Name: Orca
Side: GDI
Tier: 2
ERA: Tiberian Dawn
Cost: $1,100
Base Asset: Black_Drakon
Intro
The Tiberian Dawn Orca replaces the Tiberian History version of the C&C3 Orca. The Tiberian History version of the C&C3 Orca had an upgrade: the Zocom upgrade, which was available once a Space Command Uplink was built. The upgrade was purchased individually at the Orca that you wanted to upgrade, and it changed the targeted Orca into the Kane's Wrath Zocom Orca.
The Tiberian History version of the C&C Orca could also benefit from the Hardpoint upgrade, which was purchased at the GDI Tech centre.
The base for the Tiberian Dawn Orca is the afore mentioned Tiberian History C&C3 Orca, so they will be a number of code and gameplay similarities. The simplest thing to start with is to establish what is the same, and then any major omissions.
Still useful for harvester rushing!
Still essential for dealing with Artillery!
Gameplay
The basic, no upgrade Orca, is exactly the same as the C&C3 version. This includes the Pulse Scan ability, which is good news for those who like to use the ability to flush out stealth units or objects.
The Tiberian Dawn Orca cannot get the Sensor Pod upgrade (it has been removed), and it also cannot benefit from the Hardpoint upgrade (another solution to increase the ammo is used, which will be discussed later).
The Tiberian Dawn Orca can still be upgraded at an object level to a Zocom version, but this is now unlocked by building a Tech Centre (ie Tier 3). In addition there is another upgrade option that is also unlocked at tier 3. You can only chose one of these options per Orca, so the next step will be to review and discuss these upgrades.
Zocom Orca Upgrade
The Zocom upgrade is essentially the same. There is a slight improvement, earlier it was mentioned that other steps were taken to integrate the Hardpoint ammo upgrade in a different way, so what happens when you purchase the Zocom upgrade is that you get the extended ammo clip just like if you had purchased the Hardpoint upgrade in Tiberian History: 7.
"Oh well..."
So basically this is a slight improvement, yet conversely, this was done to eliminate the annoying double upgrade exploit (you could fire you Orca rocket ammo, finish off upgrading to Hardoints to get more ammo, use that ammo, then get the individual Zocom upgrade to get even more ammo! the whole time you did not need to return to the airfield to reload! a nightmare for your opponent!), so there is also an exploit nerf.
As a recap, the Orca gets Ceramic armour, which means that it only takes 50% damage from all sources! and it gets unguided sonic grenades instead of guided rockets, however the sonic grenades do splash damage.
The Beast!
The key to getting the most out of the sonic shells involves a lot of force firing! If a target can move reasonably quickly, and you do not lead your shots (using force fire), you will waste a lot of ammo!
Instead of targeting individual structures or units, here I am force firing in between them in order to use the splash damage to deal damage to many of the items and once.
Aftermath. This is an average example of using force firing and the splash damage, instead of targeting individual units or structures.
Because effective usage of the Zocom Orca requires a lot of force firing, I consider it the 'Professional' option of the two upgrade choices.
The Zocom Orca will mess up infantry fast!
Make no mistake, if you get really good at using the Zocom Orca, you will do far more damage, destroy far more targets, and due to your extra amour, survive far more engagements, then if you purchase the other upgrade.
The ceramic amour means that you can battle in 'hot' areas, and make it out alive!
Check online and try to read articles, or view videos of high level tournament, or ladder play, using the Kane's Wrath Zocom Orca, since anything that you see there is applicable to this upgrade.
Hunter Seeker Upgrade
A brand new upgrade!
The first thing that this upgrade does is that it gives you extra rockets, the same amount of rockets as if you had purchased the Hardpoint upgrade in release 7 of Tiberian History.
But the main feature of this upgrade is the Gatling gun that gets added!
First off, this is a limited ammo Gatling gun, so you will have to reload it at the airfield once it is out of ammo. As for the ammo, the amount that you get is 50 (the Nod Apache has 100), which is a decent amount, although nothing that will trouble the Nod Apache. It should also be noted that the ammunition is not as destructive as the Apache's chain gun munition, especially when it comes to dealing with light armoured vehicles. However it is still very strong against infantry, and indeed that is obviously the main point, to remove the big flaw that the standard Orca has when fighting enemy infantry.
"Mess them up!"
Now some will want to know whether the gun is anti-infantry only? the answer is no. Also there is no simple way of allowing the Gatling gun to hit all ground targets, but prefer infantry (as stated in other articles, the C&C3 weapon code is rubbish!), so the Gatling gun will fire at the same time as the rockets.
Most of the time you actually want the Gatling gun firing on all ground targets, it helps to speed up kills, and reduces the overall amount of rockets needed to destroy a target, which means that you get more rockets to use on other targets.
Of the two upgrades this is definitely the simpler of the two, and is the recommended option for people who are not very good, or just average.
Conclusion
Of course since the upgrades are 'OBJECT' upgrades, there is a risk associated. If you lose the upgraded Orca, you lose your $400 investment. So you need to make sure that you have good intelligence of your enemies AA capabilities.
The only units that you must absolutely fear are the anti-air aircraft (Warhawk, Banshee, Storm Rider), because you cannot outrun them, and they can quickly destroy you upgraded Orcas.
"Careful!" although since this has the Zocom upgrade it should easily survive.
Anything else (including static AA defences) you can micro around, and as that is the case, there is no reason not to get the upgrades, they greatly increase the destructive capabilities of your Orca, which means that they get more done between each reload, and also they rank up faster, because they are dishing out more damage.