Request: Land Transport

When I started playing civ a few years ago, I came up with the idea for a transport unit that traveled over land instead of sea. It would be like a car or something like that and could carry 2-4 infantry units. I tried to modify the transport unit by changing the domain to land but I couldn't get it to work. If anybody know how to create a unit like this, please let me know.

I think if you take a unit that has the graphics for a land unit (not a sea unit, because they have special tags like <render under water> and such, and give ita transport capacity=whatever, say 2, and make the transport domain=land it could work, I'd have to try it though.

I have this, it seems to work. I am not 100% sure if the AI "knows" how to use it, I usually destroy these as soon as I can.

Transport Truck

I didn't make the art (I forget where I got it), I did make the button however, in addition to the XML code. Its all in modular format.

There are a couple things you have to edit to get it to work for you.
1. I.e. Remove the TECH_AUTOMOBILE as a prereq as well as the BONUS_RUBBER.
I have both In the game I use this for. I just didn't take them out. Just change it to TECH_COMBUSTION or whatever and it should work.
2. Additionally, the only unit this will carry (at the moment) is the Infantry. that is because i defined the Infantry with "SPECIALUNIT_SOLDIER" this was so the Truck wouldnt be able to carry the Tanks, Mech Infantry, etc...

I have it able to carry Infantry, Machine Guns, SAM Infantry, Anti-Tank Infantry, Marines/Seals, and Paratroopers. Grenadiers and Rifleman become obsolete before the truck is available so I didn't think it was necessary.

If there is a demand, I will upload it to the database with some screenshots. Otherwise Enjoy.

Hey Edgecrusher that sounds like a really good unit to have in the database!

please upload it.

Thanks. I'll try it out.

There are a few mods going around with a Transport Helicopter that functions exactly as you describe.

I was able to follow most of the changes for thr opel truck and infantry included in the download except for the CIV4UnitSchema.xml file.

Could you highlight in a brief post what was changed in CIV4UnitSchema.xml and why?

Thanks.

you could also go into UnitInfos.xml file and fined mech infantry or gunship and change the cargo space to 1 or 2 or how ever many you want. much easier

i would also say upload some screenshots and the unit to this site plz

I think one of the problems with the transport truck idea is that if the truck is attacked, only it (and not the units it carries) would do the defending. With a sea transport this makes sense. You don't expect infantry units to disembark in the middle of the ocean and start attacking, as if they could do much damage to a battleship anyway. However, in a real situation if a truck were attacked, the infantry - or the ones who were left after the initial onslaught - would pile out and start firing on the attackers.

I believe that this would not happen in Civ. The truck and everything it was carrying would be destroyed. However, someone needs to check in-game to make sure.

Unfortunately, the entire game isn't exactly correct. For instance, if everything was historically correct, then infantry should be able to hitch rides on tanks and planes should be able to crash into ground units in a suicide attack. We can't make everything perfect. However, I have made the transport truck relatively weak for its era (I think it's around 18 or so) so that one would ideally pair it with a mech infantry or tank for defense. The idea is that one would never have to use a truck in combat because in real life, they can't really attack at all. Speaking of which, when I downloaded the files from Edgecrusher, he had the combat set to 0. I figured that if it had no combat (and could be defeated like a worker), then all of the infantry units inside would die and I thought that didn't make any sense.

In all the testing I did with this, I never once saw the AI use land transports, ever, even when it was absolutely necessary to do so. I posted a thread here about it, but got no response.

Here is the thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=268358

If anyone can figure out how to get the AI to recognize land transports, please let me know.

I haven't done any programming outside of XML for Civ IV but this seems like something that would require using Python or C++.

I had it set to zero because technically the truck cannot attack. The Infantry inside can attack, but they are theoretically inside the truck in an incredibly vulnerable position. For example, If a truck gets attacked and the infantry units were to "jump out to defend it", they are jumping out into an open battlefield ready for an ambush. Either that or if a Truck is traveling along gets hit with a shell fired from a tank, the truck and all passangers dont have much chance of survival.

I would imagine setting it to a weak STR (which would represent the infantry inside, in a weak position). This would give it some defence, but it would loose 90% of the time, (as a ambushed transport should and the Infantry die anyway.) Either way I didn't think it mattered much.

Anyway, I wasn't to concerned with the strength because I always believed the unit should be used to bring units to a battlefield, through friendly terrain, not through an active battlefield.

My primary concern was getting the AI to use it, now again I am not sure if the current AI's would get it to work, but one can experiment. For example set the Default to "Reserve", having the UNITAI's set to Assault_SEA & Reserve, and setting the NOTUNITAI's to Attack, Attack_City, etc...

I am not sure if the AI would use it correctly this way. I can expirament when I am home and formally upload it to the database.

about the Schema, nothing was changed.

can you plz upload some screenies of your truck?

Thanks to Edgecrusher for answering my question on schema.

Here is a Screenshot



For what its worth, I changed the default AI's to ASSAULT_SEA and the AI's to ASSAULT_SEA and RESERVE.

I am still testing to see if it ai knows how to use it.

ooo i have seen that in other mods before
cool once i reinstall my civ 4 bts im going to download this unit and chuggis waffen SS

Edgecrusher,
You can make the truck act the way that you want it to by setting bOnlyDefensive to 1 in Civ4UnitInfos.xml, and giving it a combat strength slightly lower than the unit it carries.

Has anyone found a way to get the AI to use land transports?

colcolstyles said:

Unfortunately, the entire game isn't exactly correct. For instance, if everything was historically correct, then infantry should be able to hitch rides on tanks and planes should be able to crash into ground units in a suicide attack. We can't make everything perfect.

Click to expand...

Well, considering a unit in the game represents at least a division (10,000+ men), it would be very hard for all of them to hitch a ride on a tank detachment. As for the suicide thing, that's what the bSuicide tag is for.

I understand what you are saying, though.