Hovertanks should travel on water too

[Commy]

Feel free to disagree, but I believe hovertanks should be able to travel across water too.

Any opinions.

[Mr. President]

Wouldn't you have to turn them into air units in alpha.txt to make them able to travel across water?

Edit: I think the Hovertank chassis is inherently unable to move across water, so even if you thought a Hovertank should be able to the game won't allow it.

[Enigma_Nova]

It seems logical that a hovering tank would be both a naval and an infantry unit (depending), but it doesn't look like Firaxis coded this.

Write, complain, get them to make SMAC2.

[Commy]

Hovertanks aren't air units, though, and they would have disadvantages like fuel range, penalties against ground units (unless bombers), and ultimately, they just aren't air units, even if they act like they are ground units. Just a thought I had. I mean, come on, this is like the nanotech age, yet here we were in world war one and two using hovertanks in the industrial age.

[Sikander]

While hovercraft may be able to cruise across bays and otherwise operate in other short and generally calm runs across water, they are not considered ocean-going vessels. I suppose it was too much trouble code them to specifically be limited to the shoreline (ie only in water adjacent to land).

[Illuminatus]

I agree, hovertanks should be able to travel across shelf, but definetly not any deeper. I guess this was another thing too dificult for Firaxis.

[Chaunk]

CtP2 has it though, with its fusion tanks or whatever they're called (Not played the game since I bought it... ). It can't be too difficult to code...

[SynthetGod8]

I suppose the rationale is that hovertanks use anti-grav technology. They don't hover very far off the ground because, most likely, most of their energy is put into the main weapon and any energy-based defences.

Anything that hovers like that would need something to push against. For Hovertanks, that would be the ground. Water, however, would be a different story. I don't think water would be able to hold it up effectively.

Yes, I realize that hovercraft have been amphibious for quite some time, but I doubt a hovercraft could sneak up on an enemy ship or move nearly as fast.

Hmm... I just checked the flavor.txt. Apparently, they do use air-cushions. Well, I'm sure there's anti-grav in there somewhere. Says they move at 227 km\hr. I think that, if a Hovertank tried to take on a crusier, which is many time larger and with a higher energy output than a hovertank, that the tank would lose.

Another thing, unless the tank has the aphibious ability, I don't think it'd float too well if anything ever went wrong. In a firefight, if main power went offline, that tank would soon find itself at the bottom of the ocean. At least on land, it could still aim and shoot even if it can't move.

Well, that's my explaination.

[Frankychan]

Well, not talking about .txt or anything...

I don't think that hovertanks should be able to travel on water. I'm thinking that the ground would be able to sustain the weight of the hovertank moreso than water. The weight displaced by the hovertank would probably be better distributed over land than water.

If a hovertank would be able to travel over the water, I'm guessing that the water displaced would be so great that the tank would be sitting in a "bowl" of water while it travelled toward its destination.

[Commy]

I definitely agree that hovertanks should be only limited to ocean shelf, but that still would be an advantage, because infantry and speeders couldn't attack them, and zones of control wouldn't apply.

I also have to agree with you guys on the cruiser thing. Yes, a tank would definitely die against a cruiser, so maybe it should get a -50% penalty against naval units, kind of like an interceptor gets against ground units.

Still, as I said earlier, this is the nanotech age.

Oh, and whoever said that graviton boosters need something to push off of, they don't. Graviton boosters simply repel gravity, regardless of anything else such as land and stuff. But it doesn't matter since they use air cushions.

[Mongoose]

If hovertanks could travel over water, one would never need gravships!

[Commy]

Not entirely true. Grav ships can go farther, and can (maybe, I don't know for sure) intercept. Not to mention the fact that hopefully hovertanks would be restricted to ocean shelf only.

[binTravkin]

ehm..
Making plans for AC2?

Wonder if it will ever come!