Bunch of Dumb Game Questions Options

[vectorguy]

Hi All,

Here are some possibly dumb questions that I haven’t been able to find answers for on the various forums and webpages devoted to the game. Currently I’m playing Rise of the Reds Shockwave in skirmishes as USA faction.after trying Shockwave for a few weeks and uninstalling it.

[ROTR - Gameplay] Why do units sometimes randomly change to white (or is it grey?) in color?

[SW] Does the repair drone passively (there's never a rotating wrench animation) repair firebases and tech buildings or do only dozers do that?

[C&C] Is there a way to text search inside custom game map files to determine for which enemy AI they are designed? E.G., some maps will only work with, say, GLA, but you only discover this after building defences for a while.

[SW/ROTR - Gameplay] Cannot re-target Ion Cannon after it starts striking. Does re-targeting work only in network games?

[C&C] How to better understand the AI, I.E., why are some skirmish maps’ factions very difficult when set to “Medium”, etc.?

[SW - Gameplay] Does toxin soldier automatically clean up toxins/radiation within a certain radius (say, if in a vehicle or garrisoned) or does this have to be manually activated?

[SW - Gameplay] Does the ambulance automatically heal troops within a certain radius? There’s no in-game indication that anything is happening (although in ROTR, a deployed ambulance shows healing range and red cross animation). What about garrisoned infantry?

[C&C - Gameplay] What is the purpose of capturing ungarrisonable bunkers/nuke facilities/etc?

[C&C - Modding] Can aircraft be instructed to NOT target infantry by editing an INI file?

[ROTR - Gameplay] Force-fire doesn’t seem to work for all units - could be my Mac keyboard, I suppose.

[ROTR - Gameplay] What is the meaning when a protector missile system temporarily has a rotating ring of light around it? Is it targetting?

[C&C - Gameplay] Does armor upgrade apply ONLY to tanks (i.e., not Humvees, Bradleys, missile vehicles, etc.)?

[C&C - Gameplay] Why, on some maps, can you repair, say, an aircraft carrier, but after repairs are completed the ship has no further use or purpose - not even garrisoning?

[C&C - Gameplay] What is the place beacon for (it doesn’t seem to work for me)? Is it visible to enemy players?

[C&C - Map Selection] What do the white and red stars that appear to the left of the map names in the map selection screen mean and why is there no apparent order to the maps appearing in the Unofficial Maps column? I.e., the list order isn’t alphabetical (well actually, it is, sort of…), last-added, or anything else I can determine. Also, what is the purpose of designating a Skirmish Player position as ‘Closed’?

[C&C - Resolution and Camera] Even though I set my screen to ludicrous resolution (2880x1800) in the options.ini file and camera height to 800, sometimes when the game starts the view seems to reset to 800x600 or maybe a bit higher, it’s hard to tell. Also, some maps seem to zoom in and out by themselves while panning over the landscape. Is resolution/camera height set independently by some maps?

[C&C - Replays] Is there some secret to getting downloaded (.REP files, I think) replays to work? It seems like hit and miss.

Thanks if anyone can clear up some of these questions, I’m sure some answers are fairly obvious but not to me.

And a great big thank you to those who created and maintain these mods, they’re great! I’m anxiously waiting for the new ROTR…

Paul

[Zeke]

[ROTR - Gameplay] Why do units sometimes randomly change to white (or is it grey?) in color?

SAGE

[SW] Does the repair drone passively (there's never a rotating wrench animation) repair firebases and tech buildings or do only dozers do that?

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w259/Ze...yityourself.jpg

[C&C] Is there a way to text search inside custom game map files to determine for which enemy AI they are designed? E.G., some maps will only work with, say, GLA, but you only discover this after building defences for a while.

No

[SW/ROTR - Gameplay] Cannot re-target Ion Cannon after it starts striking. Does re-targeting work only in network games?

If you mean Particle Cannon, it does retarget, you're probably just doing it wrong.

[C&C] How to better understand the AI, I.E., why are some skirmish maps’ factions very difficult when set to “Medium”, etc.?

Trial and error?

[SW - Gameplay] Does toxin soldier automatically clean up toxins/radiation within a certain radius (say, if in a vehicle or garrisoned) or does this have to be manually activated?

IIRC it's automatic.

[SW - Gameplay] Does the ambulance automatically heal troops within a certain radius? There’s no in-game indication that anything is happening (although in ROTR, a deployed ambulance shows healing range and red cross animation). What about garrisoned infantry?

Ambulances in Shockwave work exactly like they do in ZH, with the exception of repairing vehicles (which now needs an upgrade).

[C&C - Gameplay] What is the purpose of capturing ungarrisonable bunkers/nuke facilities/etc?

In skirmish, nothing. They are meant to be used as triggers for mission maps.

[C&C - Modding] Can aircraft be instructed to NOT target infantry by editing an INI file?

Yes, but it's not worth it.

[ROTR - Gameplay] Force-fire doesn’t seem to work for all units - could be my Mac keyboard, I suppose.

That's because some units don't have a PRIMARY weapon.

[ROTR - Gameplay] What is the meaning when a protector missile system temporarily has a rotating ring of light around it? Is it targetting?

Assisted targeting, same as Patriots in ZH.

[C&C - Gameplay] Does armor upgrade apply ONLY to tanks (i.e., not Humvees, Bradleys, missile vehicles, etc.)?

Check the unit portrait area if the upgrade cameo is there, if it is, then they're affected.

[C&C - Gameplay] Why, on some maps, can you repair, say, an aircraft carrier, but after repairs are completed the ship has no further use or purpose - not even garrisoning?

Because the mapper probably added those objects to decorate the map and never intended anyone to actually use them.

[C&C - Gameplay] What is the place beacon for (it doesn’t seem to work for me)? Is it visible to enemy players?

It's used to mark places on the map in multiplayer. It's visible to you and your allies.

[C&C - Map Selection] What do the white and red stars that appear to the left of the map names in the map selection screen mean and why is there no apparent order to the maps appearing in the Unofficial Maps column? I.e., the list order isn’t alphabetical (well actually, it is, sort of…), last-added, or anything else I can determine. Also, what is the purpose of designating a Skirmish Player position as ‘Closed’?

1. The stars indicate the AI difficulty you beat on the map, bronze for easy, silver for medium, gold for hard, and a silver star with glowing blue center if you defeat the max number of hard AI players. 2. Maps are ordered alphabetically but are grouped according to number of players. 3. The closed status is used to keep unwanted players from joining a multiplayer game (ex. if only 2 players wants to play on an eight player map).

[C&C - Resolution and Camera] Even though I set my screen to ludicrous resolution (2880x1800) in the options.ini file and camera height to 800, sometimes when the game starts the view seems to reset to 800x600 or maybe a bit higher, it’s hard to tell. Also, some maps seem to zoom in and out by themselves while panning over the landscape. Is resolution/camera height set independently by some maps?

I don't know about resolution, but maps can have their own camera heights.

[C&C - Replays] Is there some secret to getting downloaded (.REP files, I think) replays to work? It seems like hit and miss.

Make sure your game and mod version is exactly the same as the replays.

[Frostyarmy]

If you want your replays to be 100% accurate run a Game in -> Network -> Lan (Still play singleplayer) When its in LAN the replay locks the framerate and the AI and your gameplay will be accurate. Skirmish saves and replays ALWAYS BREAK

[vectorguy]

Thanks for the answers, Zeke. Very helpful.

I figured there must be some way to search through/inside map files for some indication of which factions' AI are supported, but I guess there isn't. On downloaded maps sometimes there's a readme or some instructions on the hosting site, but not often.

It's such a waste when you have a combined troops/armor column approaching and 4/8 missiles are fired at the lead infantryman and not at the FRICKING GATLING CANNON behind him.

A couple other things I forgot are:

1. I assume that capturing a hospital heals (very slowly) all units on the map as opposed to immediately healing all map units to 100% upon capture.

2. Tech repair bays seem kind of pointless unless they do the same thing (slowly heal units).

3. Getting unit formations to work properly (i.e., having all move at same speed) seems to be hit and miss, but maybe it's just me.

Now I pretty much watch replays on YouTube and give up on downloaded files.

Paul

This post has been edited by vectorguy: 19 Feb 2015, 17:14

[Zeke]

1. I assume that capturing a hospital heals (very slowly) all units on the map as apposed to immediately healing upon capture.

2. Tech repair bays seem kind of pointless unless they do the same thing (slowly heal units).

Hospitals only heal infantry. Repair Bays only repair vehicles. The healing speed is normal, plus it stacks with other repair units and structures.

3. Getting unit formations to work properly (i.e., having all move at same speed) seems to be hit and miss, but maybe it's just me.

Ctrl+F forces units to move at the same speed as the slowest unit, but it doesn't affect aircraft, and the units break formation of given an attack order.

[Megazord]

[SW/ROTR - Gameplay] Cannot re-target Ion Cannon after it starts striking. Does re-targeting work only in network games?

Remember that you need to have Particle Uplink Cannon selected (the building). It confused me at the beginning too

[Skoony]

Old but still relevant, I guess...

[C&C - Resolution and Camera] Even though I set my screen to ludicrous resolution (2880x1800) in the options.ini file and camera height to 800, sometimes when the game starts the view seems to reset to 800x600 or maybe a bit higher, it’s hard to tell. Also, some maps seem to zoom in and out by themselves while panning over the landscape. Is resolution/camera height set independently by some maps?

This is a really annoying thing with Generals – if you set a custom resolution that's not natively supported in the Options menu, whenever you go into Options to change something the resolution reverts back to 800 x 600. So you cannot do anything there without exiting the game and going into options.ini again and changing it back.

All maps zoom in or out depending on the terrain. If you're on a mountainous map, the camera will keep a default hight relating to whatever's in focus. So if it's a large mountain, the camera will zoom out a bit, then back in when you leave it. I have my camera set to 620 because the camera is way too fucking zoomed in the original versions (Shockwave remedies this a fair bit).