Tempest Rising - totally not Command & Conquer clone from 3D Realms

[Infinitron]

The Riot Trooper is one of the GDF's key pillars of frontline support. @Waywardstrategist is here with us to explain it's role, utility and how you can best use this unit to reinforce your tactical approach.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Why on earth is the heavy infantry called "Riot Trooper"? Also, looks kind of like the Peacekeepers in Red Alert 3.

 

[ArchAngel]

That is very Starcraft 2 unit design

 

[Parsimonious cook]

At least some infantry not being crushable by vehicles is a massive incline tbh fam.

Why on earth is the heavy infantry called "Riot Trooper"?

They literaly have a body armor, (riot) shield and a batton. Thats p. much a definition of being a riot trooper. Better question would be why would you deploy riot troops on an actual battlefield... then again ruskies do that with OMON too, so w/e I guess.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Doesn't sound like heavy infantry then. That kind of equipment is used against rioters and not in combat.

My issue is being a riot trooper and heavy infantry at the same time.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Sure, opinions may vary on what the definition of heavy infantry is - for me its these dudes in the sci-fi context:

ie. heavy (powered) armor + heavy weapons. I guess that the devs are just going with the heavy armor part.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Suicidal]

While Dook Nookem devs are busy making a spiritual successor/clone of C&C, EA is shitting out another mobile shovelware.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/22/23841520/command-and-conquer-legions-mobile-game-ea

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1486920/view/3680057643270628269

About the Demo

Get a taste for Tempest Rising in this playable demo! Experience the first mission of both the Global Defence Forces and the Tempest Dynasty in their desperate struggle for dominance and resources. The classic Real-Time Strategy experience that you love and remember.

GDF FEATURES

- GDF-exclusive playable unit types, including the Drone Operator and the Sentinel Scout Car
- Six enemy types
- The GDF’s unique blend of base building and intel management
- Classic gameplay elements, such as explosive barrels!

DYNASTY FEATURES

- DYN-exclusive playable unit types, including the Missile Trooper and the Rocket Buggy
- A taste of the side objectives that will be available in the full campaign
- Destroy or repair pieces of your environment, such as bridges
- The ability to steal enemy buildings with the Technician unit

CHANGELOG

New Additions

• Added Tempest Dynasty mission 01 - "The Tempest Gambit"
• Added game intro cinematic

Fixes

• Fixed various crashes
• Fixed issue with clearing selected weapon when changing attack targets in the middle of attack animation
• Changed Riot Medic's 'Riot' weapon to only target Infantry
• Improved lip syncing for GDF 01 briefing
• Optimizations to Mission Briefings scenes
• Various tweaks to setdressing & nav mesh for GDF 01
• Fixed issue where the Music would restart during action-heavy scenes
• Added particle effect for cash crate pickup and for intel generation
• Switched default health bars to be visibile when units are damaged
• Fixed issues with collapsing of the support powers menu
• Tweaked GDF Field Scout's Marking Mine
• Updated GDF 01 intro vid
• Adjusted volume of some FMS clips and ambient SFX emitters
• Fixed issue where non-combat units would move to attack target when part of a group selection
• Added destruction sound effects to GDF structures
• Fixed bug with broken lighting on swaying boats
• Tweaked emissives on flame units
• Improved explosions "Omph"
• Added more options for input binding
• Fixed issues with input bindings not saving
• Updated selection decal to auto adjust to the size of selceted unit/structure
• Fixed game rendering for ultra wide displays
• Switched to using DX11 by default, and added experimental DX12 mode
• Added settings for map scrolling

Balance Changes

• player max resources limit lowered from 30,000 to 12,000 credits
• Refinery build time reverted to 20 seconds
• Gatling Turret range increased to 2800
• Adjusted Tempest Rig collider radius from 300 to 260
• Riot Medic Healing increased
• Cost of Riot Medic Healing Turret decreased

Find the demo here.
Join the Discord here.
Find us on Social Media.

 

[Jaedar]

So I played the demo as not-nod. It's just the first mission of the campaign, so no basebuilding.
"C&C clone" feels like underselling it. Not-nod has riflemen, rocketmen and flamethrower infantry, gdf has riflemen and grenadiers. Also nod rocket buggy and gdf light tank. I played the original C&C for the first time this year(more or less) via remastered, and as one might expect this new attempt doesn't quite manage to recapture that glory. Flamethrowers and grenadiers were really scary, in TR they were not really noticeably different from riflemen and there doesn't seem to be any friendly fire either. The units also all look pretty similar so when you get a blob of 20 going it just looks like a smear. The pathfinding starts struggling with that many units as well, so you'll get a few stragglers that decide to take the long way around corners or run in the opposite direction if there's an obstruction, even when it's a longer route.

I really don't understand what they were thinking with making the resource fields have random red dots on the minimap, when that is also the color of enemy troops.

At least it has attack move, so that's a clear improvement.

All in all, I'm downgrading my expectations of this, although I think I will want to play the full thing at some point. Even moderately less good c&c is still a good rts.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

The game does have some small but interesting inovations though - for example the GDF drone operators have a secondary mode in which they can send the drone away inside a fairly big radius (normaly the drone simpyl follows the operator around). The thing is that the drones can only be engaged by anti-air weapons (rocket troopers, SAM sites etc), so you can gain advantage by hiding operators behind terrain and sending the drones to attack enemies, who might not be able to fight back at all.

TBH fam I am a bit disappointed that the demo doesnt have the doctrines and all this other stuff which could potentially set the game appart from the normal C&C fair - as it is, I would say that it is a competent C&C clone with some small inovations. We will see if there will be something more in the end.

 

[ArchAngel]

The game does have some small but interesting inovations though - for example the GDF drone operators have a secondary mode in which they can send the drone away inside a fairly big radius (normaly the drone simpyl follows the operator around). The thing is that the drones can only be engaged by anti-air weapons (rocket troopers, SAM sites etc), so you can gain advantage by hiding operators behind terrain and sending the drones to attack enemies, who might not be able to fight back at all.

TBH fam I am a bit disappointed that the demo doesnt have the doctrines and all this other stuff which could potentially set the game appart from the normal C&C fair - as it is, I would say that it is a competent C&C clone with some small inovations. We will see if there will be something more in the end.

Which makes zero sense, I am pretty sure you can bring down drones even with assault rifle bullets.

 

[Trithne]

At least it has attack move, so that's a clear improvement.

C&C had attack move.

Hold ctrl and click - force attack ground.
Hold alt and click - force move.
Hold both and click - attack move.

 

[Jaedar]

At least it has attack move, so that's a clear improvement.

C&C had attack move.

Hold ctrl and click - force attack ground.
Hold alt and click - force move.
Hold both and click - attack move.

Damn, I had no idea. I only knew about force attack ground and force move.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

The game does have some small but interesting inovations though - for example the GDF drone operators have a secondary mode in which they can send the drone away inside a fairly big radius (normaly the drone simpyl follows the operator around). The thing is that the drones can only be engaged by anti-air weapons (rocket troopers, SAM sites etc), so you can gain advantage by hiding operators behind terrain and sending the drones to attack enemies, who might not be able to fight back at all.

TBH fam I am a bit disappointed that the demo doesnt have the doctrines and all this other stuff which could potentially set the game appart from the normal C&C fair - as it is, I would say that it is a competent C&C clone with some small inovations. We will see if there will be something more in the end.

Which makes zero sense, I am pretty sure you can bring down drones even with assault rifle bullets.

I mean... you can shoot down helicopters with small arms fire too, but it has been a standard practice in C&C games to make air units untouchable from the ground unless you have specific AA weapons.

Plus as the videos from Ukraine (or even older ones from the ISIS era wars in Syria and Iraq) show, infantry tends to have a hard time when attacked by drones.

 

[Lemming42]

Never heard of this before now but I'm playing the demo and wtf it's literally just C&C 95. How do they expect to get away with this?

Pretty fun though. C&C 95 was always my favourite, even moreso than Red Alert, so it's nice to have something that apes it so much.

 

[Suicidal]

Never heard of this before now but I'm playing the demo and wtf it's literally just C&C 95.

Really? I thought it was closer to C&C3/RA3 due to the graphics and units having special abilities/togglable fire modes and stuff like airstrikes you pay money for.

How do they expect to get away with this?

EA is too busy making mobile trash with C&C's name on it to notice.

 

[Darth Roxor]

After finishing the not-NOD mission, I'm not particularly impressed. The gameplay feels floaty for the lack of a better word, and the unit AI/pathfinding is so bad that it's unacceptable. If I have to spend most of the mission wrestling with morons who can't take a straight line to their target or start shooting without moving despite being in range, it doesn't quite leave me asking for more.

 

[Hellraiser]

Never heard of this before now but I'm playing the demo and wtf it's literally just C&C 95.
How do they expect to get away with this?

EA is too busy making mobile trash with C&C's name on it to notice.

BRB gotta make not-SMAC with factions such as the Technocracy, Milligan Enterprises, Lord's Chosen, Children of Terra, UN Interstellar Organization, People's Swarm and Laconian Republic.

 

[Suicidal]

After finishing the not-NOD mission, I'm not particularly impressed. The gameplay feels floaty for the lack of a better word, and the unit AI/pathfinding is so bad that it's unacceptable. If I have to spend most of the mission wrestling with morons who can't take a straight line to their target or start shooting without moving despite being in range, it doesn't quite leave me asking for more.

Yeah I had a few cases of a part of my units somehow getting stranded on the other side of the map while I was trying to get the group to cross a bridge. Hopefully this is something they can fix by release.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

The Tempest harvesting didn't work when I played as the Tempest Dynasty. Must have been a bug, I will have to replay from the beginning to find out.

e: It did work when I restarted. I've done the two missions now. It's a bit difficult to quickly select all units of a specific type if you, for example, suddenly need all rocket troopers to engage an incoming tank. That panel is very tiny.

 

[Quatlo]

So I played the demo as not-nod. It's just the first mission of the campaign, so no basebuilding.
"C&C clone" feels like underselling it. Not-nod has riflemen, rocketmen and flamethrower infantry, gdf has riflemen and grenadiers. Also nod rocket buggy and gdf light tank. I played the original C&C for the first time this year(more or less) via remastered, and as one might expect this new attempt doesn't quite manage to recapture that glory. Flamethrowers and grenadiers were really scary, in TR they were not really noticeably different from riflemen and there doesn't seem to be any friendly fire either. The units also all look pretty similar so when you get a blob of 20 going it just looks like a smear. The pathfinding starts struggling with that many units as well, so you'll get a few stragglers that decide to take the long way around corners or run in the opposite direction if there's an obstruction, even when it's a longer route.

I really don't understand what they were thinking with making the resource fields have random red dots on the minimap, when that is also the color of enemy troops.

At least it has attack move, so that's a clear improvement.

All in all, I'm downgrading my expectations of this, although I think I will want to play the full thing at some point. Even moderately less good c&c is still a good rts.

Fuck this then, lest play CnC3 someday.

 

[Trithne]

Played the demo and yeah, not sold.

I don't know if it's me being older than I was or just modern design, but I don't feel like what C&C was missing was poor readability and a claustrophobia-inducing camera zoom level.

I might be spoilt by the fact that I'm mostly playing Dune these days, and it doesn't make me feel like I'm forced to watch from a crane's worth of height and selecting indistinguishable men out of a blob.

I also think I just don't have the patience for the classic 'move dudes around and use all their magic powers' style of combat anymore. The genre feels frustratingly shackled to a level of granularity that I really have come to dislike.

Pathfinding is also atrocious, and I appreciate that it's a demo and aimed at highlighting mechanics usw, but it was something like 3 layers of cinematics to get to combat and said combat was interrupted by cutscenes every few minutes. So annoying.

 

[ArchAngel]

Played the demo and yeah, not sold.

I don't know if it's me being older than I was or just modern design, but I don't feel like what C&C was missing was poor readability and a claustrophobia-inducing camera zoom level.

I might be spoilt by the fact that I'm mostly playing Dune these days, and it doesn't make me feel like I'm forced to watch from a crane's worth of height and selecting indistinguishable men out of a blob.

I also think I just don't have the patience for the classic 'move dudes around and use all their magic powers' style of combat anymore. The genre feels frustratingly shackled to a level of granularity that I really have come to dislike.

Pathfinding is also atrocious, and I appreciate that it's a demo and aimed at highlighting mechanics usw, but it was something like 3 layers of cinematics to get to combat and said combat was interrupted by cutscenes every few minutes. So annoying.

Try Beyond All Reason, it sounds like it is more to your liking. It is also completely free.

 

[Trithne]

Played the demo and yeah, not sold.

I don't know if it's me being older than I was or just modern design, but I don't feel like what C&C was missing was poor readability and a claustrophobia-inducing camera zoom level.

I might be spoilt by the fact that I'm mostly playing Dune these days, and it doesn't make me feel like I'm forced to watch from a crane's worth of height and selecting indistinguishable men out of a blob.

I also think I just don't have the patience for the classic 'move dudes around and use all their magic powers' style of combat anymore. The genre feels frustratingly shackled to a level of granularity that I really have come to dislike.

Pathfinding is also atrocious, and I appreciate that it's a demo and aimed at highlighting mechanics usw, but it was something like 3 layers of cinematics to get to combat and said combat was interrupted by cutscenes every few minutes. So annoying.

Try Beyond All Reason, it sounds like it is more to your liking. It is also completely free.

I've tried BAR, and ZeroK, and as far back as TAspring. I do generally like them, but another thing I like about Dune is the systems around the game that aren't just shooting the other guy's dudes, like the gamified diplomacy system and espionage.