Early planes

[The Rook]

Shouldn't the early planes look more like this?

[Spiffor]

YEAH !

(Sorry, I love WW1 planes )

[freestyler]

Civ Fanatics !!

THE BARON

[Jon Shafer]

Meh. Early biplanes didn't have that much influence over the battlefield. Don't get me wrong, they were still a factor, just not like they have been since WWII, which is why the first planes are introduced from that era.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Trip
Meh. Early biplanes didn't have that much influence over the battlefield. Don't get me wrong, they were still a factor, just not like they have been since WWII, which is why the first planes are introduced from that era.

you could lower their bombard rating and make them primarialy scouts with a small chance of damaging terrain / units.

[Jon Shafer]

True, but if you're only going to have 2 types of fighter planes (I'm not counting stealth, they aren't really fighters), then the best way to depict air power would be WWII fighters, and some sort of modern jet. You could add infinitely many types of planes if you wanted (well, not infinite, but you get the picture), but if you had to pick 2, I would agree with Firaxis.

[The Rook]

Yeah, I know. The early planes just have a more elegant look to them. I'd love to do a WWI mod though. WWI saw the first major uses of airplanes, tanks, machineguns, chemical warfare, trench warfare and many others.

[Minmaster]

the fighter unit looks like the first gen migs

[spy14]

WWII was the first time aircraft had a true impact, so the Spit and B29 bomber seem right as your first generation aircraft. The jet fighter being a mig 29 also seems right, but how about a jet bomber? B52 perhaps? Seems strange going straight from B-29s to stealth bombers. And maybe a stealth interceptor as another UU for america?

[The Rook]

Actually, the airplanes of WWI had a significant inpact. By 1918, both sides realized that the best way to get a view of the battlefield was by airplane. Sure, at that point planes were not a big threat to the troops on the ground, but planes and zeppelins did bomb London which was a heavy blow to the British. They had thought that their navy, the finest in the world, was enough to protect them on their little island. The psychological impact of the raids played a big part on the morale of the citizens of Gr Britian.
Airplanes had such an impact in fact, that the Fokker DVII, a German plane, was singled out in the treaty of Versailles as to have all planes of this type turned over to the allies.
It was, BECAUSE, of WWI, that the nations of the world had such large airforces by the time WWII came about.


Finally, you guys want to debate something I know a little bit about.

[zulu9812]

Originally posted by spy14
Seems strange going straight from B-29s to stealth bombers. And maybe a stealth interceptor as another UU for america?

I agree - there should definately be an upgrade for the bomber, even if it's just a second type of jet fighter

[Jon Shafer]

The problem with adding a 'jet bomber' is that the era of jet bombers ended with the B52, which came only a few years after the advent of large WWII strategic bombers. The only difference was a larger bombload, and, if you ask me, if you made an upgrade for such a small difference, that would be a waste of a unit. After the B52, bombing missions were carried out by jet fighters anyways. Bombing became much less 'strategic' (B29 and B52), and more 'tactical' (all modern precision fighter-bombers, and especially stealth).

If more air units were included in the game, then I would say, yes, the next unit that would be good to add might be a B52 unit, followed by a WWI biplane/triplane type fighter. However, there are only a few types of air units, so I agree with Firaxis' decision for what aircraft to include. Except maybe Stealth fighters. They should have made Stealth bombers incredibly expensive and powerful (as they are), but Stealth fighters a more economical version. As things stand now, there's not much point in having stealth fighers and bombers (or fighers at all).

[zulu9812]

There must be some sort of jet fighter specicully designed for ground attacks, rather than dogfighting?

[Jon Shafer]

The A10 was a specialty ground attack aircraft... I suppose that could be added in. It's a quite old plane, but even today it's very important, and led to the destruction of hundreds of Iraqi AFVs in the Gulf War. Yes, I think the A10 would be a good plane to add, if any. Other than that, no specialty strike aircraft come to mind... most jet aircraft became hybrid fighter bombers, and could be outfitted with either anti-aircraft, or anti-ground ordinance.

[zulu9812]

My problem is that Civ3's Jet Fighter isn't as good at bombing as the Bomber, so we might need to have 2 tyoes of jet fighter, or mod the current Jet Fighter to be good at bombing runs AND intercepting.