Zone Commando - what to do about him Thread - Tiberium Essence Fans

Ok, here's me creating another mega post out of all the important posts about the zone commando, continue discussions about it here.

Long post ahead;

ARMofORION wrote: In my opinion.....

GDI's Zone Commando needs something done to him. He is no longer a death machine, more times than not I see him killed where the original Commando would laugh heartily and gun down everyone. He just isn't as good as the old.

Smallchange wrote:

ARMofORION wrote: In my opinion.....

GDI's Zone Commando needs something done to him. He is no longer a death machine, more times than not I see him killed where the original Commando would laugh heartily and gun down everyone. He just isn't as good as the old.

So very true, I'm really hoping he gets some sort of buff in the coming version... He isn't even worth building now in my Opinion... It would actually be better if his ability would work on anything (As in, more like a portable ion cannon that could be used on vehicles and the like.)

ARMofORION wrote:

Smallchange wrote:
So very true, I'm really hoping he gets some sort of buff in the coming version... He isn't even worth building now in my Opinion... It would actually be better if his ability would work on anything (As in, more like a portable ion cannon that could be used on vehicles and the like.)

Just revert him to the old one. AtlasRedscale, who made a whole walk-through with this mod, says to pretty much revert to the old one, and he argued against making the Zone Commando. If anything, I believe we need a Anti-Armor Commando, but I think this will be argued to heck and back.

Smallchange wrote:

ARMofORION wrote:

Smallchange wrote:
So very true, I'm really hoping he gets some sort of buff in the coming version... He isn't even worth building now in my Opinion... It would actually be better if his ability would work on anything (As in, more like a portable ion cannon that could be used on vehicles and the like.)

Just revert him to the old one. AtlasRedscale, who made a whole walk-through with this mod, says to pretty much revert to the old one, and he argued against making the Zone Commando. If anything, I believe we need a Anti-Armor Commando, but I think this will be argued to heck and back.

Well, personally I think the original was far to plain... He (or Nod's I suppose) really needs some uniqueness from the other... Based off the original; One's got a shiny machine gun, and one has a bright laser, otherwise... They're about the same...

ARMofORION wrote:
One got a Laser Pistol (Star Wars much?) and the other got a magnetically-accelerated assault rifle. I agree that they both looked bland, but the weapon for the old GDI Commando was perfectly fine to me.

The biggest problem they both had was Armored/Air targets and using their C4/Ion Strike. The first was solved by just escorts. The second one, for the old one, was solved by his jet-pack and unsuppressed moving, and if he got caught, he would be able to blow up a structure before he was killed, which often helped quite a bit. The Zone Commando had the issue with needing some time and a set distance to do it, and if he got caught, he was pretty much screwed unless you cancelled the Ion Strike, which made him be a bit poor at surgical strikes, however, certain maps gave him a high-ground advantage where his cousin would be stuck waiting for a distraction.

Smallchange wrote:

What if they were merged? Something to the extent of... The look of the new Com, the Weapons/abilities of the Old com, and then an expensive placeable, portable Ion cannon mine (i.e. one mine $1200) that when run over by anything, or if a building is placed on it, it activates an ion beacon, and destroys whatever was on it.. (probably about enough AT damage to kill a Mammoth, and enough AS damage to kill about 2/3 of a warfactory)... Just trying to mix it up a bit

ARMofORION wrote:
I'm
not a big fan of the new Commando and how he looks. His suit just seems
to much like a variant of the Zone Troopers, even through last I checked
those suits were prototypes. Not a fan of the shoulder Chaingun the
most though, seems to me a bit of a knock-off of GoW 3's Vulcan
Chaingun.

I like the idea of the Ion Mines.

--------

Valherran wrote: Zone Commando just needs a higher ROF, and extra damage to tanks. And possibly more HP, cus other Commandos just own him easily.

ok, so to summarize...

Concept 1: (Simple enough)

• Possible HP Buf
• Higher ROF
• More AT Damage

Concept 2, A New Trooper, with Ion Mines:

• The Look of the New (Or old, depends on who you're asking) Commando
• An expensive placeable, portable Ion cannon mine (i.e. one mine $1200) that when run over by anything, or if a building is placed on it, it activates an ion beacon, and destroys whatever was on it.. (probably about enough AT damage to kill a Mammoth, and enough AS damage to kill about 2/3 of a warfactory)...
• All abilities of Old commando

Concept 3, Revert,

• Original Commando

Concept 4, Revert with mines

• Same as Concept 2, except with using the new Commando's abilities instead of the old...

So yah, there's that...

My vote in on Concept 2, however, if the Ion Cannon thing could hit vehicles as well, then I'd go with Concept 1 as well.

I think the Ion Mines are a bit over the top, I will stick with concept 1.

Hm... IMHO, Commandos always were a problem unit in the stock game and really hard to make right. Pardon me for using such a tired old phrase, but should Commandos not be like heroes? A higher veterancy cap, if at all possible, would be nice and interesting and make the single commando you are allowed to have feel more unique rather than a guided missile who gets to destroy one thing, and then you replace him when he dies. By their very defonition, Commandos are NOT easily replaced. Honestly, if it were left up to me, I'd make a few tiny little changes.

Zone Commando:
-longer ion cannon lock-on range so it can snipe buildings outside of turret range. Getting mowed down by a turret you can see but your laser can't lock onto makes them pointless. The original commando could just jet-up, and C4 it into respawn land
-able to lock onto LARGE VEHICLES ONLY with ion cannon. Anyone ever play Mass Effect 3? Remember when you used a targeting laser on Rannoch for that epic fight? THAT WAS BADASS. A Zone Commando should be able to snipe Avatars and Tripods from behind battle lines.
-Cosmetic fix. Instead of the beam appearing for a moment and then the damage taking effect, it should be an instant impact and feel like they just got bitch-smacked by 80 tons of white hot plasma that came down through an atmosphere just to say hi.

Cyborg Commando:
It is a slayer of nations, a destroyer of men. A leviathan in an age of minnows. Alliances have risen and fallen with the support of the Cyborg Commandos. It mows down infantry, it annihilates vehicles, it decimates bases within minutes. Change nothing.

Black Hand Commando:
-Permanent Stealth. Shadow Teams have this but the commando doesn't? WTF?

Mastermind:
It can only mind control one thing, teleport allied units a SHORT distance, and kill off an infantry squad of two before dying itself on account of its weak as paper armor and HP level.....WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS THING?!

I personally would modify the GDI Zone Commando unit, as the following:

- Substituting the C4 for buildings, with orbital bars. The commando gets near the building as for C4, place an invisible beacon on the building. After 5 seconds, it get striked by a singular Orbital bar (like the Orbital Strike of KW), that destroy the building. The bar model should be not big as the original KW version, but more small, if you do not think on introducing a little splash-damage, that would not be so bad. Of course, this would avoid any C4-bombing-run effect, as if the commando place a beacon in near buildings, he could get killed in the process. Otherwise, placing the beacon and leaving the area through the retro-boosters and flying away, wouldn't be that bad (if he get caught in the middle of an area, with tons of buildings, walls etc.).

This makes the commando an unit that needs micro-management, but isn't too much deadly and OPped, as the player has to commands his moves, continuously. But this would echo the GDI-concept, even on this unit: slow, deadly and not for hit-and-run, like NOD.

- The Ion Plasma Hit, I would modify in order to introduce a little splash-damage on it, and make it usable without focusing the target only on buildings. At the moment, on 1.6, you can select only buildings, but as you consider "lore", if an Ion Plasma beam hit the ground, it not only destroy what is present in the focus of the hit, but even in the surroudings. In order to avoid creating a copy-cat of the Orbital Building Strike stated before, the Ion Plasma shot, could be used with a Free cursor, like what is used at the moment, for infantry unit, in order to deploy the GDI outpost they construct on field. This would let the Zone Commander be used or to fly over walls and structures, or to create an hole on perimetral walls or to destroy little assemble of enemy units and structures, like what could be hitting a cell that have an anti-tank defense and some units around it. Of course, the use of the beaconing system (as it is now), with delay, would be good.

In the end, the EMP grenade, that Zone Commando use, I don't know. I would change it with an EMP+Sonic grenade, for Scrin mobs, but the problem is that the Zone commando is quite defenseless against tanks, so using something that disable and cause a damage even to such units, wouldn't be that bad. Consider that Scrin field commando unit, has mind-control and NOD one, is perm-stealthed, so they get a bonus, against such types of threats. GDI, that is not stealth and not tricky, have to be balanced with something that classically destroy the enemy, as GDI are.

The old GDI commando was better in all respects to the Zone commado. The GDI commado is given the most advanced tech Avalible to a Gdi infantry unit so maybe he should get his stealth back?

Edited by: KursedVixen