UNITS: Attack chopper and transport plane

[BlueO]

Made these two units with the newly released flicster!

Attack Chopper - I think Civ3 is missing this vital modern unit. If the tank can be say to be modern era swordsman, then the chopper is modern era horseman. The chopper should be classified as a land unit with the ability to treat all terrain as roads. Its attack value should be 24 - same as modern tank, but the defense value is only 12 - slightly lower then the modern tank. Its movment speed is 3, so it doesn't move faster than a modern tank on the road. It so sweet, to fly through 9 tiles of rough terrains. Its too bad, the chopper can't fly across water, but on the other hand, the chopper can't realistically end its turn in water...

Air Transport - Another missing vital unit, the air transport. The air transport is a helicopter upgrade that has the maximum opertional range (eight). In addition, the air transport can carry more units... two, as well as vehicle units. I had hope to increase the range to 12, but 8 is the limit.

Enjoy!

[zyklon]

i viewed the images of the units and they look badass.. but where do we unzip this to? How do we install it? Can someone plze post some instructions?

[UnforgiveMe2000]

i viewed the images of the units and they look badass.. but where do we unzip this to? How do we install it? Can someone plze post some instructions?

They are in my mod in another thread, but it has many more changes than just some new units though. Try it out if you want

[zyklon]

UnforgiveMe2000 i downloaded your mod... no readme

im not sure where all these files go.

[zyklon]

nm im stupid... does it all by itslef when u extarct it into civ3..

[UnforgiveMe2000]

UnforgiveMe2000 i downloaded your mod... no readme

im not sure where all these files go.

I just haven't made one am planning to when the official one is realease 1.0 waiting on animations for the sub hunter and super carrier, trying to make 'em as we speek...............but yeah i have it set up to where all anyone has to do is extract to their civ3 directory it will install itself from there..

[Admiral PJ]

well, being a coder/games designer I can help a bit,
extract the files beggining with attackchopper to :
C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\Art\units\Attack Chopper


You then need to change the BIC file using the Civ3edit under the start menu and Infogrammes(I assume you know that )
make a new unit called Apache Gunship or such, by loading civ3mod.bic and going to edit->units and choosing f-15 then reame call it Apache Gunship which sounds much cooler. Or call it Attack Chopper for speed.
The names in the file will need to be change from attack chopper to apache gunship too if you change this.
Alter its combat ratings to suit you, unclick immobile and golden age if you wish.

I could make a BIC file and add it here for you if no one else will,
Only problem is I haven't got to helicopters yet in my game, I could always make Knights into helicopters

I've got some cool real heli sounds from a millitary copter that was buzzing the field behind me , we need some helicopter sounds.(Chainguns , sidewinder missiles etc)

[HugoHillbilly]

Balance Issue

Does the Attack Chopper attack once or twice? If its twice it would be unbalanced because who would want to build the tanks. I also believe it should cost more than the tank, given its movement capabilities.

[Admiral PJ]

Well, I've tried out the attack helicopter,
I like the animations, though it didn't work properly when i sent it on a bombing mision as an air unit = it left an after image of a chopper, but nothing serious, i probably have to turn on bombard animations or something.

It seems to work best as a land unit I agree,
I've just tried making it an air unit AND not ticking the immobile flag, so it can be moved around like a Civ2 Helicopter,
BUT the AI dosen't seem to have a clue how to use mobile air units but it works well for the player.

(NOTE to FIRAXIS: fix the AI so it can do this attack copter thing, simply make it half airplane/half tank - an airtank!)

I suggest only allowing helicopters bombing , recon and rebasing missions, as they aren't REALLY an air superiority craft.

Air mobile units can go across sea and land at least, perhaps the AI can be persuaded to work with this? needs more testing.

IDEAS: you could have a SeaKing helicopter which is like a ship (or an airplane though it can't attacks ships i think) as well as the land based 'Apache copter' as the seakings have longer range and are specialised like in real life.
Seakings are used for recon/transport and also for anti submarine warfare.

You could set the Apache land copter to bombard, so you can at least bombard ships etc off the coast.. maybe this would allow an 'air' unit that can bombard ships. It should attack ships differently , its fast but would have trouble sinking a sub, so shouldn't have much attack.
Problem is the editor won't let me make it a bombard land unit by clicking the artillery flag, maybe its only artilerry units that can do this , i must be doing something wrong.

In a civ2:TOT mod i had a Torpedo bomber for sinking ships , like the WW2 pacific war with the japs and the US, maybe we could make something for civ3 like this.
I'll upload a BIC file with it in soon, once i've sorted it out fully.

[KloePoek]

i have a problem with your flc files.. when i want to build the unit, my game crashes. I never had this problem with other custom units, and my own units i tried to make did crash, so could you please explain what i am doing wrong??

[KloePoek]

already got it working, was a stupid error in my own custom units.

Really nice animations btw... now i have another problem though.. well it's not really a problem, but anyway..

when the attack heli attacks, the machine gun sound sometimes overlaps (especially when it's apache vs apache). Do you know how to make it so that it doesn't (less noise and less painful to the ears). I already tried inserting up to 2 second silence in the audio file, but this doesn't help.. i presume it's somewhere in the .ini

[Admiral PJ]

I think the Apache copter should have a lower defence than the tanks, and only 1 attack anyway seeing as it needs fuel and will only get a couple of attack passes before goign back to base to find a safe flat landing spot. Its seems a shame you can't have airbases, then you could make the copter a proper air unit.

Whatever , it shouldn't be able to defend to well, but ought to be able to retreat, like a mounted unit as I would think VTOL take off would allow it a quick get away if it was caught out on the ground.

Attack helicopters have made tanks less useful in the real world, their speed and flexibility in the air over low altitudes make them deadly, when they're packing a few sidewinders and anti personnel chainguns.

I was thinking of replacing the chinese rider with the Apache Helicopter (this attack one), and letting the chinese use the Indians war elephant as their special (probably could do with a change in ability too) , otherwise I don't see how to add units if not replace the specials or otherwise. Would be a shame to get rid of all the special units though. I guess you can just restrict the game to not allowing the Iroqouis or Persians and use their special slots.

I see someones editing the BIC file to make more units.. might try this.

[ajbera]

Originally posted by Admiral PJ
Its seems a shame you can't have airbases, then you could make the copter a proper air unit.

Maybe you can...

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36532

[TheRascalKing]

I have NO idea how to get the images to load into my .bic file. I do not want a new .bic file because I have modified my own extensively. Is there any way you could create new base civ3 image files to include the units you have added? That would make it a whole lot easier, at least for me.

[Ralf]

Originally posted by BlueO
Attack Chopper [...] The chopper should be classified as a land unit with the ability to treat all terrain as roads. Its attack value should be 24 - same as modern tank, but the defense value is only 12 - slightly lower then the modern tank. Its movment speed is 3, so it doesn't move faster than a modern tank on the road. [...] Its too bad, the chopper can't fly across water, but on the other hand, the chopper can't realistically end its turn in water...

The idea of attack-choopers is good, but above stats & abilities seems out of place.

It shouldnt be treated as an land-unit attackable by any other type of land-based combat-unit, wheter it is modern one or not. It IS an air-unit and the stats & abilities should belong to the same category as the current bombers/fighters/helicopters that are already in the game. Sure, some modern land-units can attack this unit, but its still an air-unit nevertheless.

Air Transport - Another missing vital unit, the air transport. The air transport is a helicopter upgrade that has the maximum opertional range (eight). In addition, the air transport can carry more units... two, as well as vehicle units. I had hope to increase the range to 12, but 8 is the limit.

Either one heavy mech.infantry/tank-unit; or two mounted units, or artillery bombardment-type of units, or three foot-soldiers - the player must choose. And the range should be max 8.