Now, on to the main meat of this update. Today, we are proud to announce a new faction mechanic for the GLA: Reverse engineering of nuclear components.

By the year 2040, political experts around the world agreed that, aside from the increasingly catastrophic effects of climate change, dwindling resources and widespread socio-economic unheavel, the uncontrolled proliferation of nuclear materials would be one of the greatest threats to peace and stability for the foreseeable future. The Global War on Terror, as well as various other conflicts of the 2020s and 30s such as the Great Middle Eastern War and the Korean Reunification War, created a climate of chaos that hadn't been seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union, resulting in the outright failure of entire nation states, the dissolution of their militaries and an unparallelled influx of illegal goods and skilled professionals of a 'morally flexible' nature on the global black market.

More specifically, the destruction and annexation of North Korea and the violent creation of the Persian Republic out of what used to be Iran put many high-ranking nuclear scientists from these now defunct countries out of their job. Many of them provided their expertise to shortlived rogue states, tinpot autocracies and terrorist organisations, most prominently of all the Global Liberation Army. After two decades in hibernation since the infamous European insurrection of 2028, the new GLA of the late 2040s has once again become a force to be reckoned with. The consolidation of its Central African territories has provided the GLA with a permanent refuge and a crude industrial base for the first time in its history and it is presumed that its paramount leader, the infamous Warlord Anwar Sulaymaan, has amassed between two and five billion dollars worth of black funds and commodities through his conquests and illegal business operations. Worse yet, the GLA is now also considered a de facto nuclear power by several governments, due to its easy access to the necessary knowledge and weapons-grade materials. Whether it is only imaginary or not, the GLA's enigmatic nuclear stockpile has already served its purpose as a deterrent in 2046, when the landmark proposal of a combined military invasion by the African Union was dropped on behalf of several member states for fear of a nuclear response.

The arsenal, while only measured in the double digits, is expected to include crude radiological weapons like the so-called 'dirty bombs' which release radioactive particles by means of a conventional explosion, but also low-yield tactical fission warheads whose destructive potential could prove catastrophic if used against a vulnerable civilian target such as a city, an airport or a powerplant. The fact that none of these weapons have so far been used in or even outside the African theatre can only be marked down to persistent reports of infighting and disunity amidst the higher tiers of the GLA leadership, particularly a long-documented feud between Warlord Sulaymaan, who appears to be more interested in protecting the spoils of his conquests, and the extremist cleric Abdul bin Yusuuf, whose Brotherhood of the White Falcon still accounts for a sizeable fraction of the GLA's original powerbase. It is widely believed - and feared - that the GLA might awaken from its relative inertia in the event that Yusuuf and his followers manage to further consolidate their influence in the wake of the Third World War.

THAT IS AWESOME, i keep saying SWR won't have anything for the next version interesting but damn, i think i will start asking when will 1.85 be released

Wasn't the recycler mechanic supposed to be much bigger? Was something uncodeable? Anyway, really interesting idea there, SWR. You keep suprising me with every update!

I believe we are seeing only the first fruits of this new mechanic. Glory to SWR!

Those look intereszting but likely hard to acquire for the GLA, will they be powerful. But I am concerned that this may be all of the recycle mechanic of the GLA (I want to see Tesla Trucks!).

Can't wait to see the explosions

I'm a little unfamiliar of the salvage mechinic so this may seem dumb ,but if you destroy say your Pandora before the GLA does does that still produce a nuclear stockpile?

Edit: Should the poster say the sixth not the seventh of July?

Interesting. So the recycling stuff seems to be bigger than just the recycler truck. Can't wait to see what's next

Not just a Recycle truck, Scorpion Tank and Marauder Tank as well.

A note. Sunday is 6th of July, not 7th.

And the various nuclear variants for Bomb Trucks, I seen the stream today (Youtube), and while it is something you cant count on, it is defintiely something that you shall be vary when dealing with Bomb Trucks. The only ones that are safe of this is USA

I guess there is something from each faction that GLA can make use of. Interestingly, will there be something from GLA for the recycling (at least on faction level)?

No-one is expecting the neutron truck...
Ultimate vehicle rape anybody?

Can't wait to use these when 1.85 comes out. I'll make quite liberal use of them, I assure you...

this is why I like ROTR, the little things and its systems

Do the crates conflict with or work with the High Explosive and Chemical Bomb upgrades?

Looks like someone didn't read the fine print again.


They don't conflict with each other.


If you are smart enough you'll never let the GLA get your tech, this includes destroying your own Pandora before they can get it.



To clear this up, the Nuclear Exchange Program (henceforth NEP) is only a part of the new recycle mechanic. You kill nuclear stuff, you receive cool salvage crates to turn your Bomb Trucks into nuclear weapons. Any warhead they had before will be overwritten, so make sure you really want the warhead on that particular Bomb Truck. The NEP does not work when you kill your own stuff. The NEP does not work when your ally kills your stuff. The NEP does not work when you kill your ally's stuff. The NEP only works when enemies kill each others stuff, just like the conventional salvage system. Things like China and GLA allying up, then deliberately destroying Nuclear Reactors so that the GLA player can get nuclear salvage does not work.

Wow! This new mechanic is pretty cool; will add high doses of fun and additional strategy to the game.

About the lore I missed the events of Dragon Parade to be mentioned - the explosion of a nuclear warhead in Beijing - and also the fact that a renegade Chinese general have smuggled the weapons for the GLA - undoubtedly the experience of the faction with nuclear weapons began long before 2040. However, a very good lore.

Very interesting I'm assuming that the last three are going to be pretty power full considering how hard it is to get them.

Thank You for clearing that up.

Does it matter if the Silo missile or the Topol aren't loaded?

Yes. Unloaded ones don't spawn crates.

Imagine your enemy bringing you all his tanks and just a whole lot of tank blob thinking he's going to win and BOOM! Neutron truck, Hehehehehe...

As demonstrated on the stream today, this quickly falls apart with stealth detectors or simply an attentive player.

Nuke suicide trucks, very interasting.

I like the new mechanic very much, though i am curious as to why the fusion reactor and solar reactor do not leave nuclear waste as they are nuclear/radiation based technologies, am i not correct?

The Supply Tracks can now boost attack. Interesting. I bet they can also be makeshift bomb trucks if all else fails.

And those nuclear Bomb Trucks, only two things can be said:

"The glow, THE WONDERFUL GLOW!! Can you not see it, General?" -ex-General Tsing Shi Tao "The Nuke"

"...You're gonna like this General. Oh wait, no you won't." -ex-General Tsing Shi Tao "The Nuke", shared with the very late Doctor Thrax

Solar Reactor is sun-based, and Fusion reactor is hooked up with Fusion Reactors back in good ol' 'Murica.

The FUsion reactor runs on some sort of Fusion Battery charged up at a real reactor in the US, while the Solar one is a sun-heated fusion plant.

Both are Nuclear Fusion-based and thus cannot be easily made into nukes. Only Fission reactions create radiation and only fission, which uses the high-density plutonium and uranium, are easily turned into nukes (H-bombs have a small A-bomb to start the reaction anyway).

Internal chamber of solar reactor as a true fusion reactor would be quite radioactive due to neutrons from the reaction bombarding it. This would allow for the first version of a truck, methinks.

Even with their apparent smarts, fusion technology is beyond the GLA. Besides, remember that in old movies like James Bond, the nuclear bombs used by the bad guys are always fission bombs?

It's kind of implied that some of the Solar Reactors most important components are actually underground. Seeing how the surface structure explores in a quite spectacular fashion, we could assume the entire underground reactor chamber simply collapses in the process, thus burrying any nuclear material that might have been of some immediate use to the GLA [/totally not a handwave]

SKW is correct about the American reactors though: What you build in game is not the actual reactor, but merely a glorified battery that was previously charged by an actual fusion reactor outside the battlezone. It's not the prettiest explanation, but we had to present something to justify that the one thing gives you quasi-infinite power whereas the other one needs to be built in numbers like any other power plant despite running of the same mechanism as implied by the name,.

...or the fact it doesn't explode.

Its a fusion reactor, so it couldn't explode or release radioactive matter into the atmosphere. In any event you're not going to be able to find weapons-grade plutonium or uranium at a normal fission or fusion reactor.

^ That's part of the reasoning too. The stuff that's found in a reactor isn't enriched to weapons-grade either way, but its still radioactive and thus sufficient for the kind of dirty bomb that the GLA can make of a stockpile from a Chinese power plant. The Breeder Reactor on the other hand may produce a tactical nuke, the idea being that the structure doubles as booth an expanded power plant, an enrichment facility to -make- weapons-grade material and a storage for actual weapons, as does the Nuclear Missile Silo.

i'm mostly pointing out that the physical materials used in the internal chamber will be highly irradiated due to neutron bombardment and as such useful for radiation dispersion bomb variant, but Mars has already "not handwaved" that.

The ECA Research centre is to big. It takes up half the map as it is!

As does the American airfield, and you can even build multiple of those.

That is actually going to be addressed for the next release.

Wait, what?

I don't see a problem with size of R&D Center.

There's one map, valley war or something like that, where you just can't build it all.

Well, actually, we could say the American plant also gives quasi-infinite power, but, as fusion is an inherently energy-hungry process (Heating up the plasma and all that), most of it is used up by the reactor itself.

Given the smaller scale, in reality, the US reactor could potentially be dolling out 50 to 100 power, but consuming most of it by itself.

I'd say the problem lies in some maps, not the size of the R&D. Some maps simply do not consider the space needed to build a controlled base.

Lowering the R&D center's size is all good, but what about US airfields that take up half the map?

play tetris

Holy shit you're right, they're I blocks!

Fun, the dirty nuke should help a little against China. Not sure any of the others will see much use, as the conditions to obtain and use them are pretty hard to meet - Topols and the Pandora might occasionally get caught out of position, but taking out a major enemy building and getting a bomb truck to the ruins and out again intact before the crate vanishes is pretty slim odds, unless the base is done for already. In PvP I imagine any other player will be hunting like mad for that bomb truck if you do manage it, as well. Still, details like these really add to the fun factor

Awww... the munitions track looks so cute
The glasses look like eyes, i would cuddle it!
Its an very nice addition i must say, will be likey for charles, judging because he has the only jet of the ECA and the goshawk, which of the first has the chaff of course and the goshawk presumbly too, and since this track embodies fire support, i think its an charles exclusive after 2.0

Except the main reason why we did this in the first place was to have an additional use for the Supply Track. This will be available to all ECA Generals, in the same way as every Chinese General will be able to put infantry in his trucks.

Ah thanks for clearing this up. I would prefared it for Charles since it would be most fitting and the other gens would have an repair/support type upgrade instead of an offensive thing. But its still nice.

..ahm~ you use engineer Pandurs for that.
They wanted to give the trucks a feature no other ECA vehicle yet has?

i guess the supply track upgrade is not free and its permanent?