Bomber Range Petition

Should aircraft ranges be customizable beyond the current limit of 8 squares?

  • Yes, this needs to be changed.

    Votes: 51 78.5%
  • No, keep it the way it is now, its perfect!

    Votes: 6 9.2%
  • not really a concern for me either way if it gets changed or not.

    Votes: 8 12.3%

  • Total voters
    65

TETurkhan

Game Developer
Joined
Dec 1, 2001
Messages
1,121
Location
Canada
I am hoping that this petition will help encourage Firaxis to consider changing the current range on bombers and other aircraft. Hopefully it will be successful, and we will finally be done with the 8 square limit. Please keep your comments constructive, and if posting, try to think of a good reason they should address it.

The better case we make, the better the chance they will look at it.


So, how important is this issue to you? Take some time & place your vote and hopefully something will come out of this.

Additional information:

The reason I feel the limit of 8 is restricting is simply because on a detailed map, lets say such as Europe 8 sqaures hardly gets you from Greece to Turkey. It would be great if there were a scale system, that automatically kicks in pending on the size of the map your playing on, but there isn't. The larger or more detailed the map, the less and less this limit makes sense... eventually almost rendering the unit completely ineffective.

Look at the example below to get an idea of what I am talking about.
 
The highlighted area indicating the range of the bombers.
 

Attachments

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If you are making a scenario, can't you just adjust it yourself in the editor?
In this particular case of the North Sea, bombers in a WW2 scenario would need to get from London to north-western Germany. However, for regular gameplay, I think the limits are fine.

BTW - I did not vote.
 
I agree with you teturkhan, tiny map and huge map need different setting for bomber range.

Personaly i play on standard map and 8 is ok for long range bomber( stealth), cruise missile need to be increase too( from 2 to 8).
 
Originally posted by teturkhan
No unfortunately you cannot edit it beyond 8. It is hard-coded. Most things are customizable in the game, but not aircraft range.
Then I would say that it needs to be customized. If that is all she wrote, her writing sucks. :p
 
*Gasp!*
Evil Firaxis purposely leaving the bomber range at 8 in order to destroy our most desperate dreams! Nawty fools, we ought to give them a spanking with this!

:rolleyes:
 
I believe there is a long buried thread where Mike B. (or Maybe Dan M.) from Firaxis stated that 8 was the limit because otherwise the AI calculations took an obscene amount of time.
 
its not like I am going to toss the game cause of it :D
but you have to admit, it takes away game balance on larger or more detailed maps...

I have searched the threads for what Firaxis said on the subject but couldn't find anything... anyone know where??
 
Originally posted by Crazy Jerome
I believe there is a long buried thread where Mike B. (or Maybe Dan M.) from Firaxis stated that 8 was the limit because otherwise the AI calculations took an obscene amount of time.

Pathfinding goes exponential with distance.
 
it doesn't make much sense for modern day bombers to have a range of 8 squares if you're playing on a 100 square wide world.

although the exact range isn't detailed by boeing or the air force, they do say that the b-2 stealth bomber has intercontinental range unrefueled and (for example) has flown from missouri to kosovo non-stop with mid-air refueling. one source claims the b-2 bomber has an unrefueled range of approximately 6,000 nautical miles.

perhaps, since details like mid-air refueling are not addressed in the game, the stealth bomber should not have a range limit. it could be treated like an ICBM, except that so far b-2's are not limited to nuclear weapons attacks.

maybe this would fix the problem with pathfinding rules, if not require some changes to air intercept rules, etc.
 
Originally posted by Daaraa
Can you add bombers into the game? Adding a b-2 with a range of 20 or whatever?

It will take a huge amount of time to computer to calculate pathfinding for a.i. bomber according to previous post.
 
Originally posted by Zachriel


Pathfinding goes exponential with distance.

It is not just pathfinding, though that is certainly a part of it. If you think about it, the Go To command does pathfinding over much larger distances all the time. But every square that a bomber can hit within range has to be evaluated (or at least quickly discarded as a choice).

I think if they wanted much greater bombing range, they would have to simulate it. Give stealth bombers the ability to be assigned (not rebased, because happens on the same turn) to any square, not just a city, for X amount of turns. Then the bomber could use its 8 range bombardment from there. When the "fuel" ran out, the bomber would automatically return to its base. Between turns, the bomber would have to loiter in the area, giving enemy fighters a chance to knock it down.

I think the AI could be made to handle this, since the first choice would only have to be the general area he was attacking. (Hmm, just declared war on the Romans, so I'll send the bomber near there.)
 
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