Rising Tide - First Impressions

[LORD ORION]

1st Impression

Definitely was worth it...
Are their bugs? Sure... but the concepts are solid and hopefully bugs will get fixed.

I find there is alot more situational opportunity costs to think about now. Now don't get me wrong, there is still alot of stuff that is easily recognized as a terribad choice, or laughably OP (ummm, all workers are free now? OK tough choice between that and 25% orbital production) but there does seem to be choices that do matter depending how the game has unfolded, which is a big step up from vanilla.

1st thing that made me smile was an affinity quest that got me to build an early clinic. (what, but... I need more explorers... grrrrr)
I also noticed that trade depot quest is now +1 prod or +2 energy (instead of +1 or +1), so there seems to be some headway into changing no brainer quest decisions?

So far the only disappointing thing for me is that there are no new colonist, spacecraft or cargo options and that the bad ones weren't changed. (also surprised that the options from Starships are still not enabled for BERT, come on, paid you mo' money, don't make me text edit the files already)

Ultimately,
You should get BERT if you have Vanilla BE.

 

[kipwheeler]

So I guess there can be multiple marvels on the same map? I have found a hydracoral brain 6 tiles away from a giant fungus. Needless to say this surprises and confuses me a bit.

My understand is that is working as intended. There's one marvel unique to each biome type, but you can also get a multi-biome marvel for oceans or a marvel for lands, IIRC. Two marvels should be the maximum, though.

 

[ZarkinFardwarks]

Is the game setup broken for anyone else?


For some reason, these are the default settings that all of my games start with. Only Domination is active, frenzied aliens is turned on, and all the planet options have already been decided for me. I've never set the options up this way, and I'm not using any mods.

Even when I never actually open up the Advanced Setup menu and just try to set up my game normally, these Advanced Setup options will still be active. This means that I basically have to go into the Advanced Setup menu every time I want to start up a game, click on "Reset", and then have to use this menu to setup my game. If I go back out, the Advanced Setup is reverted to these new default options.

 

[Leathaface]

I just played Rising Tide for 5 hours straight there, I really enjoyed it. Much, much better than Beyond Earth Vanilla.

 

[CelJaded]

Has anyone tried using the Suspicious diplomatic trait yet?

Maybe it's just me, but I can't see it doing anything. I completed several covert operations after upgrading it up to rank 2, but my agents seem to be gaining levels at the standard rate.

Anyone else have better luck?

 

[Kutuzov]

I managed to get a couple of hours in earlier today and had a blast. I have avoided watching any of the LPs on YouTube or elsewhere in order to preserve the freshness of the game. For me, this initial learning experience is one of the highlights of picking up a new game/expansion.

I experienced no problems getting the first session set up and have encountered no bugs that I'm aware of but I'm still coming to terms with the new features and don't know how they're supposed to work yet. I went with the PAC for my first play-through on Gemini difficulty which was probably a mistake as I'd have preferred to play at a lower level to experience the new features without having the AI interfere with me too much.

Surprise, surprise, I don't know who's landed on the planet anymore until I actually send someone out to meet one of their units. I like that but you probably all knew about that months ago. I like the new DC feature as well and have set up an agreement with Hutama to get an extra trade route in my capital. I've built one of these new satellites that helps develop trading stations as well to see how that all works out.

It all looks much, much better than vanilla BE. I prefer all the new artwork with the exception of the virtue tree artwork which is a tad too busy for my taste but nothing to get hung about. In fact, now, I'd say that it's more visually appealing then EL is with the notable exception of EL's amazing unit models. The maps look fantastic now and there's so much that's new on them too.

The new tech web is much more appealing as well. Lots of new improvements to explore there. So far, I'm up to Level 7 Purity but I've been mining the Might tree to get the Affinity bonuses so that's helped speed things up a lot.

I haven't built a water-borne city yet but I will in my next session. The PAC get to build one wonder instantly in their cities so I'll save that Faraday Gyre wonder for my first water city if that's possible.

The AI players in my game are Korea, Barre, Koslov, Hutama, Duncan (LOVE the accent! Not that different from mine but my voice is slightly higher pitched.) Elodie and the ARC (Booo!) and Koslov has been a right war-monger so far declaring war on two AI civs. I'm losing a LOT of respect from Korea as my military is not as good as he expected. I'll put him straight on that soon enough.

So, that's my first impression. Fair enough, I was already enjoying BE vanilla so I'm not 'hard to please' but I'd say that this is one of the best expansions I've seen for a Civ game so far. Better even than BNW? Time will tell.

 

[Ryika]

I guess I'll quickly wrap up by personal First Impressions with this post. Thoughts at the "end" of day 1:

- My opinion is definitely on the positive side. Even with all the bugs and annoyances that I've found, I'm having a lot of fun and the positive things shine more than I've probably made them sound so far
- My number one complaint aren't actually the bugs, but... well. The way the new features are distributed. The Early Game is SO full of stuff to do and then, the further you go, the less and less you've got to do. It feels overwhelming at first... and then it just falls off. Well, unless you play Polystralia. SO MANY trade routes to build.
- I really enjoy not knowing what I do and trying out the new combinations. African Union + Specialists + ...Biowells is HORRIBLE, but the game was still fun.
- I'm not looking forward to fixing my mods. Oh my goooood, so much work. T_T
(- Oh and: At first glance Worker AI actually looks somewhat decent. I disagree strongly with their Choices when it comes to Improvement Types, but they didn't clunk up in one place like they normally do, they don't just stop working and they even handle working in/around miasma. Should be a nice little buff for the AI that's not just a flat bonus-modifier.)

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Very quick first impressions from about 25 minutes of playing (40ish turns, playing as INTGR):
- Early game is faster and more interesting thanks exploration and artifacts which can net you quite a bit of early science, production or culture if you are lucky. I got a ton of science which helped me zip through of the initial techs like engineering and chemistry.
- It is great to see oceans teeming with life and resources. Makes the world feel much more alien and alive.
- Got an alien nest only 3 tiles from my capital. Lots of strange aliens crawling around but they are leaving me alone for now. But makes me nervous!
- Got a new early affinity quest called the beating hear society. Nice!
- I like how affinities are spread out. You get affinity points more often now but don't necessarily level up immediately. It feels more gradual and more natural now.
- Boy are there lots of traits to pick from! Yes! It's a great new mechanic in the game!

Will post more...

 

[Gort]

Anyone with Rising Tide able to confirm whether AI players can approach humans with deals in multiplayer yet?

 

[Gali]

First impressions are overall quite positive. It is very werid to actually have to go meet the AI. Especially since in BE I would have actively avoided them. Now I actually care about AI beyond did you forward settle me or dow me. If not then go away. The Diplomacy system works this time. Was confused at first over five agreement cap but it makes sense. Patches and maybe mods will fine tune it. I was right though that the core is sound unlike BE. Once I feel safe taking alliances I think the dipomacy will be quite good.

For the rest. Stations are USEFUL people. I got up to 2 production 64! energy and 12 culture with station sentinels and the station trade trait. The AI does not seem to blatantly murder them immediately as well. Those station sentinels highlight the fact that orbital coverage is useful. I have an idea for a purity game for the orbital coverage buffs, then take the Integrated trait for another buff. Then I get the satellite that increases orbital coverage and a tacnet. Massive boosts everywhere. Satellit boost trait seems the most useful buff because you an use it defensively and offensively. You are also don't lose your bonus after conquering the enemy city leavin you open to enemy counterattack. I actually played a game as Koslov because the orbital buff was very interesting.

Game is still too easy, but Hutama did take two capitals in my game on gemini. I don't remember that happening before. Victories are still very dull and the movies are not exciting. Health is very easy I ended up with 124 health without even using the new health satellite. I have not found the number of excavations I expected. Barely more than vanilla.

I am loving staggered starts this time,. Especially with the arrival animation off. Adds a feeling of loneliness and is much less annoying when they don't continually interrupt you. And the new instant embarkation is very nice. The game feels more sci fi and different than CiV.

it looks like RT did what GK did. Flesh out a number of systems and really enhance the early and mid game. Lest hope twe get another expo that focuses on later game and victories like BNW

 

[Gorbles]

Initial impressions is that my childlike brain can't handle the amount of new stuff the game is throwing at me from Turn 1.

Then again, my attentions were split between this and Battlefront last night, and only after 10pm so my brain was moderately fried anyhow. Hoping for a better session tonight, going to capitalise on my initial Barre playthrough before I get started with Duncan. The new Biome details are really nice, and the UI flow for Artefacts is better than I expected.

Only notable issues for me so far is parts of the interface could do with polish. Acken noted the cramped text bars, that's a major first impression, but there's also the Diplomatic Capital icon on the resource bar being too close to the number (nitpicky, but I do UI work) and a lot of inconsistent choppy effects around Affinity and Diplomacy icons in the new Diplomacy / enemy leader screens. Could do with ironing all of those out.

Those issues are vastly outweighed by the positive changes (art everywhere), but I just wanted to get that out there.

 

[Joneill]

Huh, I can build Observatories and those clone-buildings that improve xenomass with production in (water-)cities that don't have those ressources. Another city has xenomass though. And yet another has Firaxite in range, but not in the borders.

I was surprised by that, too, until I realized that resources gained from international trade routes are treated as an improved, workable resource for a city, which allows the construction of certain buildings in cities that don't actually meet the requirements. I actually like that.

 

[DutchJob]

I'm loving it.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

turn 100:
I am really liking the diplo text messages from leaders. Each message is customized to that leader and they really add personality. Arshia says things like "you should listen to your veterans, the battles they have fought have given them great wisdom". Daoming speaks like the scientist/bureaucrat that she is, talking about absolute and relative metrics. Duncan speaks like an every man, saying things "How are you so ahead in science? I'm really having to play catch up".

Affinity points work in a more interesting way now. Thanks to quests, it actually is still possible to focus on just one affinity (I am currently supremacy 4 and purity 1 and harmony 0) at turn 100ish) but techs will still help you naturally grow a little in other affinities (hence my purity 1 that came entirely from techs that gave hybrid affinity points in both purity and supremacy). But I have an incentive to go off track a bit and pursue some levels in purity since I am going for autonomous systems and would need 2 more levels in purity to be able to use the drone cage.

 

[Senteliks]

That sounds like a major problem if that's how all or most of the AI-controlled factions handle water combat.

You mean it's exactly how Civ V unmodded handles combat (part where it builds only land units and then embark them ).... Did you know that there isn't AI logic for naval navigation (patch finding ) / operations in CiV V- actually there is some but it might as well not exist ? I have hunch this is the case with BERT too ...

 

[Gokudo01]

I guess I'll quickly wrap up by personal First Impressions with this post. Thoughts at the "end" of day 1:

- My opinion is definitely on the positive side. Even with all the bugs and annoyances that I've found, I'm having a lot of fun and the positive things shine more than I've probably made them sound so far
- My number one complaint aren't actually the bugs, but... well. The way the new features are distributed. The Early Game is SO full of stuff to do and then, the further you go, the less and less you've got to do. It feels overwhelming at first... and then it just falls off. Well, unless you play Polystralia. SO MANY trade routes to build.
- I really enjoy not knowing what I do and trying out the new combinations. African Union + Specialists + ...Biowells is HORRIBLE, but the game was still fun.
- I'm not looking forward to fixing my mods. Oh my goooood, so much work. T_T
(- Oh and: At first glance Worker AI actually looks somewhat decent. I disagree strongly with their Choices when it comes to Improvement Types, but they didn't clunk up in one place like they normally do, they don't just stop working and they even handle working in/around miasma. Should be a nice little buff for the AI that's not just a flat bonus-modifier.)

I've just wanted to give Roman's trait to Brasilia but now, each trait comes from playerperk.
What will you get, Brasilia, I can't leave you with these personal traits and those awful agreement?

 

[Barathor]

As expected, it was really hard to stop playing last night and go to bed! Having a blast with it.

Playing Apollo as Duncan on a frigid map (which is gorgeous!) and increased the max sponsors to 10 to fill things up better (looks like there's limits set now, I can't go past 10 on a standard map -- but no matter, 10 feels about right so far.)

I got lucky with my first expedition site which was an alien nest and I got a drone! These little things buzzed all over the land and seas and were scouting things out for me and snatching up resource pods.

And the resource pods... wow! So many of them, it's like a giant Easter egg hunt, haha. The exploration phase is one of my favorites and RT just brings it to a whole other level, it's a lot of fun.

It's still fairly early and two wars different wars already popped-up -- nice!

Sure, there are some little bugs here and there, but the patches will sort things out.

I was going to type a lot more, but I'd rather continue my game again, haha.

EDIT: Looks like the My2K button is working now, just logged-in; last night I couldn't even click it.

Also, does anybody else catch themselves staring at the main menu city and its pretty water for a little while before you snap out of it?

 

[Gorbles]

The new main menu backdrop is pretty hypnotic, yeah

I think it's even affected by quality settings, though I could be completely wrong there.

 

[Deon]

I like what I see so far. I find it overwhelming a bit, and definitely more interesting than Vanilla (that's the point). I agree with everyone else, that if there's going to be 2nd expansion like BTS which focuses on late game, this game is going to become really really good.

I didn't find one thing: is there anywhere where I can check for relative "score" of other civs? That's the game mechanic which I used to follow to find out whom to attack/who needs spies in capital the most .

 

[kipwheeler]

- I'm not looking forward to fixing my mods. Oh my goooood, so much work. T_T

I know that's going to be a lot of work, but I do enjoy your mods. Not to sound fanboy, but if you do update your old mods, there's at least one player here that will happily use them again and appreciate them.