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is 7 Years Old!
As is tradition, the obligatory birthday update of Star Strike is here! Breaking with tradition however, I don't have anything new to show you guys.
Due to university studies, a nasty addiction to World of Tanks, and the moving of Red Alert 1.5 to Yuri's Revenge, Star Strike has not been a priority since over a year ago.
If you want to help Star Strike get back into the grand scheme of things, then let me say this- what both mods need are good testers and an AI coder. I can do balance tweaks and make cameos and voxels. But when I am the only one to actually balance test the mod, it becomes extremely time-consuming and I can only focus on a single mod at a time.
But I am not leaving you folks with nothing though:
Public Voxel Release
Click any of these images to go to the thread where you can download them.
Web Site News
Update: Banshee has resolved the issue. The PHP sections of the site are now navigable.
Closing
That's all for now! Hopefully next time will sooner than a year and will feature more than just public content releases! |
The Mammoth Tank, Command and Conquer's classic super-tank.
Defining characteristics:
- 2 guns of 120, 122 or 125mm caliber
- 2 multi-purpose missile pods
- Ridiculously thick all-around armor
- Underpowered engine
- 4 sets of tracks
- High production costs
All in all, a formidable vehicle. The Mammoth poses a grand question to all who face and work with it- how to kill it?
(ps: The following images have links.)
For the Allies, the answer implied going beyond conventional anti-tank weapons. It led to the "Laser Tank", which with its L-10 Semi-Conductor Pulse Laser is capable of melting through the Mammoth Tank's armor quite easily. In true Allied fashion, there is nothing exceptional or remarkable about the design other than the technology under the hood.
For the Soviets, the answer wasn't exactly to kill it, but rather "replace it". A group of talented engineers created the "Stalin-7", building off the experience they had accumulated designing the earlier failed Stalin 1-6 projects. As fast as an Allied Medium Tank, exceptionally well armed at the cost of armor (relatively speaking to the Mammoth), the Stalin-7 is what some in the Soviet Union hope is the future of tank design.
For the Americans, isolated from the conflict in Europe, the idea of killing super-heavy tanks was an after-thought, until Chinese-built Mammoth Tanks (of the older variety) began showing up in the Sino-American War. The need for a tank capable of engaging Mammoth class tanks led to the creation of the M43 "Stonewall" Breakthrough Tank.
Whether these answers will prove correct for the question of killing the Mammoth is a matter of time, but given the material investments compared to the Mammoth, it's unlikely. |
Hello all!
How did the mod come about?
Red Alert 1.5 was a small pet project of Volgin's that started really as implementing some RA2 units into TS using Renegade 2 voxels. I offered to help and over the course of months, the mod became gradually more sophisticated, adding tesla units, super-weapons and other things that made it more than just a pet project.
A new vision for the mod was developed, that of a Red Alert sequel that aimed to keep the theme and spirit of the original Red Alert while taking a more realistic view of the warfare and geopolitics that underlie the universe.
This vision was not compatible with the TS engine's limitations, thus requiring a move to Ares-powered Yuri's Revenge.
What's the story?
That said, Red Alert 1.5's expanded universe starts at the end of the RA1 Allied campaign. The Allies take Moscow, and Stalin dies. However, this isn't the end of the war: taking a page from history, the Allied advance begins to stall out as its supply lines overextend.
The Soviets, with plenty of ground to give, move their industry east as they did in our World War II. Rebuilding their forces, they counter-attack the exhausted Allies and within months, are poised to once again push into antebellum Allied territory. Allied attempts to stop this momentum shift with the Chronosphere fall flat; a chrono vortex ends up destroying an entire armored division meant to flank the Soviet advance.
The Soviets do not take advantage of this advance however: once reaching pre-war borders, they offer peace to the Allies, and an uneasy armistice is struck.
1.5's events transpire in 1968, 10 years after this armistice. Diplomatic failings, training exercises turned into near skirmishes and brinksmanship seem to be pushing both sides closer to war, a notion that is supported by Soviet armored divisions massing at the border.
Yeah, and where is it at?
Currently, RA1.5 is in a pre-alpha stage by PPM standards, but a test build has already been made.
A large number of voxels and cameos are done; there is a great deal of concept art for Allied and Soviet buildings and most units and buildings are present ingame with placeholders.
What can I do to help?
RA1.5 is not in a beta test stage- tester selection is a little more picky right now. More details can be found in this thread, but for a short breakdown:
2d Artists
3d Artists
Alpha Testers are most needed
Are you going to keep boring me with text? My short attention span demands pretty pictures!
Yes. But will you forgive me if this text takes the form of links to pages with some pictures?
German Lynx Phase Tank
Soviet Mammoth Tank T-57
American Anti-Aircraft Tank M42F
Sorry, I'll get back to the text!
Allied Faction Info
Soviet Faction Info
American Faction Info |
On Monday, my laptop froze up while at a local restaurant, and the hard-drive stopped being recognized.
Some semi-successful reboots, scandsks, SMART tests, memory diagnostics, crash dump checks and event viewer reviews later, I had come upon a number of conclusions:
-The hard-drive was still perfectly healthy
-Memory is fine
-Other devices in the computer were possibly causing the issue
-My external hard-drive is dying
-The connection of the drive to the mobo might be loose
On Wednesday, I unscrewed the backplate and found that the drive was loose by 10-12mm and well, after resolving that it seems to be working again.
To this end, a lesson for those who are somehow stupider than me (not possible):
Regardless of how confident you are of your grip, don't walk up/down stairs with an open laptop. The shaking from going up each step is probably what loosened my drive to the point of being non-functional. And you might just drop it. And that would suck.
Also, for those wondering when this section will get a post relevant to Star Strike or any of my mods:
Not sure really. Star Strike is currently playing second-fiddle to another project I will probably announce within the next month. |
Last year about this time, my laptop's motherboard died.
About an hour ago, my laptop froze and when turned back on, would not get past the OEM splash screen. All indications are that my hard-drive is dead.
This will be an enormous setback to RA1.5 (which has moved to YR) and Star Strike, which had a vast amount of WIP content that has most certainly been lost now. I will give more information as it becomes available.
Update 16 July 1807 GMT-5: Hopefully I will be back on my laptop within 3 weeks, with a new cooling pad and hard-drive ready to go!
And if I am lucky, this new hard-drive will have data recovered from the dead one, assuming the freezing trick actually works. |
is 6 Years Old!
As is tradition, the obligatory birthday update of Star Strike is here! A lot of things have been going on with Star Strike in the last year- while far from the most productive year, this one perhaps will have the most to show for, as you'll see shortly. Yeah, imagine that, pictures instead of uh...well, WALLS OF ZTYPING TEXT.
Without further ado...
Enhanced Voxels
I finally sat down and learned some of the complexities of manual normals painting in the past month or so. These are some of the byproducts- I didn't aim to repaint them entirely, but to get rid of the things AutoNormals failed at- IE stair-step effect.
Click the images to see what they looked like beforehand.
Invader Proton Tank
EDF Humvee
Invader Bomb Drone
EDF Gun Turret
SSIA Mobile Rocket Artillery
New and Old Faces
Many unit have seen more extension revision though! Do note that many of the unit profiles use OUT OF DATE imagery.
Hint: Many of these images are also links, showing older versions, model/ingame shots
Sentry Drone
One thing always bothered me about the sentry drone; at its size, the concept that I had never really panned out, and it just ended up looking too tall. Now he's a little shorter.
Juggernaut Tank
One of Star Strike's oldest voxels, its story has been one of constant, constant improvement. The original is available on YRArg, as for some ungodly reason, I actually released it in 05-06.
Omega Laser Turret
Nearly as old as the Juggernaut with only an eighth the number of revisions, this thing only recently got a major touchup to make it look better. Note it still needs a new base.
B-90 Bomber
Replaces the Delta Force's B-52 Bomber. Big and mean, but elegant at the same time. Sorry guys, no fancy name for it- though when I refer to it, I like to call it "that big mean thing that blows up your base  "
Warrior Transport
Replaces the recolored Chinook. This absolute MONSTER mounts a 30mm vulcan cannon in its chin turret and can spew death in a countless number of flavors owing to its firing ports. Note the size of it compared to the "mighty" Gunship.
Doomsday
This fabulous voxel by Damned Machine/Tony looked pretty good, but was missing something: color. Now it kicks your (enemy's) ass while looking (more) awesome at the same time. No ingames sadly.
Other Graphics Updates
Tired of the same old nukes? Thanks to AreaSz, you won't be anymore. Comes in 3 flavors:
Tsar Bomba
Castle Bravo
Note the new disintegration death animation.
Fatman
Note: Tsar Bomb, Castle Bravo appear pixelated (and are), but this effect is nowhere near as prevalent or noticeable ingame.
In Progress
Development of some new toys for each side is underway, as well. Here are some previews.
???
Mysterious, isn't it? This vehicle is both very special and rare; it's also "very" in a huge number of other categories too. Expect a complete list when the unit profile/unit itself are done.
Invader Plague Tank
When the Invader's manage to sneak a Spy Drone into an EDF Advanced Tech Center, they get this. Right now, it's only a chassis, but when finished, it's going to be something rather deadly...like the plague.
Conclusion
Hey that was pretty fun. Should do this more often. Please leave comments and feedback, I'm always willing to read what you have to say about the work being done!
Also, I'm looking for beta-testers. Just send me a PM if you're interested. Try to include:
- Modding experience (INI, SHP, Voxel, etc)
- Testing experience
- Timezone
- How often are you online-battle capable
- Willing to do tests related to Ares logic (see below)
- Why
Ares
Ares is in need of your assistance. See this thread for ways on how you can help the best hope for YR's modding future today! |
Happy Holidays everyone! It's been awhile since the last major SS update- so lets get going.
Reboot
Star Strike's rulesmd.ini has been redone. Part of the reason was for organization reasons- but the other was to reimplement the balance system. While overall, it is recognizable to 0.6X Build 2, the damage system is on a proper scale (close to RA2) and is also easier to manage, meaning future balance tweaks will be less time consuming and over-arcing.
Some major changes:
- Artillery less expensive, more specialized
- Base defenses no longer gain veterancy
- Garrison range nerfed to 9 cells, from 11 cells; or in other words, advanced infantry and vehicles can outrange garrisons with proper micro.
- Helicopters may only target helicopters- not missiles or fixed wings. Exclusion is the Fightercraft.
- HP/damage values reduced by roughly 50%
- SSIA Tech Tree changed:
--Chronosphere removed, replaced with Nanobot Field (repairs everything in wide radius)
--Assault Carrier removed
--Sensor Corvette and Guardian Missile Frigate added
- EDF Tech Tree changed:
--Power Plant replaced with (Mini) Nuclear Reactor
--Radar Tower now provides Radar and Satellite Sweep ability
--Tech Center (not advanced) removed
--Nuclear Reactor removed
--Nuclear Silo and Iron Curtain replaced with Strategic Command (Arc Light Strike) and Chronosphere
--New resource building: Dropzone (calls in Cargo drops)
--Battleship and Carrier are now both build-limit to 5; will be mutually exclusive
- Invader Tech Tree changed:
--Lite APC (the WF variant) removed
--Sensor Probing (Psychic Reveal) removed
Flags and Stuff!
By CCHyper:
This is a slightly older version, with the letters being a different color. Hyper is welcome to post the new version, if he wishes. 
By myself:
SSIA's faction logo.
EDF's faction logo.
Invader's faction logo.
I'd say these 3 are WIP, but that's a crappy defense against criticism, so fire away!
Ye Olde Unit Previewes
Assault Transport
The Invader capital ship, the Assault Transport is a massive amphibious assault vehicle designed to do battle with the largest of enemy vehicles, but also to transport infantry and vehicles around the battlefield. The ship itself has special interfaces that allow infantry and some vehicles to fire out of it, adding to its already amazing firepower.
Sentinel
The SSIA's stolen tech unit when infiltrating an Invader Advanced Tech Center, the Sentinel is a sleek, low profile tank. What distinguishes it from other designs is that it uses a scaled up version of the Eliminator Commando's laser-gatling gun; once this massive weapon spins up to full speed, little on the battlefield will survive for more than a few seconds.
Stallion
The EDF's Stallion Transport is the workhorse of the air force. Replacing Nighthawks and Chinooks in all roles, the huge but speedy Stallion can transport large amounts of men and material to anywhere on the field. Do note that it is unarmed and that much of its durability comes from the redundancy inherent to such a large vehicle- not any sort of resistant armor.
Support Abilities
Thanks to Ares and unlimited superweapons, Star Strike now has support abilities that give players the ability to call in limited tactical firepower at important moments.
SSIA EMP Strike
An SSIA Tactical Fighter makes a run at the target, firing a flurry of EMP Missiles that will shut down all vehicles and disable the functions of many buildings in a small radius for an extended period of time.
EDF Black Eagle Strike
2 Black Eagles attack the target location with fuel air-bombs, which absolutely devastate most vehicular and infantry targets.
Invader Shredder Insertion
Teleports a Shredder Defense Turret to the location specified. These special Shredders do not consume power and cannot be sold. This ability costs 600 credits to use.
Tech Branches
In an effort to add a little diversity to SS's gameplay, tech branches are being added, forcing players to make decisions on what they want to use. Some examples are:
SSIA Heavy Armor Technology
Unlocks the Juggernaut Tank and the Main Battle Tank.
SSIA Advanced Technology
Unlocks the Stealth Tank and Hover Tank.
EDF Battleship Battlegroup
Unlocks the Battleship.
EDF Carrier Battlegroup
Unlocks the Aircraft Carrier.
Invader Fusion Technology
Unlocks the Fusion Tank and Advanced Ore Drone.
Invader Proton Technology
Unlocks the Proton Tank and Bomb Drone.
These are of course, WIPs and subject to change/non-existence. Currently, the test build does not have these- but one thing is a definite- Battleships and Carriers will not be available simultaneously.
That's all for now! Have a Happy Holidays/New Years, see you in 2011! |
My new laptop arrived on Monday, and since it arrived, I have been setting up my modding/university/gaming programs so I am ready for the coming months and years.
SS/Z-Mod work has resumed- and fortunately on a great system with Windows 7. |
UPDATE! SEE BELOW
Long long ago, I started an...initiative of a sort to provide usable public cameo assets (catch: provided I didn't use them for a mod before that) called the Cameo Research Project.
A product of the project was 10 cameo packs released on my site- however, the quality was low, using rather poor image choices and lacking the means to make a proper button effect to match RA2's.
Fast forward to July 5th/6th- somebody on my rarely updated site notes that the Chinook Transport icon link doesn't work- dead link. Instead of just going into the HTML and fixing this and letting it all rot some more, I decided to be productive- and redid every pack but the Comanche's.
Enjoy these previews- click any to be taken to the cameos section of the site!
  
In Other News
I should be back online within the next week or so, provided everything goes according to plan. (expect a news post about how a delivery truck explodes in a ball of flames as it reaches my house)
NEWS AT 11 (seriously it is 11 AM right now)
H:\Laptop Backup\Westwood\APBBeta\Users
I don't know how its possible. |
Life decided to throw a wrench into my modding plans yesterday; while playing some games, my laptop decided to just stop responding. Permanently. It shut down and wouldn't come back on. No idea why- but motherboard failure is assumed to be cause.
On the bright side, the hard-drive was salvageable, and most of my modding related assets are safe, bar two things:
- The Site/ directory in my Users folder, which had a hugely updated version of the Star Strike page and all its sub-pages for the next public release.
- The Star Strike Media/ directory in my Pictures folder, which had every single piece of media I made for the mod, including cameos, unit sketches, voxel profile previews and ingame shots, as well as what was a steadily growing amassing of screenshots for the mod.
Until I have a laptop, Star Strike, as well as any other projects I am working on, IE Zombie Mod, are on complete hold. It may be a month before I have a new laptop and more than a week after that until I am back in action completely.
On the bright side, atleast I'll have a Win7 machine. |
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