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C&C Renegade-X [Free to Play, Fan Made Update]

KorKor Known to detonate from time to timeRegistered User regular
edited February 2014 in Games and Technology
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So yesterday (February 25th) a group of heroes released a fan made update to one of the most underrated and neglected games of all time.

C&C Renegade was a FPS game on the PC. It took everything from C&C Tiberium Dawn and turned it into a Team based FPS with vehicular combat and structural strategies.

Currently this game is Free to play, and it will remain as such because that's the only reason EA is allowing it to live. EA says they are okay with the project as long as the team makes absolutely no profit off of it.

You can download the Project here
http://renegade-x.com/download
It's about 1.7G

You do not need anything else besides the 1.7G. Though the game functions with Steam, it is optional.

Some of you may have caught the trailer that came out a couple months ago here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=k-bLTYiaqqk



GAME BASICS
Each side has a base made up of equal structures, though the structures vary slightly depending on which side you are on. Destroying these structures makes them permanently disabled for the rest of the match. This turns the game into a strategic tug of war. Destroy the enemy Barracks so they can't spawn as more advanced infantry, or destroy their Refinery so they don't get as much credits.

Each player has their own credits which are earned from varies things. Damage to enemy players, vehicles, and structures will net you some cash, but so will your team's harvester when it returns to base with a full load of tiberium. Also, healing anything with engineer/technician classes will net you some fast cash, and is usually a great way to catch up in the mid-late game. Each player can spend these credits on things like specific weapons, or specific characters (which are just loadouts), or vehicles. It's considered bad form to take another players vehicle from spawn without their expressed permission.

Note that I'll be using some of the original screenshots/artwork due to a lack of availability for the new stuff currently.

So what do the buildings do?


Power Plant
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This is a very basic structure that is identical on both sides. Destroying it will cause the cost of everything to go up.

Refinery
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Another basic structure. This spawns a harvester that will go out and get you monies. Destroying it means that you've been cut off from the trust fund.

GDI Barracks/Hand of Nod
This structure is for infantry selection. This allows the players to purchase more advanced loadouts. Destroying it removes that option. The Hand of Nod is much more critical than the GDI Barracks. Nod infantry do not have a great default anti-vehicle infantry. Combine that with the rather large size of the Hand of Nod makes it an easy and desirable target for the GDI.

GDI Weapons Factory/Nod Airstrip
This is the Vehicle equivalent for the Barracks. However, players can still spawn as infantry with a Barracks destroyed, but destroying either of these structures means no vehicles at all. The size trade-off is here again, but switched sides. The GDI structure is much larger than the Nod equivalent. The Nod structure, being an airstrip, only has a small bit that even sticks above the ground.

GDI Advanced Guard Tower/Nod Obelisk
These structures are strictly defensive in nature. They're very deadly. Be careful and try to take them out safely from range. the GDI MRLS and the Nod Artillery is usually safest.

GDI Guard Tower/Nod Turret
Each side may also have smaller defensive structure. These are usually the first thing to go in a base, as they aren't very strong, and don't have a lot of health. The GDI Guard Tower is more anti-infantry, with the Nod Turret being more Anti-Vehicle.



Currently the servers are hosting player counts at 64, but I personally think that's a bit much. Playing with 32 or 24 seems more reasonable. There are bots if you so wish, and you can load up a game by yourself to get a feel for it before hand.



If anyone would like, I can create throw a Steam User List at the end here, for now though, feel free to add me on Steam

KorofMemory

DS Code: 3050-7671-2707
Pokemon Safari - Sneasel, Pawniard, ????
Kor on

Posts

  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    Beats the shit out of my OP.

  • KorKor Known to detonate from time to time Registered User regular
    See, I thought someone had made one of those when the video came out but I couldn't find it.

    DS Code: 3050-7671-2707
    Pokemon Safari - Sneasel, Pawniard, ????
  • AkimboEGAkimboEG Mr. Fancypants Wears very fine pants indeedRegistered User regular
    So I'm guessing we're using this thread and not the old one?
    I quite liked Renegade back in the day. I'll be sure to give this a try. Currently downloading the torrent.
    Steam name is AkimboEG.

    Give me a kiss to build a dream on; And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss; Sweetheart, I ask no more than this; A kiss to build a dream on
  • BursarBursar Hee Noooo! PDX areaRegistered User regular
    Got dang did I play the hell out of Renegade.

    GNU Terry Pratchett
    PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
    Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
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  • AkimboEGAkimboEG Mr. Fancypants Wears very fine pants indeedRegistered User regular
    Played a few rounds. Game is kind of a mess.
    No clear indication of ping doesn't help either.
    I'd currently recommend waiting a bit longer for a proper release.

    Give me a kiss to build a dream on; And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss; Sweetheart, I ask no more than this; A kiss to build a dream on
  • HerothHeroth Registered User regular
    Flame tank rush? flame tank rush.

    Man i have such awesome memories of this game... i was (and am) such a big fan of C&C/red alert(mostly pre Red alert 2, RA being my favourite) and also being a fan of FPS games this was just the best thing when it first came out, i'll have to give it a try soon.

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  • ButtcleftButtcleft Registered User regular
    Heroth wrote: »
    Flame tank rush? flame tank rush.

    Man i have such awesome memories of this game... i was (and am) such a big fan of C&C/red alert(mostly pre Red alert 2, RA being my favourite) and also being a fan of FPS games this was just the best thing when it first came out, i'll have to give it a try soon.

    If you love Red alert then you are probably aware of the OpenRA project that seeks create an opensource version of the Dune2000/C&C/RA engine.

    But in case you are not aware, theres an open source project called OpenRA that seeks to create a free RA/C&C/Dune2000 engine.

    I believe it also comes with the files needed to play C&C and RA because I believe EA released those as free downloads. But I'm not going to link to it just to stay on the good side of the mods.

  • Ratsult2Ratsult2 Registered User regular
    Ok, so in theory, if you get in a game that is 15v15 and you have a good connection to the server, you will probably have a good time. The server stats not updating correctly, the 75% chance to crash on new map load, and the fact that most servers are 64 player make it pretty hard though.

    While I found entertaining things to do under perfect conditions, I still felt pretty useless as a solo player. You can't attack anything without team coordination, but it is sure easy for randoms to defend.

  • KorKor Known to detonate from time to time Registered User regular
    Played this a bit over lunch today and am starting to get the feel for certain things.

    We were playing on the desert map as Nod, and we lost our power plant pretty early. We were on a downward slope for some time. I was healing structures and using C4 to kill sneaky invaders. After I saved up enough money to buy an Apache it occurred to me that this was a stupid idea. So instead I figured that we're going down anyway, might as well have fun with it.

    So I bought a Nuke Beacon and an APC (never underestimate the APC).

    I drove around the map and managed to drive into the front door of their base. Drove around back and planted the Beacon behind their Refinery, then jumped back in the APC and waiting for the engineers to show up.

    I think I ended up with 7 kills and the points for the Refinery destruction as well. All of this while solo even. So while it's hard to make a difference as a single person, it isn't impossible.

    That said, I'm also finding servers that are capping out around 25-30 as well, and I prefer to stick to those. 32v32 is just too insane and you can't get anything done with the respawn timer that way.

    DS Code: 3050-7671-2707
    Pokemon Safari - Sneasel, Pawniard, ????
  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    edited March 2014
    TotalBiscuit did a video of it the other day, god damn if it doesn't feel exactly like the original Renegade, which I absolutely loved the multiplayer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSneK84AtTI

    Donnicton on
  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    edited March 2014
    "The edges are very rough indeed."

    DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED SETTING CAN GO HERE. Lawl.

    He's right that those are pretty nice, feature-rich menus though.

    I never got to play Renegade back in the day but I always thought it looked sweet, I will give this a shot.

    Gaslight on
  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    Alright, spent pretty much the entire evening playing this. Warning, rambling impressions incoming...

    For being complete a fan project, it's really impressive! I didn't really notice much in the way of bugs, apart from an occasional crash on a round end/map change.

    Biscuit was not kidding about the old-school gunplay though. Damn is it hard to kill people in this game. People who have more old-school strafe-and-twitch skills than I do to fall back on will no doubt have an easier time. Part of the issue though is that as Biscuit says, hit confirmation is almost non-existent. There's the tiny health percentage indicator next to the enemy on the HUD, but that's hard to read when everybody is strafing and bunny-hopping around, and if you're using an indirect fire weapon like a grenade launcher or chem thrower it's close to useless.

    This is kind of a microcosm of what I woulds say is the single biggest problem with the gameplay overall, which is a lack of feedback from the game about what (if anything) you're accomplishing through your actions. Kills on other players get reported in a running play by play in the upper left corner of the screen, like most shooters. Vehicle destruction isn't reported at all, though, so often you have no way of telling if it was you or a teammate who got the killshot on an enemy tank. (It can also be disconcerting the first few times a vehicle you're driving or riding in gets destroyed, because there's also really no indication of that either. Your vehicle just disappears and suddenly you're on foot again.)

    Really the most tangible measure of how much you're contributing to the team is through your tally in the running scoreboard, but when you've got a couple hundred points and the guys at the top of the board have a few thousand and you don't know what it is they're doing differently from you, that can be discouraging. Unless it's in the tutorial (which I, perhaps foolishly, did not try before jumping into matches), the game does nothing to educate you about how to actually score points. The scoreboard itself is no help, as it only displays kills and deaths, and the guy at the top of the board could have a 5:1 K:D ratio or below 1:1 - you don't need to be a l33t-sauce dominating twitch shooter god to win in this game, because there are a lot of ways to be successful in this game...it just does a poor job of telling you what they are. I played several matches before I got in one where I really focused on buying mobile artys and bombarding enemy base buildings, and then I watched my score break into four figures for the first time and finished the game 4th or 5th on my team.

    In short, the game would really benefit from providing the player with more rich and detailed feedback about their performance: make sure the player understands the results of what he's doing and how he's being rewarded. Otherwise I think a lot of players will do their level best but never figure out how to contribute to the team's success and quit in frustration.

    I wouldn't harp on the points feedback thing quite so much if scoring points weren't pretty much the last word in how to win or lose the game, which is the second significant issue with the gameplay. Most of the matches I played ended when they hit their time limit and the team ahead on the scoreboard was declared the victor. Only a couple ended when one side's base actually got completely destroyed. In several, the outcome of the match had ceased to be in doubt long before time expired - one team up a few thousand points and the trailing team missing a key building or two - but pushing through for a complete and final annihilation of the enemy is extremely tough, I'm willing to say probably too tough.

    The main problem as I see it are 1) a lot of the maps only really have one or at most two workable pathways for vehicles to move through, and this creates hellacious chokepoints, and 2) the automated base defense buildings (Advanced Guard Tower for GDI and Obelisk for Nod) seem pretty damn OP. They react lightning fast, their shots are basically un-dodgeable, and the buildings themselves have a mountain of HP. With a couple of engineers repairing them they are nigh-indestructible. In the last match I played before quitting for the night, I was on the GDI team and we spent a good 20 minutes trying to get through the last choke to finish off the Nod base, but even with (at times) 3-4 Mammoths plus an MRLS or two we still got held at bay by the Obelisk we just couldn't take out.

    These are relatively simple things to fix, though. Some map reworking wouldn't hurt, but really you could eliminate most of the problem just by weakening the automated defense buildings a bit. Either cut their HP, or nerf their reaction and lethality against infantry somewhat so infiltrators sneaking into the base while vehicles keep the enemy occupied at the front lines is more of a viable strategy. (Although I guess this might favor Nod with their stealth classes.)

    Tl;dr - This game is really fun, pretty polished for a fan project and not in my experience nearly as bug-ridden as you'd expect. It needs to give the player better feedback about what they're doing and how to succeed, and some aspects need balance tweaking so that there are more decisive victories instead of matches dragging on to the time limit. But it's a unique experience different from any other shooter out there right now that I'm aware of, and well worth your time.

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