Tiberium Dusk is a re-imagining of the Kane's Wrath universe in a way I feel better fits canon, as EA did a pretty poor job with the C&C franchise continuity from Tiberium Wars onwards. This mod doesn't change anything with regards to the story but helps add elements to the gameplay that "fill the gaps" and provide a more Tiberian Sun esque experience (including all its flaws and unbalances) and departs away from the Kane's Wrath RTS formula. Still a work in progress, I've made changes to the AI (buffed turtle AI and made brutals harder), made changes to "Militant Squads" which make them work with the timeline of the franchise, changed the "Nod" faction entirely with a new name, as Kane's Wrath "Nod" works more of a splinter faction rather than a true "Brotherhood"; with Marked of Kane being the new face of the faction. There are also numerous changes to GDI and Scrin, especially Reaper 17 and Steel Talons, which make them play significantly differently.
Thanks to the Infantry Sergeant being fully modelled this squad type is now complete and is the first of the new "fireteam" squads coming to ZOCOM.
This is essentially a 4 man rifle squad with a Sergeant Leader (pictured with Tiberium Suits above) with a unique unlockable special ability, Flashbang Grenades.
Flashbang grenades are a special type of grenade that damages, stuns, blinds and immobilises enemy infantry for 12 seconds in a small radius.
The Sergeant of the squad fires off a single flashbang when the ability is used, which can allow the squad to easily defeat any kind of infantry (excluding cyborgs) they come across in a 1v1, the downside is a flashbang can only be fired every 15 seconds, they can be inaccurate and are hard to micro and aim / time it correctly.
Overall flashbangs make ZOCOM rifle squads highly effective at combatting enemy infantry, and will be purchasable in an upgrade costing $1500 credits from the barracks.
Sergeant will also provide minor passive bonuses to the squad but these await to be seen.
Nice! Really looking forward to the new fireteam mechanic. Flashbangs remind of rangers from C&C Generals which can also clear buildings..... I'm guessing disk throwers/grenadiers are still present and fill the role of building clearing?
Yup. Grenadiers aren't going away. ^^
The Flashbangs are inspired by Generals but not identical, they can't clear buildings for example and they do modest damage to infantry (rather than instant-killing like generals).
However, they introduce a "blind" mechanic where the infantry affected are completely blinded, losing around 95% of their sight / vision range. This means the fog of war quickly surrounds them. They also can't fire their guns or move.
This makes flashbangs an effective immobiliser, almost like an anti-infantry EMP but more deadly.
The downside to the flashbang is that they have to be manually aimed by the commander, which means quite a bit of micro and prediction is required to get an accurate hit on a moving target. :P
I'm currently working on a tonne of unique squad mechanics for the squad-confirmed factions, which hopefully should spice the game up a lot for those who like squads and don't want to see them go. ^^
Can't wait to show some of them. xP