Firaxis announces "Sid Meier's Starships"

Anyone here played Sid Meier's Pirates? My first thought on hearing about this game was "Pirates re-skin", but I never actually played that game.
 
forty2j said:
Anyone here played Sid Meier's Pirates? My first thought on hearing about this game was "Pirates re-skin", but I never actually played that game.
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I played the classic Pirates! and the updated one a lot. In the game, you start as a young man in command of a single small ship with a small crew. you could attack other ships to capture them or plunder them, go to ports to recruit more crew, sell your bounty, meet with the governor to get rewards for sinking enemy ships. You had to make sure you had enough food and gold or your crew would revolt. There were also quests to locate your long lost family and find hidden treasure. The game was completely open-ended, allowing the player to do whatever they want. You could play as an independent trader or you could pick sides and fight for the English or Spanish or French or Dutch, or you could be a vicious pirate that attacks everyone for personal greed. It was totally up to the player to write the story of their pirates' life.

I do think Starships as a lot in common with Pirates. The idea of starting with a ship, traveling the galaxy, picking missions as you wish and slowly building up your power and even having to watch your crew morale and taking shore leave, all seems very similar to Pirates!, except in space. One of the screenshots even shows one of the starships is a sloop class, a little wink it seems to Pirates since a sloop was a class of ship that pirates used to use.
 
Gorb said:
Why on Earth would they sell their flagship IP? Do you even have any idea of how that works? Or how long they might want to take developing a game? Or the fact that they have both Civilisation and XCOM to work on as franchises (Starships looks like a standalone-y kind of thing, much like Revolutions was in the end).

Just because CiVI hasn't magically appeared in the past four months since they released Civ:BE, doesn't mean they aren't working on it :p
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Programming sweatshops of affordable workers lead by Firaxis heads with a clear eye on consumer demand could do the trick.
 
Minor Annoyance said:
Well if it looks like a duck then it is a duck, even if it doesn't quack or swim. Logic!
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What makes you think starships looks like a RTS?

Starships has hexes and a big end turn button. RTS games do not have hexes and end turn buttons. There is no way starships looks like a RTS!
 
SupremacyKing2 said:
What makes you think starships looks like a RTS?

Starships has hexes and a big end turn button. RTS games do not have hexes and end turn buttons. There is no way starships looks like a RTS!
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We need a sarcasm font.
 
My first thought on this is:

Didn't the Sims have some cross-connection at one point with the 2nd-to-most-recent SimCity (not the terrible 'online-only' one, but the one before)? The connectivity there was marginal, so I'm not hoping much for this instance of cross-connection.

Also: deeply disappointed that this sort of makes me think Civ:BE is already done for DLC outside of maybe another map pack and perhaps one a-la-carte round of sponsors. Not sure on this, but Civ:BE does have un-tapped potentially despite all its flaws, so it's disappointing that this announcement is so soon after Civ:BE releases.

Civ:BE, unless it does get an expansion, will forever be 'Civ IV: Colonization 2 - Colonization in Space' in terms of enjoyability and content (though not exactly in terms of mechanics or style).
 
here is a preview from the panel:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/24/7883929/sid-meiers-starships-preview

Here is some key things, I got from the preview:
Almost every system from Civilization — wonders, technology and so on — provide specific benefits for your ships, rather than more esoteric boosts to your civilization-at-large.
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That customization starts from the very first screen of Starships, in which you choose your character — each of which carries different starting boons, like extra ships or random tech upgrades — and your Affinity, a system returning from Beyond Earth. The Supremacy, Harmony and Purity tracks all carry with them their own benefits and aesthetic differences; crew in Supremacy fleets, for example, are decked out in futuristic battle armor.
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Typically, your fleet starts with two ships, which you can immediately customize by upgrading their nine essential systems, which include engines, cannons, torpedoes, sensors and standalone fighters. Meier emphasized the depth of this system, explaining it basically allows you to create ships with different roles — by pouring energy into shield and cannon upgrades, you can make a heavy tank unit. Engine and sensor upgrades can create a speedy recon unit. Any kind of build is possible, he said, from a stealthy sniper unit to a massive aircraft carrier.

By researching technology, you can further bolster the capabilities of your fleet. By discovering and spending tech points on the Quantum Suppression technology option, you can boost the stealth capabilities of every ship you own. Similar Tech can improve your ships' hulls, giving them HP boosts in battle, among other helpful bonuses.
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Appropriately equipped vessels can activate stealth to protect them from distant enemies, launch fighter ships to assault foes, hang back and barrage the enemy fleet with torpedoes and execute a number of other strategic maneuvers.
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It's not as simple as getting in firing range of your enemy and blasting them, though. The battlefield is dynamic, with asteroids enemies can hide behind, jump gates you can use to bridge huge gaps and other features determined by the planet you're circling. One interesting feature demonstrated by Meier were passageways; gaps between asteroids on the map that can close up between turns, potentially cutting off your approach vector — or your escape route.
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A successful mission means a reward — Meier earned a free Tech upgrade for his efforts — and a new trade route with the planet you've assisted, earning additional energy, metal, technology and food for your federation. By accruing influence points with those planets, you can permanently add them to your federation, boosting your galactic presence and moving towards a final victory.
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ColdFever said:
EuroGamer has a large German interview. It says, SMS will only be available as a digital download and probably be a smaller title. It looks like SMS continues the story of CivBE: After the "Big Mistake", mankind colonized several planets, not just one. In SMS you leave your planet with a fleet to explore the galaxy and meet the people who colonized the other planets. So you will meet leaders who picked different affinities. I would say you probably will be able to play SMS with a Civ you played in CivBE before, carrying over this Civ to SMS.
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http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.eurogamer.de/articles/2015-01-19-sid-meiers-starships-eine-ganze-galaxis-nur-fuer-euch&prev=search

Euro Gamer: Will you be able to play an alien and his civilization or encounter any?

Sid Meier: The story revolves around how to proceed with humanity. People have to leave Earth and travel to all these places. In Beyond Earth you can see what's happening on this planet, in Starships it comes to go further and find out what became of all the other people, their leaders and philosophies. It's about the people, so you'll be able to play an alien. All the events and characters based on people who have left the earth so long ago.
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so humans on earth playing catch up to the space pioneers are considered aliens
 
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