[HN Gopher] OpenRA - Classic strategy games rebuilt for the mode...
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       OpenRA - Classic strategy games rebuilt for the modern era
        
       Author : tosh
       Score  : 192 points
       Date   : 2025-01-25 18:55 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.openra.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.openra.net)
        
       | nadermx wrote:
       | I play this often. If you play multi-player these build orders
       | help
       | 
       | https://forum.openra.net/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=21563
        
         | tra3 wrote:
         | Nice. Me and my son play coop against the bots and can never
         | win. Maybe this will help.
        
         | petercooper wrote:
         | Great resource. This is my main problem with the game. It's so
         | formulaic in the early stages and you really have to play to
         | the meta to stand a chance of surviving past about ten minutes.
         | Strategy doesn't really come into it unless you survive beyond
         | a certain point.
        
       | kingo55 wrote:
       | I love how faithful this is to the original games but at the same
       | time they've modernised the gameplay so that it doesn't feel it's
       | age.
       | 
       | When you go back and play the originals (even Red Alert
       | remastered) the modernised gameplay added by Open RA becomes very
       | apparent. I can't go back to the originals now.
        
         | goosedragons wrote:
         | Feel the same way with OpenRCT2. I could have sworn the
         | original games had controls for speeding up and slowing down
         | park time but nope. Going back to Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 I
         | just can't play it at 1x speed anymore. OpenRCT2 just has some
         | nice little fixed.
        
           | bondarchuk wrote:
           | That was so nice about the og though, you have to wait so you
           | just spend the time building some technically useless but
           | nice looking stuff. Fast forward kind of ruins that.
        
         | hnlmorg wrote:
         | To be honest, I always found Westwood strategy games to be very
         | one dimensional compared to other strategy games even in its
         | own era.
         | 
         | I never understood why people loved them so much. Perhaps it
         | was _because_ of their simplicity thus allowing for more
         | mainstream appeal?
         | 
         | Im sure I'll get downvoted by the Red Alert fans with their
         | rose tinted glasses for saying this because a lot of people
         | forget just how basic those games were. But I played a hell of
         | a lot of strategy games back then (it was my favourite genre)
         | and Westwood did some of the most simplistic games in the
         | genre.
         | 
         | Where Westwood excelled at was the presentation more than the
         | game play. Great music, FMV in the later games, etc.
         | 
         | Anyhow, I might check out this OpenRA project if they've
         | tweaked the mechanics.
        
           | intalentive wrote:
           | C&C Generals is up there with StarCraft in terms of gameplay.
           | And yes the RA music is some of the best ever game music. I
           | still blast Hell March from time to time.
        
             | hnlmorg wrote:
             | That's from 2003 though. It is one of the last games in the
             | series and was made after Westwood Studios had been
             | disbanded and staff finally merged fully into EA LA.
             | 
             | Whereas StarCraft was released in 1998. Which, if we are to
             | use your examples, would make C&C 5 years behind StarCraft
             | in terms of game play. Which is a hell of a long time given
             | how games were evolving in the late 90s.
        
       | deadlyllama wrote:
       | Does it play the single player mode cutscenes though? My PC was
       | underpowered when I was playing Red Alert. Full screen, full
       | motion video still seemed pretty amazing back then. "Hitler is..
       | out of ze way"
        
         | dfex wrote:
         | If you have the original CDs, then yes, you can import all the
         | cutscene media files (FMV, music etc.) during the install phase
         | and it will play them just like the original, but they aren't
         | included in the download for obvious reasons.
        
       | cpressland wrote:
       | I'd love a project like this, but for Red Alert 2. It works great
       | on my Steam Deck but often stutters on larger battles. A modern,
       | native, Linux port would be amazing.
        
         | kingo55 wrote:
         | There have been plans to bring RA2 to OpenRA for some time now.
         | I second this.
         | 
         | It'd be nice to also see support for Tiberian Sun and the C&C
         | Remastered collection.
        
           | cpressland wrote:
           | Any sources? I'd be keen to see if I can help out, even if
           | only financially.
        
             | kingo55 wrote:
             | It was posted below: https://github.com/OpenRA/ra2
             | 
             | It works, but it's not an official release yet. Fwiw I
             | haven't played this myself.
        
         | 999900000999 wrote:
         | https://github.com/OpenRA/ra2
         | 
         | Works great on Linux
        
           | cpressland wrote:
           | I have seen this in the past, but I figured it was mostly
           | abandonware given the lack of recent commits. I'll install it
           | and check it out though, thanks for the suggestion.
        
         | HelloUsername wrote:
         | This might interest you (RA2 in the webbrowser)
         | https://game.chronodivide.com/
        
       | kingo55 wrote:
       | Based on this open source project, modders have created an
       | expanded universe encapsulating RA, RA2, Tiberian Sun, Tiberian
       | Dawn and other lore into Combined Arms mod:
       | 
       | https://www.moddb.com/mods/command-conquer-combined-arms
       | 
       | Worth a look for a new fan made entry into the C&C universe. The
       | scale of the mod is huge...
        
         | ozarker wrote:
         | Woah this looks awesome, thanks for sharing!
        
       | scott_w wrote:
       | It's not clear from the website but I've always been curious if
       | these engines have community built assets that negate the need
       | for real game assets. It would be really nice to sidestep the
       | need to buy the games altogether (legally of course!)
        
         | ellg wrote:
         | In this case, EA released all the classic c&c games for free so
         | its pretty easy to snag all the assets. I think the OpenRA
         | launcher even has an option to download them for you.
         | 
         | There are 3rd party mods with their own assets too though, its
         | a pretty neat engine.
        
           | cess11 wrote:
           | Yes, it pulls them automatically, which is really nice.
        
       | oaththrowaway wrote:
       | My favorite RTS game of all time. Love the port. Run my own
       | server for my friends group and it works great
        
       | wink wrote:
       | I know people (rightfully) loved them for the gameplay (I was
       | more of a WC2 and SC player), but _my_ favourites were the videos
       | in RA3 with Tim Curry et al. It was just the right type of corny
        
       | BrouteMinou wrote:
       | One of the best RTS out there. I go there every night to get my
       | ass kicked once or twice before bed.
       | 
       | I highly recommend it.
        
         | dfex wrote:
         | And I thought it was just me.
         | 
         | I didn't get my first win until I chose Turtle AI with 40%
         | handicap. After many months of "honing" my skills, I am now
         | about 50/50 against Rush AI on equal standings, but I still
         | have to play larger maps so that there is some lag before they
         | can reach my base.
        
       | hagendaasalpine wrote:
       | I can recommend the RTS OpenHV, built on the OpenRA engine.
       | https://www.openhv.net/
        
         | tra3 wrote:
         | I checked the link but I can't find anything on how it's
         | different from the base game. What do you like about it?
        
       | HelloUsername wrote:
       | Previous discussions:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28511076
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37553193
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31197091
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7730555
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26533422
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42823667
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23120677
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23342320
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14065021
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Thanks! Macroexpanded:
         | 
         |  _OpenRA - Classic strategy games rebuilt for the modern era_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37553193 - Sept 2023 (169
         | comments)
         | 
         |  _OpenRA: Open-source RTS game engine for games such as Command
         | and Conquer_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31197091 -
         | April 2022 (80 comments)
         | 
         |  _OpenRA: Red Alert, Command and Conquer, Dune 2000, Rebuilt
         | for the Modern Era_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28511076 - Sept 2021 (199
         | comments)
         | 
         |  _OpenRA Release 20210321 (and new website)_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26533422 - March 2021 (10
         | comments)
         | 
         |  _OpenRA: An open, cross platform and expandable implementation
         | of Command &Conquer_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23342320 - May 2020 (3
         | comments)
         | 
         |  _OpenRA: AI Development Guidelines (2018)_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23120677 - May 2020 (4
         | comments)
         | 
         |  _OpenRA: Classic strategy games, rebuilt for the modern era,
         | open source_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14065021 -
         | April 2017 (1 comment)
         | 
         |  _Show HN: OpenRA - RTS project that recreates Command and
         | Conquer games_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7730555 -
         | May 2014 (40 comments)
        
       | Ygg2 wrote:
       | Heh. I still see they are using my localization library. Not
       | much, but it does give me a small heart warming tug.
        
       | cess11 wrote:
       | To me multiplayer RA is like the Quake 1 of RTS, it's fast,
       | chaotic and exciting, and OpenRA makes it trivial to get running,
       | with some balancing and quality of life adjustments compared to
       | the original.
       | 
       | It would be awesome if someone managed to figure out something
       | similar for Populous: The Beginning, which is a fantastic solo
       | RTS and arguably even more chaotic than RA so multiplayer isn't
       | as cleanly skill based as is common in the RTS genre. I can run
       | it through Wine but it's always a bit messy to install on a new
       | machine.
        
       | cheeseomlit wrote:
       | I would absolutely love to see the same sort of project for aoe2.
       | There's OpenAge, but it seems like they're still pretty far from
       | something playable.
        
       | sapphicsnail wrote:
       | Are there any newish RTSs that are active? It seems like there's
       | way more users for older ones.
        
         | timidger wrote:
         | Beyond All Reason
        
         | Kerbiter wrote:
         | Rusted Warfare Sanctuary Tempest Rising
        
       | warthog wrote:
       | The site gets blocked by Phantom wallet extension for your
       | information
        
         | m4thfr34k wrote:
         | First time I've ever seen this. Came to the comments to see if
         | anyone else experienced that. I don't see openra in the
         | blocklist but perhaps I need to look again.
         | 
         | https://github.com/phantom/blocklist
        
       | readyplayernull wrote:
       | I've been playing Open X-Com + The X-Com Files, pretty addicting.
        
       | Kerbiter wrote:
       | I thought constant reposts of the same thing are not allowed on
       | HN.
        
         | prepend wrote:
         | First time I've seen it despite being on HN for many years.
         | Looks like last time was 2023, so seems non-constant to me.
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-25 23:00 UTC)