The End Of Days 0.97: Drone Warfare Update work in progress news

Dear TEOD Fans!

We know you're waiting for the update for a long time, but trust me, we are working super hard on it, so please be patient ;)

As you well know, the main feature of the next update will be the drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. All factions will be able to use some drones. If you checked all of our unit renders, you already know which drones we will add.

Russia:

Russian Federation will have two drones - Skat UCAV and S-70 Okhotnik. Skat will be available for Strategic Missile Forces and Heavy Assault Forces, while Okhotnic will be unique for Air Forces. Drones can be built in Radar Station in groups of three. Once the building is finished, all three drones will descend on the Radar Station from above.

Skat drones armed with four short-range missiles. They aren't so good against buildings, but can perform effective attack runs on land vehicles and even engage air targets.

Okhotniks drones armed with two bombs and after Advanced Missile Armament upgrade will also get two medium-range missiles. While being as effective against ground vehicles and air targets as Skat, S-70 will also deal nice damage to structures and infantry with bombs.

Both drones are stealthed when not attacking and re-arm mid-air.

USA:

Drones for United States are the cheapest ones and most of them don't even require subfaction to be purchased. You'll be able to operate with three drones as USA - MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-4 Global Hawk and XQ-58 Valkyrie. Reaper and Valkyrie will be available from Airfield and Global Hawk will replace old MQ-1 Predator drone from Zero Hour (Spy Drone General Ability).

Reaper drone armed with 4 Hellfire missile. It can engage all ground targets and available right after Airfield and War Factory. It is cheap and provides good fire support.

Valkyrie drone is the most advanced UCAV in the game. While being as well armed with 4 missiles, it is stealthed when not attacking and can effectively deal with any ground or air threat. Obviously, it is an exclusive drone for United States Air Forces subfaction.

Though being created on airfield, neither Reaper nor Valkyrie need to return. The airfield slot will be freed to allow you to build something else once the UAV has taken-off.

Global Hawk will provide good scouting for you during the battle. It was said, the drone will replace current MQ-1 Predator from Spy Drone ability. In addition, RQ-4 Global Hawk will be controllable.

China:

People's Republic of China won't have strong drones in their arsenal, but the smart usage of them might help in some situations. The way how China get drones, perhaps, the most interesting one in comparison to other factions - you should literally build a truck that will launch your UAVs in the air. Mass Mobilization Forces and Dragon Fire Forces will have BZK-600 Launcher, and Experimental Weapon Forces will have exclusive CH-901 Launcher.

BZK-600 is a pretty fast vehicle, which carries one BZK-600 drone. The drone can be used for scouting missions, since it has good vision range and able to detect stealthed units. It is unarmed and pretty vulnerable to AA fire.

However, after upgrade the drone will be armed with light bombs.

CH-901 Launcher is as well a fast vehicle, but it's role a bit different. While the CH-901 drones still can be used for scouting, their main role is suicide attacks. This kind of drones is called loitering munition. Each truck launches 3 drones, which are stealthed and can be controlled by the player. Normally, CH-901s will automatically attack the nearest enemy units, but the fact they can be controlled allows you to attack your opponent from the safe distance. But don't get too far - the drone's lifetime is only 30 seconds.

And yes, this vehicle is inspired by actual Chinese drone launching system. You can see it in this video: Youtube.com

GLA:

Global Liberaion Army will possess only one drone for only one subfaction - Rapid Attack Forces. Just like CH-901, the drones will have suicide option. But unlike China, GLA Partisans have to build them one-by-one, paying some money for each.

Well, I guess that's it. Hope you liked the way how we implemented the drones and uniqueness of building them for each faction. We will try to release update 0.97 until the end of the year. Don't forget to vote for us on ModDB.