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I'm a freelance mission and campaign creator. I work within the Command and Conquer community, creating missions and campaigns for Tiberium Essence, Rise of the Reds and ShockWave.

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The Future

RedDeadSmeg Blog 2 comments

Rise of the Reds Act One (Fan-Made)

Where do I go from here?


Well, now that my Rise of The Reds Act One campaigns are now completed, I can now openly talk about my plans for the future. I also have a few people to thank for helping me get this far.

After I take a break from mission making, I plan to expand to other mods outside of ROTR and ShockWave while carrying on my work for those aforementioned mods.


Rise of The Reds (depending on the release of 2.0):

I will go back to some of the Faction Challenges and update them. All challenges will have music, the GLA challenge will have taunts and the USA challenge will be made slightly harder.

My main project will be Act Two of my story. Here is a rough idea of the story line:

As Act Two focuses on the Euro-Russian war, I will only be creating campaigns for the ECA and Russia.

To compensate for less campaigns, I aim to create 8 missions per campaign.

Both campaigns will be released simultaneously and all missions will be released together as opposed to one at a time.

To follow the trend of my Russian campaigns, you will play the role of General Zhukov (Tactical Ballistics General).

The ECA campaign will use the vanilla faction just like the Act One campaign.

The USA and China will not be involved with Act Two directly, but may show up towards the final phases of the act.

The GLA have run their course and achieved their goal (see the GLA and ECA campaigns for background). They will no longer play a part in my story from this point.

There is a likelihood that I will create an Act Three. This will include a re-imaging of my first ever campaign: General Orlov.

ShockWave:

I aim to create a General Ironside (USA) mini-campaign that will coincide with GLA min-campaign that I developed and released in early 2019.

I have no plans to make a China mini-campaign.

Tiberium Essence:

Depending on how well I am able to use C&C3's Worldbuilder, I aim to make a few Mutant missions for this mod. If all goes well, I will more than gladly make a campaign for this.


Please remember: I am merely a fan. I am not affiliated with the developers of any of these mods. My campaigns are in no way canon.


Thank Yous and Links:

I'll admit, I never expected that my work would have reached this level of exposure. Without these individuals, I would not have had the motivation to carry on this hobby.


Cupshadow:

Always the first to play and video my missions, I am truly grateful for the time and effort Cupshadow has put into giving my work more exposure. I was very impressed in his comparison video of the first Nod mission for Tiberian Sun against my recreation of said mission for Tiberian Dawn Redux!

Cupshadow's YouTube Channel:

Youtube.com


Martinoz:

I'm sure you recognise this name! To have the missions you've created being played by a big name in the Command and Conquer community is incredible. Thanks to him, my work has reached to more people than I ever expected. An average of 10,000 to 15,000 views per video is insane.

Martinoz's YouTube Channel:

Youtube.com


Maelstrom (Rise of the Reds):

Maelstrom was the first to stream my work, that is something that I will never forget. Unofficially I used him as a tester to see how others play and react to my missions (I don't know if he knows this)! His feedback has helped me to reach the next level of quality mission designing.

Maelstrom isn't active anymore in streaming but here is his YouTube channel:

Youtube.com


USA_Bruce (Rise of the Reds/ShockWave):

Much like Maelstrom, Bruce has taken time to stream my work. I was very proud of when he first discovered the Battlefield Hack in the Chinese Faction Challenge! He took on that challenge like a true champion, as well as the others he played. He has given me mission ideas and feedback for the USA campaign that has shaped the way the campaign played out.

Bruce regularly streams on YouTube:

Youtube.com


Mizo (Rise of the Reds)

Mizo works on the ROTR A.I and has given me helpful tips to streamline the A.I in order to make it reduce lag in the missions. My mission's aren't always smooth, but thanks to Mizo, they are much better.


Tiberian Dawn Redux

I learned a lot from this impressive mod. I went through the map.ini files and learnt a trick or two from them. Most notably the briefing text colours which is now a main feature to my missions. I've also had a lot of fun playing through this impressive recreation Command and Conquer.

I highly recommend you test this mod out:

Moddb.com


The players, critics and supporters

Without those of you who have played my work, I wouldn't be able to continue this work that started roughly two years ago. I'm grateful that you took time to play through one or all of my missions, I hope you will still be interested to play the upcoming ones. A special thank you to those who have commented on my work with words of encouragement, like X1Destroy. That has increased my motivation 10 fold.


To the future, Generals.

RedDeadSmeg



Creating a Mission for Rise of the Reds Part 1

RedDeadSmeg Blog 2 comments

Well, well, well.

Today my missions/campaigns have surpassed a combined total of 4,000 downloads.

So as a thank you, I've decided to give you a sneak peak on what it's like to design and create a single-player mission for the Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour mod Rise of the Reds. Perhaps reading my process can help you create stories for your favourite mods!

Stage 1: Mission Concept

When planning my missions, I always look at two variables:

1: Faction fighting style.

2: The purpose of a unit.

By analysing each faction, I find that there can be at least 3 different weapon styles for overcoming their enemies. If you have played Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour, you will remember that each faction had 3 specialised Generals that exploited one of the mother faction's tactics. For example: the GLA had a Toxin, Stealth and Demolition General, each with unique units and upgrades. Unfortunately, this is not possible in the current build of Rise of the Reds (Public Build 1.87 v5). The best way I have found for showing a tactic preference for one of the proposed generals, is by editing the command set for the units and structures of the mother faction. This is a part of the edited version of the Russian command set to better suit General Aleksandr's battle preferences:


Aleksandr CommandSet Image

I have also edited the requirements for certain units and structures to separate the specialised General from their mother fraction even further. For Aleksandr, the Tesla Coil upgrade for the Component Tower is available immediately, whereas the main Russian faction would require the Weapons Bunker/Industrial Plant in order for the Tesla Coil upgrade to be built.

I like to have my missions revolve around the purpose of one or a select group of units. The perfect example of this is from one of my earliest missions: Red Sun.


SolarReactorImage

I love the Solar Reactor. As a defensive player, I am able to spam defences to my hearts content thanks to this structure providing 1,000,000 units of power! Because of this ability, I created Red Sun with the idea that if the Russians could destroy it, all of Central Europe would suffer a massive power outage and be vulnerable to invasion. Something so simple as the purpose of the a unit is a fantastic way to base a story or mission around. It's almost as if half of the story is written for you. You just need to fill in the blanks!

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for part 2: Map Layout.

RedDeadSmeg