It Came From Red Alert! Pre-release Candidate 1 A total conversion modification by Darren "Daz" Ward -------------------------------What's this ICFRA Pre-release Candidate 1 thing all about then? This is the fourth true release of my Red Alert mod. The mod aims to bring Red Alert into the Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge engine, porting all units and structures, bringing in the Red Alert sounds and other key elements like the infantry gore. -------------------------------Requirements and Use The mod requires Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge version 1.001. This version of the mod does not require any kind of add on patch like NPatch or RockPatch. ICFRA! is tested on a PC with an Intel Q6600 2.4GHz Quad Core processor, an NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB graphics card and 4GB of RAM. From this testing it is it is recommended you play the game at the “Faster” speed level, but other systems may work better with other settings. “Fastest” speed level usually results in things being too fast, “Faster” provides the best speed for game play, sound and animations. To play the mod insert your Yuri's Revenge or The First Decade disc, close the autorun screen, load the .exe file called "ICFRA! – PRC1" and click launch in the small window that opens. Yuri's Revenge will boot up with the mod installed. When you have finished playing exit the game as you normally would. Upon returning to desktop you will be asked if you want to deactivate the mod – yes will remove the ICFRA! files from the game directory and return it to vanilla Yuri’s Revenge, no will leave the ICFRA files where they are resulting in ICFRA staying installed which will allow you to run Final Alert 2 and make ICFRA! maps with ICFRA!-only content*. If you don't intend to map and do intend to play normal Yuri's Revenge again you should choose the yes option. You can remove the files at a later date by loading the mod via the "ICFRA! – PRC1", then exiting and selecting to deactivate the mod when prompted. *There seems to be an issue with Final Alert 2 reading game paths correctly. Despite manually setting the path it actually tries to find it automatically and this causes problems with find the mod's files. I have included a fix for this in "Final Alert 2 Path Fix.zip". -------------------------------You say this is a "Pre-release Candidate"? After four beta releases (1,2,2.5 and 3) the number of reported bugs had flatlined, as such I was planning to release a version called “Release Candidate 1". Unfortunately I had a PC issue which meant I lost all my installed programs, though I still had all my backed up data. There was a lot of awkward setting up involved in creating the mod and as my interest in modding C&C games was almost non-existent at that stage I kept putting off setting everything back up. Five years later and I'm not really into modding anything anymore but I had this newer, unfinished version of ICFRA sitting around doing nothing which I thought was a bit silly. As such I've opted to rename all the "Release Candidate 1" references to "Pre-release Candidate 1" and release the mod as it is. It's remarkable how far ICFRA came from an extremely simple ini-only mod I made so that I could play Red Alert with right click scrolling. I think there are now better projects that provide this now anyway - such as OpenRA at http://openra.res0l.net/ Thank you all for the kind comments the mod has received over the years and I'm sorry I never managed to finish it, especially as it got so close to being totally done. -------------------------------No more NPatch! I’ve completely removed the NPatch requirement that previous versions had so the mod now fully functions on a totally clean Yuri’s Revenge 1.001 install. Because of technical differences in standard Yuri’s Revenge the following things have changed: • G.P.S. Satellite is no longer a super weapon - the Allied Tech. Centre functions like the RA2 Spysat Uplink instead, • The M.A.D. Tank affects an area 62% of the size it used to, • The Parabombs have been removed from Skirmish but are still coded into the game (in case someone wants to use them in a map), • The Soviet Spy Plane has been moved to the Radar Dome, • The multiplayer colours will look incorrect on the pre-game menu but are fine ingame, • Reverted to none-NPatch menu system, • Mobile Radar Jammer coding changed but still behaves the same. The reasoning for this was that I don't feel I can rely on NPatch to be compatible with the mod in the future (things are sometimes broken by NPatch updates) and it's annoying to have to get people to download NPatch aswell. I thought the above changes weren't worth the extra hassle and complications so I decided to make the mod work with normal RA2:YR, which is something people have requested I do in the past. In the five years since I last worked on the project there appears to be some more community patches which complicates the situation even more and makes me think a patchless version of the mod was probably a good idea. -------------------------------So what's actually in there? Pre-release Candidate 1 Change List (In addition to the "No more NPatch!" changes) • Flame Tower’s fireball reinserted. • Weapon range increases for V2, Tesla Tank, Tesla Coil, Shock Trooper as they were all firing short of their Red Alert ranges. • Volkov added (coded, not buildable). • Chitzkoi added (coded, not buildable). • Einstein added (coded, not buildable). • New AP and AT mine graphics. • Some buildings graphics have had small changes made while I was creating damaged versions. • Removed ugly texture from Iron Curtain animations. • Tesla Coil weapon now correctly fires in 3 bursts. • Re-enabled campaign menu and added UI art. • Some miscellaneous UI alterations. • Soviet Rifle Infantry’s text string corrected. • M.A.D. Tank has a visible explosion. • “Retro” and “Retro Contraction” removed, remappable graphics are now forced. • A number of small voxel detail fixes. • All voxels renormalized with latest auto-normals. • New map - The Hills Have Eyes Redux by Dutchgamer. • Altered Giant Ant spawning on Them! map. • First Allied campaign mission added. Beta Release 3 Change List Changes/Fixes • Fixes as set out in mplayer.ini (Aftermath’s multiplayer only .ini file), this affects the Turret, Tesla Coil, Gap Generator, Concrete Wall and Iron Curtain in various ways (such as strength and cost). Also set these things to be changed back in Contraction mode. • MIG has correct number of missiles. • Mammoth Tank AA fix • Chronosphere has correct cameo (honest, it does this time). • M.A.D. Tank damages vehicles. • Building textures overhaul. • Tesla Coil graphics tweaked. • 42 new voxel debris types. • Modified War Factory (new graphics, now 5x3 so the exit works). • Crate graphics. • More terrain converted. • No timer shown for super weapons. • Removed removed sides (Libya, etc) from random country picker • Infantry-only mode. • Terrain switched to replace RA2 Temperate instead of Lunar. • Launcher asks whether to deactivate mod – selecting no would leave the mod files in the game directory, allowing mapping. • Proper Camo. Pillbox. • Ore Trucks and MCV screen shake deaths. • Wall strength increased. • New Sub Pen and Naval Yard graphics. • Tanya sequence fix. • Mapping support. • Helicopter behavior fix. • M.A.D. Tank deploy animation. • Cannot build from Tech Buildings. • Spy Plane, V2 Rocket and Missile Sub Missile are not legitimate targets. • Anti-Air and Ground to Air weapons now have Pythagoras calculated ranges instead of guess work. • Slightly different terrain colour. • Ore Mine graphics. • Sidebar graphics. • UI graphics changes. • Buildups. • Tesla Coil fire animation. • Construction Yard production animation. • Airfield lights animation. • Airfield dish animation. • Airfield windsock animation. • Allied Barracks flag animation. • Soviet Barracks flag animation. • Sub Pen water animation. • Naval Yard water animation. • Radar Dome lights animation. • Chronosphere animations. • Iron Curtain animations. • Nuclear Missile graphics. • Tech Outpost graphics. • Tech Hostpital graphics. • Tech Power Plant graphics. • Tech Oil Pump graphics. • Tech Airport graphics. • Tech Silo graphics. • Tech Machine Shop graphics. • Bio Research Lab graphics. • Prison/Tech Centre graphics. • Church graphics. • Forward Command Centres graphics. • Yak wreck graphics. • Jeep wreck graphics. • House1 graphics. • Redone Mission Failed/Accomplished text. • Rocket Soldier garrisoned weapon fix. • Mobile Gap Generator unit. • Chinook comes from Helipad. • Helicopters are not airport bound. • ParaDropSpecial cloned for Soviet Airfield. • Upgrade from Rock Patch 1.08SE to NPatch SE #0019. • New NPatch main menu. • New map - Naval Conquests (8 player). • New map - Island Hoppers (4 player). • New map - Treasure Isle (6 player). • New map - Coastal Influence (6 player). • New map - Tournament Lake (2 player). • New map - Them! (4 player). Beta Release 2.5 • GPS Satellite is delayed as in RA. • Mines are hidden to enemy. • Mines are legal targets. • Bigger spread on M.A.D. Tank’s weapon. • Skirmish menu colour list reflects actual remap colours. • AA Gun turns faster. • Turret turns faster. • Chronosphere has the correct cameo. • Radar Jammer turretoffset fix. • Hind rotors spin. • Radar Jammer jamming doesn’t protect against damage. • Destroyer depth charge has the correct range. • AA Missiles are a bit less effective (or at least they should be). • Nuke has been adjusted. • Flame weapon internal error has been fixed. • Start location numbers on skirmish menu have been fixed. • Infantry only mode has been added. • Shock trooper no longer crushable. • Kennel added. • Technician sequence fix. • Cruiser damage reduced. • Helipad cost reduced (no free unit so cheaper Helipad). • Units come from the front of the war factory again, though still not glitch free. Beta Release 2 Fix List • Tanya no longer swims, uses C4 on vehicles, picks her own targets or has a build limit. • The Shock Trooper now has the proper Red Alert weapons values and no longer charges Tesla Coils. • The Mobile Radar Jammer no longer chrono shifts a radar dome out of existence. • Crates are more numerous. • Artillery graphics altered. • Ore Truck graphics altered. • Hind is now correctly airport bound. • Cruiser’s guns are less accurate. • The Yak’s weapon is more like it’s RA weapon. • Some buildings’ armour types have been corrected. • Flame Turret weapon tweaked. • Hind/Longbow tweaked to behave more like RA helicopters. • Warhead spread tweaking. • SAM range doubled in line with AA Gun. • Aircraft weapons correctly applied as secondary aswell as primary. • Amphibious Transports don’t hover. • Tanks and the Turret are less accurate against infantry. • Prone damage values unified. • A lot of miscellaneous weapons tweaks. • Intro video now has sound. • Infantry guard sounds changed. • Resized infantry graphics. • Only one aircraft per helipad/airfield. • Rocket Solider available to Soviets. • Tech Levels overhaul. • Objects are “crewed”. • HVA/Voxel Offset overhaul. • Switch back to round turret Heavy Tank (rather than longer version). • More subdued remap colours. • Some AI tweaking. Newly Added List • Medic unit. • Mechanic unit. • Ranger graphics. • Mobile Radar Jammer graphics. • Amphibious Transport graphics. • Medium Tank graphics. • Heavy Tank graphics. • Tesla Tank graphics • Camo Pillbox building. • Yak graphics. • MIG graphics. • Spy Plane graphics. • Badger Bomber graphics. • Hind graphics. • Sub graphics. • Demo Truck graphics. • Anti Tank Minelayer unit. • Anti Personnel Minelayer unit. • Various UI changes. • Parabomb superweapon. • Cruiser graphics. • Destroyer graphics. • Gunboat graphics. • Mammoth Tank graphics. • Chinook graphics. • Longbow graphics. • Flamethrower unit. • Missile Sub unit. • M.A.D. Tank unit. • Pillbox graphics. • Construction Yard graphics. • Power Plant graphics. • Adv. Power Plant graphics. • Allied Barracks graphics. • Allied Tech Centre graphics. • Naval Yard graphics. • War Factory graphics. • Radar Dome graphics. • Airfield graphics. • Helipad graphics. • Service Depot graphics. • Ore Truck unloading graphics. • Turret graphics. • AA Gun graphics. • Gap Generator graphics. • SAM Site graphics. • Tesla Coil graphics. • Sub Pen graphics. • Soviet Tech Centre graphics. • Soviet Barracks graphics. • Flame Tower graphics. • Chronosphere graphics. • Missile Silo graphics. • Iron Curtain graphics. • Rifle Infantry graphics. • Rocket Solider graphics. • Engineer graphics. • Tanya graphics. • Spy graphics. • Grenadier graphics. • Flamethrower graphics. • Ant unit variants. • Shock Trooper graphics. • Attack Dog graphics. • Medic graphics. • Mechanic graphics. • Shock Trooper sounds. • Retro mode. • Contraction mode. • Chrono Tank unit. Beta Release 1 All weapons, warheads, units and structures have been modified to use the RA attributes (strength, speed, cost, damage, etc). The tech trees have been made to match the RA ones. All selection, moving, firing, exploding and squishing sounds have been replaced, aswell as some miscellaneous ones. The skirmish countries have been modified to match the RA countries as much as possible. Some of the tags do not carry over into RA2 however, so alternate bonuses have been put in place from what is available. Some in game graphics have been changed, these are either first versions of the new art or placeholders and so are likely to change. New in game art is as follows: Artillery, APC, Light Tank, V2, Ore Truck, MCV. New in game placeholder art is as follows: Medium Tank, Yak, Hind, Radar Jammer, Ranger, Demolition Truck. Any instance of a structure or unit using original RA2 art is a placeholder, except for infantry which may remain unchanged. Some UI graphics have been changed, these are likely to only have small modifications in their final versions. The blood from RA has been added, however it just the original animations resized by 150%. -------------------------------What got left behind? This is a copy of my to-do list that was meant to be completed before releasing the final version of the mod. • Investigate better Radar Jammer weapon settings • AI overhaul (if possible) • Terrain completion • Damage frames • Civilian personnel graphics - EINSTEIN sequence • Civilian building buildups • Soviet sidebar misalignments fix • Sidebar tab flashes • Verify V2 range • Ant buildings -------------------------------Who made this stuff? Any new voxels, shps and other graphics are made by me (Daz). The sounds are ported from Red Alert and as such are © Westwood Studios/EA Games, as is any unmodified Red Alert 2 content and the wallpaper graphics distributed as part of the Red Alert Themes Pack. -------------------------------Thanks Section Thanks to Gamemate and Merophage for their work on light setups for shps, and to Gamemate for sharing it with me and helping to make it work (not to mention cutting the amount of time it takes me to make buildings by half) aswell as helping with getting good damage frame effects. Thanks to MadHQ for some more building shp help. Thanks to Banshee for the various tools he is sharing over at Project Perfect Mod. Thanks to Olaf for the XCC tools, mainly Mixer and Mod Creator. Thanks to meselfs for his Downsizer tool. Thanks to ViPr for 3ds2xl. Thanks to EVA-251 for helping with the Einstein’s evac Chinook. A big thanks to everyone who has contributed to the testing and fixing of the mod, Release 1 wasn’t all pretty but people still played it and helped improve it, and Release 2 obviously had some big holes in it that people have helped patch up. You’re doing a very important job, so keep it up! And of course thanks to Westwood/EA for the excellent Red Alert series.