UnlimitedBlades
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2014
- Messages
- 7
This might be a issue of expectations and what not, but I still think it's worth addressing. I came into BE thinking it would be something like a squeal to Alpha Centauri. Now I knew it would PLAY like Civ V, that's not what I'm talking about. What Civ:BE is missing is the personality, depth, atmosphere, the "life" that Alpha Centauri had. Game play issues aside, Civ:BE really dropped the ball with it's narration and story.
I'll start with the most obvious factor. The faction leaders are all generic no-names with nothing to truly differentiate them, both in game play and to the player.
In BE: Each faction's bonus has minimal impact on how their faction plays. While it may change a few details in the beginning, each game of BE seems like it follows the same strategy (Go wide, spam trade routes). On the other hand SMAC's faction bonuses had drastic effects on the strategies you would employ, as well as your interactions with other factions. For example as Morgan I would often times focus on getting energy. When threatened I could even use my vast reserves to buy out the enemy army from under them. However one game I was situated near the Gaians. My blatant pollution of the world to gain energy angered them, so I had to switch plans to prevent myself from being overrun by mind worms. Or I would play as the Professor and use a science based strategy. It was very satisfying to take out Miriam's horde of Believers with my superior tech. Then there was Yang and his people. His unique trait of being efficient immune and having free perimeter defenses allowed some interesting strategies no other faction could pull off. Every faction had multiple paths available to them, and interesting interactions with other factions.
The factions leaders have much less lore and personality in BE. Just look at the diplomacy. In BE every leader gives you some Hello, but in SMAC you can really get a sense for the goals of each faction and what their leader is like by what they say.
Another big factor is the technology and wonders. In SMAC each tech has an interesting voice over quote by the faction leader that tech is most relevant too. Take a look at this quote for the "Mind/Machine Interface" technology:
"The Warrior's bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds. They are creating their own private army of demons.
-- Comissioner Pravin Lal ,"Report on Human Rights"
This tech improves probe teams, which has the ability to use mind control technology on enemy units. You can really feel Lal's outrage as you hear him disparage the potential usage of this technology. It also establishes his character as a defender of human rights, true to his UN roots and back story. Every tech in SMAC has something like this, which adds a bit to the game's personality. But that's not the end of it. The tech also has an additional bit of lore that explains the basic theory behind it, and how previous tech allowed this new breakthrough etc.
The wonder's in SMAC are something else entirely. Well that's true game play wise, but the impact on the feelings in the game is there too. Each Wonder, or Secret Project as they were called (A funny misnomer since it's announced to the world when you're almost finished building one) gives you an amazing (for it's time) cinematic delivered with a relevant quote. I still remember the first time I completed The Citizen's Defense force, and was treated to a terrifying image of Mind worms overrunning a base and a warning on how not even the strongest physical defense can stop the mental attacks of those monstrosities. Or the time I created Clinical Immortality... and was shown exactly what that meant by the movie of a brain in a jar haha. Each project has far reaching implications on both game play and lore. While in BE... I get some random quote about mythical creatures with no relation to what I built and a random wire frame image of something I can barely figure out what it is. There's no impact AT ALL.
Civ BE could have benefited greatly from little touches like SMAC's cinematic and story based quotes. I could feel serious effort and thought put into them. Where as in BE it's just lazy place holders anyone could think up. None of it is memorable or relevant.
Even BE's alien world feels dead. Sure there are aliens, but they're just... well animals. In SMAC there was a ton of back story and interaction with the secret behind the planet's hive mind, as each tech reveals a bigger part of the picture things fall into place. The mind worms and etc has much more presence and personality. Look at Miasma vs Xenofungus. Miasma just lacks impact in every way. Sure it's a bit annoying, but it rarely has any bearing on what I do in game. Most of the time can even completely ignore it until I happen to research the right tech and it's suddenly irrelevant for real. Heck with the faint animation you can hardly see it! In contrast Xenofungus was a real menace. It was noticeable and threatening. In the beginning it stifled your movement and you couldn't get a lick of resources out of it. Not only that, it spreads! Moving through it was a real threat as you could come across worms or other deadly beasts. The unique psi battle meant that you couldn't just power through once you have stronger tech. But with hard work and dedication, it's possible that Xenofungus becomes one of the most efficient tiles in game. The thing is do you want to go that route, or just build boreholes everywhere? There were a ton of cool terraforming projects and neat things you could do. Formers could be used to make energy parks or set aside land for massive crawler farms.
When you pollute the planet retaliates and reacts to you too. The hive mind contacts your leader and destroys the offending improvement, or global warming causes a shift in sea levels and drowns your coastal cities. Heck there was one game where I used a bunch of Planet Buster Nukes just for kicks, and before long I was desperately building Sea Domes so my bases wouldn't be drowned. Once that threat was over, the planet sent hordes of Flying Locust of death at me, threatening to wipe me off the map for screwing up the planet! On the flip side as Gaians with a high enough Planet level, you can easily capture and domesticate the creatures to use to your own advantage. Planet controlled mind worms wouldn't attack your own native troops either, since they are technically part of the same hive network. There's none of that interaction with the aliens in CivBE. You either wipe them out, or leave them neutral, or turn them blue so they won't attack. They don't respond to pollution or terraforming, you can't domesticate them etc. you don't make contact with the alien hivemind.
There's no feeling of making due on a hostile world either. In SMAC you had things like resource caps that prevented you from reaching your full potential until you got certain techs. Little thing like that made SMAC feel like you really were a struggling colony that eventually flourishes in the new world.
The lack of landmarks is another disappointment. Civ V had them, and even SMAC had interesting landmarks of note that spiced up the gameplay a bit.
Resource Pods were dumbed down a lot too. In SMAC all manner of things could come out of a pod. Heck sometimes pods that landed in Xenofungus would be infected with aliens, causing a huge crisis if you got greedy and opened it. Or if you can capture the aliens it would be an instant army. If you got lucky you could find a Rare Battle Ogre etc. It was always a fun surprise. In BE you get energy or science or production.
Anyway I'm not totally dissatisfied with Civ:BE. My point is that I was expecting Alpha Centauri levels of immersion and lore... and what I got fell waaaaayyy short. Civ:BE is more or less just a re skinned Civ:V with a few twists. I liked Civ V after all, so a little more Civ V doesn't hurt. SMAC was a Civ II clone as well, but it added so much more to the game by it's story, lore, atmosphere, etc. Both games coulda used more balance game play wise though. Trade Routes are the new Supply Crawlers hahaha.
I'll start with the most obvious factor. The faction leaders are all generic no-names with nothing to truly differentiate them, both in game play and to the player.
In BE: Each faction's bonus has minimal impact on how their faction plays. While it may change a few details in the beginning, each game of BE seems like it follows the same strategy (Go wide, spam trade routes). On the other hand SMAC's faction bonuses had drastic effects on the strategies you would employ, as well as your interactions with other factions. For example as Morgan I would often times focus on getting energy. When threatened I could even use my vast reserves to buy out the enemy army from under them. However one game I was situated near the Gaians. My blatant pollution of the world to gain energy angered them, so I had to switch plans to prevent myself from being overrun by mind worms. Or I would play as the Professor and use a science based strategy. It was very satisfying to take out Miriam's horde of Believers with my superior tech. Then there was Yang and his people. His unique trait of being efficient immune and having free perimeter defenses allowed some interesting strategies no other faction could pull off. Every faction had multiple paths available to them, and interesting interactions with other factions.
The factions leaders have much less lore and personality in BE. Just look at the diplomacy. In BE every leader gives you some Hello, but in SMAC you can really get a sense for the goals of each faction and what their leader is like by what they say.
Another big factor is the technology and wonders. In SMAC each tech has an interesting voice over quote by the faction leader that tech is most relevant too. Take a look at this quote for the "Mind/Machine Interface" technology:
"The Warrior's bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds. They are creating their own private army of demons.
-- Comissioner Pravin Lal ,"Report on Human Rights"
This tech improves probe teams, which has the ability to use mind control technology on enemy units. You can really feel Lal's outrage as you hear him disparage the potential usage of this technology. It also establishes his character as a defender of human rights, true to his UN roots and back story. Every tech in SMAC has something like this, which adds a bit to the game's personality. But that's not the end of it. The tech also has an additional bit of lore that explains the basic theory behind it, and how previous tech allowed this new breakthrough etc.
The wonder's in SMAC are something else entirely. Well that's true game play wise, but the impact on the feelings in the game is there too. Each Wonder, or Secret Project as they were called (A funny misnomer since it's announced to the world when you're almost finished building one) gives you an amazing (for it's time) cinematic delivered with a relevant quote. I still remember the first time I completed The Citizen's Defense force, and was treated to a terrifying image of Mind worms overrunning a base and a warning on how not even the strongest physical defense can stop the mental attacks of those monstrosities. Or the time I created Clinical Immortality... and was shown exactly what that meant by the movie of a brain in a jar haha. Each project has far reaching implications on both game play and lore. While in BE... I get some random quote about mythical creatures with no relation to what I built and a random wire frame image of something I can barely figure out what it is. There's no impact AT ALL.
Civ BE could have benefited greatly from little touches like SMAC's cinematic and story based quotes. I could feel serious effort and thought put into them. Where as in BE it's just lazy place holders anyone could think up. None of it is memorable or relevant.
Even BE's alien world feels dead. Sure there are aliens, but they're just... well animals. In SMAC there was a ton of back story and interaction with the secret behind the planet's hive mind, as each tech reveals a bigger part of the picture things fall into place. The mind worms and etc has much more presence and personality. Look at Miasma vs Xenofungus. Miasma just lacks impact in every way. Sure it's a bit annoying, but it rarely has any bearing on what I do in game. Most of the time can even completely ignore it until I happen to research the right tech and it's suddenly irrelevant for real. Heck with the faint animation you can hardly see it! In contrast Xenofungus was a real menace. It was noticeable and threatening. In the beginning it stifled your movement and you couldn't get a lick of resources out of it. Not only that, it spreads! Moving through it was a real threat as you could come across worms or other deadly beasts. The unique psi battle meant that you couldn't just power through once you have stronger tech. But with hard work and dedication, it's possible that Xenofungus becomes one of the most efficient tiles in game. The thing is do you want to go that route, or just build boreholes everywhere? There were a ton of cool terraforming projects and neat things you could do. Formers could be used to make energy parks or set aside land for massive crawler farms.
When you pollute the planet retaliates and reacts to you too. The hive mind contacts your leader and destroys the offending improvement, or global warming causes a shift in sea levels and drowns your coastal cities. Heck there was one game where I used a bunch of Planet Buster Nukes just for kicks, and before long I was desperately building Sea Domes so my bases wouldn't be drowned. Once that threat was over, the planet sent hordes of Flying Locust of death at me, threatening to wipe me off the map for screwing up the planet! On the flip side as Gaians with a high enough Planet level, you can easily capture and domesticate the creatures to use to your own advantage. Planet controlled mind worms wouldn't attack your own native troops either, since they are technically part of the same hive network. There's none of that interaction with the aliens in CivBE. You either wipe them out, or leave them neutral, or turn them blue so they won't attack. They don't respond to pollution or terraforming, you can't domesticate them etc. you don't make contact with the alien hivemind.
There's no feeling of making due on a hostile world either. In SMAC you had things like resource caps that prevented you from reaching your full potential until you got certain techs. Little thing like that made SMAC feel like you really were a struggling colony that eventually flourishes in the new world.
The lack of landmarks is another disappointment. Civ V had them, and even SMAC had interesting landmarks of note that spiced up the gameplay a bit.
Resource Pods were dumbed down a lot too. In SMAC all manner of things could come out of a pod. Heck sometimes pods that landed in Xenofungus would be infected with aliens, causing a huge crisis if you got greedy and opened it. Or if you can capture the aliens it would be an instant army. If you got lucky you could find a Rare Battle Ogre etc. It was always a fun surprise. In BE you get energy or science or production.
Anyway I'm not totally dissatisfied with Civ:BE. My point is that I was expecting Alpha Centauri levels of immersion and lore... and what I got fell waaaaayyy short. Civ:BE is more or less just a re skinned Civ:V with a few twists. I liked Civ V after all, so a little more Civ V doesn't hurt. SMAC was a Civ II clone as well, but it added so much more to the game by it's story, lore, atmosphere, etc. Both games coulda used more balance game play wise though. Trade Routes are the new Supply Crawlers hahaha.
