Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt for the Modern Era

openra.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 204 posts

Re: OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt for the Modern Era

#61

Post by teawrecks »

dragontamer wrote: post #19
teawrecks wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large ball of units that you move into your enemy territory to cause death. They can be a lot of fun, but 20 years ago they presented a significant challenge to pathfinding algorithms on slow CPUs. As noted above, different games used different strategies to address them.

C&C is a clear counterexample however: all units can be selected as a group. That is to say: pathfinding was fast enough that it clearly wasn't a problem in C&C. But they clearly wanted to nerf infantry-based death balls. And boy oh boy, are infantry-death balls nerfed. An occasional infantry unit still finds its uses in C&C. They're incredibly cheap after all, and tanks have a difficult job killing infantry with the…

As someone who's introduction to RTS was C&C RA on PS1, pathfinding was definitely still an problem lol. You always knew when the AI was mobilizing a deathball because your frame rate would take a dive.

Re: OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt for the Modern Era

#64

Post by veidelis »

Arrath wrote: post #58

Did OpenRA and/or the Remaster ever fix the infinite-range grenadier bug?

Most definitely it's fixed in OpenRA. I have not heard good comments about remaster other than graphics due to them not addressing mechanics/gameplay issues such as balance.

Re: OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt for the Modern Era

#65

Post by rnoorda »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #53

One thing i remember best about the original C&C is a gorgeous installer [1]! Being one of the first games that came on CD, I thought it is the standard of the things to come. Unfortunately, the future disappointed: every other game came with a boring windows installer. [1]: https://youtu.be/cioyLQ2O6yc

I loved the C&C/RA computer aesthetic. That's how I always imagined the future of UI. The modern digital experience is fine, but I sometimes wish we had more rotating graphics and phosphor green text.

Re: OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt for the Modern Era

#66

Post by noneeeed »

jandrese wrote: post #60
MomoXenosaga wrote: post #43

Dune 2000 is so underrated, I endorse this game for any Dune fan!

On the flipside it is one of the most annoying to play. You can't mass select units and also units won't auto-engage when attacked. So of you have some tanks guarding a harvester and something with longer range starts plinking them they'll just sit there until they get destroyed. And of course moving those tanks up to engage is maximum micromanagement. It works ok on smaller scales, but the bigger maps are really ann…

I loved Dune 2000 when I was a teenager, but I remember never finishing it. The last couple of maps were just too hard for me to beat for all the reasons you listed. I think my sister managed it but it took several goes.

Re: OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt for the Modern Era

#67

Post by fivestarman »

TuringNYC wrote: post #40
hyperstar wrote: post #24

Would be nice to have the original discs with videos &c.

It seems you need the original game CDs to get the music on OpenRA. Incidentally, I have both the original 3 1/2" disk and the remastered CDs from the early 2000s -- but no computers with CDs or floppy drives. I'm willing to even purchase the music a third time, but seems OpenRA wants a CD -- has anyone gotten around this?

I just installed openRA and it says you can use an installation or cd. Maybe you could find an installation online and use your unlock key?

Re: OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt for the Modern Era

#69

Post by PeterisP »

41209 wrote: post #3

I actually own the remasters, did anyone else notice these games are absurdly hard. When I come to think about it, I've never been able to beat the original Red alert. The sequels are pretty easy though

At least the originals were easily beatable by determined kids. However, the general pattern of those games was that the opponent had an overwhelming material advantage that compensated a quite AI that wouldn't exterminate you early and would routinely send attacks that are too small to be effective and (given proper play) would be eliminated with insignificant losses on your side, thus burning the opponents resources while you're getting stronger.

However, this means that if a remaster improves the AI in any way (perhaps using a bit smarter AI that was intended for a newer game) then the resource/production advantage can make the game extremely hard.

Re: OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt for the Modern Era

#70

Post by avereveard »

dragontamer wrote: post #4

Something to note about the 90s-era is that the "death ball" of cheap units was *aggressively* mitigated in almost all strategy games. * Civilization 1, 2, and 3 had "stacks", but if you kill one unit in the stack, you kill ALL units in the stack. As such, "death balls" were incredibly fragile, one well placed attack kills the whole stack. * Command and Conquer has infantry, which get rolled over and instant-killed b…

most total annihilation units couldn't shoot past each other, the one who could where large, slow, fragile or otherwise unable t effectively blob due high weapon spread or vulnerability to splash damage.
Post reply on HN