Firaxis announce "Sid Meier's Starships", new interstellar strategy game

[Sommerswerd]

I hope this is a civilization game in space, and not a panzer general/gettysburg with spaceships

This

Actually, sort out BNW first!! They should have done that before BE,...Still a lot of simple bugs!

I think BNW is about done... In fact Civ 5 is probably done TBH.

I am torn about whether I want a "true" Civ 6 or whether I want more of this space/Alpha C'ish direction

 

[duckstab]

I'm intrigued by the comment about "cross-connectivity", which suggests some possible level of integration between BE and SMS. Not sure how that would work since BE is still played on a planetary surface while SMS looks like it takes place in space.

However the fact that it's positioned as a tactical game makes me wonder if they are thinking of an architecture where tactical combat could be bolted on as a DLC module to a strategic game. That, to me, could bode well for Civ6 because I've always thought it made no sense to have tactical combat taking place on a strategic map the way it does in Civ5 and BE.

 

[Sommerswerd]

However the fact that it's positioned as a tactical game makes me wonder if they are thinking of an architecture where tactical combat could be bolted on as a DLC module to a strategic game. That, to me, could bode well for Civ6 because I've always thought it made no sense to have tactical combat taking place on a strategic map the way it does in Civ5 and BE.

So the traditional Civ-style map for everything except combat, but then switch to a Panzer General/Romance ot3 Kingdoms/Genghis Khan style map-interface for battles?

Or are you thinking a full-blown RTS minigame for combat?

And how would that work for the 1-shot combats, like for example when I just want to capture a worker or settler? Or what if I just want to kill 1 scout with my warrior? Do we have to switch to the mini-game for every combat or just combats involving a certain amount of units?

I've thought about this possibility as well but I don't have a clear vision of how it would work.

 

[Maniacal]

So the traditional Civ-style map for everything except combat, but then switch to a Panzer General/Romance ot3 Kingdoms/Genghis Khan style map-interface for battles?

That would be a big improvement for Civ. I'd love to build actual armies, and the hex system was cool but didn't really work well on a lot of smaller sections of maps in Civ5 and felt really out of scale. It wasn't helped by how long it takes armies to get anywhere sometimes. A battle shouldn't last 50 years.

 

[duckstab]

If you've ever played Fallen Enchantress, it has a combat system pretty close to what I've thought would work for Civ. You move your units around in stacks on the strategic map. When combat is joined between two stacks, you're given the option of doing a quick auto-resolve, or fighting it out on a separate tactical map. If you chose the latter, the game selects a battlefield from among several canned alternatives based on the local terrain. The game deploys each side's units to one side of the map. The battles are turn-based (at a finer time scale), but it's more like each unit gets a turn. The turns aren't in strict rotation but governed by an "initiative" attribute. So a unit with high initiative will be able to move/attack more often than one with lower. It's not a perfect system, but it works pretty well.

In a game like Civ5/BE, this would make moving masses of units around the strategic map much easier. And it would get rid of such goofiness as archers firing over transcontinental distances at musketmen who can't fire back.

 

[madcat_lives]

your saying this is going to be out this spring? I don't think it will be before 2016. Fast games are all bug and no fun.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

your saying this is going to be out this spring? I don't think it will be before 2016. Fast games are all bug and no fun.

Yes the spring 2015 is the correct release date. This is not a fast release. The game has been in development for over a year and half already. They just waited a long time before telling us about it.

 

[Vortilex]

your saying this is going to be out this spring? I don't think it will be before 2016. Fast games are all bug and no fun.

Games that are announced are generally nearing completion in some way. Otherwise the developers risk announcing vaporware, and then you'll have Duke Nukem Forever all over again

 

[consentient]

Yawn. Cringe. Rage. Ignore.

 

[Maniacal]

Link to video.

Gameplay starts at ~33:00. Also someone has a chronic case of throat clearing.

I feel like this game will ultimately be disappointingly shallow but I do like the use of battle maps although too bad they aren't in 3D because it is, you know, space. I am hoping it will be a good casual strategy title, but we'll see.

EDIT: As someone pointed out on reddit, the planets are just scattered in space and not orbiting anything like a sun :/