Hello everyone!
Welcome to the weekly update, we apologise for the tardiness of this one, we (Ric) have been extremely busy working on the mod (smurphing on Zero Hour) to much success (lost every single game), and have been a bit behind our usual schedule (got so mad he RQ'd all computers for the evening and went to bed).
Jokes aside, we have some exciting content for you all this week, the much requested look at some of General Aleksandr's updated Shock Division assets.
We start with the beloved Golem Tank, now rumbling and hitherto be ready more than ever before.
We have seen some confusion about the state of the Golem Tank model, as it appears rumours have been circulating that M.P's amazing Golem update he did for Rise of the Reds: HanPatch was going to replace the classic chassis. Rest assured, whilst we are extremely impressed with the work done by the Hanpatch team, in official Rise of the Reds the Golem will always be based off the classic Object 279 chassis. 
The Golem project was a favorite of General Aleksandr. His derision of the Sentinel tank, having been exported to third parties, as compromised, meant turning towards a Cold War relic for his needs: The Object 279. Faithful to a fault, issues arose almost immediately after the first batches were assembled. However, the obstinate General insisted that the factory would proceed as is; they kept notes for future iterations.
As war broke out, the new reality was not kind to the tank. The cramped turret made for a stressful environment; the aberrant track setup made field maintenance a nightmare. One notable episode saw a single PT-33M of the 1st Armored Brigade "Warsaw" immobilize several Golem tanks at the gates of the eponymous city by targeting the exposed track assemblies, after which they were destroyed by artillery fire.
Eventually, the General begrudgingly agreed to pause production, and the Mk. II development began in earnest. The turret was enlarged and built upon the existing structure with multiple quality-of-life features. New auto-cannons, with a dedicated radar, allowed for more effective fire support. Numerous manufacturing tweaks saved precious man-hours and resources, which also made the armor more effective versus HEAT and anti-tank weaponry. The tracks were reinforced. A new engine significantly improved mobility on land and water.
Render Description: Hanfield
Many Russian tank aces were born in the hull of the Golem Mk. II, and even as the tides turned against Russia, they stood fast. Their coilguns burned holes in the enemy's armor; their red, vengeful gaze burned holes in the enemy's soul.
Render Description: Hanfield
We also have a new unit for you all, the ever popular Purge Trooper. First seen on an internal 1.9 Dev stream hosted by Maelstrom way back at the start of the year, the Purge Trooper (affectionately called the Purgie) has become a much requested and much celebrated unit whenever it shows up on stream. 
Purge Troopers are the combat engineers and chemo-nuclear defence specialists of General Aleksandr's Shock Divisions. By virtue of their role, their technical education far surpasses that of the average assault trooper, but to mistake them for combat-shy support personnel would be a deadly error. In frontline service, Purge Troopers are tasked with clearing obstacles and enemy strongpoints, for which they were only recently equipped with a new kind of weapon.
Dissatisfied with the storage issues and vulnerability to weather effects associated with thermobaric weapons, General Aleksandr ordered the development of a new type of anti-personnel and anti-fortification munition that produces consistent, predictable results. This led to the creation of a warhead that is effectively a super-compact "magnetobaric" compression unit capable of producing a cloud of plasma on activation, which will flash-incinerate infantry in the open as well as in cover. Beyond that, the new munition has proven itself effective against buildings and light vehicles.
In addition to their primary weapon, Purge Troopers carry other specialised equipment, such as heavy demolition charges that can be planted to destroy even hardened structures with ease and a deployable Tesla Mine, a single-use charge emitter capable of transferring lethal shocks to enemy personnel and disable vehicles.
It is this combination of equipment and skills that makes the Purge Troopers extremely versatile which was also reflected in their activities during the Third World War. Most infamous however was their role in numerous crackdown and reprisal operations against civilian populations. Many seasoned Purge Troopers have risen to high positions in Aleksandr's research and development department, home to some of the most notorious Shock Division officers who turned their field experience into weapons and equipment for the General's army.
Render Description: MARS2588
Purge Troopers are a new and powerful tool that excel at early-midgame anti-building and anti-garrison combat. Previously, Russia hasn't had any specialised anti-building units until they start getting their artillery units. ALthough most of their units are already output very high damage somewhat negating this as an issue, we felt that there was opportunity to add in a new anti-building unit and create new early game harassment opportunities for Russian players to enjoy. Thus we released this previously 2.0 locked unit a little earlier than expected. We can't wait to see what sort of openings this will allow for, especially in team games where Russia has a reputation for playing more defensively as they tech up.
That's all we have for this week, we hope you have enjoyed. As we wait for next weeks update, we leave you with a teaser to ponder over. What could it be, what could it be?
Till next time Generals!
It's a building that's for sure, but is it a Fire Base though?
Fire Base is Back 1.9 but Require Covert Forces GP
That clearly looks like a new solar defense building for ECA, look its even blue!
Keen eye my friend.
Also, it has a star and fences for defence.
is it working on ROTR 1.85
All content laid out in the Dev Diaries is for the upcoming 1.9 version.
@ThiccestRicc
Where can we get all these add-ons?
let me guess on that defence, some kind of popup turret that has the ability to hot-swap weapon? either by selection or by occupant as RA3's Multigunner turret?
(buried)
Glad original Golem is kept, it's much more stylish and original.(with all respect to M.P. version)
Lore is back to usual. Who can woop western *****? Maybe some brave, hard-trained, well equipped soldiers of their Motherland?.. Nope, surely only brainwashed/maniacs who were trained on gazillion of own population.
Those brave, hard-trained and well-equipped soldiers of the Motherland are regularly acknowledged in units that DON'T belong to General Aleksandr, whose Shock Divisions are the ONLY entity within the Russian faction that is being consistently portrayed in that negative manner.
(buried)
Ah, i forgot about "regularly acknowledged" regular infantry, which is always portrayed as disposable cannon fodder, right.
That may apply to the Conscript and RPG, whose voice lines are mainly inspired by the more comical depiction of Conscripts in Red Alert games - others like the Igla, VDV and Sergeant are decidedly more professional and dedicated in their depiction and those non-Shock units that are yet to come would strike that sort of tone too.
Beyond that, infantry is only as disposable as a player's usage of it and even then, Russian soldiers are depicted as getting a literal -camaraderie- buff from the death of their friends, which the Shock units lack, further invoking the idea that the regular soldiers are not only empowered by training and equipment, but also their human bonds and esprit de corps.
I really liked, how in 2 consecutive paragraphs you manage to acknowledge main faction's backbone infantries are "inspired"-depicted as morons, and then try to prove they are actually "brave, cause see, they have camaraderie".(probably that's why they scream so winy-idiotic while dying, that every streamer sends them on minefields just for fun screams and cheap price, with that camaraderie blinking in background for nothing)
VDV and Iglas are indeed a good catch. Especially since first can get to the battlefield only in super-limited quantity and second can't even protect themselves, and i forgot when i last saw them used.
And for sure , it's players fault to use those infantry like that. The cheapest prise, the lowest health, the text lines that make them sound like retards who will kill each other by their own - definitely have nothing to do here.
Cheapest price, lowest health, but also the only faction whose infantry can be made to auto-heal all the time, unlike everyone else who relies on dedicated healers.
As for the sounds/voices - I'll actually AGREE with you that there are instances where a unit's voices being written for comic relief (like with RA-inspired Conscripts) causes tonal issues or contradictions with lore that otherwise intends to paint the faction as mostly serious or professional.
I, as one of the writers, have control over just that - writing and story-related things, along with my colleagues. I have no control over voice over scripts and their direction, that's done by a whole other group of team members in a very pronounced division of labour. This has some advantages in efficiency, but as seen with this example, can also produce some contradictions of tone.
All I can say is that it isn't the intent of the writers to depict any faction, besides the GLA and Aleksandr, as just plain evil or dysfunctional. This does not mean that those other factions are ALWAYS morally perfect nor ALWAYS consistently effective however, but more of a mixed bag.
Aha, sure. Can you please give me 3 examples of Rus units(that part that is not Aleksander and "supposed to be not evil") being portrayed as proper brave/heroicly fighting?(excludingthe previous air forces description by Ricc and any VDV mentions, since those are "too special")
Russian faction is the only one in mod to feature some mechanically represented heroism and commitment to each other with Camaraderie mechanic, only other comparable mechanic is vanilla mainstay with very orientalist title of "Horde Bonus".
Also, pretty much every armored vehicle outside airdropped surplus and Badger repair truck sound determined and confident in own skills and player leadership.
The mod has a cool and interestingly written story, you did it very cool. Don't listen to such cranks, there are a lot of whining russians now.
MARS2588
You write what the units speak? Their lines? No?
Writing voice over scripts is -not- part of my role, I (along with others on the team) write the texts that appear in updates and render descriptions.
But Conscripts are the basic infantry for only 2 generals.
Once the mod is complete, you will realize that General Orlov will have technically the strongest and most elite infantry in the game, and this is all coming from questionably the most "moral" out of all the Russian generals. So I don't really get your tantrum. Spetsnaz Infantry are no joke, and they will represent and depict the elite and tactical side of the Russian Army.
You can argue that this also extends to some GLA units. While GLA as a whole has been depicted as the "bad guys" because of the original game's cannon, we still added units like Partisans, who are technically the moral "good" guys for the GLA, just fighting to protect their homelands.
You can extrapolate a lot of this with other factions.
USA are the "good guys", but then you get stuff like the microwave tanks, and carpet bombing, and a huge freaking Lazer from space that can be launched anywhere,that kinda pushes them to a grey area.
ECA claims to be the victim, and they are, but then they use highly radioactive neutron weapons that's even more lethal than regular nukes, and this kinda pushes them to the grey side.
China is all over the place with it's intelligence and surveillance across the population, using subliminal propaganda to keep it's civilians in the fold, having a general that is dedicated in controlling the secret police, and have no qualms in using Nukes.
All factions have their "evil/grey" side so I don't get your frustration.
Sorry Mizo, what you describe is smth non-existent in mod. It wasn't here for whole time of development and god knows when it will come.(that is IF those will actually be portrayed brave and not again some "elite maniac bastards)
As for "grey"-sides, oh please = nobody gives a damn what weapon is used to kill "the bad guys". One can give Grenadiers an ability to run point blank, personally put grenade into victim's mouth(including civs) and blow up - nobody will give a **** or call him "bad guy", until that has proper brave/heroic/patriotic voice-lines and shiny armour to depict that "this is the good guy".
"Grey morale" is just a ******** invention of CoD.
Bro why are you upset a unit that literally, as seen from very name, represents a 18-19 year old conscripted off the school desk for service and misfortunately ends up as infantryman is being whiny and cowardly?
Also, MARS2588, honestly if I were you I'd kinda just deal with it, a bit at least, in that when dealing with unprofessional acting the campyness is a better alternative to playing straight but stiltedly or creating other forms of vibe dissonance. Not sure if individual level drama works much in strategies outside hero units and campaign storylines, either.
Remember, General Aleksandhr is the bad guy, and his units (and their lore) reflect this.
(buried)
Sorry man, i just really have problem with illogical stuff. It's like describing a car with square stones instead of wheels and say that it really does ride "cause it's evil and lore".
Smth like "bad-bad shocks kill poor europeans including civilians" would portray them bad yet at least logical(cause they deal with enemies). But crackdown and reprisal operations against own civilian - yeah, go ahead, that's a really best solution when fighting several super-powers. Those civilians will definitely provide everything needed to fight, IRL US proved that during Vietnam invasion, beating own populations and them "responding kind".
There is a lot of abstraction within the setting that is a thematic carryover from the original Generals.
I think the more you go looking into this from a realistic perspective, the worse off you're going to find things. Much like how the GLA spends half of its campaign killing civilians and stealing money, yet are revered enough to conquer Europe and maintain support whilst there, we can do the same with the Alex's Shock Divisions being evil bad guys that people love to play as and play against.
I wouldn't look too much into it, these little blurbs are to add some context to the units and make players understand what they do and where they fit into the goofy world of the story, and things like a heavy urban focused infantry clearing rooms like a combine metro-cop fits the cartoony evil of Alex's archetype, and thematically support its role in game.
You have some reasonable points, Ricc, but these contexts do influence comprehension of whole faction while playing. You probably know why lots of players without problem pick Nazi Germany in CoH = cause even knowing those are f*ckn bastards of whole last century, they are voiced and depicted as bad, but no joke strong guys to reckon with.(even SS doctrine "for some reason" doesn't depict them as too bad or maniacs/cowards)
BTW it's funny, but your example with irrational GLA campaign doesn't work. Cause that is actually very realistic = just like IRL ISIS "condemned by whole world", killing locals, but still "somehow from somewhere" gets funding, recruits and no shortage of weapons.
You probably didn't pay enough attention because voicing isn't campy and one-liner focused, but CoH has plenty of bits like Volksgrenadier squad having lines with VA referencing other members of squad being either too elderly for service or "kids", or just incompetent and bad with guns (not well-represented mechanically), so this isn't true.
Also there's just the complexity of portraying matters like SS actions or Holocaust, being some of worst atrocities in human history it's very hard to do it justice, especially in a medium where you have interactivity to **** things up and make it goofy.
The description doesn't even mention it being reprisal operations against "own" civilians. 🙄
ROTR Russia has taken like half the Europe, imagine the level of partisan activity.
Indeed, the relevant part in question:
"reflected in their activities during the Third World War. Most infamous however was their role in numerous crackdown and reprisal operations against civilian populations."
Against civilian populations during WW3 -> against European populations/partisans and their supporters in occupied European countries. At NO point whatsoever does the lore depict Russians as targeting their own civilians.
It's almost as if this person actually can't read and just entirely extrapolates from their own biases.
So here's the TL;DR of morality for you, eil:
ECA/USA: mostly light grey, may dip darker.
China: a shade or two darker overall, but generally above the halfway point.
Russia aside Aleksandr: same as China.
Aleksandr's forces: very, very dark, potentially full black.
GLA: very, very dark all the way down to full black (Yusuuf).
Your complaints make no sense because you only focus on the morality of ALEKSANDR'S forces and apply them to all of Russia. This is incorrect!
Thank you for sharing your bias extrapolation blames and list of preferences, Shirojacky. The part about GLA being "very, very dark" was my favourite, since these guys always have lore closest to IRL: "yeah, they kinda terrorists, but definitely better than those ****** mass-printed asian commies or pesky ruskies".
Oh, and sorry for me having own opinion and daring to state it. Shame in your place it's called "complains".
If your opinion wasn't so misinformed and ridiculous, showing you have no clue what you're talking about, it probably wouldn't be criticised so much. If you don't want to hear that you're wrong, there's a very easy remedy: you can shut up.
Just reminding: that's You who "don't want to hear" smth you don't like, running after me spilling your bias. So suit yourself and shut up, or else prove your "advice" retarded, 'cause you just can't handle any other opinion.
Do you remember a single instance of GLA actually being positively compared to Russia or China factions? At most it's just few units like Partisan being the token well-intentioned/justified persons serving bad guys.
Ahh, indeed, that's just a tiny little detail that could be easily and forgotten to mention, nice catch Tleno.
And what exactly is wrong? Russians are shown realistically and with ironically. I don't see any problems.
Did you know that no one is obliged to lick the *** of russians?
Do you want to tell me about what russian soldiers are doing IRL right now?
Exactly like in real life then.
Um, the Golem tank looks like someone sat on it xd
It's quite a fascinating design. Being very low-profile means it's harder to hit for ground troops, plus being so shielded against all sorts of environment hazards as well as being amphibious means it can take a lot of punishment and attack from complex directions... but yes, it does look exactly like the tank I drew when I was 12 years old. XD
Love the lore updates. They are the best part of RPTR updates, the story you guys have created is second to none.
As for the Easter Egg, given a number of American units or abilities are from the US's Beta version of Generals. I'm thinking it is some kind of US Heavy Tank, like the cut/dropped Mammoth or one of their cut structures; Tomahawk Storm or Cruise Missile Silo/ICBM?
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I'm more interested in the PT-33M. A new ECA tank?
Just a bit of worldbuilding, to illustrate that the forces you see in game are merely an abstraction, rather than the totality of a faction's entire military.
It's a fictional Polish tank that might have been around at the start of the war, whatever it may be. "This high tech but weird tank was incapacitated by an ordinary, somewhat outdated MBT thanks to this glaring issue".
USA New Structures?
So these new guy are Desolator???
Uh hi, I have question this mostly how to install 1.9 version making sure it functions with the Steam version. Because I would like tutorial for it. I did have 1.87 work for a little bit then pfft. couldn't get it working sense. I feel sad when the game I want to play again decides break. By the way this my first comment on here. I hope you're doing awesome.
Hello, and welcome !
For now, 1.9 is still work in progress, not available to the public.
As for your 1.87 problem, here is a well-made tutorial to explain how to install it in the simplest way: Youtube.com
If the problem continues, the easiest way to get tech help quickly would be on the Community Discord: Discord.gg
Thank you let's see if it works. By the way I mean 1.86 didn't use Gen Laucher before or know where to install it. Thought I let you know.
Genlauncher was created years after the release of 1.86 :)
And when it was released, 1.87 was already in its current state. So no need to add 1.86 there