IGN unit showcase 4 - gunpowder infantry, horse archers and bombers

[Sharpe]

Guess I missed the 3rd unit showcase

http://pc.ign.com/articles/374/374161p1.html

Still looks interesting - if only Civ 3 had this many varities of units...

[Carver]

The gunpowder infantry is the way the rifleman should look in Civ3. I don't know why Civ went with the graphic of the deer hunter instead of something akin to the Redcoats or Napoleon's troops.

[Carver]

All Bomber units require oil to keep them flying

Well, that's a change from other games. When you run out of oil, your bombers start collecting dust.

[Blue Moose]

Originally posted by Tassadar5000


I doubt they meant it quite so literally.

How do you think they meant it? From the context and all it did really seem like they meant that Bombers use up oil to fly.

[Blue Moose]

Originally posted by Tassadar5000


I think they mean the bomberes require oil to be built, and they were using a common American metaphor saying that , well, the bombers required oil to be built. Without oil, they would not be built eg "would not be flying at all" if it weren't for oil.

Although if they did require oil......

Doesn't seem like a metaphor to me...I've certainly never heard anything like that, and I am an American.

[Sonic]

I think Tassadar is right, but ity could be so that they requires oil to fly also. Probably they don't have range or bombnumber limits like most of other aircraft in RTS games (Empire Eearth - Range Limit, Dark Reign - bombnumber limit, Red Alert 2 - bombnumber limit, etc.), so a strategic thing of oil is added. You could theoretically keep them always in air but this way you'd have to have a huge supply of oil.

[tniem]

All Bomber units require oil to keep them flying, so an astute player is ready with Oil Wells already at work, when he creates the first Zeppelin

Sounds to me very clear that it means that you have to have oil to keep them flying. "An astute player is ready with Oil Wells ... when he creates the first Zeppelin." This is opposite to "An astute player is ready with Oil Wells in time to build Zeppelins." See the difference? If this holds up, I think it is clear that you will need oil for each plane mission.

This leads to wonder of how many other units will need to have resources paid to keep them going. Maybe food will be a conitnuing necessity. Or perhaps ships will need wood after each battle. Upgraded units like tanks will need oil. It should be an interesting concept.

[bhg_paul]

No units in RoN require upkeep. This is just unclear wording of the text.

[Carver]

Thanks BIG Paul.

[tniem]

Well I bow to the superior insight from others. I guess that makes sense.

Paul, how much is going to be to upgrade units from one stage to the next?

[Carver]

If I understand the previews right, it happens automatically at no additional cost.

edit: What I said here is a pile of doo.

[Rohag]

Originally posted by Carver
If I understand the previews right, it happens automatically at no additional cost.

I have the same impression. One 'taunternumerouno' got to play a build of RoN at the GenCon 2002 convention in Milwaukee this past summer, and he posted the following on RoNP:

When you advance ages, your units change accordingly. For example, if you have archers and you update to the musket age(not its name but the one with muskets) your archers change automatically into musketeers.)Your buildings do the same.

This feature apparently prevents situations in which a player finds his tanks backed up by hoplites. I also have the impression that various purchasable upgrades will enhance the qualities of troops, so that the same units from various nations may actually perform differently.

[Sonic]

Rohag, as far as I know there will be only 4 possible researches each age, out of which you'd be able to choose 2 to research. Those researches would be:
Military
Civic
Economic
Scientific

As for units automatically upgrading, I don't know... But after reading an article on IGn I've seen that there'll be two possible bombers in information age - Strategic and Stealth. And they are both named on the same family, so that seems Strategic Bomber will be upgradable to Stealth Bomber.

[Graham@BHG]

Whoa...units do not upgrade automatically when you advance to a new age. Unit upgrades cost resources and must be researched separately from age or other military technologies.

[Rohag]

Sorry!

My regrets for disseminating faulty information. I misunderstood both taunternumerouno's experience and Dan Quick's interview with Brian Reynolds.

To clarify, are the previews and interviews saying that no "line" of units ever dead-ends?

Also, if I really want to (or if I forget to upgrade), I can back up my tanks with sword cavalry?