Spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri?

[Rubin]

I'm certain many Alpha Centauri fans got extremely excited about the announcement of Civilization: Beyond Earth. Legal issues aside, could this be the long awaited spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri?

I'm also certain many of you gradually got less excited as more news about the game was revealed. This is no surprise, though, as it's been more than a decade of waiting, hoping, and imagining all kinds of fantastic, mind-blowing things a sequel could provide. The decade long self-hype is over, and it's time for a reality check.

Firstly, this is not Alpha Centauri 2 (disregarding the title name). Dennis Shirk says (Gamespot, my emphasis):

[...]we wanted to approach [Beyond Earth] in a completely fresh fashion. Both games share some similarities--they’re both sim games about sending humanity into space--but in terms of being a strategy game, they don’t have much in common. We set out to create a completely new game, and we think a lot of the comparisons between this game and Alpha Centauri will be left behind as people see all the thing that are coming into play that makes this a completely new experience.

Yet, the parallels and the press spin definitely acknowledge the wishes for an Alpha Centauri successor.


Similarities:

• Futuristic Space Setting: Pretty obvious, but I spot a subtle—yet important—difference. In SMAC/X, the colonists left Earth for good; never to return, and never to worry or be concerned about Earth. Sure, some quotes reference Earth history, but the game effectively cuts all ties with the past and explores a post-planetfall future where Earth may have never existed! Firaxis is less bold with Civ:BE, and Earth takes a prominent place in the setting in terms of victory conditions (see gameinformer). The Civ:BE factions seem more tied to geographic and geopolitical factors, and although this was slightly hinted at in SMAC/X, it was never anything explicit.
  
  I completely understand the reasoning behind this, because the inclusion of history and Earth does broaden the potential player base significantly.
  
  
• Alien Life: I think all Civilization games have an "8th faction" (in SMAC terms), barbarians. The indiginous life, the 8th faction, of the planet in Alpha Centauri is an active element throughout the entire game, hence playing a major role. Civ:BE looks similar in this regard. How exactly alien life plays in Civ:BE is currently unknown, but it is suggested to have a major impact (see PC Gamer). I just hope it won't be "fantasy-in-space".
  
  
• Presentation and Narrative: Will Miller says (PC Gamer, my emphasis):

  We decided very early that we would imply more than we say. I think that's really important, because the gaps the player's going to fill in with their imaginations is a story that's way more interesting than the one we could write ourselves. I think the more explicit you are about the narrative, the less the player gets to build it themselves. We've tried to strike a balance between content that we write, and building blocks of content that the players get to assemble into something really cool, and it belongs to them.

  
  This made me so excited! I've always found this to be a strong point in the SMAC/X presentation and setting, and I'm very happy to see it return in Civ:BE! I doubt the setting is going to be as grim as SMAC/X, but I hope they retain the philosophical depth.

Omissions:

• Unit Workshop: Soren Johnson has explained why the SMAC/X Unit Workshop was not seen as a success within Firaxis. The reason is the graphics. I don't think this is the reason for omitting the Unit Workshop from Civ:BE, though. Rather, I think this has to do with accessibillity(!). I'm not happy about Civ:BE replacing the Unit Workshop with skill trees or perks (see PC Gamer). Fabio1701 predicts an XCOM styled workshop, which could work, although I'm personally not a fan of this approach.
  
  
• Terrain Elevation Terraforming: I base this solely on the fact that Civ:BE is built upon Civilization V (and the screenshots so far). The extreme terrain alterations possible in SMAC/X may be somewhat undesireable, and the feature could perhaps have had some minor restrictions. However, it's amazing and it feels amazing, and it is a very important part of the game! I'm sad to see it go, and it probably means no Rainfall Patterns as well.

Of course, due to the Civilization V framework, there are many core differences that may or may not disappoint Alpha Centauri fans. I've been looking forward to an Alpha Centauri successor for so long. Civ:BE could be it—even if it turns out quite different.

For all the differences and changes there is one very serious concern, I've posted previously. Accessibility. In this context it's an euphemism for dumbing down the gamplay in order to cater for a wider audience. And it's deliberate. From the PC Gamer article:

Will Miller: It's a tough balance to strike because we want to reach a new audience. We want to get to those XCOM fans who may not have played Civ because history wasn't their thing, or strategy gamers that are playing a lot of these strategy games on IOS, that haven't tried Civ before. We want to reach those people, so we're trying to make the game more accessible for them, but also catering to our hardcore fans.

I'm excited about the non-linear technology tree, the option to customize your faction before planetfall, the idea that outposts grow very slowly, etc. But if all of this is packaged into an accessible strategy game, I guess it doesn't matter. If not, then maybe Civilization: Beyond Earth is a true spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri. I'm both scared and excited.

And, yes, lots of speculations and conjectures here.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

The Unit Workshop was one of the parts of AC that I didn't particularly enjoy that much, so I wouldn't be so sad if they go in a different direction. Oh look, let's make 17 different iterations of a dune buggy!

 

[KevinLancaster]

Yeah, when I finally started using the unit workshop properly I deleted a lot of the "junk" units.

 

[bhavv]

I hope you know that you could set the unit workshop to manual designs only.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Though colony airplanes were pretty sweet, and "Spy Boats" of course.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I hope you know that you could set the unit workshop to manual designs only.

Oh, I don't remember the specifics of how it worked, the game came out 15 (!!!) years ago.

 

[Traejun]

The Unit Workshop was one of the parts of AC that I didn't particularly enjoy that much, so I wouldn't be so sad if they go in a different direction. Oh look, let's make 17 different iterations of a dune buggy!

Agreed 110%

Civ is not a military sim. Even playing toward domination victories, your wins come from all the things you do to prepare for your conquests. The actual battles are foregone conclusions if you've done everything else well/correctly.

The ability to customize units would be wasted development time.

 

[bhavv]

Well the unit workshop was single handedly the best feature in any Firaxis game for me. The more options and control I have, the better. Though it was rather limited.

Imperium Galactica II had amazing unit building options, but there's never been another game like it since.

 

[KevinLancaster]

Yeah I but I liked having the automatic designs around for a while for inspiration.

 

[Lord Tirian]

I'm sad to see it go, and it probably means no Rainfall Patterns as well.

On the not-quite-other hand, they will at least tackle the theme of modifying weather:

a military satellite that might provide combat bonuses to friendly units in tiles beneath it and a weather satellite that can increase rainfall and resource yields in tiles.

(from here)

Though nothing in-depth as SMAC/X rainfall system. On the flipside, that part of it never felt quite... realised. It felt like it needed more work to truly sing. And I think the terrain grid prevented more interesting terrain features like cliffs and mountains (as blocking terrain) from working.

I think Beyond Earth is probably best thought of as "love letter" to SMAC/X. Made by fans and veterans of these games who want to explore the same thematic space.

 

[SamBC]

The workshop was a bit of novelty fun for a while, but after that you go back to your tried-and-tested designs.

 

[Rubin]

On the not-quite-other hand, they will at least tackle the theme of modifying weather:

(from here)

Though nothing in-depth as SMAC/X rainfall system. On the flipside, that part of it never felt quite... realised. It felt like it needed more work to truly sing. And I think the terrain grid prevented more interesting terrain features like cliffs and mountains (as blocking terrain) from working.

I think Beyond Earth is probably best thought of as "love letter" to SMAC/X. Made by fans and veterans of these games who want to explore the same thematic space.

Thanks, Lord Tirian, and yes, the nod to the SMAC/X feature is there.

I think the reason rainfall patterns feel unrealized, is the way terraforming options progress. It's basically either forest or boreholes everywhere for your infinite city sprawl, and although SMAC/X has a plethora of terraforming options, only few are well integrated (not even mentioning game-breaking Supply Crawlers).

Civ:BE can definitely improve on the map aesthetics. No need to go back to SMAC/X's featureless heaps of dirt

 

[Willem]

Legal issues aside, could this be the long awaited spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri?

That distinction has already been taken, Beyond Earth will be a Johnny-come-lately in that regard.

http://pandora.proxy-studios.com/

 

[Thrar]

As others said, one of the strongest things about SMAC/X was the amazing story and flavor. It sounds a lot like they're going for something similar here, so I'll be greatly looking forward to it!

While the workshop was nice to tinker with, I found ultimately it came down to just a few core unit designs.
In my eyes, the Civ 4 Planetfall mod solved this very well: You get to pick special abilities for your units after they're built, allowing you to customize for e.g. more speed, less upkeep, psi abilities and so on.

a military satellite that might provide combat bonuses to friendly units in tiles beneath it and a weather satellite that can increase rainfall and resource yields in tiles.

That does sound a lot like there will be weather patterns such as rainfall, rather than just grassland/plains tiles like in most Civ iterations. I liked about SMAC/X that this gave more tile variety, although it wasn't very balanced there.
Again, I think Planetfall for Civ 4 solved this well, with most terrain types giving the same base yield (sum of food+minerals is usually 2), but offering different customizing options through terraforming.

For me, there is just one feature I've been missing since SMAC/X: Variable civic effects.
I thought it was a very good idea to categorize civic effects into several groups, each of which affects your civilization according to its level. I think it was a very elegant way make civics, faction bonuses and certain other effects all work together for a cumulative effect. Not a killer feature, but it seemed well thought out and I'd like seeing this again some time.

 

[Snownova]

Well the unit workshop was single handedly the best feature in any Firaxis game for me. The more options and control I have, the better. Though it was rather limited.

Imperium Galactica II had amazing unit building options, but there's never been another game like it since.

I liked the unit workshop a lot too, although it was immeasurably irritating in multiplayer when it would autodesign units constantly, despite manual only being turned on.

Sometimes it feels like I spent more time designing ships in GalCiv2 than I did playing the actual game

 

[Dasphios]

That distinction has already been taken, Beyond Earth will be a Johnny-come-lately in that regard.

http://pandora.proxy-studios.com/

There I'm going to have to disagree with you. Pandora was less of a "spiritual successor" and more of a "graphical update". Most of the mechanics were the same, but it added almost nothing new, stripped out a few things, and replaced SMAC's fantastic writing with a hollow, token background that did basically nothing to influence the world or the game. Beyond Earth, if it earns that title, will be the first to do so.

 

[KevinLancaster]

I really hope that you can save unit designs outside of being in a game. Since I never played Alpha Centauri multiplayer, I just realized how annoying it would be if you had to wait for a new player to finish designing "Super Death Bot 5000" before he moved. People already turn off animations in Civ multiplayer to save time. A turn timer wouldn't really help in CivBE if it has a workshop since it would an important part of the game to be cutting out for time issues, unless they design a game with a lot of empty turns in multiplayer.

 

[Willem]

Sometimes it feels like I spent more time designing ships in GalCiv2 than I did playing the actual game

Likewise. Especially since I was using Kyro's ship building mod. You could make some awesome designs with that.

I really hope that you can save unit designs outside of being in a game. Since I never played Alpha Centauri multiplayer, I just realized how annoying it would be if you had to wait for a new player to finish designing "Super Death Bot 5000" before he moved.

It's been mentioned that there will be no workshop in the game. It will probably be more like Civ 4's Promotions. I'm not sure what was done in Civ 5 as I haven't played it.

 

[Naokaukodem]

It's been mentioned that there will be no workshop in the game. It will probably be more like Civ 4's Promotions. I'm not sure what was done in Civ 5 as I haven't played it.

Promotions ? I saw upgrades.

 

[Willem]

Promotions ? I saw upgrades.

Same thing basically. I did say "more like", not necessarily exactly the same.