Rivers and river combat

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by Stormhall

I understand that Auraxis is a big super continent, right? And around this super continent is a ton of water, right? So you could add naval ships to make tactical insertions on coastal continents and have naval defenses on coasts to stop that from happening and that is where I see naval combat useful also space combat would be awesome but kind of pointless since naval combat would kinda have the same experience anyway.

Well, I was thinking...same experience? That depends! If space combat is going to be more or less on one horizontal plane, that may as well be naval combat.

But space combat doesn't have to be on one plane...in space you can go up, down, any direction, if they modeled it like that, it would be awesome. And I don't just mean so that you superficially travel in any direction but all the important objects in space are on the same plane, but where the stuff is in all directions too.

[cellinaire]

Originally Posted by KrazeyVIII

I really hope the rest of my post was understood. Even if it is put in, the amount of change the game would have to go through to allow it is ridiculous. Maps need to be tailored to allow naval combat in any form. Giving current vehicles amphibious options would be the best way to implement it, if ever.

I mean 'future continents'. The continents they'll start to put in at least 1 year after launch.


Obviously they have many ideas about it already and (possibly can) even make actual plans about it, then on to the production stage / in-house testing phase / public testing, feedback phase and rigorous modification and, finally, introduce it to the game. I know a huge amount of work has to be put in to make them work and, by that time, some people might wonder like "waste of dev time and resources? Or will it actually work?". But it's a bit early to say they're impossible to make or they'll become a game-breaker.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by KrazeyVIII

I really hope the rest of my post was understood. Even if it is put in, the amount of change the game would have to go through to allow it is ridiculous. Maps need to be tailored to allow naval combat in any form. Giving current vehicles amphibious options would be the best way to implement it, if ever.

If you mean, just give vehicles amphibious capability instead of having real ships, I disagree, naval combat is not just amphibious vehicles. I mean, you can give vehicles, such as APCs and tanks, amphibious capability to get across rivers, OK, no problem. But they should be slow at getting across.

Here's a way we could make this important: If bridges can be blocked or destroyed(they should be repairable just like in BF2), tanks and APCs would then need to cross amphibiously at rivers. I mean, the bridge could be repaired, yes, but are you going to have 30 tanks and APCs sit there and wait under aerial bombardment while that's done? And then, that's where the river gunboats come into play. Armored vehicles will cross slowly, gunboats, being actual watercraft, will travel noticeably faster.

River gunboats could also be used to ferry infantry squads across the river as well. Another thing is that river gunboats could be spec'd out as anti-air platforms or anti-vehicle. Even on continents that aren't river heavy, but nevertheless do have a river and a bridge, if intelligence is gained that allows you to set up a defense against an invasion at a bridge(a great place to do that, by the way, since most will try to cross the bridge which makes them easy to shoot), AA-gunboats can be a great set-up for such a thing. The enemy invasion force might bring air support, a couple of gunboats with 2 AA guns each might help out. And when gunboats aren't needed, no one will use them. When they are they will; and since river gunboats can double as smaller ocean vessels later on, there's no need to be worried about wasting resources just because they aren't used 24/7.

Were there ever large scale invasions that met large scale resistance RIGHT AT a bridge in PS1 that anyone ever saw?

Depending on how they decided to do it, the river gunboat spawning bases could either be 1 per continent that has to be fought over, or, every faction can spawn them on the continent.

Question: Are aircraft expected to have radar capability to see other aircraft at long range? Especially Galaxy transports?

[JHendy]

Originally Posted by KrazeyVIII

I really hope the rest of my post was understood. Even if it is put in, the amount of change the game would have to go through to allow it is ridiculous. Maps need to be tailored to allow naval combat in any form. Giving current vehicles amphibious options would be the best way to implement it, if ever.

A new continent would need to be brought into the line-up. One that has been designed from the ground up to make full use of naval units, in conjunction with conventional ones.

No need to overhaul the entire game.

I'm imagining some sort of vast archipelago continent, enabling the use of full-scale ocean-going battleships further out to sea, which would be used to capture off-shore resource hexes (oil rigs perhaps), and smaller units like river boats to be used inland, between islands, contributing to the ground war.

Oh the possibilities

Originally Posted by KrazeyVIII

Giving current vehicles amphibious options would be the best way to implement it, if ever

No. That's a depressingly drab and unambitious idea, and most definitely not the best one. SOE would have to have a screw loose to implement new continents that were built specifically for the purpose of naval combat -- which is what is being discussed by most proponents of naval combat at this time -- but only allow players to take to the oceans in bastardised land vehicles.

[headcrab13]

I wouldn't mind a river-running vehicle, but I wonder how it would be better than a Magrider or Reaver at getting around.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by headcrab13

I wouldn't mind a river-running vehicle, but I wonder how it would be better than a Magrider or Reaver at getting around.

Make bridges destructible(AND repairable) but make tanks/APCs amphibious. Then when they are in the water crossing a river because the bridge is down, they have to fight off riverboats.

[headcrab13]

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Make bridges destructible(AND repairable) but make tanks/APCs amphibious. Then when they are in the water crossing a river because the bridge is down, they have to fight off riverboats.

Yeah that would be an interesting mechanic. I guess I was envisioning PS1's rivers -- where you could splash through them in a few seconds and be on your way.

If rivers were several hundred yards across, and the rapids slowed down your vehicles significantly, it could make for some harrowing escapes (or fun kills from the shore).

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by headcrab13

Yeah that would be an interesting mechanic. I guess I was envisioning PS1's rivers -- where you could splash through them in a few seconds and be on your way.

If rivers were several hundred yards across, and the rapids slowed down your vehicles significantly, it could make for some harrowing escapes (or fun kills from the shore).

That was my idea, it would be quite slow for tanks and APCs to wade across the river, because, well, tanks and APCs aren't boats. Gunboats are, and would be fast compared to a tank/apc in the water, so if you want to defend a river, blow up the bridge, and have gunboats on patrol. The enemy has at least three choices:
1. Fight to repair the bridge before crossing
2. Fly everyone over the water with Galaxies and Lodestars
3. Cross amphibiously.

Gunboats could also be quite good at defending destroyed bridge sections from people trying to repair them. If no aircraft come to take them out, or tanks to kill them, it won't get repaired.