Steel Troopers image - Kane's Wrath Unofficial Big Bang Patch 1.04 mod for Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
Kane's Wrath Unofficial Big Bang Patch 1.04 is a mod that adds few new things and tries to balances the game a bit more from my and the community ideas while at the same time also tries to save the most import ingredient at bay: The "fun".
Steel Talon's Now have their own Zone troopers, Their name, Description, And picture, changed to Steel Troopers,
their cost and build time is 1200$ and 12s
Steel Troopers have Rail Machine Guns instead of Rail guns, they deal 45 Damage, have 6 clips, and take way less time to reload than normal Zone troopers,
They can attack Aircrafts and good mostly against Infantries and Light Vehicles But they can handle tier 2-3 Vehicles and Building once they are a lot in numbers
Steel Troopers have Bombardment jump-jets instead of normal jump-jets, letting them deal 1000 Damage to anything that they jump on or anything that in 50 radius of the land zone Include Structures
They don't hit allies so don't worry to try it next to your friend's home ;)
their Bombardment jump-jets are also a bit faster and can fly to a bit more distant than normal jump-jets
they can detect stealth in 400 range
I feel like that goes against the idea of steel talons' second tiberium war tech level. High-tech heavy hitters is more ZOCOM's thing.
Maybe something akin to a fast attack light armored jumpjet squad would be more appropriate?
Agree. A high cal AP hand cannon instead of anything to do with "rail" technology would make more sense. Such a unit is fine, as long as it uses "hard steel" weapons rather than "hi-tech".
To be fair, I feel Steel Talons could use rail guns of a sort, but I think an older model like that would probably be better relegated to a high-tier sniper, say an enlisted mutant Ghoststalker(As a commando replacement?), or a weapons platform bearing a striking resemblance to a Mammoth Mk. 2
To emphasize "hard steel", they are supposed to smash into enemies with their jumpjets to deal damage, right? In that case, I'd suggest to use a "dusty", "few spark", "no fire" effect instead of a fiery explosion.
If they happen to destroy a tank, for example, then of course, explosions will make sense.
Their jump jets show dusts each time they start a jump :p
the explosion they make is a small one (like the nod's fanatic)
bigger explosion will occur only when the tank is exploded
I know that they feel half-half when it come to ST, I wanted to make something that will back up ST's lack of infantries especially the lack of commando (and something that can fight back commandos) so I gave them a troopers that fight with hard steel, they don't really use anything that related to rail technology, I only called it that way since I didn't was able to change their rail gun 3D model to MG model (In other words the gun that they holding with their hands), they shooting AP ammos but they mostly good with numbers and weaker from other tier 3 infantries, so you can see them as older version of the Zone troopers
Hm... I still think it's a bit weird to have a fiery explosion when they are landing with nothing nearby.
Oh, but is it possible to explode only when they land near something? Like the specter's shell will only become "fiery" if detonated near buildings and vehicles.
Umm it may be possible, I need to see if I know how to do it xD
The fiery explosion kind of make sense to me since they jumping faster (you can hear and see that their jump jets make more noise and show some sort of dusty black leftovers on the ground when they jump, and their jumping animation is faster) and landing faster, plus they have legs that made from better steel (at least as back story)
Personally I wanted to add the Unmasked Zone troopers with the MG gun from TB world builder (see this Img4.wikia.nocookie.net )
but failed since KW SDK didn't let me to add it :0
So I made my own troopers :3
You have a point. How about using sparks instead of fire?
Umm I will think about it, I need to find sparks effect that will fit the impact, If I won't find one then I will stay with the fire
I'd say this is now a full-fledged mod instead of a patch.
Why? :o because I added the troopers to ST which don't suppose to have strong inf? :o
I want to leave each army unique but at the same time to let each army a fair chance to fight without the fear that it lack something that will give it game over (same with BH lacking airs and can't touch scrin MCV)
the Steels are weak without numbers unlike the original troopers
The main point was to let ST to have something against commando in their inf troops
But that's literally the definition distinguishing patch and mod.
"Mod: Alteration to the current game files/rulesets to enchance an aspect or multiple aspects of gameplay.
Patch: Fixes broken things/enhances aspects which were meant to be congruent all along."
Steel Talons were meant to depend on their low tier Wolverines for infantry duty, the only difference is that they come out of a war factory. When they finally do, enemy infantry is an afterthought. The engineer has a pretty powerful handgun and armor buff to make up for potential lack of other infantry escorts in the early game, and to give them a leg up on enemy engineers who may be making a run for the same building/husk. Mind you, at the early stages of the game, their infantry has not yet been outclassed. By that point, the Wolverine is in production, ideally. In the final tier, their juggernauts have garrisons, guaranteeing that the infantry don't die until the unit they're supporting does, and rendering enemy anti-infantry somewhat pointless. Finally, as with all GDI, the Steel Talons still have air supremacy compared to Nod, a fact that hits home when just 6 hammerheads laden with rocket troopers and snipers swoops in to clean out the opposition.
That being said, I'm not averse to new features being added, but that's when it stops being a patch and becomes a mod. With the idea of rebalancing factions and maintaining the unique feel of each one, there is plenty of room for improvement that doesn't require smoothing out the edges, so to speak, by adding a third type of an already existent unit that just has amped up versions of the original's abilities and weapons.
I need to break this into more parts.
From a lore standpoint, the wolverine is a unit which later became the Zone Trooper's power armor and was phased out in the updated GDI arsenal. In this time, GDI stopped using a far more powerful infantry portable railgun as it had a much longer re-fire rate and produced a great deal of radiation, and as such could only be safely wielded by Forgotten Ghost Stalkers who went into self-imposed exile with the death of Tratos. But maybe the battle hardened veterans of the Steel Talons still have friends and debts within the ranks of the Forgotten. Enter, the new and improved Ghost Stalker. The precise and deadly railgun provides a powerful anti-material sniper unit to the Steel Talon's infantry ranks, the Ghost Stalker is a master survivalist, capable of cloaking and healing while basking in the glow of Tiberium. The Ghost Stalker is also a demolitions expert, but say instead of simply using the existing C4 on structures, he's able to plant tiberium based IEDs to be remote detonated.
But! You also want a fast attack infantry unit? GDI formely made use of JumpJet infantry. In Tiberian Sun these were actually slow and methodical units that relied heavily on an enemy's inability to target airborne foes, required far too much micro to manage effectively when not in massive swarms and were a poor choice for even a lightly defended base assault.
Allow me to reintroduce GDI's hallmark flyboys: Each squad contains 4 infantry equipped with a winged flight harness and jetpack. This allows them to toggle between airborne and ground states much like Shadow Team. The flight harness has an exo-skeletal rig for the arms, allowing the troopers to carry weaponry once relegated to smaller gunships. In order to maintain stability in flight, the weapons can only be fired in quick bursts, but can go full auto when the infantry are on the ground and stationary. Due to their clunky rigs, entering structures or vehicles for garrison is not possible. To be able to facilitate maximum effect and speed, these troopers have poor armor but can launch chaff(Upgrade?) to temporarily distract enemy AA.
Either or both of these changes would maintain Steel Talons' low tech/shock and awe feel without inserting yet another set of Zone Troopers that perform identically to the others, there's yet more possibilities, and these are just examples of what you could do.
The Black Hand's lack of aircraft was made up for with their Mantis drone, albeit somewhat poorly, as each other factions' AA units are superior for their cost and statistical effectiveness. The Mantis also goes against the Black Hand's fanatical hatred for autonomous systems which makes it ripe for replacement, but a simple re-balance would do. Cutting the cost appropriately would make it a viable offensive asset against Scrin while preventing it from dominating the AA market.
I may as well offer two possibilities for each faction mentioned, so here's my second for the Black Hand. Give them a deprecated heli-pad with one slot and the ability to build some transitional phase between the Harpy and the Venom. Have it require refueling/rearming, but it could be armed to the teeth. 6 AT missiles(3 salvos), 4 AA/Defensive(2 salvos), and an HMG(No ammo limit?) for light armor and air.
Upgrades include Charged Particle Beams and Tiberium Core Missiles.
Sorry for the delay
I don't think that I can make these units though they sound cool.
From what I recall ST are the leftovers from the old GDI army + a bit of stuff from the current GDI army, which make them the new sub faction the Steel talons, that also explain why you can see older versions of titan's debris on some maps of the game, since they from the old GDI army and not the new sub-faction that have newer versions of the Wolverine and the Titans
The steel troopers can also be seen as prototype test unit of what to be call in the future the "Zone troopers" (I don't mind to re-voice them so they will say the "prototype" part)
As the why I think that ST need good anti inf unit that come from the barracks: it quite simple, I want to let people more chances to strike back at most situations, think about this situation, commando is in it way to your base and your war factory (and maybe even MCV) had been destroyed, you can try to get inf to attack it but most chances are they they will be wipe out (if it nod stealth commando they most likely don't have a chance now that she always stealth) some players will call it game over, some may still have a chances to win but have a commando that may wipe them out without a lot of ways to deal against it, that exactly where the Steels come in and where my changes came to help, making / editing balance force you to think on every situation and what the player can do to deal with it, that also why I added airs to the BH while being aware that it will ruin their uniqueness a bit since mantis can't swim nor fly (which end up for some players including myself as game over when we were ageist scrin opponent that run with his MCV into the water)
change the mantis cost may be good idea and I can even add some voice to it (from C&C4; let say? or myself) so it would make sense for BH
adding this new deprecated heli-pad sound cool but as long as I don't have other plane model (let say the venom from C&C4; for example since it have missiles) with ready xml (for it animations... though I probably can take the current C&C3; venom animations) then I can't do it :0
I do most stuff in the mod alone and don't have knowledge to mess with the 3D models and no one really have time to help me...
I personally think that you should see the Steels first before disapprove of them, in worst cases I can just add them as Easter egg to some random World builder building that can train them so that my work won't go to waste ;)
That name! ROCKS!