Tuesday, September 11, 2012

A very real look at the Kodiak and where CNC 4 went wrong

As I do not have to tell most of you CNC4 was a major disappointment to the CNC community.  The units for the most part took on a more cartoony look, they removed base building almost completely from the game, and they took a game engine that had realistically NO unit limit cap and put an absurdly low unit cap in it's place, all in the name of "balancing".  It's no wonder that there was such a backlash to this design, the only thing it had in common to the other CNC games were the names and the guy playing Kane (Joseph D. Kucan does a great job as Kane btw).

With all the work that we've put into the MOD it's easy to see why the development team of CNC4 took the easy way out and did these things.  But that doesn't make it right.  It would be interesting to see someone redo CNC4 in the CNC3 engine (it wouldn't be hard, there are so many models already imported into CNC3) with the CNC3 game play style.  But thats a topic for a different day, one when I have nothing to talk about.

There were a few gems in CNC4 though.  The NOD Salamander was a pretty cool looking ship that defiantly held to the feel and look of NODs previous unit designs.  The GDI Kodiak went though a lot of different designs before ending up where it did, and at first look I really like the Kodiak.  It has all the hard edges that GDI is known for as well as following along the lines of "GDI is focused on the cheapest way to get heavy weapons onto the battlefield" much like the Mammoth Tank is.

But then I went to actually put it in the game and I started thinking "Wait, this thing really doesn't make much since."  Lets look at the history of CNC from CNC's perspective.  GDI has developed walkers in the past, so they have some very advanced tech along those lines.  They also have hover technology which is seen by it's MRLS's in the 2nd war and the Shatterer in the 4th war.  They have advanced sonic technology AND rail technology that is unrivaled by what NOD uses at any point in the history.  This ship is ment to be a space ship, devleoped and designed after the 3rd war to help protect against ships like the Scrin Mothership, Devastator Warship, and Planetary Assault Carrier.  So what weapons do they put on it?  9 Artillery Cannons and 3 double barreled anti-air vulcans?

If you watch the Youtube video of the making of the Kodiak ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKmsP7fojDU ) you'll begin to understand why and what happened.  Personally out of their designs that they show I like the 3rd one, maybe one day when I'm board I'll model that one.  But with everything going for them, with all these story points and even with their reasoning as to why GDI needs the Kodiak back, they don't make a ship that could do what it's supposed to do.  They make a Planetary Assault ship.  It's that simple, the Kodiak is a Planetary Assault ship, designed to hang out in high orbit and bombard a ground target and then fly in and finish of any remaining targets directly.  Call me stupid but how the hell is that thing supposed to protect itself for other spacecraft?  It's main weapons are on the bottom of the ship making it hard to target anything above or around it.  Sure it's got the vulcans for anything attacking from those directions but honestly how much damage do you think those 3 vulcans are going to do to a Scrin Warship?  My money would be on the Scrin 100% on that fight.  And Kenetic weapons?  On such a high investment?  You have 3 heavy hardpoints on this thing, why make all 3 the same gun?  Make the front 2 Rail Cannons and the back one the artillery cannons for planetary bombardment if thats what you want.  This leaves you 6 Rail cannons that cover both the front and underneath the ship (more than enough power to put a serious hurt on anything in the CNC universe), 3 AA guns that can provide cover fire against lighter ships coming in from above, and 3 artillery cannons for planetary bombardments.  Then you could say it's a warship meant to punch through enemy lines.  Personally I'd also make room on the top "flight deck" section for hidden missile launchers that pop out and also fire much like you see in the design pics.  I may come up with a way to add these things in and if I can then the unit would be more like what it's supposed to be and less like the "game designers" wanted which from the video was a pretty unit.

5 comments:

Alan said...

So that makes 8-9 rail guns total? Dear god that has got to be the scariest thing I have heard of since the Momento Mori in 00. So what does that mean for the Kodiak in this game?

azuza001 said...

No, the loadout for the Kodiak would be this.

2X - Three barreled Rail Cannons on the front
1X - Three barreled Orbital Bombardment Cannons on the Left side.
3X - Anti-Air Vulcan Guns
6X - Capitol Ship Missile Tubes

Either way it's a scary beast ment to deal damage. In terms against the EF all 5 of their ships that we have in (well, not sure about the Ra Calium I'd have to look it up) are CARRIERS ment to deploy units where this thing is a battle ship ment to destroy on it's own.

Alan said...

After watching the video I see what you are talking about with the looks and the weapons and what not. Personally I liked the second and the fourth ones (but that might be because the second one reminded me of a halo pelican and the 4th looked like it came from Star Wars.) Anyways if its a floating aircraft carrier then you wouldn't want it to be going directly into battle would you? It seems like they chose the load out with that in mind but, then when they implemented it they used it as a battleship and not an aircraft carrier. So if you treat it as a carrier like the design was supposed to look like that would put it along the lines of the EF's carriers right?(albeit much stronger)

Alan said...

I found another name mess up, or I think it is. The power that brings in the Ra Calium is called the Argama carrier drop im not sure it this is as its meant to be or not.

azuza001 said...

Good catch, thanks.