Missiles for Warships

[ZergMazter]

I have tried to create the missile destroyers from civilization 4, but for civ 3. Im trying to make the AI use them, but so far all i have been able to do is select the flags 'transports only aircraft, and transports only missiles' for my warships.

My cruise missiles are air units with flags ' cruise missile' and 'tactical missile'.

This set up allows only my missiles to be transported by my missile destroyers without them having to be nuclear weapons. I havent tested if the Ai knows how to use it yet, and i dont see why it wouldnt transport them in my ships since they cant be transported any other way due to the flags, just like tactical nuked are forced to go in subs cuz its their only choice.

The problem:

Its an air unit... if i make it too weak so that the AI doesnt stop building its airforce to build missiles, the AI will completely ignore it and just build the better and stronger air units. If i make it too strong, the AI will never build air units exept those darn missiles.

The answer to fix this is the 'cruise missile' strategy flag, but its only available to ground units. That way the AI separates that unit into a different tier and will build it as a missile tier unit and not as another ground or air unit.

The AI already does what im trying to accomplish with tactical nukes. If i do this same thing, the AI will fill my missile destroyers with nukes -_- ... I was under the impression that the flag giving the AI the command to use nukes this way was the 'tactical nuke' flag, but im not trying to build another nuke.

Then i read about the 'tactical missile' flag and im not sure now... Does anyone know which of these flags give the command to the AI to load the unit into the right carrier units? for example tactical nukes-nuclear submarines.

1-'Tactical Nuke' land strategy flag?
2-'Tactical Missile' Unit ability flag?

Once i figure this out maybe i can make cruise missiles load onto warships and stop messing with my air force creating air cruise missiles.

Thanks

 

[Delta_Strife]

Perhaps make a building that auto-produces the missiles? That would prevent the AI from only building them.

 

[ZergMazter]

Hey Delta. Well what im trying to do is basically modify the cruise missile unit to behave like the tactical nuke in which all tactical nukes owned by the AI are immediately sent to a nuclear submarine, but instead i want my cruise missiles to be sent to my missile destroyers.

So far i dont know how to do this exept by turning the cruise missile into an exact copy of the tactical nuke so that it follows the command. Im actually having more issues with the command. Do you know how to command the AI to use units as they would a tactical nuke without having to turn my units into nukes? Is the 'tactical nuke' strat flag really necessary?

 

[Delta_Strife]

Hmm darn good question that I have no idea the answer to. lol I only build units have not had time to do a lot of modding. Hopefully someone on here knows the answer.

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

Zergmaster, if you want cruise missiles to be air units, they'll need air unit flags to work right. I've got them as follows:

Class: Air Unit
Operational Range>0
Bombard Str>0
Rate of Fire>0
Special Actions: Load flag
Unit Abilities: Cruise Missile (makes it die after attacking), Tactical Missile (can only be carried by units with carries air and carries tactical missile). Optional lethal sea, lethal land, etc.
Air Missions: Bombard, Rebase (for your benefit; the Ai can rebase without the flag)
AI Strategies: Air / Bombard

Basically, the missile acts as a bomber that dies upon attacking. If set as an air unit, AI land strategies won't help. The computer will rebase these to ships, but they are just as likely to rebase them to cities. Even though we'd like them lo load up subs and destroyers with missiles, the computer (wisely enough) just wants to get them close to the enemy so they can attack. They will act similarly with carriers and regular planes. Remember, as air units they will hit other air units and naval units in a city before land units.

As far as AI building, you're correct that the settings will make them build their best option. So you can either limit them through autoproduction, or you can flag them with the Army Unit Ability, which limits them to being built somewhere with the Military Academy flag and subject to Army limits as set in General Settings.

 

[ZergMazter]

Thank you. Im gonna play with the army flag. You just gave me an idea. I know that offensive and defensive values are turned off as an army but not bombarding values. Awesome! I could maybe make them strong enough so the AI will prioritize to build them and when they cap the max amount of armies they can have, they would switch to building their planes.

Im deff gonna give this a shot

 

[nick0515]

Doesn't flagging a unit with the army flag turn them into an army and stuff up the palette?

 

[clamel]

I might mess up this discussion but I had some old notes about this problem what units on the sea that could carry what type of unit.

Let me copy in this :::

Someone posted this little chart a bit ago that outlines what flags to give to what units to do all this stuff.

Basicly give the units listed the flags (X) that are to the left... or above them and then the sea transports should be able to carry only those units with an X below.

So marking the cruise missile as Tac Mis AND Foot unit, while The nuke as a Tac Mis, and then having your missile destroyers ticked as "carry Foot AND carry only Tac" will separate them from the Nuclear Sub that has Carry Tac Miss only.
This will permit cruise missiles to the destroyers
and BOTH cruise and nuclear missiles to the subs.
Not sure if this is what you want, but but

XXX I found the thread where this was discussed !!! You might pick up something from that very old stuff
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=45646

 

[ZergMazter]

Yes i've been playing with that and its kinda cool. Apart from foot unit carriers, aircraft carriers, and tactical missile carriers, you can combine the flags and basically create 2 more categories for a total of 5 categories:

Carries only Foot
Carries only Air
Carries only Tactical
Carries only Foot+Tactical
Carries only Air+Tactical

I've been watching the news about France wanting to sell a Mishal ship to Russia that can carry 700 troops, and im considering turning some of my ships into that. Naval power+Transport so maybe once and for all the AI doesnt suck at amphibious attacks.

Example:
Destroyer+transport ability+needs escort

My theory is that 2 offensive flagged naval units that can also transport units would escort each other. My hope is to trick the AI into using transport/offensive ships to escort another transport/offensive and since they escort each other maybe a stack of 4+ might develop over time and make a massive amphibious attack on players. Im gonna go test that...