Secret techs tier 4 units

[Minervo]

Are the other secret techs going to receive a tier 4 unit, like psynumbra and celestial?

Really liked the way each of those has a unique way to create their tier 4 (psynumbra using 3 population in production and celestial using influence as a operation) and i'm hoping for a tier 4 for each secret tech (maybe the xenomplague using a operation that uses cosmite, for example)

 

[wingren013]

All of the techs that lack a T4 have a strong T3. The Xenoplague one in particular is basically just a T4 calling itself a T3.

 

[LogicMage]

What wingren013 said. All techs have a t3. Note that you don't necessarily want a t4, as all t4s are defined as costing 4 cosmite and 24 energy a turn. For that reason, I rarely build t4s, I simply can't afford the upkeep. It's cheaper to do two heavily modded t3

 

[Promethian]

The Avatar and void generator are also crazy good for t3.

One thing to note is the secret techs without a t4 get an amazing support unit in the middle of their tech tree instead. The network uplink and void drone are extremely good. The Promethean tank provides cover, a defensive field and all its attacks do massive impact. Xenoplague is an exception to this but its spawning/evolution mechanic would be weird turning a fast melee flanker into a support specialist then into a brawling powerhouse.

 

[Sifer2]

Yeah they don't necessarily all need the same amount of tiered units. I would rather see them do another pass on making the racial secret tech units unique. It looks like they started on that getting pretty far with Amazon/Dvar variants but then just kind of ran out of time.

 

[The Founder]

I think some Secret Techs simply do not have their strenght in (custom) Units.
Units, Mods, Operations & Doctrines. Those are the 3 things where each secret tech can shine in. But none will shine in all.

Both Celestian and Psinumbra are "meh" in at least one of the two, with okay in the third. Their strenght is the units.

Psynumbra got a lot of active action mods. And for main battle units that is an issue, as using an active ability means you do not attack that turn.
Meanwhile Celestians Ops and Doctrines are pretty weak, having barely any offensive abilities.

 

[Sinsling]

Rift generator is a t4 posing as a t3 vehicle. And no cosmite upkeep means you can spamspamspam a siege unit with a teleport cannon and 2 turn lockdown.

 

[Minervo]

When i started this thread, i didn't realize that all secret techs have three units, so my bad xD. Now, all i want is more uniqueness in each race, probably something that can synergize with weapons tech of each race. For example, the celestial t3 dvar unit using a explosive as a main weapon that does heavy psionic damage (so it will be a upgraded version of the the support biological dvar unit- i don't remember its name now), so it can use mod from the explosive tech tree and so on...

 

[Elgareth]

When i started this thread, i didn't realize that all secret techs have three units, so my bad xD. Now, all i want is more uniqueness in each race, probably something that can synergize with weapons tech of each race. For example, the celestial t3 dvar unit using a explosive as a main weapon that does heavy psionic damage (so it will be a upgraded version of the the support biological dvar unit- i don't remember its name now), so it can use mod from the explosive tech tree and so on...

Yeah, I'd like that as well. Certain Units already add a nice touch, like the VoidTech Dvar Echo Walkers having Hammers, Kir'Ko enrage, Assembly Assimilate.
Or Amazon purifiers having a repeating bow, and Amazon Celestials having a Flyer.
The damage channels are a difficult matter though, as those are so core to the secret techs.

 

[The Founder]

Now, all i want is more uniqueness in each race, probably something that can synergize with weapons tech of each race. For example, the celestial t3 dvar unit using a explosive as a main weapon that does heavy psionic damage (so it will be a upgraded version of the the support biological dvar unit- i don't remember its name now), so it can use mod from the explosive tech tree and so on...

Yeah, I'd like that as well. Certain Units already add a nice touch, like the VoidTech Dvar Echo Walkers having Hammers, Kir'Ko enrage, Assembly Assimilate.
Or Amazon purifiers having a repeating bow, and Amazon Celestials having a Flyer.
The damage channels are a difficult matter though, as those are so core to the secret techs.

There is a lot of things they change, except the Weapons channel. And I think that is intentional balancing rather then flavor.

Most secret Tech Weapons can not be buffed with anything but Secret Tech.
Plasma is not laser, Voidtech Kinetic is not firearms (and barely melee).
Psionic and - of all things - Arc attacks are the ones with Damage Channel.
Damage channel techs are effectively non-exclusive racial mods.

If a species has a racial weapon tech or a racial unit/mod that would synergize to well, those have to be accounted for with a special version. The last things they want to do is increase the number of damage channels (and thus Racial Mods) that can be applied to ST units.
Racial Melee mods are usually limited to specific racial units. The Kir'ko claw upgrades. The Assembly Poision attacks. All are limited to specific Racial units, excludeding the very similar Secret Tech units. It would be trivial to expand those mods to apply to any unit that has "Frenzy" or "Assimilation". Maybe exlcuding heroic units. So them not doing that is intentional to keep secret tech units away from those mods.