Satellites

[Colonel]

I don't know if I would go so far as to say that I want them to be actual units but I do want them to have more importance. Perhaps something similiar to air units only general controls. If you launch a Recon satellite you could task it to only look at a specific enemy for your current war.

Recon satellite - name implies what it does
Economy Satellite - No control over this it would just boost the economy slightly to signify cell phones and such and how it creates a new market
Military Satellite - First remove the SDI wonder, instead have multiple military satellite that can shoot down missiles and you pick the area they protect. The more of these in one area the more likely they are to shoot down missiles.
Attack Satellite - For one of the last techs you should get some sort of military weapon born from a satellite. Laser weapon perhaps, nuke launcher from space thereby negating your military sats, etc.

 

[CivMyWay]

I plan on implementing satellites in my game.

First you have to have the prereq techs, and then you must build a launch site (which is a costly tile improvement). Each satellite launch is costly.

Once a satellite is launched you can then move the satellite slowly. Basically there is still a fog of war, until you launch a network of satellites to cover the globe. Satellite technology can be upgraded, so the hi-tech spy satellites can give you fairly precise intel about troop movement and city structures.

As an additional diplomatic agreement, you can send once-off intel snapshots from your satellite.

Military satellites similar to what you suggest + ground based anti-satellite weapons. (These will basically small-range) --> ground based are more easily defended, but less useful. Other weapons similar to what you suggested.

Future tech will also be solar power generators, and even tourism entities.

 

[Camikaze]

Nice ideas, but are they really necessary? They are important in modern times, but having such a wide range seems a bit of overkill. I reckon something with satellites would be good...but not that much.

 

[Antilogic]

I particularly like the idea of recon satellites, maybe as a national wonder. The discovery of the Satellites technology reveals the world map, and then constructing a recon satellite network removes the fog of war. A simpler implementation of the OP's idea, but it represents the improvement of space technology without adding too much on the complexity side.

 

[CivMyWay]

I like the concept of having to have multiple roam-capable satellites in order to clear the fog of war, because it makes it more realistic (intelligence is a costly and timely business). It would create an intelligence-race, and add another sphere that you can "control". It also means you must (if you don't have full-cover) be strategic about where you place your satellites. I think satellites are one of the key factors in who is and is not a super power (information being power).

Speaking of which, perhaps you should be able to hack a satellite and get data out of it (or disable it) for one turn.

Of course you may well be right that we suggest too many options... but who really knows until its play tested.

 

[Antilogic]

A one-turn hack isn't going to affect much, I think. You would know that if somebody hacked a satellite, they were planning a war and were moving their troops. So even if you "didn't know what was going on" for a turn, you would still logically move troops to your borders.

 

[Camikaze]

Perhaps a good idea might be having geo-stationary satellites as units, that each reveal a chosen 9 tile area, but cannot be moved. So when you build one, you can choose which particular 9 tiles it removes the fog of war for, and you will have line of sight in those tiles for, say, 100 turns, before 'orbital decay' takes effect and the satellite crashes back to Earth. Build more satellites, see more tiles.

 

[Gamemaster77]

I think there should be some importance to a GPS system.

 

[702]

What would GPS do though?
Give an extra movement in hills?
Perhaps increase bombard damage from artillery since they would be more accurate?
Seems a bit unnecessary to me tbh...
And everyone (or everyone who had a basic required tech) would have access to it surely, so would there be much incentive to create it?

 

[Gamemaster77]

Correct. I think it seems very necessary though considering it was one of the most usefull inventions of all time.

 

[CivMyWay]

Adjustments to my version of concept...

I was thinking that a satellite could have an initial radius of 30x30. This could be improved to 40x40 with a tech upgrade. (The actual upgrades to satellites would be assumed to be part of the research process; no need to launch new satellite --- some technologies in my concepts cost resources, so this would cover launch fuel etc).

So given 40x40 range and a map of 160x160 it will take 16 satellites to get complete coverage. (Though it would be unlikely that a civ would have that many, unless they truly are a super power).

I like the idea of a satellite having a limited lifespan. Once the satellite ends its lifespan, it will crash somewhere on the planet (causing destruction, and a valuable one-time salvage resource for whoever gets there first).

Now in order to have satellites one of your cities (or will it be a one-only tile improvement?) will have a control centre. If this city/improvement is entered by a spy then you can conduct a mission. (Multiple spies can exist in a city at once).

Missions could be:

• Disrupt the satellite for 1 turn. Note I think this would be useful as ...
  1. 
     [#] your blocking-out a big area, so they won't know where to defend exactly,
     [#] it harasses them, and could be used to have them divert troops unnecessarily (especially if you surround them on more than one front),
     [#] the possibility to take out multiple satellites in a turn.
• Or you could attempt to send the satellite into a nose-dive;
• It would be cool if you coudl also make the satellite "blind" (but so that the player cant detect it straight away - e.g. no fog of war, but the player wont see enemy troop movement --- the old "inject a pre-recorded video into the feed" trick.

Satellites can be moved, but at a rate of 5 hex per turn; which means it would take them quite a while to reposition. You should also be able to set up patrol-like-waypoint-path.

Another satellite upgrade can provide more fidelity (greater detail, including troop numbers and composition).

 

[NZL]

The recon satellites idea is appealing, but they should remove fog of war over more than 9 tiles (and should be dependent on the map size).

However, one should be able to destroy enemy satellites with ICBMs. This would add an extra layer to warfare.
Also, the satellite owner would only know who launched an ICBM if the launching city/sub was not situated in a fog of war region.
Therefore, it is encouraged that once you start building a recon satellite network, it's best to cover the entire surface of the map.

 

[zacman]

I think you should be able to build 5 new national wonders:
Satalite a
Satalite b
Satalite c
Satalite d
Mission cotroll

once you build all of these there will be a menu were you can controll what each satilite is doing. Each satilite will have a "zone of effect" were it will provide bonus depending on what it is doing. You can set a satilite to public [bonus to comerce in zone of efect] or govermant [reveals fog of war in zone of effect. increased bombard strenth in zone of effect]. [sorry for typos, im a bit distracted]

 

[Camikaze]

Why would a satellite allow for greater commerce on a tile?

Would you only be able to control the satellites after having completed the mission control?

 

[zacman]

I think you should be able to build 5 new national wonders:
Satalite a
Satalite b
Satalite c
Satalite d
Mission cotroll

once you build all of these there will be a menu were you can controll what each satilite is doing. Each satilite will have a "zone of effect" were it will provide bonus depending on what it is doing. You can set a satilite to public [bonus to comerce in zone of efect] or govermant [reveals fog of war in zone of effect. increased bombard strenth in zone of effect]. [sorry for typos, im a bit distracted]

Mayby +1 gold from trade routes would fit better? [as in people using the internet to advertise and sell things online]