sonofabandit
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2005
- Messages
- 28
The AC Mod Version 7b:
Hello all, my name is son of a bandit and you may know me from such forums as ace http://forums.acecombatskies.com/ or even in Gfaqs under the name of 757. But for the longest, I’ve just been a downloader in the great forums and I decided to contribute a little something back:
The Ace Combat Mod for Civilization III Conquests/Gold Edition.
Yep, you heard me right. There’s now an Ace Combat Mod on the books for all you fans of Namco’s AC series of arcade style of flight games on PS1 and PS2. Now you get to play with all your favorite countries of Osea, Yuktobania, Belka, Erusiea, North Point and some others. Yes, your favorite real world cities are in there as well, but only after all the Ace Combat cities were used up.
Some of these nations and cities are Namco cannon (I.e. the were mentioned in AC games or found on official maps and wallpapers) but others are not cannon and were inspired by great fanfic work out there. I give credit, where credit is due so- so Fonce Diablo, your Pax Usea series was a master piece. So much of a master piece , I think your nations deserved a place in the Ace Combat World, albeit right now they are just in names only.
Fonce Diablo’s Work:
http://forums.acecombatskies.com/index.php?showtopic=685
A few of the nations were my creations as well, such as the Opal and perhaps one or two nations I can’t remember but all of it was inspired by Namco’s AC series. Once again, thank you Namco and Project Aces for coming up with such lasting games and inspirational fiction. And thank you Friaxis for making such a addictive and customizable product. It’s definitely one of the best games out there in terms of fun and replayabiltiy.
But now, let us get the features of this game…
The features: National and Location Logic.
This is in Ace Combat Mod. It is to give the player a feel that they are actually playing with the same nations of Ace Combat infamy. But one thing about recent AC games is that these fake or ‘strange real’ nations are based on actual countries.
For example, the history of the nation of Belka has very close parallels to the nation to the real nation of Germany. Hence Belka takes the place of Germany in this scenario.
Likewise, Osea is false America/Japan/Capitalist Asia, while Yuktobania is false Eastern Europe/Russia. Other nations were a bit difficult to place such as Erusiea. According to the events of Ace Combat 4, Erusiea is a fascist state and their history mirrors Nazi Germany during WWII. Yet their city names are Italian (Farbanti) and some of the names of their ships take after European legends so I let Erusiea take the place of Italy with the cannon city of Farbanti as it’s capital.
Similarly, the nation of North Point had parallels to WWII Britain so North Point takes place of the English in this scenario. Other nations, like Commona or Verusa I chose to take poetic license with… so Commona takes place of the Viking civilization while Verusa takes place of China.
Though in AC Maps, Verusa is a sizeable nation who is right below Yuktobania (false Russia) so it seems like a China analogue for Verusa would make sense.
Now that you know my reasoning for what Ace Combat nations takes place of real nations, let me get into the game play mechanics…
The Features: Game play Mechanics.
This mod is in it’s 7th itineration, first itineration with new buildings. My concern with the previous versions of the mod was to improve unit balance as well as add new units in the game.
Admittedly though, this game is mostly a late industrial age- modern age scenario. I’ve tried to make this mod a modern era start scenario but it’s quite difficult to keep the feeling you get from building up your civilization over time by just starting at the 1900s. So up to the late industrial ages, this mod is relatively unchanged.
But once you reach the industrial ages, you’ll see some changes, primarily they are made to make even the weakest of nations, survivable to the modern ages.
1st Change: Basic Infantry No longer require rubber to be produced.
I always thought you don’t need rubber to actually equip effective infantry. As long as you have the capacity to make shoes and uniforms and steel helmets a nation should be able to train WWI and WWII style infantry.
In this scenario, rubber is mostly meant to represent the economic prowess needed to mass produce, certain units- like tanks. Afterall, current tires, treads and whatever parts on a tank that would require rubber would have been replaced by synthetic fibers.
Likewise when the regular infantry upgrades into Modern Infantry, they don’t require rubber as well. In this game, infantry units are the basic units that any nation can produce to defend themselves.
2nd Change: More upgradeable units.
DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR CALVARY- THEY UPGRADE, FINALLY!
Air Calvary (and the Mi 8 Hip flavor unit version) are the upgrade to horse drawn Calvary. Although they are less powerful than tanks, they have more mobility and better defense. Again, the air Calvary will upgrade to modern air Calvary later on in the modern ages.
DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR FRIGATES!
Frigates upgrade into Ironclads, which upgrade to destroyers, which upgrade to missile destroyers. Unfortunately I haven’t found a substitute for the Privateer.
AGAIN, DON’T THROW AWAY YOUR DIESAL SUBMARINES
Submarines upgrade to the Kilo class Submarine which has higher defensive power than the regular nuclear sub.
Just about everything is upgradeable in this game, except some aircraft (I’ll explain later). Tanks upgrade into modern armor (M60 flavor unit too) which in turn upgrade to late age armor units like the M1A2, Leopard 2, T80, Leclerc or Black Eagle.
And there are many flavor units in this game for variety’s sake. For example, the nation of Yuktobania’s tanks upgrade to the Modern Armor, while Osea’s units upgrade to the M60 Patton. The Patton and the Modern armor has the same statistics but different look- they’re flavor units. Just about every modern age unit has a flavor unit.
3rd Change: Substitution System.
Remember the Air Calvary unit I was talking about? How it was less powerful than a tank but more mobile. Did I mention that it also took less/different resources to build (just oil and aluminum)?
Well, that my friend means that is a substitute. If you can’t build tanks, build air Calvary. The reasoning behind this system is the same as making infantry buildable without rubber… allowing nations to be viable on the world stage even if they don’t have all the resources.
Likewise, Attack Helicopter units are great substitutes (along with modern air Calvary) for Late Age Armor units if you can’t get all the resources. Attack Helicopters only require (oil and aluminum while tanks need oil, rubber, aluminum).
In general, substitutes are less powerful than the unit they are replacing. Again, I cite the attack helicopter vs. late age armor unit. For this example I’ll use the AH-64 Apache (helicopter) vs. the Leopard 2(L.A. Armor).
While the Leopard has better overall attack abilities (22 attack), blitz and zone of control, the Apache is an excellent substitute in its own right with an attack of 20 and the same defensive value of the leopard of 16. But the Apache is amphibious and has the most powerful free bombard in the game (bombard strength of 10) making them a great escort for tanks.
Substitutes will never be more powerful than the unit they’re taking the place of but they will have powers that complement the more powerful unit. Hence building a balanced fleet of attack helicopters, armor and mech infantry will make a serious attack formation.
And the AI realizes this. The AI will build tanks, attack helicopters and air Calvary in substantial numbers.
The AI builds all units in this game. Maybe with the exception of a certain super weapon... I’m working on it.
4th Change- Superweapons.
The Ace Combat Series has always seen the player not only fight other conventional weapons, but super weapons as well… The super weapons in this scenario are based off the weapons seen in Ace Combats 4, 5 and Zero.
In general, super weapons are extremely powerful and hard to produce. They all require 3 resources to build and only certain nations have them. The weapons are not so powerful that they can’t be destroyed (it’s an AC game- destroying them is half the fun) but if the weapons are massed in numbers. You may have a problem.
The super weapons as follows and are strictly based on Namco cannon…
Scinfaxi SSBCVN- Large aircraft carrier/submarine that can fire ballistic missiles for bombardment.
Hresvelgr or XB-O- Large flying troop transport that is heavily armored and tough to destroy. The vast array of air to air missiles means that it can win in most air to air engagements. But this is Civilization and this is an Ace Combat Mod…
One fighter can bring it all down.
Stonehenge- Erusiean AA rail gun. This is the most powerful anti-air unit in the game and has only 1 movement. It has little attack value but has a powerful defense value (protection against air attack). Still, a coordinated air attack can silence the guns.
What about the Arkbird… what about the Excalibur? What about Megalith? I haven’t included these super weapons in the game, because I’m not sure on how to implement them. Even Stonehenge needs work since I haven’t seen the A.I. Use it.
The Features: Aircraft.
This is an Ace Combat Game. Of course there will be aircraft. Aircraft are the most numerous flavor units in the game and they also tend to the substitution rule.
For example let’s talk about what consists in the Osean Airforce (OADF)…
As soon as you research the technology of Rocketry, you will have access to 2 new fighters. The light weight fighter (F-5E in this case ) and the air superiority fighter (F-4 Phantom in this case).
Light Weight (LWF) Fighters require no aluminum resources to make while the air superiority fighter (ASF) does. LWFs have shorter range and less attack strength than the ASF. But LWF are cheaper… cannon fodder for air defenses or reinforcements for home territory.
Likewise, ASFs have the ability to punch their way into enemy territory or can cover vast amounts of territory at home. In general, aircraft have longer ranges in this game, especially bombers.
Once you research Synthetic Fibers and Computers, you’ll find that you have another set of fighter aircraft in the game (examples, F-14 Tomcat, Su-27, Mig 29, F-16 and more). Holding much the same logic of substitution. Essentially you have a more advanced set of LWFs and ASFs.
Likewise there are 3 types of bombers in this game: Tactical bombers, strategic bombers and interdictors.
Tactical bombers, like the A-10, A-4 Skyhawk, Su-25 and others are the cheap mass produced bombers that require no aluminum to produce. They can shoot down any of the WWII generation of fighters and may hold their own against dedicated fighter aircraft. But more importantly, they have longer range and more bombard power than the WWII era bomber.
Interdictors, like the Panavia Tornado, A-6E, Mig 27 and others are dedicated attack aircraft that infiltrate enemy territory at low level and high speeds of attack. Because of this, they carry the ‘stealth’ flag and are generally weak when encountering dedicated fighters aircraft. These aircraft depend on their stealth and are great at attacking an enemy airforce while they are still on the ground.
Strategic Bombers are not built but are auto produced by various small wonders. For example the Tu-95 plant will build the Tu-95 bear bomber ever 7 turns. Likewise the B-52 plant will produce a B-52 every 9 turns. Strategic Bombers are extremely powerful in bombard capability (their RoF can even destroy some veteran units) and are long in range… but they are easily shot down by fighters. These are best deployed after an enemy air defense has been destroyed.
However, the auto produced B-2A (stealth bomber), B1B Lancer and F-117 (stealth fighter) combines the best of the strategic bomber with the stealth capability of the interdictor. The B-2 Spirit is the most powerful bomber aircraft in the game besides the Belkan special weapon… the XB-0.
Auto produced Wonders and Aircraft:
Strategic Bombers are not the only aircraft that can be auto produced.
ATFs- Advanced Tactical Fighters are also Auto produced. In real life the term, ATF, refers to the F-22A Raptor and YF-23 fighter programs. Essentially, these fighters are air the ultimate in attack and air defense technology.
In the game, ATFs are fighters that I found that the A.I. will produce only these aircraft after they researched the necessary techs. To rectify this problem and maintain unit diversity, I made certain aircraft that can only be produced by small wonders. These aircraft are effective on both offensive or defense and have varying degrees of abilities and attack/defense value.
The aircraft:
Rafale- low end ATF. Least powerful, but still better than the best produceable fighter.
Auto produced every 5 turns by the Rafale plant.
EF Typhoon- mid range ATF. Auto produced by the EF plant every 7 turns.
Su-37 mid range ATF. But due to the fact that Ace Combat games rely more on agility than stealth, missiles or avionics, the Su-37 is better than the Eurofighter in this scenario. Also the Su-37 seems to the be the aircraft of Aces in the series as well…
Autoproduced by the Su-37 plant every 9 turns.
F-35 JSF- low end ATF with the ‘stealth tag’. Autoproduced by the JSF plant every 5 turns.
F-22A Raptor- Best fighter in the game. Takes a long time to auto produce. Autoproduced by the F-22 plant every 10 turns.
The Small Wonder Aircraft Plants:
Here are the aircraft Plants and what it takes to build them- Aircraft plants take a certain amount of city improvements to build them, like the Battlefield Medicine wonder. Since the Civiliopedia is not complete, yet I’ll give out this critical information here:
F22 Plant- 5 Manufacturing Plants.
JSF Plant- 5 Man. Plants
Rafale Plant- 5 Airports
Su-37 Plant- 5 Airports
Eurofighter Plant- 5 Airports
F-117 Plant- 5 Airports
Stealth Bomber Plant- 5 Airports
B-1B Bomber Plant- 5 Airports
Avro Bomber Plant- 3 Airports
Tu-95 Bomber Plant- 3 Airports
B52 Bomber Plant- 3 Airports.
*All aircraft plants, require Oil and Aluminum to be built and produce aircraft*.
Unit User Logic:
Remember the flavor units? Well, let me tell you why some units are used by some countries and not others.
I base which unit is available to which country on 2 factors: Ace Combat Cannon and Real life Analogy.
Let’s take the country of Yuktobania (false Russia) for example… In the modern era, Yuktobania flies F-16s for their mid age LWF and Su-27 for their ASF. This is cannon. In AC5, the F-16 and its variants were the most common light weight fighter you encounter as enemies in the game. Likewise the Su-27 seemed to be the principle ASF of the Yuktobanian airforce.
This contrasts with the real Russia who would use Mig 29s as their light fighter instead of the F-16. Likewise The Yuktobanian army used M113 APCs, an American tank, instead of the BMP-1 and the AH-64 an American Chopper instead of the KA-50.
In truth, Ace Combat nations use all the different types of aircraft in the AC games. And this is reflected in this scenario through the small wonder aircraft plants.
Sometimes though, I did not stick to cannon when it came to my unit choices and tended to revert to their real life analogues. For example, Belka (false Germany) uses Leopard 2 tanks as their late age armor but in the game AC Zero, they used T80s (or what look like T80s). So I reverted back to the real life analogue, Germany and used the Leopard 2.
For nations that weren’t fought in the games (Verusa, Anea and more) or were completely fictional (Opal) I reverted to their real life analogue. Since the Opal takes place of the Aztec civilization, I gave them a mix of cheap American and high tech Soviet weaponry.
Other Comments.
There are lots of flavor units for the modern age. Everything Works, nothing breaks down or crashes and the A.I. Uses everything. It’s a fun mod and so far I’ve only tested it out on Warlord difficulty.
So, someone who is better than I at this game, please fill free to give me some feedback on the game. In fact, I’d like feedback from everybody.
On the Civilopedia… Right now, I’m about half way finished with it. I have just about all the ground units and naval units done, but I’m still working on the aircraft and will add new concept for the most complete civilopedia possible.
But between the civiliopedia (it has all the attack, defense , resource requirements of new units by default) and the information I gave you about the game, you should be able to navigate the game easily.
The tech trees are the same as in vanilla Civilization and just take a gander at the unit lists before the industrial ages.
I’d appreciate in any effort to this mod from the community. I’m all ears for tips and suggestions as well.
Further Credits.
This game is a carefully arranged product of the best minds and artisans in the Civ 3 community. Only the finest units from the mod community made it in this mod (I try to avoid ugly units like the plague) and I thank the community for their talent.
Once again, I’d like to thank Friaxis for making such a great game.
Have fun people, enjoy!
Get the Ace Combat Mod Here!
http://www.3ddownloads.com/Strategy/Civilization%203/Mods/Ace%20Combat/Ace%20Combat%20Mod%20V.7b.zip#
Hello all, my name is son of a bandit and you may know me from such forums as ace http://forums.acecombatskies.com/ or even in Gfaqs under the name of 757. But for the longest, I’ve just been a downloader in the great forums and I decided to contribute a little something back:
The Ace Combat Mod for Civilization III Conquests/Gold Edition.
Yep, you heard me right. There’s now an Ace Combat Mod on the books for all you fans of Namco’s AC series of arcade style of flight games on PS1 and PS2. Now you get to play with all your favorite countries of Osea, Yuktobania, Belka, Erusiea, North Point and some others. Yes, your favorite real world cities are in there as well, but only after all the Ace Combat cities were used up.
Some of these nations and cities are Namco cannon (I.e. the were mentioned in AC games or found on official maps and wallpapers) but others are not cannon and were inspired by great fanfic work out there. I give credit, where credit is due so- so Fonce Diablo, your Pax Usea series was a master piece. So much of a master piece , I think your nations deserved a place in the Ace Combat World, albeit right now they are just in names only.
Fonce Diablo’s Work:
http://forums.acecombatskies.com/index.php?showtopic=685
A few of the nations were my creations as well, such as the Opal and perhaps one or two nations I can’t remember but all of it was inspired by Namco’s AC series. Once again, thank you Namco and Project Aces for coming up with such lasting games and inspirational fiction. And thank you Friaxis for making such a addictive and customizable product. It’s definitely one of the best games out there in terms of fun and replayabiltiy.
But now, let us get the features of this game…
The features: National and Location Logic.
This is in Ace Combat Mod. It is to give the player a feel that they are actually playing with the same nations of Ace Combat infamy. But one thing about recent AC games is that these fake or ‘strange real’ nations are based on actual countries.
For example, the history of the nation of Belka has very close parallels to the nation to the real nation of Germany. Hence Belka takes the place of Germany in this scenario.
Likewise, Osea is false America/Japan/Capitalist Asia, while Yuktobania is false Eastern Europe/Russia. Other nations were a bit difficult to place such as Erusiea. According to the events of Ace Combat 4, Erusiea is a fascist state and their history mirrors Nazi Germany during WWII. Yet their city names are Italian (Farbanti) and some of the names of their ships take after European legends so I let Erusiea take the place of Italy with the cannon city of Farbanti as it’s capital.
Similarly, the nation of North Point had parallels to WWII Britain so North Point takes place of the English in this scenario. Other nations, like Commona or Verusa I chose to take poetic license with… so Commona takes place of the Viking civilization while Verusa takes place of China.
Though in AC Maps, Verusa is a sizeable nation who is right below Yuktobania (false Russia) so it seems like a China analogue for Verusa would make sense.
Now that you know my reasoning for what Ace Combat nations takes place of real nations, let me get into the game play mechanics…
The Features: Game play Mechanics.
This mod is in it’s 7th itineration, first itineration with new buildings. My concern with the previous versions of the mod was to improve unit balance as well as add new units in the game.
Admittedly though, this game is mostly a late industrial age- modern age scenario. I’ve tried to make this mod a modern era start scenario but it’s quite difficult to keep the feeling you get from building up your civilization over time by just starting at the 1900s. So up to the late industrial ages, this mod is relatively unchanged.
But once you reach the industrial ages, you’ll see some changes, primarily they are made to make even the weakest of nations, survivable to the modern ages.
1st Change: Basic Infantry No longer require rubber to be produced.
I always thought you don’t need rubber to actually equip effective infantry. As long as you have the capacity to make shoes and uniforms and steel helmets a nation should be able to train WWI and WWII style infantry.
In this scenario, rubber is mostly meant to represent the economic prowess needed to mass produce, certain units- like tanks. Afterall, current tires, treads and whatever parts on a tank that would require rubber would have been replaced by synthetic fibers.
Likewise when the regular infantry upgrades into Modern Infantry, they don’t require rubber as well. In this game, infantry units are the basic units that any nation can produce to defend themselves.
2nd Change: More upgradeable units.
DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR CALVARY- THEY UPGRADE, FINALLY!
Air Calvary (and the Mi 8 Hip flavor unit version) are the upgrade to horse drawn Calvary. Although they are less powerful than tanks, they have more mobility and better defense. Again, the air Calvary will upgrade to modern air Calvary later on in the modern ages.
DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR FRIGATES!
Frigates upgrade into Ironclads, which upgrade to destroyers, which upgrade to missile destroyers. Unfortunately I haven’t found a substitute for the Privateer.
AGAIN, DON’T THROW AWAY YOUR DIESAL SUBMARINES
Submarines upgrade to the Kilo class Submarine which has higher defensive power than the regular nuclear sub.
Just about everything is upgradeable in this game, except some aircraft (I’ll explain later). Tanks upgrade into modern armor (M60 flavor unit too) which in turn upgrade to late age armor units like the M1A2, Leopard 2, T80, Leclerc or Black Eagle.
And there are many flavor units in this game for variety’s sake. For example, the nation of Yuktobania’s tanks upgrade to the Modern Armor, while Osea’s units upgrade to the M60 Patton. The Patton and the Modern armor has the same statistics but different look- they’re flavor units. Just about every modern age unit has a flavor unit.
3rd Change: Substitution System.
Remember the Air Calvary unit I was talking about? How it was less powerful than a tank but more mobile. Did I mention that it also took less/different resources to build (just oil and aluminum)?
Well, that my friend means that is a substitute. If you can’t build tanks, build air Calvary. The reasoning behind this system is the same as making infantry buildable without rubber… allowing nations to be viable on the world stage even if they don’t have all the resources.
Likewise, Attack Helicopter units are great substitutes (along with modern air Calvary) for Late Age Armor units if you can’t get all the resources. Attack Helicopters only require (oil and aluminum while tanks need oil, rubber, aluminum).
In general, substitutes are less powerful than the unit they are replacing. Again, I cite the attack helicopter vs. late age armor unit. For this example I’ll use the AH-64 Apache (helicopter) vs. the Leopard 2(L.A. Armor).
While the Leopard has better overall attack abilities (22 attack), blitz and zone of control, the Apache is an excellent substitute in its own right with an attack of 20 and the same defensive value of the leopard of 16. But the Apache is amphibious and has the most powerful free bombard in the game (bombard strength of 10) making them a great escort for tanks.
Substitutes will never be more powerful than the unit they’re taking the place of but they will have powers that complement the more powerful unit. Hence building a balanced fleet of attack helicopters, armor and mech infantry will make a serious attack formation.
And the AI realizes this. The AI will build tanks, attack helicopters and air Calvary in substantial numbers.
The AI builds all units in this game. Maybe with the exception of a certain super weapon... I’m working on it.
4th Change- Superweapons.
The Ace Combat Series has always seen the player not only fight other conventional weapons, but super weapons as well… The super weapons in this scenario are based off the weapons seen in Ace Combats 4, 5 and Zero.
In general, super weapons are extremely powerful and hard to produce. They all require 3 resources to build and only certain nations have them. The weapons are not so powerful that they can’t be destroyed (it’s an AC game- destroying them is half the fun) but if the weapons are massed in numbers. You may have a problem.
The super weapons as follows and are strictly based on Namco cannon…
Scinfaxi SSBCVN- Large aircraft carrier/submarine that can fire ballistic missiles for bombardment.
Hresvelgr or XB-O- Large flying troop transport that is heavily armored and tough to destroy. The vast array of air to air missiles means that it can win in most air to air engagements. But this is Civilization and this is an Ace Combat Mod…
One fighter can bring it all down.
Stonehenge- Erusiean AA rail gun. This is the most powerful anti-air unit in the game and has only 1 movement. It has little attack value but has a powerful defense value (protection against air attack). Still, a coordinated air attack can silence the guns.
What about the Arkbird… what about the Excalibur? What about Megalith? I haven’t included these super weapons in the game, because I’m not sure on how to implement them. Even Stonehenge needs work since I haven’t seen the A.I. Use it.
The Features: Aircraft.
This is an Ace Combat Game. Of course there will be aircraft. Aircraft are the most numerous flavor units in the game and they also tend to the substitution rule.
For example let’s talk about what consists in the Osean Airforce (OADF)…
As soon as you research the technology of Rocketry, you will have access to 2 new fighters. The light weight fighter (F-5E in this case ) and the air superiority fighter (F-4 Phantom in this case).
Light Weight (LWF) Fighters require no aluminum resources to make while the air superiority fighter (ASF) does. LWFs have shorter range and less attack strength than the ASF. But LWF are cheaper… cannon fodder for air defenses or reinforcements for home territory.
Likewise, ASFs have the ability to punch their way into enemy territory or can cover vast amounts of territory at home. In general, aircraft have longer ranges in this game, especially bombers.
Once you research Synthetic Fibers and Computers, you’ll find that you have another set of fighter aircraft in the game (examples, F-14 Tomcat, Su-27, Mig 29, F-16 and more). Holding much the same logic of substitution. Essentially you have a more advanced set of LWFs and ASFs.
Likewise there are 3 types of bombers in this game: Tactical bombers, strategic bombers and interdictors.
Tactical bombers, like the A-10, A-4 Skyhawk, Su-25 and others are the cheap mass produced bombers that require no aluminum to produce. They can shoot down any of the WWII generation of fighters and may hold their own against dedicated fighter aircraft. But more importantly, they have longer range and more bombard power than the WWII era bomber.
Interdictors, like the Panavia Tornado, A-6E, Mig 27 and others are dedicated attack aircraft that infiltrate enemy territory at low level and high speeds of attack. Because of this, they carry the ‘stealth’ flag and are generally weak when encountering dedicated fighters aircraft. These aircraft depend on their stealth and are great at attacking an enemy airforce while they are still on the ground.
Strategic Bombers are not built but are auto produced by various small wonders. For example the Tu-95 plant will build the Tu-95 bear bomber ever 7 turns. Likewise the B-52 plant will produce a B-52 every 9 turns. Strategic Bombers are extremely powerful in bombard capability (their RoF can even destroy some veteran units) and are long in range… but they are easily shot down by fighters. These are best deployed after an enemy air defense has been destroyed.
However, the auto produced B-2A (stealth bomber), B1B Lancer and F-117 (stealth fighter) combines the best of the strategic bomber with the stealth capability of the interdictor. The B-2 Spirit is the most powerful bomber aircraft in the game besides the Belkan special weapon… the XB-0.
Auto produced Wonders and Aircraft:
Strategic Bombers are not the only aircraft that can be auto produced.
ATFs- Advanced Tactical Fighters are also Auto produced. In real life the term, ATF, refers to the F-22A Raptor and YF-23 fighter programs. Essentially, these fighters are air the ultimate in attack and air defense technology.
In the game, ATFs are fighters that I found that the A.I. will produce only these aircraft after they researched the necessary techs. To rectify this problem and maintain unit diversity, I made certain aircraft that can only be produced by small wonders. These aircraft are effective on both offensive or defense and have varying degrees of abilities and attack/defense value.
The aircraft:
Rafale- low end ATF. Least powerful, but still better than the best produceable fighter.
Auto produced every 5 turns by the Rafale plant.
EF Typhoon- mid range ATF. Auto produced by the EF plant every 7 turns.
Su-37 mid range ATF. But due to the fact that Ace Combat games rely more on agility than stealth, missiles or avionics, the Su-37 is better than the Eurofighter in this scenario. Also the Su-37 seems to the be the aircraft of Aces in the series as well…
Autoproduced by the Su-37 plant every 9 turns.
F-35 JSF- low end ATF with the ‘stealth tag’. Autoproduced by the JSF plant every 5 turns.
F-22A Raptor- Best fighter in the game. Takes a long time to auto produce. Autoproduced by the F-22 plant every 10 turns.
The Small Wonder Aircraft Plants:
Here are the aircraft Plants and what it takes to build them- Aircraft plants take a certain amount of city improvements to build them, like the Battlefield Medicine wonder. Since the Civiliopedia is not complete, yet I’ll give out this critical information here:
F22 Plant- 5 Manufacturing Plants.
JSF Plant- 5 Man. Plants
Rafale Plant- 5 Airports
Su-37 Plant- 5 Airports
Eurofighter Plant- 5 Airports
F-117 Plant- 5 Airports
Stealth Bomber Plant- 5 Airports
B-1B Bomber Plant- 5 Airports
Avro Bomber Plant- 3 Airports
Tu-95 Bomber Plant- 3 Airports
B52 Bomber Plant- 3 Airports.
*All aircraft plants, require Oil and Aluminum to be built and produce aircraft*.
Unit User Logic:
Remember the flavor units? Well, let me tell you why some units are used by some countries and not others.
I base which unit is available to which country on 2 factors: Ace Combat Cannon and Real life Analogy.
Let’s take the country of Yuktobania (false Russia) for example… In the modern era, Yuktobania flies F-16s for their mid age LWF and Su-27 for their ASF. This is cannon. In AC5, the F-16 and its variants were the most common light weight fighter you encounter as enemies in the game. Likewise the Su-27 seemed to be the principle ASF of the Yuktobanian airforce.
This contrasts with the real Russia who would use Mig 29s as their light fighter instead of the F-16. Likewise The Yuktobanian army used M113 APCs, an American tank, instead of the BMP-1 and the AH-64 an American Chopper instead of the KA-50.
In truth, Ace Combat nations use all the different types of aircraft in the AC games. And this is reflected in this scenario through the small wonder aircraft plants.
Sometimes though, I did not stick to cannon when it came to my unit choices and tended to revert to their real life analogues. For example, Belka (false Germany) uses Leopard 2 tanks as their late age armor but in the game AC Zero, they used T80s (or what look like T80s). So I reverted back to the real life analogue, Germany and used the Leopard 2.
For nations that weren’t fought in the games (Verusa, Anea and more) or were completely fictional (Opal) I reverted to their real life analogue. Since the Opal takes place of the Aztec civilization, I gave them a mix of cheap American and high tech Soviet weaponry.
Other Comments.
There are lots of flavor units for the modern age. Everything Works, nothing breaks down or crashes and the A.I. Uses everything. It’s a fun mod and so far I’ve only tested it out on Warlord difficulty.
So, someone who is better than I at this game, please fill free to give me some feedback on the game. In fact, I’d like feedback from everybody.
On the Civilopedia… Right now, I’m about half way finished with it. I have just about all the ground units and naval units done, but I’m still working on the aircraft and will add new concept for the most complete civilopedia possible.
But between the civiliopedia (it has all the attack, defense , resource requirements of new units by default) and the information I gave you about the game, you should be able to navigate the game easily.
The tech trees are the same as in vanilla Civilization and just take a gander at the unit lists before the industrial ages.
I’d appreciate in any effort to this mod from the community. I’m all ears for tips and suggestions as well.
Further Credits.
This game is a carefully arranged product of the best minds and artisans in the Civ 3 community. Only the finest units from the mod community made it in this mod (I try to avoid ugly units like the plague) and I thank the community for their talent.
Once again, I’d like to thank Friaxis for making such a great game.
Have fun people, enjoy!
Get the Ace Combat Mod Here!
http://www.3ddownloads.com/Strategy/Civilization%203/Mods/Ace%20Combat/Ace%20Combat%20Mod%20V.7b.zip#
