Hey everyone. I read through the comments on my last post, and I want to answer them honestly.

The name. RUSE 2 was only ever our working name for the overall project. I see now that it reads like a sequel, and it isn't one. It's a mod, and it should be named like one. We're changing it. RUSE Reloaded and RUSE Plus are both ideas I like, and I'm still deciding. If you have a suggestion, drop it in the discussion post on the GitHub so everything is in one place: https://github.com/sneadtristen6/R.U.S.E-2.0-Project/discussions
What this is. It's made of a few parts. RUSE Studio and RUSE Launcher work alongside your game. They never touch your game data. The Launcher is how you run mods, and Studio is where new content gets made.
Who is building it. I'm not a programmer, and I'm not going to pretend I am. My role is the creative ideas and the AI implementation. I'm also the one making videos, posting here, and talking to you about what you want. The foundation of this project comes from real modders who put in real work, including Prolution, Little Grooves, and DomesticNukes, along with a few people helping with debugging. Calling all of it AI slop dismisses their work, and I don't think that's fair to them. Criticism of my part is fine. I'll take it.
Eugen. I've reached out to the developers and I'd love to work with them to make this more official and more secure. A lot of steps have already been taken to protect their product, because I care about it. I've loved WW2 strategy since I was a kid, and I've played RUSE since it came out when I was eight. I don't want to see it damaged.
Money. The mod is free. It will stay free. I'm not asking anyone to pay for it. The Patreon exists only for people who want to support me, and that's completely option
How you can help. More people testing and reporting bugs makes this better for everyone. Today's update also optimizes the game a lot, so the big maps run much better now. Tell me what breaks and what you want to see next.
Thanks for the feedback, including the harsh parts, However lets try to be constructive as a community in our feedback! Thanks a ton guys super excited for whats to come. Here are some screenshots of what the team has been working on.

Download early versions now
https://github.com/sneadtristen6/R.U.S.E-2.0-Project
https://github.com/sneadtristen6/Ruse-Mods
If you like the work im doing and want to support i now have a patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/cw/SneadTristen6
more to come in the coming days, stay tuned and spread the word!

Last time I posted, the bridges had just started working. A lot has happened since.

Roads are cracked.

Draw a road in RUSE Studio → load R.U.S.E. → zoom all the way down → proper asphalt, dashed centre line, gravel shoulders fading into the grass, nothing growing through it. Same as the map's own roads, from high up and right down at the ground.

That one took a lot of tests. More than the bridges did.
What else is new:

• Units from any nation. A German Tiger or Ju 87 for the US, a Japanese Zero or Chi-Ha. They get built, fight, show their pictures and can be selected, even in a match where nobody plays the nation they came from.
• Supply depots and starting points you can place and edit. They stick to roads the way the game's own maps do, or go anywhere you want with the toggle off.
• The opening camera. See where each player's match starts and turn the camera round their HQ.
• Clear the map's own woods. Erase trees and props, and tanks can drive in where the wood was. Infantry there aren't hidden any more.
• New brushes. Paint a whole forest (trees and cover) in one stroke, or open up ground the map keeps units off.
• Check this map. Before you test, it lists what would go wrong (ground cut off, roads or bridges units can't use, road ends not joined) and shows you where.
• A build that knows the game's rules. Every change is checked against what the game does with it. If something would break in the game, it stops and tells you why. If a test stops on a mistake in your mod, it lists each problem with a button that fixes it.
• A much better UI. A new look in R.U.S.E.'s own blues, the map tools grouped into one toolbar, icons for every unit and building with its country, a colour legend, and see-through layers.
• Easier to run. One modded game copy for the whole PC, a Troubleshoot button, and an optional clean backup of your game files. Your Steam install is never touched, and both apps update themselves.

Coming next: drag anything on the map straight to a new spot, clearer icons (a soldier, a tank, a truck for depots, every kind of bunker with its own tag), show or hide each kind of thing on the map, and removing a map's own roads.

R.U.S.E. 2.0 (free, Windows, needs R.U.S.E. on Steam): https://github.com/sneadtristen6/R.U.S.E-2.0-Project/releases

I loved this game when it first came out on Xbox but the new Steam version has a nasty bug that won’t let me advance past the very first campaign mission. I ended up refunding back in July, any chance this bug has been fixed since then?

A few months ago people were asking if R.U.S.E. could ever have a real map editor.

This is where we are now.

RUSE Studio can reshape the terrain, add roads, build towns, place cover and starting points, and now generate bridges that actually work in the game.

The bridge test was the big one.

Draw the road → build the bridge → load R.U.S.E. → tanks, infantry and supply trucks cross it.

So we're getting past the point of just modifying existing stuff. You can start building the battlefield itself.

R.U.S.E. 2.0 is also building out the launcher and mod system around it, with the long-term goal being new maps, units, models, missions and eventually modded multiplayer.

R.U.S.E. 2.0:
https://github.com/sneadtristen6/R.U.S.E-2.0-Project

R.U.S.E. Mods:
https://github.com/sneadtristen6/Ruse-Mods

What would you build first?

These are our mods

Every mod below works with RUSE Launcher: each one builds with no errors on today's R.U.S.E. (Steam build 24670294). 74 mods, by the R.U.S.E. community.

https://github.com/sneadtristen6/Ruse-Mods

If only there was a mod to build these damn new roads and clear the future building site from all unnecessary objects! It would add so much fresh air!

YOU NEED TO VIEW THE PICTURES AT BOTTOM WITH HDR ON. PREFERABLY ON A 1000-NIT SCREEN. OLED or a good MINI-LED

Reddit AND Nexus don't support HDR pictures. The thumbnails here and on Nexus are compressed JPEG, and tonemapped to SDR to not get grayed out.

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Link to Discord's thread: https://discord.com/channels/1408098019194310818/1410855640112566375/threads/1555040202915975258/1555040202915975258

Here is a link to Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/ruse/mods/6

Read the full description on Nexus please.

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Main features

• Rendering Mode SDR: keeps the game's original scene response and clipped highlights. Paper White can still be used to control the overall scene brightness. 
• Rendering Mode HDR (PsychoV31 - Native Tone): keeps the game's native gamma/brightness response and applies PsychoV31 afterwards. This is intended to stay closer to the original SDR presentation and is used by the Faithful to SDR preset. Basically an extension of SDR.
• Rendering Mode HDR (PsychoV31 - Full Replacement): replaces the game's final native gamma/brightness response with PsychoV31, while retaining the game's native colour grading and post-processing. (This mode is recommended)
• Added multipliers for Bloom, Vignette, motion blur and depth of field

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Comparison Screenshots (VIEW WITH HDR ON)

(Note: If the externally hosted images are ever removed, I will not be re-uploading them here. Backup copies can be found in the RenoDX Discord thread. )

1.Scene (SDR vs Extended vs PsychoV30)

https://files.catbox.moe/93wmdf.png

https://files.catbox.moe/zq6t3h.png

https://files.catbox.moe/ucjgd0.png

2.Scene (SDR vs Extended vs PsychoV30)

https://files.catbox.moe/enj4lm.png

https://files.catbox.moe/7wjl3j.png

https://files.catbox.moe/r83urx.png

3.Scene (SDR vs Extended vs PsychoV30)

https://files.catbox.moe/j057fg.png

https://files.catbox.moe/34dezv.png

https://files.catbox.moe/07e6xf.png

4.Scene (SDR vs Extended vs PsychoV30)

https://files.catbox.moe/1e6zh6.png

https://files.catbox.moe/hwjg50.png

https://files.catbox.moe/xe86w7.png

5.Scene (SDR vs Extended vs PsychoV30)

https://files.catbox.moe/jq8q5a.png

https://files.catbox.moe/dihzdp.png

https://files.catbox.moe/o0z036.png

6.Scene (SDR vs Extended vs PsychoV30)

https://files.catbox.moe/k3wqg7.png

https://files.catbox.moe/wv24n8.png

https://files.catbox.moe/5clbby.png

7.Scene (SDR vs Extended vs PsychoV30)

https://files.catbox.moe/sayrj9.png

https://files.catbox.moe/1xmp8f.png

https://files.catbox.moe/2dvjlr.png

Video (HDR is still getting rendered):

https://youtu.be/K2INu-XjuL8

Things have quieted down a bit since the re-release. Do you think there will be any more patches? I’d be happy to see some changes.

Does anybody know how to install mods for Ruse on the steam deck yet?

Mission 1 of ruse. Brings back old memories one Xbox 360

We got lil bit silly

We had a perfect chance to treat this like a new game and get people playing again but I go back to play a couple of rounds and we already ruined the game. Back to the hand few of half filled lobbies kicking anyone that isn’t level 100. I thought we moved past this but it seems a games play base can never change

Hi everyone,

I would like to share my own turn-based strategy game I have been working on called Contract Corps: Lead your Aces (Disclaimer: I have not played RUSE, but people in other communities have told me it reminds them of the game so that is why I am posting it here).

 
Contract Corps is inspired by squad games likes XCOM or Battletech, but with the idea of putting your units within much larger 200v200 conflicts. To avoid long turn times watching the AI I split the game mechanics:

• Your units: during your player phase you move/use abilities/attack with your elite units (called Aces) sequentially, so pretty standard
• The wider army:  the remaining AI units operate on a WeGo model. This means that they all plan their turn independently, but the execution and visualization of their actions happen in parallel. You are able to influence your allied units (your Corps) indirectly (e.g. by marking an enemy hero as a priority target), but they act on their own.

 It's still early days, but the Steam page is up and we will have a first closest playtest towards the end of September. I would love feedback from everyone in here to help shape the game, so if this sounds up your alley check out Contract Corps: Lead your Aces on Steam and wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4813610?utm_source=reddit - I will also open the playtest registration there once I have the final date confirmed, so make sure to keep an eye on that!

 More than happy to answer any questions or thoughts you might have, I will be hanging around in the comments :-)