Affinity and faction choices

[gja102]

I know it’s very early to draw conclusions from the pre-release material, but I’m going to anyway. From what the devs have been saying about the ‘affinity’ mechanic, it seems like each of the Purity / Harmony / Supremacy options will point your faction down a very specific philosophical path. I.e. only Harmony can take advantage of alien genetics, only Supremacy can use cybernetics, and only Purity can build floating battleships (why the Purity factions should have a monopoly on a certain basic resource or military strategy, I have no idea. That would be like having a WW2 game were only fascists can attempt a blitzkrieg).

Anyway, at its worst, this system will essentially limit you to three game types. I hope that the game will be more dynamic than that, and give the players a lot of interesting choices in how they want to shape their future society, without being forced into one of the three preset moulds.

The mention of narrative focus is encouraging, as that’s where interesting choices will start to kick in (e.g. the way Mass Effect games let you play different versions of the same sci fi story, based on your choices). The affinity system would combine well with a morality system (e.g. the Good and Evil civ choices from Galactic Civilisations 2).

Ultimately I would hope there is some overlap / potential synthesis of the three affinities, so you end up with greater game variety. Even within the same Affinity, there could be wildly varying opinions and goals, which could actually merge with other Affinities:

Transcendence - Harmony & Supremacy
Developing the advances and infrastructure (biological or technological) to ascend to a godlike hive mind.

Enhanced Humanity - Supremacy & Purity
Creating the ‘best’ version of humanity that you can (be it societal, genetic or technological), ultimately imposing it onto Earth.

New Eden - Purity & Harmony
Establishing a sustainable future for colonists on the new planet (either taming or allying with the ecosystem) and importing the refugees from old Earth.

What are people’s thoughts? Do you think we will end up with simply three different monolithic play styles, or will Firaxis allow more mix-and-match with the sci-fi concepts?

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

From everything they have said i have got the impression this is not an active choice. You won't ever reach a point where you have to choose an affinity to progress, instead all your actions and techs filter into 3 separate buckets which fill up. So you can do all 3 if you wish.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Also, you are ignoring the effects of the factions themselves. I imagine/hope a Brazilia Supremacy will play very different to an ARC Supremacy or PAC Supremacy game.

(And that's not considering social policies/civics)...ie I expect to see a mind controlled society in each tech path

 

[Lucius_]

They said it's possible to unlock 70% of the techs by the end of a game. That leads me to believe there will be some blurred lines and hybrid directions to go. That said, there was lots of talk of your dominating affinity when it comes to troop upgrade paths. I don't think we'll see Purity using androids but Supremacy using teraforming to make a more Earth like environment could be possible, for example.

 

[AriochIV]

Yeah, it's not clear that pursuing technologies from one affinity precludes you from also getting some of the others. So it's possible that you could have, say, both cybernetic units and float-stone units.

 

[iRule]

Yeah, it's not clear that pursuing technologies from one affinity precludes you from also getting some of the others. So it's possible that you could have, say, both cybernetic units and float-stone units.

This.

I'm pretty sure they're going for the Endless Space solution. In that game, you're not precluded from following random tech paths: it's just a matter of opportunity cost. If you go all the way into cybernetics, you're giving up on the extremely advanced genetic developments.

 

[altayrneto]

Also, you are ignoring the effects of the factions themselves. I imagine/hope a Brazilia Supremacy will play very different to an ARC Supremacy or PAC Supremacy game.

Let's invade Earth with HUEbots...

Anyway, even if we have to put aside the kinds of victory devoted to each affinity, we still have the Contact and Domination, that could be used by who choose more varied path.

 

[Lord Shadow]

They've said the affinities work as some sort of religion/philosophy plus government type, I think, so I'm assuming you will have to explicitly choose an affinity at some point. And it's possible you're then encouraged to go down certain technological paths, either because your affinity gives you related bonuses or simply synergizes better with some techs than others. Whether the affinity choice is permanent or not remains to be seen.