Civilization: Beyond Earth Announced 89
An anonymous reader writes "Today at PAX East, Firaxis announced Civilization: Beyond Earth. It's a new Civ game inspired by their sci-fi strategy classic Alpha Centauri. Beyond Earth is currently planned to launch this year on the PC. According to Game Informer: 'Beyond Earth presents an opportunity for Firaxis to throw off the shackles of human history and give players the chance to sculpt their own destinies. Civilization games typically have a set endpoint at humanities modern age, but Beyond Earth has given Firaxis the opportunity and the challenge of creating a greater sense of freedom. ... The five different victory conditions that represent that next major event in human history are tied to the new technology web. At the start of the game, players will choose leaders and factions (no longer bundled with one another) and choose colonists and equipment to settle the land. Once descending from orbit, the technology web allows players to move in a number of directions.'"
Trailer (Score:5, Informative)
Alpha Centauri 2 (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Alpha Centauri 2 (Score:4, Interesting)
Try the Planetfall Mod for Civ IV BTS. If you play it on a fairly modern system with a fully patched game it might not even crash before you finish a moderate-length game.
You don't get to design your own units. But they do get upgrades reminiscent of AC.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Shut up and take my money (Score:5, Insightful)
It's says "Civilization" in the title, so i will buy it anyway... ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
Basically what I was thinking. After the clusterfuck that was Civ V, I'm just hoping they didn't use that as their starting point.
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly, I have no idea how you can not enjoy Civ V. I've owned all the Civ games except for II. Enjoyed all of them, but V is by far the most tactical, and interesting to play. The hex based system, and the fact that you can only have one unit per tile makes attacking cities much much much trickier than it ever used to be.
Re:Shut up and take my money (Score:5, Insightful)
For example, there's a lot more restrictions in play - especially the penalties on placing more cities. They dropped the health mechanic of Civ IV for growing cities and population, but they replaced it with a bogus penalty to culture and research from additional cities. It just doesn't feel right. The tech tree is bogus and it's clear that they structured the tree as they did for game balance rather than any sense of realism. Even worse is the culture trees. They don't feel even remotely realistic.
Subsequent releases have helped balance that stuff out somewhat (Civ 5 does have a better religion system an the ideology conflict in the late game is nice) and add more to the mid and late games, but it still needs a lot of work. For example, in the latest variant of Civ 5 there are three different ways to trade.
The city state mechanic needs work too. A more realistic mechanic would be that the barbarians eventually settle down and form the city states (as they adopt the civilization ideas of the core civilizations). But that would mean a lot more city states than are presently in the game and a whole new mechanism for dealing with trade and city state alliances is required.
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly, I like the fact that they put a penalty on expanding too much too quickly. Early Civs had the issue that the roll your war machine over everyone approach by far dominated other paths to victory. Civ V balanced that out nicely.
You're right though, the way that culture worked (as opposed to just happiness) was completely broken, and completely impossible to win in a multiplayer match, and yes, the expansions sorted that out.
The city state mechanic I felt worked well though –it stopped the AI
Re: (Score:3)
Those are good critiques of Civ5. There are a more, of course, but *most* of them boil down to the original release of the game being, basically, too big a change for them to get it right.
Let me say that again: Civ 5 was *badly* flawed at release, because it was too big a change.
For example, in a game where each unit (and tile, since they go together) is so much more precious than they were before, the 10HP system (where even a curbstomp battle costs 10% of your health, and the enemy rolling just a *little*
Re: (Score:3)
Many world wonders (and most national wonders) contain a Great Work slot, or even a slot pre-filled with a Great Work. If you are trying to win a tourism victory, it's difficult if you only rely on non-Wonder buildings to provide Great Work slots. Unless you have a large empire (6+ cities) you will run out of building-provided slots sooner than you'd like - then you're left with sl
Re: (Score:2)
For example, there's a lot more restrictions in play - especially the penalties on placing more cities. They dropped the health mechanic of Civ IV for growing cities and population, but they replaced it with a bogus penalty to culture and research from additional cities. It just doesn't feel right. The tech tree is bogus and it's clear that they structured the tree as they did for game balance rather than any sense of realism. Even worse is the culture trees. They don't feel even remotely realistic.
I agree with all of this, but it's not Civ5's real problem. The real problem is the absolutely retarded AI. The AI doesn't expand (seriously, 1500 AD and China still has 1 city) cant fight a war, wont bother advancing tech very far and the diplomacy system is a complete joke (I've surrounded your last city with battleships and rocket artillery and they wont give me a few gold to go away).
Re: (Score:2)
I've seen *very* few games where other civs failed to expand. By 1500 AD even the slowest civs wil
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I've always hated the end game of Civ's. It's always felt... dissatisfying. Early/Mid game was always fun but if it lasted to the end game, I usually ended up quitting and starting over.
This newly announced game has so many paths it could take and the possibilities are truly endless, if the dev's decide to make it so that is. I had faith, but after Civ V, the Sid Meier's brand has faltered in my eyes.
(i've been playing his games since Sid Meier's Civilization (holy shit that was a long time ago), my favorit
Re: (Score:2)
I won't.
Civ 5 had no Pitboss, then when they made Pitboss ... it had to be logged into a steam account ... so you can either play ... or be the pit boss server and not play.
Civ 5 was 'revolutionary' in the sense that it took many steps backwards ... but OMG HEX CELLS INSTEAD OS SQUARE!$!@#%!@#%
How the fuck can you play long term games that don't suck without a Pitboss server? Sure, play by email but holy fuck thats obnoxious to manage
Re:Shut up and take my money (Score:4, Interesting)
Because Civ is a single player game. It isn't meant for multiplayer, and multiplayer has always been a terrible experience. I'd prefer if they dropped it entirely and spent more time on polishing the AI or released it earlier. Because they shove in a half baked multiplayer we get a worse game.
Re: (Score:2)
... The Civ 5 AI was pathetic, calling it a single player is dishonest.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Because Civ is a single player game. It isn't meant for multiplayer, and multiplayer has always been a terrible experience. I'd prefer if they dropped it entirely and spent more time on polishing the AI or released it earlier. Because they shove in a half baked multiplayer we get a worse game.
I've had lots of fun playing Civilization 4 over LANs, so please allow me to disagree, for the most part, with your statement. That said, the AI in Civ 5 is rather flawed.
Re: (Score:3)
The worst part is I know the gameplay is probably going to be so similar to old versions of the Civ franchise that I might as well just dust them off, but because it's shiny and new I'll pay any price and waste many hours of my life on it. Only game that ever beat Civ in terms of replayability for me was nethack.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Never heard of it...
Re: (Score:1)
I'm really excited to play this, because... (Score:2)
...based on the description, I also really enjoyed this game the last time I played it when it was called "Deadlock".
Re: (Score:2)
"Give them a rock and they'll invent the war cry before lunch."
Maug RULE.
Re: (Score:2)
Time to get myself an GOG account... Even AC is available there!
Re: (Score:2)
Time to get myself an GOG account... Even AC is available there!
And it works great with WINE.
Re: (Score:2)
How the compatibility of GOG games with Wine in general?
Re: (Score:2)
Extremely mixed bag. But most of the ones that won't run in WINE will run in a windows virtual machine in VMware Player. You do have a VLK XP ISO, don't you? Even most of the D3D games will work using that combination. Indeed, games that won't work in XP Mode on Windows 7.
Re: (Score:2)
Last time I touched the VMware Player, full screen mode wasn't supported. Ditto VirtualBox.
Has that changed?
P.S. Fullscreen works in QEmu and DosBox.
Re: (Score:2)
Last time I touched the VMware Player, full screen mode wasn't supported. Ditto VirtualBox.
I am not aware of a time when vmware player didn't have full screen support. I have been using it for years. Virtualbox, on the other hand, is an unremitting piece of shit. It also has full screen mode, but the d3d passthrough never works. It always crashes something, usually the VM.
I wonder if it will acutally work (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Was just thinking this...
After being bitten by Firaxis on my CivV pre-order, insisting Valve shutdown of my Steam account to ensure I could prove I never played it and then threatening litigation with Firaxis for false claims on a product I wanted a refund for (which I got from them); I have serious doubts about anything they put out.
All they need to do is remake Alpha Centauri like MS is doing Age of Mythology and I think a majority of people will be happy. Anything to the contrary and I'll pirate it just
What graphics card will be enough? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Is the NVideo GTX TITAN Black or Radeon R9 295X2 going to be enough GPU for the game? Will I have to 3-way SLI or CrossFire them? It seems all the last Civ games have really pushed the graphics envelope which never made much sense to me since I find them to be almost spreadsheet games. I love Civ (particularly 2 & 4), but the video requirements seem excessive. I remember buying a GTX 8800 for Civ 4, and GTX 580 for Civ 5.
I thought you were joking, but I think you are serious.
Civ doesn't push the graphics boundaries at all. You seriously thought you needed a GTX 580 for Civ 5? Runs great on my Nividia 285 from like 5 years ago. Currently I have a 460 in my main gaming machine and it has no problem pumping out high graphics at 1080p on modern games. I'm probably going to need to upgrade in a year or so when the next gen titles start coming out, maybe. But in the last 5 or so years, games have not taken advantage of
Re: (Score:2)
Civilization Reskinned? (Score:3)
Where is the unit workshop? Just a bs reskin without unit workshop.
AC successor? Doubt it. (Score:2)
AC successor? Very much doubt it.
The Civ III/IV/V were indicatory of the direction they want to move the game: simplify, make it connected.
I'd say it is an achievement to have a Civ game play out in matter of hours. Marvel of game design. But that is also what made it shallow. When you start the game, you already know approximately how it is going to end. There are few surprises there.
AC to me was THE immersive game. You could play it short way - but that was boring. Or you could play it long way - an
With Linux Support! (Score:5, Informative)
Not even a single person that mentioned it will support Linux?
This fall on Linux, Mac and Windows PC for $49.99, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth will [...]" [polygon.com]
This is incredible news.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed, I was about to post something along the lines of "can we stop saying it's for PCs when we all know it means Windows-only?"
I'm glad to hear about the triple-OS release, hopefully the Mac and Linux versions will be native and not Windows executables wrapped inside a shell such as Cider.
Re:With Linux Support! Multiplayer? (Score:2)
Used to play Civ until breakfast or out-of-memory errors called for a break at LAN parties (Starcraft/BW, too, until they took that away and lost my sales). Better with multiple PCs that hot-seat 'cause you could think ahead more easily.
Still playing AC from the Loki release for Linux. It will be interesting to see how well a simultaneous release works.
Re: (Score:2)
Man... Loki. I still crack up thinking about the bankruptcy hearings where Scott Draeker was all "as myself, I cannot confirm blah blah but as president of the company, I can tell you that ..."
-l
Re: (Score:2)
People say that Slashdot has fallen a long way...but that's just sad. A thread about a AAA game which is being released on Linux- with no mention in TFS, nor the chosen TFA, and only a tiny comment batch discussing it.
Even Reddit managed better coverage of the fact this is a Linux game than Slashdot. If I was just relying on Slashdot for my news, I wouldn't even have known this WAS a Linux game.
AI Optimization? (Score:1)
The worst part is how long it takes the game to process the AI's turn. During t
Re: (Score:3)
Your requests are, unfortunately, somewhat contradictory. You ask for a smarter AI (that doesn't put ranged units in front, for example) and then ask for one that processes faster. You complain about the late-game AI time (where the decision trees are *huge*), then say you want the AI to give a harder game without handicaps.
Don't get me wrong, I want to see optimizations too. But, I think they did a pretty decent job of balance, especially in the expansions (the original game was kind of bad in many ways, A
Here's a better (and cheaper) game (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's a better (and cheaper) game:
Banished
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Here's a better (and cheaper) game:
Banished
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Banished isn't even in the same genre. You're telling people looking forward to getting a TBS 4X game to go and buy a non-TBS city sim. Even ignoring that, you state it's "better" than a game that has yet to be released (even in alpha/beta form) or reviewed. I suppose it could be considered better in that you can actually play it now, but that's obviously not what you meant.
It's taken 25 year to decide to build off earth. (Score:2)
When we played Civilization 1 we just assumed the next version would involve the Moon at least, as to win the game; was to conquer the world, or be the first to launch a space ship, when it takes off that's game.
And play it we did, but how much of a step can it be to continue on the moon.
Play the heck out of the Civilization, Microsoft did jump in with Ages of Empires 1 and 11 (only ones I played) which I felt a much better game, but they did have one to copy from.
Do I need a 12 step program for Civ? Or is it OK? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been playing this series since the first came out when I was 9. Steam tells me the last few games have claimed man years of my time. No other series has ever captured my attention quite the same way with the feeling of epic strategy.
but... The way I half-assedly justify this vice to myself is that Alzheimers runs in my family on both sides and cracking out on Civ hopefully gives me a decent brain workout, e.g. researchers and those asshats at lumosity saying people doing crosswords, puzzles, etc... stave off the disease longer.
There are worse vices right?
Produced by Team Fail (Score:5, Insightful)
The game is being produced by the same group that put out the failed Civilization V ala Lena Brenk, Dennis Shirk and Lisa Miller. They can pay off all the game reviewers they want, but the simple fact remains that Civilization V sucked when it came out. It might as well have been an expanded version of Civilization Revolution!
For me an countless others out there @ CivFanatics, I am heartbroken that this series has lost its way and any games they have put out since Civilization IV lack any merit as they play like garbage.
I truly hope Sidney Meier actually puts his foot down and ensures this game is done right without the constant pressures from the asshats @ 2K Games & Take-Two shits, but I highly doubt it considering the current industry trend of releasing unfinished games and then gouging their supporters by forcing them to buy DLC and fixes.
Re: (Score:2)
They have a console-friendly Civ already though, it's called Civ Revolutions. I actually think it's quite good for a quick game, though it lacks any kind of depth at all. But who wants to play a complex simulator with a gamepad? Hopefully the plan is to develop both lines further. It would be cool if Civ Rev Sequel would have more complexity under the hood, but I'd never want to actually be exposed to it. That's what a PC is for. On the other hand, Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be more PC-like, so perhaps
w00t! I died! (Score:2)
Now aliens can swoop down and destroy the two cities I finally got updated with a wooden wall. I can't wait! Anyone know what tech in the tech tree comes after pottery? I don't expect I'll get that far in the new version either.
Steam? (Score:1)
Will this game be riddled with steam DRM just as Civ5 was?
Re: (Score:1)
Oh fuck off!
I want to know whether I can play it without being forced to sign up for an account or tie to some account I am uninterested in having.
Re: (Score:1)
Oh give it up already -- DRM is still an issue. Some of us still believe in the concept of ownership. Some of us still do play over the LAN all the time. High speed internet access IS a rare, hard to come by commodity for many. Some of us don't believe in having our accounts able to be banned and having our "access" to all of our supposedly-purchased games vanishing. Etc.
Just...one...more...turn. (Score:2)
Will it be any better than CIV (Score:2)
I'm still playing my original copy, in DOSBox. And for entertainment value, it sets a steep profile to match, let alone beat.