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Gauntlet's Greatest Good

This is a Tau overhaul and expansion focusing on leaning into the Utopia feature of the Tau and adding some fun new units and options.


Firstly, the Utopia feature... pretty much everyone agrees that it is an odd challenge and there are several mods that simply double the Utopia bonus, or remove the Utopia rule, or add loyalty back in some other way. I wanted to try a different solution, so I instead I have tried to give the player more buildings in order for them to increase resource production, loyalty, and population limits without resorting to repeating the same buildings (which Gladius fundamentally demands in order to be competitive in the mid to late game).

What does this look like?

Your main housing building is now it's own production chain and you'll find that it can acquire and clear tiles for you, freeing up time for your construction of buildings (new and old). With research, the housing chain can construct three new hybrid housing structures, each are about half as effective as the original housing structure, but also produce about half the energy, food, or ore that a traditional resource building would.

This helps you avoid repeating the same housing building and provides more unique buildings for the Utopia loyalty bonus, whilst alleviating some of the need to repeat build the resource production structures as well.


Secondly we have unit production buildings and some new units. In order to compete you generally need 3 or more infantry recruitment buildings or the like, to produce units fast enough. Alternatively, you diversify every city to produce every unit type and hope to produce enough units. This is traditionally limited to Infantry, Vehicle, Monsters, Heroes, and Air. This mod adds two more options thus far: Auxiliary Recruitment and Drone Assembly.

Through the Auxiliary chain you can now directly recruit Kroot Hounds, Vespid Stingwings, and Kroot Ox.
Through the Drone chain you now recruit permanent Drone Squadrons (8 Gun Drones), Builder Drones, and the Harbinger Drone Carrier.

These are somewhat cheaper units and allows your early game to focus on a mix of infantry instead of building 2-3 infantry recruitment buildings who are under a great deal of selection pressure to pump out Crisis Battlesuits. Now you can keep producing those Battlesuits and supplement them with the occasional Kroot Ox without feeling guilty!


Thirdly, you'll find some fun tweaks, new units, and other new buildings added. Of note, you'll notice the Ethereal and Cadre Fireblade have swapped their ultimate abilities... I think it simply makes more sense that you'll accumulate a council of Ethereals for that delicious loyalty bonus! I hope you enjoy these changes and expansions! Feedback is always welcome and I look forward to adding more!







Techs:
Builder Drones moved from T3 to T2 (May change this back)
Devilfish moved from T4 to T2

Units:
Ethereal's Zephyr's Grace ability replaced with Unity ability
Cadre Fireblade's Unity ability replaced with Zephyr's Grace ability
Drone Controller range of effect is now 3 tiles and the accuracy bonus improved from 2 to 3
Piranha has reduced cool-down for Seeker Missile and Jink
Devilfish upkeep cost reduced from 3 to 2, and production cost reduced from 42 to 36
Stealth Suits had model count increased to 5, upkeep is increased but with improved efficiency
Ghostkeel production cost reduced from 48 to 42 and given Infiltrate
Stealth Drones now have Burst Cannon, Infiltrate, Shrouded, and Stealth
Headquarters building can now spawn drones with appropriate research


Building: Poctroon Memorial Center
-Hyrbid influence/loyalty production building

Building: Auxiliary Recruitment (No Tech Needed)
-Building that produces Auxiliary units, such as Kroot Hounds, Vespids, Krootox

Building: Housing
-Housing Building can now acquire and clear tiles

Tech: Diverse Accommodations
-Allows Housing Building to construct new Housing/Resource Hybrid Buildings

Tech: Drone Assembly Plant
-New Drone Unit Production Building
-Gun Drone Squadron Unit
-Skyfire Drone Squadron Unit (Interceptor Drone with Markerlight/etc.)

Tech: Harbinger Drone Carrier
-New Drone Deploying Tank
-Requires Tech Drone Assembly Plant

Tech: Apex Battlesuit
-Increased armor and ranged damage resistance for certain Battlesuits
-Increased Support Systems for certain Battlesuits

Tech: Kovattra Strategic Services
-Cities have new "airlift" ability that grants extreme movement to nearby units for influence
-Builder Drones may construct Transit Centers which may perform the Airlift ability