Update: right now I'm feeling a bit pissed off. I've started another game, spent the first month waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, and... I got a mission!
Outside the Airbus's range, again.So, at this point, I'm wondering:
what is the gameplay benefit of limiting the Airbus's reach across the globe? Is there even one?
The way I see it, limited range can force the player to be a better planner and strategist in a number of different situations. Let's have a look at these:
- Limited range means you can't just intercept and shoot down UFOs anywhere in the world from your HQ, forcing you to plan ahead by placing outposts in different location. This is a good thing. Also,
it does not apply to the Airbus, since it cannot intercept, anyway.
- Limited range also means you can't just shadow and ground assault UFOs anywhere from your HQ, so, again, you need to build outposts. Again, this is a good thing. Also again,
this does not apply to the Airbus. In the early game, which is when you use this ship, you only have one base, and that with pretty basic radar facilities (and no spy zeppelins) - meaning that you'll only be notified of UFOs in close vicinity, anyway. Consequently, this scenario can play out the following ways:
A, The ship lands within your radar range, you fly there and assault it.
Since this is necessarily happening in your neighborhood, limiting the Airbus range or not is irrelevant.B, You start shadowing the UFO, but it leaves your base's radar range before the Airbus could catch up and disappears. You CAN try going to its last known destination and search around, but with the Airbus's pitiful built-in radar you will NOT find it, and giving the Airbus 25% more fuel won't change that.
Again, limiting the Airbus range or not is irrelevant.C, The UFO is faster than the Airbus. See above, you'll never catch it, not even with more fuel.
Again, Airbus range is irrelevant.D, You shadow the UFO, the UFO gets to its destination and simply disappears without ever landing (like civilian shipping). You never get an assault opportunity, so
Airbus range is irrelevant.E, UFO is slower than Airbus, Airbus catches up and shadows the ship, UFO lands beyond radar range but within maybe three-quarters of a continent's distance. Airbus lands and you assault. In this case, increasing the Airbus's range does make this scenario likelier to happen.
However, this scenario is exceedingly rare, and
most attempts to shadow and ground assault will play out according to scenarios A to D, where increasing the Airbus's range would be irrelevant, and would not make the game "unfairly easy" or whatever.
So, the extra
meaningful challenge in limiting range simply does not apply to the Airbus, because it's either incapable of participating in the relevant activities, or those activities will almost always play out in a way which is not affected by range, anyway. In contrast, the limited range
does affect the one thing the Airbus is going to spend most of its time doing: ferrying troops to ground missions. And
that is a bad thing, because
in the early game, this is not a meaningful challenge. Spawning those much-needed ground missions too far away is not something that adds to gameplay by forcing the player to be more skillful. It's just a random
fuck you-factor that the player has no way of influencing or overcoming with his skill.
To sum up: Limiting aircraft range can have a positive impact on the game by forcing players to use their skill.
The Airbus, specifically, never gets into situations where limited range would interact with player skill. What limited range on the Airbus
does, is add
fake difficulty which is unfair because the early-game player has absolutely no influence on the outcome. Conclusion: limiting the Airbus's range so it can't reach anywhere on the globe is a poor design decision.
