Duck and Cover news - MidEast Crisis 2 mod for C&C3: Tiberium Wars

Another month, another news post. This one is hugee. First up, for detailed info on MEC2's progress you can check out this month's worklist topic on the Isotx forums - they're outlining their progress there and letting everyone know what's up with MEC2!

Next up, an explanation. The MEC2 team has two levels of updates -"A levels" and "B levels." "A level" updates have screens like our announcement, the augmented reality post and the mig update. In an ideal world, all of our updates would be of that quality, but that's just not practical. So to fill in the gaps, we release "B level updates" like the previous two ones.

This update is definitely an "A level" update. We show off a new map, a new IDF unit, a new tech vehicle and some of our new particlefx.

PestilenceThis is our new 8-player map "Pestilence." Does it look familiar? Well, it's a partial remake of the Generals favorite "Twilight Flame" and is our most turtle-friendly map. The main difference between this map and our others is that each starting location has 2 occupation points and 2 fuel trucks in it. This means that without stepping outside of your base, you already have the bulk of the income and fuel you'd need.

The Nethia Research Vehicle a new tech vehicle, used only on this map. Once captured it serves two purposes, first it'll reduce the cooldown on all of your special abilities (letting you use them more often) and second, the vehicle can clean up the irradiated areas (but will drain your fuel reserves while cleaning up). It is recommended you keep them safe from harm, since if destroyed these vehicles will temporarily irradiate their surroundings.

The center of the map is intense. It's littered with many capturable objects; cars, wireless towers, oil derricks, and 2 Nethia Research Vehicles. The catch is that between your base and the center of the map are pockets of heavy radiation; heavy radiation will kill your units if they stay in the area long. Inside each of the radiation pockets are 2 occupation points, offering some incentive to clean the radiation up.

This screen is of one of the map corners and contains a small memorial for those who died in the accident. It also shows some of our newly completed icons as well as the new particle effect for the Katyusha. You can see the old, temporary effect here.

IDF Gehenna

The IDF Gehenna is a costly, slow moving but very powerful cruise missile artillery unit. Its nuclear warheads not only leave heavy damage in their wake, but also temporarily irradiate the nearby area. Lately, IDF commanders have started using AWACS to spot for the Gehenna. If you're fighting the IDF, while you are safe to ignore the AWACS early on; late game, an AWACS hovering above your base could mean you'll be getting nuked, multiple times, very soon.

There are news vans, placed in each corner of the map which the IDF can capture. Additionally, IDF players can attach called-in camera drones to their APC's, for some extra income generation while near enemy units. The more enemy units the camera drone is near, the more money it makes.

The old exhaust fx just wouldn't do for the MiG. The new fx is far more suiting. Keep in mind that the absurdly large exhaust shown is the speed upgraded MiG, normally its exhaust much smaller.

Reminder: MEC2 is not a modern warfare mod, nor is it a realism mod.

That's it for the current update, we do have more new stuff to show prior to release - however this is a huge update, and probably one of the last big ones pre-launch!