Coming Back for Rising Tide - What to look forward to?

[bcaiko]

Hey folks -

So I'm one of those Civ players who tried Civ: BE and found it to not be my thing. Boring in the long haul, a tech tree that was very difficult to read at a glance, a lack of flavor when it came to the civs, lack of meaningful diplomacy, and moronic AI that would let me get away with just about anything. I eventually put Civ BE down and went back to Civ5.

But Rising Tides looks interesting. I like the improvements into making diplomacy different, and the water cities is an interesting mechanic. I think some of the new mechanical changes could really sell the flavor of the Civs and make the game less...boring.

So, for ~$20, I picked up the expansion. I mean, why not? I wanted to like Civ: BE. It has good ideas, if not great implementation.

So, should I be looking forward to Rising Tide? I haven't been paying attention to all the details, so what are we most looking forward to here?

 

[Halbbruder]

Definitely the diplomacy and traits, at least for me. If you are still unsatisfied with SP, give MP a try, as I am also particularly looking forward to MP.

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

Hey folks -
So, for ~$20, I picked up the expansion. I mean, why not? I wanted to like Civ: BE. It has good ideas, if not great implementation.

The reason why not is because BE sucked soooo muuuuuch. I'm waiting at least a month to find out what Real People think.

 

[Sunergy]

The big one for me is more personality from the leaders. They now send small unobtrusive messages whenever you take actions that affect their opinion of you, and the diplomacy screen will apparently have different text based not only what leader you are talking to but what leader you are playing.

The hybrid affinity units have some pretty interesting powers. There's units that are invisible, units that can cause small amounts of damage to every enemy unit within a few tiles, units that heal and buff other units. They should make armies more diverse and to customize your battle line to better suit your preferences.

The tech tree graphics are spiffed up. Adding some colour to it was always the first mod I downloaded, and it's nice that the official version has now followed suit. It's an obvious change but a welcome one.

A lot more art is sprinkled throughout the game. Now most UI pop ups have some pizzazz and all victories will have an actual ending movie sequence rather than just a still image.

That's what I recall of the top of my head. I think I'll actually end up enjoying the sum of all the small, sensible changes like the new art as much as I end up likely the big features.

 

[Westwall]

I'm still feeling a little lukewarm about the messages leaders send when you declare war on them.

They actually sound more resigned or disappointed than outraged, with no threats to destroy me or saying they won't go down without a fight or any real expressions of defiance.

Just some whimsical philosophical musings along the lines of "Sad to see we've brought war to our new home." or "War is not the answer. There is always a better way."

 

[Manannan]

The big one for me is more personality from the leaders. They now send small unobtrusive messages whenever you take actions that affect their opinion of you, and the diplomacy screen will apparently have different text based not only what leader you are talking to but what leader you are playing.

"Would you be interested in a trade agreement with England?"

 

[ZTZaorish]

Hey folks -

So I'm one of those Civ players who tried Civ: BE and found it to not be my thing. Boring in the long haul, a tech tree that was very difficult to read at a glance, a lack of flavor when it came to the civs, lack of meaningful diplomacy, and moronic AI that would let me get away with just about anything. I eventually put Civ BE down and went back to Civ5.

But Rising Tides looks interesting. I like the improvements into making diplomacy different, and the water cities is an interesting mechanic. I think some of the new mechanical changes could really sell the flavor of the Civs and make the game less...boring.

So, for ~$20, I picked up the expansion. I mean, why not? I wanted to like Civ: BE. It has good ideas, if not great implementation.

So, should I be looking forward to Rising Tide? I haven't been paying attention to all the details, so what are we most looking forward to here?

It's going to be ok at best. Don't get your hopes up. They haven't addressed the main issues, and have implemented a half finished affinity hybrid system. They also didn't fix the late game, so.. yeah. It won't be much better.

They need A LOT more work, and communication with the community. Which they aren't doing nearly enough of. Sorry boss.

 

[Gorbles]

What main issues? It's very easy to paint a negative picture, but harder to actually give that some backing.

@OP:

Diplomacy has been redone, whether or not it will be successful obviously depends on playing it (and personal mileage, but that happens with everything). Tech web has received another minor UI pass; one of the patches added colour to it, Rising Tide I think depicts Affinities and similar in a better way.

No news on the AI, par for the course on the series for me, but I get how people can not like it. It was tweaked in one of the post-release patches, mind.

Different biomes now have gameplay effects, there's Volcanic, Frigid and the normalish green one. Each have unique Marvels (think big Expedition-ish objects).

The Quest system has been redone, and you can now excavate Artefacts that you can combine together for buffs or other bonuses (including exclusive Wonders, I think).