[GS] Is Ed Beach the lead designer of Gathering Storm?

[SupremacyKing2]

R&F was a little disappointing both in terms of features and civ designs (though I did overall like the civ selection), so I'm not so convinced. Plus Beyond Earth was unspeakably bland; if they go that route again I hope they hire some proper writers.

I do feel like the loyalty mechanic is a good concept but feels half-baked right now. I just feel like Anton would probably bring a different direction to Beyond Earth than Will and Dave did. Nothing against them, but having a different designer for the sequel could just bring new ideas to the game. In terms of Beyond Earth, I agree that some good writers would really improve the world building.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

I don't agree that R&F was disappointing but I do agree that some of the systems feel half finished (especially emergencies). I don't think loyalty feels half finished but I do think it's too isolated, it would be more interesting if it tied into other systems like culture. However, I still think it adds something to the game, R&F is better than Vanilla. I have high hopes for GS, traditionally the second xpac has been the real game changer for Civ games.

 

[AriochIV]

I thought Rise & Fall made the game substantially better... which I guess isn't saying too much, but it was good enough to get me to play a game that I'd stopped playing fairly early on.

I found Beyond Earth very disappointing, as the mechanics looked very interesting, but just didn't amount to much in actual play. It's a game that's less than the sum of its parts.

 

[bbbt]

I also enjoy R&F (except for the governers who I increasingly hate having to micromange every time I play), but agree it wasn't earth shattering. I also thought loyalty would have more empire management impact - i.e. if you have a large empire and low amenities cities might start splitting off (even regardless of other empires' influence). Granted, amenities has the same issue (you really aren't going to get into 'rebellion' territory barring extended ware weariness).

It also felt, especially with a lot of the Civ LUA/UA, like they were sort of a little stretched on actual developer resources and were repeating a lot..