RA2TS Download
RA2TS (Red Alert to Tiberian Sun) is a Red Alert conversion I made prior to the release of Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun in 1999
This is RA2TS version 2.0 as released in Summer 1999 which I recently found on an old hard drive.
About RA2TS
RA2TS was originally made back in 1999 when the C&C online community was anticipating the release of Tiberian Sun. It was an attempt to try and convert Red Alert into an approximation of Tiberian Sun using the best guess of what the game would be like based on the information known, and within the limitations of the much more primitive Red Alert game engine.
Obviously, both the knowledge and RA game engine meant that the mod was quite different to Tiberian Sun in certain regards, however I did attempt to try and make the mod stand on its own, so made decisions to deviate from what was known if it meant better balancing the game.
Also, due to certain features in Tiberian Sun being impossible to put in to Red Alert (for example Tiberian Veins, the EMP Pulse cannon) this meant the game would be empty of features if I didn't use the Red Alert tech not in Tiberian Sun. So the Iron Curtain and Chronosphere get used in the mod, just under a different identity.
I also attempted to try and put a stop to Tank Rushing in the game, or at least make it a much less viable option, by drastically increasing the power and range of the defences. This meant that if the powerful units rushed a base, they would be torn apart by the defences before being able to fire their weapons. To counter this, every side has weaker units with a longer range, so you could take out the defences with the long ranged units before charging in with your tanks. Of course these long ranged units were weak, so they required the 'tank rushing' units to defend them.
How successful I was in achieving my goals is debatable, but the game does play very differently from standard Red Alert, meaning that if you go in to it with the intention of playing a Red Alert game but with Mechs and Cyborgs instead of Tanks then its not going to work out. I know one thing that confused people a lot at the time was that the artillery could now fire as far as the cruiser could in Red Alert. As a result you could park a few quite a distance from a base and start shelling it. But, in TS, the Artillery could fire this distance, and it makes for more interesting gameplay.
Something else I will point out is that the graphics aren't great! This sort of artwork is not my forte and back in 1999 I was even less aware of how to do things. I made all the units by hand in an old, old version of Paintshop Pro, basing them on an RA/C&C95 unit where possible but most of the time, particularly with the new buildings, having to 'hand' draw them from scratch.
What's Next
Since finding my mod again, I've started playing it and tweaking the rules file again in order to see if I can refine the gameplay. Because Tiberian Sun is now not only released, but available for free and is so old there is no need for a RA conversion I am going to see if I can improve the balancing of the mod based on the principles of limiting the effectiveness of tank rushing, and building on the ranged vs close combat principles I attempted in the original mod. Obviously, I'm now 14 years older than I was when I made the original and now have a job that takes up most of my time, but my 16 year old self invested a lot of time making this mod back in the day and from what I understand it was very popular at the time (indeed, at least two other people attempted to take my mod and rework it themselves at the same time I was developing version 2)
Obviously, things have moved on a lot since I made my mod, there are a lot more talented artists on the scene meaning that my mod looks very basic in comparison, and there has been 14 years of people playing with rule.ini and mix files so I imagine people have come up with much more imaginative variations on the gameplay.
However, while it may be showing its age in some regards, this was a popular RA mod back in the day, so I'm hoping some people will either remember it (if they were playing back then) or get to enjoy it now if they weren't.