Air Combat

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Puupertti Ruma
Some suggestions to the Civ3 model which should help a lot:

1. There should be a ring or some indicator showing the air superiority mission. Enemies should also see this, so they can judge the risks of bombing.

2. Strafe/Dive Bombers: Bomber unit which is more accurate and effective against land units and ships. Think of P-52 Mustangs shooting the Tiger on Saving Private Ryan, or Stukas on WWII. I find it quite dumb bombing tanks and infantry with heavy bombers like B-17. This of course means a some clever altering or utilization of the battle system.

3. Better recon. Maybe automatic, unless player wants to fly to enemys air zone (protected with Air Superiority mission).

4. Aggressive Air Superiority. Way to attack enemy Air superiority zones, to decline the enemy their air superiority and get a Air Superiority. Maybe Air Superiority mission could be made in to 2 separate missions, Air Superiority and Defend Air Space. Air Superiority would be attacking to the enemy air space, and Defend Air Space would defend against fighters and bombers alike, working like the Civ3 air superiority mission. Same effect could be achieved with only one mission, but at least I can't figure out a way.

5. The ability to form squadrons from fighters and bombers. Eliminates micromanagering, as you don't have to do the tedious job of ordering 30 or so bombers on same mission.

6. Ability to target a improvements in a city without smart weapons. In WWII, heavy bombers were used mainly to bomb on bridges, factories, airfields and such, so this is actually more realistic. Also there could be the possibility of Terror Bombing attacking the population, same way as in Dresden annihilation or the Germany's bombings of London. The difference with smart weapons could be the accuracy and collateral damage.

Ok, that's about all I could come up this time. And it turned out to be a lot. Comments, more suggestions, anything?

P-51

[Joseph]

How about Air to Air refueling so your modern Bombers can bomb anywhere on the map.

In CTP 1 and 2 you could stack bomber and fighter as long as you did not go beyound the fighter range.

[Shogun Gunner]

interesting idea, but only for Stealth Bombers...or B-52s, not the earlier bomber designs.

[Shark Fin 101]

and don't forget about miscounting the number of tiles when guiding your bomber back to base...the growing uneasy feeling growing in the pit of your stomach as you counted backwards wondering if you had enough movement points to land that baby home....the despair that overwhelmes when you realize you will be one tile short....the resignation as you order your pilots to bail out -- wasting precious war material...

Sounds Familiar...

5. The ability to form squadrons from fighters and bombers. Eliminates micromanagering, as you don't have to do the tedious job of ordering 30 or so bombers on same mission.

Exellent idea!

Shark Fin 101

[milenotis]

I agree with much that has already been posted. I seldom used the planes because of the tediousness. Most of the time I would have a carrier floating off shore with a bunch of planes that I would only use as a last option if I felt I was in dire circumstances. A squadron option seems like it might work well.

Cheers,

[curtsibling]

It would be great to see air units getting the same bonus/rank benefit system as ground troops...

And to add carrier task fleets too!

[Nikolai]

That's some great suggestions, Ruma.

As for air armies, they should probably be a bit smaller than land armies, as I see each unit to represent a larger amount of planes, and compared to the number of soldiers I think a less size would be right.