Red Alert 3: Corona is an expansion Game Mod for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, developed by the Chinese modding community in 2017. It features a new faction, the Celestial Empire, which is styled after Imperial China. The mod also adds new units and rebalances gameplay for the existing three factions.
The In-Universe lore for this mod is an alternate take on the events that unfolded in the original game: The Empire of the Rising Sun surrendered to the victorious Allies by the end of the war, which forced Emperor Yoshiro to accept that Japan's "divine destiny" of world domination was never meant to be. With the Empire in shambles and Yoshiro dying from grief (as well as from the wounds he sustained during an Assassination Attempt by the Soviets) later on, Crown Prince Tatsu and a group of loyal Imperial scientists attempted to alter the outcome of the war by recreating the time machine that the Soviet leaders once used to change history in their favor. Traveling back to the The Middle Ages, Tatsu saved Möngke Khan (one of Genghis Khan's grandsons) from a cannonball shot that would have killed him and provided the Mongols with modern Imperial technology that allowed them to conquer Europe in a Curb-Stomp Battle, all in the hope of preventing the Allies and Soviets from rising into power in the future. Eventually returning to the present after disposing of Möngke and leaving the Mongols to tear themselves apart, Tatsu soon discovers to his horror that not only do the Allies and Soviets still exist in this altered timeline, but in an ironic repeat of the Soviets' actions that led to the Empire of the Rising Sun's existence, a new global superpower known as the Celestial Empire threatens to conquer Japan, as well as perhaps the entire world...
The mod is currently in open beta and can be downloaded here
and here. It also has a YouTube channel here, where the developers upload videos regarding the ongoing development of the mod.
Red Alert 3: Corona provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: As part of the mod's naval combat overhaul, all tier 2 and 3 ships plus the Kirov Airship are much bigger and more powerful than their vanilla counterparts. On the flip side, they're now much more expensive, especially the tier 3 heavy bombardment ships (which have also been moved up a tier).
- Adaptation Name Change: The Naginata Cruiser has been renamed Naginata Destroyer, but is still recognisable as the same unit.
- Adapted Out: The Hammer Tank, the Soviet MBT from the vanilla game, no longer exists—its role has been taken by the Rhino Tank, a completely different unit. Uprising units are also only selectively brought over: the Cryo Legionnaire, Pacifier FAV, Desolator Trooper, Mortar Cycle, Grinder Tank, Reaper and Giga Fortress didn't make it.
- Alternate Timeline: This mod's timeline spins off from the vanilla game's after the Allied ending. With the Empire of the Rising Sun defeated and occupied by the Allies, Crown Prince Tatsu and a cadre of Japanese scientists invented their own time machine, with which they used to travel back in time to the rise of the Mongol Empire, in an attempt to prevent the Allied Nations and Soviet Union from existing. Not only does this fail, it also leads to the rise of China as the Celestial Empire, a fourth superpower to challenge the existing three.
- History Repeats: The way the Celestial Empire became a superpower, which takes place after the Allied ending of the vanilla game, mirrors that of the Empire of the Rising Sun at the beginning. The Soviets or the Empire, on the verge of defeat or already defeated by the Allies, invent their own time machine and travel back in time to weaken their rival superpower(s), but in the process creating a new timeline with a new superpower (the Rising Sun or the Celestial Empire) to challenge the existing ones.
- Kill Sat: The Alkaid Sub-Orbital Defence System is a tier 4 Celestial aircraft that can transform into a sub-orbital version of this, drawing power from the base to activate its long-range energy cannon.
- Point of Divergence: In the vanilla game, Crown Prince Tatsu wanted the Soviet time machine to be destroyed before Premier Cherdenko uses it to prevent the Empire of the Rising Sun from ever existing. But in this mod, which starts out in the aftermath of the Allied ending of the vanilla game, Tatsu resorted to reverse-engineering said time machine in an attempt to alter the course of history in favor of the Empire by aiding the Mongols in conquering Europe during the Middle Ages. And in true Red Alert fashion, this only made the war in the altered present day a lot more chaotic than it already was with the Celestial Empire joining in.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The mod also revamped the base game's aerial combat by adding one category and rebalancing two others.
- Interceptors are light aircraft units specialized to destroy large aircraft units (especially Alkaid Sub-orbital Defense System due to its suborbital positioning in bombardment stance) quickly and efficiently. But they are vulnerable to fighter aircraft units.
- Bombers are buffed to be able to defend themselves effectively against fighter aircraft units, forcing enemies to use interceptors to quickly and efficiently take them down. In addition, they can also quickly destroy large ships.
- Fighters are now limited to engaging light aircraft units, including the aforementioned interceptors. As the result, they are intended to escort bombers against interceptors and engage ground attack aircraft units.
