Renegade-X: The Battlefield $ we should have got.

The multiplayer component of Renegade-X is about to be released, for free. The base single player game can also be played for free right now so you can test that out and see how the game plays for you. Overall, I am highly impressed by the singleplayer, and the multiplayer looks very promising:

 

PC Mods .

 

I am genuinely excited about this, but I am also worried about potential performance issues. Since this was formerly a UT3 mod now turned into a free standalone game, it stands to reason that it will be still be on the same outdated DX9 build of UE3 that UT3 was on. Which means processing draw calls will be limited to a single CPU core/thread. And in a game with a metric butt ton of objects on-screen at the same time, that single-threaded CPU performance would be the biggest bottleneck. Having spent much time with PlanetSide 2 and Rising Storm and having my enjoyment greatly diminished by the ongoing performance issues, I'm kind of wary of these large-scale multiplayer FPSes that are built on ancient DX9 renderers.

If anyone has already played the Renegade X mod and/or Black Dawn, it'd be great if you could provide your system specs and impressions of gameplay and especially performance. Thanks.

In any event, I'll be sure to download the multiplayer standalone and check it out once it is finally released. I never played the original Renegade as the entirety of my C&C experiences have been confined to the RTSes, specifically the Red Alert and Generals series.

 

Is it me or does this looks like a generic ugly version of Planetside 2? it really looks like a rip off of PS2 to me, kinda like the WarZ to DayZ, just another dev trying to cash in on a successful IP .

I might be wrong, I just watched that trailer, so I am basing my judgement solely off of that .

 

It's 100% free, so what the heck, I'll give it a run when it's open.

 

How is it a rip-off of PlanetSide 2 when the original Command & Conquer: Renegade came out before PlanetSide 1?

Anyway the concepts aren't even similar. PlanetSide is an MMOFPS. Renegade is an FPS-TPS-RTS hybrid.

 

It might be older but was the older version anything like it is now? I am comparing the visuals, from what the video shows they look pretty similar in design, from a vehicle and base taking point of view, PS1 actually had quite a bit of RTS in it, it however failed to make it over to PS2 in its integrity .
Anyways just pointing out that the video makes it look like a PS2 clone, which it might not actually be, and if you fail to see that, well I frankly do not care .

 

No, it is a HD version of this with a huge amount of extra's. It is what Command & Conquer Renegade should have been and so much more! To many old time Command & Conquer / Tiberian Sun / War fans, this mod is unmissable. They aren't getting any money from it either, to do so would go against EA's rules.

<iframe width='420' height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/cIkywN2XdX8" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

I have recently run Black Dawn and it has run smoothly without any drops below 60fps, so for me anyways the game looks like it is optimized, but that may change with the multiplayer component - we just have to wait and see. I have ran it on my desktop though, not on my M17X yet, the specs are in my sig. But as for Unreal Engine games, for me I love when games use the engine, because you don't need such a high specced machine to run the games at gorgeous visuals. Like, look at the Mass Effect series, UT3, Bioshock Infinite, DMC, etc. When I see the Unreal Engine logo right when I start the game, I know that my machine will be able to run it problem free, and the game will be easily moddable.... but that is coming from personal experience though. The only game that I could not run maxed out on the UE was Rising Storm/Red Orchestra, and that was on my M17X with a *single 5870M* - now that I have a 2nd one and a new motherboard here, hopefully that will change.

And as for this being a PS rip-off, this has been said before but it is not the case. Sure, both are similar, but this game is basically a fan-made remake of the original game, which came out before the original PS; so in a sense PS can be considered a rip-off of the original game. The major difference here is that PS is an MMO and this is not, mixed with the RTS components of the C&C series.

 

Yeah I don't see it. No need to get so defensive about it. I've played almost 100 hours of PS2 and many times that of C&C RTSes and I understand that they're different games despite whatever superficial graphical similarities you may have noticed in that trailer. I brought up the fact that Renegade was released before PS1 because you seem to be implying that Renegade X is somehow stealing ideas from PlanetSide when that couldn't be the case since this is an HD remake of the original Renegade which came out with these ideas first.

 

Well your desktop is pretty beastly. But I'd be interested in how your laptop holds up with that second GPU. And like you said, multiplayer could be a completely different story performance-wise from singleplayer. Battlefield is an example of a game like this.

I've played a number of UE3 games (who hasn't LOL) but with the exception of Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm none of them were large-scale multiplayer games like this one. Red Orchestra 2 maxed out runs great but Rising Storm is a bit of a crapshoot in terms of performance due to some inherent flaws within DX9 UE3 which even Tripwire devs have acknowledged. That's what makes me slightly apprehensive about Renegade X. But we'll see once it comes out. I'm still really excited about it.

 

It is not a Planetside clone, nor is it a ripoff ok, but based only on that video they look really similar, I have never played the game, so like I said my opinion was based solely on the video ...

 

ANNDDD it's out: Renegade X &bull; Download

Well multiplayer open beta. Anybody try it yet?

 

I tried it, the servers are very active and it's a lot of fun but I'm not sure about the airstrikes ability. Too many times Ive joined a game only to see constant warnings about damn airstrikes and then hear 'barracks destroyed......refinery destroyed'. I think it would have been better without them or have them more limited.


I hate the damn airstrikes but apart from that, it looks good, the music is great and game play is fast paced. At the moment I still think Tiberian Sun Reborn is much more fun but it's early days yet. I know they are different games of course.

Also, playing a skirmish with bots is amazing, they don't feel like bots at all, they are very intelligent and act like team mates. Some of the servers had a few bots on them and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference!

The game doesn't look or feel like a beta though, it has a commercial feel to it and the graphics rival many paid for fps.

 

It's a good concept if you got a commander who can direct order. That would be nice.

 

Sweet, downloading this now, look forward to trying!

Curious, is Black Dawn still available for download anywhere? All the links/mirrors I run across now are only for the Multiplayer beta.

 

Sounds awesome.

BTW what is the max number of players in a match? 32 vs. 32?

Speaking of good bots, are they anything like the Unreal98/UT99 bots?

Man those UT bots had the best AI scripting ever coded into a video game. On the higher skill levels they were essentially unbeatable since they could do things that are technically impossible for real players. Aimbot and wallhack along with perfect movement and instantaneous reaction time. I still go back to those games just to do bot matches and get my azz handed to me, plus it's good practice for FPS in general. Real players are a cakewalk compared to those bots. Man, so many great gaming memories of doing co-op with a few friends against an entire army of Godlike bots.

You can still get Black Dawn here I think:

Downloads - Renegade X Game - Mod DB

Downloads - Renegade X Game - Indie DB

 

I saw the max number of players on many servers was 64. Some servers temporarily fill out spaces with bots though. I noticed some servers were full. Apparently many old clans from the original Renegade have come back to join each other in Renegade X.

I have never played Unreal / UT bots but I don't think they will be like that because the Devs said they have tried to avoid exactly what you just mentioned. You can also set the difficulty level of the bots on both sides for skirmish as well as starting credits.

I really had a lot of fun with this game last night. I was Nod and simply did hit and run attacks with the Buggy. It makes up for its lack of armour with its speed and before many could retaliate, I was long gone. It's also one of the cheapest vehicles to buy too.

Edit:

I just played quite a while as various characters but I found being a Marksman / Deadeye to be most fun. Hanging back in the bushes sniping engineers and infantry while the tanks and other vehicles advance.

You have to be careful though, I got killed by a stealth soldier, attacked by another marksman and aircraft dropping bombs. There was a battle over one of the captureable silo's in the middle of the battlefield so I was keeping enemy engineers from retaking it.

I was joined by another Allie marksman who seemed to be much better than me haha. It takes a while to get used to but once I did, I can say without a doubt (imo) that it is much better than Reborn. I like how engineers can heal people as well as vehicles, capture some buildings and they are quite tough. I tried to kill one with my soldier and it took longer than expected, probably the armour.

 

So, is this any good, or does it need more work? And is it really free?

 

It's a good game and pretty polished from what I've read, and of course it will only get better as time goes on and it loses its beta designation. Apparently future release on Steam is in the works?

Yes it is 100% free, not microtransation-based free-to-play. It is a non-monetized game and the devs are not allowed to accept any money for Renegade X.

 

Man, this sticks, no time to try out this game anytime soon.... too busy... for hopefully only 2 weeks more.

 

Be careful when you do try it because it's damn addictive. Hours went by for me but that rarely happens with other games apart from Skyrim.

 

:thumbsup:

BTW any outstanding bugs or performance issues so far? I know you mentioned that it feels pretty polished.

 

I have had the occasional crash to desktop and a few times where I have been sent to the title screen during game play.

I had a few occasions where I fell through the floor but these were rare occurrences. I have played battles from start to finish without any issues most of the time.

A feature I noticed that I really like is after you have been killed, you can still see whats going on until you press a button. I wondered why some dead bodies were hanging around for so long, now I know.

Performance for me is fluid but I haven't checked actual fps yet. I have everything on high but highest works reasonably too. I heard that servers are no longer 64 vs 64, now 40 is the max.

 

Before it was 64 vs. 64 so 128 players total?

Even if that was reduced to 40 vs. 40 that's still quite massive. To me 64-player Battlefield feels like its around the upper limit for a non-MMO type game.

 

Yea before it was 64 vs 64 with some servers that looked full although some slots could have been temporary bots. The server stats showed 64/64 but now they all show 40/40.

The battles with 40+ were hectic but there were snipers at every corner, airstrikes all over the place and constant action. I am new but even a veteran would prob struggle to stay alive for more than 5 mins.

 

Sounds like mayhem.

Also sounds like a load of fun.

 

It is great fun whether you are a team player or a lone ranger. I checked performance and was getting a steady 60 fps on high settings but there wasn't many players. Sometimes I select servers that only have 10 people on it for practice lol. I think Nod are more fun to play with all of their stealth tech.

I can't wait until some modders get hold of it and make a Tiberian Sun mod though, similar to Tiberian Sun Reborn. This one has to be my favourite game out of all that I own with Tiberian Sun Reborn the only one that competes.

Gotta love how much more useful engineers are. Ive seen people attack a base with a mammoth then take cover, hop out of the vehicle and repair it themselves. I also like how effective basic infantry are as well.

 

Ran this on my AMD Acer netbook and it ran at 15-25FPS at 1024x576 resolution, very low preset setting. Hopefully there will be some refinements and the FPS will improve for something like these netbooks.

 

The low preset still has some settings at medium and very high on my computer. It's best to manually change all settings yourself. Even the very low preset leaves some settings on very high.

Edit: Quite a good review here by 'Total Biscuit'


By the way, after gaining more understanding of the Airstrikes and Nukes, I now really like them. Airstrikes hardly do any damage to buildings but they can help take down tanks and infantry if the enemy is rushing your base and there is a 30 second timer. Nukes have a 60 second timer giving the enemy a little longer to disarm but you are best placing the beacon on the roof of the enemy building and that takes planning, team work or if you go in solo, nerves of steel.

Nod has the slight upper hand with their stealth black hand but you have to be careful of mines, snipers, getting too close to infantry or vehicles and once you have placed the beacon, the whole base will come after you. I did this last night, infiltrated the base as the stealth black hand and planted a nuke on the roof of the barracks.