USSR and the USA had programmes on the development of space warfare; these included the creation of nuclear defense shields and the construction of nuclear-carrying satellites. Although such programs where halted by an international treaty, this could happen in Civ. And it does happen to some extend, considering the SDI Defense small wonder.

But how about developing satellites capable of carrying 1 nuke? There would be no danger of losing a taktical nuke (if carried by a sub) or an ICBM (if the city that hosts it gets hit - I don't know if this can happen; never happened to me).
Moreover, the creation of such a unit would be followed by the creation of a Low Earth Orbit spaceship, developed for the destruction of both the SDI defenses and the nuke-carrying satellites. And if you think I'm completely out...come on! We're talking about 2050 (when the game ends) or even later! Such developments will definitely take place in the next 45 years... Sid should be able to catch up with the near future (in a better way than he did with Alpha Centauri).
Maybe, theres hould be other stuuf, as well. Such as moon bases, mars colonies... I'd really like to see such things.

Additonally, I'd like to go off topic, and generally treat the issue of ICBMs. After the post-cold-war military cutdowns the US army has made, the US has now about 550 ICBMs and 10,000 (!) nuclear silos. About every week (pure assumption), nuclear ICBMs are transported to different silos, for obvious security reasons. Similarly, the USSR had the "T-ICBMs" (I name them like that; I don't remember their official name), which were tranportable by train.
So, why cannot we move our f****** ICBMs from the cities that produced them?????? I believe such a feature would add a lot of realism.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Seriously, don't like anything that make nukes better, so I say NO

I personally would prefer the ability to 'turn off' the use of nukes as an option.

Well there was a missle silo thread awhile ago might want to check that.

Now, first I would like to say KILL S.D.I. IT MUST DIE AND BE GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only thing in space that I would want to see in this game is spy satelite which would orbit the earth and give you line of sight over where they are each turn. No missle sats.

Now to correct you stats

Although the United States has produced something like 70,000 nuclear weapons of 71 major types since their invention, there are now roughly 9600 nuclear weapons of 10 major types (as determined by the official designation system) in the U.S. arsenal. The official name of this arsenal is the "Enduring Stockpile" and it is divided into three categories of warhead readiness.

Refrence (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Wpngall.html)

The first paragragh is that quote. Also In order to move a missle is incredably hard, time consumeing, and cost alot to ensure security. The figures I have said were as of 9/1/01 and I would doubt that the number would have been reduced since.

As for the Russia missle trains, yes that is true but they only existed for a short time during the early days of the Cold War when silos werent strong enough and it took alot of time to launch the missles and might have been destrioed due to enemy missles.

Also welcome hope you post alot :)

I personally would prefer the ability to 'turn off' the use of nukes as an option.

You can disable them in the editor in CIV3, hopefully you will have all the same abilities in CIV4.

Now, first I would like to say KILL S.D.I. IT MUST DIE AND BE GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How about being able to build an anti-satelite missile to launch directly at the SDI? There would be a lower chance of interception because the SDI isn't designed to handle such a threat, and the other Civ would have to go though the long and costly process of replacing it.

To: COLONEL
I know that the US has about 10,000 warheads, but most of these are taktical (either carried in dozens by nuclear subs, either in the form of missiles carried by St.Bombers or F-15s, either in the form of short range missiles stationing at US bases (like in Turkey, Aktion, S.Korea, etc.). What I know from Oxford's Military Studies Reference Book, the US maintains about 550 ICBMS. That's all.

How about being able to build an anti-satelite missile to launch directly at the SDI? There would be a lower chance of interception because the SDI isn't designed to handle such a threat, and the other Civ would have to go though the long and costly process of replacing it.

Well, the Star Wars program has the ability to be an offensive weapon as well, just point the lasers to a city and burn it. So shouldent there be actual SDI satellites as units?

with 550 ICBM, you can shoot every city once at least, because the limit is 512.

Yes the idea of Mars colonys would be fun,then we could upgrade our military
to something like space marines complete with laser cannons, and also maybe
terminator type robots.I like civ but always felt the game ends too soon after the spaceship is
built.Just imagine building civs on multiple planets instead of the same boring old one.
Then you could battle on multiple planets.
Im i the only one who thinks this way.

Welcome to CFC! [party]

Perfection has been yapping about death robots for ever. I don't think it's going to be implemented.

Well I don't agree with building on other planets, but orbital warfare should be included (the only reason it hasn't been in real life is due to diplomatic treaties)

I could see a number of types of Satellites, (that would just go into a satellite box since they go around the whole world anyways)

Spy (information on enemy Military units+Cities)
Science/Surveillance (Economic/Science Bonuses)
Command, Control, Communication (Bonus to Millitary units, Culture, happiness, Trade)
Weapon Satellites (with the following possible targets)
....Missiles (an SDI satellite)
....Cities (a Heavy bomber/Nuclear bomber satellite)
....Troops (a 'tactical bomber')
....Other Satellites (a 'Space War' satellite)

This could do a number of things to make the Modern Era more than waves of tanks/nukes advancing.

You know I just thought about this but you all remember seeing the view from space on E3 the really long video, could you imagine seeing all kinds of satelites up their orbiting and such, although I still want death for the SDI I will settle for what someone else suggest about being able to shoot it out of orbit.

The original SDI project was mostly based on poor science. The idea of using lasers to shoot down warheads, for example, was ludicrous.

The logical use for future techs is to include an option for (speculative) future techs/units.

A step farther out: Once you have conquered one planet your civ moves out into space and meets aliens... :crazyeye:

When i looked at this thread I thought it was going to be about star wars the movie, doh! Anyway they should definitely do an expansion pack with george lucas and add some extra units. Droids and Clones would be cool and then a great wonder "Jedi Temple" like the knight's templar from C3C that produces a Jedi Knight every few turns. Especially if you could produce different Jedi's (I wanna see Yoda fighting on my civ map!)

Can't see it happening but imagine the customer base: every civ geek AND star wars geek! thats like half the worlds population!

The original SDI project was mostly based on poor science. The idea of using lasers to shoot down warheads, for example, was ludicrous.


Actually, no its not. The United States Air Force already has a protype aircraft, which was actually deployed in Iraq, that has already proven successful in tests.

The plane is a convert Boeing 747 armed with a Laser for shooting down SCUD missiles.

Heres what it does:

1. Flies within 300 miles of the missile take off zone.
2. Detect the missile lifting off
3. While it is at its most crucial point, still accelerating skyward, fire a laser at it, causing it to overheat, destroying the missile.

From Scud missiles, its only a short step towards ICBMs.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/abl.htm

Heres what it does:

1. Flies within 300 miles of the missile take off zone.
2. Detect the missile lifting off
3. While it is at its most crucial point, still accelerating skyward, fire a laser at it, causing it to overheat, destroying the missile.

And here is why this is MAJOR BS:
1. Do you not think that the current admin. would have flaunted such a thing more than the russians a medim range nuke at May day?
2. Having such a plane would totaly make MEADS obsolete before its completion
3. "The first YAL-1A is known as the Block 2004 aircraft. This aircraft was designed as a prototype rather than an operational asset. Although it will have a limited lethal capability for contingencies, much of the support equipment to generate the chemical laser's fuel at forward bases is not expected to be available until around 2006." (taken from your reference site)
4. Sounds to me like one of those "Reaganesque" projects, where the admin is just sinking tax money in the pockets of big corporations in an effort to hide the subsidies
5. keywords:refraction, defraction: bbgun shooting at a tank

but aside that:
1.I'd like to see MIRVS, planetbusters or similar things, would be fun.
2. What happend to EMC the game designers seem to not know thet this fries all electronics regardles of if they are on or off. the reason why it is impractical to shoot down incoming nukes with a nuke, as this disables your grounded nukes.
=> Have a first strike advantage, mabe ofset by an early warning system such as a "dew line"
other than that I doubt that we will ever be able to shoot down flying missles so SDI nay! As well as Moon bases... what are you thinking about? I think we should stay realistic, Moon bases will not present a civic or military assent within the next 100 years.
Don't want to be harsh, but there are a plethora of other games you can play if you want "fantasy" weapons and moon bases, or again you might be able to just mod them in for CIV4... wait for it b/c I think they will not be implementing any revolutionary Ideas in this stage of development.

Cheers

PS: oh *searcheagle* can you tell me at what frequency this "COIL" operates at, as this might very well be poor science indeed.

The original SDI project was mostly based on poor science. The idea of using lasers to shoot down warheads, for example, was ludicrous.


eh... not really... the military is already testing out the first laser-equipped satellites, and they've been able to burn down missles with remarkable efficiency. The system is not anywhere near completion yet, but when the US does inevitably complete a missile "shield," it will be accomplished with laser satellites.

@ korossyl : right and you are aware that they have been "working" on this for over 25 years now? and if Lasers are indeed so promising why are they still working on missles to missle interception? All this is just hidden subsidies, because nobody needs it and it sounds cool.

I would like very much if Civ IV would bring "future" weapons and technologies, not to stop at "kind of" today. It would be great to have starships, laser weapons and Robot wars.
That, together with the ability to start anywhere in the tech tree you want could give fun options!

I don't think anyone would playing the game in 50 years from now (or if they do would be something like Civ XX!) and say "This is nonsense! - this could never happen or this is too basic weapon!"

Actually there are many experimental aircraft testing the idea of shooting missles on the way up. However the idea was impractical in the Cold War and I have not heard anything about them using it on Scuds in Iraq. Now Patriot missles on the other hand have intercepted Scuds. Japan is testing an missle experimental system that could shoot N Korean missles as they travel up(much slower in that stage).

@N3pomuk: Yeah, 25 years is a long while, but only recently have we been making real breakthroughs in destructive laser technology. It'll be a little while yet, but what we have is very promising. There is no evidence that SDI is a dead-end.

It would be utter stupidity to simply abandon our current missile defense system simply because we have another potential one on the horizon; besides which, we need one that works well today. This is not replacement for SDI or a vote of no-confidence in its abilities.

I think that you should be able to make your own satilites!
ie:
1 Satilite Lazer(Needs Lazers)+1 Satilite body(Needs Space Flight)=ICBM Intercepter
This would give the game alot of lifespan