[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#10269) Submarines

["Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa" <vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=10269 >

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, Per I. Mathisen wrote:

> <URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=10269 >
>
> On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa via RT wrote:
> > This new submarine patch reduces the vision of attack subs back to 2, adds
> > the graphics entries to units.spec and flips horizontally the ballistic
> > sub graphic.
>
> Normal sub is back to useless with this patch. Either leave movement or
> attack power unchanged.

Movement could be 5 mp so it can tag Transports, but that attack power is
way excessive. Compare it with an AEGIS cruiser, which comes later in the
tech tree and costs 100 shields. 50 shields makes the sub cheaper than a
Destroyer.

> Note that normal sub is not "better" than a battleship. Unit vs unit, they
> are equally strong as long as the sub attacks, otherwise the sub is
> strictly inferior, as it should be.

But the Sub can cloak, so it is more likely it can do a first strike than
the other way around. Besides, a Battleship costs 160 shields, while a
Sub costs 50 shields. Also, a Sub can carry missiles and a Battleship
cannot, so a Sub can do a long range strike. This kills game balance and
isn't even realistic. This is why the Attack Sub with extra attack I
propose cannot carry missiles and is more expensive.

---
Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa @ Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa