Honhestly, anyone complaining about GDR's
or as they are formally known autonomous robot's, or perhaps "Mecha" if they are piloted robot's, or "Remote Controlled Robot's" if they are piloted via remote control. - There are probably various more names and definitions to describe a "Robot".
Is silly, Robot's exist, and Robots to be used in combat exist, are being developed and will aid soldiers just like a tank aids warfare. Warfare isn't the only purpose for Robots, we have them in all walks of life, Robotics is the way of the future, anyone who disagree's is less intelligent than an ameba.
While "GDR's" as they are affectionatly known, (the fact that the developers decided to name their "Robots" - Giant Death Robot's is a testament to thier "sloppy love kiss letter to the fans" of a game which is CIv5. They have picked up on a very humerous idea that the modding community has discussed and put the pun which is a Giant Death Robot as the name of thier late game / futre era "Mecha/Automonus Robot/Remote-controlled Robot" Unit. The Civopedia description is awesome, they have really taken the humerous subject that is the Giant Death Robot on board and it again just shows thier affection to us.
Using Robotics in warfare is not a new concept, it is not an unrealistic concept, robotics has lead to many advances in warfare as well as in other walks of life. The idea that eventually humans will play less roles in warfare is also not a new concept, nor is it unrealistic, in the middle ages, we had no tanks, no jet fighters, no UAV's, no remote controlled anything, warfare was just man with shield and sword. Our Shields and swords have gotten better and better, now a shield consits of armour plated tanks, we can now sit on our shields and allow the shield to move us around, we can have our swords level entire cities with a nuclear blast, some swords and shields can be controlled by humans from miles away, some of our swords and shields will need no man to control them what so ever. Robotics will only ever get better. Eventually while the sci-fi idea of skycraper tall Mechs may not be used in warfare, human sized robots will certainly be used, while "walking" may not be the case because it is mostly inefficient, don't think however that the use of robotics will stop. As such a "Giant Death Robot" may very well exist, I just doubt it will have legs.
The GDR's as they are effectiontely known, will most likely be used like a "horse archer" in civ4, they have no defensive bonus, so you will not have them defending, they get a penalty against cities, horsearchers didnt have access to "city attack bonuses" which is similar to getting a penatly against cities, and as such they will be used less against cities, but not entirely removed, as such they will be used primarily, just like horse archers, to clean up troops, attack enemies out in the field, while not being as mobile as a tank for example thier strength will make them a formidable foe.
They will certainly be balanced with other units available at the end of the game.
A "future" tech of a Mech or GDR as its affectionatly known, is no less "realistic" than all the other "future" tech's that have come in previous civ's, no one complains about those, so why complain about this particular unit. Civ as others have said, has always "spat in the face of realism" with its bigger than cities units, infite numbers of units in a limited area of land, or now our limited number of units in a debateable amount of land, and I could go on, realism is not civ's primary concern. Infact the entire idea is to re-write history as you see fit, put a man on the moon in the middle ages for example. Nothing realistic about our beloved game, what matters is gameplay and will GDR's positively affect gameplay, almost certainly.
Submit to your robot overlords. One day every job a human could do will be done by a robot instead, and if robots are ever made intelligent enough to dislike this "slavery" of robot's, we are all certainly doomed.
....
Every second we get closer to the future, so deciding to not include "future" units is silly, so long as we stick with idea's that are feasibly possible with science, such as a Giant Robot of Death, (we could build one today) we won't go wrong.
If somebody does decide to mod out "the GDR" please can you call the mod "Super Lamo Version" so anyone with brain cells larger than that of an Ameba can stay well clear.
.
sounds pretty sci fi to me.
