air power sucks in this game

[bvanevery]

Am I right or wrong?

I don't think we even need to talk about the broken helicopters.  I'm wondering if I should ban them entirely.  As is, I seriously nerfed them to having only movement 6, so they wouldn't have so many attacks unless they're engaged in point blank defense.  In the real world that means I never build them anymore.  What's the point of an air unit if you have no range?  If I could think of a clever way to repurpose the helicopter chassis slot, I would.

Needlejets suck too.  At least on Huge maps, they suck.  How am I supposed to get across the damn map?  Yeah, I could spend a lot of time building air bases everywhere.  What a drag!  In the modern day we have all kinds of planet wide ways of staying aloft for long periods of time, and in-flight refuelling.

What do I really do in all of my games?  I build rails right to the front doors of enemy cities.  It's 100% reliable and it's the only thing that really really works.  Can't beat unarmored infantry taking a 25% attack bonus against cities.

Home grown mindworms are effective with a high PLANET rating and enough Biology Labs.  However without rails, they're slow.  They're good for crossing fungus near your territory, and they're excellent as guerilla defense in the bush.  Woe to the city that builds next to a fungal patch, but not all cities leave themselves vulnerable like that.  Indeed, I usually go through a fungus clearing drill at some point early on, typically when I get Synthetic Fossil Fuels.  Which in my mod is only a Tier 2 tech, to make sure you can get that going if you want to.

Rails are king.  Mindworms are queen.  Needlejets are at best a jack, pretty much useless once you've cleared immediate enemies on a Huge map.

Of course in my mod I've got Conventional Missiles that can hit anything on Planet.  But they're expensive to build, and it becomes a boring game of whack-a-mole, manually pushing them for such long distances.  I never build the things.  The AI doesn't build them much either, because I made them expensive enough that the AI is going to have trobule spamming them.  Frankly that's a relief.  In the unmodded game, it gets really old getting a CM in the face all the time.

[bvanevery]

I may have an answer for the Copter problem.  I never realized you could turn OFF the requirement to go back to base.  In the Chassis specification there's this setting:

Code: [Select]

; Range   = Range in turns from base (air units only)
If you set this to 0, the unit doesn't use fuel and never runs out of fuel.  This is how Gravships are specified.  A Copter can be made pretty similar to a Gravship.  It has the hardwired quirk of being able to attack with every one of its moves.  I could make a Copter have only 4 moves.  That would make it great at attacking when it doesn't have to move, such as being stationed in a city and a bunch of enemy infantry pull up.  Wouldn't be worth much when it has to get somewhere.  Sort of like a Hovertank that can't follow a road for extra movement benefit.

Not sure I actually like this idea, but I don't like existing Copters at all.  I've nerfed them to have only 6 moves.  I find in the real world, now I never use them at all.

Another idea would be to base the Locust on a Copter chassis instead of a Gravship, with set to 0 for permanent endurance as above.  Then otherwise disallow Copters, so that Locusts are the only air unit with the ability to attack over and over again.  Call Gravships something else, make their technology far less esoteric and come way earlier in the tech tree.  Airships?  Whatever.

[Geo]

I may have an answer for the Copter problem.  I never realized you could turn OFF the requirement to go back to base...

IMO, that makes them even stronger. At least with the fuel thing there's the risk of damaging your chopper too much for it to safely return to base.
Why not leave the need for refueling AND only a movement of four?

Or else, let them be land units instead of air units. IRL helicopters stay close to the surface anyway, and are vulnerable to infantry weapons.

[bvanevery]

Why not leave the need for refueling AND only a movement of four?

Because in my mod they suck rocks with a movement of 6.  I never use them.  They're a complete waste of space.

Or else, let them be land units instead of air units. IRL helicopters stay close to the surface anyway, and are vulnerable to infantry weapons.

Helicopters can be shot while on the ground as is.

If I made a movement 4 helicopter as a land unit, it would get 4 attacks.  That's like an Elite hovertank.  I'd say that's probably overpowered.  Also if it's a land unit, I bet it can follow roads and rails, which is nonsensical.

Currently I'm testing their removal from the game, except for a "Unity Lifter" predefined unit.  I put a Transport on it so it can't attack.  I also gave it Heavy Transport ability.  I gave it Deep Radar so it scouts better.  The thing is darned slow though, only movement 4, and I'm wondering if that's too useless and painful.  The 1st one I gained, I flew over open ocean, and it got eaten by a passing Isle of the Deep!

I have the Locusts operating from a Copter chassis so that I can do something else with Gravships.  I don't want to increase the Copter chassis speed because I don't want Locusts to fly any faster or get more attacks.  The main liability of mindworms is they're slow, they're not good by themselves for long distance force projection.  I want Locusts to stay slow that way, as far as air units go.

I'm testing Foils as fast as Cruisers, and Cruisers that move 12.  I think the basic problem is, a Huge map is the new Standard size AFAIAC, in order to get the AI to grow properly.  It's too tedious pushing things around, things need to go faster.  Land units aren't such a problem because I've got rails, but sea and air units suck.

I'm testing Needlejets with a base movement of 20.  Also their range is increased to 4, so that they can get 3 things done before being required to return to base.  That could be a single very long distance attack, or 3 shorter range attacks.

Missiles are reduced to speed 30, but are set to never have to refuel.  Thus, they can hit anything on any planet, no matter how large.  However it takes more time to cross a bigger planet, and someone could shoot them down between turns.