The Soviet Tanya

[RadicalEdward2]

I noticed that with all the new vehicles and abilities added to Red Alert, there actually are some preexisting assets that somehow haven't made a return yet.

Sure everyone remembers Tanya, the RA Lara Croft-turned-007 via countless re-castings but, about the Soviet "Tanya"?

I'm not talking about Boris. I'm talking about Volkov and his canine companion, Chitzkoi.

For those of you that don't remember, Volkov, was a Russian cyborg supersoldier armed with a sniper rifle for long range, high powered pistol for close range, and a heavy explosives cannon for air units and naval units.

He was a really underrated character that was even supposed to return in Red Alert 2 but, was ultimately cut despite still appearing on the cover art.


Like Volkov, Chitzkoi was cut from Red Alert 2 as well and only appeared in campaign missions.
He was cybernetically enhanced like Volkov with his own sets of perks to boot.

Despite resembling the average attack dog, he was capable of scaling cliffs and could take a few more beatings than a regular Attack Dog. Despite being a cyborg dog, he could still be crushed by vehicles, however, he had a movement speed of 8 as opposed to the Attack Dog movement speed of 4.

To keep up with the new additions that came with OpenRA, both units could be able to detect cloaked units.

[Minotaur]

what 'bout RA3 Natasha(that one sniper chick?) instead.

[RadicalEdward2]

what 'bout RA3 Natasha(that one sniper chick?) instead.

Red Alert 3 doesn't exist to me. I actively avoid it because EA ruined it to the point that it laughs in the face of Westwood's vision.

Red Alert went from Stalin testing the mortality rate of Sarin nerve gas on Polish civilians and ordering you to commit a mass genocide to ensure all survivors are killed, the proposal of the GDI, the implementation of VTOL planes (Harriers) as the hinting to the introduction of Orcas in TD, the acknowledging of RA existing in the Tiberium timelines in Renegade, and Prism technology that could have been seen as the earliest iteration of Ion technology to Tim Curry trying to do a Russian accent through his British accent, George Takei as the feudal Emperor of Japan when it was already established that the Pacific theater did occur (Pearl Harbor Arizona Memorial in RA2), talking tanks in bab's first RTS tutorial, over-saturated candy color pallets, and erasing Einstein before he went back in time to erase Hitler; which not only made the merging of the Tiberium and Red Alert universe impossible but, should have caused a time-paradox so extreme that Doc Brown from Back to the Future would have dropped dead just from the thought of the scenario.

Sorry if I got a bit salty but, I REALLY hate what EA did to C&C.

With that mini-rant out of the way, no, I don't think Natasha would work since adding even more post-Westwood content could taint the game.
Also, sprites for Volkov and Chitzkoi already exist since they were already in Red Alert in the first place.

However, going back to my initial thoughts, maybe adding just Volkov would be fine. Chitzkoi is a hit or miss.

[Minotaur]

My point was that people are searching an space to put sniper into and seeing it was op when enmassed could function as one unit at a time on the board commando unit.

EA may rot in all the nine hells for what theyve done. BASTARDS! *khornate rage intensifies*

[RadicalEdward2]

My point was that people are searching an space to put sniper into and seeing it was op when enmassed could function as one unit at a time on the board commando unit.

EA may rot in all the nine hells for what theyve done. BASTARDS! *khornate rage intensifies*

I think it would make sense for England to have the Sniper since they had it in Red Alert 2 but, Volkov would follow the same rules as Tanya in the sense that only one can exist at any time. So one Russian sniper with a few extra perks (because he's a freakin' cyborg lol) wouldn't hurt.

[zinc]

Yes to both. With a limit of 1 each on the map at a time. (Excluding a crate giving you an extra, which can happen with Tanya.)

Having a cyborg dog could give more of a role to dogs in the later game. I'm thinking something like pay 1000 and get a tougher troop killer. Also faster as mentioned.

Volkov would have to be quite a bit tougher than Tanya to make sense as a cyborg. Maybe it should be the most expensive troop because of this. 2000 to 3000 cost. Something like that. And he doesn't need to be a carbon copy of Tanya. You don't need to give him the ability to C4 buildings. A kick ass grenade launcher will do.

[RadicalEdward2]

Yes to both. With a limit of 1 each on the map at a time. (Excluding a crate giving you an extra, which can happen with Tanya.)

Having a cyborg dog could give more of a role to dogs in the later game. I'm thinking something like pay 1000 and get a tougher troop killer. Also faster as mentioned.

Volkov would have to be quite a bit tougher than Tanya to make sense as a cyborg. Maybe it should be the most expensive troop because of this. 2000 to 3000 cost. Something like that. And he doesn't need to be a carbon copy of Tanya. You don't need to give him the ability to C4 buildings. A kick ass grenade launcher will do.

He actually also had C4s lol
I mean he IS a cyborg and Russia by principle is OP because they're the bad guys.
Maybe instead of C4, (like the Cyborgs in Tiberian Sun) Volkov can't be run over by vehicles.

[Minotaur]

Maybe instead of C4, (like the Cyborgs in Tiberian Sun) Volkov can't be run over by vehicles.

And has to be killed twice as he crawls on the ground being berserk before dying, is immune to attack dogs,

[RadicalEdward2]

That would also be cool.
Same goes for the immune to attack dogs.

[Sire]

While I doubt Volkov will actually be implemented (even though the original RA did have a "Soviet Tanya" available in multiplayer), I would like to see him be effective at both Infantry and Vehicles, but fires at a slower rate. He also would not have C4 access.

So, while both are effective against Infantry (Tanya more so), Volkov has Anti-Vehicle capabilities while Tanya has Anti-Structure capabilities.

While I would also love to see Chitzkoi in OpenRA multiplayer, I have a feeling the balance gurus will hate him. Right now Infantry deals damage while Tanks soak up damage, and if Chitzkoi can annihilate infantry blobs while remaining "tanky" he may be considered to be overpowered compared to Tanya.

Thing is, this is OpenRA and not Mental Omega (or Red Alert 2 for that matter). While I would love to see Volkov and Chitzkoi in the official mod, I only see it happening on modded variants of OpenRA. If their inclusion there is popular enough, then maybe they will be added, but otherwise I doubt it will happen.

[zinc]

Could be, he could C4 tanks etc, but not buildings. So something a little different to Tanya. But then that would stop him targeting vehicles with his grenade launcher if he has that. (I think that was his weapon in one of the missions anyway.)

[RadicalEdward2]

While I doubt Volkov will actually be implemented (even though the original RA did have a "Soviet Tanya" available in multiplayer), I would like to see him be effective at both Infantry and Vehicles, but fires at a slower rate. He also would not have C4 access.

So, while both are effective against Infantry (Tanya more so), Volkov has Anti-Vehicle capabilities while Tanya has Anti-Structure capabilities.

While I would also love to see Chitzkoi in OpenRA multiplayer, I have a feeling the balance gurus will hate him. Right now Infantry deals damage while Tanks soak up damage, and if Chitzkoi can annihilate infantry blobs while remaining "tanky" he may be considered to be overpowered compared to Tanya.

Thing is, this is OpenRA and not Mental Omega (or Red Alert 2 for that matter). While I would love to see Volkov and Chitzkoi in the official mod, I only see it happening on modded variants of OpenRA. If their inclusion there is popular enough, then maybe they will be added, but otherwise I doubt it will happen.

I've never actually played Mental Omega (to be honest) lol
But, I think purposing Volkov to be more anti-vehicle would be interesting but, he DID have a sniper rifle like the Commandos for infantry. He doesn't have to have a C4. C4ing vehicles doesn't have to be a thing either for him.
Again, he's a cyborg. He doesn't need explosives lol
As for him being overpowered, that's because he is. He's an uber unit.
Tanya was stripped (heh...) of some of the uber qualities in OpenRA because apparently she can't even shoot vehicles now. (at least from what I saw when I used her for the first time in OpenRA).

Volkov in theory would seem very overpowered but, the truth of the matter is he isn't.
Look at the Mammoth, when we all first saw it, we thought:

"Oh god! That thing is the size of two tanks, has duel barrels, AND a rocket launcher that can hit aircraft?! No way I can stop that!"

And now it's just:

"Oh look a Mammoth can't catch up to my MCV cause it's a hunk of metal. I'll just overwhelm it with four Longbows and check back after a trip to the bathroom. It's fine~"

Essentially, Volkov is a Mammoth in Infantry form.

Giving him a sniper rifle (like in the campaign) wouldn't be that outlandish.
Isn't England eventually getting Snipers anyway?



What would be interesting would be making the sniper rifle into a PTRD (the Russian anti-armor sniper rifle from WW2) so he could deal rocket launcher level damage to vehicles from a safe distance and still have a rocket launcher to take out air units.
But, when used on infantry, they explode into gibs (like they would with grenades).


As for the dogs, in their current form, they're STILL overpowered. I watched a single Attack Dog string together a 6-8 infantry kill combo with NO pause in between. That needs fixing. There was a "killing" animation for the dogs in Red Alert but, it doesn't seem to exist in OpenRA. Also, dogs move faster on roads like vehicles (Chitzkoi speed).

[zinc]

I don't think dogs are overpowered. They can do a lot of damage in the right circumstances. Most of the time, however, they are easily shot dead and you can kiss goodbye to a $200 unit.

[Materianer]

Yes plsease bring Volkov back to openra!
He already was here in an older release, was really fun to play with him, although he was pretty op with his grenade launcher. A buildlimit of 1 would have helped imo but they unfortunately decided to remove him.

Now that we have multiple soviet factions he would be perfect to create a new sneaky soviet race, but there seems to be no will to do that.

Why?
I dont know, maybe because of this previus poll about Volkov in wich the no-sayers won, but that should not the way how a game is developed.

Maybe we should just start a new issue on github for Volkov even if i have doubts that it will have success.
We should have a good concept and maybe a good testmap in wich Volkov works so that the develpoers see that he will be a gain for this game.

[RadicalEdward2]

Yes plsease bring Volkov back to openra!
He already was here in an older release, was really fun to play with him, although he was pretty op with his grenade launcher. A buildlimit of 1 would have helped imo but they unfortunately decided to remove him.

Now that we have multiple soviet factions he would be perfect to create a new sneaky soviet race, but there seems to be no will to do that.

Why?
I dont know, maybe because of this previus poll about Volkov in wich the no-sayers won, but that should not the way how a game is developed.

Maybe we should just start a new issue on github for Volkov even if i have doubts that it will have success.
We should have a good concept and maybe a good testmap in wich Volkov works so that the develpoers see that he will be a gain for this game.

I will consider it. I already make tons of posts on github but, I can definitely throw my original post that way as well.