Caine

Central Consciousness

Core, lvl2 floating Buzzaw

Buildpic: I like it all but the background... It looks just as random as those spray-can pictures one made in paint at ten years age and the only thing that it has in common with water is that it got the right colors, nothing more. Maybe the picture should be slightly more zoomed in too.

Buildpic: 7

Model: Just what most of you probably fail to see on the model screenshot is that every turret got six barrels and I assure you, it's just as hard to spot them in the game. Compared to the Abel, this unit looks overall weaker with three seen barrels and much fatter body, although it's price tag says it's not. My suggestion is either to be unoriginal and copy-paste the Abel barrels or to arrange four barrels in a different way, as long as they aren't underneath each other (like ". ' ' ." where all barrels in the little drawing point forward. The hull is properly rounded up, just like any Core ship should be, but It doesn't please the eye at all. Maybe a more Executioner-alike rounding up would solve the problem? The enhancements on deck look both ugly and useless, especially the part underneath the front barrel (but it could be helped if it was more Warlord-like without any extra rounding. The two dots between the cannon towers can be removed and exchanged into other parts, like a broken line partly leaning over the deck (like an "¬"). I made an amateur [ render ] on the matter, but I doubt my explanation will become more clear of it. Anyway, the cannons are... well... ugly and very face consuming. Even here, a closer study of the Warlord is advised. The rear cannon could be placed a bit more further rear [2]. The texturing is very well done when looking on OTA core ships and the CD 3D, but in these proportions, it's easy to overabuse them metallic colors because that lightest one looks too damn repetitive when 90% of the seen ship got it.. A suggestion is to mix in some of the other corship textures, especially on the deck enhancements. Maybe an Executioner-like darker texturing would fit this guy or implementing Tangaroa's [ textures ] (that I personally adore)... There are some troubles detecting the barrels at the moment since the parts beneath them have generally the same color [3]. The corpse is mostly fine, but shouldn't the lighter parts be on the deck? [1]

Model: 3

Script: Aiming... whoops, there goes another missile.

Script: Not counted

Balance: First of all, this unit got slightly shorter range than an Intimidator, meaning that it actually can stand outside Big Bertha range and fire. Second of all, if you manage to land a shell square on target with a non-veteran Caine within twenty minutes, you deserve a medal. The inaccuracy is roughly 30 degrees meaning that your shells can fire up to 15 degrees off desired range in any direction, having problems to hit a parked Skeeter one screen away and proving extreme inability to nail it's target with up to six screens (at 800x600 resolution) between shortest and longest shot. Yes, it got one fat load of range, but then it costs more than a Timmy as well... Technically, it's weapons are just as powerful as Abel's, if one look on the damage/second ration, but the big flaw is that the higher costs themselves support a longer range and the increased inaccuracy only severely reduces the combat strength of this unit. To get your desired ten, restore the inaccuracy settings to Abel's levels or speed up the cannons to emit twice as many shots/ second with the same damage/shot settings.

Balance: 6

My score: No, it lacks elegance and style and everything that has to do with extreme ranged ships. My psionic heart, the essence of my neutron pulse generator remains with Abel. Never ever did one single unit force me to play for five hours straight, just bringing forth my insane trigger-happiness. While the Cain bombards your base, you can continue as nothing happened, since the chances of losing something in your base is infinite small, seeing that it takes four shots to eradicate a metal maker...

My score: 5

Review by Storm | Others by same