Underwater magtubes?

[CEO Monkfish]

Has anyone looked into building magtubes that run along the ocean floor? I think it is in CTP (not sure, hardly played it) and of course it would only be available late in the game.

Perhaps a special sub-Former would be needed?

[AlexanderIII]

As far as I've been able to discover, if you tweak the terraforming section of alphax.txt,
1) your formers can plant roads and then mag tubes in the sea, but they are not visible on the map;
2) sea terraformers cannot build them because they are a land enhancement, and land formers cannot build them, so you have to wait till you can use a gravship former;
3) land units cannot travel along them without the amphibious ability;
That's as far as I can remember, I could be mistaken about some of the details, it's been a while since I experimented with that. But, more to the point, if you can't see them on the map, what's the use?

[This message has been edited by AlexanderIII (edited May 24, 2000).]

[AlexanderIII]

Well, I tried it out, and my recollection was correct -- you can build them, they cannot be seen, but you don't need a Gravship Former to be able to build them, just Sea Formers. Still unsure whether land units can actually use them or not, or whether they actually confer a movement bonus to sea units. Will keep y'all posted on that when I know.
[This message has been edited by AlexanderIII (edited May 25, 2000).]