New Unit - Land Mine

pesoloco

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** LAND MINE UNIT FINISHED - SCROLL DOWN TO LATER POST **


I used to make units for Civ II all the time so naturally I had to make some for Civ III.

I am working on a Land Mine unit. A/D/M : 1/60/1. Like a cruise missile, it is destroyed after attack. Hidden Nationality too. I thought this could go under "Smart Weapons" (because your own units would be able to pass over them no problem.) tech but i'm open to other ideas.
 
I think that land mines would be a huge addon for this game. Please email me when this is finished.
 
Aparently some of your files are missing (probably the ini file) or is under a different name or directory.

I have a recomendation, the mine should be 0/60/0 and have paradrop ability, so whe you place it, it can never be moved again...
 
In response, I'd like to say, I agree with the 0/60/0 and paradrop idea.

I seem to have some trouble attaching the pic.
 
I was just thinking. I think the land mine needs to have an attack of 1 because if it is 0, wouldn't the enemy would capture it instead of getting blown up?

Does anyone else use Animation Shop for units? i try to set the transparent color to the pink color that is in the background, but when i save it and go back to the properties, it has been changed back to opaque. Is this a problem? anyone know how to fix it? also what color depth do i need to use? 256? 16.7 million?
I think I'll take another look at the tutorial on this site.

I'm attaching a pic of the mine in default state.

What do y'all think of how it looks?
 
A unit only gets captured if it has defense 0. Attack 0 just means it can't capture cities (which is what you need), at least that's what I've heard about it.

IMO, defense 60 is a little extreme - this means that the unit will never get destroyed! Since a land-mine can't attack I think the cruise missile flag won't do anything.

I think a land mine unit should be very cheap (say 10 shields) and a rather low defense, such as 4-5, so that in modern times it only has a chance to damage offensive units, while destroying them only in very defensive terrain, like mountains or jungle.

I also think that smart weapons is unrealistically too late for a land mine. Land mines have been around at least since 1930's (maybe in WW1 as well, I'm not sure) and definitely in WW2. So my suggestion for prerequisite tech would be something like Mass Production.

A different suggestion is that you could possibly have more than one type of mines, with the same graphics, so that they evolve with type.

An early version, maybe, available with Mass Production, with defense 2-3, cost 10, so that cavalry which is common in that period has a chance against them.

A later version, maybe available with Minituarization, with defense 6-7 (so that they are effective against tanks), cost 20, and maybe more expensive (cost 40) anti-tank mines, with defense 9-10, available with Minituarization as well.

Hidden nationality is good, but it means that in peace time the minefields will have to be protected as the AI will try to destroy them!

The thing with paradropping is that you an airport in the city from which to airdrop mines. I don't know if it would work, but maybe giving mines a footsoldier flag, and introducing a unit like a truck (made by Dark Sheer) to transport 'footsoldiers' would solve the problem of laying minefields.

Another possible issue is that the AI might build lots of mine units to defend its cities (since they are so cheap). This might finally solve the problem that the AI keeps spearmen even when you have Modern Armour, but I'm not sure what effects it will have on game balance. Of course, heavily mined cities are quite realistic, but having an army practically fully comprised of land mines is not!

These are just my thoughts on the issue of land mines in Civ3.
 
yeah. i think your right about the attack 0 thing. thanks for correcting me. I figured out some of the bugs and hopefully will have the finished version up in a few days.

Smart Weapons was only a suggestion. My rationale was that at defense 60 (which, after consideration, should be lowered drastically) it would be a very strong unit and reserved for late in the game.

Thanks for all your interest in my unit.
 
Originally posted by pesoloco
I was just thinking. I think the land mine needs to have an attack of 1 because if it is 0, wouldn't the enemy would capture it instead of getting blown up?

Does anyone else use Animation Shop for units? i try to set the transparent color to the pink color that is in the background, but when i save it and go back to the properties, it has been changed back to opaque. Is this a problem? anyone know how to fix it? also what color depth do i need to use? 256? 16.7 million?
I think I'll take another look at the tutorial on this site.

I'm attaching a pic of the mine in default state.

What do y'all think of how it looks?

I think it looks great! :goodjob:

About time I see more units here ;)

As to your color problem, are you using one of the original flc's pallete as a start? The trouble with Civ3's flc is 1) the flc header 2) the pallete info. Thats the reason you need Flicster from moeniir instead of just using Animation Shop.

From what you mentioned with the crash, I believe it got to do with the header info. Get Flicster from the utility section and your problem will be solved. :D

As to the pallete issue, I always use a current unit's pallete as a base so I don't get mess up with the transparent color, Civ color and shadow color. :cooool:
 
Thanks for the compliment, Dark Sheer. :lol:

I got the colors and graphics to show up right now. I want to do some tweaking to the land mine graphics before i put it up here. I just tried it out in the game and it works great. I have free time tommorrow so I'll probably have it up then.

I have several more ideas for units so once i finish this one I'll be posting some more.

:)
 
i love the landmine idea, filling whole fields with mines will drop all those attacking tanks.

just an addition to this idea, how about sea mines? they could be carried by ships, but have no move of their own, not sure if it would work though.

another idea could be the minesweeper, though this would probably be impossible to make
 
Well, I finished the animations!!!! And sooner than I thought!
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

The attached zip file contains the following files:
(copy them all into sub-folder "\art\units\Land Mine\"
Land Mine.ini
mineboom.wav
LandMineAttackA.flc
LandMineDeath.flc
LandMineDefault.flc
LandMineRun.flc
lmicon.pcx


lmicon.pcx is the icon that you can paste into units_32.pcx

I did not do the Civilopedia icons or entries yet. I will have these soon though.

Thanks for your support and patience....
 
Historical note:

The American Civil War (1861-65) saw use of land "torpedos." These where artillery shells or like explosive containers with a percussion cap or other detonator. The devices were buried along roads where the enemy was likely to pass. Newspaper accounts refer to these "infernal devices" a popular term in the era for very wicked inovations (like exploding bullets). The mines should be avail. with riflemen.
 
cameramano,
Nice to see a Bible verse in your post. :)

I didn't know about these civil war land mines. Thanks for filling me in. I was thinking of making them available with gunpowder or chemistry. then as suggested by sgrig, having varying types of mines available with later techs such as miniaturization.

I think I'll just leave the tech requirement and A/D/M up to your own personal preference rather than try to dictate what I think it should be.

I just played a little and had a huge field of mines. It sure helps. The barbarians are no longer much of a nuisance. By the time the enemy gets through (if they get through) they have been weakened.

Have fun!!!!
:lol: :lol:
 
Originally posted by pesoloco
In response, I'd like to say, I agree with the 0/60/0 and paradrop idea.

Already tried this type of units. AI won't deploy such units, only stacking them in the city (even if the city have airport). ANd it is not hauling them by land transport either. I'd advise give it movmement it 1 and wheeled. At least AI would use them then.
 
What about giving them 1 movement but immobile with load capability ?

Will the AI deploy them using some land transport? In my game the AI actually use truck to transport the settlers as I set the truck to be defensive units. :cool:
 
I experienced the same with 0/60/0. So I changed it to 1/20/2 and foot soldier. this seems to work pretty well.

The immobile and load capable sounds good but i haven't tried it.
 
Great idea, BTW. I've seen a lot of suggestion for when the land mine should be available, etc., and maybe you can solve this by making them available with Mass Production but upgradeable to just simple "mines" with Flight that can be paradropped both on land and ocean/lake squares (ocean mines have also been around for quite awhile). You could also make ocean mines visible only to submarines, but I'm not sure how you'd do that.
 
Originally posted by Dark Sheer
Will the AI deploy them using some land transport? In my game the AI actually use truck to transport the settlers as I set the truck to be defensive units. :cool:

That is reallly interesting. I tried transport, but could never make AI to use it. May be the idea is that transport should have defence more then unit ?
 
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