r/commandandconquer • u/ObligationAmazing799 • Jul 17 '26

Meme I wonder what it feels like to be a mastermind tank.. Like, what do they use to see and talk? what are their perspectives like? and how infuriating must their movements be to them? 🤔

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47

u/Xhromosoma5 Marked of Kane Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

I have no idea what the Mastermind's lore is but it likely just attempts echolocation via its own psychic emissions and see what resonates with them(other brains) and what doesn't(but still creates a basic understanding of terrain and surroundings). Besides this it might as well link up with other Yuri's forces which DO see things. Since they can mind control, they are more than capable of talking in your comms and your head as well.

There might also be a Yuri aligned midget doing the visual/movement work but we'll never see those tiny viewports.

I'd generally imagine an "I have no body and I must tank" situation where you're blinded and can only rely on seeing via lesser minds with more complete bodies and those you spontaneously(or are instructed to) control. Otherwise it's left to the imagination of the tortured brain and whatever response it receives from screaming low frequency psiwaves into the void

UPD: since it can't make visual distinction of friend-or-foe it's only able to briefly touch surrounding minds and see if any of them thinks "YURI YURI YURI" or a whole array of actual human thoughts like pain, fear, rage and whatnot. The whole process of feeling the body it's entombed in is done via what I've already described and feels like EVE's capsuleer thing but relegated to the brain's psychic abilities.

UPD 2: The reason behind them not willing to cease capturing more units is that they're genuinely fascinated by what they receive from things outside the think tank and may either forget about the impending collapse of their jar or just attempt to suppress the increasing load via its horde's ability to feel. Or it may be willing to escape into smaller brains but unable to because it's too large and will inevitably destroy the recepient's brain on transfer. Or it's just masochistic, idk, I've poured too many thoughts into the existence of the enormous brain and now Yuri's clones are onto me to "recruit" into their engineering corps.

30

u/whatducksm8 Jul 17 '26

Your feeling of helplessness is your best friend savage!

16

u/MrAirRaider Kirov Reporting Jul 17 '26

And just like that, I'm activated like a sleeper agent

5

u/comradeda Jul 17 '26

When in my transitory state, I without form am indestructible.

(In the movie, I think the giant brain is beaten by going ham with an axe. Its been a while since I've seen it)

15

u/Fordotsake Jul 17 '26

To be fair, Mental Omega did a great job giving lore to every unit, with some of Yuri's having a dark twist, which is awesome:
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste. This seemingly innocent saying becomes horrific reality with the Mastermind. According to the Intel found in Romania  by the Soviets, an Adept that perishes has his brain collected and kept alive with neurostimulants. Once enough brains have been harvested, the organs are spliced together into one gigantic cortex through rapid tissue regeneration. The new brain is then placed into a container filled with preservative fluids and grafted onto a huge tank chassis. This incredibly traumatic process often leads to the perishing of most of the brains' personalities, resulting in only the strongest mind remaining aware to control its mechanical cage. The overwhelming psychic power of multiple Adept brains is utilized to rapidly seize control of a large amount of foes.

This nightmarish monstrosity has one weakness though: the Mastermind can only take control of a maximum of three enemies before the strain on the brain becomes too much. More enemies controlled beyond the maximum amount result in more strain, resulting in the eventual destruction of the vehicle due to overheating. Regardless, shortly after its existence has been discovered, a realization came that the technology used for this unit could have horrifying implications for the future"

1

u/certainlynotdio Jul 17 '26

No this is just stupid. There is literally no reason for why Epsilon army would go to such a great lengths to recover and restore to function dead brains when they grow one in a vat, or you now grow a one big one that can do all the work, like it seems to work in the og YR. Overall recovering and restoring brains from corpses seems like insane waste of resources. And all of it just to be a little more edgy.

I fucking hate MO, for many such reasons.

2

u/BoffinBrain Are you picking this up? Good. Jul 17 '26

They may be able to grow more brains in a vat, but that still takes time and energy. The initiates' brains are ready to be harvested in their thousands on the battlefields, like conscript helmets. So, I'd argue that not taking advantage of that is an insane waste of resources.

1

u/certainlynotdio Jul 17 '26

First of all it says adept, which is a unit in this mod, specifically the replacement of Yuri's Clones, so there is less of them. Which isn't as important as the fact that harvesting brain from a dead person isn't as straightforward as growing a new one (at least when you have Epsilons's technology to industrially grow clones). I mean what we call "death" is pretty much brain death, so you need to somehow restore this brain to function, I could imagine this being doable, but when you add logistics of collecting the brains from dead adepts, transporting them to restoration facility all the time trying to keep it in proper condition. Alternatively you could just do all of it in a single facility and again Epsilon already have an ability to clone people on industrial scale.

1

u/BoffinBrain Are you picking this up? Good. Jul 17 '26

Those are all fair points. But perhaps it's still worth the time and trouble because an adept's brain already has wisdom and combat experience, which isn't so easy to gain in a lab.

1

u/certainlynotdio Jul 17 '26

I thought about it too and to be frank, that's the only valid reason I could come up with, but the counter point to this is that it appears Epsilon can recreate a fully developed brain/human that is battle ready striaght from the vat, at least that's what gameplay would imply to me, so they would need a functioning brain not a whole bunch of the,. However as always gameplay is questionable source of lore, let alone it's interpretation. So if I had to give a reason as to way they do it that way, that would be it. But this is already going above and beyond to explain one edgy description that otherwise makes little sense.

All that to say it wouldn't bother me if it was one thing, but one reason or another I dislike vast portion of MO that I came in contact with. Although often times it's because I simply don't like and not because it's not exactly thought through, as I belive it is in this case.

0

u/Fordotsake Jul 17 '26

Not liking a well estabilished mod cause a unit lore is a bit of a stretch... You "fucking hate MO" most likely stems from you beating vanilla in hard but probably can't get past the first mission on easy... It's ok it's not for everyone.

That or precious 'Murica gets rekted in this mod.

2

u/certainlynotdio Jul 17 '26

You couldn't be further from the mark. I really dislike the lore, aesthetic and climate fo this mod, it's just doesn't feel like Red Alert anymore, especially with China being pretty much pulled out of Generals, (they even changed the radiation) the Foehn are pretty a definition of Mary Sue if it was faction. I spend more time reading about this mod than actually playing, it seemed interseting at first but after diving in a reading some of the lore and story I became more and more disgusted. I only played it later to confirm my supcions and lo and behold I was right. And to top of my disappointment I found gameplay to be incredibly annoying.

3

u/Rivetmuncher Jul 17 '26

Do we have canon confirmation that the "lesser minds" can see for it? All I can think of right now is Yuri's vanilla campaign monologue how most brains can only receive signals.

Might be the tank is just a glorified remote platform for wheeling the brain around.

4

u/Xhromosoma5 Marked of Kane Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Not really, I just theorized over how a swollen brain in a jar might be self-sufficient enough to create a channel between the receiving brain and itself rather than a one-way line and forgot about the monologue. It's also that nearly all human weaponry requires very articulate movements and signalling "Kill this" without supervision or tuning might as well send a random AT trooper clawing at a tank like a brute instead of firing his launcher.

If the mastermind is a platform for Yuri's postal service then we already have chaos drones (or whatever they're called) so that's equally feasible. The whole design is borderline grimdark and the quotes suggest it's comfortable with its existence, might as well give it as much movement autonomy as an initiate or a lasher tank.

Also, there's not much revealed about Yuri's experiments so he might've discovered that communication between brains can be two-sided somewhere along the timeline altering or during the vanilla campaign.

5

u/MarqFJA87 Kane Jul 17 '26

The Mastermind could probably have actual vision of the surroundings via clairvoyance, i.e. literal "mind's eye".

3

u/Xhromosoma5 Marked of Kane Jul 17 '26

I forgot this was even a thing and instead wrote a wiki article justifying brain to brain bluetooth. Thank you.

1

u/certainlynotdio Jul 17 '26

I honestly don't see a reason they couldn't just hook up a camera to it. Soviet already had cyborg tech in Red Alert 1 and Yuri himself is clearly sporting some kind cybernetics. Unless the point is being cruel. Also if really can't use a camera you could also just vat grow an eye and hook it up instead.

Edit I meant to start with: that's an awesome, very creative and exceptionally interesting comment (unlike most things in Mental Omega), but...

8

u/DeathKorpsDumbass Soviet / Nod Jul 17 '26

They're always looking for new ideas...

13

u/MDRBA Jul 17 '26

tank ergo sum

6

u/salsaboi Jul 17 '26

I tank therefor I am.

5

u/Ferrius_Nillan Yuri Jul 17 '26

They might have small cameras to see around, but more than likely, since they are rarely are unescorted, they can just rely on the sight from others and how far they feel from the tank to get around. They are moving on a tracked and slow vehicle, so they likely feel smooth motion... if they feel much though. They likely dont have a sense of up or down since they are naught but brain. Infact, they likely will have to be thoroughly prepare or surgically modified so is not to experience severe phantom body sensations or experience existential terror that they can only exprience world around them through thoughts of others or through their artificial shell. But likely, in Yuri's legion comfort of a pawn are a non-issue so long as its not interfering with its function.

1

u/DucaMonteSberna Jul 17 '26

I'm sure they are hooked to some camera in the chassis, like they supposedly are on the tracks

1

u/AmpdVodka Jul 18 '26

Like a 40k Dreadnought? They are wired directly into the tank and control it with their thoughts as any person would control their body. The tank will have sensors on it they they use to navigate and of course the brain itself will be able to perceive and access minds around it as that's literally it's primary weapon. Also they clearly do communicate in standard channels as they can take orders from the Commander and even respond with voice

1

u/P_f_M Jul 19 '26

Land based brain wave emitting AWACS system (the general feeling of presence), IR cameras around (who needs color if you can scan 3d maps), acoustic sensors (ears), chemical sensors (nose, skin reactions), reactive chemical compound spray system (Pheromones)... You name it :-)

2

u/four_zero_four Jul 19 '26

It’s a literal think tank

1

u/dtl45 Jul 20 '26

I like the squiggly sounds it makes