One of the themes of BE is that a large scale calamity happened which wiped out a lot of the cultural knowledge of the world. So we have lots of old quotes being misapplied and such. Daedalus was probably not thought of as a cautionary tale in that timeline.
On the other hand, i can't really see a calamity that would be so great as to do that which also still allows us to catapult ourselves to distant planets so it doesn't feel right that we "lost" the history of the world in that manner.
In the in it was probably the worst decision for BE, since it served to distance the game concept from our personal understanding of the world in a way that is jarring.
I really feel like whoever wrote the tech descriptions was super passionate about his or her job, and its just a shame that all of their work creating this sci-fi back story is completely separated from the rest of the game.
Yeah, a lot of the text in BE is great. It just lacks the impact of the world-building in SMAC because there's no voiceovers or cutscenes to back it up.
+4
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Yeah if there are no pretty pictures and soothing voices, my eyes glaze over and I hit "OK".
Aside from the voice overs, cutscenes, and interludes, one other thing that SMAC did well for worldbuilding was the mad-libs style interface to diplomacy. They really managed to convey a lot of character in those interactions. It probably wouldn't be that hard to use the same style of delivery with a more robust diplomacy system, or whatever diplomacy system is chosen. One of the things that has always bugged me about Civ5 is how flat and substitutable so much of the diplomacy tends to feel. One civilization's delivery feels pretty much exactly the same as the others. In a game where you are basing the identities on ideologies rather than nationalities, it makes having a strong distinct voice in diplomacy even more important.
+1
ShimshaiFlush with Success!Isle of EmeraldRegistered Userregular
Beyond Earth is having another Free Weekend, though I'm sure that most of you in the thread here probably have it already. It'll give me another few days to play it though.
I started playing for the free weekend. Build a city, start exploring... and then another faction lands right on my border boxing me in a corner so that I can't expand without destroying this new city. So I attack it. It has no troops, but wipes out my army. Ok. I build an army of stuff the game says is great at attacking cities. It is destroyed. I build a bigger army, and get several upgrade to the units from leveling my focus thing. Still destroyed. Bigger army, more upgrades, meatshield units to protect the missiles from city strikes, get the city down so low that you can't even see any of its health bar... then city heals and my army is destroyed.
Decide perhaps this game is not for me, feel glad I didn't pay for it.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
By the sound of it, solely bombardment units were used, and no unit to move into the city once defenses were low enough was present. But I could be wrong!
Even with city health bar thing in the red, there was no noticeable reduction in city defenses (got it down that far twice, then my armies were destroyed and the city healed to full). I used a combination of bombarding and ground troops. The range of the bombarding units I used was the same range as the cities missile defense, so when they were in range to attack, they were in range to be attacked. Using foot troops to attack the city resulted in them being either immediately destroyed or almost completely destroyed while barely baking a dent in the city health. After my last attempt which included 6 artillery with the 30% vs cities upgrade, two marines and one ranger units stolen by spies, one needle jet from my city which was in range, three brawlers units, and two xeno swarms I finally decided the call it when their troopless city demolished the last artillery.
I couldn't build anything for orbital attacks because that required oil, which I couldn't reach due to being blocked into a corner which contained no oil. Any attempts to send out colonists by sea were destroyed by aliens.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
If you decide to play again: you can hop in the water and build a 2nd city on a different island/explore the map and figure out a way to encircle the 2nd civ.
Theres usually no need to destroy everything in your path right away.
You can't take cities in the early game without overwhelming numbers (I'm talking surrounding the city with soldiers while rangers hit it repeatedly). You can't feasibly do it until you get artillery.
You need to send a melee unit at the city once you've depleted it's health.
Once you successfully gotten the city's health to that minimum value, the weakest of units will capture the city (they'll get the stuffing kicked out of them and sent to 1% health, but they'll take the city)
Not sure why but had the urge to play this today instead of standard Civ 5.
Put it on gemini since they have messed with the AI that it actually goes for victories now.
Took 415 turns. Mostly because it was a terran/continent map. If it wasn't for the teleport satellites I would of lost. ARC was about 5 turns off from winning via contact victory if I didn't smash her.
I went purity this game. So did all but like 3 off the AIs. The large amount of LEV special units though was required.
My standard invasion was floating tanks, floating arty, lev tanks, lev destroyers, and dreadnoughts. I also kept a pair of carriers around too for air cover. Helps reduce the damage I took a lot. Sadly the air power always feels anemic t me in BE for bombing runs.
The only victory I have not done is contact actually. Not sure why. Just doesn't feel like a fun way to win.
None of the victory conditions are super fun to win. I forgot how much the Purity win actively bothers me. Click to summon the guy, have them sloooowly move, arbitrarily need 4 colonies (and space for said colonies). Meh.
Also: cannot fucking believe they never fixed the Forever War bug.
Basically game remains one I'll play on free weekends but I have no interest in spending money on it still.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
0
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Yeah I'm really curious what their sales numbers will be for this first expansion. I have a feeling they are going to be lackluster until people get a good read on whether or not it's worth the money. I wouldn't be surprised to see a big price drop in the first few months.
I really hope they don't waste the opportunity provided by this first expansion. The community has mostly moved on so if this is anything short of spectacular, it may end up being the final nail in the coffin.
I'll wait until it's on steam sale before I pick it up. If I get in 2 games, that'll easily be worth the 5-10 bucks.
0
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Here's some stuff about the hybrid affinities, it's from the video but in case anyone doesn't want to watch through the whole thing first (and shamelessly borrowed from someone else who borrowed it from Reddit)
Purity/Supremacy
Focused on master-servant relationship between humans and machines. This hybrid takes the “toolmakers” mentality of Supremacy in a different direction. They engineer extremely powerful, elaborate robots but make sure they aren’t sentient. They don’t become robots, they use robots as vehicles and tools; there is always a human overlord who is supreme. (They like the 3 laws of Asimov.) All their unique units are powerful, remote controlled robots or controlled by some sort of driver.
Their unit color is White with cyan and blue as their secondary color with accents of light orange. Their aesthetic is based on the porcelain doll, idealized, but clearly mechanical.
Soldier - Eidolon
Automatically heal every turn or +30% when flanking
+24 Strength
Gunner - Virtuoso
Attack over Terrain obstacles or +8% per adjacent friendly unit
+8 Strength
1 more attack every turn.
Can move after attacking.
Combat Rover - Maestro
+1 Movement or Ignore Zones of Control when moving
+30 Strength
All terrain costs 1 movement
Levitates over land and sea terrain
Patrol Boat - Baron
+20% when attacking or defending when in friendly orbital coverage or Reveal invisible enemy units
Support actions heal surrounding allied units by +10?
(Is a dude with a pair or fly robot drones. Go figure.)
Ultimate Unique - Golem
Defensive unit. Capable of turning into a wall that blocks attacks for allies. Great for sieges?
(Looks kind of goofy, but its attack animation is kind of awesome.)
Harmony/Purity
Harmony/Purity takes the idea of the human form and makes it “godlike”.
Its hard to hybridize anything with Purity because they’re so rigid, so fanatical. So with this hybrid, the fanaticism expressed, just in another route. It embraces Genetic Manipulation and Artificial Evolution, learning from the planet we’ve landed on (the Harmony flavor) and using it not to become more Harmony but using it to push the human form beyond any historical limitations. They engineer the superhuman, a human unto or as close as they can get to the divine.
Their main color is Bronze with accents and weapon fire of purple. They take on a sort of Greco-Roman, ideal which is evocative of deities and demigods. Similarly, the names of their units utilize Eternal/Immortal perspectives on humanity.
Soldier - Champion
Terrain Costs 1 Movement or Automatically heal every turn.
+24 Strength
Gunner - Kodiak
All terrain costs 1 movement or Attack over terrain obstacles
Support unit capable of buffing allies or debuffing enemies.
(Has antenna things on the backs of some of its models.)
Ultimate Unique - Throne?
Combat Capabilities Unknown
Supremacy/Harmony
They had a lot of fun with this hybrid. Harmony and Supremacy are perhaps the most divergent of affinities and the resultant is an unbelievable mishmash of crazy juxtaposition.
They’re definitely the craziest hybrid, with a “Power by any means” attitude, They see no need to focus on either the organic or mechanical, instead saying “Why can’t we have both?” drawing on the Power and Lessons from both sources. They create super bizarre, pseudo-impossible cyborgs; hybrids that are neither robot or organism. Something in between where neither part can exist without the other. Powerful organism with a lot of augmentations, you don’t know where one ends and the other begins.
Soldier - Hellion
+30% when flanking or All Terrain costs 1 movement
+24 Strength
Gunner - Fury
+8% per adjacent friendly unit or All terrain costs 1 movement
+8 Strength
1 more attack every turn
Can move after attacking
Combat Rover - Savage
Ignore zones of control when moving or Can move after attacking
+24 Strength
+1 Movement
All terrain costs 1 movement
Levitates over land and sea terrain
Patrol Boat - Vortex
Reveal invisible enemy units or Automatically heal every turn
+24 Strength
Gunboat - Wrath
Can move after attacking or Automatically heal every turn
+16 Strength
+18 Ranged Strength
+1 Range
Unique - Geliopod
Invisible Melee Unit
Unique - Nanohive
Combat Capabilities Unknown
Ultimate Unique - Aquillon
Flying Carrier with "weak" direct attack
(looks creepy/cool)
Hybrid Affinity: Harmony and Supremacy
Hybrid Affinity: Purity and Harmony
Hybrid Affinity: Supremacy and Purity
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Purity/Harmony soldiers look weirdly low-res to me.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
+1
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Here's some art/concept for three of the unique units, I don't know if it's in the video or not
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
you win civilization games basically by executing the european colonial/imperial game plan as well as possible; even playing as benignly as possible in Civ5 essentially just makes you ultra-Portugal, all conspiring to give the less-technologically-advanced people of other continents a pittance for their natural resources
BE expansion looks cool but I will definitely wait to see how it reviews; is there any info yet about how/if they are expanding the victory conditions? My biggest issue with BE was that all of them aside from domination felt really same-y
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
"Why do you all obstinately refuse to bow down to me and my exponentially-growing power graph?"
-- every player in every 4x game ever.
It's even worse in multiplayer. I find myself thinking things like "Do you not realize that you are only delaying the inevitable? You cannot beat me! Why are you still fighting?". Frankly I'm surprised that I haven't turned into a jRPG boss by this point. Maybe the hero needs to deal more damage to me before I assume my true form.
Grey Paladin on
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
My favorite thing to do in civilization 5 was donate entire armies to city states so that I could fight proxy wars against my foes without officially declaring war.
My favorite thing to do in civilization 5 was donate entire armies to city states so that I could fight proxy wars against my foes without officially declaring war.
you win civilization games basically by executing the european colonial/imperial game plan as well as possible; even playing as benignly as possible in Civ5 essentially just makes you ultra-Portugal, all conspiring to give the less-technologically-advanced people of other continents a pittance for their natural resources
I don't rush the Great Library. That usually helps the other civs pull ahead on higher difficulty settings.
Then you can play the less advanced power struggling to catch up technologically, and eventually exacting your revenge on those who underestimated you.
Posts
On the other hand, i can't really see a calamity that would be so great as to do that which also still allows us to catapult ourselves to distant planets so it doesn't feel right that we "lost" the history of the world in that manner.
In the in it was probably the worst decision for BE, since it served to distance the game concept from our personal understanding of the world in a way that is jarring.
Yeah, a lot of the text in BE is great. It just lacks the impact of the world-building in SMAC because there's no voiceovers or cutscenes to back it up.
Guys.
Guys.
I just had the best idea.
Peter Dinklage for BE voice overs.
Decide perhaps this game is not for me, feel glad I didn't pay for it.
I couldn't build anything for orbital attacks because that required oil, which I couldn't reach due to being blocked into a corner which contained no oil. Any attempts to send out colonists by sea were destroyed by aliens.
Theres usually no need to destroy everything in your path right away.
EDIT: Even then it's hard. Orbital lasers help.
Once you successfully gotten the city's health to that minimum value, the weakest of units will capture the city (they'll get the stuffing kicked out of them and sent to 1% health, but they'll take the city)
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Put it on gemini since they have messed with the AI that it actually goes for victories now.
Took 415 turns. Mostly because it was a terran/continent map. If it wasn't for the teleport satellites I would of lost. ARC was about 5 turns off from winning via contact victory if I didn't smash her.
I went purity this game. So did all but like 3 off the AIs. The large amount of LEV special units though was required.
My standard invasion was floating tanks, floating arty, lev tanks, lev destroyers, and dreadnoughts. I also kept a pair of carriers around too for air cover. Helps reduce the damage I took a lot. Sadly the air power always feels anemic t me in BE for bombing runs.
The only victory I have not done is contact actually. Not sure why. Just doesn't feel like a fun way to win.
Also: cannot fucking believe they never fixed the Forever War bug.
Basically game remains one I'll play on free weekends but I have no interest in spending money on it still.
Don't believe their lies :x
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Focused on master-servant relationship between humans and machines. This hybrid takes the “toolmakers” mentality of Supremacy in a different direction. They engineer extremely powerful, elaborate robots but make sure they aren’t sentient. They don’t become robots, they use robots as vehicles and tools; there is always a human overlord who is supreme. (They like the 3 laws of Asimov.) All their unique units are powerful, remote controlled robots or controlled by some sort of driver.
Their unit color is White with cyan and blue as their secondary color with accents of light orange. Their aesthetic is based on the porcelain doll, idealized, but clearly mechanical.
Soldier - Eidolon
Automatically heal every turn or +30% when flanking
+24 Strength
Gunner - Virtuoso
Attack over Terrain obstacles or +8% per adjacent friendly unit
+8 Strength
1 more attack every turn.
Can move after attacking.
Combat Rover - Maestro
+1 Movement or Ignore Zones of Control when moving
+30 Strength
All terrain costs 1 movement
Levitates over land and sea terrain
Patrol Boat - Baron
+20% when attacking or defending when in friendly orbital coverage or Reveal invisible enemy units
+24 Strength
Gunboat - Countess
+1 Range or Can move after attacking
+16 Strength
+26 Ranged Strength
Unique - Autosled
Combat Capabilities unknown.
Unique - Drone Cage
Support actions heal surrounding allied units by +10?
(Is a dude with a pair or fly robot drones. Go figure.)
Ultimate Unique - Golem
Defensive unit. Capable of turning into a wall that blocks attacks for allies. Great for sieges?
(Looks kind of goofy, but its attack animation is kind of awesome.)
Harmony/Purity
Harmony/Purity takes the idea of the human form and makes it “godlike”.
Its hard to hybridize anything with Purity because they’re so rigid, so fanatical. So with this hybrid, the fanaticism expressed, just in another route. It embraces Genetic Manipulation and Artificial Evolution, learning from the planet we’ve landed on (the Harmony flavor) and using it not to become more Harmony but using it to push the human form beyond any historical limitations. They engineer the superhuman, a human unto or as close as they can get to the divine.
Their main color is Bronze with accents and weapon fire of purple. They take on a sort of Greco-Roman, ideal which is evocative of deities and demigods. Similarly, the names of their units utilize Eternal/Immortal perspectives on humanity.
Soldier - Champion
Terrain Costs 1 Movement or Automatically heal every turn.
+24 Strength
Gunner - Kodiak
All terrain costs 1 movement or Attack over terrain obstacles
+8 Strength
+26 Ranged Strength
Combat Rover - Gladiator
Can move after attacking or +1 movement
+30 Strength
All terrain costs 1 movement
Levitates over land and sea terrain
Patrol Boat - Argo
Automatically heal every turn or +20% when attacking or defending when in friendly orbital coverage
+24 Strength
Gunboat - Mako
Automatically heal every turn or +1 Range
+16 Strength
+26 Ranged Strength
Unique - Immortal
Genetically modified shock troop
(Has weapons built INTO the soldier!)
Unique - Architect
Support unit capable of buffing allies or debuffing enemies.
(Has antenna things on the backs of some of its models.)
Ultimate Unique - Throne?
Combat Capabilities Unknown
Supremacy/Harmony
They had a lot of fun with this hybrid. Harmony and Supremacy are perhaps the most divergent of affinities and the resultant is an unbelievable mishmash of crazy juxtaposition.
They’re definitely the craziest hybrid, with a “Power by any means” attitude, They see no need to focus on either the organic or mechanical, instead saying “Why can’t we have both?” drawing on the Power and Lessons from both sources. They create super bizarre, pseudo-impossible cyborgs; hybrids that are neither robot or organism. Something in between where neither part can exist without the other. Powerful organism with a lot of augmentations, you don’t know where one ends and the other begins.
Soldier - Hellion
+30% when flanking or All Terrain costs 1 movement
+24 Strength
Gunner - Fury
+8% per adjacent friendly unit or All terrain costs 1 movement
+8 Strength
1 more attack every turn
Can move after attacking
Combat Rover - Savage
Ignore zones of control when moving or Can move after attacking
+24 Strength
+1 Movement
All terrain costs 1 movement
Levitates over land and sea terrain
Patrol Boat - Vortex
Reveal invisible enemy units or Automatically heal every turn
+24 Strength
Gunboat - Wrath
Can move after attacking or Automatically heal every turn
+16 Strength
+18 Ranged Strength
+1 Range
Unique - Geliopod
Invisible Melee Unit
Unique - Nanohive
Combat Capabilities Unknown
Ultimate Unique - Aquillon
Flying Carrier with "weak" direct attack
(looks creepy/cool)
Hybrid Affinity: Harmony and Supremacy
Hybrid Affinity: Purity and Harmony
Hybrid Affinity: Supremacy and Purity
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
http://ruliweb.daum.net/news/view/75181.daum
At least I think it's the final faction.
Either that or a very bizarrely-timed mod that somehow managed to also incorporate Rising Tide's new diplomacy interface.
There is only one way to fix that.
War.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
https://www.civilization.com/en/news...on-of-chungsu/
-- every player in every 4x game ever.
Steam, Warframe: Megajoule
Yes..... Yes. That's the reason why. I'm on a crusade to rid the world of the big bad.
That's what the history books will say...
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
you win civilization games basically by executing the european colonial/imperial game plan as well as possible; even playing as benignly as possible in Civ5 essentially just makes you ultra-Portugal, all conspiring to give the less-technologically-advanced people of other continents a pittance for their natural resources
BE expansion looks cool but I will definitely wait to see how it reviews; is there any info yet about how/if they are expanding the victory conditions? My biggest issue with BE was that all of them aside from domination felt really same-y
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
The America Gambit.
dare to compare.
also, sup/harmony and sup/purity units need to swap models, but keep their color pallets
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
I don't rush the Great Library. That usually helps the other civs pull ahead on higher difficulty settings.
Then you can play the less advanced power struggling to catch up technologically, and eventually exacting your revenge on those who underestimated you.