Flying Units

[PapaMonkey]

I recall earlier conversations about flying units being difficult to impliment with the code base. With BtS will this be any easier? Is there any plan to impliment more/truer flying units?

 

[kevjm]

The cruise missles could make for good fireballs couldn't they?

 

[Brancaleone]

I think the flying units should be more like the guship, except they can only be attacked by other flying units or ranged units. I dunno, i dont see a pegasus 're-basing' on a city or a fort to be able to attack/bombard/etc...

 

[sixs_monkey]

Hippogriffs eat regular horses, according to some accounts. Mayhap pterippi (wiki Pegasus ) do the same and it's easier to come by supplies for them in town.

 

[Micky Onimusha]

I'd like to see some flying units capable of Bombardment. Aside from Meteors and some Ships, there's no 'fast' "siege" units. Of course, if they were included, they'd need to be fairly counterable, otherwise there'd be no reason to bother with Catapults/Cannons.

I can't imagine "aerial bombardment" units being too hard to fit in within lore. Gryphons who can drop stones from the air, fire-breathing Dragons (although if they're extinct in Erebus (barring the 3 heroes), maybe not) and of course, suicidal goblins*

*For those who don't know what I'm referring to, a slight snatch of the Warhammer world may be fitting:

Spoiler :

The Doom Diver Catapult is a torsion powered device much like a Rock Lobber or Spear Chukka, but instead of firing rocks or spears it is designed to launch Goblins. These Goblins are equipped with crude, folding wings which enable them to stay aloft for a short time before plunging back down to earth. This technique was developed to provide Greenskin tribes with a form of aerial reconnaissance. Early aeronaunts were given bits of slate and chalk on which to sketch enemy troop dispositions. As few Goblns survived the rather sudden landing, this was felt to be the only way of recovering the information they had gleaned. Unfortunately the idea wasn't a great success as most slates were found to bear a hastily scrawled message along the lines of "Yahooooo!" or "wheeeee!"

It was soon realised that Doom Divers were more effective as missiles.

Aside from Aerial Bombardment, I wouldn't mind seeing general flying units become available. Maybe Archers and other bow wielding units will be able to defend against them as well as other fliers being able to combat them. I've always liked the looks of pegasusses (and their Nightmare equivalents) and most 'real-life' aerial creatures could be given a size upgrade to fit in with the world (e.g. Giant Bats). It would need to be incredibly well thought out to not throw the present game out of balance though, since making air warfare a notable part of the game would be a major change.

 

[Civkid1991]

harpies would be cool (and would please sureshot lol)

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

A flying unit would be cool. I wouldn't really like a pegasus, but rather a more beastly moster. Harpies would be interseting, maybe the Mercurians get a unique unit angel that will drop things on enemies.

 

[LoStNuMbEr]

I think that if flying units were implemented you'd have to give most civilizations their own unique flying unit (maybe not all of them, I guess since the civs are meant to be very different from each other, but most of them at least.) I cant imagine it would be too hard to find a flyer that would fit the theme for each race. Sheaim would be some sort of flying demon or gargoyle, the good order type civilizations would get some sort of angel (or gargoyle actually, some mythology considers guardians as guardians of towns and such which would also fit with the themes of some good races). Wood elfs could recieve some kind of great eagle or something perhaps or maybe a more jungle appropriate avian species... The dwarven tinkers could get some sort of artifact flying machine (maybe a flying siege weapon thats sort of like a permanent fireball, or acts like normal aircraft do in Civ IV?)

Of course all the standard myth creatures like dragons hyypgriffs pegasus ect would most likely be included in one form or another. But yeah I agree with what others have said here I dont think flying units should function like aircraft do I think having them as actual combat units would be more fun and make more sense.
Unlike airplanes most myth creatures are capable of moving along the ground also, as hyypogryps pegasi, dragons, ect. all have claws and legs that allow them to function just as well when they are landbound, so it'd be sort of silly to limit them to flying siege weapons.

 

[Pandemonis]

There is at least oen flying unit in Age of Ice, so it probably will be included in the BtS version of FhF2, no ?

 

[onedreamer]

I recall someone creating a flying units mods about one year ago. It would add the flying tag into the XML.

 

[kenken244]

yes, its called "water walking"




afterworld has a pretty nifty way of letting units share a tile, when one unit is invisable an enemy can go on that square. its because the enimies have the "can attack without declaring war" tag while the enimies and you are actually at peace. not sure how this could be adapted to ffh, but if it works it could get kaels definition of flying

 

[Niveras]

It seems to me a flying unit that doesn't need to rebase could simply function similar to hidden units. This is to say, if a melee unit tries to engage them, they just run (fly) away. If an archer or other flying unit attacks them, they are forced to engage.

It doesn't seem terribly complicated to implement, but then I am not at all familiar with Python nor the details of how hidden nationality units work, or whether you can even be so specific as to flee given the unit type of the attacker.

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

You could simply give them the graphic, ability to pass ovver impassable, and high retreat odds.

 

[kenken244]

With BtS will this be any easier?

maybe. while looking through the sdk for bts i found a very strange python function or something. i have absolutely no sdk coding knowledge but i found a very strange piece of code in the first cy unit file

bool CyUnit::canCoexistWithEnemyUnit()
{
	return m_pUnit ? m_pUnit->canCoexistWithEnemyUnit() : false;
}

"can coexist with enemy unit" seems like it would allow flying units to pass over non ranged units if it were to be coded correctly and might allow units to be "flying"

 

[eerr]

maybe. while looking through the sdk for bts i found a very strange python function or something. i have absolutely no sdk coding knowledge but i found a very strange piece of code in the first cy unit file

bool CyUnit::canCoexistWithEnemyUnit()
{
	return m_pUnit ? m_pUnit->canCoexistWithEnemyUnit() : false;
}

"can coexist with enemy unit" seems like it would allow flying units to pass over non ranged units if it were to be coded correctly and might allow units to be "flying"

or that could be part of kaels/others attempts to make flying too

 

[Pocus]

Why false flying units don't have water walking though (gryffon for example) ?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Personally I would really like it if invisibility also gave the ability to coexist with an enemy instead of ejecting the unit.

 

[onedreamer]

I believe that's one of the few hardcoded things in Civ4, it causes CTD.

 

[flopsquad]

and of course, suicidal goblins*

Like this guy:
http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=4832

Of course, I've yet to find a goblin without some measure of suicidal tendency...

 

[Chip56]

Personally I would really like it if invisibility also gave the ability to coexist with an enemy instead of ejecting the unit.

I believe that's one of the few hardcoded things in Civ4, it causes CTD.

Spies can coexist with enemy units on the same tile.