Mental Omega

Mental Omega APYR
Developer(s)	Paul "Speeder" Szanter
Engine	Yuri's Revenge
Version	2.0psi
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	1.0 - January 29, 2005 1.2 - February 22, 2005 2.0a - July 21, 2006 2.0b - May 19, 2007 2.0c - September 6, 2007 2.0psi - Sep 11, 2008 2.0psi P2 - Nov 19, 2010 3.0 - 2011/2012
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player Multiplayer
Media/distribution	Download
System requirements Windows 95/98/2000/NT/XP, 266 MHz Pentium II Processor, 64 MB RAM (450 MHz processor and 128 MB RAM needed for 3-8 player multiplayer game), 4x CD-ROM, 2 MB video card, DirectSound-compatible soundcard, full retail version of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and its expansion Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge patched to 1.001 update, N-Patch YR

Mental Omega is an unofficial game modification for Westwood Studios' real-time strategy game Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge. It was released for the first time in 2005. It is also an unofficial continuation to the events in Yuri's Revenge^[1].

Background

After Yuri's Revenge, the Soviets are celebrating their victory over the Allies. Yuri is presumed to be finally defeated after the long war with his maniacal psychic army and himself. With domination of the Hammer & Sickle around the world, the Soviets continue their expansion and keep taking profits from the victory, thinking that nothing can interrupt their plans now. It appears though that the Allies are preparing a secret chrono assault against Soviets in Moscow and Yuri's PsiCorps are slowly progressing with their secret plan to bring their master back to full glory.

Plot

When news about Yuri, who had been trapped in the past by the Soviets after the battle in Transylvania, arrived at the PsiCorps' Command Center in Antarctica, his loyal followers quickly decided to prepare for the salvage operation, based on the Temporal Displacement device built secretly by Albert Einstein during the previous war against Yuri's forces (presumably the first ever built in their parallel universe, as the Soviets had stolen the finished Time Machine in another one, before the translocation and then moved back in time before the device was actually built). The construction was not noticed by the Soviets despite their ultimate control over the Allies and reports received from the forces "from the future" who used the same device. PsiCorps' plan succeeded and it was possible to move elite forces back in time and locate their master. Yuri was brought back to the year 1973, just a month after he was defeated in his fortress.

To prevent another failure, Yuri decided to push his psychic powers to the limits and create a weapon which would be much deadlier and more effective than the infamous Psychic Dominator device. Before bringing the device to life in the Antarctican base, which was hidden from the world due to his recently developed psychic illusion generators, he ordered his scientists to reconstruct sites of Psychic Dominators around the world, including establishments of such in the Soviet Union and United States.

A year later, on March 18, 1974, Yuri ambushed the Soviets with a quick, stealth-based assault on Moscow and deployed Psychic Dominator devices. With the precaution of Red forces down, he easily took over almost every Soviet country and seized mind control through the United States with two Psychic Dominators - one deployed in Washington DC and another one in Fort Collins. While in Moscow, Yuri used his division of cloaked Shadow Tanks to destroy nuclear reactors and shut down the grid of defenses surrounding the Kremlin; in the USA he had sent his genetically-modified commando Rahn, who was created on the artificial Tibrena island located near the Easter Island, in order to deal with the defenses in Fort Collins and to prepare the land for the establishment of the device. The Psychic Dominator in Washington was secretly built underground.

Disorganised, the Soviets quickly mobilized themselves and commenced an evacuation from Moscow. They headed for the Ural mountain base, where the first technology research center of the Soviet army was created by Yuri before his betrayal. Preventing the PsiCorps' siege, the Soviets were able to contact armies located in the United States and Europe, which had not fallen under the control of Psychic Dominators yet, as well as target activities of enemy forces on other continents. Following after, they destroyed Yuri's nuclear silos in Libya and neutralized the Washington DC Psychic Dominator in cooperation with the Allies, creating another mind control-free land - one of very few, including China and Canada. While this was happening, the 4-G base in Ural mountains was finally conquered and captured by the PsiCorps' forces. Yuri announced the creation of the Epsilon Army and his return just after the destruction of his device in the capital of USA. The Allies got finally ensured that it was PsiCorps who stole the Time Machine over a year ago.

After recapturing the United States, the paths of Soviet and Allied forces divided. The Allies continued war with the Epsilon, trying to limit Yuri's army to Moscow. With authorization given by President Dugan and Albert Einstein to eliminate the stolen Time Machine (long thought to have been moved to another position - in fact, it was hidden by Yuri's psychic illusion generators), the Allies made sure that Yuri will not be able to create another paradox by using the device in the event of his ultimate defeat. The stolen time machine was then destroyed by Allied naval force in the Caribbean. Later after collecting important information from spies in Skaramagas, they've managed to prevent a swarm of brainwashed Russian forces from assaulting Europe, so that it would be possible to evacuate Albert Einstein from the Black Forest in Germany to Alaska. Einstein was then able to finish the reconstruction of the Chronosphere device, which was earlier destroyed in Germany by Soviet forces in order to prevent operation "Chrono Storm" (supposed to be the final way to abolish Soviet reign). The Allies decided to use the elements from Operation "Chrono Storm" against Epsilon army in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the Soviets managed to capture an abandoned Psychic Amplifier in China, which was supposed to be used by Yuri before the famous elimination of the Allies' Peacekeeper sites. This Psychic Amplifier would have granted the Soviets the possibility to crush Korea and strike the United States from the east, if it had been used before. The long-forgotten device was restored to full functionality, and so the Chinese empire fell under mind control of the Soviets. With projects and plans found in Military Headquarters in Beijing, the incorporation of the Chinese airforce program into the Soviet combat equipment was possible. The Red Army eliminated Epsilon's Nuclear Silos located in China and so was able to finish the construction of Chinese superweapon - the Centurion Siege Crawler. It was presumed that it would be the only way to ignore Yuri's mind control tactics and effectively lay siege to Moscow. Yuri's army was successfully pulled out from Europe, America, and eastern Asia. The army has been limited to its final base in the Soviet Union.

By October 22, 1974, the Allies launched a chrono infiltration of Moscow (the mission is a déjà vu of the last mission in RA2 due to the changes done with the Time Machine, except Yuri's army replaces the Soviet army) while the Soviets started ruination of the Epsilon fortress at the same location, striking from the west with an MCV supported by a tank division and from the east using the Centurion Siege Crawler and Chinese forces. The Psychic Dominator located near the Kremlin was quickly destroyed, freeing all the remaining Soviet forces in the Soviet Union. With that accomplished, the army of Epsilon was finally crushed. The only problem was that Yuri had no longer been in the Kremlin.

Yuri's almost perfect plan was yet to be revealed, although due to some technical problems which he did not expect, it was revealed much faster than it was supposed to. The machine which he built in Antarctica, named the Mental Omega device, was creating strong energy fields that kept distorting psychic waves transmitted by weaker devices. Ironically, Psychic Interrupters had been interrupted and so the Mental Omega tower was revealed to the Allies and Soviets. The two sides both commenced a full-scale invasion over Antarctica and destroyed the last of Yuri's Epsilon bases as well as the remains of Yuri's army, finishing what was known as the Mental Omega War or the third stage of the second Great War. Yuri himself was found dead in the ruins of the tower.

Gameplay

The modification provides an array of new units and equipment for each of the three sides in the conflict, expanding the gameplay and changing the way a player has to act during the battle - in skirmish and multiplayer games as well as in the campaign. Unlike the original Yuri's Revenge, Mental Omega provides a campaign for Yuri's Epsilon side as well, telling the story from a different view than the one presented in the plot above. You can either join the Allies or Soviets against the Epsilon, or fight for the cause of Yuri.

Along with the single player campaign, there are also modifications to the game's artificial intelligence (which was often criticized for being too difficult to deal with due to many various AI cheats, however these cheats are still available in a special game mode known as the meteor swarm), improving and creating a more "human" style of combating. The general skirmish/multiplayer receives a stunning amount of 100 new skirmish maps. The new additions to each side are also included into the skirmish/multiplayer, achieving the overall goal of balancing each sides, especially Yuri's.

One of most important additions to Yuri's Epsilon army is the psychic illusion technology, which allowed him to commence a successful assault in Russia. With Shadow Tanks, Mobile Illusions, and Psychic Interrupters, Yuri player can attack opponents with stealth while hiding his own base at the same time. Other important equipment changes are the replacement of Slave Miners with ordinary refineries supported by a Ghost Miner which is invisible for other players unless detected with specific units, a redesign of Psychic Tower's mind control weapon into a powerful energy railgun, which was ordered by Yuri to be done after an analysis of the situation on the battlefield with the Allies Robot Tank introduced to the war (for gameplay reasons, this was done because the designer of the mod felt that the mind controlling physic towers in Yuri's Revenge were too powerful, despite that this has never been and remains an unpopular move among users of the mod). The Epsilon fleet sacrificed Boomer Submarines for the Kraken Frigate, received anti-air warship equipped with gattling cannons and introduced basic Sea Sleds to deal with enemy ships before acquiring advanced technologies. In addition, Yuri has taken back the Giant Squid project and incorporated it into his navy. Also, after experiments on the Tibrena islands, Yuri prepared a special commando - Rahn, a powerful genetically-modified soldier with Terranova prototype railgun, which works like a miniaturized Genetic Mutator. The Mental Omega Device itself appears only in the final campaign of each side's scenario and it is still unknown what the effects of its use are. However, a briefing describes that the device is several times stronger than the Psychic Dominator in power and can mind-control at least 70% of world population (except the units which are natural-immune to mind-control), but this is never shown as the device gets destroyed in each of the scenarios, be it good or evil one.

The Allies' new equipment had to be developed in secret, as they had been being observed by the Soviets and their structure was still being infiltrated by Soviet agents. With further achievements in chrono technology, Albert Einstein was able to finalize the project designed during the first battle against Yuri - the Chrono Prison. This sophisticated vehicle is armed with a massive neutron cannon which is capable of immediate structural removal, although the cannon takes a while to be recharged. The Allies were also able to finally miniaturize their prism cannon technology so it can now be carried by infantry - Enforcers, perfect siege personnel. Interesting may be enhancements in robotic technology - the Allies' Robot Tank project was canceled in favor of giving special mind-control proof system for Grizzly Tanks. After the discovery of Yuri's psychic illusion technology, it was quickly researched and Defender drones were introduced in order to detect any cloak units. Another example of Allies' underground developments is the Barracuda - a heavy bomber with radar scramblers and HE missiles perfect for elimination of enemy's defense lines. It is noted that the Allies recovered the Heavy Cruiser from the times of the first Great War and created most powerful navy in the world. Another example of unit revision is the Mobile Gap Generator.

As for the Soviets, primary development is rather the effect of their military campaign - after taking over the Chinese Republic they managed to incorporate their air force system (MiG fighters) as well as advanced hacking technologies (Infector Tanks, Hackers, Emperor Tanks, Internet Transactions through Palaces) and the most powerful artillery weapon created till 80s - the Centurion Siege Crawler. The Soviets had also recovered the Missile Subs from the times of the first war - now known as Akula, as well as upgraded Libyan Demolition Trucks and spread them throughout every Soviet country, in a similar way to Desolators and Terrorist squads. They also sacrificed their old spy plane and replaced it with a much speedier one, basing new design on Migs. Also, after Soviet victory over the Allies each of Soviet countries enhanced unique equipment and introduced own tactics - every nation has developed a more advanced specific weapon like Cuban Hydra Cannon or North Korean Iron Dragon. After previous victories over Yuri and the Allies it appears clearly that the Soviets are now counting on their tank divisions, supporting them with Mobile War Factories and Tank Drop actions. Unlike Allies or Epsilon, Soviets don't count on stealthy and sneak tactics.

Most units in Mental Omega either had their stats (cost, armor, tech level, etc.) modified, as well as new looks. Each side can also capture civilian tech structures. The modification provides several new types, including Tech Satellite Hack Centers, Tech Machineries, Tech Refineries, Tech EMP Stations, and Tech Time Machines. There are also a few special units available through various tech structures (some are cameo units from previous C&C games). Stolen technology available with spies (introduced to each side now) has also been expanded.

Version history

In August 2007 work had begun on the new Patch 2.0c, which was released on the 6th September. Prior to previous versions, 2.0c requires NPatch Special Edition developed by VK. By 2 October a promised Chinese-language patch was released. 10 months later beta tests of 2.0psi began and almost exactly year after 2.0c release, on 11 September new version was released to the public.^[2]. On 19 November 2010, final patch for 2.0 version has been released^[3]. Author is currently working with his team on 3.0 version.

Trivia

• In December 2006 Mental Omega was nominated for the Mod DB Mod Of The Year awards and received honorable mention.^[4]
• Main promotional screenshot of Mental Omega is featured in The First Decade Hall of Fame, appearing in the last week.^[5]
• The Centurion Siege Crawler was a canceled unit in Red Alert 3. It resembled a Sickle walker with heavy armor plating and a Howitzer cannon, as opposed to light armor and three miniguns. It's been later implemented in the Uprising expansion pack as Soviet Reaper, much smaller in size.

References

1. ^ MO continues storyline from Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge
2. ^ MO APYR v2.0psi released!
3. ^ Patch for 2.0psi? I didn't expect a patch for 2.0psi!
4. ^ Mods of 2006 - Player's Choice
5. ^ One of the last Soviet bases left in the world..