision that we didn't make easily, but in the end, we had to accept that there is a multitude of factors that speak against this feature. For one, the game was never designed to properly handle naval units and the system that is in place utilises a lot of tricks and workarounds, which come with a number of side effects, most prominently the fact that the AI cannot naturally use the navy unless the map is specifically scripted, top to bottom, to make this possible. Second, we are also very much aware that the navy and even the maps that have it are being actively avoided in competitive play, due to the natural imbalance between naval gameplay and conventional gameplay, which will remain a problem unless we would invest a great deal of time and resources to adapt the land-based gameplay to work better off the naval aspect, which would be an excessive effort for something that was only meant to be a special map type and little beyond that. Third, our brainstorming attempts on diversifying the navy to be faction-specific at a later time have proven exceptionally difficult, as the balance between naval units also affects their relation with the conventional ones, thus creating a system that is very fragile and delicate to balance out within the limitations of the game engine. We have therefore decided to remove the navy, but to release the existing naval maps, along with the coded ships and assets, as an officially endorsed optional addon to the mod, which will be made available on ModDB at some point after the release of 1.85. We hope that you can accept this decision, as it will also allow us to focus our efforts on the much more relevant and meaningful aspects of the mod.

As always, we would like to remind all of you out there that there will be another stream on this Sunday:


Countdown until the stream starts

Also, in case you missed last week's stream, you can check it out on our Youtube channel here

[Admiral*Alex]

I don't like it because that was one of the things I looked forward to for the mod, but as someone who dabbled in ZH code I respect it.

Given that was a huge part of the mod, is there going to be anything that will replace it? (like more content for something else)
Also, can you talk about what's going to be released to the public? (like anything behind the scenes for the navy?)

This post has been edited by Admiral*Alex: 19 Feb 2015, 23:01

[Spejjarn]

Good decision to scrap navy. Since I love "notebook modding" I tried to make five unique navies and it was a bite. In particular ECA navy. I mean defence and naval warfare is not a good match. USA only needs some naval airpower (in this case a drone carrier). GLA some sneaky stuff like suicide speedboat and tanker with hidden SCUDs. Russia and China could be a bit tricky to separate since they both like nukes and subs preferably nuke subs.
For ze armchair/keyboard admirals RA3 offers excellent amphibious warfare and it's also a C&C game...
Keep up ze great job! Even if I'm a beta tester I truly look forward to the next public release!

[Kommandant Karis...]

The Ural on the right and the Gatling tank on the far right are my favorites ^^

And I don't mind not having a navy says the guy with a battleship avatar. I already have enough to learn about this game x~x

This post has been edited by Kommandant Karisse: 19 Feb 2015, 23:19

[Emin96]

I never used the navy neevr was usefull.
i always play the map where the is no navy.
i think swr taked very good decision.also this will make game better and solve some crash and lag.
fully agree
as always awesome updates

[L3610N 115]

Good decision to scrap it, and even better decision to scrap it and release some stuff as an optional free "DLC"

As you said, Generals was simply not made for naval combat.

[Basilisx]

Too bad that you had to remove it
I can see how the current navy is full of flaws and imagine that expanding that system is even more problematic.

I love that Gat in the middle, because of that chassis, looks cool for me.
The dish with the star at the side/top of the Gats is that a firecontrol-radar ? If so, I would prefer an allignment with the gun, because otherwise it would make no sense.

[M.P]

Very good decision. Navy wasn't a good idea

[__CrUsHeR]

I did not expect Ural variants, beautiful work; Gattling now has a representation of the upgrade, AMAZING!

As the discontinuity of naval units I do not see much problem with that.

[Svea Rike]

Ah, there it is. Can close my thread now. I LOVE the second Gattank, looks very WW2-ish. A question: could the naval units be scaled up and used as map props?

[M01]

A sad note for the navy... I will never forget the fun of bombarding the beaches then sending my troops from the sea...

On the other hand it was refreshing that naval combat move out for a possible chance that other game play mechanic will take the navy's spot

I still thank you guys for not removing other things that made the game play exciting. which are the neutral tech buildings that we can use, like the:
Airport
War Fortress
Blockade fortress
ETC.

Although these guys needs an update on their own

[HMS Warspite]

RIP Navy

Born: I know not.
Died: February 19, 2015

You may or may not be forgotten, depending on how many fucks about the navy were given since its inception.

Personally, I was neutral about the navy. Although I wanted to see where the navy went.

So, RIP Navy.

[Maelstrom]

An understandable choice to scrap Navy. It was quite broken. I remember the only stream with naval, it was a massacre.
But we still have amphibious units to do some cool naval battles.

Nice job for the models, as always ^^. Just a question, why do China have tank variants too? Wasn't that supposed to be a GLA feature?

[MARS]

China also has variants for its Battlemasters and Hoppers. The reason is that these vehicles, due to the spam nature of China, have to be low-poly/low-detail on their own, so we decided to add some more visual flavour by adding variants so that your China blob still looks more interesting despite the models being low-poly. For the GLA, the reasoning is due to their unconventional, non-standard equipment. The US, ECA and Russia won't need this kind of diversification due to the intended availability of their vehicles, which therefore have more detail on themselves individually.

[Shiro]

It can also be argued that the Chinese simply take old vehicles out of storage houses and outfit them with new tech to have roughly the same stats. This of course doesn't apply to higher vehicles like the Overlord as these would be created from scratch and thus be more uniform.

[Nemanja]

Whats that thing above headlight on second Ural ?
I love new Gattling Tank variants,and the fact that,well,there are Gattling Tank variants,
it have that 40/50s look,they will look really great mixed with Battlemasters now,
current ones are kind a out of place.One question about Gattling,what is that thing with star on it,a searchlight ?
Also,since navies are now officially scrapped,are there plans for releasing some concept art to the public ?

[The_Hunter]

Whats that thing above headlight on second Ural ?

*click*

current ones are kind a out of place.One question about Gattling,what is that thing with star on it,a searchlight ?

Nope its supposed to be a radar dish.

Also,since navies are now officially scrapped,are there plans for releasing some concept art to the public ?

There aren't any to release.

[Nemanja]

*click*

Oh...Sure...But I still don't know what it is.

[The_Hunter]

Neither do i

I think its somekind of exhaust pipe but i wouldn't know for certain.

[Composite armour]

much sad, many cri, wow.

Oh well, maybe we'll see some fan made addons for navy in 2.0.

[Umpfelgrumpf]

I think you made a good decision and had good reasons for scrapping the navy.
I like that there are so many variants of all those vehicles.

[Tico1990]

Neither do i

I think its somekind of exhaust pipe but i wouldn't know for certain.

My guess would be that it is a snorkel to be able to keep driving even in high water.

[DanPaladin12]

Just one question on scapping the navy.
Are there not going to be anymore updates for the navy and the navy stayed the way it is, or is the navy going to get removed.

[Evan]

Neither do i

I think its somekind of exhaust pipe but i wouldn't know for certain.

Sort of... It's actually for intake not exhaust. It's known as a 'snorkel' where I am from. Essentially that truck can continue to function as long as water doesn't come up above that spot.

[wb21]

Not much to object about removing the navy altogether, if not totally "good riddance", if to understand the insights of others here.
IMHO the navy pretty much useful only in for-fun-only skrimishes or in recreating RA missions and whatnot, but not really for serious competitive matches.

At least I'm satisfied that it will still return as a future addon and not go in the way of the Frogfoot
There's quite a silver lining with that decision -- this could mean that the development of 2.0 would be shortened and eased for just a bit, and spare the team from headaches, pitfalls, and dead ends that will simply slow down dev progress. And to quote Crusher:

<...> but is not the end of the world, so I respect the decision of the developers.

Amen.