Air unit movement

[Maniac]

Some time ago in the "---> The Next ACDG Discussion Thread <---" we were discussing the possibility of reducing chopper movement points (MPs) to make them less powerful. IIRC I claimed that putting the chopper MPs in the alphax.txt to "6" would give SAM choppers 6 MPs, and non-SAM choppers 8 MPs, while GeoModder claimed that SAM choppers would get 5 MPs, and non-SAM choppers 6 MPs. As a good scientist I have now put these theories to the test. Below are the results. They are the same for needlejets, choppers and gravships.

alphax.txt MP: -2; -1; 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20
SAM unit MP:   99; 99; [i]1; 2; 3; 4; 4;[/i] [b]5; 6; 7; 8; 8;[/b]  [i]9; 10; 11; 12; 12;[/i] [b]13; 14; 15; 16; 16; 17[/b]
non-SAM MP:    99; 99; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10;11;12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22

As I expected - ignoring negative MPs - the rule for non-SAM units is that they always have 2 MPs more than the number in the alphax.txt.
For SAM units it's more irregular. Starting from zero, it's always a linear increase of 4 MPs, and then the fifth is the same as the fourth in the row. After that again a linear increase of four, etcetera...

I thought I'd share these results with you all. Perhaps it can save you a bit of time when trying to mod your own alphax.txt.

[Maniac]

Question: What would be the minimal movement points a (non-SAM) chopper could have for you to still consider building some?

Or asking the question the opposite way: from how little movement points on would you stop considering non-SAM choppers a good thing to build?

[GeoModder]

From less then 5 MP's on, a non-SAM chopper isn't worth it anymore for me.
The low MP's is less then a handicap then it looks at first sight, cause Fusion Power is near as well, increasing the MP's with 2 pretty soon.

[binTravkin]

There were 3 MP "lifters" at Aldebaran mod and I never built them.

I guess Chopper movement should be like 6 for SAM and 8 for bombers, while NJ movement be +2 MPs faster.

[Mart]

I recently considered other interesting modification. Increasing fuel range and decreasing movement points. Choppers would behave as planes, they will stay "in air" between turns, when having 4 fuel turns, but if they do not land in base in 4th turn they disappear as the needlejet. Anyway, Choppers seem to be quite interesting this way, I have not tested them yet (I intend to) but I have a feeling, that due to their ability now not to get 30% of damage in air they are now like planes - completely different.

I forgot to add. This causes, that range of a chopper from a base is still large, e.g. it can spend 2 turns flying away and 2 turns flying back. However it can attack less in a turn, since it has less move points.

[Chaos Theory]

The rule for SAM chopper movement is clear: they have 4/5 the MPs of non-SAM choppers, rounded down.

I'd still situationally use choppers with as few as 3 movement points, but the situation would need to be pretty strange. If choppers move less than planes, they need to be able to do something better, like attack more, to be worthwhile. I suppose 4-5 MPs would allow me to use choppers as part of a war. Needlejets would provide long-range cover for ground units, by taking out strategic targets and interfering with ZoC. Choppers would mince attackers as they approach my bases or my opponent's former bases.

[binTravkin]

Choppers would mince attackers as they approach my bases or my opponent's former bases.

Which is also how they're mostly used in RL.

[Senethro]

(Increase Air unit cost, decrease naval unit cost, naval movement rates +50%)

[Maniac]

Originally posted by mart7x5
I recently considered other interesting modification. Increasing fuel range and decreasing movement points. Choppers would behave as planes, they will stay "in air" between turns, when having 4 fuel turns, but if they do not land in base in 4th turn they disappear as the needlejet. Anyway, Choppers seem to be quite interesting this way, I have not tested them yet (I intend to) but I have a feeling, that due to their ability now not to get 30% of damage in air they are now like planes - completely different.

I forgot to add. This causes, that range of a chopper from a base is still large, e.g. it can spend 2 turns flying away and 2 turns flying back. However it can attack less in a turn, since it has less move points.

Can they still be attacked by non-SAM units with this modification?

[Mart]

Originally posted by Maniac


Can they still be attacked by non-SAM units with this modification?

No. I tried to attack it with a non-SAM copter and game refused.

[GeoModder]

And that would be rather unrealistic.

[Mart]

But if I recall infantry may too be given air superiority ability. That would make it like having hand-held earth-to-air missiles small launchers. Copters are supposed to stay in the air too, it is air unit like jets. Since it has more attacks/turn and when fuel goes to 4 turns it may be better than needlejets. Then jets have to have better bonus. I like your idea Geo of calling jets spaceplanes in this case. Copters may behave like regular atmospheric units and jets might be high-altitude or almost orbital units.

Have I written about that yet? If you count number of chassis, there is 9. And there might be tenth, since there is place for fifth in the second row, if third row is not going to be created. I tried to add the tenth chassis in alphax.txt, but it did not work. Has anyone tried that?

[GeoModder]

Ah no, first time you mention that. Writing your own chassis, now that would be revolutionary!

[binTravkin]

The game most likely can't find the graphics for the additional chassis. I don't remind how the chassis graphics file is named but probably there's some kind of number in filename. If you can just copy E.G. rover chassis and change the number to 10, you could insert the tenth chassis.

[Mart]

that would be too sweet. We might do possibly more chassis types?