Would’nt it be a much better idea to get the current set of machines and their animations, AI and world behaviour (pathfinding) fixed and based on that, add a few new small and medium machines?
The big ones really have the most issues traversing this game world, sliding around, getting stuck in forests and on all kinds of objects.
The smaller and medium ones seem to have less of an issue with this.
I’d like to see more big machines too, but I do want them all to work properly first. 
I think that adding another larger, extremely difficult machine would be cool. It’d be a sort of uber unit, a legendary boss that occupies a part of the map, not leaving the area. The player could come in and battle it whenever they want, and it’d keep its wounds. If the player is strong enough and tries enough, they can keep coming back until they eventually destroy it, and earn some rare loot. That’s be pretty cool, and something new and different from constantly battling the same robots. It’d be another end-goal, in a way. Maybe something like this.
Still, as cool as it would be, I think it should be one of the last things to be implemented. Things like the current AI and basic game functions should be the first focus.
Would this be big enough?
I say again - i think a motorised tank (military not gen zero) size enemy with some speed and firepower would be a real game changer, especially if it turns up when you’re already doing combat with the other type of robots.
In my opinion tanks are EEASY but the thing is it takes a bunch of ammo to deal with them and that makes people think there hard. Also if you know the bihavior of the tank well it makes them easier to deal with. I also would like to see a colosal machine in the game.
Well, I like big machines as much as the guy next door, but would it really make sense? I’m nothing like a military strategist, but wasn’t must of the big machines back in the eighties mostly carriers for intercontinental ballistic missiles and not actual fighters? Please comment, you guys with military background.
I would rather have a mission in a complex, where the complex itself was the machine. Like guns embedded into the walls, doors that could be shut on your path forcing you to seek alternative ways to progress, trip mines, trap doors. etc. That would require planning of your progress, and also allow for some good scares while you work your way towards your goal. I really don’t like jump-scares unless they makes sense, but I suppose that some fine surprises could be added this way.
Well im not a military guy but I can try. And yes I do think that in the military really anything larger than a tank would be used for transportation for explosives, ammo, or guns. Although the Germans in world war II made the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus which was there largest tank and the base of it was taller than a fully grown man. But also I dont think the army went the fast and stealthy type either, but again im no big military guy. Also I just learned that only 2 of that German tank was made and only one of those 2 were completed
Put it this way, for any armoured vehicle you have only two chances of survival in a combat envrionment: speed and stealth. “Big” works against you on both counts. People have tried super-armour and firepower, but the enemy always find something bigger to hit them with, and the larger they are, the easier they are to hit.
Hunters are pretty big, but quick, and when they take hits and suddenly run away, or to the side they are hard to hit. Also they work in patrol-teams. One on its own is easy meat,
Now, Tanks in the game have the other strategy - strong defensive armour and big firepower, but they are slow to react and, considering the (resource) expense in their manufacture, are very easy to take down. If they worked in teams of three as MBTs do (oh, Main Battle Tanks) they would be very hard to take down. If Tanks had the same AI as Hunters or Runners, they would be a drag!
Having said all that, the mix the enemy have, of infantry (Runners), infantry Heavy Weapons (Hunters) and Area Domination Devices (Tanks), is not bad. They need to work together more, and communicate better, and I’m glad they don’t.
But bigger just means slower and easier to hit.
I want more flying types. The opening scene in Halo 3 - the transport flying right over your head and the guy next to you yells “duck!”
If it detects you - it deploys an army.
It would be like in many a 80’s action movie as well. ”Incomiiiiing!!” 
i could jive with that.
I’m looking at all the posts on this thread and I’m trying to come up with designs that would make sense with the current lore of the world and the technology they had to work with. The thing I can’t really put my finger on is the general consensus of what kind of machine it would be. A guy who made another thread suggested an almost transporter type robot, which would be neat in some ways. I may just put a poll here so I know kind of what people want, and then I can come up with a quick drawing of something (I’m alright at drawing, but I probably won’t be putting much effort into this).
0 voters
I’m gonna leave this maybe for a week until I decide which type to draw. If that’s okay with you lads.
And personally I’d prefer smaller or medium sized machines.
There is no way that eighties computer or electronics technology could solve the regulation requirements necessary to create sentient and autonomous machines like we encounter in GZ. My theory is that the mad scientists have manages to harvest neural systems (brains with cortex and nervous system stems) and somehow interface the machines servo and sensory systems with the cortex’ neural motor and sensory processing functions. I think the story also indicates that in the final missions. So basically we we are fighting Robocop-like animal based cyborgs.
I think we need a bird-like robot. A large seagull-like type capable of dive-attacks dropping small but precise grenades or firing fast but light bullets. They wouldn’t be very deadly but highly annoying, especially when fighting the ground based machines in open terrain. The would be practically silent and would stealthily attack you from behind when you roam the land. They are based on neural cores harvested from birds like buzzards or red kites.
I was thinking almost the same thing, but my idea was more like an almost bomber type robot being escorted by two robots similar to your idea. The bomber would have more armour, as well as highly explosive payloads, gas payloads, or tick payloads, depending on the type. It could also have a .50 caliber which would not be that accurate, or a soft-point gun, again, depending on the class. The two bird-like robots could have less armour but they would be much more agile, using swoop attacks to try and get you. They would fly closer to the ground when engaged, and they would have gun attachments similar to runners. I’ll probably expand on this when I draw some rough concepts, but for now I think this is an awesome idea!
As for ground robots, I’m struggling to come up with an idea that would add new fighting tactics to the game.
I’ve just realized when coming up with the ground robots, I was basically making a harvester. 
After scrapping that one, I’m trying to come up with ideas for a ground-based one which balances the shift in power between the hunter and the tank/harvesters. After the poll closes, I’ll start drawing and improving the idea.
How about a machine that sticks mainly to forest areas that will blend in with the trees and will jump out at you and then it will proceed to find a place to blend into again. And the jumps would do damage. Or maybe a unit that drills underground and will jump up right in front of you.
Almost like a modified tick? That sounds cool.
I don’t like the seekers, to be completely honest. Although implausible for its time, the ground machines could be built today by any gov’t with little effort. However, as they are rocket powered, even the unarmed seekers would run out of fuel in less than a minute and that irks me. I can accept them for the sake of gameplay as they’re quite passive and they do add tension though.
Flying enemies with active roles would annoy me to no end. I like GZ because the whole scenario feels surprisingly realistic because of its well crafted lore, so while I could totally see a huge Metal Gear-esque mobile ICBM platform, If the machines started to ignore the most fundamental laws of physics I would feel like the devs threw all the world building in the bin.
I know most people don’t care about things like this, but I’m very particular about realism (or at leat the guise of it). I am unable to enjoy anything fantasy because I just keep thinking about why they don’t use their magic to improve their lives and invent technology…I’m too pragmatic and not imaginative enough, I guess.
If you manage to look at the model of the seeker, it actually uses a large propeller to hover, and the small rockets as yaw and speed control. However you are correct, even with the (probably) monopropellant thrusters, it would have a very short flight time as the fuel tank is tiny, and that’s not taking the propeller into consideration.
I feel like seekers would work much better if they had long legs, and no propellers or thrusters.
The machine I’m currently designing could have seeker-like capabilities, as it’s basically a drone that can fly high over the terrain.
