shuttles

[M. le Comte]

I dislike Activision's kind of Civilization. CTP is to my mind a pale copy of the genuine Civilization by Sid Meier. However, there was something amazing in CTP (the first one). After having reached I-don't-remember-which technology level, you could build shuttles and drive through stratosphere.
It was great, because you could take your units to the other side of Earth in a few turns, anywhere you wanted. Furthermore, the realization of that was much more clean than the TOT one, in which maps were just piled up. In CTP, I'm sure many of you remember that you use to fly over the clouds... to deliver a few bombs to your enemies.
Does anyone knows anything about possibilities to bring your units through space ? In the reality, space has been forbiden to any weapon by a treaty between the US and the Soviet Union in the 70's. But why should it be so in Civilization III ?

[tniem]

Wasn't there the option in Civ II to airlift your units elsewhere?

Is this what you are talking about or just some graphical thing with clouds?

[Lord_Davinator]

In Civ2 you could do only one unit from one city at one turn...I think I recall being able to do this more than once in CTP. which is more realistic if you ask me and the shuttle concept was a bit different.

[Christantine The Great]

I've heard that CtP dabbles in the future, right? Well if that is true then I very much doubt that a "shuttle" unit will be in Civ3 because:

1) Firaxis probably doesn't want to copy the copycat.

2) With the unit "displays" that we have seen there is no evidence of any futuristic units.

Lord_Davinator, remember when you transport a unit from one airport to another you are transporting an army through a commercial improvement. There is no way that enough transport planes to transport 2 armies could fit along with civilian traffic. Plus you could transport every single unit you have from one continent to another in one turn. Balance and realism actually meet for once.

[Darkknight]

In the research screens there are no Fururistic techs thank god so no shuttles

[M. le Comte]

That's right futuristic units are not a good idea (it kills the game concept).

BUT

As I said, modern technology allows humanity to use space or high atmosphere for military goals. Only a political treaty has until now prevent nations from using space to store nuclear weapons and such.

Why couldn't there be weapons like killing satellites (that could crush telecommunications of the other civ for example) or the possibility to send missiles into space to hit enemies anywhere on there territory ? That's not future, just realistic possibilities of modern technologies.

[Jarouik]

Originally posted by Lord_Davinator
In Civ2 you could do only one unit from one city at one turn...I think I recall being able to do this more than once in CTP. which is more realistic if you ask me and the shuttle concept was a bit different.

I agree; the Airlift command in Civ2 was ridiculously limited - one of its biggest problems was that you could only airlift ground units, which meant that e.g. a stealth bomber you built would take years to travel to the other side of the planet, while a ground unit could reach the location instantly.

Something really needs to be done to enable quick transport of units in the modern ages - while in general I am against extreme science fiction elements in Civilization, orbital transportation of military units, killing satellites etc. are achievable in very near future and as such should be included, considering that the current US administration seems to be realistically considering the militarization of space.

[M. le Comte]

Originally posted by Jarouik


while in general I am against extreme science fiction elements in Civilization, orbital transportation of military units, killing satellites etc. are achievable in very near future and as such should be included, considering that the current US administration seems to be realistically considering the militarization of space.

Yet in the 70's, Russians and Americans had projected to build killing satellites, so they ARE achievable. Furthermore, if I believe that no killing sat is flying over us for the moment, everyone knows that spy sat do exist. For example, the Echelon Net, which links australians, english, canadians and americans' secret services, is a reality (US administration has admitted its existence). Why couldn't I build spy sat. to improve my military intelligence in Civ III ?

[Pagan]

I like the spy satellite idea.

remember from the 80’s that the US developed a satellite killing missile that was launched from a fighter jet.

If you want a dose of realism and you want to include spy satellites, then you should have a counter measure.