Bug - Ship of Line Can't Bombard Cities?

JonC3 · November 28, 2000, 10:50

Anyone elss have this problem? CTP1 they could bombard cities but I don't recall them being able to attack them. Now I've run into a coastal city that I can't get near with land units - it's loaded with ranged units that bomb my units when they pull up next to it. I built fleet to bombard it into submission (as in CTP1) and while the bombard option appears to be available it never works on the city. I CAN attack with the fleet but they head straight to the bottom of the ocean against all the defenders. What's up with this?

Maximus42 · November 28, 2000, 18:11

Look in the Great Library. Ships of the line can no longer bombard land units/cities.

wizard1073 · November 28, 2000, 18:18

That's dumb. Haven't they ever heard of Fort McHenry? Ships of the Line were the first warships to be effective at attacking cities.

Not to fret. It should be an easy mod in the files.

Colonel Kraken · November 28, 2000, 18:44

Open up the "Units.txt" file in your "gamedata" folder (Call to Power 2\ctp2_data\default\gamedata). All the units are in alphabetical order, so scroll down to Ship of the Line. When you start seeing entries for "CanAttack . . .", add a line "CanBombard: Land". There will already be a line that says "CanBombard: Water". That should work. Good Luck.

ak · November 28, 2000, 20:51

The description in the GL is pretty vague. Something like it's better at bombarding water.

This is just a personal opinion, but even though I was at first frustrated when SOL couldn't bombard land, I prefer Activision's new thinking. I'm sure it was for the sake of better balance and increased difficulty. Heck, wait for Battleship, it's still easy enough. Nothing is historically perfect in this game or in Civ games.

Pintello · November 29, 2000, 10:40

Hi All,

I also thought is was strange that Ship of the Line could not bombard land targets, so I added the ability as described in the Units.txt file. To counter the game balance issue I also gave cannons the ability to bombard water, which they didn't have before, and then gave both the option to counter bombard. In this way, Ships of the Line can still be used to take out military units in cities, but it is no longer a freebee. Now you have to contend with AIs counter bombarding you. Given that the AI actually buils cannons and keep them in their cities, this seems to balance things out well. Also, giving the Ship of the Line counter bombard abilities as well means that you do not have to be a helpless victim when the AIs use the cannon to bombard you when you are in range. Also, believe it or not, the AIs do seem to know how to use the bombard capability in all its forms. As pointed out before, the AI seems to be very good as defense this time around and it uses the bombard capabilities well in this regard. Now if only we can make the AI good at attack, and naval invastion, all will be well.

Timothy Pintello

Cyrius · November 30, 2000, 14:30

Excellent idea Pintello. Sounds wonderful. One question: How can I do it too? I understand the addBombard as listed above, but how to add the counter-bombard? Are there any units in the game witch already posses this ability? Won't it unbalance the game if cannons can counter-bombard other cannons? Perhaps not. It does make more sense I suppose....

On a side note, I was frustrated once that I couldn't bombard a city so I accidently told my SotL into an enemy costal city. the battle screen pops up and my one SOL tried to duke it out with a pikeman, infantryman, and a cannon. It lost, badly... :-P I guess you can now take costal cities with just naval units. Anyone else find this a bit peculiar?

Fugi the Great · December 2, 2000, 15:31

Cyrius - though I have not tried sending a ship into an enemy city, I did try it with fighters and stealth fighters since this is the only way (without editing) that they can attack units in a city. After a successfull attack where all enemy units are destroyed, the fighter is left outside of the city when you close the battle window. I could then assume and will until corrected that SOLs and other ships do the same thing, and the only way to "take the city" is with ground forces of some type. I do remember sending a ship unto a coastal city the first time I played CTP1, only because I didn't know that they could bombard those cities, and in that case as in yours, the ship was easily suck.

MrFun · December 2, 2000, 15:41

Speaking of Ship of the Line, I not only modified it so that it can bombard land and water, but enabled it to transport a maximum of 3 units.

This is important for me, since I made all earlier ships obsolete with Naval Tactics advance. Besides, a Ship of the Line with no bombardment and no transportation is indeed, foolish.

December 2, 2000, 17:44

I didn't mind losing the bombardment as much as I did losing the transport ability. An armed transport is pretty handy, and with Longship losing its attack value, you have ships that can carry or ships that can fight, but not both.

Felt pretty silly both the first time I tried to get a unit onto a SOTL and the first time I tried to attack with a Longship...

Sarxis · December 2, 2000, 20:04

I like the idea of letting SOLs and Cannon being able to bombard each other to bits. Makes players think twice before getting too close to shore with their navy.

Now what about destroyers?

MrFun · December 3, 2000, 04:19

You know what - I gave Longships, Coracles and Carracks 10 in attack power.

But with my modifications, they become obsolete with Naval Tactics. Enter Ship of the Line - an attack unit with bombardment and transportation!

Darkknight · December 4, 2000, 22:01

maybe why they didn't let the SOLs bombard is that the cannons round then couldn't fire long enough and they're trying to highlight the increased range of modern ships

------------------
" mind over body "

GasmanT · December 9, 2000, 23:51

In the units.txt file there is an addition that says
"CantCaptureCity" I believe chagning this to can will allow that right?