Beng's Laser, Demo and Nuke General Mods ver 2.0 final

For CnC Generals Zero Hour 1.04

October 2008

Contents

  1. Introduction / Installation
  2. Laser General Mod
  3. Demo General Mod
  4. Nuke General Mod
  5. Civilian Buildings
  6. Notes on changed General's Challenge maps
  7. Version Changes
  8. Bugs
  9. Contact

Introduction / Installation

This mod changes the Laser, Demolition and Nuke Generals, changing their units and giving them new unit types. It is mostly intended for single player games, in Generals Challenge, Skirmish, and Campaign modes. It might be playable in multiplayer games if both players have this mod installed.

In single player campaign games, the vanilla America, China and GLA objects can transform into Laser, Demo, or Nuke type objects. Note that in some campaign missions, you should refrain from converting everything since when you convert something, it becomes a new thing on the default team, and some of the maps have lose condition scripts that check if the human player has lost certain teams of units, so if you convert everything, you lose.

The single player campaigns start with the Generals missions, which are followed by the Zero Hour missions. The General's Challenge campaigns let each general play against himself, as well as the others.

Installation:

Requirements: CnC Generals Zero Hour version 1.04. If may not work with other versions. If you use a no-CD patch, first install Zero Hour from CD, then upgrade to 1.04, then apply Iguana/IGN's Zero Hour 1.04 no-CD patch, which you can get from GameCopyWorld.com.

Installation: Simply copy the .BIG file to your Zero Hour program directory, usually C:\Program Files\EA Games\Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour . To uninstall, delete that file, or rename the extension from .BIG to .OFF or something else to disable it.

Make sure you delete any previous versions of this mod when installing this new version. Also, don't run other mods at the same time as they may conflict.

Laser General Mod

Structures

The Firebase is the best base defence building in the game. It has a nuke EMP gun, an anti-air / anti-ballistic missile Flugabwehrkanone, and a long range fire support gun that it will use to assist other nearby (within distance 300) firebases fire at targets.

You can also manually fire this long range fire support gun at vehicles using a command button (like the missile defender's laser missiles). Note that if you use this button to target a vehicle that moves out of range, you should then press S or press the Stop button to stop the firebase trying to shoot at it as i suspect this may cause the game to lag.

The Firebase has it's own self-defence laser and is practically immune to projectile attacks, except a level 3 A-10 strike or Artillery Barrage, or Laser Stealth Fighter neutron bomb.

When targeting enemy laser general firebases with your firebase, force fire it on the ground just out of range of the enemy firebase's self defence lasers to stun it with the EMP effect. You can then target it directly.

Laser Turret buildings have increased range and rate of fire. They can also shoot down scud storm and nuke missiles. They can build a point defence drone to stop enemy missiles.

Power Plants produce more power when upgraded with control rods. (8 normally, +16 with control rods = 24 total power when upgraded).

Supply Centre can be upgraded with camouflage to be stealthed. It will also cause chinooks to become stealthed, which is useful when facing enemy long range SAM sites.

TARDIS

Your dozer can build a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), a space-time travel device disguised as a small blue portable toilet.

You are allowed to build 3 of these devices when you have a strategy centre.

The inside space of the TARDIS is much larger than it's outside, and the space inside each TARDIS is linked to that of the others, so units can enter one TARDIS and exit from another. Each TARDIS can teleport itself anywhere on the map, but be warned that this requires a lot of power to do. The Tardis has an integral cold fusion reactor that adds power to your base, but when warping through space-time it has a net drain on you base power.

Also, when it appears in the new place, it takes some time before it can function properly and it is vulnerable to enemy fire during this time.

When powered up and working normally, it is stealthed.

It has a tesla coil bolt to defend itself from enemies but it looses stealth when firing it.

When you buy Upgrade_AmericaAdvancedTraining it gets 2 additional weapons: a silent mode radiation emitter like the sentry drone, and an EMP pulse generator which recharges after 30 seconds. The EMP pulse will disable enemy vehicles and buildings in the area for 20 seconds and make them also more vulnerable to your attacks (like the avenger laser).

The Upgrade_AdvancedLasers makes its weapons do 25% more damage.

You control the weapon selection via a secondary command console (switch to it like switching to the GLA worker's fake building command set).

Long Range SAM Site

Build limit: 2, requires war factory.

Lower rate of fire than patriot battery, but much longer range and much more powerful missile warhead.

Detects stealthed aircraft, but not stealthed ground units.

It has some effectiveness against attacking aurora bombers if engaging from a head-on aspect angle because attacking aurora bombers cause all weapons fired at them to target a spot behind them, as though targeting a decoy flare, but the SAM site missiles have a laser proximity fuse that detonates them as they pass by the aurora on their way to the targeted spot behind the aurora. Build your SAM sites directly under the ingress path of attacking auroras in the Superweapon General's Challenge map). Note that laser cannon buildings are also very effective at engaging attacking auroras.

If you are using your auroras to attack an enemy SAM site, you can avoid the missiles by beaming the SAM site (putting it on the left or right of the plane so it attacks from the side rather than head on) until it has fired and missed, then attacking the site before it has a chance to reload and fire again. Do this by force-firing the plane on some ground far away to get it to move towards that spot at attack speed, but force fire a new spot before it gets close enough to launch it's cruise missile. When the SAM site has fired and missed, target the SAM site.

The SAM site can be upgraded with an A-10 AWACS drone which has it's own anti-air weapons and helps direct the SAM site so it can attack targets at a greater range. The A-10 drone auto heals with the Drone Armour upgrade and comes with point defence lasers.

The SAM site is vulnerable to ground units and can be captured, and it's low rate of fire means it can be saturated by multiple simultaneous incoming air attacks, but otherwise it is a good offensive defence. Build it in range of the enemy's supply piles / supply centres to shoot down the enemy chinooks. Or build it in range of the enemy airfield to shoot down his planes when they take off.

Together with other anti-air defences, the SAM site improves your anti-scud storm and anti-nuke missile defences

Build it in the path of incoming bombers (anthrax, A-10, EMP, cluster mines, etc), scud or nuke missiles, or aircraft, to shoot them before they reach your base. Note: The generals powers bombers always come from the edge of the map closest to the enemy command centre.

Laser General's SAM site stats:
  AttackRange           = 800.0
  WeaponBonus           = DRONE_SPOTTING RANGE 200% (with A-10 AWACS drone)
  VisionRange           = 900.0
  ShroudClearingRange   = 500
  DelayBetweenShots     = 300  ;ms
  ClipSize              = 4
  ClipReloadTime        = 5000 ;ms

 Warhead Damage Stats:
  PrimaryDamage         = 250.0 ;kills king raptor and scud storm missile
  PrimaryDamageRadius   = 35.0  ;aurora sneaky targeting is -20
  SecondaryDamage       = 160.0 ;kills aurora
  SecondaryDamageRadius = 80.0  ;this will damage wingmen in close formation

Drones

All Drones will autoheal with the Drone Armour upgrade.

Battle Drone gets a very effective anti-projectile point defence laser and its own laser gun.

Scout Drone has a missile jammer and a target designator. When it is near an enemy, it's master is able to shoot at it from a greater distance away. Rangers inside Humvees equipped with scout drones also get the weapon bonus from drone spotting. Targets illuminated by a laser target designator can be more quickly destroyed by your units.

Hellfire Drone gets the laser tank's laser gun.

The above improved drones cost more to build but are well worth it.

Sentry Drone gets a silent radiation emitter instead of the sentry drone gun, when upgraded with the Sentry Drone Gun upgrade. The Laser General sentry drone stays stealthed even when firing the radiation emitter. Park it along paths used by the enemy, or where GLA rebel ambushes happen. These improved sentry drones can shoot without having to stop and deploy.

Spy Drone has a missile jammer. When you buy the Sentry Drone Gun upgrade, the spy drone gets a radiation emitter weapon. Put them above the enemy supply pile to kill his harvesters.

Vehicles

All laser weapons are upgraded to do +25% damage with the Advanced Lasers upgrade (buy at war factory).

You can buy and use the Paladin tank science. Both standard Laser Tanks and Laser Paladin tanks have improved weapons. Both tanks can shoot at air targets though the Paladin does this much better (Paladin can shoot ballistic missiles including scud storm and nuke missiles). Paladin has a cannon as well, which can shoot garrisoned infantry. It gains toxin effects with Upgrade_AmericaLaserMissiles, and when in addition you buy the comanche pods upgrade, the shells make Anthrax Beta. Paladin tank can also contain 5 infantry, who can shoot only out of it when the bunker upgrade is purchased.

Standard Laser tank can be upgraded with a gattling cannon that detects stealth and improves it's anti-air ability (the gattling can shoot at ballistic missiles).

Avenger can shoot down scud storm and nuke missiles and artillery shells. It gains experience too. It can contain 5 infantry and it can be stealthed.

Humvee gets am anti-air laser (also useful against ground targets) instead of a Tow Missile, with the Humvee Laser Cannon upgrade (buy at War Factory).

Ambulance can cure aircraft flying near it and can take 5 passengers.

Microwave tank can clear garrisoned buildings and jam vehicles. It also has it's own point-defence laser.

Dozer can climb cliffs and move through water and clean up enemy toxins.

Mobile Gap Generator.

Build limit: 3, requires strategy centre.

This vehicle jams the enemy's radar map to a radius of 300, making it hard for him to use superweapons, generals powers, etc in that area.

It works against human players but not so much against scripted AI because AI can shoot into the shroud. Human players have to use radar van scan, spy satellite, spy drones, or send units to spy the area in order to dispel the shroud so they can fire superweapons.

The vehicle also has microwave and ECM beams to jam enemy vehicles and base defences, plus it can hack and jam enemy factories like a hacker, but from a longer range, and it can contain 8 infantry who can shoot from it, like assault troop crawler.

It is also stealthed and detects stealth.

The drawback is it consumes 5 power.

Aircraft

All aircraft have a self-defence laser to protect them from missiles.

Laser general's planes are now fitted with pilot escape vehicles. When a veteran plane is shot down, the pilot escapes in the pilot escape vehicle, a powered glider, which he can fly back to base before ejecting from it and descending via his personal parachute. Do not eject the pilot over water or cliffs.

The pilot escape vehicle can be upgraded with countermeasure flares, drone armour, and advanced training which makes it gain veterancy faster. It is armed with a machine gun and rocket launcher (like combat bike).

Laser general's pilots can hijack enemy vehicles.

Laser Stealth Fighters get powerful long range lasers to attack enemy base defences. With the laser guided missiles upgrade, each stealth fighter can destroy a GLA stinger site AND it's hole with it's powerful laser. When the bunker buster upgrade is purchased, stealth fighters get 4 laser-guided neutron-EMP bombs to clear buildings and kill vehicles. Use the neutron bomb button to target their neutron bombs on enemies so you can fire one at a time.

Laser Raptors use laser guns instead of missiles. They also have a button to let you fire only one burst of the laser so you can kill 6 infantry on each sortie. The raptor is good against most kids of targets but not as good against base defences as the Stealth.

Auroras launch an air-launched cruise missile with a delayed action nuke warhead that tends to explode after 20 seconds, just as the GLA hole is starting to rebuild, giving you more time to remove it. If the missile lodges inside a building, enemy units nearby will shoot at it, and those that use projectile weapons will damage their own building. Only dozers and workers can defuse the missile before it explodes.

Laser Comanche has a burning laser instead of a gun. This can target air units too. It keeps its normal 4 rockets. The Laser pods upgrade gives it laser pods instead of rockets, that have a flame effect. The Laser pods upgrade also puts a Pathfinder inside it who can snipe infantry and vehicles and detect stealth.
Bug: After you fire the laser pods, the sniper keep shooting at the ground, so tell him to stop.

The C-130 Cargo plane is armed. Build your supply dropzones in such a way that the planes fly over the enemy base after dropping the supplies. They start from the edge of the map closest to the dropzone. The plane's cannon shells are upgraded by Upgrade_AmericaLaserMissiles or Upgrade_GLAToxinShells to have toxin, and by Upgrade_LazrComancheRocketPods or Upgrade_GLAAnthraxBeta to have Anthrax Beta.

Laser General's reinforcement pad plane is an armed B-52.

Moab B3 bomber is armed with lasers and is stealthed when not firing.

Infantry

Laser general's paradrop power now drops a mix of infantry types, not just rangers.

All Laser General's infantry can rappel from chinooks.

All can climb cliffs and swim when the Worker Shoes upgrade is bought from the strategy centre.

Rangers get laser rifles which have a slightly longer range than normal rifles. Their flashbangs can now target vehicles, whose drivers can be temporarily stunned by them. The flashbang upgrade also enables the rangers to shoot at aircraft with their lasers, like Infantry general's men.

Infantry laser guns will reveal stealthed buildings when they are shot, so have one ranger force fire on the ground under the stealthed building to reveal it, leave him to continue shooting the ground under it (damages the building less than shooting the building itself), whilst another ranger captures it.

Missile Defenders have longer ranged laser-guided missile ability. It also works on aircraft by the way. With the Laser Guided missiles upgrade (buy from airfield, or from a sentry drone in the single player USA missions), their missiles get EMP effects and can kill garrisoned infantry (1 with each shot). The EMP missiles are useful against sneak attack tunnels, put some missile defenders on guard in your base.

Pathfinders with the worker shoes upgraded can snipe vehicles like Jarmen Kell. You don't need a button to tell them to do it, they will do it themselves. They also become stealthed even when moving with worker shoes, but move more slowly. They can still detect stealth whilst inside vehicles and buildings. They have longer vision so can shoot at more distant targets than standard Pathfinders.

In this mod, Pilots run faster, instead of slower (yes, EA Games made them run slower!), when they have Heroic veterancy (3 chevrons). They can also swim and climb cliffs when promoted to Heroic. This change affects all America pilots. In addition, laser general's pilots have the possibility of gaining these faster, climbing and swimming locomotors with the Worker Shoes upgrade if they have less than Heroic veterancy. Laser general's pilots can also hijack enemy vehicles like a hijacker.

Col Burton with worker shoes can swim.

He can also detect stealth, but only at a short range, good enough to keep him off mines and demo traps.

He can capture buildings like a ranger.

When he has elite (2 chevrons) rank he can heal himself and nearby infantry.

The Advanced Lasers upgrade gives Burton a laser gun, and a laser designator so he can call in air strikes using his laser designator. When he calls an air strike, a B-52 callsign Buff will come and drop a GBU-28 bunker buster bomb on the designated area. This B-52 is also armed with a laser cannon and air launched cruise missiles. Use Burton's air strikes to get rid of base defences so he can infiltrate the enemy base.

Colonel Burton can carry one infantry unit, so in the single player mission where he and Lotus race to the lab, he can swim across the river and capture the GLA base and carry a worker back across the river to build a tunnel network. Note: Do not destroy the tunnel network across the river, it is needed by a script in that map. It will ignore Burton anyway.

Laser general things in single player campaigns

To add the laser general units to GLA and China single player campaign games, the GLA barracks and China supply centre can now build laser general dozers.

The GLA barracks will give you spy drone, pathfinder and stealth fighter sciences when you buy the Booby Traps upgrade. A laser general command centre is needed to make spy drones.

The China Supply Centre will give you spy drone, pathfinder and stealth fighter sciences when you buy the Advanced lasers upgrade. A laser general command centre is needed to make spy drones.

Upgrading with advanced lasers makes America spy drones become the laser general type.

In the Generals Challenge Laser General map, the tech artillery platforms have battleship guns. They will fire a salvo of 3 shells at the targeted spot every 25 seconds until you tell them to stop.

Demo General Mod

Most of Demo generals' weapons (including tank shells etc) do more explosive damage.

Some vehicles and structures can build anti-projectile drones.

Structures

Demo General's buildings now make their own kind of holes, which are stronger when you have the GLA fortified structures upgrade.

Stinger Sites and tunnel networks auto repair and are stronger.

Stinger missiles can stun vehicles.

Stinger sites can make a Stinger Kell, who is slaved to the stinger site and will lurk around in it's vicinity, doing what he does best. If he is killed you can build another one, like a vehicle drone.

Tunnel Networks fire explosive shells and can fire flak shells at air targets. They will respawn their rocket soldiers if they are killed.

You can garrison 5 hijackers in a Black Market to hack cash and promote them. Black markets also produce 5 power so you can power captured enemy buildings.

Demo Traps make cluster mines when they are destroyed. When built by a worker they generate a minefield of standard mines which regenerates while they are alive. When chucked out of a radar van they do not make minefields by default, you have to buy the minefield upgrade for $200 (hey, the trap is free from the van). To have permanent minefields (along paths used by the enemy for example), set the demo traps to manual mode detonation so enemies don't explode them by passing near. In this way the demo traps will survive to generate new mines and stop successive waves of enemy attacks as long as the enemy doesn't send stealth detecting units to find and kill the demo traps.

The Command Centre spawns a radar van and a barrage balloon. The radar van is so you get radar from the start, like the America generals. The balloon is for playing the General's Challenge Superweapon General map on hard difficulty - use it to jam the missiles from the first A-10 strike.

New Buildings

There was no space in the default worker command set, so i put the buttons for some new buildings in the Fake buildings command set. To see those buttons you must use the switch command sets button on the worker.

Pirate Radio Station: Build limit: 1, requires arms dealer. Generates 50 power. This illegal radio station is able to jam enemy radar (gap generator) and provide GPS scrambling, when you have the Radar Van Scan upgrade.

It can also build mobile gap generator vehicles which are similar to the ones used by laser general.

It can also heal all your infantry when you buy the hospital upgrade.

It also makes all your units cheaper to produce.

Barrage Balloon Hangar: requires arms dealer. Once you have worked out the regular flight paths on enemy aircraft (use worker-built barrage balloons to find the best spots to locate them), build this balloon hangar under the flight path. It will spawn a new balloon 8 seconds after the existing one is destroyed. It is stealthed and has a missile jammer for self defence.

Vehicles

Radar Van can chuck out demo traps, clean toxins, clear mines, and jam missiles.

Combat Bike can drive over water

Toxin Tractor can detect stealth, jam missiles.

Technicals have better guns, let passengers fire, jam missiles.

Marauders get better guns, and get a gunner with Scorpion rocket upgrade who can shoot at air targets. Marauders can also contain 5 infantry.

Quad cannons can be upgraded to snipe infantry at long range. They then become the best anti-infantry weapon in the game.

Rocket Buggies with AP rockets upgrade get EMP effect rockets.

Anti Aircraft Barrage Balloon

This is a really explosive hydrogen filled blimp which detonates when an enemy aircraft passes near by. It has no metal and so has a very low radar cross section, so enemy planes mostly cannot see it. It has it's own missile jammer, giving it protection from patriot batteries. It can detect stealthed aircraft.

It is built by the worker, and requires an arms dealer. It is also built by a barrage balloon hangar.

Send a couple of balloons into the enemy base and park them at the end of his airfield or blow up his chinooks.

Park them in the path of incoming auroras, A-10s, carpet bombers, etc. Two balloons are needed to destroy an incoming special power plane, but even if just one hits it, it will weaken it a lot, making it easier for your other anti-air defences to shoot it down.

The balloon's missile jammer will also deflect the A-10 missiles.

Infantry

Worker shoes upgrade lets Workers, Rebels, and Tunnel Defenders climb cliffs and swim.

Jarmen Kell can climb and swim, and you can build two of him.

Jarmen can call in an air strike by throwing a smoke grenade, which will mark a target for a kamikaze crop duster, which can destroy a base defence structure.

Jarmen can kill garrisoned infantry and snipe aircraft.

Rebels can shoot aircraft and throw flashbangs. They can also plant TNT - use this during a rebel ambush to blow up enemy structures instead of blowing up the rebels themselves, TNT causes more damage.

Rebels can capture civilian and neutral structures without capture buildings upgrade, but need the upgrade to capture enemy structures.

Tunnel Defender Missiles can kill garrisoned infantry.

Hijackers can plant TNT. They are stealthed even when moving. They can be promoted by spending time in a black market hacking cash. When promoted, they transfer their rank to any vehicle they enter - you can use them to promote your vehicles like a pilot.

Demo general's barracks can now build Saboteurs.

Nuke General Mod

Structures

Command Centre gets radar by default.

Gattling Cannon is replaced by a Nuke Howitzer. This has the same EMP Nuke gun as the laser general's firebase, but instead of the long range support gun, it gets a long range neutron shell gun when you buy the neutron shells upgrade from a nuke silo. The nuke howitzer has a command button to fire this neutron shell gun at long range targets. It also has an anti-projectile laser and a missile jammer.

The Bunker is the infantry general type which holds 10. It is more expensive than a normal bunker but comes with infantry. It also has a missile jammer and a laser target designator.

New Buildings

Use the switch command sets button on the dozer to see some buttons for building new buildings.

Uranium Ore Mine — Your hard working miners can tunnel through the earth from China and come out on the other side. You can then send vehicles or infantry through the tunnel. The uranium ore mine also gives off radiation, which is lethal to enemy units.

The Uranium Ore Enrichment Factory can make enriched uranium from the ore taken from the mines. This enriched uranium can then be used to enrich you by barter trading it on the black market for supplies, which your supply trucks can collect. Use the ore enrichment button to generate more supplies when they run out. It costs $1000 to make the enriched uranium, so make sure you don't wait until you are completely out of money before using this button.

The High Tech Lab provides research and development of new technologies. It can heal all your vehicles and all your infantry with the right upgrades. It can also generate gaps in the enemy radar map, which is useful against human players as they cannot use superweapons or generals powers on shrouded areas. When the Radar Van Scan upgrade is purchased, the high tech factory building itself generates a gap of radius 500 around itself, so build it in the middle of your base. It also has a button to fire a gap generator at a place of your choice, which generates a gap of radius 300.

The Long Range SAM Silo has a build limit of one. It fires a big SAM from an underground silo and can engage distant air targets. The missile takes 15 seconds to reload so it can easily be saturated by multiple targets. Unlike the laser general's long range SAM sites, it cannot detect stealth aircraft. It is also not very effective against ballistic missiles. However, it has the longest range of any anti-air weapon, and the huge warhead can wipe out entire formations of aircraft.

The SAM Silo has a manual targeting mode for manual acquisition of distant aircraft (it is a version of the missile defender laser mode).

Nuke General's SAM stats:
  AttackRange           = 1600.0 (auto), 99999 (manual)
  VisionRange           = 1600.0
  ShroudClearingRange   = 1000
  ClipReloadTime        = 15000 ;ms

 Warhead Damage Stats:
  First Warhead PrimaryDamage         = 250.0
  First Warhead PrimaryDamageRadius   = 35.0
  First Warhead SecondaryDamage       = 160.0
  First Warhead SecondaryDamageRadius = 80.0
  Second Warhead Damage               = 500
  Second Warhead Damage Radius        = 100

Vehicles

Your vehicles are resistant to radiation.

Dozers can climb cliffs and drive through water. They also clean toxins and can jam vehicles and launch flashbang grenades.

Battlemaster and Overlord tank shells can clear garrisoned infantry. When you buy the Weapons Grade Uranium Shells upgrade, their shells can stun enemy vehicles.

Dragon Tank has a missile jammer and anti-projectile drone, so it can drive up to buildings which have rocket soldiers in them.

Gattling Tank gets gattling building guns with Gattling guns upgrade. It can carry 5 infantry and comes with 2 tank hunters and a sniper. The sniper can detect stealthed things from inside the tank. The uranium shells upgrade allows the sniper to snipe vehicles and wear a chemsuit. The gattling tank can also make an anti-projectile drone.

Listening Outpost comes with more infantry inside it, including red guards, tank hunters, and a sniper. It also has the radar van scan ability, which is enabled via the radar van scan upgrade. It also has a built-in propaganda speaker.

Assault Troop Crawler has a laser target designator, which enables your units to fire faster at the object it paints. The troop crawler contains both tank hunters and red guards.

Inferno Cannon has an anti-air gun and it will auto acquire targets within range of it's guns. It also has a point defence laser.

Nuke general's Nuke Cannon has longer range guns than the standard model. It can make an anti-projectile point defence drone. When put on guard it will engage targets at the max range of it's gun (400).

Supply Trucks can be upgraded with camo netting. The isotope stability upgrade makes them move faster.

Infantry

All infantry are immune to radiation. With the isotope stability upgrade Red Guards and Tank Hunters can climb and swim. Lotus can climb and swim without the upgrade.

Nuke Tank Hunters have uranium tipped rockets. The Weapons Grade Uranium Shells upgrade gives them greatly improved nuclear rockets that can stun vehicles, kill garrisoned infantry. When two improved nuclear rockets hit an aircraft around the same time, they make an EMP spheroid. When 6 improved nuclear rockets hit the same ground target within 3 seconds, the amount of weapons grade uranium combines into a critical mass, causing a nuclear explosion.

Nuke Red Guards fire special uranium bullets that can stun vehicles. They can also shoot at aircraft. These bullets also have a demoralising effect on enemy units, causing them to go into a frenzied state in which they fire at 33% the normal range and 25% the normal rate of fire. They can also be stealthed by the Camouflage upgrade.

Black Lotus can swim and climb cliffs. She can kill the enemy's men, including stinger site soldiers, with a special Lotus kung fu skill. She can also plant TNT charges. She has a missile jammer in her brief case, and also a laser target designator which she can use to call in an air strike from a special bomber which drops two Frantan napalm bombs, which can destroy a base defence structure. These bombs are affected by the black napalm upgrade.

Lotus can also plant neutron IEDs. These can in turn be upgraded with neutron mines. They start of in manual mode so switch them to proximity mode if you want them to detonate when enemies come near. Leave them in manual mode to use them as permanent neutron minefields when upgraded with neutron mines. To clear garrisoned buildings, plant a neutron IED beside the building and set it off.

Lotus also has a demo trap frequency jammer in her brief case. It will jam the circuitry of demo traps, enabling her to plant TNT on them to get rid of them.

Lotus's cash hack power now loops so you don't have to keep telling her to hack a supply centre again and again.

Civilian Buildings

Most civilian buildings auto repair.

The object called "Supply Pile" is now visible. It is two piles of supplies and your harvesters go in between them to dock and collect boxes.

Artillery Platforms with the advanced lasers upgrade get the laser general firebase's guns. They can also be upgraded with a point defence laser drone.

Oil Derricks are made a bit stronger and will auto repair. They can be upgraded with camouflage and an EMP mine field. They also have a missile jammer.

Civilian Chemical Bunkers and Chemical Factories give you the Anthrax bomb if you capture them.

Civilian Nuke Bunkers give you the nuke carpet bomb if you capture them.

Bear this in mind in the Generals Challenge Boss map, and in the Dr Thrax and Prince Kassad maps.

If you are a GLA side and you capture a chemical bunker or factory, the shortcut button for Anthrax bomb may not work since it will get confused between the one from your command centre and the one from the bunker or factory. If this happens, select each building in turn, and use the button in the building's command set to launch that building's Anthrax bomb.

Similarly, if you are Nuke General and you capture a nuke bunker, the Carpet Bomb shortcut button may not work. Again, select the bunker or your command centre to launch a carpet bomber from each one in turn.

Notes on changed General's Challenge maps

A couple of the Generals Challenge maps were changed to make them playable against the same faction general.

Stealth / Kassad map

No major changes besides making it playable by Stealth General human player, just added a few civilian vehicles as bomb truck disguise targets.

Laser / Townes map

A lot of changes here. This is General's Challenge mission number 7 for Nuke and Demo generals, and the starting one for Laser General.

There is a fountain near the tech repair pad near your base. Shoot it to turn off the rain. Shoot it again to turn on the rain. Turning off the rain improves frame rate / reduces lag, and may help prevent the game from freezing, which sometimes happens with this map.

There are some money crates scattered around the map for you to pick up.

There is a capturable Tardis in the junk yard at the top right of the map. If you rebel ambush the area to take over the oil derricks there, send a rebel to take over the Tardis in the junk yard.

Capture tech artillery platforms, in this map they fire powerful very long range nuke shells and are a way to pulverise Town's base buildings. They will target any place you choose until you tell them to stop.

The interior of Townes' base is better defended.

Townes will use some of the new units and tactics in this mod. When you play as laser general, he will still fire his particle cannons. Play it to see the changes.

Version Changes

Beta 2:
Demo stinger site can make a Jarmen Kell drone - useful against infantry, and vehicles which have anti-missile laser defences.
Demo and Nuke infantry can swim and climb with some upgrades (worker shoes and isotope stability).
Nuke SAM silo has been given long range manual targeting button (works like missile defender laser mode).
In USA Training mission, supply centre cannot change to Laser type, else game won't end (as reported by Granger).

Beta 3:
Nuke SAM manual button voice changed.

Demo black market produces 5 power.
Demo radio station produces 50 power.
GPS shortcut button appears when you build the radio station.
Demo Jarmen detects stealth to distance 100.
Stinger kell improved.
Stinger sites get laser designator.

Laser supply centre can be upgraded with stealth and will then grant stealth to chinooks.
Laser Gen. Challenge map tweaked a lot.
A-10 drone death effects improved.

Beta 4:
Laser General challenge map - fixed some bugs.
Nuke SAM and Nuke missiles now crash when shot down.


1.01
Fixed USA mission 5 and China mission 11 which were not playable with this mod. They are now ok. (USA mission 5 had a map.ini conflict with the mod, China mission 11 would not work if GLA vehicles were unmanned, so now they can only be destroyed).


2.0 Beta 1:

Movable Base Defences

Laser, Nuke, and Demo general base defence buildings can be upgraded with the mobile buildings upgrade which enables them to move.

While moving they will not be able to fire their normal weapons, though some may have weaker weapons for a limited self defence capability.

These buildings use DeployStyleAI like the China nuke cannon vehicle, which means that they will undeploy to move, and deploy to fire:

Because of this, if you issue them with movement commands, they will pack up to move, even if you have not yet bought the mobile buildings upgrade. Therefore, do not issue movement commands to your base defences before you have that upgrade. Otherwise they will pack up and be unable to fire until they unpack again.

The Nuke bunker will transform into a vehicle when you move it. The soldiers in the bunker can ride inside the vehicle to move to the new location. They cannot fire out of it, but when carrying armed riders, the vehicle has a single Nuke red guard machine gun to use.

The Demo stinger site will transform into a moving version which has only 1 stinger soldier and cannot detect stealth, when moving.

The Demo tunnel network will transform into a mobile tunnel vehicle. It has tunnel network and quad cannon anti-air guns. After transforming back into the fixed Demo tunnel network, the moved network will no longer spawn 2 tunnel defenders.

New Special Powers

Laser Burton can work together with Laser Strategy Centre when it is using the Bombardment battle plan. Burton can then can call in a barrage of 5 artillery shells from the strategy centre cannon, to target enemy objects. It is somewhat effective even against moving vehicles. When the target is destroyed the strategy centre will stop firing even if it has not finished firing the salvo of 5 shells. Therefore, when targeting groups of enemy objects, target the object with the most health.

Nuke General has a new base defence paradrop power (use the tank paradrop buttons to buy it from the generals powers menu).

Demo general can build the Tomahawk Storm. This launches 9 TLAM-D tomahawk cruise missiles which dispense BLU-97A/B combined effects submunitions over the target area.

The button to build the Tomahawk Storm is in the worker's Fake building command set as there wasn't room for it in the normal command set. Demo Tomahawk storm and scud storm buildings can transform into each other, but will reset the countdown timers when you do this.

The tomahawk storm is slightly less damaging to buildings than the Demo scud storm, but it leaves behind unexploded cluster bombs which can delay the enemy's rebuilding process.

Laser General's A10 strike now drops CBU-87 cluster bombs instead of missiles. These leave behind hazardous unexploded bomblets like all submunition weapons.

Laser General has a new Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) special power. This will call a special B-52 which launches 9 TLAM-D tomahawk cruise missiles at the target. It also has spectre gunship guns to fire at enemies as it flies over. The air strike also includes an A-10 which drops CBU-87 cluster bombs.

Ambulance and dozers can clear up unexploded cluster bombs (they are destroyed by toxins and cleanup water). Avenger lasers also jam them and prevent them from doing damage when they die.

Demo General has a new Supply Pile drop super power. When you have bought the science, use the command button on the supply stash or command centre to summon the supply pile drop plane. I suggest you drop the piles near your supply stash. You can also use it to decoy the Superweapon General's aurora bombers in the General's Challenge, as the supply piles are counted as your buildings, so drop them to the left of your command centre in that map so the auroras will bomb them harmlessly.

Demo General has a carpet bomb power, which drops 7 high explosive carpet bombs with delayed explosions. Drop them into the enemy's buildings and the nearby enemy units will shoot at the bombs lodged inside the buildings, and if they have weapons that do radius damage, they may damage their own buildings in the process.

Other Changes

Demo General's Scorpion tank becomes Scorpion APC, which carries 6 passengers. It gets a deviator missile when you buy the scorpion missile upgrade. The deviator missile can hijack enemy vehicles, and jam enemy base defence buildings with an EMP blast.

Demo Technicals use firebase style contain, so the passengers are exposed and can be sniped, but they can go up cliffs and through water.

Nuke uranium ore mine sneak attack controls improved to show the model of the ore mine instead of the GLA sneak attack tunnel.

Nuke Troop Crawlers and Listening Outposts heal themselves with their propaganda pulses.

Nuke Red Guard cameo and model changed, looks better and easier to select them now.

Nuke bunker snipers have horde bonus.

Laser ambulance passengers allowed to fire.

Improved flak shell explosion particle effects.

Flak cannons work against auroras.

Laser firebase howitzer shell radiation does not affect allies so the troops in the firebase won't die from friendly radiation.

Firing from inside parachutes is allowed.

Mission CHI06 frenzy and carpet bomb added.

Firebase and arty platform guns recoil and have ejected shell casing particle systems.

Fixed invisible soldiers bug when Laser Burton dies while garrisoned and with jarmen sniping transport planes carrying troops.

Jarmen snipe does leaflet effect on airborne vehicles instead of unmanning them, he can then attach C4 to stunned helicopters and drones.

Jarmen cannot snipe China bunkers and other faction buildings.

Laser Stealth jet neutron bomb does leaflet effect on aircraft instead of unmanning them.

Cargo planes will die and explode when they are resting on the ground (when EMP or leaflets affects them).

All aircraft affected by this mod (those of sides America, China, GLA, Laser, Demo, Nuke) will all vanish after being dead for 8 seconds, even if they do not crash to the ground. This prevents the eternally flying dead aircraft bug.

Laser stealth jet uses new 3D model.

Nuke Migs have visible missiles.

Laser leaflet drop now uses armed B52

Demo General has an armed cargo plane for his delivery payload drops.

A10s use a better machine gun.

Tree mod: Trees can be damaged and die from explosions, fire, poison, etc. Hedges can be crushed or otherwise destroyed. Invisible shrubs and bushes are now visible - play the general's challenge and you will now see all the invisible trees and shrubs that the EA games map makers put in their maps, see for example the plants in the ponds around tank general's base, and the water weeds in the drain ditch in the Stealth general map. Burning plants make red hot embers which can burn anything they touch.

Rocks are cleared by build.

Shell user interface uses faster menus, no more wasting time waiting for the menus to appear.

New shell map with the 3 generals fighting it out using mainly infantry.

Super Weapons Test map added to skirmish maps in official maps list.



2.0 Beta 2:

The new special powers have been added to vanilla sides command centres for the single player campaigns.

Laser General's leaflets have been upgraded to contain propaganda that incites the local civilian population to turn into angry mobs.

Demo scud launcher has been converted into a human cannonball cannon that fires terrorists as projectiles. These airborne terrorists carry less dynamite than the ground based ones but the cannon has a lot of them. Have you noticed how stinger site and patriot battery missiles tend to miss infantry units? The human cannonball exploits this weakness of theirs.

Demo General has now joined the small group of rebel organisations who have an air force. He can now build the GLA Airfield, and by using junk from crashed enemy aircraft he is able to assemble a variety of useful aircraft, in addition to barrage balloons. The airfield can also be upgraded to have stinger soldiers to guard it (though the EMP effects from their missiles are a danger to friendly aircraft - beware).

The GLA airfield can build 3 types of aircraft in addition to balloons:

The Zlin-143 stealth bomber is a light civilian aerobatic aircraft illegally converted by the GLA into a light bomber which can carry 4 general purpose bombs. The aircraft is hard to detect on radar and instead of being too fast for the enemy to shoot it like the American's aurora bomber, it instead flies too slowly for them to shoot it! Enemy air defences that are used to shooting at fast jets take some time to adjust to shooting at these slow propeller planes, by which time the Zlin-143 has usually dropped it's bombs and turned around for home. It also carries a missile jammer to make missiles miss, and can be upgraded with the junk repair upgrade which also gives it flares. The bombs it carries can clear garrisoned buildings and are useful for picking off enemy units. Used in groups it can also overwhelm and destroy enemy base defences.

The Okha cruise missile is a flying bomb guided by a pilot who is willing to go on a one way mission to advance the cause of the GLA. You can upgrade it with optional additional explosives. Like the bomb truck, it can be disguised as an enemy vehicle. It's mode of employment is as follows: Fly the okha close to the target location without targeting anything, then target an enemy object with it. Once you target something, it will commence it's suicide dive onto the target so if you target something from too far away, it will end up flying at ground level before it reaches the target. You need a palace to build the okha missile.

The Su-25 Frogfoot is a multi-role fighter bomber. You need a palace to build it.

The Su-25 can carry a variety of weapons, including:

The Su-25 weapons load and countermeasures are chosen by the type of pilot you put in it:

Note that unlike the combat bike, putting additional crew in the Su-25 does not change it's weapons.

Important Note: The GLA soldiers are more used to fighting on the ground, like men. When you put them in a Su-25 they will take off for a training flight, but tend to press the eject switch when trying to raise the landing gear. To stop them doing this, select the plane as it prepares for takeoff and issue it some other command, like a movement or stop command.



2.0 Beta 3:

Laser general can build the mortar man, an infantry artillery unit. He fires long range mortar bombs and can laser lock vehicles.

Nuke general can build the Chinese Sentry Drone, this is bigger than the American one, and can be upgraded with lots of upgrades. It is built by the supply centre. It is stealthed when not attacking, and can detect stealth. It can also disarm mines, demo traps, and unexploded bombs. Use it for guarding your base against heroes, for reconnaissance or ambush missions, and to dispose of unexploded cluster bombs, enemy mines etc.

Chinese Sentry Drone Upgrades:

Angry mobs improved. Demo General mobs can explode with the suicide bomb upgrade. They also include partisans who have anti-air capabilities.

Graphics improvements made to some objects like flak shells.

American Burton no longer uses firebase style contain as it causes problems when he enters a Tardis or tunnel network while garrisoned.

Demo technicals no longer use firebase style contain as it causes problems when they enter a tunnel network while garrisoned.



2.0 Beta 4:

Animal units added:

Thanks to johngreenwood / Mr Muzzle for the dog model and animations.

Laser general can build attack dogs from the barracks. Laser rangers can also be upgraded to become dog handlers. All dogs detect stealth, swim, climb cliffs, and kill infantry with one bite. The ranger's dogs can unman vehicles. The stand alone dogs from the barracks are trained to defuse mines, plant TNT, and clear garrisoned buildings.

Dog upgrades:
Upgrade_AmericaChemicalSuits - chemsuit dog armor
Upgrade_AmericaAdvancedTraining - gain experience faster
Upgrade_AmericaDroneArmor - more health & autohealing

Demo general can build the demolition donkey. This explosive ass packs a good kick, as it carries a demo trap on it's back. Use it as a faster and more powerful terrorist. 2 will demolish a patriot battery or other small building. Upgrade_GLAWorkerShoes makes it run faster and swim and go up cliffs.

Nuke general can built hornet swarms from the barracks. The red hornet is the one you should select to move the swarm. The hornets have venom weapons and are effective against infantry and garrisons, and moderately effective against vehicles. The red swarm leader detects stealth.

Hornet upgrades:
Nuke_Upgrade_ChinaWGUraniumShells - hornet stings do 25% more damage
Upgrade_ChinaIsotopeStability - chemsuit armor

Other changes:

Deezire's re-creation of GLA mission 3 added to the GLA campaign.

Improved swimming animations for most infantry. To enable your soldiers to swim, you need worker shoes, or Upgrade_ChinaIsotopeStability for Nuke General.

Black Lotus attack animation improved.

Prerequisites for vanilla America Burton fixed.

Various small tweaks.

Update: beta 4.1 fixes the bug where Demo tunnel defenders do swimming animations on land when reallydamaged.



2.0 Final:

Nuke red guards and Laser rangers can capture neutral tech buildings without the capture buildings upgrade, like Demo general rebels.

Demo Palace can build up to four 2K11 Krug SAM vehicles. These fire long range SAM missiles (though their attack range is less than Nuke and Laser general's SAM sites and they don't move very fast - they are old technology). The missiles have 2 stages. In the initial boosted stage they missile are guided towards the target they were fired at like normal missiles. Once the boosters separate the missiles go autonomous and will seek the closest enemy. If their original target is destroyed they can engage new targets. You can select and direct them. The Krug SAM vehicle is quite tough and is armed with point defences to protect it from air strikes. It can also contain infantry for added protection. It must deploy before the missiles can launch. To make it deploy, use double click guard.

Laser General SAM sites can be upgraded to move like his other base defences.

Some small tweaks to infantry weapons and the Zlin-143 plane's bombs.

Known Bugs

Sometimes the game will just crash to desktop for no apparent reason. If you find out what causes this, let me know.

In the generals challenge laser general map, the game sometimes freezes. The only workaround is to restart the mission. I do not know what causes this.

In China Campaign Mission 7 from original generals, the one where you start off fighting a GLA ambush from high ground and face a scud storm that fires when you have $5000, the game often becomes very slow and jerky. I suspect this is because the GLA units have difficulty finding their way to your base because the map designer did not give them attack waypaths. I don't think it is caused by this mod.

When a Demo scud storm transforms into a tomahawk storm or vice versa, the public timer disappears. I don't know how to fix this.

When a laser ranger who has a dog dies, the dog will become frozen and will not move. This is due to the slavedupdate module. It cannot be fixed.

In General's Challenge games, if you finish a map by capturing the last enemy building, the game will crash after the mission ends. To avoid this, destroy the last remainng enemy building instead of capturing it.

Contact

To comment on this mod or report bugs or make suggestions, see the Cncmaps Forums

If that site is down, you can use an email form to reach me.