I recently picked up and played a good number of games on Civ: Revolution, since it was free on X-Box. That's literally the first Civ game I'd played since Call to Power. Say what you want about CtP, but it had hover tanks. I'm interested in the space tech angle of Beyond Earth.
...Why are we trying to leave the Earth in LEO shuttles?
...
...I also wonder if we're going to see some of the XCOM IP creep in here (I hope not. I really didn't like the XCOM soldiers making an appearance in the last Civ expansion).
LEOs are flying to big colony ships in last shot.
Funny, I hate Civ's immortal leaders and how it generify's everything, like being able to build the pyramids in Paris, but the XCOM squad didn't bother me at all.
Regarding stacks, I'd like to see a half way house of 1 unit per tile, but when built its at 10% strength or so and you stack the same unit type together to make it stronger. So instead of the map being filled with units it would be a smattering representing each unit type - with relative strength being a factor.
Here's hoping that one of the starting civ options is a penal colony ... or at least Space Australians.
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Frankly if there is a space Australia penal colony option I may have to consult my lawyer.
Seriously though I can't get excited about this after how flat civ 4&5 have felt to me and how the brief description is very much "civ5 but with a sci fi paint job" rather than what I want which is "fusing 4x with narrative"
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
One good example of that is that, in my mind, there are two kinds of Civilization games. There's Civilization 4 and Civilization 5, then there's Civ Rev. Civ Rev is my favourite, it's the last Civ that Sid Meier himself has designed we want to reach a new audience. We want to get to those XCOM fans who may not have played Civ because history wasn't their thing, or strategy gamers that are playing a lot of these strategy games on IOS, that haven't tried Civ before. We want to reach those people, so we're trying to make the game more accessible for them
We decided on a different way to make your army customisable, and also feed back into your affinity, your cultural identity. So you have a catalogue of generic unit types that will upgrade as you level up. As your dominant affinity goes higher you'll be able to stack these guys with perks, with special abilities that are themed to that. Your marines can start out as normal marines, and then you play a little while and they level up to level two marines and you give them the anti-alien perk instead of the anti-city perk, because that's the kind of army you want to field. Then they have more abilities beyond that, so your stock types upgrade throughout the game.
Eeeeh...
...I hope by 'strategy games on iOS' they mean 'FTL and nothing else'.
And... that last paragraph sounds disheartening. Is he/she saying that there are not going to be unique units? In fairness, SMAC didn't really have those either... but on that same token, warfare & unit selection in SMAC was kinda balls.
Don't worry. I'm sure them taking their cues from tablet and phone games is totally benign. You know, like paying 5 Sid Meier Credits (TM) to start a new colony or launch an orbital bombardment. What? You can totally earn those by playing. 5 a day, rain or shine. Or, you know, tweet about your victory over the xeno-loving faction next door, or spending money at the Sid Meier Credit Market (TM)...
No one is going to send convicts when a kilogram to orbit - let alone to another star system - costs hundreds or thousands and a bullet costs pennies.
The ratio for transportees was nowhere near so extreme.
God bless the nerdy little heard of RPS's commenters:
Research Complete: Cautious Optimism
“And when I my eyes first fell on the trailer for all I have hoped for, I felt…happy, yet anxious.” – Academician Prokhor Zakharov, For I Have Tasted the Fruit
12/04/2014 at 17:36 staberas says:
Of course we’ll bundle our new videogame with the new unlockable DLC’s! Our customers expect no less of us. We have never sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that no one feels the need to compete with us.
CEO Nwabudike Morgan, Unlimited DCL’s Research.
12/04/2014 at 18:00 Fenix says:
“The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the day 1 DLC of yesterday fades into the F2P of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil.”
– Sister Miriam Godwinson, “A Blessed Struggle”
12/04/2014 at 18:06 CannedLizard says:
“Beware of he who would deny you access to your game unless you have a network connection, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.” – Commissioner Pravin Lal, “U.N. Declaration of Rights”
12/04/2014 at 18:10 rhubarb says:
“It is the final duty of every successful IP to be given a DLC-heavy remake, and become one with all the investors.” – Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, “Ethics For Tomorrow”
12/04/2014 at 18:25 staberas says:
My gift to industry is the genetically engineered gamer, or Gamerjack. Specially designed for gaming, the Gamerjack’s muscles and nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been atrophied so that he can desire nothing except DLC’s. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot feel pain?
Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, “Essays on Mind and Matter”
13/04/2014 at 12:25 Mormont says:
In the great commons at Gaia’s Landing we have a polished and particularly stable build of Sid Meier’s Colonization, developed at the time of the first colonies. It represents our promise to the people, and to the industry itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Civ5.
– Lady Deirdre Skye, “Planet Dreams”
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
One good example of that is that, in my mind, there are two kinds of Civilization games. There's Civilization 4 and Civilization 5, then there's Civ Rev. Civ Rev is my favourite, it's the last Civ that Sid Meier himself has designed we want to reach a new audience. We want to get to those XCOM fans who may not have played Civ because history wasn't their thing, or strategy gamers that are playing a lot of these strategy games on IOS, that haven't tried Civ before. We want to reach those people, so we're trying to make the game more accessible for them
We decided on a different way to make your army customisable, and also feed back into your affinity, your cultural identity. So you have a catalogue of generic unit types that will upgrade as you level up. As your dominant affinity goes higher you'll be able to stack these guys with perks, with special abilities that are themed to that. Your marines can start out as normal marines, and then you play a little while and they level up to level two marines and you give them the anti-alien perk instead of the anti-city perk, because that's the kind of army you want to field. Then they have more abilities beyond that, so your stock types upgrade throughout the game.
Eeeeh...
...I hope by 'strategy games on iOS' they mean 'FTL and nothing else'.
And... that last paragraph sounds disheartening. Is he/she saying that there are not going to be unique units? In fairness, SMAC didn't really have those either... but on that same token, warfare & unit selection in SMAC was kinda balls.
Don't worry. I'm sure them taking their cues from tablet and phone games is totally benign. You know, like paying 5 Sid Meier Credits (TM) to start a new colony or launch an orbital bombardment. What? You can totally earn those by playing. 5 a day, rain or shine. Or, you know, tweet about your victory over the xeno-loving faction next door, or spending money at the Sid Meier Credit Market (TM)...
Why are you giving EA ideas about their new Alpha Centauri reboot for iOS?
A spiritual sequel to Alpha Centauri based on Civ 5. There goes my whole life to 'just one more turn'.
This is coming from a guy who spent about 100's hours just playing the 100 turn demo for Alpha Centauri, so its safe to say i'm very excited.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
I never liked the Spartans much. That Industry penalty was killer.
Spartans are just fine. The Hive is right over there. They have plenty of industry just waiting for you. Deirdre will help. Bro-Sisters for Planet and the right to bear Mindworms.
edit: All joking aside I think it's a mistake to expect factions in SMAC to have that kind of parity with Beyond Earth.
I like playing the University to get a technological advantage over my foes, and then laughing maniacally when I get the Hunter Seeker Algorithm.
Yea, university is fun, but the fights are hilariously easy after I get spider steel armor and fusion lasers, and everyone else has lasers but the spartans have missiles.
My roommate and I banned the University and the AI's from player choice because the tech advantage is too much. He'll never live down the beating I have him as the Pirates, though.
Especially when I voted to raise the water level on him and kill his entire coastal economy... and a few cities...
The download is shown as Steam, but not the DVD version. I assume that will be changed over time. It would be weird for 2k to back off Steamworks at this point. It seems to have been good news for them the past few years.
Release date is shown as 12/31/14, which is later than what we've seen so far in, "Fall 2014."
As probably the only 4x fan who didn't like Alpha Centauri, I'm actually super excited for this one. For the most part, it sounds like they're taking full aim at several of the plagues of the genre, which is really refreshing to hear.
I'm kinda worried about the "tech web," though. It sounded neat until they mentioned that it basically had the faction ideologies serving as soft delineations. To me that sounds more like "three tech trees, two of which you'll mostly ignore each game."
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
I really hope they decrease the carpet of doom problem, and make utility units all work like Caravans do. I haaaate moving Missionaries around. Hate it.
Endless Space had what you'd call a tech web, I guess. Started in the middle, and grew outward in 4 separate quadrants.
It works okay, but it always kind of turns into you just picking a place to start spiraling, and getting 2 from A, 2 from B, 2 from C..., when going one layer up takes 19 turns and getting every other tech currently available takes 8, there's not much reason to specialize.
Yes, while there are problems with 1UPT, after growing up on Civ II and being a rabid fan since then, I much, much prefer it to doomstacks. Additionally, the Hex-Tile system is much more preferable than the rectilinear system.
Yes, while there are problems with 1UPT, after growing up on Civ II and being a rabid fan since then, I much, much prefer it to doomstacks. Additionally, the Hex-Tile system is much more preferable than the rectilinear system.
It's Sci-Fi. Everything is covered in hexes in Sci-Fi.
Posts
My people will finally be free from Napoleon's tyranny.
Can't follow us into space, fucker.
"Hon hon hon!"
I really liked a lot of the mechanics and general gameplay in Civ but I've never been a big history buff.
On the other hand I am a giant scifi nerd so I am salivating right now.
Dr. Chaos, meet Sister Miriam Godwinson.
"For the record, I didn't shift either [the song or the video] by a single frame."
Not looking forward to the inevitable AI uprising though.
"Alright, everybody. Time to pack up and put on your Quarian masks"
LEOs are flying to big colony ships in last shot.
Funny, I hate Civ's immortal leaders and how it generify's everything, like being able to build the pyramids in Paris, but the XCOM squad didn't bother me at all.
Regarding stacks, I'd like to see a half way house of 1 unit per tile, but when built its at 10% strength or so and you stack the same unit type together to make it stronger. So instead of the map being filled with units it would be a smattering representing each unit type - with relative strength being a factor.
Here's hoping that one of the starting civ options is a penal colony ... or at least Space Australians.
I hope there won't be. I doubt any government would want to ship criminals up in space for the very first wave of colonization.
Maybe later on you can have random penal colony ships land for you to have to deal with.
I'd argue that all colonists are Space Australians. Seems only fair since their entire planet is trying to kill them, just like Australia.
Seriously though I can't get excited about this after how flat civ 4&5 have felt to me and how the brief description is very much "civ5 but with a sci fi paint job" rather than what I want which is "fusing 4x with narrative"
Don't worry. I'm sure them taking their cues from tablet and phone games is totally benign. You know, like paying 5 Sid Meier Credits (TM) to start a new colony or launch an orbital bombardment. What? You can totally earn those by playing. 5 a day, rain or shine. Or, you know, tweet about your victory over the xeno-loving faction next door, or spending money at the Sid Meier Credit Market (TM)...
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
The ratio for transportees was nowhere near so extreme.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
well it is from an internet comments section, so it can't be all good lest it break reality itself.
Edit: no need to bring in real life politics into this thread.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Why are you giving EA ideas about their new Alpha Centauri reboot for iOS?
This is coming from a guy who spent about 100's hours just playing the 100 turn demo for Alpha Centauri, so its safe to say i'm very excited.
Spartans are just fine. The Hive is right over there. They have plenty of industry just waiting for you. Deirdre will help. Bro-Sisters for Planet and the right to bear Mindworms.
edit: All joking aside I think it's a mistake to expect factions in SMAC to have that kind of parity with Beyond Earth.
Day One purchase, with a day's leave in reserve ready to book the day off.
Space worms !
Yea, university is fun, but the fights are hilariously easy after I get spider steel armor and fusion lasers, and everyone else has lasers but the spartans have missiles.
My roommate and I banned the University and the AI's from player choice because the tech advantage is too much. He'll never live down the beating I have him as the Pirates, though.
Especially when I voted to raise the water level on him and kill his entire coastal economy... and a few cities...
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
The download is shown as Steam, but not the DVD version. I assume that will be changed over time. It would be weird for 2k to back off Steamworks at this point. It seems to have been good news for them the past few years.
Release date is shown as 12/31/14, which is later than what we've seen so far in, "Fall 2014."
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I'm kinda worried about the "tech web," though. It sounded neat until they mentioned that it basically had the faction ideologies serving as soft delineations. To me that sounds more like "three tech trees, two of which you'll mostly ignore each game."
I spent time formulating my thoughts and responses. Had everything diagrammed in my mind, organized for text.
Screw it.
Squee!
It works okay, but it always kind of turns into you just picking a place to start spiraling, and getting 2 from A, 2 from B, 2 from C..., when going one layer up takes 19 turns and getting every other tech currently available takes 8, there's not much reason to specialize.
Ugh...Ghandi with PlanetBusters..
In SMAC the computer used Doomstacks to be disgusting in sieges. One hive = 10 Infantry, 5 Probe teams, 3 Aircraft.
It's Sci-Fi. Everything is covered in hexes in Sci-Fi.