Is Rising Tide worth getting?

[manu-fan]

Hi,

So, I'm back in the game and have a few domination games under my belt and was wondering if it was worth getting Rising Tide? I'm a warmonger who doesn't really care about Diplomacy (the best diplomacy is whacking them over the head).

What are the good and bad things about Rising Tide?

Cheers.

 

[Gorbles]

Well, "good" and "bad" people will happily argue about til the end of time, haha. But here's what RT brings to the table:

1. New Diplomacy UI and mechanics. Completely removes all facets of old Diplomacy, if that affects your opinion.

2. Aquatic Cities. Your Mileage May Vary, some people like 'em, some people don't. They function in somewhat different ways to land-based Cities.

3. Improved planetary Biomes that also come with associated Quests based on landmark features called Marvels. Aliens also differ in looks (and possibly stats) based on Biome. Examples: Frigid Biome, Arid Biome. A common complaint is that the Marvel Quests are underwhelming.

4. Artefacts. You acquire these through pillaging Alien Nests or completing Expeditions. Can be combined for boosts to your economy, unique unit upgrades, buildings or even Wonders.

5. Hybrid Affinities. You can combine any two of the existing Affinities to unlock a specialist Affinity with its own units and visual theme. Not as game-affecting as your main Affinity choice, however (only affects how the units look, not anything else).

6. Warfare is now based on War Score which allows for a bit more flexibility when suing for peace. Might affect you as a warmonger!

7. A lot of UI polish. Makes the game feel a bit more alive / interactive, in my opinion. New unit upgrade screen, and other redone screens.

8. Other random stuff like improved graphics for aquatic tiles, new aquatic units, balance changes, Spy Ops and so on. The typical stuff you expect in an expansion.

 

[kipwheeler]

5. Hybrid Affinities. You can combine any two of the existing Affinities to unlock a specialist Affinity with its own units and visual theme. Not as game-affecting as your main Affinity choice, however (only affects how the units look, not anything else).

I'd make one minor alteration to the description of Hybrid affinities. It is true that they do not affect most of the victory conditions (Exodus, Mindstem, and Supremacy's liberation of Old Earth), but they do have an effect on domination victories in the midgame. Many of the mid-game hybrid affinity levels result in units that have slightly more power than the mid-game's main affinity levels, and thus if you seek Domination Victories, they can help you "rush" or "steam-roll" opponents a bit more effectively, IMHO.

By the late game, however, the mainline affinity units have better stats, and once again become more efficient for domination victory.

 

[Galgus]

Traits and artifacts are fun to play around with, hybrid affinities are cool if poorly fleshed out, and water cities can be fun.

Definitely get it if you enjoy playing BE.

 

[manu-fan]

7. A lot of UI polish. Makes the game feel a bit more alive / interactive, in my opinion. New unit upgrade screen, and other redone screens.

I think that's all patched into BE isn't it? The new unit upgrade screen with a circle for example.

Thanks for your complete reply giving me an overview of RT features.

What are aquatic cities like? Are there resources around them? Do you use workers to improve those resources?

Thanks.

 

[Gort]

I'd suggest trying out the demo.

The game generally has better flavour with RT, but the AI is even worse at it.

 

[Gorbles]

I think that's all patched into BE isn't it? The new unit upgrade screen with a circle for example.

Thanks for your complete reply giving me an overview of RT features.

What are aquatic cities like? Are there resources around them? Do you use workers to improve those resources?

Thanks.

There are aquatic resources (and Strategics spawn underwater too), they have very low yields compared to land-based resources due to a) Food being plentiful (at least, in my experience) and b) Aquatic Cities being driven by Production more than anyhting else.

You can use workers, and they don't need any technology to embark (onto aquatic hexes).

You can spend Production to "move" Aquatic Cities as they don't gain hexes (by Culture expansion) as land Cities normally do. There are a number of Aquatic City-exclusive buildings and Wonders. Aquatic Cities typically have a higher offensive strength, but are more easily conquered.

A lot of the general (UI) improvements could be patched into the base game, I'm honestly not sure how many of them are though.

There is more to do in the game, especially early-game, but like Gort says this translates into a less effective AI because you as a player tend to do better (than in the base game).

 

[Chester267]

I'd say hold off for a sale on RT. While there are a lot of good ideas (Water cities, Hybrids), Most of the new features feel unfinished and I have doubts that Beyond Earth will receive further attention.

 

[DutchJob]

Get it if you have money to throw away, the art work alone is worth it.

But you probably won't sink in as many hours as others did into Civ 4 or 5.

Certainly don't get it if you appreciate the Hall of Fame because since the latest patch that stopped working.

 

[Torvald]

Certainly don't get it if you appreciate the Hall of Fame because since the latest patch that stopped working.

I also encountered the broken Hall of Fame problem after installing Rising Tide, but was able to fix it as follows:

It turns out that my Hall of Fame database file had somehow become corrupted after installing the Rising Tide expansion.

What I did to fix the problem was to go to C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\Replays and then delete the file named HallOfFameDatabase.db

My Hall of Fame screen was still initially blank, but then after reloading and replaying the last few turns of my two previously completed Civ-BERT games to the point of victory, the Hall of Fame database file recreated itself and correctly displayed my two victories.

 

[BinderAJ]

Beyond Earth and all DLCs are on sale on Steam (25% off it seems).

 

[manu-fan]

Beyond Earth and all DLCs are on sale on Steam (25% off it seems).

Yep, I noticed that. 25% off this weekend until Feb 1st. I think I'll take the plunge.

 

[ZTZaorish]

wait till it's on 66% or 75% and you won't be disappointed. I wouldn't get it at 25%

 

[Ryika]

If you enjoy warmongering the most and didn't have a problem with the relatively weak overall package of the original game, then I'd actually say Rising Tide has a lot to offer. Warmongering in the early game and throughout most of the game is a pretty valid strategy now, there's free Stuff via Warscore, new units to play with, Naval Gameplay as an alternative. Only real downside is the fact that the game became even easier in Rising Tide - the AI is incapable of defending itself against a semi-proper naval player and Hybrid-Upgrades pretty much break the game.

 

[Galgus]

While I certainly wouldn't say the AI is good in naval combat, I think it puts up more of a fight with navies if the AI is water based.

That or its mods and luck biasing my perspective.

 

[manu-fan]

If you enjoy warmongering the most and didn't have a problem with the relatively weak overall package of the original game, then I'd actually say Rising Tide has a lot to offer. Warmongering in the early game and throughout most of the game is a pretty valid strategy now, there's free Stuff via Warscore, new units to play with, Naval Gameplay as an alternative. Only real downside is the fact that the game became even easier in Rising Tide - the AI is incapable of defending itself against a semi-proper naval player and Hybrid-Upgrades pretty much break the game.

That actually sounds good. I like winning

 

[Sauron 3]

I like the game with RD very much! But I don't like apparent advanteges for cities on the sea in comparence with land-based towns.

 

[darkskies]

To me it was worth it for the more interesting exploration. As a domination player I find the AI is still easy to dominate alas. But I don't find myself tempted to go back even for nostalgia.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Just FYI, the base game Beyond Earth is on sale right now on Steam for only $13.19. I'd say that is a great bargain.

 

[DutchJob]

What I did to fix the problem was to go to C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth\Replays and then delete the file named HallOfFameDatabase.db

Dude, thank you so much.