ARCHIVED: Discussion Topic - Unit Lines

[Blue Monkey]

"must have somehow" ... "we would have an immediate spot for that".

Everybody appeal to (bribe, etc.) Plotinus to move the SteamPunk Commando (original discussion begins here) towards the front of his creation queue.

 

[Balthasar]

Everybody appeal to (bribe, etc.) Plotinus to move the SteamPunk Commando (original discussion begins here) towards the front of his creation queue.

I'd pose the question this way: Just out of curiosity, is anyone (including Plotinus) actually working on a steampunk unit right now, or planning to?

 

[Plotinus]

I'm not working on any units at the moment, unfortunately, because I simply don't have the time - odd given that I'm actually unemployed. I'm trying to complete the update to my African scenario first. But the Steampunk Commando is at the top of the list for when I do get around to making some more. I am also thinking that I might adapt the animations I did for my Hobbit Burglar to create a Jack the Ripper sort of unit, but I definitely can't promise that. The one I'd really like to have a go at is the Mechanical Elephant, but I've never been able to find a good enough elephant model that's cheap enough. Plus it might prove beyond my abilities anyway.

 

[Ozymandias]

Hey Oz! - thanks for the input.

I hadn't forgotten that link at all, as a matter of fact, you'll see a lot of land ships in the final version of this Mod - I think I can guarantee that. You can begin to see that in the description of the Unit Lines we've settled on for the first era humans in this thread's first post. On that same post, there are a number of units that we need and don't have, and we've made specific requests in the forums for particular items, for instance, in the category "must have somehow" we have requested: A Moon Rocket, the Tardis, and Jack the Ripper (and really, any character with a top hat and cape would be very, very useful here).

In the "we would have an immediate spot for that" category are: a Carriage, and a Mammoth (for the Lost World).

I find it absolutely scandalous that we have piles and piles of airplanes and ships, but not one post-renaissance carriage anywhere. The carriage was only the principle means of land transportation for hundreds of years and yet - not one. No carts, not even a bicycle (there was one in Civ 2). And I don't buy the argument "the AI doesn't use them" because the AI doesn't understand Artillery either - that doesn't keep anyone from making it.

I'm trying my best to learn how to recolor and C'n'P units - for some reason I have yet to get Flicster to work, and I know that's the key to it - but in the meantime, we need a unit maker. Any takers? Anyone know of a dummy-proof tutorial for Flicster? The last one I tried immediately directed me to a file that doesn't exist, and I'm stuck.

No carriages but there a couple of covered wagons (ox-drawn IIRC). Would those help?

 

[Blue Monkey]

This is just a "what if ...", "maybe it would be fun to ..." suggestion, because it may be difficult to get any one to make these:

Each civ would have an outlandish one-off unit. For example, La Société Diabolique Secrète gets Professor Fate's Hannibal Twin-8.

 

[jlvfr]

Each civ would have an outlandish one-off unit. For example, La Société Diabolique Secrète gets Professor Fate's Hannibal Twin-8.

ooo! Where is that from?!?!

 

[Ozymandias]

If you're going for UUs, there's always the surreal WW1 Russian "Tsar Tank":

 

[Balthasar]

No carriages but there a couple of covered wagons (ox-drawn IIRC). Would those help?

Sorry, no. I'm holding out for the carriage before I'll shut up. BTW, Thanks, Plotinus, for the update.

 

[Blue Monkey]

For example, La Société Diabolique Secrète gets Professor Fate's Hannibal Twin-8.

ooo! Where is that from?!?!

The Great Race. some of Professor Fate's other devices have been discussed in the SP subforum. Speaking of which, wouldn't he make an interesting science advisor? Or at least a GL for them?

If you're going for UUs, there's always the surreal WW1 Russian "Tsar Tank":

I like this view because you've got the soldier for a sense of scale.

thumbnail


The amphibian on the bottom is German, I believe. Notice that the wheels are designed to function as paddlewheels while submerged.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I suggest we ask Orthanc or another ship builder to make us a "roller steamer" (steam-powered hydrofoil).

 

[Ozymandias]

I suggest we ask Orthanc or another ship builder to make us a "roller steamer" (steam-powered hydrofoil).

... And/or go with the little known factoid that the Austro-Hungarian navy experimented with hovercraft ( ) before WW1.

-Oz

 

[Blue Monkey]

Searching for something else in the archives, I came across a gas shell howitzer unit - possibly for Era 3?

 

[Moosezilla]

Perhaps an alternate to nukes would be the compressed gas bomb? no radiation, otherwise effects like tac nuke.

 

[Balthasar]

Perhaps an alternate to nukes would be the compressed gas bomb? no radiation, otherwise effects like tac nuke.

We have a "nuke" unit: the Roch Fulgerator, first described by Jules Verne in his 1896 novel Facing the Flag. You can find it in the tech tree in the fourth era, enabled by Quantum Mechanics and the Roch Fulgerator wonder. As far as I know, this was the first description in literature of a true weapon of Mass Destruction. It is described in the book as a long distance particle beam weapon, although the placeholder unit that we've been using is the V2. If anyone can suggest (or make) a more appropriate looking unit, you can be sure it would be appreciated.

As for Blue Monkey's suggestion of the gas cannon - good idea. The gas cannon, another invention of Verne's that was far ahead of its time, appeared in the novel The Begum's Millions and shows up in this mod late in the third era after researching Chemical Warfare.

Speaking of units that we need, I have lately come up with some interesting pics of possible units for the unit makers to ponder, in particular for the Scout unit we need to have made, these courtesy of a model builder named SILLOF and found on his website:



He has also modeled the LOEG Characters. Check out that website if you're interested.

 

[jlvfr]

We have a "nuke" unit:

I have a confession: the 1st thing I do in every scenario/mod I get is to take away the nukes. For reasons:
- they are far too cheap, pretty much any civ can get them;
- the computer starts using them as soon has it get's them, which pretty much means game over...

 

[Balthasar]

I have a confession: the 1st thing I do in every scenario/mod I get is to take away the nukes. For reasons:
- they are far too cheap, pretty much any civ can get them;
- the computer starts using them as soon has it get's them, which pretty much means game over...

Noted. The beauty of this is that we're making the rules here. What would you do with a Fulgerator then? Make it less powerful? More expensive? Its existence does have the advantage of focusing the mind on the tasks at hand....

 

[Blue Monkey]

Noted. The beauty of this is that we're making the rules here. What would you do with a Fulgerator then? Make it less powerful? More expensive? Its existence does have the advantage of focusing the mind on the tasks at hand....

• A unique resource (the fulguration equivalent of Cavorite?*)
• An improvement that can only be built if that resource is
  1. within the city radius
  2. a second (rare) strategic resource is available in the box
  3. some previous improvement is already built (tesla wireless transmission power plant?)
• The improvement auto-produces the Fulgurator on a long time scale

* I propose Balthasarium - the name kluged from the highly explosive crystal Balthazate (Guild Wars), Balthorium (necessary for the Russians' doomsday device in Dr. Strangelove), & giving us a little homage/inside joke.

 

[Ozymandias]

Re: the Fulgerator. For a stopgap at least, how about ruby sauce's Tesla Cannon?

-Oz

 

[jlvfr]

Noted. The beauty of this is that we're making the rules here. What would you do with a Fulgerator then? Make it less powerful? More expensive? Its existence does have the advantage of focusing the mind on the tasks at hand....

How about this: instead of a unit, turn the Fulgurator into a Wonder that either increases drastically the chance of a unit turning elite (say 5 times higher chance?) OR increases an army ability to carry, say, 5-6 units...

 

[Blue Monkey]

It's a WMD, not an improvement (even a GW).