Invisible Units

There should be 3 different classes of invisible units, land, air
and sea. This will prevent stupid things happening, submarines
being able to see invisible land units, for example. If a unit is
a sea unit, you should be able to specify that this uint can only
see invisible of a particular class (or classes).

I have been working on a custom scenario and I find that just
one single class of invisble units makes using both invisible land
and sea units problematic.

Maybe an idea for the 'invisible' land unit

The guerilla unit, makes sense doesn't it?

They hide in the bushes and come out so now and then
to attack a weak target.

Maybe add something to attack city
buildings at a low succes rate?

Hephaistos, there are invisible land units in the Conquests already.

Another variation of this is to have some units not display if they haven't moved in the last turn unless you walk into them (who would then attack you if you are not friendly)

My bad, I'm still looking out for a copy of conquests, got the PTW running here.

So we got the subs, the new land ones and the stealths

As far as me goes, this would be suffcient. I wouldn't go into hiding units when they have not moved, after all they were visible when moving so the other civ knows they are there, they can't just disappear.

Unless maybe someone can tell me a historic fact of units that have hidden for a longer period of time in enemy territory? (not counting guerillas)

eric_A said:

There should be 3 different classes of invisible units, land, air
and sea. This will prevent stupid things happening, submarines
being able to see invisible land units, for example.

Click to expand...

Exactly right. Also
The game's AI should also be modified so that it doesn't pursue those units and the hidden flag units with everything it's got. I mean its dead silly to lure away a fleet of 20+ ironclads from enemy's coast with 1 privateer

Hephaistos said:

Maybe an idea for the 'invisible' land unit

The guerilla unit, makes sense doesn't it?

They hide in the bushes and come out so now and then
to attack a weak target.

Maybe add something to attack city
buildings at a low succes rate?

Click to expand...

Digging around today and happened across this. I just added an invisible Guerilla unit to my mod. Great minds think alike! I'll give you credit, as this is the earliest record I see of this idea.

Great idea! /grin.

There should be an option in the next civ to be able to hide certain units in forests/jungle making ambush attacks a good strategy.

The Special Forces unit in my upcoming mod is invisible as well, and so can conduct 'ambushes' quite well. But limited to 2 units per civ.

But I like your idea - one could mod the code so that certain units had an 'Ambush' mission with a button, which made them become invisible and automatically attack an enemy unit that wanders into them. But you could also call this a 'landmine'...

Or, you could make certain units (non-mech infantry) become invisible if they spend one turn in a forest or jungle without moving. They would be visible only to units of the same type with a combat strength greater than the invisible units' - so better,, more 'elite' units could find them, but not their counterparts.

Ideas, ideas.

I can take this great idea even a step further...I have an idea for a modern mod/scenario and i'm trying to teach myself xml/python in order to create it. The premise is "Civ4: The War on Terror" where you begin shortly after 9/11 and must (depending upon the civ u choose) balance ur economy, the environment, and national defense.
"Invisible" terrorist units are making their way to enemy cities across the globe. They come in three classes...
1) suicide bombers can inflict minor damage to ur city infrastructure.
2) terror cells will effect both infrastructure and population damage if they reach a city.
3) the dreaded dirty bomb unit will have devastating affects (like a nuke).
But like all Civ aspects every action has a reaction...a problem and a solution.
1) "special forces" units can "see" #1's (suicide bombers).
2) Homeland Security buildings can be constructed to detect #2's (cells) (and maybe even their city where they originated from to retaliate).
3) A combination of the two ( buildings and units ) to defend against #3's.
And by the way if anybody is interested in this or would like to add some ideas please contact me.

Chazcon said:

The Special Forces unit in my upcoming mod is invisible as well, and so can conduct 'ambushes' quite well. But limited to 2 units per civ.

But I like your idea - one could mod the code so that certain units had an 'Ambush' mission with a button, which made them become invisible and automatically attack an enemy unit that wanders into them. But you could also call this a 'landmine'...

Or, you could make certain units (non-mech infantry) become invisible if they spend one turn in a forest or jungle without moving. They would be visible only to units of the same type with a combat strength greater than the invisible units' - so better,, more 'elite' units could find them, but not their counterparts.

Ideas, ideas.

Click to expand...

Boy, talk about an old thread being dredged up. I believe their have been more recent discussions of this.

I would like to propose a layered system to civ.

Layer 1: High Altitutude-The domain of High Flying Bombers, Fighters, Recon Planes. Combat participants: Fighters, Bombers, SAM Sites, AEGIS Cruisers, Radar.
Layer 2: Low Altitutude-Domain of Surface attacks from Aircraft, helicopters, Early Flight. Combat Participants: SAM Battery, AAA, Modern Naval ships, All attacking aircraft, Radar.
Layer 3: Surface- Domain of all Land and Naval vessels (except for submarines). Combat occurs beween Low Altitutude and Underwater
Layer 4: Underwater-Domain of Submarines.

Combat and detection between different layers would be limited. Surface and Sub-surface would have a hard time detecting aircraft flying unless there was an active Radar. Because of this difficulty in seeing all units, more "invisible" units would be created.