Command & Conquer and Red Alert Civ2 & ToT scenarios development

[Blake00]

Naturally I had to go fix the other two 1 cell buildings... thought redoing these ones would be quick but just like the first time when I did them I had to manually paint back in all the columns and window shadows as they still downsized so badly lol. But they definitely look much better now!

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New:

Old:

New:

Used the remaining time to add a brand new building.. not ghetto but.. erm.. Brooklyn/Queens style cheap old housing/apartments shall we say lol. They'll be a lot of these outside of the office districts.

 

[Blake00]

Last few weeks have been busy.. but here and there I've found the time to continue work and am now pleased to say all the diagonal 1x3 combo buildings are finished! Here's a few of them!

(note: some of these buildings will have special un-damaged garrisoned versions that sit over the top of them as units)

The last of my 1 cell building conversions are done too.. these government buildings, a resort, big trees, a fountain, and water debris replace special resources. The water rocky & cement debris is a bit cr*p but I had no choice as any bigger and they overlap the seawall in places.

I have also recently finished my first super 3x3 (replacing the simple template you saw me post previously), this version is a bit taller, switches the flat roof for a pyramid style, and of course now has a mix of accompanying background buildings squeezed in around it.. I've also finished making the undamaged Garrisoned version too but its not implemented in the game yet (so I'll show it later). Am now working on the second super building of the four.

Oh and @Metro Polis has some time to kill (his plans to take over the world were foiled by some stupid farmers ) so he helped me out by sorting out those pesky seawall coastlines I'd been putting off for ages while sorting out the buildings. Looks pretty good hey!

(note: the water debris locations will be regenerated/re-randomized into better spots that don't mess with the bridge graphics)

 

[Blake00]

Time for another update..

If you look at the diagonal 1x3 long buildings in the previous post you'll see I pretty much had 2 of the same design which seemed like a bit of a waste of limited space. I'd run out of free slots and wanted to put in a RA2 church and didn't think it would look good in a 1x1 at all so I switched out one of these similar buildings above and replaced it.

Original / New:

The building I took out I'd use as background elements in my 3x3 super buildings.. which brings me to the best part and what was the hardest part of this whole process! Getting all 4 super 3x3 buildings finished and not just 1 version but 2 versions (garrisoned and empty/damaged). Here are all my finished 3x3 super buildings! With these elements complete I have all the buildings I need and can possibly squeeze into the game so I'm now putting the finishing touches to my big city metropolis battleground map.

Un-garrisoned / Garrisoned:

 

[Blake00]

Small update relating to my Wonx's C&C Civ2 Scenario Remaster project. I thought I'd show people a full list of my changes to Wonx's units and all the new additional units I've added to his scenario. Obviously Wonx's original units were more Civ2 style with C&C repaints, whereas mine are taken directly from C&C games and mods to create a more authentic C&C feel (but still with some repaints to fit into Civ2 better). I plan to do something similar with the Red Alert 2 scenario units. As previously mentioned Wonx's scenario is a sort of hybrid C&C1 and C&C2 scenario as it set during the C&C1 Africa Campaign however it features some C&C2 units. I thought it would be fun to continue that theme since C&C2 is of course a isometric 2.5D game like Civ2 which makes asset conversion much easier haha. I still wanted to include as many C&C1 units when possible however C&C1 units are mostly 2D top down and are often too low res even for Civ2 lol so that is why I used units (with permission) from cool C&C2 mods like Crystallized Doom and Twisted Insurrection , along with the Red Alert 2 Mental Omega mod as they include lots of cool remade higher res 2.5D C&C1 units.

Now back to my Red Alert 2 Siege of New York Civ2 Scenario project as I posted last week I finally got all the city buildings imported which meant I could finalize the city layout and map design. This is a moment I've been waiting a long time for haha! Glad to be finally there. Since my last pictures I've also shrunk the unit shields down so that they're in the way of things less, similar to what we did in the Heroes of Might & Magic Civ2 Scenario . Here is a screenshot of the Allied/American forces area which contains a lot of similarities to the first allied mission area from the original Red Alert 2 game (note: Allied base buildings in the blue glowing areas are not done yet).

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As you can see there are many garrisoned buildings allowing for much taller buildings (unit cells are much taller than terrain cells) and of course the illusion of destructible buildings as burning crumbled versions exist under all the building garrison 'units'. With all the different types of buildings with special ones like hospitals, churches, police stations, court buildings, petrol stations, fast food joints and car parks etc the final diverse result is much more city like!

And on the other side of the map here's the Russian side where I wasn't tied down to the original RA2 map layout and was able to create whatever I wanted haha! As you can see this side is more urbanized and densely packed with city buildings. The Russians have managed to take/garrison a number of buildings however the allies still have many. The invading Soviets will have a much larger army (paratroopers, V2s, Dreadnoughts, tanks & zeplins etc) however they will have to fight street by street, building by building, block by block (think Stalingrad) to clear out the allied garrison positions and crush their bases. The US forces will have to try and delay the red advance as long as possible to build up their own army (of ships, tanks & aircraft) to fight back push the Soviets out of New York! (note: Soviet base buildings in the red glowing areas are not done yet).

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The other day @Metro Polis said to stop bloody posting zoomed in 2:1 images and show the darn map hahaha! Well I couldn't then because I didn't have a city made. Now that I do have a finished city I shall finally reveal the entire map layout in a regular 1:1 zoom screenshot! As you can see both factions are separated by a bridge and the New York Harbour. Also those with a keen eye will notice the Statue of Liberty is now a city and its own faction (that very bad things are going to happen to haha). As previously stated the New York Police Department are also their own faction with a number of Police station bases and will have police car units charging around the map (also getting in the Russians way haha) to recreate the effect of the police cars roaming around the original RA2 city missions.

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[Metro Polis]

That wasn't Leningrad where they fought in the streets and blocks, haha.

Everything looks awesome. When do you plan to publish all of the mentioned scenarios?

 

[Blake00]

Doh!!! That's what happens when I write posts late a night lol.. have fixed the typo to Stalingrad haha... of all the things to typo I didn't think that would be one as god knows how my documentaries and films I've watched on that battle lol.

My plan is once I've done some or all units for this RA2 scenario (making it good enough for screenshots and a tour video) I will then switch back to finishing other projects. Firstly I'll release my Star War scenario (along with your remastered version of it!) as its already finished, then I'll release my ToT graphics for MGE mod as that's pretty much finished too, then I go back to our HoMM2 scenario and design the map and release that, then I'll come back and do the finishing touches to my remaster of Wonx's C&C scenario here and release it, and then I will of course do the final touches for this RA2 scenario and release that. There's also some 'play as Barbarian 8th faction' hack scenarios for Civ1 and Civ2 that I've already made and will be releasing too.

Then once they're all done and out in the world for people to enjoy I'll make the jump to Test of Time and work on the Master of Magic scenario remaster and get that done too.

As well as all the work on finishing each scenario each release also involves making a moddb page (if I haven't already), making a tribute page on my website, writing documentation, and creating video content so I'm definitely still looking at months of work here urgh lol. However creating the scenarios is the hardest part so at least most of that work is done now.

However once all this is finished I'll be done with Civ2 probably for a long time haha and will get back to my original plans of just playing Civ games and promoting other peoples scenarios lol. I was up to Call to Power 1 & 2 (before I suddenly changed plans and went back to Civ2 and started making scenarios lol) so once I've done playing them I'll be on to Civ3 and will possibly be working on a Mars scenario for that and then I'll probably retire as a Civ modder haha. Although if there's a lot of interest in my Civ2 MGE scenarios I may return for enhanced ToT remasters one day if other people don't make them (I've already had one Civ2 modder say he wants to remaster my scenarios for ToT as he can't stand most of my MGE unit and building conversions and knows he can do way better haha). Also as we've discussed I may do HoMM1, HoMM3, or HoMM4 graphic remakes of our HoMM2 scenario one day too, but I make zero promises on them as I'm starting to burn out on all this stuff and I refuse be the millionth bloody person on this site to start cool scenarios and then abandon them haha!!!

 

[Blake00]

Base buildings are completed!!! Am finally done with all buildings lol!

@Metro Polis taught me a trick when we were making the HoMM2 scenario where if you either remove settlers from game or the tech that gives railroads you can then use railroad formations for extra decoration. So as previously posted I decided to take that idea and create base buildings around the command centers (cities). Wasn't easy as railroad and irrigation slots are so darn small so epic amounts of downsizing was required but the end result looks pretty cool. I especially love all the tesla reactors around the red soviet bases haha.

Now I can finally start working on units!

 

[Patine]

Base buildings are completed!!! Am finally done with all buildings lol!

@Metro Polis taught me a trick when we were making the HoMM2 scenario where if you either remove settlers from game or the tech that gives railroads you can then use railroad formations for extra decoration. So as previously posted I decided to take that idea and create base buildings around the command centers (cities). Wasn't easy as railroad and irrigation slots are so darn small so epic amounts of downsizing was required but the end result looks pretty cool. I especially love all the tesla reactors around the red soviet bases haha.

Now I can finally starting on units!

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It is shaping to look pretty cool. I only ever tried Red Alert 1 (and the base Command & Conquer 1) but I couldn't get very far in either campaign progress for either game's side, and other games at the time quickly distracted me away from a more dedicated effort.

 

[Metro Polis]

This is cool, I actually never attempted such an extreme and demanding thing.

 

[Blake00]

This is cool, I actually never attempted such an extreme and demanding thing.

Your awesome Star Control scenario is about 10x more complicated and bigger than this mate haha. But you probably mean graphically as yeah it's been an insane undertaking lol! Glad its nearly over haha.

Red Alert 2 Siege of New York Scenario news:
I'm now half way through importing Red Alert 2 units as thankfully importing units has been MUCH easier than city buildings haha. Have also created a ModDB page for the project here:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/civilization-2-red-alert-2-siege-of-new-york-scenario

Wonx2150's Command & Conquer African Campaign Scenario Remaster news:
Forgot to post this a while back but I've updated Wonx's title/loading screen for the scenario with titles & faction logos. His original one hadn't been converted to Civ2 MGE palette so it had all sorts of crazy hypercolours lol! Have also created a ModDB page for the project here:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/civilization-2-command-conquer-scenario

 

[Blake00]

Hey guys,

I know I've been a bit quiet on the project news front lately but that doesn't mean I haven't been busily working on them. I added custom technology icons too the HoMM2 scenario. I setup improved custom technologies, city buildings and theirs icons along with fixing up unit stat imbalances and costs for the C&C Africa scenario. And most importantly I FINISHED all unit imports (along with stat balancing and costing), custom technologies, city buildings and all theirs icons for the Red Alert 2 scenario!

Will post more about the Red Alert 2 units soon but they've imported really nicely and look pretty good. I've created a loading splash screen for the scenario similar to the C&C scenario one I posted above. It's based on the original Allied New York mission loading screen from Red Alert 2 but has some soviet stuff added.

Now for the big stuff! I'm finally at the stage where I think the scenario is good enough to make a picture to use in videos and other promotional materials, which those who've been following my work will know is the reason I needed to get this far before returning to finishing and releasing my other projects as I wanted to advertise each project while making videos of the others so I needed to make something good enough to use! It's a very nice feeling to know that all my scenarios are now in the final stages requiring only a bit of sound design and testing before being ready for release! Anyway this promotional shot will be often displayed as a thumbnail so to ensure items are clear and visible I've gone with a zoomed in shot that'll look a bit weird here in full screen HD but it will look great in smaller thumbnails. Because a zoomed in shot cuts off a lot of good content from the map I used the track enemy movement windows to show off other cool areas. You can see a lot of my finished units in this shot!
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"Well that's annoying.. I want the zoomed out 1:1 shot!" you're thinking? Well alright lol.. Here's a nice zoomed out shot that shows a lot of the Soviet side of the map! As you can see I've also chosen a background for the city screen too. Those with a keen eye will spot some of the newly imported buildings and of course even more of the new units in this screen which I'll be showing more of later.
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[Stew Pid]

This would be epic if converted to civ 3!

 

[Patine]

This would be epic if converted to civ 3!

No, it already is quite epic as is...

 

[Stew Pid]

No, it already is quite epic as is...

Most of the older fanbase is active around civ 3

 

[Patine]

Most of the older fanbase is active around civ 3

There is still a solid Civ2 community. And you're not the first person to mosey on from the Civ3 Forums and strongly advise choice projects be converted by Civ2 designers to Civ3 out of an assumed burning desire to "upgrade," or a sense of "iteration inferiority."

 

[Stew Pid]

There is still a solid Civ2 community. And you're not the first person to mosey on from the Civ3 Forums and strongly advise choice projects be converted by Civ2 designers to Civ3 out of an assumed burning desire to "upgrade," or a sense of "iteration inferiority."

These modders here are not just civ 2 designers, they have projects for civ 3 as well and I don't have see an inferiority problem with civ 2 just that the more modern the computer and operating systems will become the less likely the User will be able to play older games such as Civ 2 due to combability issues.

 

[Patine]

These modders here are not just civ 2 designers, they have projects for civ 3 as well and I don't have see an inferiority problem with civ 2 just that the more modern the computer and operating systems will become the less likely the User will be able to play older games such as Civ 2 due to combability issues.

Those have well-known workarounds to allow smooth play on up to Windows 10.

 

[Blake00]

Thanks guys. Still gotta finish this one first before any enhanced versions can be talked about haha. Nearly there though.. Hope to start releasing all my scenarios in the next few weeks/months now that they're all in the final stages. Just had some unfortunate dramas in my life that have taken me away from the computer lately. However hopefully 2020 has run out of ammo to throw at me and I can get back to work on the final touches to these scenarios.

As for Civ3 while I realise I have a bit of a presence on that forum which might give the impression I'm a Civ3 modder I'm definitely NOT as I've never made a map/scenario/mod for it and have no idea how to haha. In recent months I've rescued other peoples long lost Civ3 scenarios and in some cases I fixed some silly problems they had (like missing unit files) but I've still got no idea about it. At some point I'd like to try and make a Civ3 Mars scenario combining Balthasar's mars maps with some of the scifi stuff out there but not until all this Civ2 and Civ2ToT stuff is finished off!

Obviously a Red Alert 2 scenario in Civ3 with all it's colours, higher res assets and animation would be gorgeous but it won't be me doing it haha. I or someone else may do an enhanced ToT version of it one day.. but I'm getting pretty sick of scenario making so I wanna wrap all this up asap and not be the 1 millionth person to post here with a cool project and not finish it!

.

 

[Blake00]

Okay here we go! As promised here's the full imported unit line up for the scenario!

All stats and abilities have been completed as well which took ages as ensuring balancing but faction uniqueness is not an easy thing lol!

As for the graphics, well unlike the custom high res C&C assets that gave me no end of problems and converted pretty badly into my C&C Africa scenario these RA2 unit assets were actually very similarly sized to Civ2 ones so I was able to do nice 1:1 conversions of most of the units resulting in a better looking lineup. In cases where downsizing was required I did my best to make it as small a reduction as possible. Probably the only units that required a nasty 50% reduction were the Kirov, Aircraft Carrier and Dreadnought units but I changed their angle slightly to gain more room in the sprite cell ensuring as much detail was kept as possible. The Red Alert 2 colour palette also converted very easily into Civ2's so all that was left to do was some recolouring of the team colours to make the red and blue more pronounced (so they stand out on a huge map). Just for fun I also stuck all the build icons/photos from RA2 plus a couple from fan mods into this picture and even made a few of my own (only seasoned RA2 players will probably spot the fakes though haha).
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[Blake00]

Oh and I forgot to post another nice promotional screenshot I intend to use around places. Here's a standard zoom 1:1 shot showing some of the allied side of the map which was heavily based off the original RA2 New York Mission map.

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