I'm playing on Monarch diffculty.

Right now I'm trying something out air transports. I went through my mod and got rid of the "airlift" flag for most ground units. At the same time I got rid of the rebase flag for air transports (like a C-17) but gave them a operational range of 100.

The idea is 3 fold:

1) With modern air refueling and engine technology aircraft are pretty much limited by crew indurance. If something needs to be dropped on the other side of the world we can do it. Hence the range of 100.

2) I got rid the immobile flag out of the idea that only certain facilites can house and operate these large aircraft. So it is assumed that the city that built the transport also built the facilities to maintain them.

3) Here's the most important one. I never quite liked the notion that you could simply "airlift" lots of troops between 2 cities with airports, esp during times of war when the airspace is contested.

Theoretically if you try to airlift something the enemy will try to shoot it down. If you can interdict naval convoys you should be able to intercept airborne ones.

Sounds good right? Well the problem is the A.I. now doesn't to seem to be so trigger happy about building air transports and using them. I'm 100% sure I have the transport flag checked. Perhaps they wisely don't want to paradrop into hostile airspace.

Perhaps putting a stealth flag on the transports would make the A.I. a bit more brazen.

Then again I've had small island garrisons that have been complete wiped out by enemy airpower and at the same time I know (from spies) that the enemy has transports to do a paradrop.

But the question is, how can I get the A.I. to use these air transports about half as much as they use naval transports? Is there a fundamental flaw in taking away the rebase flag when it comes to the A.I. use of aircraft?

But the question is, how can I get the A.I. to use these air transports about half as much as they use naval transports? Is there a fundamental flaw in taking away the rebase flag when it comes to the A.I. use of aircraft?
Yes there is you have now confused the AI on their use.

Hmmm. So sad. Well, I'll try the scenario again with the rebase flag checked for transport aircraft. Reduce the ranges to normal levels. And see what happens. I still want to play around with the idea of having a true air transport fleet.

I though of the same thing when I began modding, but I soon found that like anything else you want to modify, you must consider the effect it will have on the AI. Its behavior is usually tied to certain triggers (in this case unit abilities) which must be present in order for it to function at all. If you remove a trigger, the AI will likely fail to use the item in question at all.

BTW I don't see the logic behind your point #2.

Right. But alot of these nuiances aren't written at all. You got to explore them.

And on #2... I guess it's just the way I view units in Civ. To me the costs of a unit represents everything... not just the fighter but the pilot to train, the maintence crew to train, the missles to arm, the hanger to place it in, ect.

So when I look at these massive transports or bombers (ever stood inside a C-5A?) you quickly get an idea that it takes some fairly specialized facilities to keep and maintain them. A home base if you will.

Sure these huge cargo craft can land at any airport big enough to handle them, some even on rough airfields but sure as heck won't be able to maintain them in the field. At least not as easily as you could a fighter.

Right. But alot of these nuiances aren't written at all. You got to explore them.

And on #2... I guess it's just the way I view units in Civ. To me the costs of a unit represents everything... not just the fighter but the pilot to train, the maintence crew to train, the missles to arm, the hanger to place it in, ect.

So when I look at these massive transports or bombers (ever stood inside a C-5A?) you quickly get an idea that it takes some fairly specialized facilities to keep and maintain them. A home base if you will.

Sure these huge cargo craft can land at any airport big enough to handle them, some even on rough airfields but sure as heck won't be able to maintain them in the field. At least not as easily as you could a fighter.

I like your reasoning on this concept. But as the others have pointed out, the game engine is just not adaptable enough to use that strategy.

But in an all human game, different story.