Constructive Criticism on Beyond Earth

[ariefbud]

The alien should gradualy increase its stregth. So it still challenging on end game. Before game release I imagine that it would be like avatar movie the alien can defeat human.

 

[Drowsy Emperor]

Not changing things on the fly seems good to me. If it's something that's designed to be variable from the start I guess it would still work pretty well (e.g. civics in Civ IV) but for the most part it takes away consequences. All strategy game decisions shown have consequences, and being able to change at any time means that you can avoid the long-term consequences. Also takes away the ability to do short term vs long term decision - would you rather one free tech or +5% to science? Would you rather +2 food per turn now, or 10% net food? Everyone would just take +2 till it's worse than 10%, then change. Takes away some decisions.

Optimal paths shouldn't exist in a properly designed linear path, as it depends on the initial circumstances. Sure, it may be best to go for tradition as your first policy in Civ 5 for the most part (though this might change with that latest patch), but if you're in an area with a massive amount of land and no AI, it makes sense to go for a liberty start (if properly balanced ). There's no optimum path because each game has a different start. If you had the same start, sure you could work out an optimum strategy and go for it, but the varying initial conditions means there is never one optimum path you can pick before the game starts.

(Sorry about Civ 5 examples - only finished one game of CIV:BE, don't want to use examples I'm not very familiar with)

The consequence of changing a lot is anarchy and the comparative lost time during which your empire isn't working. So you're discouraged from "gaming" the system but at the same time its still flexible. Now granted, Civ IV civics seem rather linear themselves, most of the latter ones are much better than the starting ones. SMAC got it right for the most part.

With good design all choices would be relevant but in my experience all set choices show themselves to be distinctly better or worse and then the less optimal ones end up being played only for fun or in extreme situations.

 

[bladex]

i'm pretty much almost done with this already the victories are easy and boring, the tech tree is boring gone are the days of having to research the best tech to survive it's pretty much all handed to you. no luxuries to trade, terrible ai diplomacy these are only a few of many flaws...

think i'll wait a few months for some better mods and patches to appear.