John1979 John1979

Mecha as a build option like fighters?

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Mecha as a build option like fighters?

from GalCiv3 Forums

I haven't posted here is a long time, but have been following the development of GalCiv 3 for a while and to start things off.  I am very excited by what I am seeing the game has real promise and I was a die hard fan of GalCiv 2 so to see the old team back is just great.  

In particular, I am find this fighter module, carrier ship design very interesting.  I know its still in develop but it was something I felt GalCiv 2 really needed so just the thought of it being in this game is exciting.  With that in mind I wonder if any thought to adding mecha to the game is or has been considered.  I of course mean for space battles though I have an ideal for ground combat as well.  I am a die hard Gundam fan so this is a bit self-serving.  But consider that a fighter places the bulk of its thrust in its aft/front.  It lacks the ability to turn on a dime despite the fact that there is no atmosphere to prevent such movement.  Astronauts found that they were able to move themselves using their own inertia, ie the bases behind mobile suits.  Thus the advantage is radius attack, plus multi purpose use.  Hence the ground combat.  I understand that there is no ground combat but the development of mecha could add a bonus to attacking forces since they could be used in both space and land warfare.

Now the nice thing is that they do not have to be over powering, I in no way am implying that mobile suits are inherently superior to fighters nor would I endorse the opinion of others who might say that.  Mobile suits would divide their movement out giving them more mobility but limiting there speed.  Fighters would be way faster and may end up with greater range.  Over power-ness is found in tech research, I had small hulls that, do to research, could inflict heavy damage on larger ships.  it was all about having the right research developed to win.  I would hope to see it as a possible tech branch like: lasers, mass drivers, and missiles.  

I am realistic though, even if my idea was universally liked it might be impossible to implement in the current development schedule.  I would hope that perhaps it would make for a good DLC or expansion.  I was intrigued by the mention of a expansion to cover star-bases.

68,109 views 30 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Ah, a pacifist invasion, all of the conquest and glory, none of the blood and guilt.  It may come to that some day, but not yet.  Underneath all the gags and shiny equipment, GalCiv has this truth: people dying, slaughtered in senseless numbers, is what war is all about.   Otherwise, it is just chess with exploding pieces. 

 

More than just a game mechanic, that truth should stay there at the core.

 

(Gotta agree about the Iron Giant reference, love that one.)

Reply #27 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Naw. War is changing fast. Imagine two countries fighting with drones, viruses real/virtual, and corrosive gas? Well the first part is coming soon but the later bit would be a few more years from now.

but there IS a orbital genocide module in the works and something else... i can't remember but the other one was equally a "planet reaper button" by appearance.

But if we can get genocide (which alot of people asked for strangely) then a mech/fighter unit invasion is way better alternative and still has challenges and fun. So its run your people though the slaughter house vs kill them from space. Its a no-brainer. So no, its not pacifist war since mech pilots and civilians still die alongwith the soldiers and regular pilots of support craft. (not like they are real though, its a game.)

 

DARCA. ;)

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #28 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting DARCA1213, reply 27
Imagine two countries fighting with drones, viruses real/virtual, and corrosive gas? Well the first part is coming soon but the later bit would be a few more years from now.
End of DARCA1213's quote

Fighting with 'real viruses' has been around for millenia. People have been throwing dead stuff over the walls of besieged cities in the hopes of spreading disease and illness since at least the Classical period, and in more modern times have devised more effective ailments and delivery mechanisms, though employing such a weapon is currently illegal. Fighting with corrosive gas has been around since at least World War One, and is currently considered illegal. Fighting with drones is already a part of standard military operations. Fighting with computer viruses is most likely already being done. How exactly is any of this stuff 'coming soon but the later bit would be a few more years from now'? All of it has already been done or is currently being done.

 

As far as mecha go - if there's a logical and reasonable justification for why the vehicle took the form it did, then I'm okay with it. However, I would point out that a choice between 'fighters' and 'mecha' is like a choice between mounting missiles or having pink ships. 'Mecha,' to my understanding, refers to the form a vehicle takes rather than to its role in combat, whereas 'fighter' refers to a specific combat role. As such, aside from fairly significant concerns about the practicality and effectiveness of such a design choice, I see no reason why a specific vehicle could not be both a fighter and a mecha.

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top


^Like drone armies shooting viruses at people and drones using corrosive gas to kill each other and everyone using computer viruses....and no one cares about illegal weapons. :)

Yeaaaaa, only in sifi. I sure don't think that's how war will be fought but I may write something on it now to explore the idea a bit. Thanks Joeball123!

 

DARCA ;)

Reply #30 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I am not in favor of mechs in a universe not centrered around their existence. The reason being that machs make no military sense whatsoever in any battlespace: land-sea-air-Space. In Space a fighter will be faster, more heavily armed, it should be able to turn on a dime - the only limitation being g-forces and some kind of inertial compensator could solve that. On land the the development of powerful weapons means that being small difficult to hit is vastly preferable to size - even main battle tanks are constructed to minimize their profile, at sea armour lost its relevance with the advent of modern missiles as it is impossible to apply armor in such a way to offer protection - much better to avoid being hit. A huge warmachine is going to get shelled, missiled or TAC-nuked in short order, and the loss of such a unit would be very costly 

 I think that the assumption should be, at least for Space combat, that the very first weapons should be equivalent to thermo-nuclaer weapons in the megaton range - as the tech for developing such weapons is exstremely simple compared to FLT artificial gravity etc.

 

In short, big*** robots, tanks etc are awesome, cool and very entertaining - but also very very silly from a miltary perspective. And from my perspective at least GALCIV is a bit too "hard-core SCI-FI" for that to fit in.