Anyone who has heard me talk on these forums knows I've never been fully happy with air units and the current interception system. You can see my thread here where I discussed possible changes to the interception concept: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/interception-new-air-defense-only-concept-draft-1.684714/
I've been thinking about it a lot, and I believe the problem lies in the fighter. At its core, the aircraft game is setup as this exceptionally passive type system. Fighters have to give up their attacks to go into interception mode....whose entire purpose is to ensure another aircraft unit is also forced to not attack. So we have this concept whose main goal is to have two units sitting around doing nothing. We then get into the air sweep cat and mouse, where you have to have enough air sweeps to get through every interception before you can hope to actually use your aircraft for real, and then the next turn you have to do it again.... and again. It can feel fun and a little strategic once or twice, but very quickly just collapses into tedium.
What we need is an aircraft system that rewards PROACTIVE play, rather than reactive. And I think I have the way to do it.
First Up, we make several key changes to the Fighter Line of units.
1) Fighter Interception: Always on (like every other intercepting unit)
2) Gains Promotion "Dogged Pursuit": Attack is not stopped when the unit is intercepted.
3) Air sweep is removed. Gains Promotion "Air Sweep": An attack that is not intercepted does 5 damage to all adjacent air and intercepting units (aka the same as how air sweep works today, but now its just a part of the regular attack).
So this does a number of key things. First, fighters want to ATTACK. They no longer have to sit there to provide interception protection. They want to go and fight things! When a fighter attacks now, an enemy fighter might intercept them, both dealing damage to each other. But the fighter's attack still goes through (meaning they also take damage from air defense). So a fighter can get beat up attacking, but at least its attacking! Its doing things, not just sitting there.
But on the flip side, when the enemy comes to attack you, your fighters will intercept, so you better be careful! You may need to swap out damaged fighters into other cities, or bring in anti-air guns to take over the interception burden while your fighters heal. You can't just flip an interception switch on the fighter and let them become completely safe. The air game is dangerous!
Lastly, this makes soaking up interception actually an interesting part of the game. Forget the boring air sweeps, my fighters are barreling in, killing things and soaking interception at the same time. And if the enemy hasn't brought enough interception, well then that air sweep promotion still kicks in, and I can start knocking down intercepting and air units (just like it works today).
Second, we get rid of the randomness.
1) All intercepting units intercept at 100%.
2) Promos that increase interception are either removed or revamped to another purpose.
3) Interception priority is always: Unit Health, followed by unit interception CS.
While there are a lot of things in Civ that shouldn't be random, interception as especially is one of them. Its a silly balancing mechanic that isn't necessary in this new model. Now that our fighters are more active, its ok if there are AA guns around getting full interception. The fighters will do damage but take a good amount in return. AA guns will also be good defense to ensure their hurt fighters don't have to keep intercepting. With the priority note, you can spread out the interceptions to your healthy units to ensure your damaged fighters don't take too much more punishment.
And now to give bombers some fun.
Bombers gain "Carpet Bombing" promotion: Deals 20 splash damage to all adjacent units.
With the notion that fighters are more aggressive in attacking units, we want to ensure bombers have a good niche. After all they still have to wait for the interception to clear, so it can be tempting to just build all fighters. So towards that end we give bombers a good amount of splash damage, showcasing the raw area power of their big bombs. This is accurate with how bombers have historically been used in history against units, much more as a wide spread artillery shot than a precision attack. We still keep their city promotions if you want that city destroying bomber, but this ensures that bombers gain a unique power only reserved to artillery normally. While fighters can snipe key targets, bombers clear the field of opponents.
Now this model would require a thorough review of the air promotions, several would likely need to change in this model. But I wanted to start there to gauge people's thoughts, does this concept make sense, is there a terrible flaw I am not thinking about? Let me know!
I've been thinking about it a lot, and I believe the problem lies in the fighter. At its core, the aircraft game is setup as this exceptionally passive type system. Fighters have to give up their attacks to go into interception mode....whose entire purpose is to ensure another aircraft unit is also forced to not attack. So we have this concept whose main goal is to have two units sitting around doing nothing. We then get into the air sweep cat and mouse, where you have to have enough air sweeps to get through every interception before you can hope to actually use your aircraft for real, and then the next turn you have to do it again.... and again. It can feel fun and a little strategic once or twice, but very quickly just collapses into tedium.
What we need is an aircraft system that rewards PROACTIVE play, rather than reactive. And I think I have the way to do it.
First Up, we make several key changes to the Fighter Line of units.
1) Fighter Interception: Always on (like every other intercepting unit)
2) Gains Promotion "Dogged Pursuit": Attack is not stopped when the unit is intercepted.
3) Air sweep is removed. Gains Promotion "Air Sweep": An attack that is not intercepted does 5 damage to all adjacent air and intercepting units (aka the same as how air sweep works today, but now its just a part of the regular attack).
So this does a number of key things. First, fighters want to ATTACK. They no longer have to sit there to provide interception protection. They want to go and fight things! When a fighter attacks now, an enemy fighter might intercept them, both dealing damage to each other. But the fighter's attack still goes through (meaning they also take damage from air defense). So a fighter can get beat up attacking, but at least its attacking! Its doing things, not just sitting there.
But on the flip side, when the enemy comes to attack you, your fighters will intercept, so you better be careful! You may need to swap out damaged fighters into other cities, or bring in anti-air guns to take over the interception burden while your fighters heal. You can't just flip an interception switch on the fighter and let them become completely safe. The air game is dangerous!
Lastly, this makes soaking up interception actually an interesting part of the game. Forget the boring air sweeps, my fighters are barreling in, killing things and soaking interception at the same time. And if the enemy hasn't brought enough interception, well then that air sweep promotion still kicks in, and I can start knocking down intercepting and air units (just like it works today).
Second, we get rid of the randomness.
1) All intercepting units intercept at 100%.
2) Promos that increase interception are either removed or revamped to another purpose.
3) Interception priority is always: Unit Health, followed by unit interception CS.
While there are a lot of things in Civ that shouldn't be random, interception as especially is one of them. Its a silly balancing mechanic that isn't necessary in this new model. Now that our fighters are more active, its ok if there are AA guns around getting full interception. The fighters will do damage but take a good amount in return. AA guns will also be good defense to ensure their hurt fighters don't have to keep intercepting. With the priority note, you can spread out the interceptions to your healthy units to ensure your damaged fighters don't take too much more punishment.
And now to give bombers some fun.
Bombers gain "Carpet Bombing" promotion: Deals 20 splash damage to all adjacent units.
With the notion that fighters are more aggressive in attacking units, we want to ensure bombers have a good niche. After all they still have to wait for the interception to clear, so it can be tempting to just build all fighters. So towards that end we give bombers a good amount of splash damage, showcasing the raw area power of their big bombs. This is accurate with how bombers have historically been used in history against units, much more as a wide spread artillery shot than a precision attack. We still keep their city promotions if you want that city destroying bomber, but this ensures that bombers gain a unique power only reserved to artillery normally. While fighters can snipe key targets, bombers clear the field of opponents.
Now this model would require a thorough review of the air promotions, several would likely need to change in this model. But I wanted to start there to gauge people's thoughts, does this concept make sense, is there a terrible flaw I am not thinking about? Let me know!
Production cost
Gold maintenance
?)
I think at the end of the day this model could easily revert right back to the current problem, that aircraft just become bystanders in the war, because its simply too dangerous for them to fight.
