[Sancus]

Nuclear warheads: CN's loveliest play toy

NUCLEAR warheads, the most destructive weapons in the game (2nd most destructive if your including NPO's Jackboots(IC)), have been undermined by the Nation Strength equation. These city destroying devices are only calculated at 50NS each. Equated the same in NS as only 10 levels of technology, nukes can destroy up to 50 tech in addition to 150 infrastructure, land, and all soldiers (not to mention nuclear anarchy). Pushing the red button results in more than 1000 NS worth of damage, 20 times the NS of the cause of that distruction.

Further examples of the underrated value of the Nuclear Weapon include:
Level 9 airplanes are worth 45 NS each, only 5 points below our beloved bombs.
An air force of 80 planes is worth almost three times as much as a complete nuclear stockpile
For the $500,000 you spent on your first nuke you could buy:
10 level 9 aircraft- worth 450NS, 9 times the NS of one nuke
62,500 soldiers- worth 6,250NS, over 1000 times the NS of one nuke
Almost 3000 tanks- almost 3000NS, over 50 times the NS of one nuke
25 tech at a friendly rate for over twice the NS of one nuke
You could even buy enough cruise missiles to last a short war
But don't forget, the price only goes up after you buy number one

Also, those of you that thought nukes were relevant to an alliance's score think again; they are only worth their 50 NS that they add to an alliance's total nation strength, making them about 0.00016 each. Even 1000 nukes only add up to 0.16 points.

A nation with 25 nukes: an over 50 million dollar investment and almost a month worth of development, only has 1250 NS more than another nation without nukes that is completely identical in every other aspect. Should the NS of Nuclear weapons be increased?

Quote

Nuclear Weapons - Nuclear weapons are expensive at $500,000 and with each active nuclear weapon in your possession the price of nukes increases by 10%. In addition to the initial cost, nuclear weapons also have a starting cost of $5000 a day to maintain (Upkeep cost is doubled if you do not have access to Uranium). This cost increases +10% for every nuclear weapon that you own. Your nation will need a tech level of 75 or greater, an infrastructure level of 1000 or greater, access to uranium for nuclear weapon production, and be ranked within the top 5% nations in order to begin purchasing nuclear weapons. A player can only purchase 1 nuclear weapon per day.

Nuclear weapons are extremely devastating to nations being attacked by them. Nuclear weapons completely reduce the number of defending soldiers for a defending nation to zero, cause great amounts of land, technology, and infrastructure losses (35% each up to 150 land, 150 infrastructure, and 50 technology), and also cause population happiness to plummet for a period of 5 days after a nuclear attack.

This post has been edited by Sancus: 29 March 2008 - 09:37 PM

[Saborn]

I was under the impression from when this has been raised previously that the low NS value attributed to Nuclear weapons is to ensure that there isn't a large jump up at the 5% mark as nations purchase them.

Think of it in terms of that the NS that nukes provide then has to be accounted for in other ways if nations outside the 5% are going to be able to break into it and purchase nukes themselves.

[LeVentNoir]

I'm sure this has been put some where else in here, about 3 or so times recently....

[+Zeke+]

It's more of a discussion for the Suggestions board.

However, it has already been brought up there repeatedly. Admin already has seen the opinion plenty of times.

He'll make a decision on his own timetable. Anything extra posted is just spamming the idea to death.

[Veritas]

The ns equation is totally screwed up take off ns values of soldiers and tanks and i'll be ok with raising the Nuke ns. This idea has also been suggested many times and it belongs in the suggestion box as others have mentioned.

-Veritas

[Sancus]

It's not a suggestion, its a discussion on an aspect of the game. I want to know what other's opinions on this are.

[Higgsboson]

Personally, considering that most people will never use their nuclear weapons:
a: in offence, for fear of being called a rogue,
b: in defence, in fear of being called a rogue,

and that therefore the only time anyone actually uses them is when they:
a: decide to go rogue
b: get nuked by a rogue.

This makes nuclear weapons nothing more than decoration in the current game climate, therefore a pitiful 50 NS is more than enough to represent their awe inspiring devastative power that will never be used, i.e. their strength as a deterrent, much like the real world nuclear arsenals.

At least tanks, planes, cruise missiles and soldiers get used regularly.


On the other hand they could do with their NS upping a bit as the ones that do get used really do a lot of damage, so from a purely numerical perspective they are massively undervalued, but from a functional perspective they are about right.

[Thorr]

Including the above statement and now that SDI can make them even useless 50 ns is about perfect in my opinion. The NS formula is not for determining the power of a part of your military but for the ability to attack different nations. Infra is more important than anything as it provides the army the money which without these you can't do anything thus if anything Infra needs to be raised up in value while everything else can be lowered. I can see tanks and soldiers being lowered though.
I would say raise infra to 10 per level cut tanks and soldier value in half or down to 1/4 of what it is and either leave nukes at 50 or put them to 100 but no more.

This post has been edited by Thorr: 30 March 2008 - 01:26 PM

[valves]

I agree with Thorr, maybe 100ns but more than that would start to get a bit too much

[King Aldarich]

Increasing the NS would cause a division in the NS of nations with nukes abd nations without, and make it very hard for nations out of that 5% to enter it and purchase them

[Thorr]

That is why there is a manhattan project. Also no matter what the formula it is going to be almost the same percent at the top. The exception is very low infra nations now couldn't use tanks and soldiers to get up enough to buy a nuke before they drop back down.
They really shouldn't be allowed to do that anyways.