Not So Smart Weapons?

[RX2000]

Okey dokey, looks like I need some help here. I researched stealth and smart weapons, then I took my shiny new B2 bomber for a test run over an English city. There was an icon at the bottom of the screen that said (P)recision Strike, target an enemy city, sooooo I clicked that and clicked on an English city -- it just did a regular bombing run........ Am I missing something here? I was under the impression that I get to tell it exactly what I want it to destroy, a la the spy in the Civ2? Is this not the case, or I am overlooking something?

Thanks for any help guys.

 

[benjdm]

My understanding was that precision bombing went after improvements / population only and not military units. But I didn't think you got to pick.

 

[MarineCommando]

The city probobly didnt have any improvements left in it to destroy (Palace doesnt count because you cant destroy that)

 

[RX2000]

The city had multiple improvements, the war had just started, and it was a size 12 city. A quick spy investigation of the city showed such.

If anyone has the Prima Official Stratagy Guide, look on page 165 under stealth bombers:

"More importantly, they can carry out precision strikes against enemy cities, destroying a specific improvement of your choice. This is a great way to throw enemy cities into chaos. For example, by destroying a Cathedral, you can cause rampant unhappiness and civil unrest."

That makes it sound like to me that it would bring up a menu asking me what I wanted to try and destroy. Oh well, maybe the "Official" guide is quite so official, or this is a big bug no one has noticed.

 

[Dirk Aurel]

or this is a big bug no one has noticed.

Doubt that most play the game as far as Stealth and Smart Weapons in fact. Am close to getting Stealth (round about five turns),good to know, does sound like a bug.

Didn´t it destroy anything?I´d survive not being able to pick a specific target,but it should destroy something,the damn B2 cost 240 shields fcs!!

 

[Greadius]

Precision strikes DON'T harm military units??? Who the hell came up with that idea???

The idea of precision strikes is that they DON'T harm population. It would make sense if they hit only military improvements (Barracks, SAM Sites, ect.) and avoided other ones (Temples, Cathedrals).

What is the range on the B2 anyway? I know the U.S. can launch strikes in Afghanistan from Missouri; somehow I don't think Sid is going to be as kind in Civ3...

 

[RX2000]

Actually if I remember correctly, the stealth bomber did take out a marketplace. But thats still not precise enough for me dangit, I am the commander-in-chief of my military, I should be able to pick which target our bomber takes out. I would definitely go for barracks first if the city was heavily defended. (Cant heal in one turn.)

Anyways the stratagy guide sure makes it sound like you get to choose. I mean how exactly am I supposed to destroy the Cathedral in their example? Just "precision" bomb a city until it happens to hit the Cathedral? Pffft

 

[Dirk Aurel]

Have no idea about the "real" range of a B2,but in the game it´s 8 tiles,two more than usual bombers.Don´t want to see B2 bombing cities 30 tiles distant anyway,but the 8 tile limit in range is a bit short,was 12 or so in Civ2.

As for the marketplace,well that´s something,ok I´d like to see those precision strikes on barracks too,but it´s still better than using 20 bombers in one turn and getting the message "bombing run failed" every time....

( Won´t get easier either now that the 1.17 patch has put improvement and citizen bombardment defense to 16 instead of 8 )

 

[Guardian]

In real life, as Greadius has already pointed out, the B2 can fly from Missouri to Afghanistan and back again, but then they have to be refueled 3 times along the way.

Never tried precision bombing in Civ 3, but it sounds like a bunch of bogus as far as I can tell...

As for the "bombing run failed"...

Errrr... what??
Are you trying to tell me every last bomb i dropped blew away with the wind or something??!?

Sure, lousy navigation could cause the bombers to occasionally drop their cargoes in the middle of nowhere, but I doubt they'd be flying around doing this on a regular basis...

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by Guardian
In real life, as Greadius has already pointed out, the B2 can fly from Missouri to Afghanistan and back again, but then they have to be refueled 3 times along the way.

Ah, not really. I can`t imagine it to have a smaller range then a B1-B, and that would be refueled after takoff and then somewhere on the return leg over US controlled territory, so it would be easy to implement that in Civ3. Just have the player build a small wonder "Inflight Refueling" and you get extra range (say: + 30%) range on all airborne types.....

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

oh, btw: why not put maintainance extremely high (like 25 Gold or so) for B2, that would effectively limit the number one can build, but give the B2 unlimited range with "Inflight Refueling".


Also the entire targeting thing sucks! Even with a primitive Catapult any smart guy in the world can try to hit a specific building. And WWI bomber sure as hell treid to hit either people or buildings and so on. In WWII it was even more specific: kill that one factory or destroy that pier or so. So why not have a popup for bombing that lets you choose: a "specific building/unit/pop" - lowering chance of hit unless you precision bomb.
or "anything" - gives the same chance of success as now.


I have sooooo often bombarded a town to get the defender down a HP only to destroy a building with every try..........

 

[buju]

So what's up with the precision strikes? Do they just automatically target buildings? All documentation says you can choose. Can't say I'm pleased with the lack of attention to detail from Firaxis.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by buju
So what's up with the precision strikes? Do they just automatically target buildings? All documentation says you can choose. Can't say I'm pleased with the lack of attention to detail from Firaxis.

yeah, i remember reading that, too.....

 

[eyrei]

For some reason the bombing of the Chinese embassy by the US during the attack on Yugoslavia came to mind. Now there is some precision bombing for you.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by eyrei
For some reason the bombing of the Chinese embassy by the US during the attack on Yugoslavia came to mind. Now there is some precision bombing for you.

well, they sure as hell tried to hit something specific, and IIRC they even hit what they wanted to hit - just that they had the wrong maps... ooops!

 

[eyrei]

Yeah. I guess the US should have exchanged territory maps with Milesovic (sp?) before we declared war.

 

[Marzipan]

Yeah. I guess the US should have exchanged territory maps with Milesovic (sp?) before we declared war

hehe good one.

Yeah, I was under the impression that you could choose what city improvement to target, but I was able to do precision strikes last night and I was never given an option of what to hit. My stealth bomber did seem to hit the city improvements though, taking out the bank and university of Las Vegas (I guess they couldn't fine the hospital and elementary school hehe).

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by Marzipan


hehe good one.

Yeah, I was under the impression that you could choose what city improvement to target, but I was able to do precision strikes last night and I was never given an option of what to hit. My stealth bomber did seem to hit the city improvements though, taking out the bank and university of Las Vegas (I guess they couldn't fine the hospital and elementary school hehe).

I would imagine that this action actually reduced corruption in your enemies empire.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by eyrei
Yeah. I guess the US should have exchanged territory maps with Milesovic (sp?) before we declared war.