[GS] Giant Death Robot is back?

[Breadsmith]

From a game design perspectives, it makes a lot of sense. But I personally would have preferred more real world future stuff like rail guns, hypersonic missiles or the hyperloop transportation system or AI.

To be fair, They can't put AI in the game anyway.

 

[Myomoto]

Happy to see the GDR back, not sure I'm happy to see it arriving in the Information Era, and it being the only Future Era unit.

 

[Graethyenne]

I think my most desired mod may be one that just renames the GDR to Gun Deployment Rig. I like the idea of Giant Death Robot being a nickname.

As for other future era units, this is the kind of thing that mods are perfect for right? I'm not a modder myself, but I know that there are a ton of unit mods, maybe we should get to work brainstorming some stuff (other forum of course) so that the modders have fodder for that stuff ahead of GS's release?

 

[PhilBowles]

I feel that we already heard this bad joke in Civ V so there really was no need for it. This game is silly enough already.

I would have loved to see something creative and actually interesting. I had high hopes for the future era, but it seems they are not actually adding much interesting stuff, but just adding bunch of techs that upgrade GDR. I feel like this was was missed opportunity.

Obviously people liked it in Civ V, but there it was meant to be a silly joke - it worked only because of the name and because it wasn't of any real practical use. It was so expensive and came so late that the AI very rarely built them, and the player had no use for them unless they just wanted to have silly fun in the late game.

Still haven't watched the stream that far, but from what I'm reading this thing is located on the tech tree and costed as a unit you will actually want to build (obviously they want to show off their upgrade system). I'm fine with having the GDR joke in again, I'm just wary if it's going to be a routine part of gameplay.

 

[ChocolateShake]

Obviously people liked it in Civ V, but there it was meant to be a silly joke - it worked only because of the name and because it wasn't of any real practical use. It was so expensive and came so late that the AI very rarely built them, and the player had no use for them unless they just wanted to have silly fun in the late game.

Still haven't watched the stream that far, but from what I'm reading this thing is located on the tech tree and costed as a unit you will actually want to build (obviously they want to show off their upgrade system). I'm fine with having the GDR joke in again, I'm just wary if it's going to be a routine part of gameplay.

Yup, there's definitely a risk of it making things too goofy if it becomes a regular part of the late game. Which it does seem to be with the upgrade focus, but I'm waiting until I see more of the future era. It's a lot of fun, but I hope it's not central to information era+ games.

 

[SaiH]

No. If you provide counters that would defeat the whole purpose of making the GDR a tie breaker. With counters, players could stop the GDR and prolong the game further. The whole point of the GDR is to give Domination players a means of finally finishing a game. The idea in civ is that you really are supposed to win the game well before the information age. So, if you are playing a game that has dragged on into the information age because you still cannot win the game, then the game needs to give you something OP to help you break the gridlock and finally finish the game. The GDR gives the domination player something cool and spectacular to finally win that domination victory in style.

Well, I don't think that everybody would agree with that. I rather think some people (including me) enjoy playing the game because it's fun playing it. Winning is nice but it ends the fun.
Even if you play only for winning, an overpowered tie breaking unit is not what the game should give you. The game design should rather make sure that your way towards victory is challenging and anything else but boring. Winning by wiping civilizations off the map with an overpowered GDR without any decent way to counter it doesn't sound like fun to me.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Well, I don't think that everybody would agree with that. I rather think some people (including me) enjoy playing the game because it's fun playing it. Winning is nice but it ends the fun.
Even if you play only for winning, an overpowered tie breaking unit is not what the game should give you. The game design should rather make sure that your way towards victory is challenging and anything else but boring. Winning by wiping civilizations off the map with an overpowered GDR without any decent way to counter it doesn't sound like fun to me.

Well, for better or worse, it's how the devs have decided to do it. The GDR is just there to prevent domination games from ending in a slogfest. Without something like the GDR, a lot of domination games can be really boring and tedious in the end game because you've reached the end of the tech and civics tree but still have to grind through one last civ, city by city, to win. If you are in that situation, the GDR is there to help you quickly finish the domination game in an exciting way.

 

[BarbarianHunter]

ÖrtööD2
Mongolian GDR

Spoiler :

 

[Sostratus]

The GDR is just there to prevent domination games from ending in a slogfest.

Many players on this forum do not play this way, but two large end game empires geared for production can absolutely drag things out. When you have numerous cities that can put out a modern armor army in 6 turns, huge military budgets, and ridiculous city defense numbers, it is almost impossible without nukes to actually beat down a peer civ, especially if neither has a leg up (like if you both take fascism.) It takes a lot of bombing runs to dent cities with 120 defense.

Some RTS games, like the Age of Empires series, have incorporated late game upgrades that are absolutely OP, precisely for the reason of giving the side that gets them a decisive advantage to break a stalemate.

My only beef with GDRs as shown is that they are too good- the only counter is another GDR. Why do I dislike this? Because then the late game is a uranium hoarding race.
The combat system is set up so that 30 strength difference is the threshold for instant kill. So any land unit that isn't over 100 strength (only modern armor and mech inf armies match that) will die in one hit if they attack the robot. (so you can hardly go on the offensive if they bring a supply convoy.) So if Korea gets GDRs first, even a huge military power with tons of oil reserves can't take that thing down. (And the GDR player has uranium, so they could just nuke your conventional military away in one strike.)

Currently, a GDR costs about what a modern armor army costs and it has a 23 strength advantage. Unless you have a ~3:1 production and gold advantage (GDRs cost 15 gold maint, Mod Armor army costs 16) you are going to get steamrolled so long as they have uranium. The anti air upgrade may doom air attacks which would otherwise be your best bet if you can pick up the vs land units upgrades. On the ground, shaka, scythia, and the aztecs are the best bets because they can all get extra combat strength to whittle down that GDR advantage to something where it can actually be fought. Late game aztecs probably take the cake here if they have enough luxuries. Conversely, Aztec GDRs may be impossible to stop.

As can be seen, Aztec myth of Cipactli, the Sea monster, clearly depicts a GDR walking through the water and wrecking everyone on a luxury fueled rampage.

I think the spikes are Anti-aircraft guns.

 

[Hammurabbit]

I kind of like the GDR. I look forward to see an AI get their hands on it, and the game suddenly turns into a disaster-movie where all you energy goes into getting that bastard down...

 

[BackseatTyrant]

I fully approve of the inclusion of GDRs. The only thing I feel is missing, is giving the unit unique paint jobs for each civ. Heck, why not have it be named differently depending on which Civ you play as? While, for example, America gets Gun Deployment Rigs (Giant Death Robots), England gets Cybermongers, Japan gets Gundams, and so on.

 

[AriochIV]

As can be seen, Aztec myth of Cipactli, the Sea monster, clearly depicts a GDR walking through the water and wrecking everyone on a luxury fueled rampage.
View attachment 513404
I think the spikes are Anti-aircraft guns.

Hmm.....

I suppose God Warriors would be a Ceramic Era tech, which is out of the scope of this expansion...

 

[Socrates99]

I just want to see a kaiju natural disaster that only triggers after someone builds a GDR.