The Unit "Think Tank"

[DeathByTheSword]

There is no reason for conflict if there are huge distances between factions. Anyway, I don't have problem with small-sized carriers, it's super-carriers which I think are a poor idea for the game.

there will always be conflict between humans...and here because of the (limited) best colonization places...

for the rest i agree that battleships are a bit off...but i think a ship that could perform the task of a carrier and transport of units...atleast a normal carrier is very likely to find his way in the battlefields of the future......thinking of it a multi-task ship operating almost entirely alone is very feaseble......think of a ship that can transport troops and airplanes to and from the battlefield ....

[Mark123jansen]

I think multitasking units will be very important in a colonial society, since resources and crew will be scarce.
for example the idea of all sea units having transport capability is a very good example of such integration, or maybe attack rovers with artillery capability etc

[targon]

The common mistake in much of unit trees is "bigger is better". So, light units are developed 1st, then medium, and later game superprize - Enormous.
Instead, look at modern navi. They are't dramaticaly big (excluding carriers), or heavy armoured. Modern inf is still basicaly "man on feet" while fighting. Modern interceptors are't dramaticaly bigger than WW2 interceptors (while other characteristics, including, price is _much_ higher).
Army of fleet is integral living creature, so every peice must be in right place, from smallest man to collosus carrier. End every epoch army must fit this criterion, otherwise it'll be consumed of less unbalanced enemy.
So, every tech stage units must create integral, stable, flawless all-purpose union. Otherwise, late game will surely degenerate to "who have more Arm Nubian" munchkinfest.

[Jeremy Buloch]

We could have a Cargo Plane. Where the plane would take off with troops or tanks and stuff like that. It would not hold any weapons unless we decide to put some on. It would take the roll like a C-130.
-J.B.-

[Sandman]

Late game naval ideas:

Carrier sub: A large submarine that can be equipped with strike subs, aircraft, helicopters or missiles, depending on what you fit to it. Terrain-using: poor.

Predator sub: A small/medium sized sub with a wide array of possible roles, including carrier sub killing, anti-aircraft duty, coastal attack and stealthy observation. Very fast. Terrain-using: good

Strike sub: A small sub which is treated like an underwater aircraft. Doesn't have the range of an aircraft, and can only travel through water, but is still deadly to shipping and coastal installations. Terrain-using: medium.

Flying sub: This is a machine that can swim through water and fly through the air. It's launched from a base or carrier. It can dodge air defences by going underwater, and sea defences by flying. Terrain using: medium.

[targon]

Bubble sub: create gaseous bubble where it can move quickly almost like airplane. Disadvantege: generates like mad, giving away its position en-route.

[aaglo]

Targon -
I've read about that kind of torpedo that has been developed. Clever idea.

Are these forgotten:

Scout blimp : early scouting aircraft. Slow, increased sighting radius...

Burrowing unit: can move underground. can bypass city defences, ignores zoc's...

"spider-scout": fast (all terrain as flat), has multiple attacs (?)...

[targon]

I still wondering why it's common idea that units sizes must grow with tech levels... Americans now develop new robotic tank, much smaller than manned counterpart, this stuff is ~1.5 m high. Low profile, hard to spot, even harder to hit.

Burrowing unit and ZOC's: this stuff may even exist now, but it's dramaticaly slow and is't hard to detect. Deep penetration bombs may ruin this unit's day... Still nice idea.... how this stuff is supposed to be drawn... on surface, borrowing or already under earth?

[aaglo]

Well, it could be invisible to all other players...

[Rasbelin]

You mean that an invisible design would be good too?

[aaglo]

Well, actually not invisible. Only hidden. Atleast the ownership of the unit would be hidden, and stopping it would be difficult (thus ignoring zoc's).

targon -
on this days technology it would be slow indeed, but I can't see into the future. We don't know what new technologies we find.
We could discover some kind of mystical crystal, and when attached to a gem laser, it could produce unbelievable results. It could turn the stone in to quantum matter for a certain amount of time, and during this time it would become penetrable - like gas.

When this laser is mounted into a vehicle, it can go through solid rock - or so it would seem. The rock wouldn't be rock during the time the vehicle passes through it, but after short period it would turn back to rock.

This would also result a drawback to the units abilities. It couldn't be stationed underground. If you fortify/sentry/'skip turn' with it, it automatically rises to the surface.

And the graphics with this unit: I really don't know. I think that only 'on surface' mode.

[targon]

OK, here are some really wierd ideas about borrower:
1. Sonic disruptor. As much of earth is in crystalline state, it's therreticaly possible do break it via sonic resonase.
2. Nanites eating rock.
3. It's thereticly possible to compress fermion (electron, for expample) beam to threshold of so-called "fermi liquid". This stuff is extremly thin, fast, relatively dense and unstoppable. Is't especialy great weapon, but still may prove excellent rock cutter.
4. Simply dissolve earth via something really warm indeed, fusion "torch" fo example.
So borrowers are't completely dead, and even do't stink like dead They are simply unborn. I have some ideas how this stuff may be drawn; try to do so this weekend.

BTW, someone knows how future aircraft may look like? I tried some ideas, but they looked too odd or too non-futuristic.

[DeathByTheSword]

i think the future lays in hover-aircrafts.....they are just like airplanes but:
a: they can hover on the spot
b: they can make almost 180 turns and stuff....

just think of an hovercraft but then as an aircraft

[Michiel]

Are you refering to a UFO/flying disc?

[Jeremy Buloch]

"Given the astronomical number of possible planets in the galaxy, a Type II civilization may try a more realistic approach than conventional rockets and use nano technology to build tiny, self-replicating robot probes which can proliferate through the galaxy in much the same way that a microscopic virus can self-replicate and colonize a human body within a week. Such a civilization might send tiny robot von Neumann probes to distant moons, where they will create large factories to reproduce millions of copies of themselves. Such a von Neumann probe need only be the size of bread-box, using sophisticated nano technology to make atomic-sized circuitry and computers. Then these copies take off to land on other distant moons and start the process all over again. Such probes may then wait on distant moons, waiting for a primitive Type 0 civilization to mature into a Type I civilization, which would then be interesting to them. (There is the small but distinct possibility that one such probe landed on our own moon billions of years ago by a passing space-faring civilization. This, in fact, is the basis of the movie 2001, perhaps the most realistic portrayal of contact with extra-terrrestrial intelligence.)"

"A Von Neumann probe is a robot designed to reach distant star systems and create factories which will reproduce copies themselves by the thousands. A dead moon rather than a planet makes the ideal destination for Von Neumann probes, since they can easily land and take off from these moons, and also because these moons have no erosion. These probes would live off the land, using naturally occurring deposits of iron, nickel, etc. to create the raw ingredients to build a robot factory. They would create thousands of copies of themselves, which would then scatter and search for other star systems.

Similar to a virus colonizing a body many times its size, eventually there would be a sphere of trillions of Von Neumann probes expanding in all directions, increasing at a fraction of the speed of light. In this fashion, even a galaxy 100,000 light years across may be completely analyzed within, say, a half million years.

If a Von Neumann probe only finds evidence of primitive life (such as an unstable, savage Type 0 civilization) they might simply lie dormant on the moon, silently waiting for the Type 0 civilization to evolve into a stable Type I civilization. After waiting quietly for several millennia, they may be activated when the emerging Type I civilization is advanced enough to set up a lunar colony. Physicist Paul Davies of the University of Adelaide has even raised the possibility of a Von Neumann probe resting on our own moon, left over from a previous visitation in our system aeons ago.

(If this sounds a bit familiar, that's because it was the basis of the film, 2001. Originally, Stanley Kubrick began the film with a series of scientists explaining how probes like these would be the most efficient method of exploring outer space. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Kubrick cut the opening segment from his film, and these monoliths became almost mystical entities)"


So therefore these could might be used as Surveillance devices. For mapping out the globe and keeping the geographical borders etc. up to date. It could see units in citys as well as improvements that the other faction(s) are building. It could be a great spy tool.
-J.B.-