The Biggest, Baddest Unit

[Calouste]

Seems to me like the designers decided that warmongers should tech through the whole tech tree by creating an "ultimate" unit, rather than in Civ4 where the best units came available well before the end of the techs. Partially to help in conquering, probably also partially to help technically advanced civs who are going for the space race to defend themselves. Once they decided on an ultimate unit, they could have made it anything they want, but it is a nice nod to the fan community to make and call it a GDR.

 

[Schuesseled]

russia gets double uranium, that means double GDR's, who's gonna own.

 

[beestar]

$5 says they rename the unit in the actual game.

 

[12agnar0k]

why the hell would they take away their love kiss of a name?

 

[brianshapiro]

 

[choxorn]

I've got 5 bucks on the spearmen.

 

[Calouste]

I'm so going to play a game where I Worldbuild myself a GDR from the start. Probably limit myself to it being my only unit.

 

[Disgustipated]

LOL I suppose it had to be done.

I'd take the spearmen over the GDR. Those spears could probably strike a vital area of the robot incapacitating it. And yes I'll keep harping on what a stupid design it is to have 2 legs. It's extremely vulnerable and easy to knock over.

The trick for the spearmen is to get in close enough. They couldn't line up in formation of course. They'd have to hide in the bushes. Or in the buildings. Maybe that's why GDR has a penalty to city attacks.

 

[o1derfull1]

If i didnt know better i'd believe this was a giant but ill-timed April fools joke. I'm not sure how i feel about it at this point. I'll just have to wait and see how it plays in an actual game.

 

[Countmonte8242]

One thing I felt the need to correct:
The spaceship that goes to Alpha Centauri does not travel faster than light in SMAC at least. In SMAC the Unity leaves Earth in 2060 and arrives at the Alpha Centauri system in 2100, so it takes 40 years to travel 4.37 light years. This speed of about 0.1c is actually theoretically possible with the technology that we have today (using nuclear propulsion), it would just ridiculously expensive.
Still, a GDR would probably be cheaper and easier to make than such a spaceship but militarily impractical as its such a big target.

I think its actually debatable that a fusion-powered robot would be easier to create at this point than a space ship which could reach AC. If we pooled together a ton of resources with current technology I think you're right in that we could maybe build a ship that could reach AC on a 40 year journey or so *if everything went right.* But I don't know if we could actually create a fusion-powered robot with current technology no matter how many resources we threw at it.

First off, for those saying maybe the uranium is used is to start the fusion process, that doesn't seem like a viable excuse. Afaik the only current fusion devices that absolutely require uranium are bombs that use a small fission reaction to create the pressure and heat required for the fusion reaction.

It does require a large amount of energy to start a fusion reaction, but that could come from any type of power plant. It'd be a horrible design to have to put a fission power source in the robot just to ignite the fusion reaction, cause once the fusion reaction got going it'd ideally be self-sustaining. If that were the case, it'd make the most sense to start the reaction with an external power source. But that's assuming you could fit a self-sustaining, net energy gain, fusion reactor in a robot. And that might be just as unrealistic of an assumption, if not more unrealistic, than building a spaceship to reach AC.

I can't recall whether anybody has ever actually conducted a net-plus energy fusion reaction (i don't think so), but either way we're still probably 20-50 years from being able to build a sustained-fusion reactor. If that. One thing that makes the robot more unbelievable in this context is that we seemingly simply have to make them bigger and bigger in order to be able to sustain a reaction. So even when we ever do figure out how to create reliable fusion reactors, it seems highly unlikely we'd ever be able to scale it down so that it fits into a robot as its power source. I guess it depends on exactly how big the robot is though eh. Maybe if its like the size of that one from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" x5 lol.

Then there's the problem of the surrounding materials becoming radioactive. Its a popular misconception that fusion has no problems at all concerning radiation. While the reaction itself doesn't emit radiation, it emits high quantities of neutrons which can and will crash into the nuclei of surrounding materials. Over time, the robot would become radioactive and, maybe more importantly, brittle. Maybe the uranium armor is supposed to help with that =p

Btw, I'm just shooting . I don't care how realistic the robot is or isn't. Wouldn't hurt to change the requirement to fission though just to make it a bit more believable. Unless the thing is going to fire missiles with fusion warheads.

 

[12agnar0k]

For those people using the "2 legs is so inefficient why would we ever make a GDR"

All I can say is hah! 2 legs is perfection, after all man is made in God's image, and God gave us 2 legs, thus they are the best.

I crack myself up.

 

[Calouste]

I think its actually debatable that a fusion-powered robot would be easier to create at this point than a space ship which could reach AC. If we pooled together a ton of resources with current technology I think you're right in that we could maybe build a ship that could reach AC on a 40 year journey or so *if everything went right.* But I don't know if we could actually create a fusion-powered robot with current technology no matter how many resources we threw at it.

The main problem to space travel is probably not getting to 0.1c, but making sure that every space rock that hits you at 0.1c (considering things are a bit hard to dodge when you are moving at 0.1c) is not going to have the impact of a small nuclear weapon.

 

[Thormodr]

Meh. Giant Death Robots are fine. Hopefully the AI will build them instead of Nukes.

Could make for a more interesting end game.

 

[Countmonte8242]

The main problem to space travel is probably not getting to 0.1c, but making sure that every space rock that hits you at 0.1c (considering things are a bit hard to dodge when you are moving at 0.1c) is not going to have the impact of a small nuclear weapon.

Traveling within the solar system yes. Hell if you go fast enough a spec of a dust could destroy you. But in between stars, where the majority of the journey takes place and you reach your fastest speed, space should essentially be a vacuum with all significant matter having stayed within the gravitational field of stars.

 

[choxorn]

"Almost" being the key word. There are still some things out there. Also, what defines what the edge of the Solar System is? If you mean the Oort Cloud, the outer edge of that is about 1 light-year from the Sun.

 

[Intellectus]

I just hope this isn't the only future era unit.

 

[Tee Kay]

What are you talking about. The Giant Death Robot is the future!

 

[Tomice]

I just hope this isn't the only future era unit.

We have screenshots of the techtree up to stealth, and there seem to be at least 2 more tiers of future era left, judging from the slider position - or the techtree ends in a huge picture of Sid Meier

I just really hope they filled those 6-12 techs with reasonable future units!!! Units visible at the end of the modern include stealth bombers and modern armor, so all important civ4 units are still in the modern era.

EDIT:
Forget what I just said, it IS the only future unit:

Spoiler :

NOW I officially hate it!!!

 

[Ramesses]

I've got 5 bucks on the spearmen.

Not the biggest vote of confidence, is it?

Also, "Modern Armor unit on steroids?" They really couldn't think of more creative hyperbole than that?

 

[choxorn]

Well, they might still change something. If not, then I declare it to suck, that's just too stupid.