Recon Air Missions

[Jason Beaudoin]

According to Firaxis, recon missions investigates a selected square.

Isn't that a little limited? I mean, the aircraft will fly over many squares to get to the target, wouldn't it reveal more? Besides, this thing is supposed to be in the air, so, wouldn't it have a huge line of sight?

[Crouchback]

Even at 200 miles squared per tile that is a little on the mean side. I hope spy planes are still in, they should be invaluable under this new air system for pre-bombing target recon and damage assessment. With air superiority over the target as well, air power in Civ 3 could rock.

Now all they need to add is close ground support, and we'll be set for modern warfare.

David

[Jason Beaudoin]

You're right... air combat will rock in CIV 3 (I hope)!

How would you simulate close air support in CIV 3? I mean, how could have Firaxis accomplish that?

[Ralf]

The recon-mission must also update the latest terrain-improvements and uncover black and dimmed out squares 3-4 tiles wide, along the way. Also, I hope that one can setup an automatic reckon-path from node to node. If not, above recon-option becomes rather useless.

[Mars]

After like the industrial Age i almost always have discovered the whole map anyways so recon in of it self is kind of useless in my opinion. Just go and bomb the city is what i say.

[Faboba]

I assume it, like near everything else, will be adjustable in the editor so, no worries guys

[Alfonsus72]

Even if you have a map of the entire world, fog of war exists.
I hope that you have an option to make a fow line visible or something so, that way you could plan your recon misions with the information of what squares your units/cities can see and what they can´t.

Another interesting question is what happens when you attemp an air recon and your target square falls into the defense range of an enemy air unit in "air superiority" mode?. Probably you have a chance of being undetected (specially stealth units).

And what about the Radar instalations that workers could build in SMAC? will they be present in Civ3?. Hope so, but can´t be so optimist after the aparent remove of the airbases.

[Lorizael]

I don't remember, were there vision ranges in Civ II? If not, think about this guys. People can see farther when on top of mountains in Civ III, so I'm sure that planes will see farther, too.

[Faboba]

Actually they've done something I don't feel is particularly great and slightly greyed all the squares covered by the fog of war.

I hope I can turn this off, I like my colours to be vibrant so I can full appreciate the beauty and effort Firaxis have put itno these graphics, not darker shadows of them.

Also it's just my opinion, but I don't think you'd be sending a recon mission to either your or an ally controlled region or anywhere near your units, I know I wouldn't f I sent one at all, so it's a reasonably moot point.

[Faboba]

Originally posted by Lorizael
I don't remember, were there vision ranges in Civ II? If not, think about this guys. People can see farther when on top of mountains in Civ III, so I'm sure that planes will see farther, too.

Oui mais ils voient avec moins de détail.

[albiedamned]

Re: Recon Air Missions

Originally posted by Jason Beaudoin
According to Firaxis, recon missions investigates a selected square.

Isn't that a little limited? I mean, the aircraft will fly over many squares to get to the target, wouldn't it reveal more? Besides, this thing is supposed to be in the air, so, wouldn't it have a huge line of sight?

True the plane would fly over other squares to get to the square being reconnoitered. However I suspect the best way to think of it is that the plane will take pictures over the target area, thus developing more detailed information. Kind of like U2 spy plane flights over Cuba during the missle crisis. (Did you see Thirteen Days?)

I think this function is probably similar to the "Investigate City" option for Civ2, except that you can use it for any square. It makes sense that they've expanded this option from just city squares to any square, since warfare in Civ3 will focus on protecting territory (resources, trade routes, colonies etc.) as well as cities. In Civ2, it was all about cities. This new concept of defending your territory, not just your cities, is one of the things I'm looking forward to the most.

[SerapisIV]

I'm going under the assumption that revealing one square actually means that it reveals the fog over 9 squares. Come on a lowly 4,000 BC warrior can clear 9 tiles of fog, but an advanced aircraft flying recon only sees 1? Something doesn't jive there. But, it's such a nit-picking point, I doubt we'll get clarification till Oct 31.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by Faboba
Actually they've done something I don't feel is particularly great and slightly greyed all the squares covered by the fog of war.

I hope I can turn this off, I like my colours to be vibrant so I can full appreciate the beauty and effort Firaxis have put itno these graphics, not darker shadows of them.

Whether you like it or not, it serves a rather important function and I doubt it can be turned off.

[ixnay]

IIRC, you could turn off the fog of war in SMAC, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to do the same in civ3.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by ixnay37
IIRC, you could turn off the fog of war in SMAC, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to do the same in civ3.

I haven't played SMAC in quite a while, I'll just take your word for it.

I don't like playing without FOW. After playing CtP (*shudder*), it was hard for me to go back to civ2. FOW makes it very obvious what you can see and not see. I would rather focus on my empire.