Hi All, I've been quietly reading through stuff here and there, and had some musings regarding air combat. One such musing I had was about localised air combat (ie on the one planet rather than across multiples). Basically, I was wondering if there's a way (kinda like with unit stances etc) that we can tell aircraft to fly at different heights (perhaps 3 pre-defined ones rather than something more detailed) - something like: Close-to-ground flying to avoid being spotted as early on radar, with the trade-off of needing to navigate around terrain or fly above it (depending on what you choose or what makes more sense in terms of game mechanics) Mid-height flying for a balance between visibility on radar/satellite and maneuverability High-level flying for ultimate maneuverability but being spotted a long way off by radar Maybe adding to this with the issue of height adjustments needed by fighter aircraft defending an area (ie if your attacker flies in just above the ground and you're up a long way, you'll need to drop down or have your craft engage earlier, and if the attacker is coming in just below the atmosphere at high level, defending fighters would need to rise up before engaging, but would know that the attack is inbound because radar etc would pick up the attacking forces sooner). Further to this, localised AA defences could have a range based on height too, ie the towers could pick up a low target at a longer range than a high target, and missiles etc would take less time to reach an aircraft at low or mid level than at high level (assuming they're effectively over the same grid square)... Perhaps even making low-level aircraft vulnerable to land-only units equipped with the right kind of weapons? With the height difference, it'd obviously take longer for high-flying bombers' bombs to reach the ground than low-flying ones, but mitigate the risk of being hit by splash damage from nuclear explosions etc slightly? I don't know if any of the above is even possible, and if it is, whether it'd be any good as a combat mechanic set, but it's something I was pondering over, I've never seen it in a strategy game, and I reckon it'd add a whole extra level of strategy that players would need to think about...
Do you have any idea how many search results come up just because of the word "air" ? I'll give you a clue... nearly 15000... Add to that searches for things like 'warfare', 'combat', that kinda thing, and you end up spending hours searching to see if your particular idea has been covered, rather than actually sticking your idea down on paper and waiting for useful opinions and responses to it.
That would be an argument if your entire premise wasn't on the first page of this very forum: viewtopic.php?f=61&t=44085 Try to read around a bit before you post new topics.
In that case, lets just post this same exact idea tomorrow, an the day after that. We could have a new thread on air combat every day! This exact idea was posted YESTERDAY. And is on the front page.
Well if Uber would better divide up their topics instead of putting them in 1 big long list, it would make it much easier to not repeat the same topics, eh? Besides, very childish to rant about something like this. I suppose you have read the forums in its entirety since August of last year, hu?
For what it's worth, I /did/ search, hence knowing you get almost 15,000 results for air alone. Anyway, rather than sitting here arguing about the forum and whether or not it's searchable, perhaps an admin could either merge this thread with the other one (which wasn't on the front page when I posted, hence me not seeing it), or just lock it or something.
This isnt a bad idea at all it allows you more strategic control and another thing i would just love the ability to land (just for asthetics though)
I haven't seen a single forum search engine that has been useful in any way. Google is often more effective. The best part is on other forums when mods say "use the search" and then lock the thread. It makes me :| :roll:
Yeah, landing is an interesting idea... Not sure though, depending on the type of plane. Had another thought earlier - the days of C&C: Red Alert seemed to handle planes in a realistic fashion - needing to land to reload after each bombing run stopped aircraft from being too overpowered. Perhaps a similar sort of airfield type system (albeit with carriers or mobile land airstrips possibly) would work? I know we're all thinking "high-tech" here, but it'd get rid of that stupid "unlimited ammunition" concept, without the need for refuelling (one assumes that whilst reloading ammunition the airfield would provide fuel if needed and therefore negates the requirement for that completely)...
