'Rising Tide' expansion announced!

[Barathor]

So, one thing they talked about that I haven't seen in any articles yet is that there are some new water units which mirror some of the land versions. The one they mentioned was the patrol ship, which is melee and similar to the marine units on land.

I doubt these things, but...

I'm curious if other roles will make it to water now too, like siege or mobile. Especially siege, since ocean cities won't need to worry about land siege units bombarding their defenses down (well, until hover units, haha).

And if some water units, like patrol ships, can disembark onto land as weaker units so they can traverse through it.

 

[Cougarcat]

So for I'm only seeing announcements in the form of "For PC." Will the Mac version of the expansion be released at the same time?

Aspyr announced Mac and Linux versions on their blog. They just say Fall 2015.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Dave did mention that BE vanilla will get a big patch to update a lot of the core mechanics that Rising Tide changes.

 

[Gorbles]

Ugh. Aquatic cities were the worst feature of Alien Crossfire.

And the Arabic leader is a woman? Good joke.

Fun fact: this isn't SMAC.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

So, one thing they talked about that I haven't seen in any articles yet is that there are some new water units which mirror some of the land versions. The one they mentioned was the patrol ship, which is melee and similar to the marine units on land.

When i saw those three-ship-formations I was pretty sure they were a new naval unit and assumed that they're melee (just because BE didn't have naval melee units).

There was also mention of submarine in one article (I think the one on Rock Paper Shotgun).

 

[NASAROG]

Does it not make sense that Rising Tide is 2.0 considering that 2.0 is supposed to take a bold approach and make BE what the devs intended it to be and Rising Tide seems to be an attempt to do just that?

Sure, but Civ:BE 2.0 should happen without having RT, you know what I mean.

It'll be on sale. No need to act like that.

Act like what? I think that $30 is too much as a base price.

 

[Barathor]

There was also mention of submarine in one article (I think the one on Rock Paper Shotgun).

Yeah, there's a submarine unit on the one image showing off the beautiful coastal waters.

 

[Sonereal]

Act like what? I think that $30 is too much as a base price.

$30 is pretty standard procedure for expansion packs. Just wait until a sale.

 

[Acken]

I'll admit I,m somewhat surprised. I always welcome an expansion but not really enjoying the base game due to unrefined systems make me very skeptical of this one.

If it comes with massive changes to the base game why not, the addition sounds cool. But if they were to just add water cities and "artifacts" onto what we currently play that won't interest me. Or if they are added as poorly as the base game features.
I'm skeptic about the diplomacy change after the favor addition CBE was supposed to bring.

I find it a little sad that the base game barely got patched so far and this is the major reason why I'm skeptic about RT. If I were more impressed by how much work was going into patches I'd be excited. It also means no free 2.0 I think. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that a major overhaul is in the work. But after 2 patches and the base release I don't trust their judgement. Especially if they repeat history and don't let people test new/changed systems.

So I guess only time will tell if it's truly a pristine Expansion or another low budget product while waiting for something more consistant.

 

[MattZed]

Aspyr announced Mac and Linux versions on their blog. They just say Fall 2015.

Ah, thank-you. Curious that only Aspyr is mentioning the Mac and Linux versions.

When i saw those three-ship-formations I was pretty sure they were a new naval unit and assumed that they're melee (just because BE didn't have naval melee units).

On the livestream they mentioned those little ships were called patrol boats. They said they're "similar to your marine on land--it'll be your front-line shock troop, your basic melee unit." (as Barathor pointed out)

 

[NASAROG]

$30 is pretty standard procedure for expansion packs. Just wait until a sale.

No doubt, I was just saying that if they made this one $20, the public outcry, which is sure to follow, would be a lot more muted.

 

[AriochIV]

There are four new naval units in the screenshots, and two alien units.

 

[Barathor]

It also means no free 2.0 I think.

The devs themselves stated that there will still be a 2.0 patch for vanilla, containing what I believe they described as "core changes".

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

There are four new naval units in the screenshots, and two alien units.

I suspect the third and fourth are both different tiers of the Submarine.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

The first two are probably the tier 1 and 2 variant of the patrol boat, the last oen looks to me like it might be a naval colonist.

 

[Barathor]

Here's another screenshot showing a new type of land alien:

Spoiler :

EDIT:

And another with some new improvements:

Spoiler :

EDIT 2: Never mind, they're not. I'm too excited and need to calm down, haha.

 

[Acken]

The devs themselves stated that there will still be a 2.0 patch for vanilla, containing what I believe they described as "core changes".

Let's hope it's on another scale than Patch 1+2

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Here's another screenshot showing a new type of land alien:

Spoiler :

EDIT:

And another with some new improvements:

Spoiler :

No. Those were pre-release version Wolf Beetles and the second is just the Stellar Codex wonder in water.

 

[PhilBowles]

My initial reaction when I first read the news too, haha.

Genuine question - having finally picked up the expansion a while ago after playing AC back in the day without it, and hating the new factions, the alien soap opera, the aquatic cities, and pretty much everything about Alien Crossfire - were there actually any good features in Alien Crossfire? As far as I can tell, SMAC is the one 'Civ' game that's at its best without the expansion.

Opening up the water for settlements makes the maps HUGE now, among other complications.

That I like. Maybe it's just the visual style of Civ V and BE, with gigantic cities, tiles and unit icons, but at least to me maps have always felt much smaller than their counterparts in older Civ games.

 

[Liegence]

Let me be honest: I will pick it up. I want to support Firaxis even though I only played BE about 1% of the amount of time I've had with CiV.

My biggest hopes are that the water cities are more than just "now land = sea" and that they are significantly differentiated, and that the god awful diplomacy is actually revamped with something cool and interactive.