Well, it's been over two years since I last made a post in my mod's news forum. Two years is far too long.

In two years, the community has undergone many changes - old mods have withered away, new mods have appeared; old network sites have fallen off the radar, new upstarts have rose to take their place; C&C itself has seen the Tiberium saga concluded, and the Red Alert series take a (debatable) new turn.

Personally, I've gone from being CNC3.net's division leader to running the whole Guild; my real-life workload has increased exponentially, and this mod was left to drift into quiet obscurity.

In the modding arena, RockPatch was superseded (not without protest) by NPatch as the tool to use for extending modding possibilities. However, now Ares is in the process of getting that title back from NPatch. With the new options opened up by Ares, how could I not have a go at the mod again?

As you can see, I've completely remade the website. Gone are the years-old pages detailing silly additions that had no real basis in a YR extension mod. Instead, I've redesigned the mod itself. Some things have remained from the previous versions, but there are some new additions entirely.

TVTropes has a definition entitled "Darker and Edgier", and that's what I've been aiming towards here. There's less campy sci-fi stuff thrown in for no reason, with things taking a more realistic turn, and I've made an effort to have a story explanation for every addition. You can see the progress made in each section of mod additions at the top of the respective page. Yes, there's little to look at for now, mostly because I am not an artist, and doing anything in that field beyond cameos is incredibly difficult for me, but things should begin to happen.

Anyway, that's enough rambling. Keep your eyes open here every now and then, I should have some things to post up from time to time. If you're interested in getting involved, I wouldn't mind assistance from anyone with SHP and/or voxelling capabilities, and I'm always open to hiring beta testers.

Time to get to work.

~Nighthawk.

It's been quite some time since I've had a news post here. Work has been slowly continuing behind the scenes on the campaign missions. However, I've decided to put the mod on temporary hiatus. This is because, although the mod currently runs under RockPatch 1.10, I plan on moving it over to RockPatch 2 once it is released.

Now, RP2 may or may not have all the features of 1.10, so I've halted development so that the mod can be planned and redesigned in light of the new feature set. I mean, what's the point in developing more stuff that may not be doable with RP2.

This is not the end of the mod. Depending on what RP2 offers, you could see vast improvements. But either way, it's paused until RP2's eventual release.

~Nighthawk.

As the title said, I've not abandoned the mod. Yes, I did take a bit of an extended break over Christmas, but I've already started private beta testing with the next version cycle. And to prove I've done some work on the mod over the Christmas and New Year period, here's some screenshots of the changes to the mod:

The Soviet Battle Jeep. This replaces the Scout Tank for the Soviet countries.


A squad of Mextli Gunners. These minigun-armed units replace the Elite Corps for the Antarctic Legion.


Shift Tanks. These Neutron Cannon-armed units replace the Italian Rocket Tank.


The new background on the Battlefield Select screen. It's a bit of an edit on a file photo of Abrams Tanks in Iraq.

The mod's not dead yet.

Nighthawk.

I know I said I would release it on Sunday, but due to the recent forum inactivity, and the fact that I'm away a lot, I'm releasing it now. This is a very small update, only fixing one issue. So, to counteract the minuteness of this update, I've also included the game font I was originally going to distribute with Beta 2.1 (but forgot ). It's the YR logo font converted to a size suitable for the game. Please note, there are no Arabic, Cyrillic, Hebrew or any other foreign characters in the font, so it may not work with some games.
I wasn't able to get the weapons fixed on the F.F. Pillbox - the solution I was using made the weapon go completely haywire. I tried several other things, but no joy. So, the only unit fixed is the Soldier, which now fires in a straight line.
Again, it comes in Cumulative and Incremental versions. Download the Cumulative if you've only got one of the earlier versions. Download the Incremental if you've got Beta 2.1.
Now, as I said, this is the last bugfix version. I'll now start work on Beta 3.0, which means no more public beta testing. I will also be looking for some help graphic-wise with this version, as it'll need a bit more work, so keep an eye on the news.

Cumulative Version (download if you use Beta 2.0c or earlier): Download Link.
Incremental Version (download if you use Beta 2.1): Download Link.
RockPatch 1.10 is required. It is included in the zip files, but if for some reason it doesn't work, try getting it from here or here. The included version is 1.10 #0036, the last one released.
You may also need the Terrain Expansion. (Actually, you won't yet, but I'd advise you to download it anyway).

And, don't use the NPatch with this mod. You will get errors, and it won't work properly. Using it with a mod that clearly states it doesn't work with the NPatch is sheer idiocy. If you tell me the mod won't work and you're using NPatch version x or y, your post gets deleted. Nuff said.
Lastly, don't distribute my game font.

Nighthawk.

I've just uploaded the next update onto the server. This is the 1.10 conversion that was previously polled in the forums. Sorry about the delay for such a relatively simple update, but I've been away a lot recently.

Anyway, as before, the update comes in two flavours: cumulative and incremental. Both updates contain RockPatch 1.10 #0036, and both contain the fixes to make the mod work with 1.10.
Download the cumulative update only if you have the original Beta 2 files, and no updates.
If you've been using Beta 2.0c, download the incremental update. If you're using Beta 2.0b, I'd advise downloading the 2.0c incremental version, then the 2.1 incremental version.

Not much has been done with this update, considering most bugs so far have been to do with users not having some of the mod files. It's mostly a graphical update, containing the score screen for the Future Forces.

To install, make sure you know which version you need (cumulative or incremental), download, and unzip the files to your RA2 directory. Make sure you run the RockPatch installation file before playing the mod, especially if you're still using RPCE. If you're using the NPatch, uninstall it before installing the RockPatch.

You can grab the updates here, or head to the website and get them from the downloads page.
Cumulative Update (contains all fixes from Beta 2.0b, 2.0c and 2.1): Download
Incremental Update (only contains the Beta 2.1 fixes): Download.

Have fun.
Nighthawk.

Beta 2 is finally up on the server for download. It's been almost a year late, but now you can play it. However, the key thing is that it is a beta version, so there will most likely be bugs that myself and the testers haven't yet ironed out. If you do come across any bugs, please contact me in some form or another, preferably not email, as I have a habit of deleting emails from people I don't know.

The mod is in three parts like the last one, so it's not all in a massive file. You can download the mod from the new Downloads page, or from the following links:
Zip 1: Core Files (Mixes)
Zip 2: Audio Files (bag/idx)
Zip 3: Music Files (optional)

To play it, just unzip the files from these mixes into the RA2 directory. I have not yet tested the mod in a LAN or online situation yet, so you may expect Reconnection Errors. You will also notice that some of the Skirmish Modes are not yet finished, that is intentional, as I wasn't planning to put them in this beta. Naval War Extreme is functional, but suffers from the NCO Bug. Space War has the terrain, but still all the ground units and structures. The Future Forces AI is rather small at the minute, partly because I have to edit the triggers by hand to make the game think they're the Fourth Side, otherwise AI Editor reverts them to Allies.

To play this you'll need RPCE Revision #0050 or later, and v2.0a of the Terrain Expansion.
The music zip is still uploading at the time of writing, so you may get a 404 if you try to download it immediately.

Thanks for your time.
Nighthawk.

Due to time problems with the testing team, I'm looking for one or two more testers to help finish up the current beta version. If you're interested, read this now ancient topic, make sure you 'qualify', then throw me a PM.
I plan on getting this version out soon, once the bugs have been worked out. Especially as I go on study leave shortly and will be unable to do anything really on this.

Nighthawk.

President Dugan has decided to lift his 'Future Forces Information Secrecy' Act after we captured a data module located in one of their signal devices, called a Guardian Outpost. This module has data on practically all of their units and structures. For all we know some parts of this may be false, Commander and partial to change, but we have uploaded a new database containing all the data. It looks similar to the last one, but to access it you need to proceed to this page instead to access it. The online interface will be updated accordingly. The database is still being uploaded at present, so you may not get an immediate connection, or some pieces may be missing. It will all be there soon Commander.

Urgent Battlefield Report - Eyes Only
From: 'Nighthawk', Agent, Allied Intelligence
To: , Commander, Allied Defense Forces
Commander, while we've been pre-occupied trying to get as much information on the Future Forces as possible, we seem to have neglected the other threat to our peace, Yuri. We originally thought he did not pose as much of a threat as he seems to have been holed up in Antarctica all this time doing God knows what, but he appears to have re-organised his forces entirely. Today at approximately 0200 hours, Yuri troops under the name of the 'Atlantic Legion' have seized the Russian city of Novgorod. The Soviets, who only had a small garrison in the city, were forced to retreat. The city is now in Yuri's hands. One of the Soviet soldiers stationed in the garrison, a Mladshiy Leytenant Rovodinsky, managed to snap a sizable view of one of the Yuri occupation zones as he retreated from the city in a MiG bomber using the bomber's black box. Here is that picture, unfortunately with most of Novgorod's power grid in chaos there are very few light posts running in that area of the city, and Yuri's "mood lighting" doesn't help much either, so we have lightened some of the areas so you can get a clear view of the area.
.
It seems that this 'Atlantic Legion' uses different vehicular units to those normally used by Yuri, we can see several heavy-tank like vehicles driving down the main road, and one rather large double barreled unit in the centre, which was unfortunately the poorest lit of all. The Soviets believe it to be an improvisation on their Apocalypse tank, but we are unsure of its armament. We have a glimpse of one of Yuri's new Sniper Turrets. These are basically the British Sniper in turret form, though we've seen them use various types of ammo before. We can also see several civilians being kept in the base, most likely for use in Yuri's Bio Reactors, and we can also see that they are being closely guarded by one of Yuri's rumoured Special Operations infantry, a Savant. Be careful of those Commander, they are armed with high-energy railgun weapons, though until now they have been largely unseen.

More information will be brought in on this incident as we can get it Commander, but for now, Novgorod is a no-go area without clearance from Command, but the Soviets seem keen to send in a strike force to retake the city, Command's not going to risk arguing with them, but you are not to intervene until ordered.

Agent Nighthawk, Allied Intelligence
==Report Ends==

Out-of-character note: I thought I'd go back to the 'in-character' news posts again, they seemed to get the story across better than normal posts .

Progress with the mod so far has unfortunately been slow, due to the need for RP 1.08 SE to implement the majority of the stolen tech units, and me getting swamped with coursework, leaving me with little time to work on it. All of the Future Forces infantry, units and buildings are finished, as are all the upgrades, though stolen tech is not due to my lack of time. I have however uploaded the colour version of the picture of the Future Forces base, and replaced the black and white pictures in the database with the colour versions. The second photo and anything from it are still in greyscale however. Though, on the plus side, in the short spaces of time I've had to work on the mod I have been adding small bits and pieces to it, mostly to Yuri, which is now composed of four Legions instead of two. More information on this will be released at another time. Until then, you can see the colour images on the Future Forces page of the site here.