Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

I assume by "flaws," you mean "mechanics changes?"

One man's mechanical upgrade is another man's flaw.

Edit: Eh, never mind.

edited 14th Apr '14 8:56:16 PM by KnownUnknown

just heard about this

oh my god im so hype

how am i gonna sleep

Really, I think the way that the first two Civ games handled stacking was a nice compromise between "Stack of Doom" and "One Unit Per Tile": You could put as many units as you wanted on a single tile, but if that stack was attacked outside a city or a fortress and the defender lost, you'd lose everything. It made stacking a tactical choice with associated risks rather than either preventing it entirely or forcing combat into a stack-vs-stack competition.

Then the developers of III decided this was a problem, and it's never been quite right since.

edited 15th Apr '14 10:31:35 PM by Specialist290

The one unit per tile is more tedious to move around, but since I usually don't go for military victories, it's not a big issue to me.

Cultural victories ftw.

Though I never got to play Alpha Centauri, from what I've heard, it was a brilliant game, and I'm really looking forward to what they do with Beyond Earth.

You can get it and its expansion on GOG for like $10, DRM-free, fully patched and modern compatibility-ified, and for both Mac and PC.

I just wish I could get that Linux port.

^^ If you liked the old Civ games, you'll probably like Alpha Centauri.

^^^Get it from Gog, it comes with the expansion.

Thirded. That game rocks. Buy it as soon as possible - it's the Firaxis game I enjoyed the most and I have played most of their Civ titles.

I have to say, either civilization 3 (the first civ game I played) was a massive step up in terms of interface from civ 2, or I've just been spoiled by modern interfaces, because it took me about 6 games (and 6 restarts) before I had any idea how to do any of the things I'd normally do in a civilization game.

Is there any way to fix the typo in the thread title? That's been bugging me.

That's a mod holler thing, I think. My Ciaphas Cain thread in Literature had its title changed when a Wild Mod Appeared.

I fixed it. I'm looking forward to this game like nothing in a long time.

Well, I'm psyched. P Cgamer had a fantastic interview, which allayed basically all of my fears regarding this one. Seriously looking forward.

Warning to people who try out Alpha Centauri - imho, it's even more addicting to (keep on) play(ing) than Civ. You'll probably be safer (relatively-speaking) if you aren't too interested in science fiction.

My reaction to every new game from Sid Meier's / Firaxis can be summed up as - Oh no, not again.

Did the Drones have anything to do with that?

Don't leave. The drones need you. And then you nerve stapled them, you terrible person.

There was only one thing I didn't like about Alpha Centauri: the tech tree meant nothing to me. In Civ I understand that progression from bronze-making to railroads. AC had me learning Bipolymer Composites which, of course, leads into Nano-Carbon Fibers. I only shrug at that. It may as well been "armor technology 1" which fed into "armor technology 7".

I'm not sure how much grounding the game had in actual theoretical technology-that I wasn't aware of fourteen years ago-or if it was all pure Techno Babble.

edited 21st Apr '14 10:16:49 AM by Rotpar

I'm not sure how you could expect to have a far-future sci-fi themed game and not have technologies that are entirely fanciful. Still, a surprising amount of it was based on stuff that has at least been speculated on.

edited 21st Apr '14 10:19:15 AM by Fighteer

I know. I think part of it was the fluff they put into the game. Master Of Orion 2 had as much meaningless gibberish for technology but it ended at the tech tree: Quantum Fusion Amplifiers gives you quantum fusion guns, the end.

AC had little blurbs accompanying it, which implies there's something more going on. You develop Quantum Fusion Amplifiers and get a few lines from Yang babbling about now you shove more drones into a para-utopia chamber where they'll experience bi-harmonic resonance, but sadly will not understand it.

I don't recall, was there more information on a given tech beyond the quotation?

edited 21st Apr '14 10:31:17 AM by Rotpar

There's a second tab that at least attempts to explain the technology and tries to link it to the techs that came before. I don't recall exactly how to get to it, but it's there.

The quotes are front and center because by having (usually) in-game characters comment on it, it helps root its effect in the game universe, and it's less dry than the other description.

edited 21st Apr '14 10:33:05 AM by Balmung

The technology quotes have been a staple of the series since the very first game, as I recall. It's not about whether it makes sense in context, necessarily, but it's a core thematic element.

I'm actually not familiar with how the early Civ games did it, but at least in SMAC, having the faction leaders comment on the technology does a great job of both giving the faction leaders more character and establishing the effects of the technology upon society in the time. They're not just advances that happen, they have effects on society and such, which is all the more important when dealing with speculative technology, rather than known advances.

edited 21st Apr '14 11:10:07 AM by Balmung