Ever since pretty early development of the mod, before I even started playtesting myself, I kept thinking how well a late-game Special Ops unit would fit in. It could be a unit about as strong as Mech Inf, with 2 movement points and good chances to withdraw, extremely expensive, and starts with Commando, March, Blitz, and Amphibious. It would be able to enter absolutely all land terrain types and it would be immune to the Russian Winter.
But here's a catch: it's a national unit with a max of 5 or so, and it can't conquer a city - if it enters an empty city, all it can do is spy jobs. And it wouldn't have the spy's invisibility.
It would be, well, a special unit. You'd have to use it to negotiate through tough situations, but it won't allow you to go conquering. For that you'd need to bring in other units.
I think this is both realistic and good for gameplay. It would also fill in the hole left over after Marines go obsolete. It wouldn't be unbalancing because of the great limitations placed on it which force limited use.

Personally I like the idea...

Is there anyway to have it visible but not for the nationality to be revealed (or for it to appear barbarian even)? Like the privateer in Civ III. That way you could also use it help out in conflicts you don't want to get directly involved in. I'd also make it pretty incapable at defence.

I don't think it should always been seen as barbarian or without nationality, but maybe there can be a way to turn "hidden nationality" on or off in-game on each such unit, with a gold fee for every turn of hidden nationality.
Also I don't think it should not be able to defend itself, but it should not be good at defending cities. It should get -50% when defending a city. This would turn it into a unit used tactically and protected when not in use, not some super-unit you keep on your outskirts in case you need to use it. It might even make sense to park them in transports off-coast from potential enemies, defended by a stack of destroyers etc., just to keep them out of the danger of cities.

Sorry, that's what I meant: a penalty for city defence.

I think it is a great idea. Sounds very cool! When would it be implimented in the tech tree?

I think if something like this gets implemented then the national limit should either be two or three. And what strength level were you thinking of?

It could be a unit about as strong as Mech Inf

That is how strong he was thinking :goodjob: which is 32 I think.

Personally I'm not sure on this idea. It sounds kind of cool but also not so good. I'm not completely against the idea but I'd like to see it in action. I guess I just need a bit more convincing.

That is how strong he was thinking :goodjob: which is 32 I think.
Haha, right. For some reason I had been thinking that he said it would be a bit stronger than a mech infantry :crazyeye:

I like the idea.

But I don't think it should be very strong head on. You would send a special ops unit in to fight a tank division for example. They do smaller more tactical missions. So I wouldn't give it 32 strength at all.

But give it all sorts of promotions like march, commando, guerilla II, woodsman II, etc. That would make more sense.

I especially like being able to make it a barb unit potentially. The problem though with that is the AI loves to kill barbs. So they will hunt it out.

There are a few parts I can't really cover because I'm out of touch - I haven't played the game in weeks, and sadly will probably not get to play it much in the next few months (I'm starting my civillian service away from home on Sunday, going to live in an apartment with other people doing civillian service, and I'm not taking my computer along initially.)
I can answer in relative terms. SpecOps should come in after Modern Armor or around the same time. It should be unlikely to beat Modern Armor in a fair fight, but likely to beat Mech Inf in a fair fight. Maybe it can be significantly toned down in Strength (to about 70% of Mech Inf strength), but given Woodsman I+II and Guerilla I+II and a defense bonus in Desert to make it fight strategically.
About the national unit limit, 2 or 3 is way too low to make them usable. But perhaps the best way to implement them is to just make them cost extra maintenance (especially when they're out of your border) so only the rich countries can afford to use them extensively. But for that they need to be worth every penny.

I especially like being able to make it a barb unit potentially. The problem though with that is the AI loves to kill barbs. So they will hunt it out.
Indeed, I'd just like some form of deniable military intervention other than spies. The problem would be is that there would be no way of differentiating between enemies and friends in terms of what nationality it appears as ; maybe a switch would work.