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Awesome news! And I really appreciate that you guys have a presence here on the forums. Thank you. Since my last post I've been experimenting a bit more with Nod's stealth units. Initially I think I was trying to place more of a mainstay role on the stealth tank. It's actually very good for finishing off enemy vehicles when they go behind cover to repair like I mentioned before, and then it's quite easy to get out alive. It's also great for recon/keeping hotties away, so I'm pretty satisfied with it as a "defensive support" kind of thing. Still trying to figure out how to take down Orcas though. Also, SBH's with EMP grenades are a terrifying thing to behold.

True, Nod's vehicles are a bit more suited to abusing cover. We might see this change in beta 4, MRLS's are getting a missile speed increase, and I actually agree with that. And it would be pretty cool to see stealth tank missiles tightened up or given more range. Their damage is actually really good when you get a few good, direct hits.

Even with a techie, I wouldn't call Arties OP in X, nor MRLS's for that matter. They're much too fragile to hold an area for long, and they take a dangerous amount of time to kill GDI armor. Most of the time Arties are forced back behind cover to repair temporarily, as a couple Mammy shells/rockets or a full MRLS volley is often enough to warrant doing so. A good APC driver can kill an Arty/MRLS + an advanced engineer who knows to get in the vehicle to avoid getting run over. Tank shells and missiles do a significant amount of splash damage to nearby light vehicles, and this goes for repairing techies, too. The only way a techie is completely safe is when they're far behind a corner and using the range of the repair gun to keep away from the splash damage. Hotties on the other hand can sit flush against the back of a Mammoth and take no splash damage from any direct hits to the tank, and they have so much health with repairs that flame tanks and coordinated stank rushes on them can fail easily. Mammies are crazy good at taking ground. You spend a lot of time in the Arty's barrel-view shooting the very tip/corner of a Mammy's treads, because he can kill you so quickly if you linger out in the open. A single Havoc can also kill an Arty pretty easily. If you're out of cover and something has knocked your health down some, his ramjet can burst down techie repairs, even with some reloading on his part. An airstrike will destroy any Arties/MRLS's that don't move out of it. In beta 4, railguns will be able to 4 shot light armor vehicles. Orcas and Apaches both have missile volleys on long reloads and secondary MGs/cannons that are very damaging to light vehicles, and infantry is Nod's only answer to Orcas. On maps like Lakeside, Arties simply can't make it across the map. It isn't even a question.

It's hard to say. I played the original Ren a very long time ago, and not nearly as much as I play Ren X now, so my experience with the games is probably the opposite of yours. I can't go into specifics, but I would say the major differences are obviously things like airstrikes and sprinting, and the general fluidity of gameplay didn't feel familiar to me when I first started playing Ren X. Vehicle handling and battles are really tightly executed, to the point that some meta gaming is needed to swing a fight. For example, in Ren X, if I'm in a light tank up against a med tank at a distance where there's some travel time with the shells, I need to fully time my movement to his shots. Move while he's reloading, stop when he fires. He leads the shot and misses. Move while he's reloading, change direction when he fires. Stop. Move in a random direction when he fires. In the original Ren I felt a light tank's speed and size alone was its strength, and the scenario I just wrote wasn't necessary, but again this is just my limited perspective. And things like the airstrike obviously caused a huge shift in grouping and holding positions. Artillery and MRLS's feel very fragile in Ren X and I don't see them holding the line like I remember them in Ren. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?

I think that's true. Flames feel pretty good to me and it looks like the devs have been paying a lot of attention to them anyway, which is really awesome to see. They definitely make a great stopping force and synergize well with Nod's tanks (any of them) even if they are still used pretty situationally. I made my first post after getting out of a game on Whiteout where GDI was down a Power Plant, and we were near vehicle cap with a majority of Artillery on the hill, a few stealth tanks patrolling our entrance and the side routes, and a flame tank at the entrance. After a little while of this, all of our Artillery died to Orcas and MRLS's, and GDI just pumped armor into all 3 vehicle paths and started shelling us. It was totally overwhelming and it felt like there was no way to break down even one of the flanks, we went from no HoN to dead in no time. Could be that they organized a wave like that intentionally, though, it was just crazy to lose to vehicles with no PP backing.

Also, I just want to add that I purposefully avoided making any suggestions about changes. I understand that I'm just one person, and I have great respect for all the guys working on the game, and I want to leave my perspective and nothing more.

First off I want to preface this post by saying that I think both factions are very capable in capable hands, and that any strengths and weaknesses are ultimately leveled out with player experience. Also there's a tl;dr at the bottom. As it stands right now the vehicle balance is pretty ridiculous, and I believe the problem is how easy it is to do well with GDI vehicles. Meds and Mammoths have great firepower, and Meds and Orcas have great mobility. MRLS's have lock-on capabilities that guarantee hits outside of cover while Artillery needs to account for the distance and speed of their opponents. The result is, with the exception of the Mammoth tank's sluggishness, ALL GDI vehicles are move, point, and click to win. And this fact alone does lead to wins. Now before you jump to conclusions, no, I'm not saying Nod can't put up a fight. I'm saying Nod puts up a fight less often, because the effective use of their vehicles requires more teamwork and more specific circumstances. A perfect example of this is the stealth tank, as it's not even really a tank, and more akin to a stealth transport with damage capabilities. Pop out of stealth to attack ANYTHING and your stealth tank is put at a huge risk. Mammoths and Med tanks can pop you like a balloon and even infantry can put up a good fight until you shift-drive away from them, since you can't run anyone over when you've been detected, and firing your missiles is like rolling a pair of dice. As a stealth tank you are not something to be feared, you're a mosquito to be swatted away. Now put that same stank in the middle of a well-executed stank rush, and GDI is probably looking at a new dead building on their hands. How? What changed? Nothing, Nod just used teamwork and surprised the enemy. But when a stank attacks you on your own, isn't it still surprising? Now why is the $900 tank struggling to do anything? It's the same situation for most of Nod's vehicles. Light tanks just don't get anything done. They don't have the damage, and their speed and low profile design is still easily shelled by tanks and locked on to by MRLS's and Mammoths. Light tanks are also all around outclassed by Med tanks, in 1:1 situations. Apaches can't duck out of sniper fire easily, so their firepower is often nullified. They also have to deal with MRLS's firing at them from miles away, requiring them again to duck into cover. Same goes for Mammoths with rocket pods. Orcas are quick and responsive, and can more easily deal with sniper fire. But they still have to deal with missil- oh wait, no, NONE of Nod's ground vehicles can respond to Orca harrassment. Stanks can, but we've already been over how weak stanks are on their own, and their range is very short. Orcas are fast, they can fire and then outrange the stank's missiles if they need to. Artillery is Orca food. Also, Artillery in beta 4 will see even slower Artillery shells, so you'll need to get even better at adjusting for distance and leading your shots. So, we have stealth tanks, light tanks, Apaches, and Artillery, all with glaring weaknesses. More weaknesses than GDI vehicles have that fulfill the same role. Now, what is the Med tank's weakness? Can you even think of one? It can kill light tanks. It can kill Artillery. It can kill stealth tanks. It can kill flame tanks. It's perfectly capable of handling infantry. And every other GDI vehicle can keep Apaches away from it. So here's my point. GDI's armor is flat-out too good and too well-rounded. No, this isn't because it's just GDI's thing, how they're depicted in the C&C games. It's because your average joe Ren X player can pop into a tank or even an Orca and he won't run into any costly problems. That same guy in any of Nod's vehicles will find himself short one vehicle when he inevitably runs into the wrong situation. Multiply that difference over the course of a game, and you've got a serious problem. tl;dr GDI stumbles into good teamwork and synergy by virtue of their design, and Nod takes the underdog thing too literally. It makes for frustrating games.