- About CannisRules - The CannisRules modification has been developed with clear goals, and its development path has followed a well-planned roadmap. This is not some sort of hodgepodge throw-in-everything-you-can-think-of mod. If you want a mod with a lot of units, or a mod that enabled everything possible, or a mod that includes crazy and bizarre stuff, then this is not the mod for you. But if you value gameplay, replayability, and quality, then I think you'll like CannisRules. CannisRules boasts what is probably the most complete online documentation of any Yuri's Revenge mod you can find, and this has been true since its inception. The most up-to-date version available is 1.8, and can be downloaded here.

Background CannisRules is a modification for Yuri's Revenge, a game by Westwood Studios. Work on the mod first began within two weeks after the release of the official 1.001 game patch, when it became clear to me that Westwood had no intention of properly supporting the game through balance and bugfix patches. It is a fact of modding that once one sets about to change something, at the same time one can change other things too. So I decided to make other alterations as well, to match my vision of what I think the game's potential is, and how I think the game should be played. Originally, CannisRules was just my own personal mod, which I did not plan to ever release. However, as the mod developed, I became more and more pleased with the results, which led to my decision to polish it, and release it to the public. There have been several public releases of the mod, beginning in May of 2002. The current release was made available in June of 2005. When all releases are taken together (not counting the current version, 1.8), the mod has been downloaded well over 30,000 times. The positive reception that CannisRules has received has never ceased to surprise me. Currently, CannisRules is really two mods in one: Balance of Power, and Beyond Revenge.

Balance of Power Balance of Power is the first of the 2 CannisRules modifications, and it is the name that CannisRules has become known for. It seeks to enhance gameplay through subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) changes to the various units in the game, without changing the "flavor" of the game at all. For the most part, adding new units is avoided except where absolutely required for gameplay balancing. Balance of Power is essentially a balance and bugfix patch, along with the addition of features that seemed to be lacking in the Yuri's Revenge expansion. These are the goals of the CannisRules: Balance of Power modification: Make every unit effective, and fun to use. If it's on the build menu, you should want to build it.   Make every country effective, and fun to play as. There are 10 different countries to choose from, and you should look forward to playing as any of them.   Achieve balance while emphasizing differences between the 3 sides. This is simply remaining true to the spirit of the game.   Avoid weakening any side, or any unit. Balance should be achieved through strength, not weakness. Every unit is someone's favorite unit, and that someone would hate to see his favorite unit weakened.   Zero tolerance for Internal Errors. Nothing is worse than fighting off multiple enemies, managing to assemble a force in a bid to turn the tide, and just as your grand counterattack strategy is underway, the game crashes. While I cannot prevent Yuri's Revenge from ever crashing, I can, and have, made every effort to ensure that CannisRules will never be the cause.   Keep the flavor of the original game intact. For the most part you should not even know you are playing a mod. No wild flying tesla monkeys throwing chrono nuclear bananas or anything foolish like that.

Beyond Revenge Beyond Revenge is a YR mod that adds the opportunity for extended build options, for those who want something more. Think of it as a 'Tech Expansion'. The BR mod is built on top of the Balance of Power mod, and is limited to a set of special game modes. If this sort of thing is not to your liking, that's no problem, as you can still play the Balance of Power game modes. I had planned to make Beyond Revenge a long time ago, when Balance of Power was complete. I had intended it to be a separate modification. But then discovered that I could limit the AI's usage of Beyond Revenge units to certain game modes, and this made its separation from BoP unnecessary. I'm happy that things turned out this way, because I feel that I can offer more value by bundling the two mods together. Also, it makes things easier for me, because updates to the BoP base don't need to be duplicated across two mods. And these are the goals of the CannisRules: Beyond Revenge expansion: Maintain all balance changes and improvements present in Balance of Power. This is only logical.   Expand on the existing 'country special' concept. Because at its heart, an expansion pack is more of the same, but also even better than the original. Beyond Revenge does this by providing new country specials at the high-tech Battle Lab level.   Augment, not replace. The new high-tech stuff should complement the original country specials. They shouldn't make the radar-level country specials obsolete.   Country distinctiveness maintained. The radar-level specials give each country a personality, and those personalities should be maintained, not changed. The new units should 'fit in' with the character that the countries exhibited before.   Quality, quality, quality. Bad graphics detract from excellent code, and vice-versa. To the best of my ability, I have tried to provide and maintain the highest possible professional standards for the new additions.

Roadmap At the top of this page, I mentioned that CannisRules has followed a well-planned roadmap. Looking back, you can see how this roadmap has guided the mod's development so far: the balance and bugfix enhancements (ongoing), the Beyond Revenge tech expansion (complete), and support for major community plugins (up-to-date as of this writing). For those interested in this sort of thing, there is a full online changelog documenting the mod's progress since the beginning. Where the roadmap will take the mod next, is something I typically hold close to the vest. However, those who've followed this site's news posts and certain forum discussions may recall that the mod is still looking to complete the stolentech infantry expansion, and to include a new Coalition Forces gamemode which will feature full AI support. Plans beyond that I am keeping to myself, and you'll just have to be satisfied with speculation in the meantime. Those that know me will agree that I have been very attentive to feedback, and I am willing to consider incorporating any and all reasonable suggestions in future versions of the mod. In my opinion, no project is ever really 'done'. If it requires 20 version updates to achieve desired results, then so be it.

Return to the CannisRules home page... ...Or begin the tour of the changes and features in the CannisRules: Balance of Power mod.