DesertRose

 

Lots of players have been complaining about the inability to tell which units detect stealth objects, especially after getting their entire armies destroyed by Malver alone. Since I understand most of you don't read the instructions or anything from our detailed Factions section which contains all the important information, I've decided to make this specific information clear seen on the cameo itself.

If there is any other information which you think should be included on a cameo, write about it. 

Borillo: amphibious + stealth detection

Units that are invisible on the enemy's radar.

Symbol could be a radar station inside a prohibition sign (1) (2).

I've played Contra quite a lot the past few days. I've mostly played as China, so here's my feedback for China.

China Flame General:

Overall I really like this general as his arsenal is well-rounded and the fuel mechanic adds something different to the usual China playstyle. However there's one unit I find very problematic:
The Howitzer. 5 or more of these units are able to create a Fire Storm from afar, making it very effective against every ground unit. Later it even gets Thermobaric Shells, making even a few of them strong against everything. That is too strong for a rank 1 artillery unit. I would remove its ability to create a Fire Storm and add a rank 3 research which enables it, and scratch Thermobaric Shells entirely.
The Vortex Tank seems also a bit too strong against infantry. They can one-hit most infantry and hit their target pretty much instantly. The damage should be reduced and attack speed increased so infantry units have some time to retaliate before they die.
It is almost impossible to spot units and buildings behind the super weapon animation. The cone needs to be smaller or more transparent.

China Infantry General:

This general needs improvements in certain areas.
The Feng Yong (Gatling Howitzer) is too weak. It lacks mobility to keep up with a Troop Crawler army, and its continuous damage makes skill shots impossible. I like the concept of a gatling artillery, less set-up time, slightly more range than other rank 1 artillery, and/or better velocity might make it on a par with other rank 1 artillery units.
Mobile Barracks attacks random enemies when ordered to attack. This makes this unit almost unplayable. If need be the unit should lose its attack and Artillery Barrage becomes an ability like the Zhu Rong's Fire Shaft. It also slightly annoying that producing 4 infantry at a time often forces the unit to move when they spawn.
ATGM Operator should lose the ability to fire at infantry. The slow velocity of its missile and the fact that it doesn't home infantry units make it miss pretty much every time. Especially if loaded into APCs this would make the unit much stronger.

China Nuclear General:

This general is somewhat crippled due to the lack of a rank 1 mobile Propaganda Tower. Even though he lacks base defenses and thus has to rely on his units for defense he cannot support his units with a mobile Propaganda Tower until rank 3. This also makes it rather difficult to be offensive in the early game.
The Troop Crawler seems misplaced in rank 3; at that point you rather build Overlord or Nuke Cannon.
The Howitzer gains very little from the upgrade Radioactive Shells, the radiation field from its shells should be bigger.
According to the tooltip Cluster Mines Advancement (Nuclear Missile) improves Ka-29 Helix's mines, however the Nuclear General's version cannot deploy mines.
The Nuclear General's super unit Yang Wang has similar targeting issues as the Mobile Barracks, however its not as severe.

China Tank General:

I dunno if this general is weak or I just suck playing it.
The upgrade Red Guard Gun can be researched both in the Barracks and the Propaganda Center. I guess the Barracks one is a mistake.
The Sniper Cannon has no attack move.
The general's power Tank Squadron Training should be rank 1, not rank 3.

All China:

The upgrade Pneumocushion (amphibious Dozer) is very, very situational; I have yet played a map where it would have helped me. Maybe replace it with a generally useful upgrade, e.g. faster repairs or so.
The Ka-29 Helix feels pretty much useless expect for Infantry General. Its armor is made of paper and it gets destroyed by just one or two anti-air units, yet many of its upgrades require it to be next to or on top of its target. It could be made slower and given a much, much thicker armor (similar to Red Alert 2 Soviet Union's Kirov Airship).
A fitting upgrade for Flame General's Ka-29 Helix is the ability to produce and deploy Fuel Tubes.

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Problematic match-ups:

Infantry General against Tank General:

As Infantry General you have huge issues against Tank General if he uses ECM Tanks along his regular forces as all Infantry General's AT weapons are missle-based. Dunno what could be done to fix this.

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All:

Add a toggle for units which are able to produce mines (e.g. Demolition General's BTR-50P and Battle Bus) to constantly produce mines without having to manually select every single units and queue mines.

Spelling errors:

- China Tank, Infantry and Flame General: ECM should be named ECM Tank.
- Gattling: Dunno if it's also wrong in the vanilla game, but it's spelled Gatling, with one "t".

Bugs:

- GLA Assault General: Flying building capture infantry (forgot the name): Cannot be hit by Patriot Battery (iirc my enemy was USA Super Weapon General), the Patriot Battery will hit the ground underneath it instead. If you fly the infantry unit over buildings they Patriot Batteries will even destroy their own building.

Suggestions:

- China Infantry General: Artillery Designator/Mobile Barracks randomly shots at foes instead of targeted ones. I assume that happens when the unit isn't in range of the target yet and starts to attack the nearest one. That's really annyoing when it bombards a lone infantry in front of my army instead of the defensive structures.

Solution: Remove the "turret" (radar) and make it only possible to bombard targets directly in front of Artillery Designator/Mobile Barracks, give it the ability to turn around (almost) on the spot.

- China Nuke General: His super unit has a similar problem, it attacks random foes instead of the targeted one.

edit:

I've noticed that some GLA units have a toggle to auto attack or not. Such a feature would be very help for Mobile Barracks and China Nuke General super unit.

Questions:

- USA Air Force General against USA Cybernetic General: What are you supposed to do against the cloaked Patriot Batteries? Sentries don't seem to be able to detect them, or their vision range is about the same as the attack range of the Patriot Batteries.

edit2:

Bugs:

- China Infantry General: ATGM Operator is unlocked at level 4, not level 3. Is that a bug or a feature?

edit3:

Bugs:

- Certain units cannot be build if you have stolen an enemies builder. So far I've noticed that you cannot build USA Air Force General Special Levitation Pod, Colonel Burton, Pilot, and Pave Low. I was playing as GLA Stealth General.