1.26 Marked of Kane and Black Hand showcase
- For Cyborg Reaper gameplay simply watch from the start of the video.
- For Black Hand Dragon Tank, Flame Obelisk, Devil's Tongue + more, skip to 6:04.
Hi everyone and thanks to all those who've been keeping track of my progress towards update 1.26, this is going to be a fairly short but descriptive article detailing some of the major changes that are in progress and which are completed starting with Marked of Kane and their Cyborg Reaper.
Cyborg Reaper
The new Cyborg Reaper is designed to be a direct recreation of its Tiberian Sun counterpart, albeit better in functionality by comparison (as the original whilst cool, was somewhat useless).
Overview:
The Reaper costs 1400 credits, has average movement speed and highly effective anti-cannon armor, making it strong versus anti-vehicle defence and vehicles. He is highly vulnerable to flame weaponry and semi-resistant to machinegun fire.
Primary Weaponry:
His main arnament is Dual Cluster Missile Launchers. These launchers fire a single missile each, which splits into two small missiles mid-flight, which then rain down on a wide area fairly inaccurately. The missiles do high cannon damage and have a decent splash radius, making them very effective versus buildings and reasonably effective vs tanks (providing you can hit them).
The missiles have a long flight time and also have a minimum range, so approaching close to the Reaper to fight him is a direct counter; as is moving around out of his fire zone. The reload time is considerable when you take into account that this is the Reaper's only means of damage.
Secondary Weaponry:
His secondary arnament is his anti-infantry trump card. The concussion blaster is a slow firing energy weapon that fires a blast which "blinds and stuns" enemy infantry and forces them into suppression within a sizable radius.
The effect of the "blast" slows infantry down, prevents their ability to see properly (their shroud removal radius and combat radius), affects their rate of fire and firing range for 25 seconds. It also forces them into suppression for said time period.
The concussion blast however does no physical damage to any infantry it affects and has a 7 second reload time.
Black Hand:
The black hand has had several changes as of recent, including C&C Renegade sound effects for the Fire Obelisk, the introduction of the Nalpalm spewing Devil's Tongue, and the reworked Scorpion: The Dragon tank.
Overview (Devil's Tongue):
The Devil's Tongue currently costs 1200 credits (subject to change), has worse movement speed compared to the regular Flame Tank and has better frontal armor, in exchange for a Rear Armor weakspot where the fuel barrels can be shot at. The Nalpalm Launchers are extremely potent weaponry that allow the DT to engage at longer ranges than the regular Flame Tank. The launchers leave devastating lingering flames that cause traumatic damage to infantry and buildings.
This tank does not benefit from purifying flame (it would simply be too powerful with such an upgrade).
Overview (Dragon Tank):
The Dragon Tank currently costs 900 credits (also subject to change), has the same manueverability as before; but is equipped with a powerful flamethrower that it can use to degarrison buildings, raze infantry and destroy structures.
The Dragon Tank has a normal cannon like other Scorpion tanks as its sidearm, but this can be upgraded with Charged Particle Beams, which offers a reload buff and slightly higher damage (though less damage than both supercharged and laser beams). The Dragon Tank has the fastest firing gun of all of Nod's primary tanks when upgraded.
Upcoming changes and minor stuff:
- The AI of the game is being allocated a seperate fork to the mod, I aim to work on a seperate "smart AI" to work alongside the mod as a seperate component (like how the music works in modules), you will be able to turn off this AI and revert to default Kane's Wrath AI as you see fit. This update will probably take quite some time to complete.
- The Stinger Site is still being worked on as a defence for Nod Legion. This will work as a universal base defence when completed.
- Black Hand Shredder Turrets have been removed.
- The Tiberium Fiend rate of fire has been increased.
- ZOCOM missile squads have been removed and replaced with Zone Raiders. Zone Troopers have returned to ZOCOM and will function differently for them.
- Various ZOCOM oriented changes are planned, including reintroduction of Mammoth Tanks and various other vehicles in unique forms. This will likely be seen in following progress updates.
- GDI to be seeing changes too, to make them function as a more "traditional" military faction; this is as above, and will be worked on periodically.
- Scrin and its subfactions have some changes planned, but these are far down the pipeline as I'd like to get AI support for Mutants working first. (such as use of the Mutant Hovel and various units)
- Some base graphical changes I'd like to make (mostly base shaders) though I'm not sure about how to go about this yet, but i'd like the game to have a more gritty but otherworldly look whilst running this mod.
Thanks for reading. :)
