I can't help but think someone dropped the ball on the artifacts issue in original campaigns. It really isn't all that unusual, ow has multiple dialogue/description/mistakes/unfinished loose ends.
There are two instances in American campaign relatd to artifacts: in Ovsyenko, during the mining, they uncover something unknown, though the dialogue makes it seem like something smaller and less sophisticated - a material rather than an artifact (or maybe like the artifact nr 1). It is only a dialogue, there is nothing to load on truck and guard or transport.
The other is Am11.
I don't know how it is in other languages, but in polish cinematic before 12a there is a mention of Roth and the artifacts -plural- as if there really was an actual artifact in Ovsyenko, and so they had two. Then in mission intro, Roth says "I'll be waiting with the artifact" -singular. In American version of the Alliance, Burlak is supposed to lie about Kaaba having an artifact to make the Alliance destroy the Arabians. Altough the dialogues themselves make it even more confusing. So it would seem they really had two(3 and 5), or at least meant to have, and then they go to get stashed nr4 in 14a. The only explanation for that I can think of, is that originally they were meant to find the artifact in Ovsyenko, but then some (incomplete) changes were made durig game development.
It would mean that one artifact was found by every nation , instead of 1 by Russian and 2 by Arabians.
In Russian version, Gossudarov brings one (4) (hides it durig his escape and is reclaimed in 14a) and they find one in Kaaba(5) and so Roth must have had one too, but it is never really told from where. I can only guess it was from Ovsyenko.
By the way, have You ever considered using Artifacts 1 and 2 in Arabian campaign? It would probably make a nice addition (and it would take a few creative ideas for their use), if keeping track of three weren't hard egnough.
Also, is there a plan to use a sheikh under player's control in pro-Arabian missions?
What about mission 15? It has to be rather different from all other last missions since the goal is not to defeat everyone but just to get through to the motherlode.
I haven't really thought about this but it seems correct - the map used in Legin 15a may not be sufficient for Arabian finish. Then again, it might simply be said that the contamination must start in the centre of motherlode, for some madeup reason. It wouldn't be the first such case, as for example, the player looses immediately in Ru15, when a single mine is built on some remote source on motherlode, despite that there is no logical reason for that. It might be dubious, but it would give a reason to destroy the Russians at least. Also the Russians may simply be made too difficult to defeat for Arabians - like sourounded in massive lapsing field with a lot of turrets. The player would have to obtain the artifacts like in 15a or Russian/American technologies by defeating Americans/Alliance and capturing their labs and cranes.
The only other thing I can think off, is to make it "mobile", like the raid which was shown in Am15, instead of the standard built,bunker up,destroy. The mission would require of the player to travel, or rather fight through, accros a large distance, like two or three maps. The idea for gameplay would be similar to the one I posted above, except the goal would be to travel from one end of the map to another, with as little damage done to player's forces, so that they can make a successfull raid when they finally get to the motherlode.
The obvious problem here is how to make it as long as any other ending mission? Maybe it could be separated into two parts: the preapartion and the actual ride, both of about 0.5h:
- The first part (again, like my idea above) would include putting up some sort of mobile
perimeter around Arabian base. The player would have to stop incoming waves of enemy, while the base prepares for the journey - makes vehicles, research upgrades and such - until finally dismanling the base, joining the player and going straight for motherlode. That, beside balance difficulties ,leaves also plot-wise questions - why would anyone attack and with what? The fact that the Arabians can destroy siberite would have to be revealed and even then only secondary forces could be sent against them (like the Pink Army led by Vsevolod in Am15) as all the major
forces and attention should be focused on motherlode at the moment.
- The ride then, would have to be very long and creative in design to make it a match for other last missions. It would make sense to have the Arabians fight through largely stationary and automatic bases (as all available people have to be at motherlode), but then, wouldn't it look ridiculus to have all other sides' bases around every corner and all right in our path? It also doesn't seem plausible (from what we've seen so far) to have everyone suddenly recognize Arabians as everyone's enemy nr 1, and be actively trying to stop them.
It's a very interesting idea, but can it be pulled off?
@ jirsrt
Roth's doomsday prophecy is, to some extent at least, a speculation. Anyhow, Omar is willing to pay the price. We can also assume, his people are willing to carry out the plan as well, since otherwise they would probably join the legion. There is no real reason to think they would leave the contamination to someone else at this point.
).
Arabs do have a lot of gear and tech allowing them to use such tactics.
