Rise of the Reds Update: The Eyes of the Dragon Options

[MARS]

During its deployment to Germany in the midst of the GLA insurrection of 2028, one of the most glaring weaknesses of the People's Army became apparent: The GLA's widespread use of explosive traps and tunnel tactics took a heavy toll on the Chinese infantry and tank formations as they were not sufficiently equipped to spot hidden threats before it was too late. This inability to combat a cunning guerilla adversary culminated in the wholesale destruction Coburg, a town in northern Bavaria whose history dated back to the 11th century. The occupation of the city held little strategic benefit, but it gave birth to an infamous, award-winning press photo that depicted a group of burly GLA warriors erecting a crude scimitar-shaped victory monument in front of the historical timber-frame houses, which many regarded as an omen for the immediate collapse of Western civilisation. The Chinese forces soon subverted this insulting display of power, bombarded the city with Inferno Cannons and raised the Red Flag above its charred ruins. After the war, the PLA went out of its way to develop better tools for IED detection and counter-guerilla operations. The Forward Recon Kit was regarded as the most promising and cost-effective project. It provides the ever-reliable Troop Crawler with a large dish capable of scanning far into unknown territory with a powerful, highly concentrated probing beam. In addition, the vehicle is equipped with reactive armour to protect the passenger compartment from attacks, increasing the overall survivability of the Crawler in a hostile environment. Due to the added weight and power consumption, the Forward Recon Kit cannot be mounted alongside the external loudspeakers though.

When a new generation of political leaders assumed control over the Chinese government in the wake of the 2018 Taiwan Conflict, one of the many pillars of the much acclaimed Modern Way programme was an increased cooperation with China's northern neighbour Mongolia. The ancient steppe nation was rich with minerals and would prove to be a useful partner in the ongoing effort to contain the expansion of the Gobi Desert. Over the course of many years, the friendship and interconnection between Beijing and Ulaanbaatar grew, eventually resulting in the latter's peaceful integration into China's Inner Mongolia as part of the GAPA agreement of 2031. While still regarded as an annexation by international law, the Autonomous Region of Greater Mongolia was granted a very large margin of independence with respect to its ancestral heritage and benefited from the export capacities and the military protection of the People's Republic. As a trade-off, China now shared an extensive border with the Russian Federation, a former strategic partner who had turned into an audacious competitor under the leadership of Nikolai Suvorov, who snubbed the Party government with his claim that Russia would rather return to global prominence of its own accord and independently. As a result, increased border security and surveillance became a necessity. The Chinese air force subsequently acquired an entire fleet of planes that were equipped with sophisticated radar systems, high-resolution cameras and electronic missile jammers. Upon construction of an Airfield, all Chinese commanders will be able to requisition one of these espionage planes, which will then perform several recon runs over a large area.

[DELETED MEMBER]

nice, spies planes, just more of little nostalgia

[SpiralSpectre]

Gawd Recon Kit should be useful... like lifesaver useful. So does this function the same way as GLA's Radar Van's scans in-game?

BTW also love the looks of the new armour. Those "tusks" in front of the crawler are total beauty.

So how does the Spy Plane power work? Same as that one from RA2? I assume they can detect stealth? Is that part with ECM missile jammer storyline fluff or is it in? Love that little "hood" on it's back.


The lore part has been pretty enjoyable. Finally we once again get to hear more about those GLA monuments that were talked about a lot before. I chuckled reading the incident gave birth to a award winning press photo. A historical city in Bavaria... you guys sure chose a very fitting place for the whole incident.

Interesting take on Mongolia's alliance and integration into China. Surprised to hear about Mongolia's large margin of independence but that's nice and is always nice to hear. Now we know a bit more of how China eventually antagonised their once strategic ally Russia. Looks like the whole process developed in a slow and steady curve and feels quite believable. Great job on that. BTW got to say I kinda admire Suvorov for his decisions.

This post has been edited by SpiralSpectre: 19 Aug 2012, 12:20

[Darkfire Angel]

Pleasant surprise is pleasant

Loving the lore that you guys come up with. So much better justifications for units than most mods.

Wondering when the cries of "OMG America is even less high tech and still has no scouting ability!!!!" appear

[SpiralSpectre]

Pleasant surprise is pleasant

Loving the lore that you guys come up with. So much better justifications for units than most mods.

Wondering when the cries of "OMG America is even less high tech and still has no scouting ability!!!!" appear

The cry has already been there for a while now. But last we heard US is indeed going to get better at scouting. Like the CIA gen power is not going to remain a rank 5 gen power anymore and will be integrated in the US tech tree. So no prob.

[Nonchalant Gener...]

Yes!!! Finally something in the "middle" aside from gatling cannons on Overlords or weak observation vans for China to detect stealth. Would be very useful against rebel infiltration and Jarmen Kell.
The spy plane is excellent, great attention to details as always. Teally looks like a US "Hawkeye", but I suppose all recon planes has a giant dish mounted on the fuselage, like EC-8. So, how does it function like, similar to general powers, Does it have a long cooldown time? If it is called in like a general power, then it could be shot down by heavy anti-air, kinda risky to send it to scout an enemy base.

Gotta love the lore part, now I want to play the Zero Hour Chinese campaign mission 3 again, just for a nice refresh. It is rather hard to believe that Mongolia would be granted independence with respect to ancient heritage, doesn't look like the present situation. Well, we can only hope for the better.

[scorpio]

the spy plane looks really cool! i love it!

[Nemanja]

I love how now Airfields will have secondary role besides hosting fighter jets,
Spy Plane reminds me on one from Yuri's Revenge.
+
I love how updates now come on each 6 instead of 7 days

[DELETED MEMBER]

BTW also love the looks of the new armour. Those "tusks" in front of the crawler are total beauty.

no i want them red colored

[aeroth]

Carmaggedon

[Panzer4life]

Love the update, and the lore about Mongolia peacefully integrating with China is a nice touch. However, are we going to see a Chinese invasion into Siberian Russia?

[Casojin]

Gawd Recon Kit should be useful... like lifesaver useful. So does this function the same way as GLA's Radar Van's scans in-game?

The kit boosts detection range and improves the crawler armor, it also adds scan area ability (similar to ShW sentry drone ability).

So how does the Spy Plane power work? Same as that one from RA2? I assume they can detect stealth? Is that part with ECM missile jammer storyline fluff or is it in? Love that little "hood" on it's back.

It flies toward the target and circles the area for some time. It also detects stealth.

[Knjaz.]

Niice.

Two questions, though.

Will the amount of available spy planes increase with the amount of airfields built?

And... will China keep it's global recon general power?

[GeneralCamo]

I can tell you right now that there will only be one spy plane, ever, per player. Otherwise it would be seriously OP. And I think it is also an engine limitation IIRC.

[Massey]

dare i say 2? or 1 updates to go?

[Pickysaurus]

Niice.

Two questions, though.

Will the amount of available spy planes increase with the amount of airfields built?

And... will China keep it's global recon general power?

I doubt it. I haven't properly tested it but it seems unlikely. The ability is very much like Russia's Recon missile. A recently fixed bug allowed two to exist if the first did not correctly leave the airspace before another came along, so by design I'd say only one at a time.

[Massey]

I doubt it. I haven't properly tested it but it seems unlikely. The ability is very much like Russia's Recon missile. A recently fixed bug allowed two to exist if the first did not correctly leave the airspace before another came along, so by design I'd say only one at a time.

does that mean you get a "error" message saying the airspace is not clear or something?

[DELETED MEMBER]

dare i say 2? or 1 updates to go?

if i remember right what mars said, its one more update and then release

[__CrUsHeR]

Another update, I feel that this closer the launch.

I loved the story is mainly because of interesting points about the past of China in the conflict against the GLA, is what comes to updating this had questioned one day ago, questions about geographic locations, this updating was very satisfactory at this point detailing events in a specific place facilitating the comprehension of all, thanks for the beautiful story that makes me wonder a little about the war itself.

The technologies available to China to detect their enemies are very welcome, now I can reveal the tricks of my enemies as the Nproject with my spy plane.

[Panzer4life]

Yeah, it is confirmed that there is one more update before the release of 7.2. I remeber asking MARs it before on the last update, and he said yes. Also, next update is a Russian update, time to see what the Sentinel now has.

[BLGMGL]

WTF? Mongolia peacefully integrating into China? Never in my life! We Mongols would rather stick to Russia just like we did in early 20th century when we restored our independence from Manchu Empire (read Qing Dynasty).

BTW, that would be a good story development. Since Russia was always interested in keeping some buffer zone like Mongolia between itself and China, next thing Russia could attempt is to "liberate" Mongolia from China thus sparkling direct conflict between Russia and China. Or there also could be some rebellion inside Mongolia against Chinese rule supported by GLA (however, in Mongolia GLA would not receive much support I believe).

I know it's just a game and I tried to stay out of politics. So don't blame me!

[Silverbullet]

Yeah..these models are very nice

[SpiralSpectre]

no i want them red colored

You know maybe they would look even more badass if they were red. But coloring all the tusks red probably wouldn't match the entire vehicle which doesn't have that much red in it otherwise. Decisions, decisions.

WTF? Mongolia peacefully integrating into China? Never in my life! We Mongols would rather stick to Russia just like we did in early 20th century when we restored our independence from Manchu Empire (read Qing Dynasty).

BTW, that would be a good story development. Since Russia was always interested in keeping some buffer zone like Mongolia between itself and China, next thing Russia could attempt is to "liberate" Mongolia from China thus sparkling direct conflict between Russia and China. Or there also could be some rebellion inside Mongolia against Chinese rule supported by GLA (however, in Mongolia GLA would not receive much support I believe).

I know it's just a game and I tried to stay out of politics. So don't blame me!

Yeah that part of the story is indeed surprising but maybe Mongolia agreed to integrate cause China has been surprisingly nice with them. While after the ZH events and specially after forming of GAPA, China also managed to establish themselves as unrivaled superpower in Central, South and South-East Asia. All of these had their effects I guess. Ofc maybe I didn't find this that surprising cause Mongolia's integration was already mentioned in the forums earlier.

Anyway in ROTR timeline Mongolia would think twice before going with Russia. It has been already mentioned earlier that Russia absolutely assimilated a good amount of their newly acquired territory in the ROTR continuity and have been quite aggressive with their policies. It's likely that one of the key reasons why the GLA managed to root out Russia so easily from their African territories was that the locals didn't like the Russians at all. It's difficult to rely on someone like that and march for independence while you already have a large margin of independence (again, yes that sounds surprising).

Again it has been mentioned Russia didn't really want to go into conflict with the other superpowers. The others gradually antagonised Russia and pushed them into a corner and ultimately Russia had little choice left other than declaring war on Europe. So a bit unlikely Russia would spark the direct conflict with China by trying to "liberate" Mongolia. It's rather the opposite way - China has already been overly anxious about the safety of the ethnic Chinese in Eastern Russia. They even have their Secret Police's head stationed near there. Yeah that sounds really sweet int he outside but it's so very likely they're secretly stirring up the commotion between native Russians and ethnic Chinese to get Russia into more trouble.

On top of everything - there is always the secret police to deal with possible Russian activity in Mongolia and some kinda rebellion.

P.S. - Just wondering, I am not that familiar with modding world but has there ever been a mod story in history that has been discussed this thoroughly? ROTR even makes the original ZH story sound far more sensible, something EA probably never planned/bothered it to be.

[Serialkillerwhal...]

Pleasant surprise is pleasant

Loving the lore that you guys come up with. So much better justifications for units than most mods.

Wondering when the cries of "OMG America is even less high tech and still has no scouting ability!!!!" appear

OMG America is even less high tech and still has no scouting ability!!!!

happy now?

[__CrUsHeR]

To say that the unification of the peoples within the Chinese territory and its surroundings is something impossible is not very wise in the Generals universe. From the beginning of the series Beijing has been fighting aggressively against any outbreak revolting within its own territory and investing heavily in a subliminal patriotic campaign in Rise of the Reds can observe that General Chen became not only a great commander but also one national hero with films in which the protagonist defending the motherland against the GLA and General Jin with his mega secret police apparatus can finish the task of pacification and union people at the same time it conveys the feeling of security for their own population watching the edge of the border with Russia.

China in Rise of the Reds is a unified mega power for me is the faction with the best story so far, but the history between Russia and the European Alliance promises.