Removing aliens as harmony

[Meyerm]

So I just got Civ Beyond Earth, tried it out for a few dozen turns, and I have a question regarding going down the harmony path. Is it possible to be effective as harmony and control alien presence as well? I don't like the idea of free roaming AI aliens and nests getting in the way of resources, even if they are friendly. Basically, can you be anti-alien and harmony without screwing yourself, or would what I mentioned above not be an issue?

 

[oldag07]

Yes, you can be anti-alien and be harmony. Rising Tide will make it a little easier to not attack aliens but in the long run, either you clear them out, or your enemies will. No you will not be penalized for being at peace with aliens, and aliens can be a bit of a nuisance.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Harmony never really gets to "control" the aliens. You can become friendly with the aliens by expanding your borders onto a tile containing an alien nest (and then waiting a bunch of turns while not murdering aliens until the alien color turns blue). Once that happens, the aliens never attack you. Ironically, you don't even need to be Harmony to do this.

Also, you can be an alien genociding maniac and still be Harmony. It doesn't adversely affect your affinity.

Harmony as space-hippies is more an aesthetic than a play style. What Harmony really is, affinity-wise, is the idea of harvesting DNA from the aliens and splicing it into the human genome to better adapt humanity to the new world while domesticating the local wildlife to do your bidding. Eventually you can do it enough that humanity can commune with the world's hive mind, but that doesn't mean you need to respect the aliens.

 

[Galgus]

@Eagle Pursuit

That is how it works in-game, but it really doesn't fit with Harmony's conservationist themes.

 

[Ryika]

In reality Harmony are the ones who are most likely to get rid of the aliens, because their nests spawn on Xenomass and getting the Xenomass without getting rid of the aliens is just painful. Way easier to just kill them all for the greater good.

 

[Zenstrive]

You really want your immediate vicinities to be cleared off the indigenous lifeforms ("aliens") and miasma, because they annoy you in the long run. Even when you're green with them, their aquatic units will hunt your ships!

 

[Aldor]

You get the Xenomass from a nest without building a well, if you are friendly with the aliens. So if you don't need it immediately, you can stay friendly with them and still get your Xenomass

Also, nests stop spawning new aliens once they're inside your borders.

@Zenstrive: That's not my experience. I have never had land or sea aliens attack once they turned friendly (blue). Or are you talking about Rising Tide previews?

 

[Zenstrive]

@Aldor: like I said, even when they're "green", not "blue"
I rarely have blue since I often clear miasma and raze nests and station my unit on top of it.
Will they actively hunting my enemies when they're blue?

 

[Gritf]

Once I a game I got blue aliens, they attacked all of my enemies that came my way. So, maybe they do fight for you. It was fun because my coasts were full of Krakes.

Also, the Xenodrome Wonder forces aliens to be friends (blue) with you at the least. That is until you build the Mind Flower and they start hating you (red).

 

[HughFran]

I actually wasn't aware that clearing Miasma turned aliens hostile to you. With regards to the nests themselves, no matter what affinity I am, I try to be on friendly terms with aliens for a strategic reason: I like having a few of their nests and swarms as a buffer zone between me and a potential enemy. It worked quite well in a few games where an AI declared war on me and had to wade through tones of aliens to get near my bases. By the time they were done with the aliens, I was able to rush some units into production and defend myself. It doesn't always work but when it does, it's quite fun watching the AI suffer!!

 

[Ryika]

I actually wasn't aware that clearing Miasma turned aliens hostile to you.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

 

[HughFran]

I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

Ah, okay. Somebody in an above post seems to think it does!!

 

[Halbbruder]

CivBERT has also reformed some affinity bonuses, one of them being the harmony ability to leash aliens. According to devs, you can leash stronger aliens depending on your harmony level.

Also, welcome to Civfanatics, Meyerm!

 

[HughFran]

Wow that'd be pretty cool but at the same time they would need to balance that out so that Harmony doesn't become stronger than the other two. If Harmony is able to use the aliens basically as units then Purity and Supremacy will need a perk too!!

 

[Natura]

Depends on the affinity level requirements for leashing units. Terrestrial aliens that aren't Siege Worms cease being relevant as units pretty quickly, and aquatic aliens only remain relevant now because we have no melee ships, so ships use their ranged defense against exclusively melee aliens and get utterly destroyed until you hit high affinity. BERT will change that too. If you need to be say, Harmony 10 to leash Siege Worms and Kraken, it will play very little role in gameplay for two reasons: they won't be relevant as units by that stage of the game, and they probably won't exist anymore; late game most nests have been taken out and with BERT, the seas will be a lot more crowded.

 

[HughFran]

You make a very valid point Natura. I am definitely intrigued as to how this whole populating the sea thing is going to pan out!

 

[Red Menace]

In one of the live streams the devs said you could leash a Makara early but it would probably kill your Explorer and since you need Harmony 3 for leashing it could be powerful. of course if you can get them i think they're the amphibious aliens

so a 28 strength unit could be powerful if you get it early enough, if its possible i could be way off

 

[joncnunn]

For what the developers were intending with "Harmony" with "vanilla" BE think Native American (Humans as the top predator of a stable ecosystem) NOT PETA.