PolyCast's Swag Contest, Episode 213 Celebration of "Civ: Beyond Earth" Release

'Ask and Ye Shall Receive' Contest
Take a day or two, even ten, to think to ask to receive. PolyCast (PC), the bi-weekly podcast giving the Civilization community an interactive voice on game strategy, is running the 'Ask and Ye Shall Receive' content celebrating the release of Civilization: Beyond Earth on October 24th. As you play this newest installment in the Civ franchise, think about what questions or even questions you would like to ask developer Firaxis Games. Then ask any and all of them in response to this thread on/by October 31st for a chance to win limited edition game swag.

1st Prize: "Firaxicon Swag Bag" (BE backpack, keychain, mousepad with XCOM dogtag and shotglass)
2nd Prize: Choice of 'CivAnon' or Penny Arcade eXpo (PAX) exclusive 'Diplomatic' shirt
3rd Prize: BE "Lush Biome" poster

From all entries received, PC regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and "MadDjinn" will compile a "Top 10" -- a show tradition -- and forward onto BE's developer for answering. The top three ranked questions which are answered will receive a prize described above; name, postal address, email address and telephone number will be required for shipping. Like BE's release, this contest is open worldwide: must be 18 years of age or older. To-be prize recipients will be contacted via email.

Episode 213 Celebration
Be apart of recording of PolyCast Episode 213 this Saturday, October 25th starting at 12PM ET North America (timezone converter). Join the live recording of this audience participation driven episode in the sharing of initial thoughts, experiences and insights of Civilization: Beyond Earth play released the day before.

How did you decide on what the Civ's would be in the game?

Would you consider adding alien Civs in an expansion or as DLC?

What is the process like when you decided to rework and expand a core game mechanic, like espionage? And any idea what might get the next reworking?

At the announcement of Beyond Earth, Will said that "this is the game we have made for [those fans who loved Alpha Centauri]." Could you please elaborate on a few aspects of Beyond Earth you are especially excited to share with fellow SMAC fans? What are some of the characteristics of Beyond Earth you predict will be the cornerstones of its spiritual successor, 15 years from now?

I started playing civilization I as a 10 year old helping out in my dad's print shop. My uncle had it installed on his PC there. My dad bought the game for me as a gift the next year. It's been part of my life for over 20 years. My question is: will there be a Civilization 6? If so, do you have any preliminary comments on what it will look like?

Seeing how the latest Civilization installment, Civ:BE, is all about the future and aimed at presenting an optimistic, inspired take on it... what are your favourite stories about Civilization (or another Firaxis game like Alpha Centauri) inspiring somebody, whether friend, family or fan?

What did you use as a basis for the technologies in BE, or may more interestingly, as a basis for the tales we get with each successfully completed tech, many of those names sounds familiar...

Hello.

Will there be a non-steam version?

I enjoy the Civ-franchise, having played the original, Civ II, Civ III (a little - didn't quite like the game) Civ IV (my favourite Civ-game of all times) and Civ V (well, I started a game once; after having struggled with Steam for in excess of two hours just to get the thing installed correctly...).

Also, if you should ever release a non-steam version of XCom: Enemy Unknown (the UFO: Enemy Unknown remake) I'd be interested to get hold of a copy. Until then I just play the original...

(as I'm having problems with this steam-thingy all the time, I usually don't play games requiring a steam-installation. However, I did try to re-install Civ V before the weekend, and it wouldn't let me. Steam was apparantly down for the moment. To me, this is unacceptable; having a legit copy of a game, unable to play it due to a third-party web-page being inoperative? I'm furious about this! Having had Civ V installed some months ago, I wanted to try it again... No joy... I sent a request to Firaxis (or was it 2K? I was directed onto?) via their support web-page, but haven't heard from them yet...)



Yours Sincerely
Kjotleik of Norway

Sometimes the real-time scan function of antivirus software will interfere with installs of Steam games. You might temporarily disable your antivirus software and try the game install again.

what can we expect from upcoming patches and expansions?

Browd said:

Sometimes the real-time scan function of antivirus software will interfere with installs of Steam games. You might temporarily disable your antivirus software and try the game install again.

Click to expand...

Hello, Browd.

While I appreciate your efforts to help me with this problem, the message I got when I tried to install was "Steam is temporarily unavailable, please try again later."

This has nothing to do with my AVG anti-virus program...

I do not remember if I closed down my anti-virus last time I installed it (a couple of months ago), but I'd rather not do that. If Steam itself tries to install a virus while I install Civ V from the disc, I will not want to be caught with my anti-virus not operational...


Yours Sincerely
Kjotleik of Norway

So, there was no Steam error code number in parentheses after that message (e.g., (53))?

Browd said:

So, there was no Steam error code number in parentheses after that message (e.g., (53))?

Click to expand...

Hello, again.

Well, no.

The text was all I got. Below was an empty progress-bar with only one option to the right "Cancel." On top it said "Steam - Updating - 0% complete."

No error code (or any numbers really, except from the 0%).

I am still awaiting the reply from contacting the support department, though. If they come up with a version for me to play that doesn't depend on this third-party web-site being up and running... I'll be happy... if not...well...you know what it feels like to having paid for something and getting nothing in return?


EDIT - 2014-10-27:
I'm a bit confused now... but what happened today (as I turned on the power to my PC) was that out of the blue I go this message (Updating %appname&)... I saw the logo of the message box, and in the top left corner was the Steam logo...but...but... I FAILED to install the thing, didn't I?

Apparantly it has been on my computer the whole time (from December 2013, when I first installed Civ V), even after I deleted Civ V from my computer...

I'm happy that my Civ V game has now been installed (it worked this time...), but I'm really sceptical to Steam updating itself withouth me knowing about it being installed at all...

I had to struggle a lot to find the right settings, so that the game didn't auto-update each time I want to play it. I went through all the hassle to remove the unneccesary tags in Steam itself (settings) and chose to "go offline." This actually gives me a choice now (Good! ) to either update the game, or play offline. This is fine by me, as all I wanted to do was play my Civ V from the original DVD...

...now I just need to find that elusive commerce-slider (I have failed to find it yet - I have too much gold from the commerce refusing to be sent into research at the moment). But oh, that's what the Civ V forums are for, I presume....

Thanks for all your help anyways, Browd. It's really good to see helpful people around when I need it the most...



Yours Sincerely
Kjotleik of Norway

Who is your favourite leader and why is it Hutama?

We know that Kozlov is essentially representative of Yuri Gagarin, but what/who were some other interesting inspirations for the Sponsor Leaders?

What sort of mods are you looking forward to playing?

In about 20 hours of play I've noticed that there are some virtues and quest options that are so much better than others that it would be unwise not to take them.


A few of the ones that really stand out:

• 
  The Autoplant quest, the trade route will always return more than the +1 gold per autoplant (assuming you're keeping your trade routes maxed), and can free up the ability to use more internal routes while staying in the positive for energy.

• 
  The alternative markets virtue, with its placement on the production tree you need to spend a maximum of 4 virtues to get it, but the return if you have 1 or more stations to trade with is so overwhelming that it's extremely hard to pass on it. With the gold obtained from these station routes (which at t2+ will almost always be greater than a trade route with a civ) your routes are freed up from being dependant on other civs for the gold income from their routes. Furter, it allows for all but 1 of the 3rd teir production virtues, making it the fastest route to 3rd teir virtues. So its strength is 2 fold. There's also a distinct lack of tradeoff if you're going heavily into the production tree, since to access the rest of the 2nd teir of the production tree you just need to add in Standardized Architecture, which is accessible through the same virtue that leads to Alternative Markets (no real detour).

• 
  The ultrasonic fence quest, while it's nice to have a 3 hex protection around a city, the benefit of not having to babysit your trade routes (especial water based ones) is well beyond the benefit of having the aliens not mess with your third ring (which only really fills in by the time you're able to handle the aliens and should have a decent military anyway).

So, with that, my question is:

Is having player paths that are the "correct" route 90% of the time intended design and how does the team decide which player paths should have the "correct" vs. situational decision?

Q: There are a lot of new mechanics in BE, such as the tech web, that are particularly well suited to the game's sci-fi setting. But is there any new BE mechanic that you'd be interested to see in a core (historical) Civilization game?

Q: Both BNW and BE have trade route systems that, at first, seem very similar. However, the change from BNW's global limit on trade routes to BE's city-level limit drastically affects gameplay. Why was that different approach taken?

Why is there no equivalent for the SMAC "Hybrid Forest" tile improvement/tech in Beyond Earth? This was a very powerful, but expensive (i.e. well balanced IMO) tile tech in SMAC that made so much sense, and it's not in Beyond Earth at all?
Far as I can tell there is no reason not to pillage all forest in Beyond Earth, that doesn't sound like good game mechanics to me.....?

Hello,

How has the fan reaction to the game affected you since the game has gone live? In hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently?

Also, what is the team's thoughts on balance at this point. The community obviously has some strong opinions on certain features. Is the dev team on the same page as the community with some of these, trade routes for example?

Lastly, can you add the "Last built" back to the production panel so we know what just finished building? Please.

Thanks!

Now that I have been playing Civ: BE for a few days; How the heck do you get the orbitals to work as effectively as possible?

Regarding the Civ:BE Tech Web, the way affinities are gained feel a bit jumpy. In nearly all my games I suddenly shoot from 2-3 to 10+ affinity in a matter of a few turns. It makes the level bonuses feel less satisfying since I don't really have to put much effort into getting each one. So...

Q: At any point in the development cycle did you consider putting smaller portions of affinity XP on every tech and letting it build up more incrementally? If so, why did you decide against it. If not, do you think it would be something you would have liked to try during the beta stages of the game?