Remix Escalation: Research General In-Depth feature

A brief history of Remix Escalation and how "Laser General" became "Research General".
In April 2005 I started building my first version of "Contra:Remix", the early ancestor of Remix Escalation. At that time the laser general still closely resembled his Vanilla version with only a few new units to set himself apart. As the mod grew the nature of Laser general's sci-fi weapons helped inspire a wide range of new weapons and effects, so many that he had grown unreasonable.

In May 2007 Remix was on it's second version (Contra:Remix2) and had grown so much that it hardly resembled it's Contra origin. I chose to re-brand the mod as Remix3 and planned a set of sweeping changes to the game play that would further distinguish it from it's predecessor. It was at this point I added the Escalation system and extra tier of tech centers. This is also when I chose to try something completely new and branch a single general into diverging tech trees. Given his surplus of units Laser General was chosen for this and his tech trees were born. He quickly became the most popular general in the mod, and I saw that tech tree driven generals was the path ahead.

Over the next 3 years I completely rebuilt every faction, some more than once, and half of them received some kind of diverging tech tree. Over that time I learned just how far I could take the tech tree concept and new I could do so much more with it than I had in my first attempt. So, I planned to revisit Laser General when all 12 factions been completed.

In June 2010 Remix reached that point and I declared it in the Beta stage. I renamed the mod "Remix Escalation" and brought it to ModDB. After that release I began working on Laser General's new style. When it was all done lasers were just a small part of what he was about, so a new name was in order. Looking at his new play style I chose the name "Research General". And now here we are, July 2011 and he is finally released the way I had always hoped to make him.

Research General play style overview.
As the name implies, you'll be doing a lot of time and money investing in your technology. Research General starts the game with a very limited set of units and weaker than average weapons. Once you build your Physics Lab you can purchase one new tech tree for each Escalation Level. These tech trees will upgrade existing units, unlock new units, base defenses, and superweapons, as well as give access to new general's powers and superweapons.

The tech trees you choose will have an resounding impact on how you play Research General. Each tree is designed to engage a specific enemy type, or to enable a certain play style. He can become a general focused on fast skirmishing tactics or bunker down and siege. This makes him the most flexible general available if you are patient enough to reach his upper tech levels.

Research General's Tech Trees.
Only one tech may be chosen at each escalation level, to a maximum of three. A Rank1 tech allows "Prototype fielding" to substitute one Escalation level of requirements to purchase one level sooner. A Rank5 general's power allows the purchase of a fourth tech during Global Escalation. Your first Tech tree will cost 2000 resources, every additional research will double in cost.

Starting Tech:
Research General starts with light vehicles and conventional weapons. Machine guns, cannons, missiles and classic(red) lasers make up the bulk of his units and defenses.

Starting units include:

-Infantry-
Rangers
Laser Defenders

-Light Units-
Radar Van
Machine gun buggy for Anti-Infantry
Laser Buggy for Anti-Tank
Seeker Missile buggy for Artillery support and early game AA
Laser Avenger for mid-game AA

-Tanks-
"Isis" Battle Tank, a standard Anti-Armor Tank. A Rocket Pod upgrade is available mid-game.

"Anubis" Close Assault Tank, a heavy tank with twin heavy rocket Pods

"Osiris" Main Battle Tank, a heavy tank with long range and good firepower vs enemy tanks.

-Aircraft-
Laser Raptor for multi-role air combat
Laser Comanche for Anti-Tank support

Pulse Lasers:

One of the first tech's available to you, this will upgrade all of the classic lasers into streaming pulse lasers capable of significantly more damage over time. This tech requires only the Physics Lab, and can be purchased before Tactical Escalation if the player has researched "Prototype Fielding".

Upgrades all laser weapons with pulse lasers, and replaces the Osiris missile pods with a Pulse Laser.

Unlocks the "Mithral" AA tank. While it offers string AA coverage it excels at shooting down enemy missiles.

Unlocks the Rank 3 General's power Satellite Laser Strike. This power has 3 levels, each adding additional beams to sweeping laser strike. The 3rd level has 6 beams moving in crisscrossing formations.

Weaponized Microwaves:

Another of the first techs available, this one excels at killing infantry in hordes. Wide-Beam Microwave weapons can shut down enemy structures while focused beams can immolate enemy infantry almost instantly. This tech requires only the Physics Lab, and can be purchased before Tactical Escalation if the player has researched "Prototype Fielding".

Replaces one Anubis Rocket pod with a wide-area Heavy Microwave Emitter capable of killing vehicle crews and whole teams of infantry.

Unlocks the Microwave Defense, Microwave Tank, and Microwave Plane. All are remarkable at killing infantry quickly, while the tank can also shutdown buildings.

Unlocks the Rank5 General's Power Satellite Microwave Strike. This power calls a wide area effect beam that burns all targets in it's area. Lethal vs infantry and most vehicles, it is moderately effective vs buildings.

Gravity Manipulation:

This is the first tech focused on wide scale upgrades of your army rather than unlocking new units. "Gravity Sleds" offers superb maneuverability to ground units. This tech Requires Tactical Escalation.

Replaces the wheels and treads of buggies, tanks, and heavy tanks with "Gravity Sleds". These allow units to skim above the ground. They are faster, can scale cliffs, and cross rivers with ease. They also allow the vehicle to avoid some area effect damage from ground contamination such as radiation.

Unlocks the "Wormhole Device" superweapon, one of the strongest superweapons in the game. It creates a "gravity storm" in the target area, tossing enemy units into the sky and shutting down nearby buildings. When the storm is complete it collapses into a stable and selectable wormhole tunnel. Any units loaded into the Wormhole device can be unloaded from the wormhole into the target area.

Unlocks the Rank3 General's Power "Gravity Displacement". It allows Research General's "Isis" tank to teleport to a target location. The teleport has unlimited range, but has a long cool down time.

Satellite Uplink and Relay:

This is the second tech focused on upgrades, though it does have some units of it's own. Early Satellite units and abilities are focused on observation, though later it focuses on attacks from above.

Upgrades the Laser Raptor with Stealth detection. Upgrades the Radar Van with extreme extended range vision.

Unlocks the Scout buggy, a stealthed recon unit, and unlocks the "Sky Eyes" Satellite Caller, an extreme range siege unit. It also unlocks the Satellite Relay superweapon. The Relay fires a barrage of satellite strikes on the target area. It also is home to a mini-tech-tree upgrade for satellite weapons. Satellite weapons can be upgraded to track moving targets, extend the range of attacks, or fire an EMP burst.

Immediately upon purchase Satellite tech will grant the Spy Satellite ability. It also unlocks a 4 Level set of upgrades for your Spy Satellite. At Rank1 the Spy Satellite can be given extended Duration, view area, and Stealth detection. Starting at Rank3 3 additional levels can be spent to add attacks of opportunity, allowing the Spy Satellite to target enemy units for satellite strikes, as well as further add to it's duration and viewing area.

Particle Flow:

An Aggressive tech focused on long range direct fire damage, highly effective vs tanks. This tech Requires Strategic Escalation, but can be purchased at Tactical Escalation if the player has "Prototype Fielding".

Replaces the main guns of the Osiris tank with a Particle "Penetrator" gun.

Unlocks the Particle "Penetrator" tank, and Particle "Penetrator" Base defense. Both are strong vs tanks at long range.

Unlocks the Particle Cannon superweapon. Research General's particle cannon has a 50% longer duration than the "Vanilla" Particle Cannon.

Unlocks the Rank3 General's power "Particle Streaming". This power unlocks the "Particle Annihilator" Tank and base defense. Both are strong vs all ground units at long range.

Plasma Containment:

Another Aggressive tech, this one focused on close range, rapid fire, area effect damage, effective vs all ground targets. This tech Requires Strategic Escalation, but can be purchased at Tactical Escalation if the player has "Prototype Fielding".

Replaces one Anubis Rocket pod with a Plasma Cannon. While short range the raw damage of the Plasma cannon is superb.

Unlocks the Plasma tank and Heavy plasma defense, both are strong vs all ground units at close range.

Unlocks the Plasma Reactor. While extraordinarily expensive to build, the plasma reactor provides nearly unlimited power. *A bug was reported today that the description says 100 power. This is incorrect, it provides 1,000,000 power.

Unlocks the Rank3 General's power "Plasma Barrage". This power has 3 levels, each firing an increasing number of plasma bolts to the target location. Similar to a Chinese artillery barrage, this power is effective vs buildings and units.

Ion Projection:

The first Top tier "super tech". Ion cannons are effective at long range vs all ground targets with a large area of effect. This tech Requires Global Escalation, and cannot be purchased sooner.

Unlocks the Ion Heavy Tanks and Ion Heavy Base Defense. Both are powerful at long range vs single and grouped ground targets of any type. The Ion Tank can be overcharged to deliver massive damage.

Unlocks the Ion Cannon Superweapon. Fires a devastating bolt of Ions to the target location with high damage. Can be overcharged to deliver extreme damage, however an overcharged Ion cannon will consume an extraordinary amount of energy while firing and is likely to shutdown your entire base for a short duration.

Unlocks the Rank3 General's power "Ion Overcharging". Allows Ion Tans and the Ion cannon to overcharge when firing. Overcharged Ion Weapons will momentarily shutdown after firing, damage themselves, and surrounding allies but deliver an order of magnitude more damage.

Shield Projectors:

The second Top tier "super tech". Shields offer the best possible protection from enemy fire making both defensive lines and offensive forces all but immune to missiles and shells. This tech Requires Global Escalation, and cannot be purchased sooner.

Upgrades Heavy tanks with forward shields to protect them from incoming shells and missiles.
Heavy tank shields offer 40 degrees of protection, and can be upgraded to offer 80 degrees of protection.

Unlocks the shield Generator base defense. This defense creates a protective bubble that protects anything within it from shells and missiles.

Unlocks the Rank5 General's power "Hyper extended Shields" , allowing forward tank shields to be upgraded for 120 degrees of forward protection.