[Freeciv] Re: feature request: spy satellites

[John Preston <john.d.preston@xxxxxxx>]

Well it seems to me that there are a couple of workable mechanisms...

1. Geosynchronous satellites -  Players build a rocketry facility in  
the a given city to enable the technology, then when a spy satellite  
is completed the player moves the satellite over the desired area. It  
will then hover over that location indefinitely (losing health at a  
rate that will bring it down in 20-30 turns) and can only be attacked  
by either nuclear weapons or some sort of SDI defense. (You've got to  
give the surveilled nation a chance to kill the satellite.)

2. Low-earth orbit satellites - Similar to an explorer, this unit  
disregards all terrain effects and can move across water with ease.  
It has no ZOC and can stack on top of enemy units. It should have a  
line of sight of several squares and a very high movement value (on  
the order of 20-30 squares per turn). It would be nice if it were  
limited to straight-line movement, but I'm not familiar enough with  
the game design to know if this is possible or not.

Also it might be a good idea to create a minor wonder that enables  
this technology, or just tie it to the Apollo Program.

--
John Daniel Preston
john.d.preston@xxxxxxx



On 3 Feb 2006, at 5:50 PM, Fishpark wrote:

> But if the satellite moves by itself, how long will it
> take for the thing to cross the map? how useful would
> it be if it only covered your favourite battleground
> once every 20 turns?
>
> And if it moves all by itself, how will you profit
> from its visible range? units move pretty fast in
> freeciv (esp. on linux) so you'd lose track of the
> units almost as soon as the satellite flies over
> them...
>
> A more useful satellite would be one that you can
> position at will, like a air unit but without the
> neccessity to return to an airbase. Space units would
> be unreachable except by cruise missiles. I guess
> they'd have to have limited lifespan, only a couple
> turns (10? 20?) so that they wont be too powerful. How
> does that sound?
>
>
>
>
>               
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