Hello,

I have never made a mod but glancing at the tutorials here I think it shouldn't be too hard if I stick to basics and don't try anything too exotic. I would mostly like your opinion on whether this idea is worth pursuing, if it sounds like it will be good gameplay.

My idea is to add one new general using existing units and powers: a U.S. Cavalry General, a.k.a. the Maneuver General. The Maneuver General relies on mobility, reconnaissance and surprise, using a mix of units of moderate speed drawn from all factions. His formations tend to be well-balanced and flexible, able to take on all comers and striking quickly at poorly defended points. His advantage in mobile warfare comes at the expense of less air support and less advanced siege weapons than other US factions.

Basic characteristics:

All vehicles cost 10% less
Mix of vehicles from several factions
Raptor and Aurora cost 10% more
Pathfinder available earlier
No cruise missile
No microwave tank
No stealth fighter
No bunker buster

Vehicles:

Humvee
Crusader
Assault Troop Crawler: filled with 8 Rangers
Inferno Cannon: would like to change its warhead to explosive rather than napalm, and increase speed to keep pace with crusader tank
Paladin
Avenger
Stealth Sentry Drone: The Sentry Drone has the ability to disguise itself as a vehicle in the
same manner as the GLA truck bomb; this way it can move undetected
Rocket Buggy: this version will have a passenger capacity of 1

Upgrades: Composite armor and TOW upgrades are slightly cheaper

Generals' Powers:

Pathfinder is available at rank 1

Countdown timer for all aircraft-based General Powers (A10, Spectre, etc.) is 30 seconds longer

Parachute Drop delivers Crusader tank instead of Rangers

Recon Colonel Burton:

The Cavalry General's version of Colonel Burton is oriented more towards scouting and reconnaissance than direct combat.

Sniper rifle replaces his machine gun
Can detect stealth units
Sight radius slightly greater
Can temporarily disable vehicles with knife by cutting the fuel lines, similar to Black Lotus'
ability, but must be in direct contact with the target vehicle

Other:

A captured reinforcement pad delivers a Crusader tank with each drop

Would be nice to add a custom general portrait if this is possible???

That's it, please critique my idea and offer any suggestions or warnings if it sounds like something won't work. Mostly I want to know if it will result in an overpowered or underpowered faction. I think I can figure out the modding myself given the number of tutorials on here, I figure that any question I have has been asked already.

Adding a new general is actually quite hard (to my knowledge I'm one of the few (if not only) people left on the forums who can do it), and my tutorial has been criticised for being too vague. Everything you've specified can be done though.

As for if it would be overpowered or not?: Probably
Most mods which add something (be it a single unit or whole faction) make it too powerful. It stems from a modder's desire to make the game better and power stuff up but usually forgetting to beef up the other factions too.

Even my small changes mod, designed specifically to fix small things in the game, went too far and now the SupW Gen is OP.

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Your general would be very overpowered against infantry general in a competitive game with the early pathfinders, and having 10% cheaper vehicles would easily give him an edge against most other generals. Airforce general would do well though.


Surely you jest? Adding a new general is relatively easy for anyone proficient in INI coding, and there are at least four regular members on here who are capable coders.

The only problem with it is how time consuming it can be to create everything.

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Lol, it´s not hard and you are definitely not the only one left on the site who can do it...:P
You are a real super hero Klingon...



Think before you press that post button...

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I wasn't joking. I genuinely didn't know how many people could do it. The number of times people have posted and I'm the only one to reply, combined with the difficulty I had making my first couple of generals led me to believe that even experienced modders have difficulty (or avoid it all together).

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Thank you, this is the kind of stuff I need to know before diving in. I have modded other games and I know it's easy to get carried away making changes.

My basic goal is just to have a conventional vehicle-heavy general, moderate speed and a good mix of abilities. I want him to have weaknesses as well as strengths. I suppose a vehicle cost advantage is unnecessary, a diversity of mechanized units is enough to make him unique, and I can leave pathfinders at level 3.

you could forgo base defences and superweapons in favour of vehicles. (however I've often found that a couple of raptors and a Comanche is more than enough to defend a base.

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