Land Mines

[Apocalypse Cow]

I searched around some and I didn't find any reference to the possibility of modding land mines into Civ4. Here's my first thoughts:

Improvement by workers
Destroys farms, workshops, lumbermills, cottage/hamlet/towns, windmills, mines on the tile where they are built
Does not destroy roads or railroads
Friendly military units can pass over with no damage
10% damage to mounted and ranged units
20% damage to melee units

Also, you would need a minesweeper unit that could detect and remove any land mines in a 1 square radius.

Both could be discovered with communism, fascism, or artillery.

This is just a first look, any suggestions would be appreciated. And if I'm a moron and they're already in the game and I just haven't seen them, let me know.

[Jon Shafer]

It's certainly possible.

You'll need Python to do it though, obviously.

Hurrah for units that go boom!

[Bhiita]

I think land mines would be a GREAT idea, althogh IMO they should be very dangerous to lay down, they need to destroy friendly units too, as realistly friendly units would know they are on a mine field, they would not know where the mines were in that field. There should be unit promotions for armored units that allow them to destroy without damage (such as the adapatations to tanks in WWII) and a non armored unit promotion to help pass over them. There should only be a promotion to 'remove' them very late in the game.

[tetrahedron]

sounds very interesting... could we make sea mines too? so I can dispurse around the waters I control (or anywhere else for that matter) and watch the AI explode... hehe

no fishing or sailing on my water fools!!!

[caasig]

mines would be cool!!

[TheDarkside]

Mines- great idea! And sounds like a rather easy thing to implement aside from graphics of course...

My suggestions would be:

- workers cannot deploy mines- only certain military units like infantry, marines, mechanized infantry. Though maybe you said only workers because it would be too difficult to get military units to be able to build improvements like a worker?

- friendly units passing a mined plot have something like a 5-10% chance of detonating the mines

The only drawback of course is that without access to AI files yet, I don't think there's anyway we can update the AI to know about mines and use them as well

[Andrew1999]

I agree that mines should have a possibility of "friendly fire" damage. Maybe they could add an unhealthy face in their city to represent long-term damage to the civilian population (think Africa and Afghanistan.)

I don't know much about the AI files either, but maybe they could be hooked up to the logic for building forts? Then the AI would build them automatically in places it wants to defend.

[Gelondil]

Originally posted by TheDarkside
Mines- great idea! And sounds like a rather easy thing to implement aside from graphics of course...

My suggestions would be:

- workers cannot deploy mines- only certain military units like infantry, marines, mechanized infantry.

Or to simplify it some, I'd just say "all 'gunpowder' units". Theoretically, that includes riflemen or musketmen too, but they still can't build them until more tech is researched.

Minefields really should have collateral damage to allies, even if it's a reduced hit chance. No damage makes a minefield a safe place for the defender to stage a battle, which is pretty unrealistic.

I would also change the damage categories -
Foot troops: 10%
Mounted: ??%
Wheeled: 20%

Like Tetrahedron said, minefields float! Mine the water!

[cribgod]

sounds cool but what about the automated workers? there all the time flying around your territorry willy-nilly maybe workers could be imune since they place them(i.e. a placement map they share, if im not mistaken mine placement was documented)

[Ekmek]

dig around some ctp2 slic files, someone did landmines there it could atleast provide somewhat of a template for implementing

[sophist]

Or create a Combat Engineer unit. That unit would be like a specialized Worker that can both plant and clear mines, as well as construct forts and certain military-only improvements. The unit would also have some small military strength and the ability to gain some promotions. It would be pretty expensive to create.

An alternative formulation of mines... you can move units over terrain that you have mined, but you cannot work the tile. You can only see mines that you (or an ally) have planted, not all mined tiles in your cultural borders. That means you could sneakily mine enemy territory.

[cyndrax]

Originally posted by sophist
Or create a Combat Engineer unit. That unit would be like a specialized Worker that can both plant and clear mines, as well as construct forts and certain military-only improvements. The unit would also have some small military strength and the ability to gain some promotions. It would be pretty expensive to create.

If you took away the ability to attack, you could make them invisible like spies. I think invisible attackers would be too unbalancing though.

Originally posted by sophist
You can only see mines that you (or an ally) have planted, not all mined tiles in your cultural borders. That means you could sneakily mine enemy territory.

This would mean removing the concept of the mine destroying any improvement in the plot (which I agree with eitherway), as you would notice where there were mines from suddenly destroyed farms, etc.

[Mace]

The key in modding in mines would be balance, to get the AI to make use of them too. Cool idea though, and it's one I played with in Civ3.