Steel Talons need more experimental tech Thread - One Vision mod for Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath

So basically I feel that Mutant mercs don't fit the faction even with the provided lore especially since I feel that ST is a nostalgia and overall just really advanced GDI (expensive) faction.
Basic Infantry
Instead of Mutant mercs, it would be really cool to have jumpjet infantry (I saw this from another suggestion) that would be worth 600 creds and start with a decent (rifleman level) damage weapon, as much health as Mutant mercs/confessors, really fast ground movement speed, and decent armor along with jumpjet ability but can be upgraded via the Command Post with a new upgrade that would perhaps also grant the Firestorm troopers a jumpjet but give the JJ Inf a weapon on par to mutant mercs and confessors and allow them to hover for a short period of time (they can fire at air and ground) this is to make them not be OP at the get go but stay true to the ST doctrine of experimental tech and mechanized warfare (perhaps name these troops Swooping Falcons?)
Firestorm
So this upgrade is sorta worth it but only 5 firestorm troopers is a bit low, perhaps increase their health by 20%, increase their cost to 1600 creds and increase cap to 7 or 8? The grey wolf is stellar and I love the unit and concept but I also feel that the mammoth Mk 3 is out of place for the ST and that they should be replaced by a highly nerfed Mk 2 Mammoth that is much smaller but is more powerful than the Mk 3 and perhaps name it Mk 4 or 5, make it worth 3,500 creds and buff the grey wolf and/or replace the current model with something better (2 cannons and a rocket AA pod) and make it worth 4-4.5 k creds.
Mammoth Mk 2 weaker (Mass Production variant) Mk 4 or 5?
already covered this in Firestorm but it should be listed anyways
Sandstorm MLRS
My last unit suggestion is a replacement for the Slingshot that would have increased range and fire volleys of 8 rockets (AP Rocket upgrade would apply) and these rockets would fire faster than other rockets for obvious reasons, to balance it, perhaps make it worth 1.2-1.4 k creds and it would retain the scan ability and maybe with an upgrade (Talon or adaptive armor it could have a PDL installed?)
Upgrade suggestions
I have essentially gone over these but for posterity sake I shall list them
Command Post (Advanced Infantry or Combined Arms Munitions)
Would allow the Jumpjet inf the ability to hover for decent amounts of time, give the firestorm troopers the ability to jumpjet, give the Jumpjet inf a much improved weapon and perhaps buff the light inf scout's sight range by a very small amount (worth 2000 creds with a 40 sec research time)
Tank Armory (Adaptive Armor)
This would be improved upon and jump to 2,000 creds in worth and increase research time 50%. Give the Titan and Grey Wolf the ability to sprint for 2-3 seconds and crush units but after would be unable to move for 5 seconds (can still shoot) and both the Adaptive armor and sprint would go on cooldown (the power cells would be overloaded for a short period, 30-45 sec cooldown on the sprint)
Tech Center (Talon Combat Armor)
This would increase the price to 3,500 creds or so, and increase research time by 50%, it would give on top of everything else the Mammoth Mk 4 or 5 and Behemoth and Heavy Harvester the ability to shutdown and be essentially EMP'd but while they are shutdown they are running a self repair diagnostic and would repair for the same rate as if a rig was repairing it, this could be immediately turned off and the EMP effect would immediately be nullified but that would start a cooldown of 1 min for the re-activation of the ability or however long seems balanced. The wolverine would be able to shoot a single (chaos mine) that would shoot into the air and spray the area with flechette rounds that would shred all infantry to pieces in a small radius (cooldown of 1:30) and would make the wolverine unable to shoot for 5 sec but the flechettes would do nothing to armored units (sniper damage?) and perhaps due to this upgrade the wolverine would jump in price by 25%.

I just felt that steel talons didn't really bring the steam rolling aspect far enough into the game, they should take like 20 min or so to get fully going but once they do, it would take some clever tactics to stop them, the best way to stop them would be kill them early to mid game

First, I want to say that Steel Talons is an already very advancd and very powerful faction and before I make major changes to them again, I want to care for other factions which haven't got as much attention. Of course, I always want to improve my mod and feedback is important to me, but I have my limits when it comes to resources and time.
Anyway, back to your questions.

Well, the problem with the starting infantry is that I don't make models and I don't want all GDI factions to have the same starting infantry.
I also don't want to have too expensive starting units (500$ is by far expensive enough) as they are often used for early scouting or in the ST's case, more for anti scouting. Either way, if you give me a good looking model for a jump jet infantry, I'm sure I can implement it
Also, I want Steel Talons to be the slowest GDI faction and don't want to give them too much speed options like Jumpjets or fast moving infantry. This is one of the reasons why I gave them the slow moving Mutant Mercs.

In fact, the firestorm are already about twice as powerful as conventional Zone Trooper/Raiders. I do want to change them a little bit and remove the build limit, as it has been reported that you can make more than 5 Firestorm Troopers when you know how to exploit the game engine correctly.
I think I am going to simply increase their build time and tweak their stats a little bit.

@Grey Wolf and Mammoth, will you be the one giving me some new good looking models? xD
In fact, I think the current Mammoth is a very strong asset to the Steel Talons force and one of the few units in the game which has 3 upgrades!
AP Rockets + Railgun + Adaptive Armor is extremely powerful and once all upgrades have been researched this unit is much more cost efficient than any other T3 unit. This also applies to many other units, which is why they are so powerful in the late game.

You are not the first one to bring up the sandstorm as a concept and I like it, however how am I supposed to get a proper model?

I like the idea of giving units a second active Adaptive Armor ability, but I'm not quite sure how to balance this properly and how it would work out in actual combat. I will discuss this with some people and ask what they think about that.

Now, I really like the last suggestion. I think, I'd rather do it as a seperate upgrade but the idea to invest time to repair your units between battles is something I can see working out very nicely. I'm writing it down on my planned feature list, but as I've said before I simply want to improve other factions for now such as Renegades and a finishing touch on Reaper-17.

Well, as for the basic unit, it doesn't really fit ST I suppose... But if you want to give every GDI faction a different basic infantry unit, then it would definitely fit ZOCOM. Media.moddb.com

Firestorm... Well, I suppose it is really very good but the build cap is a tad annoying even if it can be broken... I just don't like exploiting such things.

Media.moddb.com - the firestorm I feel just fits the ST especially with AP rockets. I also think that Golan has or at least would do the models for the Mammoth and what not.

These are only suggestions though, I just really like this mod and want to help support it in any small way I can. Hopefully these suggestions aren't too annoying.

Yeah, I think that could really work for ZOCOM, I like it. Unfortunately, Golan doesn't have his models anymore and unless somebody else got it from me and is willing to share it I have no means to implement it...

I'm not a fan of the MRLS model to be honest, it looks cartoony and I'm not sure if it would fit well with the rest of the units.
However, I don't quite like the Pitbull as a GDI unit and would like to exchange it with a "Sandstorm" like unit, but without a model my hands are tied.