On some level, I just hope that Civ6 is more moddable than Civ5 so we can make our own Civ6:BE!
Shame, though, while I kind of understand why Civ:BE has been abandoned with XCOM2 and Civ6 firing on all cylinders... I expected at least another patch or two for Civ:BE to tweak the balance a bit more to leave it in a more playable state for people jumping in.
Plus: I'm rather sad that they haven't given us the DLL source like for Civ4 and Civ5, then at least fans could help to fix the AI. Source + solid comprehensive patch would've been a nice "farewell" present.
Supposedly, the new Civ6 engine is supposed to be even more moddable.
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Yes, a great shame! So much potential, so many places the later game could've gone with the Sci-Fi... now we go back to same ol' Gandhi, Napolean, iron and horses, spearmen, triremes, libraries, temples, pyramids etc. etc. all over again. *sigh*
I'll definitely enjoy it again for the sixth time, but I would've enjoyed a 2nd expansion to BE much more -- along with the DLL so we could fix many things and make the game into what we want to play.
Yeah, the unreleased source and lack of any patches were a small part of the reasons why I'd assumed another expansion would be released this Oct -- plus there was no Complete Edition (well... we have "The Collection" lol). Some other reasons were that the late game wasn't really expanded upon in RT (usually the 2nd expansion does this with Firaxis). I knew Will, David, and Anton have been working on something, but it turns out Anton has been working on Civ6... perhaps Will and David may have been too, who knows?
My assumption that Civ6 was being rebuilt with a new engine was at least correct, and that (I assume) they're finally going to join everybody else in the 64 bit app world, because 32 bit and other things were really limiting the game -- huge maps were really performing badly and even bigger ones were unplayable. I figured, because of that, Civ6 would probably be delayed a little longer to allow BE to finish its last lap. But, I guess they just had to hit that 25th anniversary mark.
I also figured that a 2nd expansion would've have been totally worth it if there was ANY chance to redeem the whole game. These games are played and purchased well past the time that they're completed with their immense replay value and moddability. Vanilla Civ 5 was utter crap -- complete crap that it was the first Civ game I abandoned... but after expansions, especially BNW, it redeemed itself. Even now, it still has plenty of active players (always high on the list within Steam) and I'm sure it's still making sales. Beyond Earth could've did the same, especially with a released DLL so modders could help fix things and even add new content. Plus, Sci-Fi is pretty hot these days, it's usually good to ride the trend trains.
I also remember reading an article last December about Firaxis headquarters being expanded (as in, it was all finished in Dec and they were touring it, not sure when it started) so they can tackle more projects -- I figured Beyond Earth was in that mix. I could be wrong, but I believed the previous setup was that the studio was split in half for two different project teams with Sid's office sitting in the middle. Hopefully, there's still a team for Beyond Earth 2, alongside XCOM and Civ.
I want to still believe there's a chance for a 2nd BE expansion, but it's just looks too improbable with a behemoth like Civ6 starting its run this year (and crushing everything in its path) and getting its two expansion in the next two years. It's already a top seller on Steam; it probably was "the" top seller too after the announcement! If they were different types of games, sure, but the two are fairly similar 4X games, just different themes. With Civ6 vacuuming up all the money (and most importantly: play time!), it leaves little for a Beyond Earth expansion alongside it right now; it'll just get lost within Civ6's giant shadow.
Ugh... end of rant...
Firaxis, please release the DLL.