[Freeciv-Dev] Zeppelin, was: Re: SU planes

[Grzegorz Borowiak <grzes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Felix Ring wrote:

> 
> 
> On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Reinier Post wrote:
> 
> > > Grzegorz Borowiak dijo/said:
> > 
> > > >I have another idea. Zeppelin. It would have move 6, defense 3 and attack
> > > >0 and would have unlimited fuel. Purpose: scout, causing no unhappiness.
> > 
> > How can a zeppelin have defense > 0 ?  And how can it move so fast?
> 
> If attack is zero, and it should be, there can't be a defense! Have you
> ever seen a Zeppelin flying? Compared to an Armor it moves like a snail.
> You'd need an spy drone to reach that speed (which of course could be a
> follow up)

Zeppelin moves faster than armor. Mainly because it flies straight and
armor must follow the road which is rarely straight.

> btw, have you ever seen "Around the world in 80 days"? There you can see
> that Zeppelins don't have unlimited fuel :-) 

I have not only seen it, I also read it. Unlimited fuel for zeppelins is a
simplification, but there are many simplifications in the game. There is
much worse simplification - unlimited movement along railroads. It's even
more ridiculous that when you move ground unit from Lisboa to
Vladivostock, you do it in one turn (if these cities are connected by
railroad) while air unit moves much longer. And also bad idea is that
helicopters have comparable speed to destroyers. I would decrease speed of
all naval units and introduce non-zero movement cost on railroads (I think
1/6 point would be good).

> > > >Overall, I think there are too few air units. And pity that AI don't use
> > > >it...
> > 
> > No more than 1% of the games I've played reach the stage of flight.
> > 
> > > That is a COOL idea. I'd give it vision 4, so it'd be a good scout.
> > > 
> > > Of course, it poses a problem: it should be able to be in the same
> > > square as an enemy land unit. Has this been implemented in the code?
> > 
> > Isn't this the same for all planes?
> 
> I don't think that an unarmed unit would want to fly over powerful enemy
> units. Almost every unit can harm a Zeppelin (except a Phalanx, which
> could only throw its sword)
> And, how would the enemy unit beneath it attack the Zeppelin? I think
> ignoring ZOC would be enough for a spy unit.

Zeppelin can be used for blocking the road if no unit can move under it.
Units like caravan therefore cannot cope with it, because they can't
attack zeppelin.

When I implemented the zeppelin in payciv II, it's AI learned how to use
zeppelins. It used it to both spying and blocking.


                                         _____________
Grzes                  \_______________________|_______________________/
grzes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                         (_)
http://gnu.univ.gda.pl/~grzes/
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