Airforce positive or negative ?

[KarisFraMauro]

Neither of those techniques work very well past WWII levels of technology though. One doesn't have to think too hard to find examples in recent years of ground forces getting completely annihilated from the air. Dealing with technology beyond the present day it's a reasonable extrapolation that trend would continue. Anyway hiding from an air enemy that hasn't spotted you yet is one thing, as you say with respect to not firing on air forces. But, AFTER you've been spotted? Completely different matter. Use ground forces to flush out the enemy, then send in air to finish the job. Seems fair enough.

[GazBot]

nice to have the option - but I think will be very planet dependent....

In current game their is limited airforces - I think only one player has deployed anything with wings (light recon).

The planet basically has no oil - this is an extreme example but sort of makes the point - very game dependent.

Now if the game goes to say to Turn 100 - then maybe that changes - ie you start biofuel, methane synthesis etc to get over the fuel limitations and can then get the payoff....

If your in a resource rich world then perhaps you ramp it up a lot earlier....

I get the feeling it will take time to get all the research to get effective designs up and running - the one thing it forced me to do (one player actually getting something up in the air) it did tempt me to get some basic research started and research and create some AA units!!!!

[solops]

ORIGINAL: zgrssd

ORIGINAL: Soar_Slitherine

The worst part about air forces is that the UI for designing aircraft is awful.

That is wierd. Because it is a improovement over the normal design process (actually having a summary page/confirmation page).

It is just that the rest of the design process was always that bad.

+1
Kind of like the air unit design. Better than the rest.

[KarisFraMauro]

I ultimately quit the game with the air force. Even though I was able to have enough oil and metal, the sheer logistical tsunami of trying to maintain an air force left me with nothing for my ground forces. And all that with actually being able to destroy a unit from the air practically impossible. It's too bad, hopefully the shortcomings will be addressed in future so I can return to it, definite potential.

[CaptBeefheart]

Against the AI I'd say air forces are a handicap to the AI and you shouldn't use them. In PBEM it might be a fun element.

I noticed the AI builds a lot of AA units, which don't seem to be good for anything else, even against tanks. I also didn't see the AI build any aircraft.

Once my tech became reasonable, I built some helos to go after big alien critters, not the normal AI opponents, since the normal opponents had quite a bit of AA by them. Still, ground attack helos didn't do much to the critters. I didn't bother with airplanes since the opportunity to use them would have been minimal what with having to be based at a city with an airfield.

For the aircraft design process I'd start with a list of maximum parameters for each type (e.g. 2000-pound bombload, range of five hexes, speed of 200 knots, cargo of 2000 pounds, etc.) and you'd pick one that's the most important to you, say the bombload of 2000 pounds, and then it would show you what was still achievable with the other parameters (e.g. range of three hexes, 170-knot speed, no cargo, etc.) and you'd narrow it down with each choice.

Cheers,
CB

[KarisFraMauro]

I still think eliminating retreat would go a long way to fixing aircraft, for the reasons I've outlined earlier. It would be twice as relevant for fauna since you'd hardly expect them to understand and devise countermeasures to flying things, even if they were intelligent. One aspect I may have failed to make clear is that it would still be possible for targets to withstand air attacks, otherwise the mechanic would be broken the other way. Just make it a matter of lasting the ten rounds without the existing easy escape of retreat that renders the entire exercise futile.