2nd Beyond Earth Livestream - 8/21

[Al-Iskander]

As mentioned in the LiveStream, an early Worker is unprotected from Aliens so that choice can lead to an early alien attack wiping out your Worker. It remains to be seen how much warning your Starting Colony might get prior to an attack.

Also, though this is embarrassing, I have more than once built workers in Civ5 before I had researched appropriate improvements. It's frustrating to have to park a worker who can't build / chop what you need him to, while he eats up precious revenue.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Also, though this is embarrassing, I have more than once built workers in Civ5 before I had researched appropriate improvements. It's frustrating to have to park a worker who can't build / chop what you need him to, while he eats up precious revenue.

Well it seems most of the base useful improvements (farms, plantations, mines, chop) are available from the beginning in BE

 

[Al-Iskander]

Well it seems most of the base useful improvements (farms, plantations, mines, chop) are available from the beginning in BE

Oh! That's good to know!

 

[JokerJace]

Is there a video of the stream somewhere already?

 

[Teproc]

Is there a video of the stream somewhere already?

http://www.twitch.tv/firaxisgames/c/4957771

 

[JokerJace]

http://www.twitch.tv/firaxisgames/c/4957771

Thank you!!!

 

[ggmoyang]

No, the alien they fired rockets at with the city took 67 damage. That explorer did look like it took 10 and died though. Explorers have less health maybe? UI glitch?

Although explorers were seen in the last stream and I'm pretty sure they had 100hp there. I'm thinking it probably just looked like a 10 or was incorrectly displayed.

That means Drones have suffered 10 damage. Units definately have 100hp.

That is exactly what I am talking about. Hope that it was a glitch. Having an explorer die in one hit would be pretty bad.

Explorer have 3 strength and Drones have 12.
So Drones will deal 124~186 damage to explorers (always one shot) and explorers will deal 4~6 damage. (Since Explorers dealt 10 damage to Drones, I think there was either change to some constants or Explorer had some combat bonus.)

One thing about BE is the strength difference between basic soldier unit and recon unit is more drastic. (8 to 5 in ciV, 10 to 3 in BE)
I think they wanted to Explorers to be vulnerable to attacks, so they need to be defended while excavating and some bonus would be attractive. (e. g. purity level 1 bonus: aliens don't attack tiles with Explorer)

About combat damage calculation:
(note that the thread was written for Civ 5 vanilla, and in GnK and after base damage is 24 and base spread is 12 for melee combat)

 

[KradDrol1]

Any way I could watch this on the twitch app or YouTube. I've only got my phone at work. It won't let me watch it from the twitch website cause I don't have flash

 

[NeverMind]

YouTube link http://youtu.be/rx-AyF8RCgo

 

[Al-Iskander]

Just watched the livestream.

Вадим Петрович Козлов.

Patronymic secured. Awesome. Thanks, Firaxis

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

Well, the UA of the factions are all kind of weak, but they seemed balanced at least.

Pity that they had that horrible start with PAC. I guess if that explorer didn't get killed, we could see a lot more from the early game. But there wasn't nothing to show during 10~15 turns without units.

I'm glad we saw that -- and that was on the 2nd easiest difficulty. Shows that the aliens are not to be f*cked with and why starting with a soldier might not be insane (though ... that worker seems really tempting.)

 

[AriochIV]

I'll make it a point to touch on Harmony and their relationship to aliens next week, but here's the capsule version: Harmony factions WILL kill aliens in the course of the game. At the beginning, in the middle, maybe even at the end. You've got gameplay tools to help manage that relationship with the wildlife, but sometimes guns are the tool you use.

I also may have to find a creative way to kill an Explorer next week.

Pete, are you playing erratically because you're nervous, or is this the way you normally play?

 

[swordoflight86]

I'm glad we saw that -- and that was on the 2nd easiest difficulty. Shows that the aliens are not to be f*cked with and why starting with a soldier might not be insane (though ... that worker seems really tempting.)

From what we have been told and from the first livestream, if you keep your distance they are less aggressive than otherwise. If going after the aliens isn't in your plans, then the risks in not taking a soldier along might be worth it. Depending on your loadout, you may be able to make up the lack in the first handful of turns.

My outlook on this is that they have left us with so many options we will be theorycrafting until release. It will probably be at least a year before the optimal strategies will be mapped out, just because of all the possibilities. I, for one, look forward to it.

 

[Nick31]

Pete, are you playing erratically because you're nervous, or is this the way you normally play?

Hahaha.

Also, Pete: This Livestream was really well done. I think having Dave there was a great dynamic. Hearing you bounce ideas off him was very helpful, and we're glad to see so much of the early screens and game time.

This was great

 

[werothegreat]

Question for Pete - is there any benefit from settling next to a river? In Civ V, the Water Mill and Hydroelectric Plant make it well worth one's while to settle next to a river, but you seemed perfectly content to ignore that option. Are there any buildings that can only be built in cities next to rivers?

 

[UnderKingDuck]

I kinda like most of the UAs. I think out of them all, Franco-Iberia looks the most interesting. Though I think Kavithan Protectorate looks slightly boring for a UA. Same with Brasilia. It is most likely strong, but it also seem a little bland for a UA in my opinion.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I kinda like most of the UAs. I think out of them all, Franco-Iberia looks the most interesting. Though I think Kavithan Protectorate looks slightly boring for a UA. Same with Brasilia. It is most likely strong, but it also seem a little bland for a UA in my opinion.

KP actually looks interesting... it is a very REX pick

Brasillia's does seem bland

PAU's seems sort of bland...although that depends whther it is +growth (mildly intersting) or +food (really interesting)

I agree FI is the most interesting since it isn't a +% like the rest. Instead its a benefit to A if you do a lot of B.

 

[swordoflight86]

I kinda like most of the UAs. I think out of them all, Franco-Iberia looks the most interesting. Though I think Kavithan Protectorate looks slightly boring for a UA. Same with Brasilia. It is most likely strong, but it also seem a little bland for a UA in my opinion.

Brasilia's is definitely the least universally useful, and Franco-Iberia's is probably tied for most powerful with Pan-Asia. Kavitha's special is much more powerful than it first appears. It lacks the wow factor, but with faster developing outposts you get cities that stop requiring resources to defend and start producing them instead, faster. That advantage can snowball.

 

[UnderKingDuck]

Brasilia's is definitely the least universally useful, and Franco-Iberia's is probably tied for most powerful with Pan-Asia. Kavitha's special is much more powerful than it first appears. It lacks the wow factor, but with faster developing outposts you get cities that stop requiring resources to defend and start producing them instead, faster. That advantage can snowball.

I suppose it really depends on just how long it takes for an outpost to develop into a city. Even if it is strong...say it takes 12-10 turns it reduce it to 6-5, it still seems really bland. I rather it be something with more of a wow factor. I don't even feel it ties that closely with the Kavithan Protectorate background. I might agree with what I saw someone else ]brought up on the stream; it might make more sense for Kavithan Protectorate and People's African Union UAs to switch with each other, but even then it does not really take away with how I feel about the ability in general.

 

[Acken]

Kavithan will heavily depend on two things to be good:
-How much 50% less time as outpost really translates to in the game
-How easy it is to expand in the game and if wider strategies are easier to achieve than civ5