Strengths;
- They have the most powerful air units in game which can quickly travel in a straight line to an enemy base and decimate it.
- They can repair in tiberium.
- Portal technology allows them to move around the map quicker than any other faction, and the actual speed on the ground makes them the quickest faction which helps them react to situations and also evade if necessary.
- They have less power requirements than other factions
- They have better tiberium storage capabilities than other factions
- Their buildings slowly self repair
Weaknesses;
- Their ground units are weaker one to one than other factions overall.
- They are probably the weakest when it comes to detecting stealth.
Features;
- All ground units heal/repair in tiberium
- Scrin aren't good at detecting stealth. Stealth detection is removed from PAC's.
- PAC's and Devastators are matched in speed.
- New defense: Mind control crystal.
- Scrin buildings are the only ones that auto repair due to their organic nature, but these structures are weaker overall than other factions..
- Scrin uses less power due to their advanced organic structures.
- Tripods can now charge their weapons with tiberium infusion.
- Conyards (drone ships) by default have an ion storm.
- New special power: Ion storm
- New special power: Portal Tunnel - build more than one, then transport up to 3 infantry units instantly between nodes.
- Buzzers can couple with harvesters
- Seeker and devourer tanks receive shield upgrade as well.
- Seekers no longer detect stealth or target air units
- Storm columns no longer target air units
- Gunwalkers detect stealth
- Disintegrators explode when run over
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Added in 1.1;
- PAC's drones no longer target anything but air units, but their damage is increased
- Mastermind has a weapon and is tougher.
- Growth Accelerators are more effective but more expensive.
- Ground units are now weaker, faster and heal quicker in tiberium
- Units now upgrade with shields etc. on a per unit basis using their unit menu.
- Storm Columns are now more effective against Mammoths, Avatars and Tripods and much more effective against tier 1 and tier 2 units.
- Photon Cannons are less effective against Mammoths, Avatars and Tripods
- Buzzer hives are more effective against infantry but less effective against ground vehicles
The Mothership;
- Has a shield upgrade option
- Has an orbit jump ability
- Has a super-scan ability
- Spots for devastators so that they can bombard from long range
- Has repair drones
- No longer has a weapon
- Can detect stealth
- Has much more hitpoints
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1.2 UPDATE
SCRIN
Scrin have always been the biggest challenge for us. We believe that the Scrin in the standard game are far too over-powered. Build some Devastators and you basically travel in a straight line to an enemy base and it’s game over, especially when defenses wilt at the sight of an enemy.
We made changes to Scrin so that their ground units were weaker but quicker and repaired in tiberium, and that helped balance them, but the Devastators were still a problem even with better defenses in the mod. Also, because their air units were so effective it meant that their ground units were often over-looked. So the challenge was to somehow balance Devastators in the game and bring Scrin ground units into the game more.
There’s nothing you can really do to the Devastators directly otherwise it is just a simple nerf. Reduce their range, weapon damage or hitpoints and the unit just becomes boring or useless. It occurred to us that we should make changes so that Scrin couldn’t build devastators as quickly, therefore reinforcing them a faction who has a very strong late game but requiring more time to get there. This would encourage the use of ground units more mid-game. But how could we best achieve this? The answer was staring us right in the face for the longest time. Their buildings are organic and therefore they need time to grow rather than snap together quickly like an Ikea bookshelf. So we made the build times reflect this and Scrin in 1.2 take a lot longer to build (well we really should be saying “grow”) structures.
When we looked closely at the Scrin structures we also realized that if their unit production structures were portal based, then surely they shouldn’t have to wait for units to build in the same way that GDI and Nod build units. So units will become available to the Scrin player almost instantly if they have the funds. This seemed like a good way to offset the slower structure grow times.
The jewel in the crown for Scrin in 1.2 is the Terranexus which is a new structure that gives them terraforming abilities. They can create new tiberium fields, drastically increase the tiberium growth rate in existing ones with an improved growth accelerator, or stop tiberium growth completely in a field being harvested by an enemy. This gives Scrin a huge boost to their economy which will help them fund their air armada but it will be a slow process to get the Terranexus built.
Here’s a quick overview of Scrin’s strengths and weaknesses in 1.2;
Disadvantages;
- Organic units are weaker than their metal counterparts
- Structures take longer to grow.
- Structures are slightly weaker than other factions.
Advantages;
- Less power requirements
- Buzzer hives no longer require any power
- Instant unit production
- Fastest units in the game
- Tiberium healing / repairing
- Structures auto heal
- Air dominant thanks to the PAC’s
- The most effective faction for long range bombardment thanks to the Devastators
- More tiberium storage
- Tiberium field creation, new growth accelerators and growth decelerators will allow Scrin to have the strongest late game economy.
Other new items coming to Scrin in 1.2;
- Storm Columns can upgrade and receive mind control ability
- Defensive structures made available earlier for scrin
- The Terranexus
- Improved PAC’s AA abilities
Scrin are now a great faction to play as but you have to adjust how you play to be effective with them. You have to think defensively in the early game while you slowly build your base, using your foundry to full advantage.
No doubt some will see this as nerfing the Scrin but we’re trying to create a mod where each faction is different and fun in its own way yet balanced overall. Hopefully this means that at the start of a game players are really torn as to which faction they want to play as. Scrin will actually be a much more challenging faction to play as instead of being what up to now has been arguably the easiest faction, but with that challenge comes a guilt free victory if you win!
The Scrin can now be decimated on the battlefield wich is a good idea since they could dominate the battlefield once they were at the last tier before, good job guys :)
Yeah, Scrin has been overpowered for a long time.
Nows the chance to fight back
Scrin is now the weakest.
-seekers cant attack air(wtf) or detect stealth? I rather seekers detect stealth then gunwalkers
-storm columns no longer target air, then their not worth $3000
-If tripods dont have emp they shouldn't cost $3000 either
Just some healthy critisism, plz dont think im an a55
>.>
LOL no I don't think anyone's an "a55" for giving us their opinion! Thanks for doing so.
If you're a scrin player you may not like some of the changes, but we felt that Scrin were massively overpowered in the standard game and all they really had to do was build a few Devastators and PAC's and then send the aerial juggernaut towards the nearest enemy base which would then inevitably be demolished. Air defenses being boosted has helped balance that out a lot as well as giving GDI more AA effectiveness with the changes made to the firehawks (before the firehawks were about as useful as throwing a pie to stop a wrecking ball).
Tripods have shields and are the quickest tier 3 unit in the game and also have the ability to infuse tiberium and have buzzers attach. That's quite a lot of bang for your $3000! Making them cheaper than other tier equivalents will create an imbalance.
Seekers can longer attack air units because it was one of the fundamental changes we wanted to make to the mod, which is to make tanks operate as tanks not do-all units and in doing so we would bring the other units into the game more. The other factions received the same changes with stealth tanks and mammoths no longer able to fire at air units. We've tested the mod extensively with these changes in place and found that you do have to make more types of units, but that when you do so you aren't handicapped at all, and in our opinion the gameplay is deeper as a result.
(CONT)...
We removed the storm column air attack because it negated the need to build AA defenses and was an unfair defensive advantage. The cost of storm columns is matched to the other factions tier 3 defenses so dropping their price would mean a drop in all factions prices for tier 3 defenses which wouldn't achieve much. However the tier 3 defense question is valid in that if you pay that much more than the standard defenses then you should get substantially more and we will be reviewing tier 3 defenses. Nod of course can drop mines using their tier 3 defenses so they're already there for the most part.
Overall as far as Scrin being the weakest goes, well the bad news (well bad if you liked the Scrin in the standard game)is that the modding team still believes they are overpowered, and there will be further changes to Scrin to help balance them. We aim to make their ground units even more reliant on tiberium by receiving greater bonuses when engaging enemies when they're in tiberium, but then they're noticeably weaker when they're not near it. The criticism of regular CNC3 is that you can "select all" and then put them on aggressive stance and then click on an enemy base and it's game over. Scrin are still an army that can pull this off due to their massive airpower and we're hoping that we can make changes that make scrin players rely on that airpower still but the cost or downside to that will be ground units that you have to be more strategic with. It will also hopefully encourage more use of portal abilities, and therefore Scrin become not just another faction that looks different but you actually have to play differently with them.
hmm, the firehawks, i know that a squad of firehawks can take down planatary assualts like nothing, i think GDI can easily overpower Scrins aircraft with enough firehawks( the upgrade helps). for example, i remember in one game my opponet had 8 or so planetary assualts coming at my base, i already had 4 firehawks and because firehawks are fast i just picked the planetary assualts apart before they could reach my base especially since i ha teh strato.... upgrade. By teh time his army got to my base he han only two planetary assualts left and one of them was half dead, i wish i saved that replay.
On tripods still being 3000, the only thing different between these triods and teh standard tripods is tha instead of have a strong shield they get an attack bonus, by how much does the green tiberium increase the Tripods attack?
Against NOD though, venoms arent enough(depending on how many) but for that i used stealth tanks, but now i cant so i have to turtle my base with AA which is a pain. I still say that the range of AA is ridiculous, i agree it should be longer then that of anti-infantry and anti-tank defenses but really its excessive to me.
Firehawks in big groups are very effective, but you also got to remember you have to build multiple airfields to have a good effect group of them;
When using NOD you have to focus more on using the stealth capabilities then just rushing in with venom's and avatars; for one the venom's arent as good against buildings anymore, you have to rely on your ground support more when attacking a base, and use venom as cover against enemy ground infantry;
For scrin, there air is pretty strong, i would say stronger then GDI if you do is smart, i build 2 packs and 2 devastators and stomped a base, 1 pack vs. 4 firehawks will take out your firehawks cause the firehawks have to fly in and out to attack where as the packs to storm your firewaks with those like fighters that come off them.
One just needs to think more along Rock, Paper, Scissors, there is always a way to take something out. Ill admit, and it took me some time to adjust, but there is a lot more micro managing that you have to do and thats what i think make our mod great.
PAC's are very effective at attacking structures and ground units. They're not that strong against air units. It's again about not making one unit do everything. Therefore if you spam one unit and move it towards another base without having other units in support (like stormriders or gunwalkers) then yes the PAC's will be sitting ducks. And that's how we wanted the mod to work so it's more a tactical error if someone loses their PAC's because they don't support them than an imbalance with the mod.
Tripods still have the shield upgrade ability. I'll have to look up the tripod infusion bonus.
I'm not understanding the comments about NOD and why you have to turtle.
The range of the AA does seem a lot longer at first, but a lot of that is because the standard AA range was so short. I wasn't sure about the range myself at first but you get used to it and it then seems fine (especially when it's your AA!) and then you realise that you have to be careful with your air units and scout ahead with ground units or scanning abilities unless you want to take the risk of losing your air units by blindly sending them anywhere in the map.
As a follow up to this; we are looking at making PAC's primary purpose as AA units (in the 2.0 version). They will be much more effective against venoms and firehawks, but unable to target ground units except with their ion storm ability. It seemed that there was too little difference in the purpose of a PAC and Devastator so hopefully with this change, PAC's will have a better purpose in the game which will be to protect Devastators from enemy air units. A few stormriders will help take out enemy ground vehicles and infantry as well.
But stormriders aren't that effective against infantry and vehicles, are they?9
Perhaps with a bit of extra power to the Stormriders (especially against infantry), what you're talking about would work. I like the idea. :)
Stormriders are very good against ground vehicles. Not quite as good against infantry but if there's nothing else shooting at storm riders they'll take care of infantry.
Of all the air units they are probably the most powerful all around air unit. They can target anything by default, don't need to return to an airfield to reload, and can take some punishment.
Yeah, good point there. I did notice it more when playing earlier today =)
Still, I think overall most air units are pretty hopeless against infantry anyway (exception of the Venom). Of course, that's a big generalisation; but ultimately you do get your rock-paper-scissors that way =P
The Orca is pretty good against infantry with the mod because we gave it a chaingun. So it's similar to the venom in that respect.
Really? Oh, well I hadn't noticed... I'll bear it in mind when playing =D
i hope orca can shot air