Civ5, 6 and BE in the future

[Barathor]

Regarding the hybrids, I personally rather not have the hybrids more developed into their own full-blown affinities. I think the original three are pretty solid and unique, I would rather see them focused on. Some hybridization should be encouraged in the game, but the game should always encourage you to make a choice and delve deeper into one of the three main affinities. I'm all for interesting hybrid units and abilities, just not their own affinities.

I think the direction of the hybrids were a little weak, especially Supremacy/Purity and some of the units were a bit lame (again, especially Supremacy/Purity, though I liked the Golem).

I'd much rather see the three main affinities fleshed-out even more and have hybrid units which tie into one of the three main affinities more. For example, there would be unique hybrids for a Purity/Harmony player with more focus in Purity and unique hybrids for a player with the same combo with a heavier focus in Harmony. Their designs would resemble the main affinity more for better overall unity.

Also, you shouldn't be able to produce ALL unlocked unit/buildings of any affinity you've gained points in, you should lose the ability to construct those things if you focus more on another affinity. For example, if you're Purity, and you gain points in Supremacy, you shouldn't be able to suddenly produce fully AI controlled robots -- it goes against their flavor. These are the holes that the special hybrid units would fill in. So, if you've earned the tech for CNDR's you also unlock the hybrid replacements of it so it's not a waste. This way, just like the lower tier core units, as your affinity evolves, your existing units can suddenly change and take on the theme of your dominant affinity.

 

[Barathor]

I was also thinking the other day about how cool it would be to have some type of space map in the game. Nothing over the top and huge... but a small section of galaxy to play on and interact with. The world maps don't have to be be large in BE since the playable area covers the entire map on land and sea. You would have a smaller world map that we have now and you can switch to the macro map that has a couple inhabited worlds on it where other seedships have landed. (Three? Again, nothing crazy in scale. This certainly isn't Stellaris.) Along with these habitable, unique biome planets could be all kinds of other things that can be harvested or exploited/explored like moons, uninhabitable planets, or space debri (like an unlucky seedship).

You can interact with this new map and build different types of starships (and seedships) once you reach a certain tech or tech level of points on the web.

This would simulate the Civ experience where you can finally traverse the oceans and can further explore the rest of the map to whole new continents and players to interact with (if playing on a Continents map type).

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I was also thinking the other day about how cool it would be to have some type of space map in the game. Nothing over the top and huge... but a small section of galaxy to play on and interact with.

I love this idea. Your idea could fit nicely in a PC sequel of Starships actually. It could be similar to Starships but more complex space combat and more civ like builder elements. Honestly, I always found it a bit strange that all the factions in Beyond Earth all managed to land on the exact same planet. It would make more sense if they were scattered across a star system or maybe even across 2-3 neighboring star systems. Adding some space travel and space combat to the late game would be fantastic.

Design-wise, history shackles you down and you have to include and do things in certain ways with eras, units, techs, leader personalities... a creative process of its own as you manipulate those constants to the design of your game. But, with SciFi, it's totally open and you can do almost anything you want, especially for the later half of the game. You don't need to have 40+ leaders to represent all these different parts of the world with trite abilities that give +x to this district instead of this district; you can make a good handful of your own leaders, filled with "unique" personalities and many different abilities that alter your playstyle and strategies. Quality over quantity. You can even create somewhat villainous leaders without disrespecting any cultures/countries.

Excellent point. I think there should be a mix of human and alien factions that the player could choose from. This would give the player a lot of more variety not just in terms of gameplay styles but also in terms of role-playing. For example, you could play as human factions that want to settle on the new planet and make it a new Earth. Or you could play as an alien faction that is native to the planet. Or play as an alien faction that also crash landed on the planet and is trying to survive but wants to exploit the planet in order to leave again and colonize the stars. So not just your gameplay style (some factions would be warmongers, some factions would be pacifist etc) but your motives and backstory would be different. Even your victory conditions could be different. As a human faction, you could have a victory condition to terraform the planet into a new Earth. As the native alien faction, your victory condition could be to kick the human factions off the planet. So I feel this would give the different factions very interesting gameplay possibilities instead of just having a bunch of human factions all vying for basically the same victory.

It would be great for Firaxis to have another solid franchise to go along with XCOM and Civ, and to have 4X leapfrog releases with Civ. I hope they're still working at it and are successful.

100% Agree!!!

 

[cinattra]

Civ and BE are just two different games. Civ is restricted within the confines of being a pseudo historical strategic simulation and BE is not so confined. They both definitely have their place and I would rather they be different enough that BE is not just considered as Civ in space. SMAC sorta takes that spot.

I still play BE as much as I play Civ to be honest. I want Civ to be a grand bloated game. I want the option to make as many different military units as possible and I wish the tech tree was twice as big. I don't like how libraries seem to be so important in the early game. You should only be able to place it in the capital to simulate the low literacy rates of ancient times or be able to build campuses in the capital or anyplace you have built a wonder to simulate the coming together of learned and skilled people. Markets should honestly be more important. So, there are some things that Civ just gets wrong about history, but there are some things it gets right. I guess it has to strike a balance between game and history. At least the developers listen to the players and that is the one thing I believe that has kept the interest high in Civ.

BE on the other hand the players have gotten literally little to no feedback after the last upgrade. I don't believe BE needs stock factions. The ability to build your faction the way you want should be the appeal. The tech tree is designed so that you can research whatever tech you want. I wish BE had a randomized invisible tech tree that would only show the techs that are coming next and each game it should be different within limits. More air units at least and more layers, land, air, water, underwater and low planet orbit. More of the planet's fauna and maybe even weather that could limit visibility and movement. If you are not paying attention or think you will not go to war in BE they will come for you. You cannot show any sort of weakness.

I hope we are keeping hope alive for BE. The silence is deafening.

 

[legalizefreedom]

I definitely play BERT more than Civ VI. I just enjoy it more. The setting and the workers. Don't care for the builder mechanic. Districts seem like a nice idea, but they are a hassle at the same time.

Oh, and building improvements on the water is big also.

 

[Guide-on]

Civ IV BTS had mods that you could click from the menu without having to download from steam or the silly click next, then click back (x out) then next again. Final Frontier was pretty good, although not as good as BE! My thought was to take New Horizons by Gaia and Code X by Ryika and port them to VI. Offer them a small cash amount and to have either their real or forum names. I might be tempted to buy VI.3 or whatever in order to get the mods.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

I think BE is very underrated, especially after the excellent Rising Tide expansion. I'm sad to see support has dried up for it.

I would very much like to see a BE game with Civ 6 mechanics. I think the schizophrenic leaders would fit much better in a sci-fi setting than a pseudo-historical setting.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

BE was pretty disappointing to me after the novelty wore off, but I'd like Firaxis to give it another try. It was full of cool ideas and they just never fixed the balance and left most of the potential unfulfilled.

Imho Civ 6's gameplay systems would make a much better base for a sci-fi spinoff than Civ 5.

First of all, more alternate leaders. Seperate leader and sponsor UAs are just easier to balance and don't turn everybody into a one trick pony and the Slavs aren't always lead by a Russian.
Cvi6 offers more unique bonuses to differentiate the factions, Unique buildings and units don't make that much sense in a SF setting, but unique districts could work.

Second of all, eurekas and inspirations would work better with a tech and civics web than with the relatively linear trees of Civ 6. It would also make leaf techs more interesting.

Third: The government system could make affinitites more diverse. Instead of giving everybody the same affinity perks + some unit upgrade choices, affinity levels could unlock additional wildcard policies.
You could also integrate the affinity system and R&Fs loyalty system.

Now to fix the wonder and station problems. Obviously, the more unique suzerain bonuses of Civ 6 CS would also make stations more interesting.
In other civs even weak wonders could sometimes be worth building for the GP points. Beyond Earth doesn't have great people.
How about this ? Instead of randomly spawning stations, you compete for them in BE2 just like you compete for great people in Civ 6. You get an outpost unit and build the station where you want it (with some restrictions about maximum and minimum distance from your border. The founder gets additional envoys or shares or whatever you call it, but other factions can also become the new owner of a station in time. If a station is attacked and defeated, it doesn't get burned to the ground but gets occupied and the conqueror gets an influence boost.

 

[Deliverator]

All the Civ:BE Unit art has been converted to Civ 6 if that helps!
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civilization-beyond-earth-units-for-civilization-vi.636578/