(only) 8 factions

[awesome]

Yeah, not sure where he got that information. And as fun much as mixing up the leaderheads and civilizations was in civ4, i'm glad you can't do that anymore.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

From the Firaxis website:

Seed the Adventure: Players will establish a cultural identity, select a leader and sponsor an expedition by assembling the spacecraft, cargo and colonists through a series of choices that directly impact starting conditions when arriving on the new alien planet.

I interpreted this as: first choose your cultural background (faction), then choose a leader...
Maybe it's just my speculation due to ambiguous wording.

 

[Liex]

From the Firaxis website:


I interpreted this as: first choose your cultural background (faction), then choose a leader...
Maybe it's just my speculation due to ambiguous wording.

You're not the only one. From the Gameinformer article:

At the start of the game, players will choose leaders and factions (no longer bundled with one another) and choose colonists and equipment to settle the land.

But most other articles and information suggest different.

 

[PhilBowles]

From the Firaxis website:


I interpreted this as: first choose your cultural background (faction), then choose a leader...
Maybe it's just my speculation due to ambiguous wording.

With what we now know, I suspect 'cultural background' refers to affinity, not faction identity. The wording is significant: you don't "establish" a faction, you select one.

 

[JokerJace]

With the spaceship-customization, affinities and the tech web we barely need factions at all. I still hope they habe much personality and art style differences. At least it seems like we get evolving leader appearances again.

Sure, but there are several faction independent ways to contrast yourself in all of the games in the franchise. But factions add another layer to the game. Having this unique touch on gameplay adds so much flavour and replayability. Imagine CiV without any factions but with the ability to select your first building, your two first units and a boost to one of the yields. And now imagine factions in CiV having a bigger impact on gameplay and being visually more distinct. Which game would you prefer?

 

[kwidem]

.

 

[PhilBowles]

No.
From the numerous articles we have, affinities are not 'chosen'; they evolve over time, as you research specific techs and do other things.

Precisely what I mean - the wording 'established' doesn't imply that you actively choose your cultural background.

 

[kwidem]

.

 

[JokerJace]

It's just an issue that I feel many fans would like addresses and additionally it's comparatively easy to solve. ( In comparison to the accursed AI for example ) They would just have to risk some imbalances here and there. That's the only problem I see. And since balance isn't the biggest strength of the franchise anyway ( Poland vs Netherlands?! ) or even the biggest requirement of a mostly singleplayer game, I can't see why they wouldn't design more essential and juicy distinctions between the factions. A lack of inspiration can't be the reason.

 

[AriochIV]

In Beyond Earth, the faction bonuses are only a minor part of your strengths and weaknesses in a game: the more important choices appear to be your starting colony ship loadout (type, cargo, and passengers) and your later Affinity choices. Each faction has at least three different Affinity-determined variants. This would seem to be why there are only 8 factions (together with the fact that on a colony world, the specific details of your culture of origin would seem to me to be largely and increasingly unimportant).

 

[awesome]

Yeah, everyone starts off on an even footing.
Though, i wonder if there's a benefit to not choosing the fastest ship.

 

[JokerJace]

In Beyond Earth, the faction bonuses are only a minor part of your strengths and weaknesses in a game: the more important choices appear to be your starting colony ship loadout (type, cargo, and passengers) and your later Affinity choices. Each faction has at least three different Affinity-determined variants. This would seem to be why there are only 8 factions (together with the fact that on a colony world, the specific details of your culture of origin would seem to me to be largely and increasingly unimportant).

But do you think taking out that layer of gameplay is a good choice? Would you like the previous CiV games more, if you could build up your faction from a few choices as I described earlier in this thread, instead of having truly unique finishing touches? This would basically enable identical factions in beyond earth.

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

In Beyond Earth, the faction bonuses are only a minor part of your strengths and weaknesses in a game: the more important choices appear to be your starting colony ship loadout (type, cargo, and passengers) and your later Affinity choices. Each faction has at least three different Affinity-determined variants. This would seem to be why there are only 8 factions (together with the fact that on a colony world, the specific details of your culture of origin would seem to me to be largely and increasingly unimportant).

Since your ship loadout is made before you take a single look at the planet, the choice is effectively a speciation of your faction choice. It's interesting, when you said that loadout would be a large factor and "faction" a small one: At first I was upset, then I realized I do indeed prefer that to the alternative. In the first place, we hope of course the balance is done right, and if so, then your loadout becomes the way you initiate your specific playstyle from turn 0. Any one of the loadouts could be "correct", it depends from there how you use them.

In Multiplayer civ, people took on this standard of making the civ selection Random. This is called an answer to the imbalance of the civilizations, (which makes no sense to me; if a civ is unbalanced, then let players pick their civs but ban that one, don't allow it to show up under blind luck), and again, we hope for balance in Beyond Earth. But whether that happens or not, it's important to recognize the limitation to the very first thing I said in this post. Faction choice will be part of game settings, meaning it could be set to random, but loadout will be something the player chooses absolutely every time.

Thanks for the post. It gave me all this to chew on. I'm dumbfounded myself with what my point even is but thanks.

 

[AriochIV]

But do you think taking out that layer of gameplay is a good choice? Would you like the previous CiV games more, if you could build up your faction from a few choices as I described earlier in this thread, instead of having truly unique finishing touches? This would basically enable identical factions in beyond earth.

The starting situation in Beyond Earth is thematically different from a normal Civilization game in which you're playing a historical faction; Beyond Earth is less about who your culture used to be, and more about the choices you make in-game to decide who you're going to be in the future. A layer of gameplay is being added, not taken away. I wouldn't advocate a regular game of Civ V being set up this way, but it makes perfect sense for a colony building game.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

In Beyond Earth, the faction bonuses are only a minor part of your strengths and weaknesses in a game: the more important choices appear to be your starting colony ship loadout (type, cargo, and passengers) and your later Affinity choices. Each faction has at least three different Affinity-determined variants. This would seem to be why there are only 8 factions (together with the fact that on a colony world, the specific details of your culture of origin would seem to me to be largely and increasingly unimportant).

How do you know its minor?

There is more starting options than just your faction, so that is less than in civ where 'faction' is the only starting option, but factions could still be a large and ongoing effect.

As for decisions in game affecting things...you have that in civ as well (religions, ideologies, build order)

 

[JokerJace]

How do you know its minor?
There is more starting options than just your faction, so that is less than in civ where 'faction' is the only starting option, but factions could still be a large and ongoing effect.

I really hope so.

As for decisions in game affecting things...you have that in civ as well (religions, ideologies, build order)

Correct, as I said, there are several faction independent ways to contrast yourself. From my point of view the loadout is just another in game decision, even though it is technically done before the game. These are all things, that are available to everyone and if the same decisions are made, this leads to identical outcomes. That is boring.

The starting situation in Beyond Earth is thematically different from a normal Civilization game in which you're playing a historical faction; Beyond Earth is less about who your culture used to be, and more about the choices you make in-game to decide who you're going to be in the future. A layer of gameplay is being added, not taken away. I wouldn't advocate a regular game of Civ V being set up this way, but it makes perfect sense for a colony building game.

I don't see why "who you were" can't or shouldn't influence your initial position. It actually is a inescapable necessity. A layer of gameplay would be removed, since the uniqueness of every faction is a completely different thing. This way you are just adding more decisions that are available to everyone. That's just more decisions. Like adding a new option for ancient ruins or choosing a building that already exists in your capital before the game or something comparable. Faction uniqueness definitely works on a different layer and that layer would be gone. It would be a shame.

 

[Fabio1701]

+/- differences might be intersting if well implemented, but not as interesting as actual unique abilities which can bring not only unique strategies, but unique flavour. In civ5 there is an over-abundance of +/- in science/growth/production etc in the social engineering which makes me play by numbers and I loose the flavour of the game. I really don't FEEL that my civ is a democracy or monarchy or republic or whatever like I did in civ4, where choices made changes like killing slaves or making other civs unhappy with your freedom.

I hope that the factions have unique abilities more than just +/-.

 

[Lord Shadow]

I don't see why "who you were" can't or shouldn't influence your initial position. It actually is a inescapable necessity. A layer of gameplay would be removed, since the uniqueness of every faction is a completely different thing. This way you are just adding more decisions that are available to everyone. That's just more decisions. Like adding a new option for ancient ruins or choosing a building that already exists in your capital before the game or something comparable. Faction uniqueness definitely works on a different layer and that layer would be gone. It would be a shame.

I believe there's plenty of differentiation between the CivBE factions, and can't see how faction choice would be a minor thing. They're in the vein of the SMAC ones, but more unique, with five performance variables instead of just three. It's possibly a better model than that of recent Civs, in which besides a unique unit, building and ability, all generally circumstantial, all nations play pretty much the same. While that can produce particular playstyles, bonuses and penalties which constantly affect a faction's performance can have a potentially larger impact in creating consistently different behaviours.