'Rising Tide' expansion announced!

[AriochIV]

The strategic layer seemed like a cute feature, but in practice I never used it.

 

[thecrazyscot]

The only people I know of who used it regularly were those with certain visual disabilities or who used it for better performance.

 

[oldag07]

I wonder if the new leaders will be added to Starships.

 

[Barathor]

Hmm, really? Never mind cute, it was damn sexy, haha. Some options were quite useless (like most of the overlays), but others were very useful if you knew how to set them up clearly. crazyscot, I didn't use it for either of those things and found it useful for other things such as:

1) Having a clear overview of all unit positions during wars and such.

2) Finding unimproved tiles right away with the Improvements icon mode; sometimes I'd even spot a pillaged tile I've missed since the improvement icon turns red and you can't miss it in the strategic layer.

3) Planning settlements with Resource icon mode turned on, and the Resource overlay to color them by type (helps to clearly pinpoint the locations of strategic resource plots too), plus the grid enabled for proper spacing.

(It's also great when testing mods and getting a quick overview of your resource distribution.)

4) Clearly viewing all city connections and planning an efficient road network.

5) Getting a very clear picture of trade route paths.

6) Also, helps to get a slightly clearer picture to search for Antiquity sites, using the Resource icon mode. (If they would have added another color, like magenta, to color antiquity sites instead of lumping them in with green bonus resources, it would've been perfect.)

7) It was also nice for moving large groups of naval units quickly, to plan their destinations better and avoid traffic jams, especially since their movement rates are so high.

8) Like I said above, it was great for testing out map script mods and quickly analyzing different aspects of the map.

- - - - -

Sure, none of it is necessary. But, as said, it was just a convenient tool to have to help view things more efficiently at times, especially at its top-down angle. Some even play under it exclusively, but I could never do that since I love all the eye candy -- I could never even disable combat animations like others do. I just jump into the strategic layer, get the info, and get back to the normal layer to continue playing.

 

[Gorbles]

Oh, is that why? That's a shame. I guess when they said "couldn't" it meant they couldn't just use the same one from Civ without putting some extra time into it and tweaking it to work with the new orbital layer. It understandably wasn't a priority at the time. Hopefully, that will change; it was a useful tool.

Some refinement to the orbital layer would be nice too. It would be cool if anti-orbital strikes switched to the orbital layer when targetting and showed the satellite being hit and exploding before returning to the main layer. Using it would be so much more satisfying than it currently is.

I'd rather not have another overly-long animation I can't turn off without disabling all animations. The combat ones are varied and indicate damage done. Orbitals are a one-shot kill; there's no real need for an animation.

 

[Stylesrj]

Orbitals are a one-shot kill; there's no real need for an animation.

Yes there is. People would want to see that satellite get blown up by artillery.

 

[Barathor]

I'd rather not have another overly-long animation I can't turn off without disabling all animations. The combat ones are varied and indicate damage done. Orbitals are a one-shot kill; there's no real need for an animation.

It doesn't have to be anything drawn out like the air combat animations. When you're moving the red highlighted hex target around, it takes you to the orbital layer already where you can see the different satellites (instead of targeting from the main layer). You just click and "BOOM" it explodes. Then it quickly returns you to the main layer to continue business.

 

[AriochIV]

I agree that it's currently not very clear when a satellite gets shot down -- you only see the firing unit and not the satellite, and unless you catch the text message, you can easily miss it. Though I also agree that there's no need for a drawn-out animation.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I agree that it's currently not very clear when a satellite gets shot down -- you only see the firing unit and not the satellite, and unless you catch the text message, you can easily miss it. Though I also agree that there's no need for a drawn-out animation.

Also it's odd because there firing animation of units shooting at orbitals has the unit disappear for a moment and then reappear. To me it makes it seem like the unit is jumping into orbit.

 

[iki]

I use the odd Repulsor or Solar collector, I have even launched the Telescopes for Contact victory. But it's kind of a missed opportunity. The Satellite Weapons seem practically useless unless you are lucky.

 

[whyidie]

From http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...ond-earth-expansion-release-date/#more-289267 :

RPS: How much of a foregone conclusion was an expansion pack for Beyond Earth? A lot of reviews – including ours, I think – predicted that expansions would make it so much better, but how reasonable an assumption was that?

Will: We have a long-term product plan at Firaxis. I can’t comment on exactly what that looks like, but when we set out to make Beyond Earth the idea was to make a franchise. You’re seeing us committed to that franchise, committed to that idea with this expansion, And with the patches to the base game that we released afterwards. I think it is sort of a foregone conclusion for us.

As someone who doesn't own BE, this is exciting. I'm glad they didn't abandon ship and are making a go of a future based Civ, in this case sticking it out despite a lot of negativity and weak sales.

Hopefully the dudes pictured in the article find some joy (so unhappy...) and get a good final product out the door once all is said and done.

If this series shows the same curve as 5 did, I'll be very happy buying the full final, gold, really golden final, gold edition super final gold edition whenever its on sale.

 

[AriochIV]

Maybe, before they start talking about a "franchise," they should concentrate on making a game that's really good and is worthy of a series.

So far this particular "franchise" consists of two shoddy, mediocre games.

 

[Ryika]

But isn't that what they're saying? Imho mentioning that their goal is to turn it into a franchise only supplements the notion that they're not just "giving up" the game and will continue to make it the game people want to see.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Maybe, before they start talking about a "franchise," they should concentrate on making a game that's really good and is worthy of a series.

So far this particular "franchise" consists of two shoddy, mediocre games.

I'm not sure what you are saying they should be doing. They can't go back in time and release different games. It's either time travel, or make an expansion.

 

[Acken]

I'm personally glad they're trying (even if I'd preffer Civ6 at this point). But I'll wait to see what they do this time and if lessons were learned. Last 2 patchs make me very skeptical I'll like what they're cooking though.

 

[AriochIV]

An expansion is the right thing to do, I just bristle a bit at the use of the term "franchise."

 

[Kutuzov]

Well, this is very, very good news indeed. After a rocky start like Civ V had, who knows what this game could grow up into? Even though I am happy playing it as it stands, I believe that it has tremendous potential and I think most of us felt that this could be something great if they put the time and resources into it.

 

[iki]

Maybe, before they start talking about a "franchise," they should concentrate on making a game that's really good and is worthy of a series.

So far this particular "franchise" consists of two shoddy, mediocre games.

I feel this is a little harsh while both games certainly had their problems. They seem polished much more than other games released.

Every game I've bought recently had problems at launch, all required patches to make them functional, Beyond Earth didn't so I can't fault them for this.

I can't say for Starships (as I got it 2 months later) but for a multi platform game that I've yet to beat it certainly is fine for me.

I'd like the universe to be expanded and the Sponsors / Factions to have more perspectives / play styles then they currently have as honestly I've not really noticed. I tend to generate cities, food, and culture at the same rate.

 

[Karl0413]

I am rather pleased at this news. Beyond Earth was actually a better than vanilla CIV V on release (though not as good as it with the expansions and dlc content). And this shouldn't be unexpected. This is Firaxis's standard business model; release a decent but flawed game, followed by a couple of patches to fix major gripes; then comes the expansion and dlc storm that ends up with a pricey but great game.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Maybe, before they start talking about a "franchise," they should concentrate on making a game that's really good and is worthy of a series.

So far this particular "franchise" consists of two shoddy, mediocre games.

An expansion is the right thing to do, I just bristle a bit at the use of the term "franchise."

I personally consider them still part of the Civ V franchise. BE is an offshoot of Civ V, after all, and Starships could be considered an offshoot of BE.

"Shoddy" and "mediocre" isn't accurate IMO. I enjoyed BE for quite a few hours, and Starships is a nice light game. Dunno what about them makes them shoddy or mediocre, which are pretty strong terms.