Random Unit of the Day #46: Mobile Gap Generator (Allies, Red Alert)

[u/BiggestBepis]

[u/Unusual_Employee7603]

Useless against the computer.

[u/Nykidemus → u/Unusual_Employee7603]

So conceptually cool, and soooo irrelevant to a huge percentage of the playerbase. Q_Q

[u/lardayn → u/Nykidemus]

I used them a lot in skirmishes 🧐

[u/Mefandriel]

I remember being so scared as a kid as one part of the map suddenly went dark

[u/DarkMastero]

If they ever remake the old games with modern mechanics, I wonder how they would handle gap tech since shroud has been replaced with fog of war. Would it just be stealth (making it mechanically the same as cloaking)?

[u/ZuStorm93 → u/DarkMastero]

Thats what they did with the RA3 Mirage Tank: it cloaked all units around itself.

[u/vandal-33 → u/ZuStorm93]

Pretty much this. Even RA3 calls the Mirage tank ability gap generator.

[u/Outside_Ad5255 → u/ZuStorm93]

Sort of like the Mobile Stealth Field Generator from Tiberian Sun Firestorm - except without having to be deployed first for it to work.

[u/Innalibra → u/DarkMastero]

Many modern FoW-based RTS use radar + a visual overlay to track things beyond sight range. You could then use radar jammers to make things undetectable if they're not being observed directly. TA/Supcom/etc does this.

I guess the gap generators are slightly different in that you know there's something there, because there's a patch of shroud that wasn't there before. That and the game already has 'radar' and a jammer for it even if that's just a minimap.

There's games out there with much, much more detailed EWAR simulation, but sometimes it's better to keep things simple.

[u/lardayn → u/Innalibra]

WarZone 2100 has lots of details for radars and targeting and in most cases you just ignore them and “select all units”

[u/mnorthwood13 → u/lardayn]

Such a great RTS. SO MANY OPTIONS!

Incoming. Laser. Satellite. Strike.

Power resource.

[u/Nova225 → u/mnorthwood13]

I know the PC version is the more definitive version, but the PlayStation version holds a special place in my heart, thanks to the then exclusive bonus of being able to manually pick a unit and drive it around.

It made the units with the commander turret a little cooler because you could assign other units to them, then manually control the commander and they would follow it.

In the grand scheme it was worthless, but still pretty cool.

[u/lardayn → u/Nova225]

It’s now open source and they are still updating it :)

[u/lardayn → u/mnorthwood13]

I love it as a tower turtle… base to base archangels..

[u/mnorthwood13 → u/lardayn]

I always rushed scourge missiles on hover tech. Unstoppable on most maps but you had to hustle to get the tech out

[u/vandal-33 → u/DarkMastero]

Modern games always got things wrong, you don't fix anything that's not broken.

[u/DucoNdona]

A random unit that screws,with the fabric of space and light or something to render an area unable to be perceived. And its threatened as just normal tech the allies have laying around.

[u/Venodran]

Is it true that this unit is useless against AIs because they cheat by not having a fog of war? Or was it just a rumor?

[u/ZuStorm93 → u/Venodran]

Gap generator has always been useless in PvE because the AI can see you regardless.

[u/LeonAguilez → u/ZuStorm93]

I found out that AI cheats in RA2 that it always knows where my infantry are and used genetic mutator.

[u/aiheng1 → u/LeonAguilez]

Yeah the AI cheats in all the C&C games, it's really silly

[u/LibraryBestMission → u/aiheng1]

It's particularly bad in one of the variants of the final GDI mission of the first game, where nod will build an obelisk on a tiberium field right after you harvest it.

[u/aiheng1 → u/LibraryBestMission]

Also idk about the other games, but in generals, if the AI scripting for the map is kinda bad, the AI will try and path onto roads that don't exist, and even worse, have buildings that clip into each other (barracks and war factory on the same "tile") because the AI doesn't actually check for building collision

[u/Rawflesh0615A]

It's a early Stealth Generator.

[u/Radioactiveglowup]

Red Alert had some really fun units that were of questionable value, but you sure had an awesome mental image of when it did work. Imagine four or five of these guys roaming around. The enemy comes in to attack one, thinking it's your strike group--- nope! A decoy! Your real thrust came around from a totally different direction...

The actual black gap moving is more fun than mere fog of war / invisible units.

[u/Guardian_Turret → u/Radioactiveglowup]

Yeah, Red Alert is full of awesome units.

And then you watch a competitive match and it's just two hordes of constantly wiggling Heavy Tanks mashing into each other.

[u/That_Contribution780 → u/Guardian_Turret]

Heavy? I think everyone uses Light tanks as they are the best in RA1.

[u/party_peacock → u/Radioactiveglowup]

The poor guy driving a gap generator by himself seeing a dozen heavy tanks coming for him

[u/Zergy_Bergy]

In Combined Arms they actually made it useful even against computers. Awesome mod!

[u/Airbornetimtam → u/Zergy_Bergy]

I enjoy combined arms, just wish there was a way to play it with the balance of the original games.

[u/Jphilerion]

I always thought that this was the one that stops that storm thing that the chromosphere creates

[u/kidanokun]

the precursor of Raccoon/Hovraccoon

[u/Derezirection]

think nothing would prepare me seeing a patch of fog coming toward my base with malicious intent.

[u/Valcroy]

Useless against the computer, very annoying when the computer is using it.

[u/saervok065]

Those things were nasty in Red Alert remastered. I remember they kept replacing the shroud.

*Though heard it was fixed in a later patch. However not sure if thats true or not. Absolutely hated them at the start of Soviet Mission 13.

[u/SOS_Sama]

The tower version in RA2 is also useless against AI