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For other vehicles of the same class, see Specter. |
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The Specter was a Nod stealth artillery vehicle in Kane's Wrath.
Background[]
Developed during the post-Second Tiberium War period, Nod's Specter stealth artillery tank was designed as the ultimate evolution of the artillery-based guerilla warfare tactics first developed in South-East Asia during the mid-twentieth century. Alternating between two modes, one high-speed and stealthed, the other visible and static but capable of launching high-impact artillery from a massive distance, the Specter is a confounding opponent to face in battle. Able to enter occupied territory undetected, deploy, take out key structures and vanish before the enemy can hope to react, it is truly an insidious and dangerous opponent. This is even more the case when the unit is paired with the equally stealthy Nod Shadow Team, which has been equipped with targeting beacons, allowing the Specter to launch bombardment attacks from an even greater distance.[1]
Design[]
Essentially a lightly-armored tracked vehicle with a large caliber cannon mounted on its top, the design of the vehicle seems to be based on the scorpion, Nod's traditional symbol. In order to fire, it needs to deploy itself by spreading six "claws" that provide a stable platform for the large caliber weapon. In order to allow it to safely reach its destination and prevent premature detection by enemy scouts, the Specter, as its name suggests, is outfitted with a state-of-the-art stealth generator. The high impact shells fired from the cannon follow a high-arc trajectory and do tremendous amounts of damage, especially against structures, with a large blast radius. Care should be exercised when using the Specter, lest there be friendly fire incidents due to the large blast radius from its shells.
Under Marcion, the Black Hand removed the stealth generators from their Specters, as the Black Hand's religious doctrines forbade the use of stealth.
Game unit[]
Nod Shadow teams can interact with these artillery units and deploy a beacon to accurately guide their fire, like the synergy between GDI sniper teams and Juggernauts. However, much like Sniper Teams, the beacon is visible to everyone and vulnerable to fire. The beacon also enables Sniper Teams to spot for them, should the owner happen to possess all of these units. The Specter itself has a long deployment time, during which its stealth generator must be deactivated (if it has one), leaving it vulnerable to attack.
Due to a coding oversight, Specter attacks can destroy beacons set by Shadow teams.
Abilities[]
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Bombard Deployed Beacon
This ability allows Specters to fire at a designated location on the map that is within the line of sight (radius 400) of a Beacon planted by a Shadow Team.
Has a cooldown of 0:20. Hotkey: Ctrl+S.
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If an Air Tower is present, the Specter can call in a Carryall transport for pickup.
Costs $200 and has a cooldown of 2:00. Hotkey: Ctrl+A.
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Changelog[]
- Kane's Wrath patch 1.02:
- decoy Specters no longer deal the full non-decoy damage if the decoy dies while the weapon shell is in flight
- decoy Specters no longer do damage if the decoy dies while the shell is in flight
- Specters no longer damage airborne units
Quotes[]
The Black Hand variant has no abilities or stealth, as the subfaction's units do not deploy aircraft to Call for transport, and Shadow Teams are not available. Hence, many quotes related to stealth or use of the ability are unused or repurposed for the variant.
Attack (When ordered to attack nearby targets)
a. Death from above!
b. Kane's fury!
c. Target aquired!
d. Unloading
e. Death comes silently!
Create
a. Specter online.
b. None shall see me coming. (Unused for Black Hand variant)
c. Active. (Repurposed as a Select quote for Black Hand variant)
d. Stealth. (Unused for Black Hand variant)
MovAtt (When ordered to attack enemy units far away)
a. Undetected! (Unused for Black Hand variant)
b. Never see me coming!
c. It's all-over for them.
d. Weapons primed!
e. Silent and deadly.
Move
a. Into the darkness.
b. Like a ghost.
c. Moving out.
d. Stealth artillery moving out. (Unused for Black Hand variant)
e. Taking position.
f. They won't see us coming.
g. Specter moving.
Retrea (When ordered to leave combat)
a. It's better to fade away.
b. Time to disapear.
c. Zone is hot!
SelBat (Selected while bombarding)
a. Hahaha! (Repurposed as a Select quote for Black Hand variant)
b. Hahahahahahahahaha...
c. Bombarding!
d. Glorious destruction!
e. They die so brightly!
Select (Out of combat)
a. Hidden and dangerous. (Unused for Black Hand variant)
b. Hidden death. (Unused for Black Hand variant)
c. Stealthed and ready. (Unused for Black Hand variant)
d. Ready to strike.
(Create c.) Active. (Black Hand variant)
(SelBat a.) Hahaha! (Black Hand variant)
(Speci1 e.) Like a nightmare. (Black Hand variant)
Speci1 (When ordered to use "Bombard Deployed Beacon" ability, unused for Black Hand variant unless stated otherwise)
a. Beacon online!
b. Stars will fall!
c. Light of the morning!
d. The light of Kane!
e. Like a nightmare. (Repurposed as a Select quote for Black Hand variant)
Die
a.
Trivia[]
- Shadows and steath model on this unit are extremely buggy. A transparent model can often be observed overlapping onto the normal one for Nod and Marked of Kane variants, and the shadows will randomly disappear for Black Hand variant.
- The unit might have been called "Stealth Artillery" at one point during the development, for many sound files are labeled as "NUStArt" instead "NUSpect" as for the only Die sound.
Gallery[]
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Render -
Render
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Concept render
See also[]
- Beam cannon, one of the two Nod artillery vehicles
- Juggernaut, GDI counterpart
- Behemoth, Steel Talons counterpart
- Devastator warship, Scrin heavy bombardment aircraft counterpart
References[]
- ↑ Electronic Arts Los Angeles, Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath. Intelligence Database: Nod Weaponry, "Specter".
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