1.0.0 Release Details: New Infantry Content & Mechanics news

Ho ho ho, you thought it's the sound of uncle Santa Claus coming to give you cheap presents from Amazon warehouse in the middle of the night but it is actually, him, the revolutionary leader uncle Ho Chi Minh coming to tell you that everyday should be a Christmas and there's no Christmas without socialism for all.

Super funny and original joke, I know. Yes, you can stop laughing now.

So today I have with me the new infantry content details and perhaps a small recap for those who have missed it a while back.

I don't know about you but I've always found Generals infantry stuff to be completely lackluster. Not only that they suck tremendously against most things but they also die so easily to Supply Trucks microed with the sweatiness level of a Starcraft 2 player. People just tend to avoid using them all together or use them in Humvees or Combat Chinooks, etc.

And there's so few choices to choose from even when compared to other C&C strategy titles so there's really much reason to build them in the first place unless you love using Angry Mobs. Even the so-called Infantry General, General Fai, doesn't really get anything new except for an improved version of the same set of infantry.

So I was thinking why not just add all the recent cool new ideas and mechanics from a less ancient games like CoH, MoW or BF2 to Generals. The game could really use an overhaul in infantry department imho so the game doesn't revolve around only vehicles especially in the early game.

Plus you can't have an immersive looking battlefield without actual functioning and competent infantry.

Squad Training System:
Like in 0.9.x except even better, the new infantry are trained in groups not one by one (in most cases.) Special units like weapons teams, hackers or saboteurs, etc. obviously are trained per single unit due to engine limitation.

Behold, there might be three people in one unit but functionally, they act as one. Truly the they/them menace on the battlefield to be feared among us all.

This time, however, there are many, many visual variants among each infantry squad and faction. You, the player, still control them one by one, obviously, so you can still garrison and transport them. This is similar to MoW's system rather than CoH's.

Prone System:
Yes, you read that right! Prone stance in the render images aren't just for show!!!

Proning can provide tangible, beneficial and detrimental modifiers depending on circumstances to the infantry in question. While proning, their movement is slowed down, their accuracy or firing speed increased or they just disappeared into shadows or bushes.

Some infantry while in prone stance allows them to use special abilities that are not present in normal stance.

Other than that I think it just looks cool :3

Suppression System:
HA! I tricked you! It's not over yet!!! Not only it looks cool and provides wide range of modifiers, the infantry could also be influenced by variety of armaments on the battlefield!

Ranging from just machine guns, heavy machine guns, grenades to auto cannons, high explosive shells, microwave field, certain special abilities; all of these things can suppress the infantry to varying degrees, forcing them to hit the ground and slowing down their movements.

So it is vital that your assault forces do not linger in enemy's line of fire and move towards their objectives fast as possible.

Played very nicely with smoke screen mechanics although, you probably gonna need lots of smoke to cover your troops across huge patch of land (LOS mechanics in SAGE is too outdated.) If you don't like smokes and prefer monke brain tactics, just put them in your armoured vehicles and charge towards the enemy. That works too when there's no enemy anti-tank present.

Human wave tactics just don't hit as hard anymore and for good reasons! (Hence it's the last tactic anyone would wanna use in modern warfare. Bad, bad general!)

Classes:
Remember Karl Marx when he talked about class society? Oh wait, wrong note. Ahem, remember everyone was talking Battlefield 2? Well, I just copy and pasted the whole idea here.

I mean, why not? It looks cool and that's all that matters.

Infantry now have a total of 14 classes at this update: basic, assault, support, hvy support, mortar, medic, engineer, sniper recon, anti-tank, hvy anti-tank, anti-air, field commander, hero and special.

‣ Basic - Fresh idealistic recruits oblivious of what horrors lies beyond the fence of their training ground. Good at storming the enemy position, capturing abandoned enemy equipment or denying area of control.
‣ Assault - Well rounded troops that excel at fighting other infantry with their upgradable grenade launcher while also possessing light anti-tank capabilities.
‣ Support - Second in line to the regulars, they provide mobile constant fire support to suppress enemy troops and cover smoke screen for friendly troops.
‣ Hvy Support - The heavy version of the Support class. They solely provide stationary constant heavy fire support that can very effectively suppress enemy troops.
‣ Mortar - Long range in-direct fire support. They provide variety of barrages based on the type of munitions they're using ranging from typical high explosives, smokes to special munitions (white phosphorus, airburst, anthrax)
‣ Combat Medic - Medical specialists. They provide mobile emergency medical treatment for friendly troops and the ability to revive the critically wounded. They're also able to adequately defend themselves hence the combat part.
‣ Combat Engineer - Engineering specialists. They provide many utilities ranging from emergency vehicle repairs, high explosives support to anti-tank mine laying, mine detection and mine clearance. They're also able to adequately defend themselves hence the combat part.
‣ Sniper Recon - Recon specialists. They excel at taking out targets at long range, reconnaissance missions and camouflaged detection. They become camouflaged while proning. They could also cover their flanks or strategic areas with claymore mines.
‣ Anti-Tank - Third in line to the regulars, they provide mobile light anti-tank support with nominal anti-infantry capabilities.
‣ Hvy Anti-Tank - The heavy version of the Anti-Tank class. They solely provide stationary anti-tank support that can very effectively take out enemy armour.
‣ Anti-Air - Adept in air-defense, they provide light anti-air support with nominal anti-infantry capabilities.
‣ Field Commander - Well-versed in warfare, they relay orders to frontline troops, boosting their effectiveness, and provide variety of special powers support (artillery, smoke artillery)
‣ Heroes - Refers to the original heroes of vZH. More or less the same vibe but have extra stuff added in.
• Colonel Burton - NATO hero infantry who unironically think he's the main character. While his aimming skills are excellent, he should never be sent to combat a MBT one on one. His special rifle armed with multiple grenade launchers allow him to quickly decimate enemy infantry.
Can use smoke grenade to cover himself. Enters stealth when proning.
• Black Lotus - PLA hero agent who doesn't break stealth while firing in prone stance.
Her EMP grenade allows her to shut down enemy vehicles quickly.
Her hacking abilities are the same as vZH.
Enters stealth when proning.
• Jarmen Kell - GIN hero sniper recon armed with anti-material rifle. Like the normal Sniper Recon class, he can also use claymore mines. While proning, he can accurately take out enemy vehicle crews or quietly scout the enemy. Can use smoke grenade to cover himself. Enters stealth when proned.
‣ Special - Refers to variety infantry type unique to each faction. More details in faction overview blog.

Emphasis on Building Capturing:
Since buildings can be difficult and expensive to destroy in early game, most infantry now are enable to capture structures by default though at varied rates as opposed to vZH upgrade locked ability.

Assault class infantry can capture structure the fastest while special infatry captures the slowest. Which class you choose to take the enemy structure could be critical and decisive depending on the situation at hand.

But if the player do really want to destroy enemy strategic structures or defenses, the option is available with Combat Engineers provided you upgrade them with Satchel Charges. However, the loss you will take if you do lose the Combat Engineers to enemy forces is higher than that of standard troop class. The risk is for you, the player, to decide.

Grenade System:
Yes, grenades are a thing now; hand-held grenades even and not just rifle grenade launcher i.e. Ranger's flashbang. Completed with custom animations.

Infantry have to halt their fire and movement in order to throw or fire a grenade. Some grenades are fused to explode while some explode on impact. Comes in many variety: fragmentation anti-personnel, high explosives anti-personnel, anti-tank, rocket propelled anti-tank, smoke, EMP or molotov.

Grenades can deliver decisive blow to the enemy infantry or vehicle while doing so can expose the thrower to concentrated enemy fire.

Rifle grenade launchers greatly reduce the risk your troops take while launching grenades but requires more funds allocation.

Although, fused grenades don't cost anything to use, they still require an allocated time for the infantry to actually throw the grenade. Time that the infantry could be firing their guns instead.

Revive Critically Wounded System:
Like Battlefield 2, sometimes, infantry don't get killed right away and instead they become "critically wounded" meaning they're still alive for now but unable to move or fight until you get medics with AED to actively revive them.

That being said, sadly, I come with great sad news that the AED can't be improvised to attack enemy lol. Generally speaking, it's good to keep in mind that your troops could survive a gun fight but not survive when blowed to pieces by explosives. Very useful in early phase when resources are limited.

Preattack & Reload System:
If you couldn't tell or noticed from the previous update blog or the trailer itself, infantry now have to take aim and reload their weapons with animations played in accordance to their current stance. It was already the case before in version 0.9.x but not as apparently due to the lack of animations.

Preattack or firing speed is a stage before the weapon is fired. Think of it as aimming, lifting the guns, etc. The lighter the weapon, the easier it's to aim and stablise hence more firing speed.

Reload is a stage after exhausting the weapon magazine, the infantry will remove their exhausted magazine and insert a fully loaded one and then proceed to reload the gun.

Support and heavy support infantry mostly evade the reload penalty by constant refilling their bullets but still tempered by overheating resulting in fairly advantageous firing speed compared to other classes.

Transport Vehicle Weapon Firing Filter System:
You maybe thinking: "What kind of gibberish sentence is that? That doesn't even mean anything."

Well, remember how vZH Humvee or Technical can pack infantry inside even the anti-tank ones and they just fire their missiles out like it was nothing.

Yeah, about that... While it's silly and fun, I'm shutting it down.

And that's exactly what that meant. The fun police has arrived. I always kinda had the idea floating in my head but never really bother to actually do it. That is until The_Hunter casually dropped the codes in Discord chat then I just yoinked it and put it in the game. Easy job done.

Heavy support, mortar, anti-tank, heavy anti-tank, anti-tank classes cannot fire out of any vehicle or helicopter that normally would allow them to EXCEPT for the Overlord Tank with upgraded bunker.

And it looks like that's the all time I have for today! I don't think miss anything too important to cover here and if I do, I'll be adding it to this blog in the future. So stay tune for the next blog about the vehicle content update.

See you next year!