Sunday, August 19, 2012

The differences between NOD and GDI and why they matter.

As I'm almost done with the next O3 release (decided once this rebalance is done to actually release it for people to try) I've gone back and looked at what makes GDI and NOD so different in our universe.

GDI has held it's position as a pure military force.  They simple request what they need and take what they want.  They are the declining super power, the force that once knew no equal that is now losing everything.  They've lost land.  They've lost troops.  They've lost power.  They are fighting hard to keep what little they have left and to once again become the dominant military and political power in the world.

NOD on the other hand has evolved since the fall of Kane at the end of the 2nd Tib War.  After the firestorm crysis it became apparent that they had only once choice if they were to survive, and that was to adapt.  NOD has done so under the unknown leadership of LEGION.  To the world NOD is now a military contractor, a developer of anti-tiberium radiation medicine.  NOD is on the cutting edge of cybernetic developments and artificial limb technology.  They are the perfect meshing of Technology Company and Church.  We make fun of the "cult of Apple" today, in our world the "Cult of NOD" is real.

These are very different contradictions to how EA originally designed NOD and GDI to be.  How does this matter in the game?  Originally the only real difference that one could feel between NOD and GDI were the way the units looked and either you liked big tanks or walkers.

Now GDI is all about the Tank.  Tanks are powerful.  They are dominating.  And they need support.  If you play a game and just make nothing but super expensive mammoth tanks then your probably going to lose.  You need those pitbulls on your flanks covering your tanks.  You need those zone troopers and infantry squads moving in behind them to hold the ground and protect the rear.  In the end you need to use your assets and tools wisely or the enemy can take advantage of each units individual shortcomings and then your in trouble.  But whats the flip side of this?  Those super powerful tanks are very hard to kill if your not using the right weapon.  Also those infantry squads will be generating cash for you as they fight, allowing you to actually afford these higher prices on the new toys.  Used correctly a well developed army can produce more cash than simply refining tiberium could ever hope to do.

NOD on the other hand needs tiberium to survive.  That is their life blood.  If NOD runs out of tiberium to harvest then they are in a seriously bad position.  In short NOD can be starved where GDI can not.  The flip to this is NOD is a company!  You know all that flavor text that we have in the game about this being a Sector Developed unit and that being a Black Ops developed unit?  Now that matters!  When you pick a doctrine no longer does it just modify every unit in your force in a specific direction (for example BOPS give your units sniper rifles and stealth where Sec 9 gives you laser rifles) but it also gives a discount to all units that were developed by that NOD Division.  That means if you like using Fighters and Bombers going with the BOPS doctrine will make more since as the Vertigo Fighter and Armageddon Bomber were both developed by the Black Operations Division.  However if you prefer a massive ground force going with the Homeland Security may make more since considering how many ground units fall under their development.  And who doesn't want super-cheap flame tanks?  We're still working on how much of a discount the units will get, but at the moment I'm thinking around a 25% reduction in build time and cost sounds right.


Scrin still need to be done, I hope to get NOD finished by tomorrow night and then I'll have the week to work on Scrin.  Keep your eyes open, I may have something for people to download by Friday.

3 comments:

Alan said...

Okay so first things first, I'm sorry if this messes up tomorrow's update but I'm so eager to try out the new version so I was wondering how things were going.

azuza001 said...

Nope, not messing anything up lol. We're about a week or two away from another O3 release, and then another month or so from the SEED release of Reborn. My plan is to have a release canidate done by Halloween and a final Reborn release by Thanksgiving at the latest.

Alan said...

Yay! That sounds so great! I can't wait.