Well, for the upgrade bit, a menu would be out of my league... I'll have to ask CC48. Any ideas on feasible menus/button mashing combos?

Crouch+alphabet basically covers everything?

Not a menu so much, more of a display.

You press AI golddig, and options pop up around the puppet, four at most.
Then you just press the corresponding direction to pick one.


Edit:

Obviously this is only necessary if you want more than one upgrade choice, and is a little rough around the edges.
You probably optimise those else ifs, but the speed increase wouldn't be enormous. http://lua-users.org/wiki/SwitchStatement

PuppetUpgradeDisplay wants to be a MOSParticle with a lifetime of 1 and the sprite of a display thing.
You could use a dofile for the upgrading, which would make it simpler to read.

Allright, I'll try to incorporate this for the gamepad/mouse users. Keyboard users will still have the normal combo of crouch+key.

Also, on the slate for the next strain(s):
-gamepad/mouse compatibility
-aerial unit upgrade for Puppet, would be a floating type
-stationary brain which could spawn 'base' units (Puppet, Crawler, mobile brain) for a price
-mobile brain that can be spawned from stationary brain or upgraded from a Crawler
-stationary turret upgrade for Crawler
-some sort of spore-spewing weapon, basically aerial mine dispenser
-dropship? (not quite sure)

Carriontrooper, these are quite lovely. I like the sprites, and this whole system of upgrades is kickass. I look forward to further updates of this mod avidly.

Why not make a dropship that spews the green gas as a propeller?

Problem is, that'd be too cliche, and doesn't quite fit the theme I had. Aerial units would use baloons... and I'm not quite sure this faction even needs dropships...

A baloon that spits seeds would be awesome.

I have an idea!
Add mushrooms that drain the life out of your enemies and turns them into you units and spread in a tiberium-like way(lagging the *@!( out of CC)

Or simply some growth thing that grows along the ground and have units only able to build on that.

Expanision could be either with a builder unit or automatic growth.

Oh noes! teh CC forums are overrun by TRIFFIDS!*

I like the plants taking over the CC world. With CaveCricket's spreading vines and this, the plants faction should absolutely be vanilla content. Adds a lot depth to the game's various stories.

Also I like the transformations.

Idea: A giant, Treebeard-Ent-sized plant plated with scrap attachable metal (rusty and orange/brown), bark, and vines for muscles. That actors one weapon will be a charge up vine fist that will constrict a smaller actor and inject it with spores by doing so. Constriction will require to hold fire that's why I said charge up.
Idea2: brain vine/tree with fruits as brains out of cases (captured brains to feed on) and a ganglion at their center (original plant brain), drawn in the most gruesome way.

I just found that these guys are tiberium-proof. Holy crap!

I'm going to send them in with heavy diggers. Bye bye, pesky tiberium

I really like this. I'm guessing that you want them to be a primitive alien/organic faction? If so, maybe a drop pod that is like the headcrab canister, but organic and fleshy. That would be kind of... weird?

E: Was brainstorming, and came up with this idea. Maybe three kind of Cordyc could be together in a group, and if you press crouch *whatever* then it would combine them all into some kind of big Cordyc. Just an idea.

This is pretty awesomesauce; I love the upgrading and how them using bioweapons means they can't really kill anything inorganic. I'll have to try this out with the tiberium mod and see how that goes, as it's been stated that they're immune. But yeah, I'd love to see another unit or two and some more transformations! The only one that I could think of that's not entirely ridiculous would be crouching and pressing a key (could be R again) would root the crab Cordyc and make them into a turret.

EDIT: Oh yeah, you need some awesome hanging biopod thing with tendrils for a brain-type, and maybe a Cordyc with one growing on its back could be the brain unit.

EDIT2: I forgot to mention. I like playing missions that have biological douchebags in them and then sending in Cordyc and pretending that they're taking over that section of the planet. I can't remember the mission, but I was trying to take out some brain deep within a Ronin base, and there was a sniper I converted. Then, it proceeded to convert a couple of others from inside, and by the time I was inside I had like 4 Cordyc (because 2 or 3 were shot first).

One possible idea for a big cordyc would be to have a lua'ed list of actors who when killed, turn into a huge "Abomination" Cordyc. Obviously, the various giant mechs would be on the list, like the MPAM, the Behemoth, etc. The reason for the list would be so that players could easily edit new mechs into the list.

You could do the same thing with brain-bot/commanders, to become brain Cordycs which can maintain control for you side, even if your other brains are lost after you convert it.