It should be no news to regular readers that Paradox aims to add a bunch of new units to existing factions in addition to the 3 entirely new ones... but it may be less obvious that we're also doing some big changes to them that don't necessarily have to do with new mans to throw at your enemies.
...Of course, the Allies will have a bunch of new units like the Multigunner Copter (finally a gunship! hurray!), many of which are air-based, but there are also vehicles, infantry and naval units added to the mix.
The Experimental Tier
This has been mentioned in earlier Unit Spotlights, but not thoroughly explained. The current Allied tech tree works with "tier" upgrades at the HQ and expansion outposts, allowing you to go up to Tier 3, which allows for the purchase of such units as the Aircraft Carrier and Century Bomber... but the 3rd tier upgrade doesn't provide any new building options, so sometimes the commander puts it off indefinitely (the tier upgrade being about 5000 credits, and allowing access to only a handful of new units)
The "Experimental Tier" is not a new tier, per se; it is more of a sub-tier that includes high-cost, high-risk, high-power units. To access this sub-tier, you build the new Experimental Workshop or Airstrip buildings that become available in the 3rd tier. It is possible to build both, but either building is already hugely expensive to manage - the Workshop is about 3000 credits (more with upgrades - "Research Grants" - required to use certain units secondary abilities), and the Airstrip is about 1750 credits. The Airstrip, as well, can only house a single unit, so if you want to have more than one high-tech aircraft you will need to build more Airstrips.
Units built by the Experimental Workshop and Airstrip tend to be prohibitively expensive and very weakly armoured. However, it is not necessary to build EITHER to win a game! If the commander chooses to use Experimental units, they will probably lack the funds required to build very much else, but it will change their play style from the "all-around with air focus" of vanilla Allies to "low-defense, high offense, with air superiority." Almost all of the Experimental Tier units function like highly specific versions of Regular Tier counterparts. The Achilles Fighter, for example, has quad spectrum cannons and flies ludicrously fast, but is obscenely expensive and there are situations in which a squad of Apollos would work better.
The Experimental tier is not strictly necessary to utilize, but it's always nice to have the option, and it contains some units that your opponent will have to seriously focus on countering if they are to succeed.
Classic RA send-ups
A lot of people were upset that famous units from previous games were removed from RA3. Paradox is throwing in the Rocketeer almost exactly as it was in RA2, plus the Rifleman (functions as the British Snipers) and the Heavy Defender (deploys like the old Allied GIs).
Unit Tweaks
Not a gameplay element, but it should still be mentioned. There were some aspects of Red Alert 3 that we, the Mod Team, found to be less-than-ideal. Since we're changing the game ANYWAY, we decided that we may as well fix it to our liking.
-Defensive buildings are now far more resilient, and anti-defense units less effective. In the current game, there's no point really to build defenses because they are so expensive and can be killed in 2 shots anyway from the right units. In Paradox, it will be possible to "turtle" a little bit more - this is a change that will apply to all factions.
-Apollo superiority fighters just float there like idiots while happily getting shot in the face, assuming that they have a target. In Paradox, they will not stop to fire - they will continually move around their opponent in more of a dogfight style, because that seems to make more sense for an anti-aircraft unit to do when face with opposing forces. They will circle, somewhat like Vindicators do when they have no target.
-Speaking of Vindicators, their bomb loadouts now do more damage to vehicles and far less damage to buildings. They are precision bombers, not universal explosion machines, and this tweak should also prevent early-game base harassment by Allied players.
-Mirage Tanks will now serve as more of a support role. They will have longer range and increased damage, but weaker armour (kinda proto-experimental, now that I think about it) because we want the Guardian or Assault Destroyer to work more strongly as a main battle tank.
Announcements! For those of you looking forward to hearing about the Electrical Protectorate, there is now a thread in the Paradox forum (click the forum button up near the top, next to images and videos) where you can feel free to theorize and discuss to your greedy little hearts' content. We'll be putting up hints every so often, too.
As usual, this space is also used to mention that the first release of Paradox will focus on the Allied and Confederate forces. This is not because we hate the other teams - it is so that we can get the product out to you guys earlier for feedback and fixes, and it is those teams specifically because they were the first that we went over in the development process. No release date yet, and we won't have one until sometime after the SDK comes out.
i love what u did with the vindi
while playing japan the vindi could destroy a n AA turret with 2 shots