Gamestar 08/14 Civilization Beyond Earth

[GAGA Extrem]

It might be possible that the promotion works like march, but the article states outright that it "fully heals at the beginning of each turn". Considering that the author didn't have the time to see the tier II units in action I'd guess he either got the abilities from the in-game "CIVpedia" (if it is already in) or he was told by a Firaxis staff member about them.

 

[Pyramid Head]

Overall, Civ: BE is a dumbed down CivV...if it is possible to dumb it down even further.

 

[3of5]

Overall, Civ: BE is a dumbed down CivV...if it is possible to dumb it down even further.

With a more complex Tech tree, more virtues, interesting 9th faction, a good storyline, great affinity system and more complex espionage. Dumbed down you say? That depends on the perspective i'd think.

@Jochen Gebauer:
Bought the mag today. But i'd love a Q&A with someone who actually played it. Only problem is, my questions would be a bit peculiar since i am more interested in game mechanics and details (must be a particular form of OCD) to complete that features list .

 

[Pyramid Head]

With a more complex Tech tree, more virtues, interesting 9th faction, a good storyline, great affinity system and more complex espionage. Dumbed down you say? That depends on the perspective i'd think.

Tech tree - different from SMAC, but surely not superior.
Virtues - Social Engeneering could not even compare with civics, ideas and other dumbed down stuff. It was plain better as a way to represent various forms of government models. It also added a lot of character, and thanks to how the factions were written, almost any faction could fit any form of government, allowing the player to craft his own story
There is no storyline in BE.
Affinities are simply "reskinned" Ideologies.
Terrain? Hmm, we had a game that supports a dynamic, consistent, realistic model of climate, terrain and such and a game with simplistic, flat, fixed, graphically boring system. So let's cut cut most things down, Because "innovaishun, hurr"
No Planetary Council? Yeah! We don't need complex stuff like atrocities, global decisions that require worldwide efforts. Too much thinking. Also a good way to cover incapable Diplo AI.
Sea cities? Nah, too much work.
1UPT?
So you have a game with a setting and mechanics that make 1UPT completely and totally obsolete and ???????? looking even after a decade. Essentially, in modern-futuristic warfare, concentrating firepower is so easy that leaving a immense ammount of troops bunched up just makes them die fast, and SMAC reflected that - Charging with a doomstack was suicide, especially if the enemy had enough artillery, then they could just bomb your army to submission and then kill your entire army in 1, 2 strikes, which stimulated modern, mobile warfare where small ammounts of 2 or 3 units cover for each other while trying to attack or get to defensive ground through manuever. Massing units in cities is possible but it really depends on the situation - Not to mention there are tools available for both sides, like Perimeter Defenses, Missiles, Mind Worms, Artillery, Air Units, Probe Teams, Helicopters, Special Abilities (AAA, ECM, Empath Song, etc), etc, unlike in Civ4 where a city full of troops was a nightmare to take out, or in Civ3 where your single artillery-troop doomstack just goes around bombarding everything to 1 HP and then sending in the grunts.
No upgrades and unit workshop?
Too much micromanagement = Too much thinking for our little 80 IQ heads.
Personality-less AI is just bland compared to SMAC factions.

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[Matthew.]

interesting 9th faction

Whoa wait, I must have missed something. What is this 9th faction you speak of?

 

[3of5]

Whoa wait, I must have missed something. What is this 9th faction you speak of?

The 9th faction would be the natives (Mind worms and fungus was called the 8th faction in SMAC) and i compared them to the barbarians of Civ5 obviously.

@Pyramid Head: Just because CivBE cannot compare with SMAC it is not dumbed down from Civ5. So your line of argumentation actually falls short. If you'd have said that CivBE was dumber than SMAC i would have agreed on some points (and on others not). But since you stated it would be a dumbed down Civ5 i disagreed. You see how those are two complete different arguments? Its like saying apples would be bigger than watermelons, but when someone disagrees comparing them to cherrys. Sorry, not gonna let this one slip for you.

 

[Darsnan]

Whoa wait, I must have missed something. What is this 9th faction you speak of?

In SMAC the NL were commonly referred to as the 8th Faction (i.e the original 7 Factions, plus the NL as the 8th). I'm assuming he's doing the same here and referencing the NL in BE as the 9th Faction.

D

 

[3of5]

In SMAC the NL were commonly referred to as the 8th Faction (i.e the original 7 Factions, plus the NL as the 8th). I'm assuming he's doing the same here and referencing the NL in BE as the 9th Faction.

D

i think you nailed it, but i don't know that the NL would be. Netherlands?

 

[GAGA Extrem]

My guess would be "Native Lifeforms"

 

[Matthew.]

Oh. I never played SMAC. Here I was hoping a surprise 9th faction made it in and I somehow missed it

 

[3of5]

Oh. I never played SMAC. Here I was hoping a surprise 9th faction made it in and I somehow missed it

there will always be mods ;-)

native lifeforms seems plausible, thanks.

 

[SupremacyKing]

Overall, Civ: BE is a dumbed down CivV...if it is possible to dumb it down even further.

I never really understood the dumbed down argument.

First, the quality of a game is not directly proportional to the number of features it has. Just because a game has a lot of complexity, does not automatically make it a good game. MOO3 is a perfect example of taking a near perfect gem of a 4X strategy game (MOO2) and utterly ruining it completely by throwing in a ton of new features and complexity that made the game incomprehensible and not fun. That is why Sid Meier has his famous 1/3 rule because he understands that there has to be balance when creating a sequel. Just making it more complex is not the answer.

Second, Civ5 and CivBE have very different backstories. Civ5 is about human history from the stone age to the information age where as CivBE is about future humanity colonizing another planet far from Earth. So just dumping all the features of Civ5 like tourism and religion in CivBE for the sake of not dumbing down the game, does not make sense. The features in CivBE have to make sense within the context of what CivBE is about.

Third, we know that CivBE will have brand new features and expanded features so the game is definitely not dumbed down in that respect.

Lastly, like Civ5, CivBE may get 1-2 expansions that will add new features, resulting in a final product after expansions that will be more complex. This actually makes sense. It is better to make a game with a solid core and then gradually build on that than to release a super complex game right from the start that is a complete mess (See MOO3).

 

[vahouth]

If you've got any questions, please don't hesitate to ask away. In case you guys are interested, I can also ask our editor Michael Graf (he's the one who did the story) to do a little Q&A here.

Thanks for your understanding!

Thanks a lot! I do have some questions for your editor

1. So, assuming you played the 100 turn demo, did youn choose Supremacy? If so, was this by choice or was is forced by the demo?
2. What Faction did you use?
3. Can you inform us of the pros & cons of each affinity when facing each other?
4. Why is it impossible/difficult to reach late game super units in your chosen affinity if you also spread your tech to other affinities as well?
5. Does the game have an actual turn limit? (I'm not reffering to the demo )
6. Is it possible to win the game without chosing any affinity path?
7. If you can already have units and buildings assosiated with a specific affinity, is it possible to switch to another one? If so, will the units switch too?
8. Is there an aerial alien type?
9. Have you played only on a single biome? If not, is the alien life the same in each biome or do the textures change accordingly?
10. What are the pros & cons of the Fungal biome?
11. Are all the alien types present in each biome?
12. We know that there are no Great people in BE, but are there generals? If yes, what is their role?
13. In the article you compared BE with SMAC. Can you do a comparison with Civ5?
14. Can the player tie the affinity scores? If so, what is the visual representation of the faction?
15. Let's pick a faction, say ARC. How would their play style change with each affinity path?
16. What more can you tell us of the virtues system in BE?
17. In your article you mentioned that the AI opponents arrive on the first 10 turns, but previous interviews and articles said 50 turns. Is this changed?
18. Are the Explorers consumed when they perform a survey of giant bones etc?
19. Concerning super units, we know of a Purity floating Fortress, a Harmony Xenotitan and a Rocktapus, but we know nothing of Supremacy. Can you tell us of a Supremacy super unit?
20. How easily can the player bring down a satelite?

That's it for now.
I'm sure other people can add up more questions.

 

[SupremacyKing]

We know that negative health will cause penalties. So, will a high positive health give the player bonuses and if so, what are they? And a related question, in the gameplay video, there does not seem to be a golden age counter. Now, we know that health has replaced happiness, so just curious how will golden ages work in CivBE, will they be triggered by high health or something else?