creating a 'pioneer' unit

[Headmaster]

I don't know if anyone already had this idea, but I thought about creating a pioneer unit. They should be like workers, but specialized for military purposes.

I think it would be nice to have a unit that builds a road in a single turn including moving into the square, allowing you to move your troops quickly when your border moves. That means it should have 2 movement points and the ability to build road/railroad twice as fast as a worker does. It should also be able to build fortresses, but not irrigate, terraform or build mines.

Yet I haven't found a way to increase the pioneer's road building speed without increasing the speed workers build them.

IMO the unit should cost about 30 shields + 1 population, be 0/0/2, be able to build road/railroad/fortress, and plunder.

I haven't built any Civ3 units yet, so I would need some help esp. with the animation which should show an excavocator like this one:

 

[Headmaster]

...

 

[Geirrodr]

the US army has combat engineers, they can fight and defend themselves.


how about copying the settlers and changing attribes

to give them a small attack and defend. increase movement and build rates.
You could use a jeep or hummvee Icon (do these exist yet) and
they could get this unit when you research modern armor successfully.

You could make a leg unit. That has less movement rate than the above one. and less attack and defense, due to older weapons. Ie a sword vs an M16.

 

[Headmaster]

about the requirements.. I think it should be available after researching combustion, not steam power. When getting combustion, most of your cities already will have railroads everywhere in their radius; this assures that the pioneer will mostly be used militarily.

It should require oil and iron. btw why don't modern units require iron? How can you build a tank w/o iron? AFAIK Tanks are made of steel which requires iron. A tank consisting of rubber is really dumb...

 

[Headmaster]

I didn't want any offensive/defensive firepower because you can't capture units which aren't 0/0/x. And I really think you should be able to capture pioneers. Of course it would be nice if they tried to defend themselves before being captured.

 

[Dark Ryder]

Originally posted by Headmaster
A tank consisting of rubber is really dumb...

I'm not so sure. I find it hard to disapprove of something that would make 'boing' a valid war cry.

 

[spadachroniarz]

I made combat engineers a while back. They are upgraded infantry (historically used for heavy assaults) and have the ability to pillage, airlift, amphibious assault, build road, build railroad, clear forest and jungle, and build fortresses.

I can export the file and send it to you if you like. Gramphos' copy tool is all that you really need to make the unit itself. Adding a graphic would take a little more work.

 

[Jimcat]

For those who wonder about tanks needing rubber but not iron...

As technology increases, certain resources become easier to find and aren't as critical any more. For instance, the Civilopedia entry for Riflemen states that by the time you reach this tech, saltpeter has become common and is no longer required. So, I can accept that by the time you can build tanks, the iron mining industry is pretty much universal.

For rubber, you may not need it to make tank armor, but just think of all the hoses, seals, and gaskets that are necessary to make such a complex vehicle run. Can you imagine trying to build an internal combustion engine without rubber? I'm no mechanical engineer but I don't think it could be done without rubber or some similar durable, flexible material.

 

[Psychlone]

Most "rubber" hoses, belts and seals are actually made from synthetic rubber, which is made from oil. Rubber is really sort of a bogus resource in Civ 3, it's not very necessary at all.

By the same token, saltpeter isn't really something you find, it's something you make.

 

[Jimcat]

Depends how much saltpeter you need at once. There are some islands in the Pacific that are literally enormous piles of bird doo, built up over thousands of years. Some of these piles exist on land as well, particularly on the west coast of South America. They are the biggest saltpeter mines in the world, and in the past some of them were strategic enough to go to war over. Bolivia, Chile, and Peru fought a war over saltpeter deposits in the nineteenth century, which resulted in Bolivia losing its seacoast among other things.