This is my opinion of the document "Why Red Alert
Sucks" I have included each section of the original document. My
opinion is highlighted as yellow text. Original text as italic
"Why Red Alert Sucks" document was written by Clay Guthery. Everyone feel free
to E-mail him and tell him what you think. His address is
cguthery@ou.edu ;-)
Ok, here we go!
1.1 Bar Damage
Description: That "damage" bar above each unit and/or building.
This is the number one problem that I have had with Red Alert, and
that's why I put it first. Here are a few reasons why I find this
concept so unrealistic:
- Tanks of all types get taken out by an infantry unit with a
rifle.
- Tanks take about 20 direct 120mm shells before they are
destroyed.
- I've never seen a building blow up from a bunch of infantry
firing at it with rifles. In fact, it's pretty hard to completely blow
a building up AT ALL.
This is just not realistic way to portray damage and destruction on the
battlefield. Westwood should have taken a good look at the real-time
combat game, Close Combat, by Microsoft to see a more realistic way to
handle troop and tank combat. In this game, when a tank takes a hit it
is either destroyed or demobilized immediately. This is what some
people, including me, call realism. When units are damaged in Red
Alert, they just slow down, which in a way is realistic, but units
still take a pounding before they are destroyed.
Ok, first of all, you have to have all units be
able to damage others. If infantry couldn't damage other units besides
themselves, they would be worthless. If it only took 1 shot to
incapacitate a tank, you would have to build a heck of a lot of tanks
for them to be effective. I don't see why wouldn't be able to destroy a
building. If a real soldier took a high powered machine gun, he could
probably reduce it to a pile of rubble. If you wanted to show as much
detail of showing dents in armor caused by machine gun fire, then wake
up! You would have to have a very high performance computer just to run
it.
1.2 Artificial Intelligence?
Description: The one thing Red Alert does NOT have.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend anyone when I say that, but the AI in
Red Alert bites. I thought there was supposed to be an improvement in
the AI when it's compared to C&C. It's amazing trying to get a
whole lot of guys across a bridge at the same time. Instead of lining
up and going across the bridge, they do everything else like: stop,
turn, and go WAY around, usually the way you don't want them to do. The
move algorithms in this game are non-existent, you think the computer
would know if it waited 1 second it could get through to where it needs
to go. But no, it just takes off on a new, longer way to get there. The
reason is that the algorithms are not automatically updated, they
follow the same path at the time you clicked them. If you want to
update their path, YOU have to do it by constantly clicking.
Also, the Ore Truck drivers are all on crack, they don't seem to do
anything right. They'll drive into the enemy base, they take the slow
way to places, and they never seem to harvest where you want them to.
This was a problem in Command and Conquer too. I thought they said they
were going to fix it?
The AI on other units is pretty much the same. Units will take the long
way to places or won't attack where you want them to. A MAJOR problem
is units don't attack other units when they are nearby. My units will
get attacked and half of them just sit there and watch. No one engages
the enemy unless they are DIRECTLY hit by fire. I've seen tanks sit
there as the tank next to it got pounded on. It's hilarious how bad it
is.
I agree that it is stupid how the units always
take the long way around when they could just wait a few seconds. You
can make it so they will wait longer by using an editor of some kind.
The ore trucks are really dumb. You could have ore right next to your
base, and they usually drive clear across the map to get ore. I was
kind of disappointed by the AI as well. Its not as bad in the game as
it is in the skirmishes. I personally think the AI is dumber in
skirmishes when it is allied. I could be wrong though.
1.3 Saving, or Can You?
Description: Straightforward, saving games in
multiplayer/skirmish/single.
The good news is you can save in single player campaign mode. The bad
news you might ask?? You CANNOT save in multiplayer mode, or in
skirmish mode.. Can you believe it? Warcraft 2 could handle a task as
easy as this. Westwood promised us this one, boy did we get shafted.
What do we do when the modem gets disconnected, or the LAN fries itself
and we need to save it so we don't have to start all over?? Nothing,
thanks a lot.
I have read that Westwood is in the process of
making a patch that will allow saving in multiplayer. Yet this has not
been confirmed.
1.4 Allies vs. Soviets, an even match?
The Allies have medium tanks as their best tanks. The "medium"
Soviet tank (actually the heavy tank) is better than the Allied medium
tank. This in itself is ground for carnage. And to make matters worse,
the best tank killer on the game, the Tesla Coil should be Allied to
help them with their tank weakness. But no, it's Soviet also. The
Americans get turrets, but put a turret up against a Tesla Coil, which
would you rather have? Red Alert is all about power and numbers, and
when the Soviets have all this power there is no way you can win.
Air power is unbalanced too, all the Allies have is Orca's, hmm.. I
mean Apaches, is there a difference? While the Soviets have Migs and
Yaks, a bomber, and a Hind. So, we should give SAM's to the American's
to help them out right? No, they go to the Soviets as well. The Allies
do get the anti-aircraft gun though. It is pretty strong, but it's
range is pathetic. Water power is balanced towards the Allies, 1 out of
3 isn't bad right? But how important is water? Submarines kick ass
anyway, get a good wolf pack together and you could easily own the
seas. To have a good Allied Navy you have to build lots of everything.
You need water and air defense which means lots of destroyers and PT
boats. But while you build all this crap, 20 mammoths drive through the
front door. Oh boy!
I haven't really noticed that much of a
difference in the medium tank and heavy tank. If you think that the
Soviets have that much of an advantage, thats what AT mines are for! If
I had a bunch of tanks headed for me, I would rather have a turret.
Have you noticed how easy it is to destroy a Tesla Coil? 5 or 6 direct
hits and its gone. Sure if you have one tank coming at you you'd want
the Tesla, but how often does the enemy attack with one tank? Sure
airpower is unbalanced toward the Soviets, but then the water power is
balanced toward the Allies. I know that some things aren't exactly
even, but I think the eventually balance themselfs out with the combo
of all of them. I think the slight imbalance makes the game more fun
and more challenging. Thats one thing I don't like about Warcraft 2 is
that you can find a good strategy for one side, and it works for both.
Why did they make Orcs and Humans anyway? They could have just made red
and blue. It wouldn't have mattered because each side is EXACTLY the
same. At least this way you can develop new strategies for both sides
and it can even add a little challenge. Don't complain if you just suck
and can never win. As for having 20 mammoths driving through the door
while you build everything else, you must be an idiot if you only
concentrate on one thing. If they take you out with airstrikes, you
can't complain "But I was building tanks". If you aren't smart enough
to build grounds defenses maybe you shouldn't be playing the game. You
shouldn't wait until they have 20 mammoths anyway. Attack them before
they even have one.
1.5 SAM's vs. Helicopters and Planes.
How many planes can survive a missile hit, how about two or three
missile hits? They can in Red Alert. But this isn't the worst of it,
helicopters can too. It takes 3 SAM's to take out a helicopter, what
kind of armor do these things have? Maybe the U.S. should invest in
these bad boys. How about the AA gun? No helicopter can take shells
like that, at least not like they do in RA. One shot from a SAM should
do a helicopter, and I'm tended to say kill planes too, especially the
yak. We would also have to prevent people from laying down a whole lot
of SAM's, so with increased power going to the SAM's, there should be a
price for it as well.
If one missile hit could take out a plane, what
would be the point? Its like the tanks, you would have to build TONS of
them for even one to be effective. You could put a couple rocket
infantry at the edge of your base and there goes the air threat!
However, I do believe that soviets should have been given the AA gun
and the Allies the SAM site. Since the only air unit the allies have is
the Apache, the soviets wouldn't need a SAM site, just an AA gun.
1.6 Running over Units.
The troops in Red Alert are idiots, what kind of fools get run over
by tanks? I wonder how often this happens in real combat? Sure they
dodge the tanks a little bit, but if you try hard enough you can run
over just about anyone. I wonder if tank commanders are taught this
tactic in training school, if you can't shoot them with all the guns
you have on the tank, run 'em over!
How do you think people get kill when they are in
trenches? They get run over by tanks. Of course, maybe the infantry are
on crack like the ore truck drivers. Since the tanks don't have machine
guns(like real ones do) they should be able to run over them.
1.7 Nuclear Missiles.
Nukes take out entire continents, they cause mass destruction on a
global scale. Are Red Alerts nukes mini-nukes or something?? Come on,
they could at least name them something else besides nukes. I prefer
"big bomb", because that's all it is. I don't see any nuclear fall-out
or radiation after it is dropped either. These are everything but nukes.
I have to agree with this one. They could have
made these a little more powerful. You can change the power and spread
of them with an editor. Editors are great! :)
1.8 Skirmish Mode.
Skirmish mode is when you can play up to 7 computer players at the same
time for your Red Alert Practice. If you would like to get a good
understanding of what the AI is like in Red Alert, I suggest you play
Skirmish mode. It's pathetic, the computer AI players are worse than
they are in Warcraft 2. For the first ten minutes of the game it just
throws everything at you, if you can survive the initial on-slaught,
then the rest of the skirmish is a breeze. The computer builds TERRIBLE
bases, it builds in a giant circle and crams all of its units and
buildings together. It doesn't take long for all of its units to get
stuck, and eventually its harvesters are either stuck inside the base,
or they can't get into the ore refineries.
Also, the computer has never built fighters or water units whenever I
have played it. I played a map with one other computer player, it was
two islands separated by a large mass of water. The computer never even
attempted a water assault, and it's air assault was limited to
helicopters. I am very unimpressed with this game's AI. I was really
hoping that skirmish mode would be a good way to play Red Alert, but it
turned out to be a waste of our time.
Most of this part is very true.
1.9 The Shroud.
The Shroud in Red Alert is Westwood's poor attempt at a spin-off of
the fog of war. I've never understood when you drive a unit all the way
down the map, and then he dies, you can still see all the terrain and
units of where it drove through and where it ended up. The Shroud
doesn't go back over, it just stays there, and you can "magically" see
everywhere that you have driven, even if you don't have a unit in the
area. This isn't right in my book, I know lots of people don't like fog
of war, but I just figure those people are too simple minded for it.
It's realistic, it's very realistic, you shouldn't be able to see
what's going on unless you have something there to see it with.
Warcraft 2 did this very well, it allowed you to do a lot of things
without the other player seeing it. Sure, they have Gap Generators, but
this is a low rent, half-ass way to get the job done.
Sure you couldn't just "magically" see
everything, but then again, if the Allies launched a satalite to see
the battlefield, the Sovs. would just shoot the dang thing down. Hasn't
anyone ever heard of a RADAR????
1.10 Things Not to Do.
- Never try to use the iron curtain on a helicopter on the
landing pad, you'll end up making the helipad and not the helicopter
invincible.
- This portion of the FAQ will be updated with suggestions from
YOU in version 1.2. I want to hear from all of you about things you
tried in Red Alert that you will never do again! Feel free to email
them to me. cguthery@ou.edu.
Duh, no kidding.
1.11 Why did it take Westwood so long to make RA?
I am not an insider at Westwood, I don't know the real answer, but I
can give you my guess. Westwood makes incredible cut scenes, they are
probably the best in the industry. There is a much higher of use of
movies and actors in Red Alert compared to C&C. The sequences and
in-between the missions are much longer than they were in C&C. What
price did we pay for all these cut-scenes, etc? It seems that Westwood
spent all of it's time developing movies and good action sequences that
they forgot to fix the problems with C&C. The artificial
intelligence is obviously not any better, units still do what they did
in Tiberium Dawn. Maybe Westwood should have concentrated on the AI,
and the problems they had in the original C&C instead of making
good movies. I would much rather have a more playable game than Stalin
laying in bed with one of his commanderettes. (They could have at least
shown a little ass.)
Well, I know they were working on Tiberian Sun at
the same time. That could have been a reason. As for showing some ass,
what are you some sex crazed maniac?
1.12 Formations, do they work?
The easy answer to this question is NO. Not only can tanks not keep
formations over rough and changing terrain, they can barely do it on
flat open ground. It seems that there is no use for formations at all
because tanks can not ever stay in them. Sure they stay in formation
for a few spaces, but once you get them moving they'll never get back
to the original formation.
Kind of true too.
2.1 Personnel Units:
2.1.1 Infantry: These little boogers can take out any unit on the
map with their little machine guns. They can blow up nuclear missile
silo's, entire buildings, light thru mammoth tanks, other troops, etc.
all with a single machine gun with unlimited amount of ammo.
The only armor the nuke silos have is wood. Heck,
lets not have infantry to play a part at all. There are never REAL
people that fight in a war, just their robots and machines. Can you
imagine how much of a pain in the butt it would be if you had to reload
infantry? It is a big enough pain to reload mine layers.
2.1.2 Grenadier: Grenadiers carry an entire truck full of grenades
in their pockets and can blow everything up too, I guess they're a
little more realistic because grenades do a little more damage.
WOW! Finially something that is slightly
realistic. Speaking of realistic, why would you need ore trucks and
ore? Don't the tax payers pay for everything anyway?
2.1.3 Rocket Infantry: These guys are studs, they carry all kind of
rockets and launchers. They can take out ground units as well as air
units with the same missile launcher. How stupid can you get?
I don't know, I would ask you the same thing.
2.1.4 Para-Troopers: This is damn un-usefull. Actually, it's just
not as useful as it should be. You get 5 little guys every ten minutes,
they get dropped in, although half the time the bomber that drops them
in gets shot down. There should be a lot more troopers, and the bomber
shouldn't fly such terrible flight paths.
Sort of true
2.1.5 Flamer: Flamers are pretty cool, they can kill enemies and
your own guys, and sometimes explode. They seem to work out pretty well
in the game, I wish they could set things on fire though. You should be
able to set buildings or units on fire and let them burn for a while.
Oh gosh, flamethrowers aren't very realistic.
Lets just bash the whole game because of it.
2.1.6 Tanya: Hmmm.. this chick is a good shot. An infantry unit with
am M1 Carbine can't kill units like a woman with a .45?!?!?
Maybe she is just very skilled. I hate the idea
of being able to make more than one tanya at a time. She is a person or
character, not a unit. Why should the allies rescue Einstein, they
could just make twenty of him. There have been too many times when my
opponent has driven 3 or 4 APC's full of tanyas into my base and wipe
the whole thing out just becuse I can't kill them fast enough.
2.1.7 Medics: These guys come from other role-playing games, you
see, they possess this magic that allows them to magically heal troops
on the field. They can restore troops who are mortally wounded to full
working order. They'll even restore your enemy's troops. Medical
technology today is amazing! The funny thing is, they can't heal
themselves!
No comment
2.1.8 Engineers: I'm glad that one little guy can't take over a
fully functional building anymore, but damn, I don't see how a power
facility in the middle of an enemy base can power your base after you
take it over?
Maybe there are underground wires
2.1.9 Spy: Cool concept, kinda. What's the use though, spy's really
don't play much of a role in this game it seems. The most exciting
thing you get is the sonar ping, but it lasts just a few seconds and
you only get it every once in a while.
They are good for exploring but they don't work
very well when you use them against a REAL person. They can be good for
things like if you have infiltrated their radar dome and they take out
your GPS or something.
2.1.10 Thief: This guy can go into a full silo and steal half the
credits from it, too bad there's ore in the silo and not cold hard
cash. I don't see much realism in a guy carrying half a silo of ore on
his back.. This is gay.
He never has to carry it back to your base
anyway. Maybe he hooks up to the internet and transfers it to your
account. :) It adds a cool twist to the game.
2.1.11 Guard Dog: Woof, woof. These guys were bored when they put
this in. The dog guard kicks ass pretty quick, they can swallow any
human unit in a matter of seconds. Sit boy, good dog!
If there are spies, there has to be a way to
detect them.
2.2 Vehicular Units:
2.2.1 Tanks: A tank should be able to slaughter a single infantry
man with one shot, not only do most tanks have a large cannon they
usually have 2 machine guns. But no, it takes years to take out troops
with a tank. Plus, troops can take out tanks, especially when there are
a lot of them. What a joke! Tanks take shots all day long. I should
count how many shots it takes to take out a mammoth tank, I know it is
WAY too many.
Hmm, I think it takes way too many shots to kill
infantry with a tank.
2.2.2 Artillery: This is bad, very very very bad. Artillery can fire
for miles; a 155mm shell can go a long way. But that's real life, we
are talking about Red Alert here. Artillery should be lobbed across the
screen just like the Cruiser lobs shells off of its deck. Artillery is
a joke. What a waste Westwood!
Whats wrong with the unit? Would it make you
happy if they called it something else? That is the only problem I can
think of.
2.2.3 Mobile Gap Generators: This unit is like the big Gap Generator
except it's slapped onto the back of a truck. It's a little bit weaker
than the real deal, okay, so it's a lot weaker. It makes a tiny black
space that can hide about two units. Could we please make the gap
larger??
You can, use an editor.
2.2.4 Spy Planes: These guys can see a certain area of land, then
you have to launch them again, and again, and again to see the whole
map. What a pain in the butt. Can't they see everything they fly over?
Nope, they sure can't!
I think they should be able to see a larger area.
2.2.5 V-2 Rockets: If anyone knows anything about V-2 rockets they
know that the Germans shot them at the British all the way across the
English channel. The V-2's in this game can barely make it across a
little bitty river. Plus they are supposed to be as accurate as Scud's,
oh well, who needs realism anyway, this is an alternate time line!
Again, maybe they should be renamed.
2.2.6 Mobile Radar Jammer: This is a pretty cool piece of high tech
equipment, it jams the enemies radar when you get it in range.
Unfortunately, to be in range you have to be inside their base. This
would be a good unit to have if it had better jamming range, but it
just goes on the list of things NOT to build.
I think this should have been given to the
soviets. The allies already have one radar-jamming type unit(gap and
mobile gap).
2.2.7 Para-bombs: These are dropped from badger bombers, I think you
get five of them. These are all right, you can drop them on top of
enemy bases. BUT, the bad news is, you don't get them in multiplayer,
or in skirmish mode. Sorry! (You can get them in crates though.) I have
discovered another problem with para-bombs. They are very inaccurate,
where you click to drop the para-bombs is where the LAST bomb falls. To
make matters even worse, you don't know which way the bomber is going
to come in from so you can't "lead" your bombs into the target.
This one is true
2.2.8 MCV's: Mobile Construction Vehicle, it allows you to build
bases abroad. I originally thought that you couldn't load MCV's into
transports, I was wrong, they can be, just make sure the transport is
up against a landable shoreline.
What is so wrong with that?
2.2.9 Chinook's: Good transport chopper. It holds five guys, but
only the Russians get them this time around. This sucks in multiplayer.
It can work good, since they can't see air units
on their radar, they may not know its coming until its too late.
2.2.10 APC's: Basically the ground version of the Chinook, it holds
five units and only the Allies can have them. Would you rather have an
APC, or a Chinook? I know, let's give each side both!
Hmm, it depends. If a Chinook gets shot down,
everyone on it dies. If an APC gets destroyed, all the guys just pop
out. They may just be damaged a little but not much. They should die if
they aren't unloaded before it gets destroyed.
2.2.11 AT & AP Mine Layer: These units put down mines on the
field that your enemies can't see. We seem to run into the problem that
our own tanks end up blowing the mines up when they shoot at the enemy
coming across the mine field. Mines shouldn't be so easily destroyed,
or destroyed at all by friendly fire.
Thats a good point. They should make one kind of
mines and make them blow everything up. They shouldn't have even
bothered making AP mines becuase they are pointless. Why would you
waste time laying them when all you need is a couple pill boxes or
something.
2.3 Structures
2.3.1 Advanced Power Plants: Power plants in Red Alert don't produce
enough power, I spend half of my time building power plants to power
all the buildings I have. C&C had this same problem, power plants
had the limitation of only producing 255 units of power. It would be
nice if this little limitation would have been lifted in Red Alert.
This is a good point. You could just use an
editor and increase the power output.
2.3.2 SAM Sites: It takes 3 SAM's to take down air units. You need a
whole load of SAM sites to protect your base, which really shouldn't be
the case.
Didn't we already metion this?
2.3.3 Airfield: Ever notice what an airplane looked like on a
airfield? The airplane takes up 1/3 of the field. But, besides this
minor cosmetic problem, why is it that only one little plane can land
on an airfield? I thought that airfields held squadrons of airplanes,
not one minor plane per airfield.
Ok, lets do the renaming thing again. Lets just
pretend they are called runways. Is everyone happy now? Sheesh, picky
picky picky.
2.3.4 Tesla Coil: This is the tank killer, this is the killer of all
killers. Only the "tank powerful" Soviets get this building, it's the
equivalent of Obelisk of light. This is an over-powerful building that
causes mass devastation, it can easily destroy any unit in the game
besides air units. There is no equivalent building on the Allies side,
nothing comes even close on a defensive value.
True, but nothing comes close to a cruiser either.
2.3.5 Camouflaged Pillboxes: These things are infantry slayers, they
are ALMOST impossible to see, especially when they are in cluttered
areas. There is one very big problem with these though; they show up on
enemy radar. You can have a hidden pillbox, and then have it given away
by it showing up as a big bright spot on radar. What kind of radar can
see a dug-in pillbox anyway?
I have never been able to see them on a radar
screen, at lease not in the normal missions. I have spent a lot of time
looking or camo-pillboxes that have to be destroyed to complete the
mission that are hidden behind trees and they certainly didn't show up
on the radar screen.
2.3.6 Chronosphere: The Chronosphere has the ability to beam one of
your units anywhere on the map. It has to be a vehicle though, and it
can't beam things with passengers. (It can, but it kills them). The
major problem with the Chronosphere is; you can only beam one thing at
a time, and then you have to wait another 15 minutes. There is no unit
that you can beam into an enemy base that can cause any kind of worth
while damage. You can't beam in an APC full of Tanya's, or engineers,
so what's the point? Knowing that you can't Chronosphere an APC with
units in it, what if you Chronosphere a Cruiser or helicopter, who's
there to operate it?
Good point also. I think it would be more useful
if you could chronosphere units with people in them.
2.3.7 Iron Curtain: This turns one of your units invincible, this is
the Soviets counter to the Chronosphere. Both of these buildings are
pretty weak, but the Iron Curtain renders one of your units invincible
for just under a minute. It's good for recon, but doesn't last long
enough to be effective in battle.
Good point too. Usually by the time you have this
baby built and ready for use, you will already have uncovered most of
the map.
2.3.8 AA Gun: AA guns are strong, they can knock down flying
vehicles much easier than SAM's... If they are in range. The range on
AA guns is pathetic. AA guns shoot 1,000's of feet into the air in real
life. In Red Alert, they shoot about two cells, which is 5 cells
shorter than SAM's.
Like I said before, they should have been given
to the Soviets.
Well, thats about all. With most of these
complaints there is the issue of realism. This is a game. Not a trainer
for the military. If you have to have absolute realism, go join the
ARMY!!!
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