CFE Patch Redux for CnC_Remastered_Collection

This mod updates the original CFE Patch mod by cfehunter and its RA port by Root-Core to the official 9/24/2020 hotfix patch (supposedly the final official patch) and adds new features.

The current version is 1.8.

The Tiberian Dawn mod is available on Steam Workshop here: link

The Red Alert mod is available on Steam Workshop here: link

If you don't have Steam (or Steam is misbehaving), you can download the mod directly from Github here: link.

Static Features

• Megamap support in TD.
• 8-Player support in TD.
• Incorporates "Pixel-Perfect Zoom," plus a few extra steps between 1x and 2x.
• Incorporates "Jozef's Silver Funpark."
• Incorporates "Red USSR Flag for all Soviet Barracks."
• Numerous vanilla bugfixes.

Customizable Features

The following features can be controlled via the INI file located at "My Documents\CnCRemastered\Mods\Tiberian_Dawn\CFEPatchRedux\CFEPATCHREDUX.INI" or "My Documents\CnCRemastered\Mods\Red_Alert\CFEPatchRedux\CFEPATCHREDUX_RA.INI". See the settings chart on the wiki for details.

• A* Pathing -- Units use the superior A* pathfinding algorithm instead of CnC's default "crash and turn" algorithm.
• Infantry Tiberium Aversion (TD only) -- Infantry (except chem soldiers) will avoid walking through tiberium if a reasonable detour is available. Requires A* Pathing to be enabled.
• Suspend Building Repairs -- Building repairs are suspended, rather than canceled entirely, for insufficient funds.
• Rally Points -- Rally points can be set for unit-producing buildings and repair bays. Click to set a rally point at a location. Use [Alt]+Click to set a rally point on a unit or building.
• Harvester Queue Jumping -- Harvesters will cut in line rather than waiting when they are closer to the refinery than the other harvester. (Can be enabled/disabled independently of Harvester Load Balancing or Harvester Optimization and works in tandem with either, or with the vanilla harvester behavior.)
• Harvester Load Balancing -- Restores the "load balancing" refinery selection behavior added in the official Sept. 16 patch, and removed in the official Sept. 24 hotfix patch. (If both Harvester Load Balancing and Harvester Optimization are enabled, Harvester Load Balancing will be automatically disabled. Harvester Optimization is strongly recommended as the superior choice.)
• Harvester Optimization -- Harvesters will select the nearest refinery, while pretending that the distance to each refinery is increased for each other harvester already bound for that refinery. Results in good load balancing, but without harvesters driving to very distant refineries. See the Settings Chart for further details. (If both Harvester Load Balancing and Harvester Optimization are enabled, Harvester Load Balancing will be automatically disabled. Harvester Optimization is strongly recommended as the superior choice.)
• Harvester Self-Repair (TD only) -- Harvesters will slowly regain hp up to 50%.
• Disable Commando Airstrikes (TD only) -- Prevents the computer from using airstrikes until the player has a base.
• Commando/Tanya Guard -- Commandos/Tanya will attack infantry while in guard mode.
• Safe Sabotage -- Buildings destroyed with C4 never spawn surviving infantry.
• Instant Capture (RA only) -- Engineers always capture buildings, regardless of the building's health.
• Attack-Move -- Use [Shift]+Click to issue an attack-move order. Units will move to the destination while stopping to fight foes encountered along their path. Aircraft will return to base after running out of ammo or reaching the destination. Boats (except the normal submarine) will attack briefly, then resume movement. Surface boats will not alter course to chase their targets. Minelayers will lay all their mines near the destination, then return to the repair bay. Chronotanks will chronoshift directly to the destination if able to do so.
• Smarter Aircraft -- Three aircraft AI tweaks: (1) Aircraft given an attack or attack-move order will ignore the order if they have no ammo. (2) Purchased aircraft that fly in from off-map will fly in on same Y coordinate as main helipad. (Added in v1.5.) (3) Helicopters periodically check if their target has moved and adjust their flightpath accordingly. (Added in v1.5.)
• Smarter SAMs (TD only) -- SAM sites that lose their target while they still have ammo will briefly scan for a new target before retracting underground. The number of missiles a SAM site can fire before needing to retract underground to reload and the delay after every second shot are adjustable in the INI.
• Smarter Repair Bay -- Collection of repair bay improvements: (1) Ground units can be ordered to queue for repair bay even when the bay is occupied. (2) Fixes and re-enables rally point for repair bays in RA. (3) Vastly improved exit logic.
• Smarter Mammoths (TD only) -- Mammoth Tanks always use missiles against infantry (like they do in RA).
• Configurable Build Distance -- Controls the maximum allowable gap between buildings, allowing a TD-style no-space, or an RA-style 1-space, or larger gaps if you like.
• Tiberium/Ore Growth Scale -- Applies a multiplier to tiberium/ore growth rate.
• TS/RA2-style Wall Building -- Automatically builds wall pieces in the intervening spaces when a wall piece is constructed in line with a nearby piece of the same type. Hold [Ctrl] when placing a wall piece to disable this behavior. (Reworked for TD in v1.6. As of v1.6 in TD: It is now possible to build walls in a straight line from walls of the same type that you own up to the full wall build length. Building buildings from walls ("sandbagging") is disallowed whenever the wall build length exceeds the building gap.)
• Inverse Wall Placement Preview (TD only for now) -- When wall placement is pending, displays markers indicating how far existing walls can be extended. (This feature is intended to compensate for the fact that it is impossible to adapt the TS-style wall placement preview to LAN multiplayer.)
• Configurable Silo/Refinery Capacity (RA only) -- Increases (or decreases) the amount of ore silos and refineries can hold.
• Better Tiberium/Ore Growth -- Replaces the vanilla tiberium/ore grow/spread algorithm with one that maintains (almost) the same default growth rate but is unbiased, more granular, and more randomized. The growth rate is slightly higher than vanilla because failed spreads fall back into grows when possible. For added flavor, under certain circumstances, TD tiberium trees surrounded by fully grown tiberium have a small chance to spawn a visceroid, and RA mine heads and cells of fully grown ore that are surrounded by fully grown ore have a tiny chance to promote to gems. (Also fixes some ore-growth--related bugs in vanilla RA.)
• TS-style Visceroid Spawns (TD only) -- Implements a chance for a visceroid to spawn each time an infantry unit dies from walking through tiberium.
• Meaner Visceroids (TD only) -- Several buffs that make visceroids more threatening.
• Veterancy -- Units gain experience from combat and receive small buffs upon attaining certain experience levels. See here for full details.
• Inaccuracy Bugfix (RA only) -- Fixes a vanilla RA bugs that prevented inaccuracy from working as intended. Since this bugfix has a significant impact on gameplay, it's been made optional.
• OpenRA Supers (RA only) -- Options for making the Chronosphere and Iron Curtain behave more like OpenRA: affect up to 4 extra legal targets, reduce recharge and duration, or both.
• Smarter Chrono (RA only) -- Several chronoshift-related improvements: (1) Units shifted by the Chronosphere are deselected for all players upon shifting in either direction. This prevents accidentally issuing orders to/at a unit that's now in a radically different spot. (2) Chronoshifted units are removed from other units' targeting systems upon shifting in either direction. This prevents other units from trying to chase a chronoshifted unit across the map. (3) Chronoshifted units are removed from bullets' targeting systems upon shifting in either direction. This prevents funky stuff with bullet physics. (4) Some miscellaneous cleanup to make chronoshift visuals and sound effects more consistent.
• Chrono Disaster Overhaul (RA only) -- Three options relating to chrono disasters: (1) "Timequake Fix" fixes the vanilla bug that prevented timequakes from working. (2) "Shared Chrono Odds" uses a single random roll for whether to spawn a chrono disaster, potentially followed by a second roll to pick vortex or timequake. (3) "Cumulative Timeline Damage" starts chrono disaster odds a a fraction of normal and increases them each time the Chronosphere is used. Odds reset after a chrono disaster happens, but to a higher starting point.
• Long Building Gap Bugfix (RA only) -- Forces the use of the same logic across all functions that test for building placement proximity, fixes related bugs.
• MIG Ammo Fudge (RA only) -- Gives certain planes 1 extra ammo to preserve original unit balance that depended on now-fixed buggy behavior.
• TD Balance Patch (TD only) -- Balance Patch based on CnCNet's Community Balance Patch. See the settings chart on the wiki for details.
• Nuke Tank (TD only) -- Enables the Nuke Tank from the example mod. (Disabled by default because it is very, very imbalanced.)
• Q-Move Overhaul -- Significant enhancements to RA's Q-move system, also ported to TD. See this page on the wiki for full details.
• Tiberium/Ore Index Bugfix -- Enables fixes for a cluster of vanilla bugs concerning inconsistency over whether tiberium/ore level is 0-indexed or 1-indexed, which manifests as harvesters sometimes scooping but not gaining bails of tiberium/ore and TD almost never using the art assets for the smallest level of tiberium. This bugfix is made optional because it impacts in-game economics.
• Gem Overload Fix (RA only) -- Enables better behavior when an ore truck harvests a scoop of gems when it doesn't have enough space to hold all 4 resulting bails. The vanilla behavior is that the excess gem bails simply vanish. The fixed behavior is that the ore truck dumps enough ore back into the cell to make room for the gems.
• GDI9 Fix (TD only) -- If enabled, the CPU will surrender in GDI mission 9 if it has no buildings or units left except for the turrets on the south bank of the river.
• MP Preplaced Unit Order Mode (TD only) -- Controls behavior of preplaced (usually neutral) units on multiplayer maps. Options are to use the Remastered behavior (aircraft follow orders in the map file; everything else does Enter_Idle_Mode(), which results in "guard area" at the only playable AI intelligence level), to always follow the orders in the map file, or to use the legacy C&C behavior (infantry do "hunt"; ground vehicles do "timed hunt"; aircraft follow orders in the map file). The only official map to which this applies is Cactus Valley.
• Disable MP Neutral Attacks (TD only) -- Controls behavior of neutral houses in multiplayer maps. If enabled, prevents neutral houses from declaring an attack 1 minute into the match, as they otherwise would. The only official map to which this applies is Cactus Valley.
• Building Death Announcements (TD only) -- Implements unfinished building death announcements in TD. Various modes for whether the announcement is generic of faction-based, and who can hear it.
• Building Capture Announcements (RA only) -- Implements unfinished building capture announcements in RA.
• Smarter Sonar (RA only) -- If enabled, the sonar ping superweapon only reveals subs unfriendly to the user. (Vanilla behavior reveals friendly subs too.)

LAN Multiplayer

This mod is fully compatible with LAN multiplayer. The only mod feature that doesn't work perfectly in LAN multiplayer is the visual preview for TS-style wall building. This is an unfixable consequence of the way the GlyphX client/server handles LAN multiplayer. The "Inverse Wall Placement Preview" feature is provided as a substitute of sorts.

Additionally, this mod includes a large number of bugfixes for issues with Remastered's LAN multiplayer.

Megamap and 8-Player Support in TD

The TD version of this mod supports megamaps (128x128) and up to 8 players in LAN and skirmish. Note that while this mod can play megamaps, it doesn't enable the editor to create them. If you want to create megamaps for TD, you need to use either screaming_chicken's standalone editor or vanilla-conquer's standalone TD executable. In order to better accomodate bigger maps and more players, some object limits have been increased (notable for mission-makers: REINFORCEMENT_MAX=100, TEAM_MAX=120, TERRAIN_MAX=1000, TRIGGER_MAX=200) and the file size limit for mission/map .ini files has been increased to 64kb.

Pixel-Perfect Zoom

"Pixel-Perfect Zoom" has been incorporated, plus a couple extra half/quarter-step zoom factors between 1x and 2x where the gaps were very large. There are 11 zoom factors -- the odd ones should be pixel-perfect on 1080p and 4k monitors; the even ones should be pixel-perfect on 2k monitors. Note that not all zoom factors are available on smaller maps.

TODO List

See wiki.

Credits

cfehunter -- original CFE Patch.

As per original CFE Patch notes:

• FluffyQuack -- Assistance with building tile gaps & multi wall improvements.
• A__Gun -- Assistance with building tile gaps.
• Spyyre -- Helping to track down the building placement issue.
• pchote -- Tile drawing in remastered view.
• Butch -- Assistance with attack move polish.

Root-Core -- original RA port of CFE patch.

screaming_chicken -- smarter aircraft fly-in tweak, inspiration for smarter SAMs, several bugfixes.

eksmad -- "Red USSR Flag for all Soviet Barracks"

Jozef -- "Jozef's Silver Funpark"

bleid -- "Pixel-Perfect Zoom Levels"

CCHyper -- Megamap support for TD, original PoC for 8-player support for TD.

zerobyte666 -- smarter mammoths.

The vanilla-conquer developers -- numerous vanilla bugfixes.

Petroglyph -- nuke tank.

ChthonVII -- Merge official patches since cfehunter and Root-Core abandoned project, harvester refinery selection optimization, infantry tiberium aversion, complete rewrite of attack-move code, better tiberium/ore growth, helicopter flightpath updating, TS-style visceroid spawns, meaner visceroids, veterancy system, TS-style wall building overhaul, LAN multiplayer compatibility overhaul, backport megamap for TD support from vanilla-conquer, 8-player support for TD, TD color rearrangment, smarter repair bays, TD balance patch, visceroid spawn animation, infantry stealth sound, OpenRA-style supers, smarter chrono, chrono distaster overhaul, MIG ammo fudge, Q-move overhaul, tiberium/ore index fix, gem overload fix, GDI9 fix, MP preplaced order mode, disable neutral attacks, TD building death announcement, RA building capture announcement, smarter sonar, many assorted bugfixes.

Noddynod443 -- LAN multiplayer testing.

Nyerguds -- "A most remarkable Metasequoia Glyptostroboides, " explanation of several little-known bugs from legacy C&C.

A Reminder About the GPL

A reminder like this shouldn't be necessary. But it appears it is necessary since one of the most popular mods on Steam Workshop has appropriated a lot of GPL code (both from EA and from other modders), and yet its author has ignored at least a dozen public requests for its source code. So let me be clear: You are free to copy my source code and use it in your mod, so long as you do so in accordance with the GPL. That means, if you use my code in your mod, then you are legally required to license your mod under the GPL and to make your mod's source code publicly available (and a few other things too -- go read the GPL). Using my code in a manner inconsistent with the provisions of the GPL is copyright infringement. If it comes to my attention that you are using my code in your mod, but not making your mod's source code publicly available, I will give you a brief opportunity to rectify the situation, and then I will file a DMCA complaint against your mod if you fail to do so. Don't make me do that. Don't be a jerk. Publish your source code.

A Reminder that Mods Are Not Official EA Products

This is a mod. It's not an official EA product. In fact, EA wants mod authors to remind you that “EA has not endorsed and does not support this product.” So there.