OpenRA is a free, open-source, multiplatform real-time strategy game application. This game engine is aimed at first-person classic-style video games like Red Alert, Dune 2021 and Tiberian Dawn, as well as more modern, massively-multiplayer online games like Age of Empires and Warhammer Online. The aim of the project is to have a flexible, extensible engine which makes modifying (modding) those games easy. Unlike many other Real Time Strategy (RTS) applications, though, OpenRA does not have an in-game editor. Instead, you must use a HTML editor to make changes to your game's files.
The reason why OpenRA has a "limited modding" program is because it was designed as a platform for users to share, edit and improve their game content using third-party tools. Because of this, many modders choose to create their own games and leave the OpenRA engine alone. However, a small percentage of users actually want to modify their content and use the in-game editor. For these people, there are two options: downloading OpenRA and making their own mods, or purchasing an OpenRA mod for sale. If you choose the latter option, there are a few things you need to know before downloading OpenRA:
OpenRA provides two different types of game modes: "classic" which is the same engine used by the original game, and "mod" which modifies the existing game modes. Although it uses the same engine as the original game, the major difference between OpenRA and the original is that in OpenRA the user can modify the game using any text editor, while in the original the user must use the Visual Studio runtime library to create "raw" scripts that run in the VBScript environment. Another difference is that in the original game the player has access to a large array of weapon and armor types that aren't available in OpenRA, although in the mod OpenRA you have only a few armor types and a few weapon types. Overall, this mod provides a good experience that borrows some design elements from CounterStrike, but with the added flexibility of being able to modify the game.
