Schuesseled
Deity
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
- Messages
- 2,081
There will be mech units.
- Thread starter aMoralAtheist
- Start date
I'm hoping that there is some sort of future tech as is hinted at. I was hoping that for BTS they'd add some but they never did. As long as it doesn't get too crazy and branch off into space battles and teleporting mechs or something. Walking tanks would be cool enough.
_random_
Jewel Runner
It's about damn time we got us some Giant Death Robots.
Yeah, I agree. It would take a concerted and visionary push to have mechs within the next 30 years. I guess some type of materials or fuel breakthroughs could happen that would make mechs 'obvious', but obviously it's tough to predict breakthroughs.
edit: I agree with your take on the timeframe. I'm a fan of mechs, and would be secretly happy to see them.
AlpsStranger
Jump jump on the tiger!
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- Feb 8, 2009
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- 5,820
That is... SO COOL!
The funny thing is, I think the best applications of this would actually be noncombat(or even civilian.) Imagine working construction or something with one of these badboys.
Zhahz
PC Gamer
I would guess the mechs are from a scenario and just a teaser (as a figurine, since who doesn't love mechs). It would be cool if mechs and some other types of futuristic units were part of the tech tree at later stages just to add extra oomph to the stale late game.
I totally disagree with you. IF you bought everything seperate, the costs might be justified, since the cost of any single item figures a variety of costs, but as a package, it's a crappy deal. You can't accept the $100 price based on the potential retail cost of each individual item.
You're also way overvaluing the sound track since the tracks already exist for the game and are being put on a disc that's worth pennies. You think i'ts worth $20 to pay for music you already have in the game itself? *boggle*
The CE is a ripoff. Babylon is a ripoff. 2K is milking the hell out of Civ5 due to its popularity and Firaxis probably won't see a dime of the money and has little choice but to go along with what their new masters demand of them.
It sucks. Its is sad to see games like WoW and Civ5 (or companies like Blizzard or Firaxis) that have long been fan-friendly start milking the crap out of their products due to their publisher's greeed.
Saying the companies deserve to grab whatever cash they can grab is ignorant, because it's not the devs, designers, or game companies (bliz/fir) getting the cash, it's the publishers getting the cash and it's going to shareholders who have NOTHING to do with making games or covering for failures (blizzard's and firaxis' masters both regularly publish games that fail and lose money - which is their problem, not my wallet's problem).
I totally disagree with you. IF you bought everything seperate, the costs might be justified, since the cost of any single item figures a variety of costs, but as a package, it's a crappy deal. You can't accept the $100 price based on the potential retail cost of each individual item.
You're also way overvaluing the sound track since the tracks already exist for the game and are being put on a disc that's worth pennies. You think i'ts worth $20 to pay for music you already have in the game itself? *boggle*
The CE is a ripoff. Babylon is a ripoff. 2K is milking the hell out of Civ5 due to its popularity and Firaxis probably won't see a dime of the money and has little choice but to go along with what their new masters demand of them.
It sucks. Its is sad to see games like WoW and Civ5 (or companies like Blizzard or Firaxis) that have long been fan-friendly start milking the crap out of their products due to their publisher's greeed.
Saying the companies deserve to grab whatever cash they can grab is ignorant, because it's not the devs, designers, or game companies (bliz/fir) getting the cash, it's the publishers getting the cash and it's going to shareholders who have NOTHING to do with making games or covering for failures (blizzard's and firaxis' masters both regularly publish games that fail and lose money - which is their problem, not my wallet's problem).
Louis XXIV
Le Roi Soleil
Honestly, mechs are cool. But they strike me as something I could predict coming out in 2150, not 2050. It doesn't seem realistic enough.
That being said, the difficulty in predicting the future is hard. I know there was a thread a long time ago about realistic future tech. The problem for military units is you can't trust the army (because things could be different from their predictions). It might be better to pick things that are clearly the distant future rather than predict the near future and be wrong.
Absolutely stupid. Mechs aren't anywhere close to practical. I have my doubts that they ever will be. They were fine in a mod, but the base game shouldn't go beyond modern, or at the furthest prototype weapons. I'm not sure I'll want to go for the space race if I'll have to see the AI using those things, I guess I'll just have to win my games early.
All I can say is hazza! for the probable existence of a better tech tree advancing past modern times and out into the future. The space race victory will probably be traveling to alpha centuari, the idea that we will see that day before seeing more futuristic technologies such as Mechs is silly.
The only problem with a "mech" is that legs are just in-efficient, we know this, wheels are better to travel with if you cant have wings, which is probably the more realistic future science, more and more flying combat units, certainly not de-evloving back from wheels to legs. Certainly however a combat unit with arms like a human would be a good idea, so a certainly feasible unit for the future could be a mech/tank, the bottom half tracked like a tank for easier movement, maybe with the ability to stand and walk if it needs to transverse a particular obstacle. But the top half will be more mech like with arm's for tasks that can't simply be solved with its cannon.
The only problem with a "mech" is that legs are just in-efficient, we know this, wheels are better to travel with if you cant have wings, which is probably the more realistic future science, more and more flying combat units, certainly not de-evloving back from wheels to legs. Certainly however a combat unit with arms like a human would be a good idea, so a certainly feasible unit for the future could be a mech/tank, the bottom half tracked like a tank for easier movement, maybe with the ability to stand and walk if it needs to transverse a particular obstacle. But the top half will be more mech like with arm's for tasks that can't simply be solved with its cannon.
Schuesseled
Deity
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
- Messages
- 2,081
You hate the future.....
I don't know, they might be one of those things that are 'never or within our lifetimes'. Either they're never feasible or they're just dependent upon some breakthrough. A materials breakthrough, dropping the price of composite carbon by 100x, for example, would make them something worth doing.
i don't think Mechs are that far fetched for the near future, techwise. there are already a myriad of companies developing mechanical exoskeletons to assist the elderly, factory workers, the disabled, and even soldiers. Boston Dynamics made a set of robot legs that run on a treadmill, autobalancing if you give them a shove. the same company is making a vehicle called BigDog for the military to carry loads around afghanistan where the rocky terrain makes wheeled/tracked vehicles impractical.
it doesn't seem like a huge leap to scale those technologies up and build a cockpit. it might be easier since they could use a larger engine and get more power out of it.
whether a walking tank is practical is a whole different question tho. I say "Yes" depending on terrain involved. there are alot of places where wheels can't go, mainly places that aren't roads.
however, if we're being completely honest, any mech unit we see will more than likely be piloted from a bunker in some undisclosed location via satelite feed.
it doesn't seem like a huge leap to scale those technologies up and build a cockpit. it might be easier since they could use a larger engine and get more power out of it.
whether a walking tank is practical is a whole different question tho. I say "Yes" depending on terrain involved. there are alot of places where wheels can't go, mainly places that aren't roads.
however, if we're being completely honest, any mech unit we see will more than likely be piloted from a bunker in some undisclosed location via satelite feed.
Tomice
Passionate Smart-Ass
I'm pretty sure we will be able to build efficiently walking robots one day, we might even live to see it (those honda robots often shown are just toys, let's face it).
BUT the reasons that Mechs as Tank replacement are totally impractical are others:
- Legs need to bend and move fast and agile, which limits armor thickness
- Weight distribution: An Abrams distributes it's 60+ tons on several m² of tracks, the mechs "feet" would either be extremely bulky or it would sink into soft ground.
- The bigger the Mech, the bigger the ground pressure issue (the weight increases three-dimensional, the foot sole only in 2d)
- Step lenght: Even if he makes 5m per step, to reach the 70 km/h of a modern armor would need 4 steps/sec.!
- Imagine accelerating/decelerating at top speed with it's weapons turned sidewards: A non-issue for a tank, very difficult for a mech
- A tank can not fall over
- A tank doesn't burn fuel only to prevent itself from falling over (A human always needs energy, even while standing still)
Overall, a tank can reach a lot of places, it's all terrain capacity leaves little to be desired. If mechs will be used, they will most likely be rather light and support infantry within forests, on mountains without roads or in urban combat. I doubt they will replace large tracked vehicles, and they will hardly reach the speed of wheeled vehicles on roads. they may rather be small enough to follow infantry almost everywhere.
BUT the reasons that Mechs as Tank replacement are totally impractical are others:
- Legs need to bend and move fast and agile, which limits armor thickness
- Weight distribution: An Abrams distributes it's 60+ tons on several m² of tracks, the mechs "feet" would either be extremely bulky or it would sink into soft ground.
- The bigger the Mech, the bigger the ground pressure issue (the weight increases three-dimensional, the foot sole only in 2d)
- Step lenght: Even if he makes 5m per step, to reach the 70 km/h of a modern armor would need 4 steps/sec.!
- Imagine accelerating/decelerating at top speed with it's weapons turned sidewards: A non-issue for a tank, very difficult for a mech
- A tank can not fall over
- A tank doesn't burn fuel only to prevent itself from falling over (A human always needs energy, even while standing still)
Overall, a tank can reach a lot of places, it's all terrain capacity leaves little to be desired. If mechs will be used, they will most likely be rather light and support infantry within forests, on mountains without roads or in urban combat. I doubt they will replace large tracked vehicles, and they will hardly reach the speed of wheeled vehicles on roads. they may rather be small enough to follow infantry almost everywhere.
M
Me,myself,and,I
Guest
Could work, but not with two legs. Two legs may be good enough for civilian work, but you don't want to risk falling over when you get hit by an anti tank round.
Also I would love to see futuristic weapons systems in the game, we are literally living in the future, we can teleport a particle as far as we want (or China can at least
) We can build robot aircraft that are capable of identifying targets without human control (See the Dominator UAV) We are researching FTL travel we have experimental cloaking devices, missile shields, we conduct experiments with anti-matter, and private companies will soon be moving into space, we are in the future. The possibilities of the near future are pretty vast.
Also I would love to see futuristic weapons systems in the game, we are literally living in the future, we can teleport a particle as far as we want (or China can at least
) We can build robot aircraft that are capable of identifying targets without human control (See the Dominator UAV) We are researching FTL travel we have experimental cloaking devices, missile shields, we conduct experiments with anti-matter, and private companies will soon be moving into space, we are in the future. The possibilities of the near future are pretty vast.Also I would love to see futuristic weapons systems in the game, we are literally living in the future, we can teleport a particle as far as we want (or China can at least
Truth. there has been a staggering amount of technological progress on "future techs" since civ4 came out, i hope Civ5 reflects these advances, it didn't really seem like Civ4 aknowledged many of the advances that had happened since Civ3 was released. IMO Reaper drones should be USA's modern era UU
Louis XXIV
Le Roi Soleil
I was going to say the Drones should be incorporated into the game. I think the last time I participated in a thread about future weapons, they were just coming into the mainstream so I talked about them as a realistic future weapon. Now they're a part of history.
The costs are in line with other, similar special/limited/collector's edition packages, some of which actually give you less than this package does. Would a lower price be nice? Of course it would. But it's hardly a bad deal at this price in my opinion.
Not only would I, I do so on a regular basis. Yes, it's easier with PC games because the music tracks are often available somewhere in the resources directory, whereas with consoles at best you can find a sound test hidden away somewhere. However, the in-game tracks usually aren't balanced for solo play since they have sound effects that they need to meld with, and (even on PC games, but especially on consoles) they're usually encoded at a lower bitrate.
Centurio
Warlord
I like how one of those figurines looks like it could be a Roman legionary... but it could also be a Samurai. Those two probably shouldn't be interchangeable...
The Tollan
Prince
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2005
- Messages
- 418
If mechs or whatever they will be called are a standard unit in Civilization 5 (what I mean is in the game beyond scenarios and/or mods) then I will be concerned.
I would be fine with very near future units (although there is a high risk of things ending up in the game that will not really be used mucn in the real world future) but mechs are very questionsable.
I do not claim to have military expertise but everything I have read suggests that Mechs would not be very useful in combat compared to combat vehicles/tanks or whatever their successors may be.
The stuff seen in Avatar, Virtua On, Metal Gear Solid, and others, seem very questionable.
Wouldn't a walking fortress thing be similar to using a battleship in modern warfare? Sort of like the Advance Wars Mega Tank (do not like that thing either).
I would like to see very, very cutting edge Mechanized Infantry graphics (with individual soldiers with very recent equipement and gear).
I would be fine with very near future units (although there is a high risk of things ending up in the game that will not really be used mucn in the real world future) but mechs are very questionsable.
I do not claim to have military expertise but everything I have read suggests that Mechs would not be very useful in combat compared to combat vehicles/tanks or whatever their successors may be.
The stuff seen in Avatar, Virtua On, Metal Gear Solid, and others, seem very questionable.
Wouldn't a walking fortress thing be similar to using a battleship in modern warfare? Sort of like the Advance Wars Mega Tank (do not like that thing either).
I would like to see very, very cutting edge Mechanized Infantry graphics (with individual soldiers with very recent equipement and gear).
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