How About A Spy Plane?

[Polka Sheep]

Would anyone else be interested in seeing a spy plane in C3C? I think it would be a very unique and fun feature, great for your own "Cold War", and also a cheaper way to discover what units are in what cities. And maybe, this is a longshot here, it could detect ICBMs and Tactical Nukes in a city? A bit cheap, but recent use of them has been to discover where nuclear and chemical facilities are. In the game, it could be something like a very expensive air unit, with a large, or maybe unlimited (another longshot there) range. It could have maybe a 50% or 25% chance of being hit by a SAM and the nation you were spying on becoming very angry with you, and perhaps beginning a war. If it wasn't shot down, then you get away clean, without the target nation even knowing.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I like the idea

 

[Archer 007]

Good idea.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

How about using it in another nation's land without a RoP is an act of war?

They could be a device to allow precision bombing without smart weapons. Just spy out the city, do a precision bombing strike (with a lower chance of success), then at the end of the turn send out another spy plane to assess the damage.

 

[Turner]

I tried to implement this in my mod. It didn't work. So I gave up creating units.

DyP has some great long rang units that can be used as spy planes. I'd love to see something like a balloon in the mid-industrial as a recon plane, upgrading to some kind of air unit in the late industrial, to a spy plane in the early modern, to a spy satellite in the late modern.

Spy planes are definately needed.

Originally posted by Gingerbread Man
How about using it in another nation's land without a RoP is an act of war?

They could be a device to allow precision bombing without smart weapons. Just spy out the city, do a precision bombing strike (with a lower chance of success), then at the end of the turn send out another spy plane to assess the damage.

I dunno about that. The USA and USSR overflew each other during the coldwar, and there was never a war because of it. But it's a decent idea. Perhaps your Rep could be going down every time you overflew another countrys land. The Rep might have to be re-engineered to allow this, but it would be minor.

 

[Polka Sheep]

I like your idea about allowing precision bombing before Smart Weapons, Gingerbread Man. I think it makes sense.

 

[Norlamand]

I like it! I like it!

 

[America444]

i like this idea it sorta reminds me of the spy planes from command and conquer red alert which came in handy with finding enemy troop positions

 

[steviejay]

I've always been confused as to why you could use Jet Fighters for Air Recon in another Civ's airspace and not even be brought up about it! So maybe not so much a declaration of war but maybe a warning like the warning you get if you're troops are in their teritory

 

[steviejay]

this might drift from the subject of Spy Planes, but is there anyone here who would like any other air units incorperated into C3C? there's a thread on possibly new Navy units but is there any new air units you'd like?

I'd love a B-52 bomber where the range is next to unlimited, or perhaps if you had a bomber in an airport but also had another possible new unit - the refueler. where you could make your bomber fly further.

Or how about a Helecopter like the Apache. instead of air superiourity missions you could set it so that the helecopter attacked any enemy units in its radius, so it could be like a tank buster

anyone else?

 

[Turner]

Originally posted by steviejay
this might drift from the subject of Spy Planes, but is there anyone here who would like any other air units incorperated into C3C? there's a thread on possibly new Navy units but is there any new air units you'd like?

I'd love a B-52 bomber where the range is next to unlimited, or perhaps if you had a bomber in an airport but also had another possible new unit - the refueler. where you could make your bomber fly further.

Or how about a Helecopter like the Apache. instead of air superiourity missions you could set it so that the helecopter attacked any enemy units in its radius, so it could be like a tank buster

anyone else?

Check out the DyP Mod. . . they have a lot of this incorporated. I'm hoping some of them will make their way into C3C, I guess we'll see.

 

[TerraHero]

i think it's a great idea, as for the balloon idea. During WW1 they used blimps too asses the dmg of a Bombardement, and too pin-point targets. Since they flew at great hieghts the enemy plains couldn't reach or shoot em down

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

It does seem strange that you can fly aircraft at will over "enemy" territory on recon missions. It would be nice to have a separate spy mission that only certain units can use (U2, SR-71, Aurora, etc.). Then, if you use conventional aircraft to recon, the AI can try to shoot them down, wartime or not, with the chance of an "international incident" and declaration of war for each recon attempt. The conventional recon mission should be left as is, because it would still be very useful during wartime. The spy mission could conduct one recon per turn (2 for later air units) and see all enemy units in a city. No chance of detection until AI gets a certain advance, and then you have a chance of taking a rep hit.

 

[PurplePacifier]

I like the idea of spy planes. I thought about that myself. Maybe something like a Blackbird air unit. However, a new espionage ability has to be introduced to the game allowing you make use of satellites to do recon missions that would make the spy plane obsolete. Just like in real life; satellite spying replaced Blackbird missions.

 

[Vietcong]

y whold u need s spy plaine?? its impreacical since ordanary planes have recon.

 

[Turner]

Because ordinary planes have a max range of six or so. The one's that can Recon, at least.

We're talking about haveing a long range spy plane, so we can see what's going on far away.

And, as I recall, the bombing radius for a bomber is 8. The Recon radius for a jet plane/Stealth Fighter is 6. So while there are two added tiles on top of this, and you can technically see your target, the bombers have a greater range than you can see without sending an advance unit.

 

[Carver]

I've renamed the stealth fighter the Blackbird and give it a range of 35 with only a recon ability. It's a clumsy solution but I have to have recon jets. I would like Firaxis to include a long range recon plane with the ability to see out 4 spaces or so in each direction and possibly the ability to see units in cities (not sure).

 

[Franks]

I would really like to see the Apache (as an offensive unit) in C3C.

 

[RX2000]

A spy plane would be cool, but what would be cooler is if after you learn satellites, you can put a spy satellite into orbit. It might be a little too overpowering to be able to see EVERYTHING all the time though, so something would have to balance it out. Like it should be very expensive, and maybe will cost some gold to turn on or something.

 

[LotrRules]

The spy plane is a great idea.Apaches and blimps which have already been mentioned are also great ideas