Does anyone know how air power works?

[Akaoz]

I've heard that they changed the way fighters and bombers work, but how?

-Alech

[Jason Beaudoin]

From the Civfanatics Infocentre :

Air Missions: Air units have operational ranges within which they can execute air missions. The primary bonus of this is that air units no longer function like super fast ground units.

Airstrikes: Later in the game airstrikes allow a selective destruction of specific buildings.

[Akaoz]

I've read that before. But how do they move to a city? Do they have to be based in a perticular area, or do thay have a certain 'reach' within you civ?

-Alech

PS: How come your profile seems to indicate you joined this forum 6 years before I was even born?

[SteveJH]

Originally posted by Akaoz
I've read that before. But how do they move to a city? Do they have to be based in a perticular area, or do thay have a certain 'reach' within you civ?

-Alech

From the civlopedia screenshot they seem to have a "bombard range", so I guess you do need a city, airbase, or carrier close by.

[Grumbold]

We've been waiting for Civ 3 for a looong time. Apolyton predicted it 10 years before Sid wrote Civ 1

It looks like the unit itself is physically based on a particular tile and can then conduct air operations within a certain range of that tile without the player having to fly it out there and back again. The only time it will move is if you fly the airplane to a new base, and even that is probably done by jumping from base to base rather than using tile-by-tile movement. Pretty standard stuff used often in wargames.

[Jason Beaudoin]

How come your profile seems to indicate you joined this forum 6 years before I was even born?

I'm not really sure it says 1969, but I know that people who've been on these forums for a few years (like me), were given that date when Apolyton changed forum software. I've been around before SMAC and around the time when CIV II was just out.

[Jason Beaudoin]

Originally posted by Akaoz
I've read that before. But how do they move to a city? Do they have to be based in a perticular area, or do thay have a certain 'reach' within you civ?

Like Grumbold mentioned, they probably operate on one tile. You choose which target to strike and then the aircraft goes out and hits it. I'm not sure what it looks like, how it is animated, or whether it is animated at all (I sure hope so), but that's how it will work.

Fighters will simply scramble if a bomber comes within range, and I guess there would be a random chance of success of interception.

This is much better than CIV II.

I would be willing to bet that if your fighters are within range, they will also fly to protect the bombers and intercept the interceptors. No one knows for sure, but this is a probability, which is much more realistic!

Of course, there should always be an element of chance, and I hope that there is a chance that these missions will fail.

[Deathwalker]

I have an extra question, if you put a fighter in a city does it defend it against air attacks and the squares around or just the city/base were it is located?

[Jason Beaudoin]

Originally posted by Deathwalker:
I have an extra question, if you put a fighter in a city does it defend it against air attacks and the squares around or just the city/base were it is located?

That's a good question Death, and logically speaking... if Firaxis really did re-examine Air combat and warfare, then they would have to have thought about this. To assume is really all we can do, and I think that they would have allowed for unit scrambling withing the air unit's operational range.

If all of these elements are included in CIV III, air superiority will play a huge role in modern warfare, just as it does in real life.

My only hope is that bombardment in general is effective enough to be worth the investment in the hardware. There seems to be a great deal of people that frequent these forums that believe that artillery in SMAC was a waste of resources. Hopefully, these units will be more effective than in SMAC.

[Grumbold]

There was talk of flying CAP missions but its been a long time since we heard anything. Armies have undergone several mutations since then so its hard to say what has happened to airpower. It will be a big disappointment if they don't at least attempt to protect friendly targets within their effective response range ... and without having to be assigned that mission each turn.

[Jason Beaudoin]

Grumbold:

If planes can protect units from air attack within their operational range, I'm sure that there will be an "intercept" command, whereas they will try to intercept any incoming aircraft threat.

I really hope that these are in the game because I absolutely hated the way air combat worked in other CIV games, and SMAC included.

[Grumbold]

That would be the best way. You might have to assign planes to cover specific stacks. Lets hope they choose a nice convenient way of doing it.

[korn469]

here is the stealth bomber pic

http://www.multiplayer.it/show.php3...500/s_img15.jpg

i also agree with grumbold, i think an air unit remains on a single tile and then can conduct any air mission available to that unit within its operational range

so fighters most likely have an intercept air mission, while bombers have a precision strike

also i believe that rate of fire determines how many air operations a turn an air unit can conduct...so the stealth bomber could carry out four air missions within its operational range a turn

as far as movement goes, i think when an air unit moves that it will use most if not all of a turn...like it could possibly work like this, movement is an air operation so a stealth bomber could spend three rates of fire moving to a new airbase, then conduct its last air mission bombing a building

the movement part is unconfirmed and only my conjecture

[cyril25376]

Maybe fighters will automatically attack a enemy bomber flies into the fighters zone of control like a sea fortress attacks automatically an enemy ship.

[drake]

Thats the way it is in civ2 cyril, atleast with cities.....if a bomber directly attacks a city, the strongest fighter in the city will scramble and defend the city. Usually it will defeat the bomber as well.