Command & Conquer Remastered Collection |OT| Welcome Back, Commander

CatAssTrophy · Jun 7, 2020

I think the patch fixed my crashing. I went ahead and started GDI on easy for the nostalgia. I noticed it's still a pain in the ass to select units that are close to each other because the cursor area is massive. Really wish they'd fix that.

Otherwise this is a good time. I cannot wait to spend some rainy days with RA skirmishes against multiple enemy AI's on a custom map I built to isolate them from me or force them through choke points. I don't care if it's cheesing, I just love playing out fictional battles of my own creation.

AuthenticM · Jun 7, 2020

Specific Power Ranger said:
Saw that someone put out a pathfinding mod which uses some variant of A*

DISCORD LINK

I setup a discord for anyone interested in a cnc era community ! I'm not sure how to integrate it so you have to reply to view it though, so for now, send me a PM

What does "some variant of A*" mean?

Also, do mods disable anything? Like the gallery unlocks or Steam achievements?

Dictator · Jun 7, 2020

My video should be coming out... tomorrow I think (my coverage got a bit delayed due to work obligations on Bioshock earlier in the week). But this is probably my favourite remaster ever. I love it, dearly.

Also, playing the game again I am reminded how much kiting is core gameplay here to win many missions. That and splitting up your troops and using torrent of fire tactics to kill off the most dangerous things first. Really great gameplay all these years later. Genius game.

AuthenticM · Jun 7, 2020

CatAssTrophy said:
I think the patch fixed my crashing.

There was a patch??

LabouredSubterfuge · Jun 7, 2020

Walken said:
I was about to say the same thing. Very nice start up. So far really enjoying the nostalgia but I forgot had bad the original graphics were. EA did a great job remastering this, keep it up.

Ha!

When I started the first mission and it starts with the old graphics I immediately paused thinking I hadn't set the upgraded graphics. Then recommenced and realised they do that just to show you how much they've upgraded the graphics.

WellbornWarrior · Jun 7, 2020

It's hard to believe this comes from the same company that is responsible for Command & Conquer 4.

That said I really should start making a habit of saving often...

CatAssTrophy · Jun 7, 2020

AuthenticM said:
There was a patch??

Not long after I had the crash when I tried launching it from Steam again it had the small little "updating" box appear for a few seconds before it launched. I just assume it was a small patch considering the save sync usually happens after closing a game. Who knows though, maybe there was no patch.

I have a really old/odd system setup though, so it might just be me:
FX-8350
Sabertooth 990fx r1
16gb DDR3
RX 570 8GB on PCIe 2.0
Win 10 1909 (or whatever is the latest before the 20xx update)

karnage10 · Jun 7, 2020

AuthenticM said:
Outside of the stage that requires the player to defend civilians, I don't think anything in this game is obtuse at all. I also think you're making these games seem way harder than they are. I'm not good competitively at these games, as I have said above. I have ADD, and that 100% affects my APM. Despite that, I have never found these games to be too hard or even frustrating (at least, on the normal difficulty). For each mission, I take the time to establish defenses in a way that can handle the enemy AI with minimal interferance from my part.

I just beat GDI mission 9, which took me maybe an hour. This was the point of entry to my base:

I set it up as soon as I could, and all I had to do after that was watch as the AI would send their units to their slaughtering. I barely had to manage it.

Maybe i just suck at RTS but for me these games for me are rather hard. Note that i don't have ADD or to my knowledge any other disease that could impair my ability to play the game.

In total war i pause slowly evaluate my decisions play for a few seconds then pause. I also only need to focus on 20-40 units in 3-4 parts of the map.

While in C&C i have my army in one place, i have to see the defense of my base and keep an eye on the economy all at the same time.

Games like Ck2, stellaris, endless legend also give much more type and info if you are going to win a conflict or not. in C&C ic ans end 50 untis to a base and have 0 knowledge if they can win a combat or not. I also don't know if am losing or wining a combat at any given time while most other strategies give an indication if you are wining or not

Personally i find it much harder than all other type of strategy games; mostly because your decisions have to be made under pressure with no way to alliviate that pressure if you are overwhelmed. In a way my point is that RTS require a certain level of pratice and skill. In no way can you win just because you have a good strategy like in other strategies games; you need the ability to execute it.

that said maybe i jsut suck at RTS.

SpartyCrunch · Jun 7, 2020

Dictator said:
My video should be coming out... tomorrow I think (my coverage got a bit delayed due to work obligations on Bioshock earlier in the week). But this is probably my favourite remaster ever. I love it, dearly.

Also, playing the game again I am reminded how much kiting is core gameplay here to win many missions. That and splitting up your troops and using torrent of fire tactics to kill off the most dangerous things first. Really great gameplay all these years later. Genius game.

Can't wait!

I'm wondering if you're going to bring up something which I feel is key to this remaster being so amazing - the fact that they so elegantly took all the legacy gameplay and game behaviors and wrapped it in something which is entirely modernized to the core.

So many other remasters - even those which overall do a great job - are often still just left with the obvious skeleton of something old. Maybe they'll update the assets and some of the behaviors and they'll make it run on modern OS's and hardware, but it's still mostly the same thing under the covers.

But for this collection, the game is fundamentally a modern game to the core. Modernized handling of graphics and audio options. The UI is completely rebuilt from the ground-up. The achievements system and the system for unlocking extras is implemented pretty much perfectly. The settings for audio, video, and controls give it tons of flexibility. It's fully integrated with Steamworks.

What's so exciting about this for me is not just that the remaster itself is great, but it seems like they've potentially built a solid framework to put other remasters in too.

I've followed this game since it was announced over a year ago and all they really showed was the visual and audio upgrades. But the whole package is so much more impressive than I ever expected it to be.

Lightjolly · Jun 7, 2020

karnage10 said:
.

Actually about to make a thread talking about what you said

Specific Power Ranger · Jun 7, 2020

AuthenticM said:
What does "some variant of A*" mean?

Also, do mods disable anything? Like the gallery unlocks or Steam achievements?

A* is a pathfinding system that has been used a lot in unity amongst other things. The guy wrote that it was a "simple" version which probably means that it isn't as advanced as what you would find in other games, but still a big step up (I would imagine). I haven't tested it myself yet.

I built a bot for the discord. You can get a link in the OT or by replying to this post

Hidden content

So far it can do some simple things like assigning you to a faction but I'm thinking it would be neat to add stats and other information. Hope we can build some community around it and get some games going !

Iron Eddie · Jun 7, 2020

LabouredSubterfuge said:
Ha!

When I started the first mission and it starts with the old graphics I immediately paused thinking I hadn't set the upgraded graphics. Then recommenced and realised they do that just to show you how much they've upgraded the graphics.

Yes, same. I thought I paid for this? Then I realized the spacebar allows you to quickly go from old to new, very cool.

FluffyQuack · Jun 7, 2020

Is it rude if I link my own mods here?

I made a few quick mods:

1-tile gap between buildings in Tiberian Dawn: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122093636
Hot pink GDI: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122835124
Hot pink NOD: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122841591

I say "quick" but I spent a lot of time finding the relevant things to change. With the building mod, I spent a lot of time editing related code until I finally realized... oh, I'm changing code which is left in from the original game, but isn't used. When I finally found the new version of the code, it was a 10-minute change.

Same thing with the colours. I spent some time editing code related to colours, only to realize I was editing code only relevant to the original game (this code is used, but only when original graphics are shown). And then I figured the remastered graphics use colours which are defined in XML files, and once I found it it was a super quick change.

It's fun to mod, but I dunno how much I'll personally make. I'd personally love to see an overhaul with the pathfinding, but mostly how units move as a group. It's a bit frustrating to move a group and then have parts of it move around the map because it thinks the units in front are obstacles.

And one big pipe dream is seeing coop added to the campaign, but that would be a huge undertaking and possibly completely impossible (right now you can't make any multiplayer mods).

Deleted member 26526 · Jun 7, 2020

This is harder than I remember it being!?! Loving the nostalgia trip though despite in my opinion. Not ageing well as a game

SpartyCrunch · Jun 7, 2020

I'm playing the NOD campaign and have no idea how to handle flame soldiers. How do people keep them from destroying themselves and the rest of your army?

Dictator · Jun 7, 2020

SpartyCrunch said:
I'm playing the NOD campaign and have no idea how to handle flame soldiers. How do people keep them from destroying themselves and the rest of your army?

Have them be separate from your army control group away from your main infantry. They require a lot of micro to even keep them away from eachother. High maintanence unit, but the really wreck infantry.. and buildings even.

AuthenticM · Jun 7, 2020

Specific Power Ranger said:
A* is a pathfinding system that has been used a lot in unity amongst other things. The guy wrote that it was a "simple" version which probably means that it isn't as advanced as what you would find in other games, but still a big step up (I would imagine). I haven't tested it myself yet.

I built a bot for the discord. You can get a link in the OT or by replying to this post

[Hidden content]

So far it can do some simple things like assigning you to a faction but I'm thinking it would be neat to add stats and other information. Hope we can build some community around it and get some games going !

Alright, thanks.

FluffyQuack said:
Is it rude if I link my own mods here?

I made a few quick mods:

1-tile gap between buildings in Tiberian Dawn: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122093636

Hot pink GDI: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122835124

Hot pink NOD: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122841591

I say "quick" but I spent a lot of time finding the relevant things to change. With the building mod, I spent a lot of time editing related code until I finally realized... oh, I'm changing code which is left in from the original game, but isn't used. When I finally found the new version of the code, it was a 10-minute change.

Same thing with the colours. I spent some time editing code related to colours, only to realize I was editing code only relevant to the original game (this code is used, but only when original graphics are shown). And then I figured the remastered graphics use colours which are defined in XML files, and once I found it it was a super quick change.

It's fun to mod, but I dunno how much I'll personally make. I'd personally love to see an overhaul with the pathfinding, but mostly how units move as a group. It's a bit frustrating to move a group and then have parts of it move around the map because it thinks the units in front are obstacles.

And one big pipe dream is seeing coop added to the campaign, but that would be a huge undertaking and possibly completely impossible (right now you can't make any multiplayer mods).

Thank you for making the 1-tile gap mod. After playing OpenRA for so long instead of the base game, the lack of possible gap between building was really messing with me lol.

Tomasdk · Jun 7, 2020

Ok, I was suspicious but Soviet mission 7 confirmed to me that on Hard, the enemy units are faster than you and as such I don't know how to outrun them. That's the nuclear reactor stage and I forgot waht I need to do and in waht order. I'll probably have to run throgh it n casual to learn the route.

Samiya · Jun 7, 2020

holy shit there are already 1200 mods on steam workshop. That is insane.

Tacitus · Jun 7, 2020

Oof, some of these missions are just pure bullshit. Like the 2nd to last Nod mission that I just did. At first you have to dodge two mammoth tanks just to get your base built, then after the tiny field next to your base is depleted you have to send your harvesters half across the map to fields that are guarded by - you guessed it - more mammoth tanks. And you have to do this while surviving the waves the AI sends at your base and uses napalm strike and ion cannon on cooldown.

Gotta micro your heart out of your rocket troopers and bikes to survive. And hope that the pathing doesn't glitch out.

MrBob · Jun 7, 2020

Playing this via Origin Premiere. Never played the original C & C before (red alert fan), been having fun going through it. Looking at all the mods coming to the Steam Workshop, I might have to go grab it on Steam.

Dr.Phibes · Jun 7, 2020

Enjoying this a ton for the nostalgia alone, but gotta admit I don't remember TD being that hard/annoying.

jads87 · Jun 7, 2020

Looking forward to the DF coverage. Soms of these missions are kicking my ass. Did a complete playthrough last year, the new mechanics are certainly making it a bit easier. But stil, looking at you GDI mission 8....

CatAssTrophy · Jun 7, 2020

FluffyQuack said:
Is it rude if I link my own mods here?

I made a few quick mods:

1-tile gap between buildings in Tiberian Dawn: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122093636

Hot pink GDI: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122835124

Hot pink NOD: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2122841591

Does the tile gap mod just keep you from putting buildings right next to each other? Or can you put them right next to each other but it allows things to pass in between?

I don't like the idea of being forced to space out my base artificially.

MrBob · Jun 7, 2020

Is there an attack move mod? No attack move is the one thing that frustrates me.

Guy.brush · Jun 7, 2020

Playing this again after years, and had forgotten how much both the original and Red Alert campaigns relied on scripted commando missions with a handful of infantry or 1 APC. Always kinda hated them. When played on hard they rely on spamming the SAVE button at each bridge, dog or group of trees you want to pass. 1 enemy tank and it smoothly squishes all you have and the mission is GAME OVER. The scatter key X does not work for this either.

FluffyQuack · Jun 7, 2020

CatAssTrophy said:
Does the tile gap mod just keep you from putting buildings right next to each other? Or can you put them right next to each other but it allows things to pass in between?

I don't like the idea of being forced to space out my base artificially.

You can still have buildings hug each other with the mod. They can be 0 tiles apart or 1 tile apart.

CatAssTrophy · Jun 7, 2020

FluffyQuack said:
You can still have buildings hug each other with the mod. They can be 0 tiles apart or 1 tile apart.

Nice, I may give it a spin later. Thanks!

I hope someone can fix the cursor issue with a mod at some point too. Trying to accurately select units drives me insane.

starpower · Jun 7, 2020

Nerun said:
The good old harvester AI....it drove be a bit crazy last evening. River devided two land areas and the one harvester from the base below tried to enter the upper Tiberium Refinery, sadly he cannot swim and the one from the area above wanted to enter the Refinery below, again he is not able to cross rivers by magic. So what did both do like 10 times during that match? They enjoyed the river, looking at each other, no money coming it...awww so cute...

lol

AuthenticM · Jun 7, 2020

MrBob said:
Is there an attack move mod? No attack move is the one thing that frustrates me.

There is not. Keep an eye on the workshop; I'm sure someone will mod it in.

Moebius · Jun 7, 2020

Anyone know if it would be possible to make COOP "campaign" missions using the map editor?

DMczaf · Jun 7, 2020

I love how they remastered nearly everything, yet it still feels like it came from the mid 90s.

Fantastic remaster, they need to do this type of remaster for a lot more 90s PC EA games.

Mentalist · Jun 7, 2020

Dr.Phibes said:
Enjoying this a ton for the nostalgia alone, but gotta admit I don't remember TD being that hard/annoying.

I played it for the first time in late 2000s when The First Decade collection came out.

They were always that difficult.

Stopdoor · Jun 7, 2020

Kind of disappointed the "Bonus" music tracks muffle all the voices in the songs? Seems like it kind of defeats the point of being a fresh high-fidelity remix. I get they're bonus, but the direction confuses me.

Moebius · Jun 7, 2020

Stopdoor said:
Kind of disappointed the "Bonus" music tracks muffle all the voices in the songs? Seems like it kind of defeats the point of being a fresh high-fidelity remix. I get they're bonus, but the direction confuses me.

Huh? Are you talking about the Tiberian Sons bonus songs? Those are full band recreations so yes they are going to sound different. If you want the regular songs in high fidelity choose "Remastered".

Stopdoor · Jun 7, 2020

Moebius said:
Huh? Are you talking about the Tiberian Sons bonus songs? Those are full band recreations so yes they are going to sound different. If you want the regular songs in high fidelity choose "Remastered".

Yeah, I know they're not the remastered tracks. I just don't understand the creative decision of muffling the vocals.

Moebius · Jun 7, 2020

Stopdoor said:
Yeah, I know they're not the remastered tracks. I just don't understand the creative decision of muffling the vocals.

I do agree some are better than others. Their version of "Rain in the Night" rips.

Proc · Jun 7, 2020

I just finished the GDI campaign on normal. It was very challenging and most missions felt like an accomplishment to complete.

Time to get noddy.

The Stealth Fox · Jun 8, 2020

That guitar solo on Big Foot bonus version.... How did they manage to improve on a classic? Crazy.

TheDestructiveSquirrel · Jun 8, 2020

Way harder than I remember, I need to remember to save more lol

Mentalist · Jun 8, 2020

GDI 12 is rage-inducing. That is all.

Deleted member 45130 · Jun 8, 2020

Dictator said:
My video should be coming out... tomorrow I think (my coverage got a bit delayed due to work obligations on Bioshock earlier in the week). But this is probably my favourite remaster ever. I love it, dearly.

Also, playing the game again I am reminded how much kiting is core gameplay here to win many missions. That and splitting up your troops and using torrent of fire tactics to kill off the most dangerous things first. Really great gameplay all these years later. Genius game.

Totally agreed, I've played a few RTS games over the years but coming back to this was special. I thought it would be a pure nostalgia rush and I'd drop it after a couple of hours. Hell no, this is the best RTS game I've ever played and I can't wait to play more.

Sinatar · Jun 8, 2020

Modern games have made you guys soft. It's not that hard, you've just gotten bad over time.

Steeven · Jun 8, 2020

The difference between Normal and Hard difficulty is quite something. It seems that the AI fires way faster than your troops on Hard. It requires quite the micromanagement to counter this, like baiting.

RedSparrows · Jun 8, 2020

Proc said:
I just finished the GDI campaign on normal. It was very challenging and most missions felt like an accomplishment to complete.

Time to get noddy.

I am curious if my childhood tactic of sandbags+obelisks will be at all useful. I missed so many tactics as a kid (mainly kiting, actual rock/paper/scissor usage, splitting my artillery and grenadiers from my CQC units, etc). I was terrible at this as a kid, haha.

Aldi · Jun 8, 2020

It seems an APC full of engineers is the solution to a lot of these maps.

It's just a case of saving the game and trying out different entry points.

Bonejack · Jun 8, 2020

Yep, i definitely got worse with getting older. Little me had no problem playing C&C 1 on normal, now me can't cope with the constant enemy unit swarming. Had to restart on easy.

marcbret87 · Jun 8, 2020

Hadn't played any C&C before, but having a blast with this. Still trying to figure out the best tactics when playing the Soviet side in Red Alert. I also heard that the best games of the series are Red Alert 2 and Generals, are they worth getting as part of the Ultimate Collection? It goes for like 7-8 euros In cdkeys.

Gaz · Jun 8, 2020

Sinatar said:
Modern games have made you guys soft. It's not that hard, you've just gotten bad over time.

Yep this is true. I've had to knock 1 of the limited Unit NOD missions down to Easy but thankfully I've been able to play the rest on Normal. C&C is still one of the best RTS games ever, warts and all.

Jinroh · Jun 8, 2020

And now I remember why I cheated my way to the endgame with sandbags 25 years ago.

Damn this game is hard, and not necessarily for the good reasons (pathfinding!!)

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection |OT| Welcome Back, Commander

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