All posts by LtGenJackGranger
I AM part of this wiki too and it will not be unanimous either about another direction. And I stand my ground not only because its my brainchild but also for it's only natural for the Cult to be psychics for their chemicals and trainings. I take it some steps further trying to develop a more substantial background for the Cult, Order and Psionics and Icon, as I have written and repeated many times.
U see, I don't think I'm being taken seriously as a fellow person. I offer compromises that would make ALL of our ideas work simultaneously, help others to better their ideas, time and again, but it appears to me that whenever my idea is disliked by someone else, he would just refute or remove it wholesale to do it his way, like what I think and the thoughts I put into don't worth a penny at all.
Nothing personal and no offense intended if you don't see me that way.
There‘s no EVIDENCE, it's a matter of CREATION. The Cult was never finished.
And so does the question arise: Since some hippies high on street-level LSD could develop psychic powers, why can't the cult with all their knowledge and experience with chemicals? Coupled with their occult training(the odd silence, for starters) , I'd say it's only natural.
General Setting Details | Paradox Mod Wiki | Fandom
Yuriko is the setting's most powerful psychic. She aquired her powers through a River Tam style combination of brainwashing and cutting into her brain.
The Japanese also maintain a corp of psychics who went through a less tramatic and extensive version of what Yuriko experienced.
Ninjas have an extremely mild form of psychic power due to their training. This is what let the Japanese onto it in the first place.
Mingxia is psychic but unaware of the fact, due to her training.
As an extension, so are Tibetian monks (because in pulp fiction, Tibetian monks are always special) though not to the same degree.
Yuri was around at one point, but Cherdenko had him killed.
The quite a few hippies have developed psychic powers due to experimentation with LSD.
The Allies are in the early stages of developing a team of psychics called Lensmen.
"Nowhere does it say that Mingxia or Shinobis are psychics", ehh. Next time do more homework before refuting someone so harshly, will you please?
And let's not just focus on psychic stuff. How about my Smuggler Compound proposal? I think Metal's "Chaotic Stuff" is pretty much covered by my idea, only you need to infiltrate one HQ first. Since the BH has the only infiltrator, which can steal credits and disable production(both much more deadly in deathmatch than in skirmish), it's only fair they need some more legwork to get their additional perk. But the reward would be worth the trouble: a line of upgrades, protocols and units to unlock.
Also take a look at my proposal on II Negotiator and Trade Center. We don't have to make every faction's secondary income provider a building. Diversity matters.
Also, besides dominating the world, mind control is also a great way to spread chaos. Even easier for the latter, since the former requires building high-tech towers like Beacons or Dominators, which would be easy targets, but the former only needs a right psychic at the right place. And to keep the Cult running smooth and financed, or to deter the Order's efforts using some government decrees or troops, or to infiltrate someplace, the Cult needs the power of domination from time to time.
Making the cult magi and psychics would contribute to the lore greatly, too, since it would give a more clear reason for the church to build up a high-tech(even now, thinking how cutting edge it would be in the dark ages) army just to hunt down one of the hundreds if not thousands of heretic cult, the crusade lasting for centuries but cannot be gave up, and the Talon would put aside all Ten Commandments just to eliminate even one Black Hand agent … because they're psychics, the real deal, thus menace to society. And there're many other points I have made earlier to you, Slick and Daedalus, not wanna repeat it here.
And gameplay wise … mind control is an interesting and distinctive mechanic that would be a pity if not presented in Paradox, since pretty much everything from C&C even other RTS already have their place. And psionics isn't limited to mind control: Apothecary is a school of magic, too. And the fact psionics can be gained from abusing LSDs just make me wanna link BH, the master of drugs who has a occult background, with psychics. It would be the Cult's specialty: after all, we've had enough simple, low-tech, scavenger and guerilla style faction(GLA , Vietcong, and partly NRA/PLA) already. I'm open to revise or redesign the specifics about psychic reinforcement units if you think some is OP, it's the idea "Cult inner circle were and are psychics" that counts.
Sure the psychic idea may contradict something here and there a little bit, because it wasn't planned by the original devs when they wrote down the bulk of this wiki's articles. Neither was the Consulate District. And we've built something beautiful.
Lore wise, psionics is actually widespread around the globe only many of psychics are weak or unaware of their identity(Mingxia, Shinobi and some hippies high on drugs on the streets of Sprawls or America)
And Cherdenko couldn't always get his wish done, even as Premier. All he can do is purge Yuri and ban psionics in Russia, and sent out some KGB teams to assassinate some guys he knew. He can't exterminate something naturally exists( since the Icon is always hungry) and can be trained. His time travel only moved major psychic existence from Russia to Japan, which has numerous telepath in WW3 lore wise, with Yuriko being the only success in telekinetics until a bunch of high school girl shows their prowess without prior training(well, unless life in a strict boarding school counts) . Cherdenko cannot and did not stop the Psionics from unveiling(just like he failed in stopping Chrono Tech and in turn backfired on the Union's prized nukes) , and he certainly cannot stop the Cult, something he hardly knew and might be the real player of the bigger game.
We can have it all. Stolen tech units, exotic upgrades and protocols unlocked at Smuggler Compound, while inner circle psychics would arrive in reinforcement packages, called from … the radio station maybe, since protocols would be unlocked at SC?
And Bob, your proposal of ARVN sounds too grand for me … and for MINOR faction deathmatch. I think in terms of Peacekeeper troops utilized, MACV would primarily use the ones listed as reinforcements on ARVN's page.
And remember the secondary income providers don't necessarily need to be a building. For example II's could be a businessman, Negotiator. I'm gonna paste my proposals once more here.
Plan A: A refurbished ZH Hacker. He can disable a neutral tech building from a distance, clearing out enemy troops in it and preventing it from being garrisoned or used as long as he's channeling(lore wise, via lawsuits and acquisition attempts). His ability would unpack a small office to provide a slow and steady income.
Plan B: An infiltrator, capable of disguising himself as one of enemy infantry. His ability is "Friendly Takeover", which is a targeted ability that can only be used on a neutral building, handing its ownership along with its occupants loyalty over to you. Cost money, short range and will expose himself. When not disguised, or when garrisoning in a building, he would provide a slow and steady income.
In Plan B's case, we can also give II a Trade Center building for Negotiators to work in. Making Negotiators produce money whenever idle or only in a Trade Center is undecided for me.
"get various upgrades from most other factions and maybe their support powers" sounds so alike to Consulate District. I say we make it more distinctive.
In addition to an income trinkle, the Smuggler Compound is also an independent production line of 8 "stolen tech" units. As the only minor faction with an infiltrator in its arsenal(for now), Black Hand sounds the perfect one to revive this RA2 idea. Successfully putting an Apothecary inside an enemy(or rogue cultists', good old RA2 tradition) HQ in MFD would unlock a respective hybrid unit to be produced from the Smuggler Compound.
And if we wanna add some tech upgrades as well, no problem! We can make the respective upgrade a prerequisite to the units. In that case a successful infiltration would unlock an upgrade in the Compound, after you finish researching the upgrade, its button would become the stolen tech unit (or we could put multiple upgrades or before unlocking the unit, making it a line; protocols could be unlocked as part of upgrades, The Armor Rush mod shows this is possible and running smooth).
This could be an ultimate compromise about the Cult: we can have "stolen equipment from other factions"(Daedalus), "various upgrades from most other factions and maybe their support powers"(Metal and Slick) at Smuggler Compound and psychic troops(Bob and me) for the cult reinforcements. All of us could get what we wish, altogether and simultaneously.
@Daedalusfan300 Craftsman repairs from outside a structure, but captures one by entering it. Syndicate immune does capture form outside, but in a manner more akin to Black Lotus than Red Guard.
As for the businessman (I'd call him Negotiator), here's my two cents:
Plan A: A refurbished ZH Hacker. He can disable a neutral tech building from a distance, clearing out enemy troops in it and preventing it from being garrisoned or used as long as he's channeling(lore wise, via lawsuits and acquisition attempts). His ability would unpack a small office to provide a slow and steady income.
Plan B: An infiltrator, capable of disguising himself as one of enemy infantry. His ability is "Friendly Takeover", which is a targeted ability that can only be used on a neutral building, handing its ownership along with its occupants loyalty over to you. Cost money, short range and will expose himself. When not disguised, or when garrisoning in a building, he would provide a slow and steady income.
“I think itd be best for all of us if we go in the middle and have BOTH. Have it be a game option you can change where you can either have capturable points or just regular Minor Faction Deathmatch.” I'm all for it, since I like them both. They can even coexist, as I figured it out a little further.
Resource points are essentially oil derricks, so just let them be oil derricks. And all other neutral buildings like Hospital and Garage can appear in MFD. As for how they would be captured, sure we can let infantry and light vehicles slowly capture them like in CoH, but I'm more inclined to a new way I learnt from a YR mod(Final War?). Instead of being captured by specific engineering infantry, neutral buildings in MFD would be garrisonable by any infantry. Garrison one soldier into a neutral building would make it yours and start working, and garrison a few more would add to the defensive firepower just like civilian structures(the first infantry can fire out too, just to be exact). However, the garrisoned troops are vulnerable to garrison clearing weapons, so after a Dragon Tank comes by, it would likely be empty thus neutral for the PLA to garrison. If one of these buildings get utterly destroyed, it will be auto rebuilt and becomes neutral again. This would highlight the value of degarrison wepaons in MFD.
And for the ore collection, like I said, no expansion vehicles, refineries pre-built near HQ, ore mines scatter around map(with some near each player's HQ), miners would go back and forth all the distance between ore mine and refinery, like AKC, Syndicate in Skirmish and Allies/Soviets in RA2. We can make refineries slowly auto-rebuild itself after getting destroyed, or put a price tag on the rebuilt process, or simply make refineries invulnerable for balance's sake.
We can make both appear in a same map, just like there're ore mines and neutral buildings simultaneously in Skirmish. And if you mean Victory Points, we can add them as garrisonable neutral buildings too, just like they're capturable neutral buildings in Skirmish.
Are we gonna reinstate points in MFD? 'Cause if so we'll have to scrap/heavily modify all minor faction miners pre-existed or designed by us, which would be a pity.
Right now I personally agrees with Derp. No expansion vehicles, refineries pre-built near HQ, ore mines scatter around map(with some near each player's HQ), miners would go back and forth all the distance between ore mine and refinery, like AKC, Syndicate in Skirmish and Allies/Soviets in RA2.
We can make refineries slowly auto-rebuild itself after getting destroyed, or put a price tag on the rebuilt process, or make refineries invulnerable.
OK, I'm a bit confused. Plz give the last 3 replies by Derp and me about MFD logistics a read.
Another idea (to make MFD more different from Skirmish) without the need to overhaul all minor miners is to cut the expansions, pre–place two or three refineries on map near HQ and make miners go all the way from ore mines and refineries, like in RA2.
The pre–existing Red China and VC miners' abilities(speed up, stealth) are clearly designed for this kind of operations rather than Skirmish style short distance mining, so was I thinking when designing Chrono Miner, Bluejay Hauler and doubling Skirmisher as II's miner. Could encourage harassment and supply line safeguarding.
If we go with Skirmish style mining(to be exact, Allied, Soviet, Imperial and Rebel style, since AKC and Syndicate's ways are actually more akin to RA2), many minor faction miners' abilities would be of little use.
Because if you think about it, "build a expansion vehicle, drive it near ore nodes, unpack it into an outpost, build a refinery near it and the miner come back and forth a small distance" is just a complicated version of "capturing a point and hold it". I remember the latter didn't go well in the alpha tests and decided to switch to expansions and refineries, but in hindsight capturing points wasn't core of the problem. The snowballing economy issues could be balanced as CoH series show us. Here's my 2 cents:
Like in CoH, MFD maps are divided into territories, each with a point in the middle. Infantry and some light vehicles can capture a point gradually. When captured, the point grants them income (at different rate, depending on the points' location) if it is linked with friendly territory . A point structure is essentially a Tank Bunker, you can reinforce it by garrisoning ONLY an expansion vehicle(miners we already designed can be recycled as such) in it. Reinforced points grants a higher income, and enemy needed to destroy the bunker before being able to capturing it. After the bunker get "destroyed", it will become neutral again for its new owner's expansion vehicle to garrison.
Like an Allied Engineer, he would unpack his tent and start making deals. I can see that in my mind.
But engineer would be a courageous addition to minor faction deathmatch, since no one else could capture buildings. And did I see "capture points"? Are we going back to that?
And for expansion vehicles, it's hard to make 8 distinctive ones, and II already has Dozers, so I think we could save one trouble and make do with Dozers. Gameplay-wise, II Dozers, like Confederate ones, deploy instantly on command and projects a small ground control radius to build things around. So it could just build refineries like it would build defenses. It's not only trouble-saving but also distinctive choice for a minor faction expansion. We can save communication Skirmisher for another minor, since II would love to sell Skirmishers to anyone.