Beyond Earth good now somehow?

[Haxxtastic]

Hi, my friends and I are very frequent players of civ5, and we usually get together and play it. Have been doing that since BNW.

When BE came out we were hyped but we tried it for about 7 days when it came out and just couldn't stand it.

When we were talking about it one of our friends said it was bad when it first came out but it's WAY better now...what makes it better, what exactly changed?

 

[poom3619]

Few patches, too few. IMO. I didn't touch them after patch anyway.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

The game did get a couple big patches which fixed trade route spam, battlesuit rush, tech slingshot and other balance issues. But I would probably wait a few more weeks and get the expansion Rising Tide. It promises much bigger improvements to the game, including brand new diplomacy system, new water cities that can move, new artifact system, new art, new victory movies, new sponsors, hybrid affinities and new hybrid units with very cool special abilities, and more.

 

[Haxxtastic]

Few patches, too few. IMO. I didn't touch them after patch anyway.

I see

The game did get a couple big patches which fixed trade route spam, battlesuit rush, tech slingshot and other balance issues. But I would probably wait a few more weeks and get the expansion Rising Tide. It promises much bigger improvements to the game, including brand new diplomacy system, new water cities that can move, new artifact system, new art, new victory movies, new sponsors, hybrid affinities and new hybrid units with very cool special abilities, and more.

That's definitely a good start with those patches, though it sounds like a great deal is going to be added to the game and that's a little scary, I might reinstall and check it out for a little while, get into the swing of things before the expansion comes out maybe, and I'll read around here on the forums to see what kind of info is around, probably a lot.

 

[ZTZaorish]

The base game has an incoming patch 2.0 as well~

 

[Westwall]

Wait for the expansion and see what the reviews say.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I wouldn't recommend buying BE at this point. Wait till RT comes out. But if you own it and haven't played it since launch, I recommend starting it up again. It might seem a bit better now. At least that's how it felt to me. It still has its flaws, but it now has a bit of charm to it too.

 

[poom3619]

Protip : Don't buy RT right away too. It is pretty likely people would do will flood this forum with rant soon consider Firaxis' current record.

 

[ZTZaorish]

Firaxis' current record is that buy the first expansion the game is at least decent. (At least in terms of Civ V)

That being said, being patient has it's benefits.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Firaxis' current record is that buy the first expansion the game is at least decent. (At least in terms of Civ V)

That being said, being patient has it's benefits.

The same was also true of Civ IV.

 

[Westwall]

I would disagree.

For me, Civ IV was great out of the gate.

I didn't even bother with the expansions until at least a year or two after Beyond the Sword had already been out.

 

[rastak]

I would disagree.

For me, Civ IV was great out of the gate.

I didn't even bother with the expansions until at least a year or two after Beyond the Sword had already been out.

Check the forums from that release, as usual, mass hate.

I had a blast with Civ V out of the gate. I may have, like you with Civ IV ignored the issues of the version I was playing and simply enjoyed it for what it was.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

The game is better after the patch (more balanced), but after playing a couple of games recently after leaving it for nearly 10 months, all the problems that afflicted it on release are still there.

The game just lacks "it" from my point of view, I'm not sure even the expansion can fix that.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

The problem isn't just that there were only two (or three?) patches, but that they broke almost as much as they fixed. Battle Suits weren't fixed, they were practically deleted from the game, "OP" (as in actually worth the research and production) wonders were bludgeoned with the nerf hammer to become useless.

I would disagree.

For me, Civ IV was great out of the gate.

I didn't even bother with the expansions until at least a year or two after Beyond the Sword had already been out.

What did you enjoy more ? The constant crashes or the memory leaks that made late game unplayable ?
But I agree in essence. Civ IV had technical issues, but was better designed from the start and it also had more and better patches.

 

[Natura]

The problem isn't just that there were only two (or three?) patches, but that they broke almost as much as they fixed. Battle Suits weren't fixed, they were practically deleted from the game, "OP" (as in actually worth the research and production) wonders were bludgeoned with the nerf hammer to become useless.

I still remember coming back to the game about 2 months ago and looking at the combat strength of all the Tier 1 affinity units and thinking "That's a typo right?". Then I looked at the Ectogenesis Pod which I used to beeline and thinking "Wait, that's EVERY city right? They can't just mean in one city..."

Slavic Federation Battlesuit and Purity farm rush might have been OP but damn it if it wasn't more exciting than the dullness we have now.

I remember an old game back at release on Apollo difficulty where I overexpanded and was attacked by an AI who'd rushed Battlesuits and finding that I had no answer for them at all. But I'd skipped affinity techs and defense buildings, so really, it was my own fault. I actually lost that game; the AI conquered all my cities. Since coming back, I haven't come remotely close to losing a single game militarily. Early game, a Ranger and a Rocket Battery have served as all the defense I've needed.

 

[Galgus]

I think part of that is that cities are kind of absurdly durable and self-defending in Civ 5 and Civ BE: it let's players get away with tiny militaries too much.

 

[poom3619]

Firaxis' current record is that buy the first expansion the game is at least decent. (At least in terms of Civ V)

That being said, being patient has it's benefits.

"Yeah, I can't believe it qualify for 50$, Luckily I bought it for $10 when it's on steam sale three months later. After all those patchs and mods since release, It surely worth my 10 dollars"
- Anonymous CivFanatic, XX February 2016

I think part of that is that cities are kind of absurdly durable and self-defending in Civ 5 and Civ BE: it let's players get away with tiny militaries too much.

1UPT and Tactical AI is a greatest defense for human player

 

[Galgus]

True, horrible AI tactics and 1UPT can make things easier, but the wars can get more tense when cities can't fend of small armies single-handedly.

I've played with mods that allow melee units to attack without damage while weakening city bombardment and healing, alongside a mod that encourages the AI to have larger armies: it can make for scenarios where an AI invasion wave can be a legitimate threat.

Of course, the AI not grasping arcane concepts like retreating units to heal them very well while usually being slow to replace any lost units makes winning a war fairly easy if one can survive the initial charge and the AI doesn't have far more cities.

Also in my experience letting melee units literally one-shot traditional ranged units helps balance their strengths while encouraging good tactics...which the AI typically will not employ. Beyond Earth is far better at this than Civ 5, though there is a mod to lower combat strength for ranged units in 5.

(Needing tough units to guard the ranged units is better than the melee getting shot approaching, failing to kill, and often dying to a concentrated bombardment on the next turn.)

But at least their mindless rush of random melee units is more of a threat in that system.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

[...]
When we were talking about it one of our friends said it was bad when it first came out but it's WAY better now...what makes it better, what exactly changed?

Well, they mostly did balance fixes:
(1) Trade Routes: Less powerful, fewer trade slots per city early on, not as easy to set up via energy.
(2) Unit power: Stuff like Battlesuits is way less powerful, overall the unit power levels are a bit more in line.
(3) Sponsors: Overpowered abilities like free techs for Slavic Union and Franco-Iberia got replaced, trash sponsors like African Union got buffed (albeit a bit too much).
(4) Healt System: Not broken anymore - does now actually have decent impact on the game.

I wouldn't call it "way better", it's more like "working on a basic level as intended" at this point. But hey - I still know how much fun CIV5 vanilla was. :x

I think part of that is that cities are kind of absurdly durable and self-defending in Civ 5 and Civ BE: it let's players get away with tiny militaries too much.

That's really more of an AI issue. Yes, Rocket Batteries are a bit too good, but a decent human player (or an AI at higher difficulty levels fighting in open terrain) can still take your cities without too much trouble by having superior numbers.

 

[Galgus]

It is certainly an AI issue, but I still think cities are a problem.

I'd prefer vastly toned down city defense with, instead, a 15% combat bonus in friendly lands.

Ideally I think all players should have a big enough military to hold off a serious military long enough to build up a better military.