880 replies to this topic

[link.the.first]

I agree the USA needs a less expensive fighter

The 22s should be late-game units and something like the F-15, F-16, or F-18 could be the starting fighter. Is the JSF stealth?

Also, every fighter should have a machine gun.

[Ace22]

The Overall Idea that link.the.first and I would probably agree on is this:



F-18 Super Hornet.
Speed: average.
Range: old Raptor.
Armament: four heavy rockets.
Upgrades:Heavy Weapons, permanant, adds two slammers, and a Harpoon anti-ship Cruise Missile, 2000$.


FB-22 Whisper
Speed: Aurora class, a little slower with MOABs, stealth.
Range: JDAMs and MOABs are standoff weapons, so they could be twice as far as average bombs.
Armament: 8 target confirming JDAMs.
Upgrades: MOAB, temporary, 3000$.

Unknown Tank-killer Plane

F-22 Raptor
Speed: Aurora Class, stealth.
Range: twice as much as the old Raptor.
Armament: 8 target-confirming Slammers.
Upgrades: Air Assault, range increased, and Armament doubled, stealth nullified,temporary, 2000$.

Edited by Ace22, 14 July 2005 - 03:22 PM.

[Ace22]

OK, then the armament upgrade would allow for four JASSM advanced cruise missiles with twice the range.

warheads would be FAE.

[link.the.first]

The F/A-18 could be a tank killer plane. It's designed to do air-air and air-ground, right?

[Ace22]

Yes, but it is not meant for that exact role.

[link.the.first]

The tank killer could be an A-10. I think those are smaller than Raptors. They would carry a LOT of air-ground missiles, maybe 2 Slammers with the upgrade, and a gattling gun.

For the true USA king of the skies, the prototype Switchblade fighter could be used. It has swing wings that adgust to 3 positions: Folded all the way forward, the fighter becomes a delta-winged supersonic jet. At a 45 degree angle, it uses the backward wing design for EXTREME maneuverability when engaging aircraft. When you need to attack ground forces, the wings can extend to perpendicular to drop a bomb precisely on target. (This can also be used to take off with a shorter runway, maybe to have it get airborne before otehr fighters) Also, like all super-modern fighters, it is completely invisibal to radar.

Speed: When cruising to target, it is faster than an Aurora. Wings are forward. It slows to slightly faster than a Raptor when engaging units, and slightly slower when dropping bombs.

Agility: Opens wings halfway to really turn on the dime. At this point, it can evade missiles with or without countermeasures simply by banking at the right time. You can manually open the wings and it can evade almost anything, including Quad cannons and Gattling guns. It can NEVER be shot down by only a few defenses.

Armament:

10 multipurpose rockets: As good as a Slammer vs aircraft, but it can easily destroy any ground vehicle with these. One will send any light vehicle flying, 2 are necessary for the Paladin, Mammoth, Abrams, King Crusader, and the other new heavy tanks, and three will destroy an Emperor.

4 JDAMs: 3 can destroy ANY structure in a single run. 2 can level most structures, including factories and airfields. Upgradeable to Bunker Busters, EMP etc.

The downside? Requires the Wind Tunnel(see below), you can only build 4, and they cost 20,000.

Wind Tunnel: Holds aircraft upgrades. Available when you have a Strategy Center and Air Field.

[link.the.first]

I think the USA is a bit more advanced then prop planes even on big cargo planes. Might fit in the GLA or Militia though.

Also, since this game is in the future, and by the time particle cannons are invented the F-15 and F-16 will be completely obsolete, the USA could sell/give/loan some to the Militia.

I know this would be a bit of a stretch, but the Brilliant Buzzard is a flying aircraft carrier. Probably a bit too big for Generals, but it might be cool to have.

Does anyone know of some aircraft besides the switchblade that are uber-advanced and no one is really supposed to know about them? They would probably be in service by the time this game takes place.

[Ace22]

The A-10 is too old. We need something newer.


As for the Switchblade, I have a better idea.

Nanofighter: this is the undisputed King of the skies, able to morph into any configuration due to the fact that it is comprised entirely of atom-sized robots.

Modes

1. Bomber: this configuration is activated when any ground unit is targeted, opening the rotary launch bay to fire off AALCMs with Pure Energy Warheads
looks like a miniature B-1B.

2.Dogfighter: this configuration is actuvated when enemy planes get too close. it looks like the Switchblade's dogfighting mode. The Rotary launcher now holds up to 16 anti-aircraft rockets.

3.Interceptor: this configuration is meant to attack and kill enemy fighters at a long range without even knowing what happened to them. looks like F-22, but a bit longer. The Rotary Launcher is armed with Advanced Long Range Anti-Air Cruise Missiles, each with a pure energy warhead.

I'm fine with the Agility and Speed concepts.

All three modes are stealthed. This is the Super Unit of the USA. Build limit: 1



Weapons

AALCM
Range: a littile farther than Tomahawk.
Speed: High Supersonic.
Warhead: Pure Energy, can blow light vehicles across a quarter of the map, can kill any tank with a direct hit. Huge blast radius.

ALRAACM
Range: twice as far as Nuke Cannon.
Speed: Hypersonic.
Warhead: Pure Energy, blows any unit just outside blast across quarter of map, direct hit kills any aircraft, as well as any in the huge blast.
Air to Air only.

Edited by Ace22, 16 July 2005 - 09:13 PM.

[link.the.first]

I like the Nanofighter idea. You could use that to disguise it as any other aircraft, but that limits its capabilities. For cruising, it turns into an Aurora. Bombing, the body is a little wide, and the wings are spread out like an A-10. Dogfights, backward wings. Hovering, it turns into a flying saucer built around a single fan (or no fan to make it look more advanced). You can switch configurations manually or automatically, and there is an option to UNLOAD over a slightly spread out area. It reloads in the air by picking up some land and using the nano-bots to rebuild the missiles. Blow it up and you get 3 pilots.

You can set it to switch automatically or manually. AA mode is agile enough to dodge missiles, but anything fired at the ground will probably miss. Bombing mode lets you hit the ground accurately, but it slows you down too much to catch fighters. Hi-speed mode outruns Auroras, but you can't hit anything accurately. Hover mode lets you hit anything accurately and reload missiles, but it isn't fast or agile.

Armor is nearly impenetrable because it regenerates, but the form is disrupted when it gets hit.

If the USA gets this, everyone needs a super unit. China gets a flying fortress that can hold 4 vehicles. It also has a cloniing facility that drops some red guards, tank hunters etc for fee every few minutes.

GLA or Militia ideas?

Also, just because the USA has the nanofighter doesn't mean the Switchblade is out.

[link.the.first]

The Switchblade is in the early stages. It doesn't even have an official number yet, and I don't think they even have a flying version yet. I chose it because this game is based highly on super-modern and near-futuristic weapons in the real world. That's why they have the Raptor, Stealth fighter(needs replacement-it's old) and Aurora(which is only rumored to exist-some believe it is the Valkyrie). Also, PR has added realistic things so far, like the M1A2 and the Nuke Gen rocket. I do think that aircraft that are likely to fly within the next 10-15 years are good.

The Valkyrie would be a bit too big for Generals.

[Ace22]

Futuristic stuff is good


Nanofighter information

the Hover mode is the "in between" mode, saving power.

Never has to land, because fabricates fuel and weapons from air.

UNLOAD option launches all ordinance in a super-inaccurate way.

No disguising, too hard to mod.

Form is not disrupted, but armor regenerates a littile slower.

Bomber mode looks like B-1B because it is a cruise missile carrier and the Bomber fires cruise missiles(AALCM).

Remember, the High-speed mode for the Nanofighter is like an attack interceptor, launching missiles(ALRAACM) before anyone can respond. So therefore it can fire on planes accurately in that mode.

The Interceptor mode should look like an F-22 because of two reasons:

1. the Aurora is a bomber, how do you attack planes with a bomber?

2. The F-22 has 35000 pound thrust engines. The only other operational plane that ever had that power engines was the SR-71, and look at how fast that went, not even taking into the account of how much heavier it was.

How about each General gets a unique Super Unit?

Air Force General: Nanofighter

Infantry General: Flying Fortress

More Ideas needed, but look through the old topic of New Units, there are lots of super unit ideas there, mostly mine.

[link.the.first]

The hi-speed mode is actually designed to penetrate defenses because it would already be faster than anything that can hit it in air-air mode. It could look like a Blackbird(fastest plane that officialy exists) and the slammers could be accurate at long-range but almost guaranteed to miss at close range.

This is gonna stand out in a game about mostly modern weapons, so I suggest giving everyone in USA the Switchblade and only Granger gets the Nanofighter. Like you said, everyone gets their own super-unit.

USA Laser Gen gets a big chopper with 4 rotors. Not stealth, but it has about 16 laser cannons, 4 on each side, and a big particle beam that is about as powerful as the superweapon. It requires 20 power to run the lasers, but if you lose power in your base it will still fly because the rotors use standard engines.

USA Superweapon Gen gets something like Laser's version only it has 8 Tomahawks with better range than the launcher or Hammerhead. It also has 8 rail guns to deal with ground threats and some missiles for airbornes.

See Crazy Ideas for the rest, since they aren't aircraft.

[Ace22]

I say the Interceptor Mode should not look like a Blackbird (SR-71) because the F-22 can go a lot faster. Also, while it cannot shoot at close range, it launches long range Pure energy missiles, and morphs into Dogfight mode if enemys get too close.


The Interceptor mode should look like a Raptor, but has the diagonal fins not only on the top, but on the bottom as well, and is longer overall.


You should rethink the Four Rotors concept. Any helicoptor with that would look funny
I say it should be an antigravity triangle with the lasers and particle beam.


Alexander's weapon is not to be a helicopter, because that would be unimaginative.

I say it should be a huge tank with the ability to launch Cruise missiles in bursts of three. For self-protection, it can spawn up to ten drones with tank cannons.

[link.the.first]

How fast can a Raptor go? I know the Blackbird can sustain mach 3.5. It also looks faster. It could look like a narrow version of the FB-22 with the intakes mounted in the wings like an F-117 and no fins. Remember, the Raptor was designed for decent speed and ajility to engage aircraft, not to break the world record for airspeed.

General Tones could get a floating disk with the particle beam and 12 lasers ringing the edge.

Alexander's fight is not based on units. It is based on hiding behind powerful defenses and launching superweapons from behing them. She could get the Superweapon Command Center instead of a super unit. Build one and you get a Nuclear Cruise Missile, Particle Cannon, and 10 tomahawks. The nuke does the same as the Chinese nuke but with no radiation. Or it could be the MOAB, which was designed for a cruise missile. MOABs still have mushroom clouds, so you could keep a similar appearance to the nukes.

[link.the.first]

The idea of this supersonic mode is to get through defenses without a scratch, so faster means better. If it is more aerodynamic than the Raptor it will go faster. It should have a delta-wing design like the Aurora. Besides, it could probably outrun any other fighter or cargo jet in air-air mode.