Tiberium Essence 1.52 image

Excellent. With those fancy spikes on the sides and on the back it will look more aggressive.

Was the Montauk ever a drilling unit? I know for a fact it moved on underground rails, but making its own tunnels?

i don't think it could make tunnels it only traveled through nods global tunnel system

This is exactly how I felt about this topic before. In the vids in TS, there was no indication that the Montauk drilled its own tunnels, it merely traveled in them. Sure it had spikes on the sides, but that wasn't anything substantial to validate that it could drill its own tunnels (whereas the Devil's Tongue and APC could).

But, if Carnius were comfortable with it, I think it could work to have "drilling" capabilities for the new Montauk. As a possible explanation, it could at least "dig" to a pre-existing tunnel, use that tunnel to cover distance, then "dig" back up at the end. Valherran mentioned the concept of a vehicle from the movie "The Core" - this idea was essentially what I was thinking too. My suggestion was similar: a single, thick, high-powered laser beam shoots from the front "mouth" of the Montauk. This large laser, working together with the animated spikes, assists the unit with drilling under ground, so that way it doesn't need a bulky drill. It'll have a constant rate of fire (like the Basallisk) to help push it along; this same laser could possibly be used as a weapon on ground too.

If the Kodiak keeps its Stratosphere ability (which I really hope it does), then I'd have no problem with this large unit traversing underground, just as long as it appears "believable" to our eyes with the animations - This idea is up to Carnius :)

well gdi tech improved from tiberium sun adding defense capabilitiesto their flying command centre, the kodiak, so we can suppose that nod has improved his command centre too by adding weapons/drilling ability.

Even in C&C 4, Nod relied on drilling instruments to move their command centers as opposed to outfitting the mobile command centers with drilling apparatus themselves.

I mean, sure we all like to pretend C&C 4 doesn't exist, but it happened, and it kind of makes sense not to have one of your most important units go trailblazing and only use pre-installed infrastructure.

Tiberium Essence builds on the original Westwood canon. Everything after C&C3s main campaign is not considered canon.

Personally I am to keep things as simple as possible.

I have nothing against the laser drill but it remembers me a bit the giant laser drill in a Starcraft2 mission, plus there are 2 things to consider:
1)It seems a laer drill would drain a lot of energy to be used.
2)once used, the ground will be forever "melted" and "vaporized" instead of be like before (a simple drill or scalpel doesn't melt the ground), and this may be problematic for coding.

Animated scalpels shouldn't be problematic in this way.

A laser drill could be the answer for sub terrain. just a large laser equipped in the mouth of the beast. (I always thought that was already there)
A laser drill does not dig a tunnel, it melts it's way trough the ground. that goes way faster and the tunnel is also more stable.

At this time we already try to create such a drill. but the technology is holding us back for a little.

Indeed, it melts, and this is the main problem in my opinion.

Melted ground cannot come back like it was before, the map will be full of holes (if codes will allow it) and they may be problematic.

Obviously you couldn't have holes everywhere for practical reasons.

As long as the burrow and unburrow animations look good (probably showing the tunnel collapsing behind it) and don't make the player go "What? I thought it had a laser, not a drill!" then I have no problem with it digging its own tunnels.

no dude, think, its like a worm, when it digs the mough opens up to reveal grinders and stuff so the earth passes through the center instead of ugly outward drills

I have the confirm from your answers. In my opinion the scalpels (and spikes) are more realistic since they only move the ground instead of melting it.

yes, lasers are only for the hardest rocks and not used all the time, spikes are used to travel through the earth like peristalsis moving the Montauk forward. I dont think it needs any exterior drill or tunneling mechanism except for its "spikes and scalpels" upgrade. With these in place it will look nicely similar to the Firestorm era Montauk.

Well said. That's exactly what I have been thinking too. I am sure these 3 (frontal laser(s) and scalpels, and side spikes) all working together will help convince us that even a large Montauk can travel through any type of terrain.

Like Fr0styN1nja said, it has worm like resemblances, in particular the sand worms from Dune. We could have the spikes/scalpels extend out from its body and the "Mouth" of it to open so some insane drilling mechanism extends outward from the body as it burrows. These will be hidden on land and it will retain its original look.

@ Fr0styN1nja & @ FortressMaximus
Then they have to be inside the mouth right?
otherwise I'm not gonna see this working.

Inside? I don't know. In my opinion those 3 frontal "tips" can be used as moving scalpels. More or less like a crab's claw. Plus vibrating spikes in the sides and in the back may help to crumble the ground when is underground.

let me guess, with the ability to crush light tanks/small units?

It may be a good option even if it doesn't seem that necessary at the moment.

You could simply have it move the spikes and have the montauk vibrate cos if you have something vibrate at the right frequency it will break the rock under it and in front then you need only to animate the spikes on the side when it burrows. yes the zerg use the same type of thing but they use lots of tiny muscles which break the earth below them.

Sry for any mistakes

I wouldn't get too creative with the Montauk, or this could be a total OP unit.

no but kodiak has mini ion cannon

No and no. Leave these abilities to the Phantom.

maybe, but then it wouldnt be a very effective unit, maybe make the creation time longer? Or otherwise it'll turn into a less useful mutant barracks.

It still have 6 AG lasers and a AA heavy laser, I think it's enough to call it "Effective Support Unit".

Deploying Tier 1 and Tier 2 units like Devil's Tongue it's FAR enough. If you want heavy stuff deploy it in your base.

it doubt it'll have those weapons when deployed as fist of nod, and as it says it broadcasts nod propaganda.
The real purpose of this unit isn't its weapons, it's it's ability to create an army to advance from any where on the map, but i think having a slower time for creating a unit would be the best option, otherwise it'll be better as an attacking unit, but if its capped, when deployed as a Fist of Nod, it should be invisible, otherwise i really dont see the point.