Rulesets and modpacks • Re: Drone Warfare

I added Drones to my custom ruleset a while back. They're kind of different than you have; mine represent more the Predator type than the "brick of C4 duct-taped to a quadcopter" type. I've been considering adding the latter, too, as well as a naval suicide drone, but I'm not sure they're different enough from existing units (like Cruise Missiles) to be worth implementing. And I already don't use Cruise Missiles because I don't like expendable units.

First, the tech to support them: Drone Warfare, prereqs Combined Arms and Robotics:Then their class. I have a lot more unit classes than classic or civ2civ3, for finer selection of units for terrain restrictions or cargo-carrying. Light Air is a small class — the only other member is the Biplane — which I created specifically so that Airships could carry a parasite fighter without being able to tote around Strategic Bombers or whatnot. The only real difference from regular Air units, other than a few other units' cargo considerations, is that Light Air can't be Airlifted (though they can be loaded onto a Heavy Cargo Plane that can be). Airships being able to act as Drone carriers wasn't really intentional, but I think it's cool, so I've kept it. In honor of Operation Spiderweb, I've been considering giving Freight the ability to carry one, too, but haven't actually implemented it yet.
And the actual unit. I'm still tinkering with the stats. My current game is the first one I've played through far enough to be able to actually use them since I added them. (I've kept changing things that broke save compatibility so I had to restart.) From my so-far-limited experience, I think the actual combat stats are okay, but I think they need either more MP or another point of fuel. 8 MP is awfully tight when you've got to get back to base after attacking on it, especially when operating from a city rather than a forward carrier of some sort. The main attraction is that they have no Happiness upkeep, so Democracies can drone-swarm their enemies with impunity. I've been thinking about dropping either the Gold or Shield upkeep, but haven't decided on that.

"LTA" is the Lighter Than Air unit class: Airships (Flight) and Balloons (Theory of Gravity). LTA units bleed HP like Helicopters instead of having Fuel. Airships have 4 MP and limited combat capability (though they're very vulnerable to fighters), and can carry a single Civilian (settler, worker, or trader units), Diplomat (Diplomat, Spy, or Explorer), or Light Air (Biplane or Drone) unit, and launch and recover the last in flight. They're mildly useful early on as ersatz bombers, until you get the real thing, and are good for frontier patrol, especially with a parasite fighter. The main thing I've been using them for lately is to turn Engineers into flying cranes for cleaning up offshore Pollution and carrying Settlers out to new city sites. I've started using them as Drone carriers, but have been running into problems because I'm at the stage of the game where my AI enemies are in full collapse and I'm pushing the front forward faster than an Airship can move, and there isn't any way to move them faster than their own native movement. (Yeah, I'm winning too hard to use all my toys. Play the tiniest violin for me.)

Balloons are pretty much worthless. No combat capabilities at all, only 1 MP; their only redeeming factor is a 2-square spotting radius. I only added them because there was a balloon sprite in one of the extra unit sets.

Statistics: Posted by John Campbell — Mon Aug 04, 2025 4:08 am

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