There will be mech units.

[SammyKhalifa]

Apart from the fact that this thing is unarmored and very vulnerable (like all hoverboats), which advantage would a hovertank (lot levitating, but with rubber cushion) have to a regular tank?

Also, I clearly doubt the concept would work mich the armor weight a tank needs.

Well, I agree that I'm not sure what advantages it would have, but it could definitely support the weight of armor. I mean, the thing contains tanks. If you made it a reasonable un-tankholding size and assumed modest advances in hover technology, you could make it work relatively easily.

Haha, geez this is silly.

 

[12agnar0k]

It can travel over the water, obviously an advantage , also it would be fun for the soldiers to drive because they would have no control and end up levelling everything, oh look a cow, lets try to avoid it, oh son of a ^%*£, Steak anyone?

 

[SammyKhalifa]

is "cow" one of the walking mechs the other side has?

 

[The_Reckoning]

Imagine 50 years of development of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww

and with weapons. It's capable of high speeds and doesn't rely on road or flat ground like wheeled vehicles.

I'm a realist too, but I do genuinely think there's room for mechs in the future of warfare. They'll be the light cavalry of the future.

Think about it: the only reason we use tanks today is because we don't have cheap commonplace weapons capable of utterly ripping apart the armour.

With the advent of laser technology and similar advances in weapons, tanks will eventually become obsolete.

 

[kopyion]

Yeah, I was fifty-fifty whether to post the picture I did, or one of that scene with the dalek levitating up the stairs.

Or indeed the similar scene from the 1988 story, Remembrance of the Daleks...

Of course, hovering Daleks has been part of Dalek lore since 1964, courtesy mainly of the comics!

.....sorry, but sometimes an off-topic subject is just more important than giant death mechs.

 

[mjs0]

Or indeed the similar scene from the 1988 story, Remembrance of the Daleks...

Of course, hovering Daleks has been part of Dalek lore since 1964, courtesy mainly of the comics!

Good memory.

I'm old enough to remember watching black and white daleks as a kid; if they had flown back then I might still be behind the sofa!

.....sorry, but sometimes an off-topic subject is just more important than giant death mechs.

To be honest most subjects are more important than giant death mechs.
I'd rather not see them in Civ personally.

 

[Mustakrakish]

.....sorry, but sometimes an off-topic subject is just more important than giant death mechs.

To be honest most subjects are more important than giant death mechs.
I'd rather not see them in Civ personally.

No way blasphemers!!! There is nothing in this world, NOTHING more important than giant death robots! Or mechs!

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

So this thread isn't to discuss a much anticipated sequel to the film "There will be Blood"? Sorry, I couldn't help myself

 

[dulsin]

The problem with Hover craft is they can only travel over perfectly flat terrain. Just minor openings in the air-skirt will bring you down. It is impractical to armor the air skirt so the hover craft will never be a good fighting vehicle unless you have enough power to get off the ground but then we call it a helicopter.

 

[kozzer]

So this thread isn't to discuss a much anticipated sequel to the film "There will be Blood"? Sorry, I couldn't help myself

Heh, I've been on that train every time I read the thread title...

"I drink your iron resource, I DRINK IT UP!"

 

[Johnny Be]

The problem with Hover craft is they can only travel over perfectly flat terrain. Just minor openings in the air-skirt will bring you down. It is impractical to armor the air skirt so the hover craft will never be a good fighting vehicle unless you have enough power to get off the ground but then we call it a helicopter.

I'm no hovercraft specialist, but I've seen hovercrafts go over very bumpy and rocky terrain. And I think the bigger they are, the more irregular the terrain can be.

The skirt could be made of kevlar and/or sealants (like plane fuel tanks) to prevent minor damage. Or could have a cover of armor plates... And I bet it could be easily repaired/replaced.

Nevertheless I would rather have Bipedal Giant Death Robots

 

[PieceOfMind]

For the record, the hover tanks you typically see in sci-fi games (perhaps movies too, I'm not sure) are not usually the hovercraft variety but rather hovering using some strange anti-gravity mechanism, almost like how flying saucers can supposedly hover.

I'm no Star Wars fan but I'm pretty sure there are tons of such examples in those movies. They just hover by magic. Those are what I consider to be in a vastly different category to mechs. As people have shown, while mechs might not be the most practical, they are at least possible (or plausible if you prefer).

 

[dulsin]

Huzah for giant robots of death!

 

[nullspace]

Think about it: the only reason we use tanks today is because we don't have cheap commonplace weapons capable of utterly ripping apart the armour.

With the advent of laser technology and similar advances in weapons, tanks will eventually become obsolete.

Mechs are possible and BigDog is very cool, but giant death robots aren't a solution to this, they're just as vulnerable to such a weapon as tanks are. Give that weapon to the infantry and they're better than a mech because they're a small target and can do things like enter buildings. If you want a robot, make it human sized or smaller so it has those advantages.

As for Civilization, I think it should include only things that actually existed. That's a nice consistent rule for a game that is about history. Of course you can still do all the crazy alternate history stuff like communist Aztecs building the Eiffel Tower because communists, Aztecs, and the Eiffel tower are all real.

The only things exempt from this rule are the victory conditions. The spaceship to Alpha Centauri is obviously science fiction, but the other victory conditions are equally unrealistic: nobody conquered the word, no one got elected leader of the world, and nobody did whatever a culture victory represents. The game is over because you broke history and the game doesn't know what to do next after this unrealistic event.

Modern technology is an appropriate endgame for Civilization. Why should a game about history end with near-future fiction? But if there are going to be future techs, I hope Firaxis does something more interesting than simple scifi tropes like mechs. Actually, Firaxis hasn't changed the modern techs much since Civ 1 have they? I'd like some new toys that reflect real-life developments of the past twenty years.

 

[dulsin]

Currently the US is getting rid of the heavy tank. They are being replaced by light armor wheeled vehicals based off a Canadian design. The need for greater speed, mobility, and the ability to deploy them rapidly by air was considered more important than the vulnerability of the lighter armor and poor terrain handling.

We can fly a unit of strikers to a hot spot in weeks maybe days but moving an Abrams unit will take months.

If you can make a Mech unit that is easily transported and can cross terrain that would stop even tracked vehicals the army would be very interested.

 

[Le Sage]

I hope to God there will be no Mechs. It will make the game feel very wrong as I do not see Mechs being a realistic weapon used any time in the near future and the inclusion of such science fiction inventions gives the game an aspect that I would not like.

 

[12agnar0k]

The problem with inventing an "anti-gravity" device is as soon as you activate it you are no longer affected by the gravitational pull of the sun and the earth and will just fly off

 

[brianshapiro]

This is a good futuristic weapon

 

[12agnar0k]

This is a good futuristic weapon

A classic.

 

[Mustakrakish]

Viva La Mechs!!