Rts 1.0 build and conquer is out

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

RTS3 has finally gone to version 1.0.  I decided to make a new thread for this since the old one is so long, and it was mainly for the beta version which I came out with November 2002.

I re-did a lot of things in RTS, and reached back into the playbook from RTS-1 which I made about 2 years ago (or more?).  Hard to believe I've been playing OFP for so long.

For those of you unfamiliar with RTS, this is a Real Time Strategy mod that I first started working on back in 2001 sometime.  I released RTS1 in mid 2001 and then RTS2 in May 2002.  RTS3 Beta was out in November 2002.

Screenshots are here:

http://www.aggression.org/Karr/RTSPics.html

ATTN: Version 1.4 is now out. Go to this new thread for version 1.4:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....y502738

You can download RTS-3 1.0 and all addons from my website at:

http://www.aggression.org/karr.html

RTS3 is playable in Multiplayer (player vs player), Coop (players vs. AI) or Single Player (one player vs the AI commander).

In RTS3 each team has a commander that builds the team's base.  Each base consists of the following:

MCU (Mobile Construction Unit) - Builds and repairs base buildings.

Command HQ - Where you spawn and research items

Tank Factory - Builds land vehicles from trucks to tanks

Aircraft Factory - Builds Helos, Planes and other flying stuff.

Barracks - Train soldiers

Recycler - Train workers to keep base repaired and Salvagers to go out and salvage destroyed vehicles.

Radar Tower - Detects and attacks flying units within a certain radius, also detects ground units within a certain radius.

Construction Jeep - Not counted as a base unit, this little jeep can make auxilary units, like SAM sites, Sentry towers, Mortar pits, wire fences, and Sandbag forts.  It can also recycle destroyed units.

Player Abilities - Players can Repair destroyed vehicles in the field, and hack into the enemy base buildings and create AI units there to wreak havoc.  Players can build a large number of different vehicles with or without AI and control them.

Commanders - The primary builder for the team, the commander can create the base buildings, and can also build manned units for other squadmembers.

RTS takes place on several islands, and the way to win is either take and hold all territories for 2 minutes, or completely destroy the enemy base.

There are currently 3 different eras of RTS available.  There is World War II, Vietnam, and Modern.

RTS3 WWII contains the F4U Corsairs, P-51 Mustangs, and tanks and other units from the Invasion 44 mod and WWIIEC and other independent addon makers.  You play as either Allies or Axis.

RTS3 Vietnam contains units mainly from the SEB Nam pack.  You play as either the U.S. or Vietcong/NVA.

RTS3 Modern contains tons of war-making goodies, so I'll make a list.  

Fa-18 1.3 Hornet from Pennywise and Hudson

F-15e from Deadsoldier and US Marine

BAS Littlebirds from BAS

RAH-66 Comanche, MI-28, Tonguska, M109-Adats, OV-10 by DKM

M109 Artillery by quakergamer

2s19 Howitzer (artillery) by Hawk

Mi2 Urn by Nashe Oruzhiye

Mig 23 and Mig 27 Flogger by Footmunch (rktmod)

Jetpack by Martin

...and more.  You can find a complete listing on my website.

The current islands are:

Everon - Modern

Malden - Modern

Kolgujev - Modern, Vietnam

Nogova - Modern

Ackropolis - Modern

Bears Lahta - Modern

Sarugao - Modern, Vietnam

Skye - World War II

Ia Drang Valley - Vietnam

Currently all versions of RTS3 in this release require addons.  A non-addon version is soon to come, but most of those who play seem to like the addons versions better.

I would recommend that you download all addon packs from my website and put them into separate mod folders.  Even if you have some of the WW2 addons, I would still highly recommend that you download the WW2 addon pack from my website and put it into a separate mod folder.  This has been more efficient from my experience.

Mod folder info can be found at:

http://www.theavonlady.org/theofpfaq/

search for "mod folder".

New in RTS3 1.0

New Game Options - these are selected before game starts and for those who like more land-based missions, these may be useful.

Enable All Air - All Basic and Advanced aircraft are available in game

No Jets - All advanced jets are disabled

No Advanced Air - Only basic air units are available

Only Cargo Aircraft - Only very basic units like the CH47D and Mi17 (which carry tanks) are available.

Team upgrades - Basic Aircraft Upgrade, Advanced Aircraft Upgrade, and Research Enemy Tech are now team upgrades.  In other words, each of these must be researched only once per team, rather than each team member having to research them by themselves.  This means that teammates will have to donate money to a designated teammate (normally the commander) in order to get these upgrades.  The $ amount of the upgrade is dependent upon the number players on each team.  For example if West has 5 players and East only 3, then the West Basic Aircraft upgrade will by 5*3500, whereas East's will be 3*3500.  This helps to keep a balance.

Advanced Radar upgrade is now done at the Command HQ rather than the Radar tower itself.

VTOL is still an individual upgrade.

Cancel Build - Now you can Cancel research and cancel build orders from the tank factory and aircraft factory.  I redid the build Queue's to make this work better.  You can cancel from the Mission Control status screen.

There are also a ton of other optimizations I made to reduce lag.

Modifying RTS-3 - I have redone many of the scripts to make RTS-3 more easily modified by other mission makers so that it can be easily ported to other eras, like WW2 and Vietnam, etc.  I will be writing up some instructions on this at some point.

OK, well this is probably more than most of you want to read, so instead go to the link to my webpage at the top and go get RTS3!

[RED 0]

Great work Kar, this is one of the best MP missions I have played

RED

[docluvless 0]

Awesome!

I just found out about this mod, and I have been playing it alot lately. I cant wait to download this gem!

Thanks alot KaRRiLLioN

[BirdKilla 0]

Super work looking forward to biger and better things to come

[Radnik 18]

Can someone post in-game screen-ies or screenshots, just to see how the game realy look like...

[Radnik 18]

I'm very interested in to see how it looks...

Is it similary to C&C Generals or ...?

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

It's like a first-person RTS.

I'll make some screenshots later today when I have some time.

[Pennywise 0]

I have been playing Karr's RTS over at Radishville for a long time now. Its definitely worth the download. Especially if you like real time strategy/build n conquer, nothing compares to it! Beware though, the AI can really kick your ass if your not careful.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

Here's a link to screenshots.

Please note my top-notch html l33t skillz.

http://www.aggression.org/Karr/RTSPics.html

[Wgates 0]

I've been videogaming since Pong... OFP, with its multiple features, has been my choice for 90%+ of multiplay for the past 2 years. KaRRiLLiON's RTS mods have been the proverbial icing on the most excellent cake! When RTS was 1st introduced for OFP... it blew me away! (I do enjoy RTS games such as AOE and C&C, but in 3D from FPS perspective, OFP/RTS is simply mind-boggling.) I've played every version of RTS (not to mention early versions of Animal's Purchasing Power... which was challenging, if not intriguing with it's high fuel consumption rate for vehicles...); each successive RTS version has been made easier and more balanced than ever... not to mention more intuitive to play (i.e., nOObs, come on down!- GUI interfaces galore!). True, it's unfortunate that OFP doesn't support join in progress, since RTS matches can be 'long' (typically 1-2 hr, though I've gone 6+), but using ASE or better yet, OFP Watch eliminates the guesswork in when to join up.

[schmuck 0]

deja vu - I think I read that last post somewhere else. hmmmmm. Is PD really "WGates" whoever that is?? Might the guy who controls the world endorse this RTS mod... hmmmmm... With all that software empire and such he still takes or should I say spends so much of his life playing RTS. Wow how does he do it - If I was only capable of so much. But alas I am just a schmuck, and schmuck says "PLAY MORE RTS" - So play on Mr Gates

[Baphomet 0]

So does version one have any non-addon requiring maps or are those who aren't too into that S.O.L?

I'll have to give it a look anyhow. Still non-addon maps were great because they were so portable. You could take them to a lan game and everyone could play without a lot of setup time.

... one more thing... I was playing some action quake SP a few weeks ago and I was looking on the AQMD for some maps and lo and behold. I saw your name on a few maps. Being a long time action quaker I'm surprised I didn't recognize your name and handiwork.

That is of course there's someone else who spells your name exactly the same way and made those maps.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

Heh, yep I made a few AQ2 maps back in the day.  Highrise 1 and 2, Aggression City, Brickyard Rumble, Vertigo, Docks, and a few others I don't remember off the top of my head.

I was also on the Action Half-Life mod team and made a couple of maps, and I had an official map for Counterstrike, de_Railroad.

As far as non-addons versions go, yes there will be non-addons versions, but there are some issues to iron out.  The main problem with the non-addons versions is that some of the buildings that I use have extremely high armor values, and they take on hell of a pounding before blowing up.  Also, those buildings don't show up as enemy targets.

That aside, I have a functioning non-addons version, but I'm just making sure there's no hidden bugs to iron out.

I have worked hard to make this version much more easy for other mission-makers to port to other eras/genres as well.  Going from addon to non-addon is harder than most, however because it means that all of the buildings are reverting to their original OFP state.

Man, I just realized that Bill Gates plays RTS!  I wonder if I can talk him into sending me a year's supply of astroglide....

[Wgates 0]

Astroglide?, PD?.... surely there's some erroneous issues here! Ok, I admit, PD did very eloquently comment about RTS elsewhere, so like with Apple, I simply borrowed his comments... besides, RTS is an obvious extension of my AOE! As a consolation, I promise to send you two, Schmuck & KaRRiLLioN, free demo versions of IntelliType 5.0 if you can keep a lid on this.

[sgt sodom 0]

just wanted to say again, GREAT WORK!, here on the LAN we test it every day. (though we do make price changes to make the action happen a little more, what can you expect on 4 computers).

Anyways, everything is pretty balanced , but I was thinking since nukes were such a weapon of hatred that they should be announced globally to both teams.

IE. "The West has the BOMB!"

anyhow

thankee for all your wonderful work

[benu 1]

I didn't have time to test it yet, but installed it on my server and got some of my players to download all the addons, so maybe tonight we can play some rts

Some things i have noticed with the addons: editorupdate102 in the russians pack is not Kegetys editorupdate as mentioned in the readme or it is an older version. This may cause problems with other missions if one replace the it with the one from lasers pack.

And some other missions showed error messages too after installing the addons needed for rts (in a modfolder).

Both things have to do with the rts missions only indirectly but i thought it may be of interest. If i find out which of the addons causes the error messages (and maybe how to fix them) i'll report back.

[=Matt= 0]

just came to say that RTS RULEZ!!!

Fantastic gameplay, u can play so many roles, epic battles, i spent so many nights until 7-8 am(i live in europe... damn jetlag :P) playing it on bootcamp...

Great work Karr

[BirdKilla 0]

Hum funny how when pd and schmuck are in the same chat or msg board it turns to astro-glide and bill gates plays rts the hell with astro-glide get some money! i have to say rts just get more and more fun and i can make biger and biger booms in your bases with the nuke

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

@Benu

I'm not sure about the editorupdate102 issue. I don't use any objects from that addon that I'm aware of. The editorupdate102 is that in in one of my other addon packs, the LSR Spec ops?

Anyway, you shouldn't have any errors with regard to that, at least we've never seen anything.

The most common issues we have are players who are still using the Beta MI-28, or older verisons of the F-18, or old versions of the RTS3Addon.

Any older version of the RTS3 Addon will cause issues.

[schmuck 0]

I kant weight fer hte copie off Intellitipe to gat hear. It shud halp me.

So how long do we have to wait for it to get "bundled" with the os since it is an "obvious extension"? Or would that be somehow in violation of the various lawsuits over the last few years......

[Wgates 0]

Shmuch, just play RTS3 and allll will be forgiven...

[Waterman 0]

Cool, nice to see a Skye version (all be it a WW2 one ). Downloading now... only another 1hr and 24mins for the ww2 pack - lol. Looking forward to trying it out anyway.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

Skye was perfect for WW2.  It's not huge so good tank battles happen often.  The best battles often happen near the long bridge in the north, especially when one team builds near the airport.

Most of the time the bases start out pretty close so you'll get some battlefields full of tank husks, and the AI salvagers look like vultures out there.  Of course they sometimes make the mistake of getting in the way of the battles....:)

We played against the AI one night, about 4 of us, and barely pulled out the win.  The AI typically builds dedicated squads.  Some for capping and keeping territories, and others for pure offense to chase down our guys who are capping.  It also builds Junkers with paratroops who are a pain in the rear when they all come Parachuting down in the midst of our base.

I'll probably stick a modern RTS on there sometime as well.  The way that the balance works now, the teams have to really battle to keep territories if they want to have hope of attaining the advanced aircraft.  We've been having some really good tug-of-wars lately like that.

This one time after a big battle some of the AI squad leaders came up in jeeps, repaired some tanks and surprised the hell out of us while we were licking our wounds in our base.

[Waterman 0]

Well if I can get WRPtool to work for me I'll expand skye a bit to the north west and you'll have a bigger area to play with... I was wanting to use MOD folders for the WW2 stuff but got a problem with them at the mo... check it out soon though...

[benu 1]

I did only install the "normal" rts3 stuff[1], the addon making problems seems to bethe 2s19.pbo.

Didn't do any tests on the ww2 stuff, but most addon problems are "resolved" when you move them from the modfolder to the normal addons folder. I wouldn't quite call this a solution, as such problems only appear when the addon in question has incorrectly declared addon dependencies, ie it is broken.

[1] even that was 82mb zipfile of additional addons for my players to download and install.