In defense of the Giant Death Robot

[caketastydelish]

When it was announced that Civilization 5 would have the Giant Death Robot, a lot of people were complaining. I was one of them.

Now that I've used it, I don't feel it's necessarily all that bad. Yes, I know it makes the game less realistic. But then again, is having a spaceship that can travel to Alpha Centuari really all that realistic?

The Giant Death Robot is very interesting from a strategical point of view. It

1) forces civs to not neglect researching techs, because if other civs have access to the Giant Death Robot and they don't, they're in a really bad position.

2) Makes Uranium even more important. Nukes cause global warming, and really piss other civs off. If a civ has very little/no uranium, they will probably be willing to give up a lot of money in order to get it (trading gold or other resources), or maybe even invade someone else that has it.

Giant Death Robots own everything they come across, even with their city penalty.

There are several elements about Civilization that are not realistic in my opinion. I can live with those, because they make the game more interesting. Same goes with the Giant Death Robot.

All of that being said, I don't want them to add to the Giant Death Robot, in other words I don't want to see any more "future" units. One is enough.

 

[rschissler]

I don't see anything wrong with it, except that I think there should be the option to turn it off, like no barbarians in game options.

 

[caketastydelish]

I don't see anything wrong with it except, that I think there should be the option to turn it off, like no barbarians in game options.

Yes, that would make a lot of people happy. The developers reason for not doing it is probably balancing issues, but I still think they're missing the point.

An option of turning the Giant Death Robots off would please the GDR haters, and there are a lot of them.

edit: Oh, what am I saying? Turning Barbarians would also mess up the balance of the game. No Barbarians? There goes Germanys special ability.

 

[blasto]

I wouldn't mind seeing more future stuff. A BTS equivalent for CiV would be cool.

 

[caketastydelish]

I wouldn't mind seeing more future stuff. A BTS equivalent for CiV would be cool.

A BTS equavelent to anything would be cool. BTS is the best expansion back I've ever seen for any game.

BTS doesn't have futuristic units though, nothing in there is outside of what modern time already has.

 

[Becephalus]

I think I have played a hundred games and never once built or seen a giant death robot. The game is always over before then.

Of course these days I mostly play hot seat against myself since after the first 20 or 30 games you are pretty much out of ways to have fun with the AI.

 

[Gucumatz]

BTS does have a scenario though where other futuristic units are introduced. I don't remember them all, but I think clones were introduced and some sort of unit to counter robots.

 

[kamex]

When it was announced that Civilization 5 would have the Giant Death Robot, a lot of people were complaining. I was one of them.

Now that I've used it, I don't feel it's necessarily all that bad. Yes, I know it makes the game less realistic. But then again, is having a spaceship that can travel to Alpha Centuari really all that realistic?

The Giant Death Robot is very interesting from a strategical point of view. It

1) forces civs to not neglect researching techs, because if other civs have access to the Giant Death Robot and they don't, they're in a really bad position.

2) Makes Uranium even more important. Nukes cause global warming, and really piss other civs off. If a civ has very little/no uranium, they will probably be willing to give up a lot of money in order to get it (trading gold or other resources), or maybe even invade someone else that has it.

3) Giant Death Robots own everything they come across, even with their city penalty.

There are several elements about Civilization that are not realistic in my opinion. I can live with those, because they make the game more interesting. Same goes with the Giant Death Robot.

All of that being said, I don't want them to add to the Giant Death Robot, in other words I don't want to see any more "future" units. One is enough.

I really don't mean to sound rude but I feel I must correct you on many aspects of your op.

1.) No it doesn't. Regardless of the level you play at, you should plan your victory condition way ahead, usually at the very start of the game, and get there as quickly as possible, without diverting into unnecessary techs. The longer you hang around, the better chance an AI has of winning. Also, you can easily destroy AI GDR without having them yourself (see 3.)

2.) A recent patch gave a diplomacy penalty for nuking a civ, though nukes do not cause global warming. Unlike Civ IV, there is no global warming mechanic in the game. You really should use all uranium for nukes, unless you have loads of it (maybe if you play as Russia), in which case you can build some Nuclear Plants in your best cities. Never give or sell uranium to an AI, they can build nukes with it and these units don't suffer from the lack of strategic resources penalty.

3.) GDRs are no where near unstoppable. Their high strength gives them an advantage in open combat, but a highly promoted standard unit (such as mech infantry) can stand up to them well. In fact, any unit can kill a GDR due to the minimum 1 damage rule, where all units involved in combat take at least one damage per round, regardless of the strength of the units. A Spearman will always cause 1 damage to a GDR when in combat, even though the Spearman will almost certainly die. Therefore, you can grantee killing a GDR by suiciding any ten melee units into it. Its even easier than that though, as the 1 damage rule also applies to ranged units such as Archers. Indeed, 10 Archers can kill a GDR between them in one turn.

More realistic / effective ways of killing a GDR are as follows:

*Promoted standard units with terrain advantage
*Any ranged unit will wear a GDR down, especially artillery / Rocket Artillery.
*Use a powerful consumable unit such as a nuke (Nuclear Missile is a guaranteed kill)
*Use a weak consumable unit such as a Guided Missile to wear down a GDR
*Use air units such as Fighters or Bombers to damage the GDR indirectly
*Use a hit an run unit such as a Gunship to inflict damage and survive next turn
*The Citadel improvement will also wear down adjacent GDRs

Sure its annoying if a GDR instant heals, but that's the same with any unit. In conclusion, you certainly don't need your own GDRs to handle enemy GDRs.

I hope you found this information useful and not too patronizing!

I think I have played a hundred games and never once built or seen a giant death robot.

I agree they are uncommon. They do rarely surface late game on the higher levels.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

i might try to use one if i ever go for the achievement where you build every unit in the game. or if i go for the achievement where you research every tech. otherwise, i doubt ill ever see one in a legitimate effort.

 

[blasto]

A BTS equavelent to anything would be cool. BTS is the best expansion back I've ever seen for any game.

BTS doesn't have futuristic units though, nothing in there is outside of what modern time already has.

Yeah, maybe not units (though more units would be cool too), but they had at least 3 levels of city covering domes and stuff like that. I would say that is futuristic.

 

[ETa]

There are several elements about Civilization that are not realistic in my opinion. I can live with those, because they make the game more interesting. Same goes with the Giant Death Robot.

All of that being said, I don't want them to add to the Giant Death Robot, in other words I don't want to see any more "future" units. One is enough.

GDR is ok as a concept. It's the name that bothers. When you make a parody of civ, you use Giant Death Robot. When you make a "real" game you use something like advanced bipedal combat system. Even T-3k or whatever is better. Also a weapon such as a "deadly kung-fu punch" is wrong in so many ways that it makes ones head ache.

 

[MrHerpyDerp]

The problem I find with the GDR (and tanks vs riflemen) Is that they always take one damage even if they crush their enemy. I understand this is for balance but honestly, what are a bunch of riflemen going to do against a tank?

Worst part of civ 5 >.>

 

[joncnunn]

So far, I've never seen an GDR in any of my games.

I win before I reach that tech except for that one game in which I on purpose delayed placing the last component on until I got the achievement dealing with completing the tech tree.

 

[Scarpa]

The problem I find with the GDR (and tanks vs riflemen) Is that they always take one damage even if they crush their enemy. I understand this is for balance but honestly, what are a bunch of riflemen going to do against a tank?

Worst part of civ 5 >.>

hehe or when you bomb a pikeman with your B17 and take 1dmg. Those were some long ass pikes!

 

[turingmachine]

BTS doesn't have futuristic units though, nothing in there is outside of what modern time already has.

BTS included the Next War mod which you could choose to play as an extension of the standard game instead of a standalone mod. In fact, considering the amount of effort in Next War, it seems like this extended future era is the intended way BTS was meant to be played and was only seperated as an optional add-on mod to appease people who would yell at developers for adding too many sci-fi elements. Heck, even the BTS box-art includes units from Next-War.

 

[caketastydelish]

BTS included the Next War mod which you could choose to play as an extension of the standard game instead of a standalone mod. In fact, considering the amount of effort in Next War, it seems like this extended future era is the intended way BTS was meant to be played and was only seperated as an optional add-on mod to appease people who would yell at developers for adding too many sci-fi elements. Heck, even the BTS box-art includes units from Next-War.

Yes the next war mod includes it, but that's a mod. I'm talking about a "regular" game of BTS. If the no-mod BTS had the next war units, I would be one unhappy customer. And I NEVER play the Next-war mod.

 

[PhilBowles]

I like it for one reason only: it's called a Giant Death Robot.

I saw a mech in a shot from Civ V and thought it was, frankly, childish and embarrassing (like, well, mechs anywhere). But simply giving it a silly name establishes the developers' intent that it was *meant* to be childish and embarrassing - I can happily live with a comedy touch in Civ, especially one that's specifically designed to come so late in the tech tree that it's not often relevant in games. I've so far only used it once, and haven't seen the AI ever using it.

 

[The_J]

I guess some people might need a reminder about the source of the GDR: click me.
It doesn't need any defense, it was CFCs own idea .

 

[Camikaze]

Indeed. If you don't like the name, blame Perfection, not Firaxis.

There would potentially be good reason to not like GDRs if they were more useful. But as they are, they do not massively unbalance the game, or take up a large part of the game. It's actually a good idea to have some sort of post-Mech-Inf unit. They're nice late game flavour and community shout-out.

 

[PhilBowles]

GDR is ok as a concept. It's the name that bothers. When you make a parody of civ, you use Giant Death Robot. When you make a "real" game you use something like advanced bipedal combat system. Even T-3k or whatever is better. Also a weapon such as a "deadly kung-fu punch" is wrong in so many ways that it makes ones head ache.

To me, that's exactly what would make it unacceptable. Trying to pass off giant mechs as a realistic future tech development would ruin any sense of realism. Mechs are for space fantasy games that can get away with positing that such a militarily stupid idea would be used in the far future just because it's cool and sells Transformer models to the kids. A game that includes mechs scores points in my book by lampooning the idea in the process; for a game like Civ it's essential not to treat it as a serious inclusion for the reason above. A game that wants to maintain a semblance of realism in a future setting doesn't use giant walkers - look at Alpha Centauri.