Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

[MadMaxHellfire]

i can understand vehicles becoming bigger and bigger, but why do the men become taller? o_O

 

[oscar]

lots of banners and sigils you would commonly see on the great civilizations of old

We mixed this up with the pageantry and regalia of medieval knights and other classic types of warriors. The units ended up being a great combination of the past and present of humanity

I'm not seeing that at all on the Purity units posted.

A shame as it could have been cool to see their soldiers as wearing an eclectic blend of Prussian, Roman, Samurai etc uniforms and symbols.

 

[Space Satan]

I'm not seeing that at all on the Purity units posted.

A shame as it could have been cool to see their soldiers as wearing an eclectic blend of Prussian, Roman, Samurai etc uniforms and symbols.

It's Firaxis - we'll see tons of DLCs with such things.

 

[Spectacle]

Actually, I can't care less how the game will look. SMAC was ugly as hell with leader pictures and secret project movies as the only bright side. What matters for me is how they will handle diplomacy, UI, combat and overall game mechanics.

SMAC looked lovely when it came out, and it's aged much much better than most games of that era.

 

[Xu Fugui]

lots of banners and sigils you would commonly see on the great civilizations of old

We mixed this up with the pageantry and regalia of medieval knights and other classic types of warriors. The units ended up being a great combination of the past and present of humanity

I'm not seeing that at all on the Purity units posted.

A shame as it could have been cool to see their soldiers as wearing an eclectic blend of Prussian, Roman, Samurai etc uniforms and symbols.

Some days I think of how much better games would be if the people working on them had good education, experience and a deep interest in the things they make games about be it the mechanics themselves, the settings or the writing or any other part of the games instead of regurgitating the same crappy kiddie shit entertainment already present. But then I realize that those people are put to much better use in real professions and what a gigantic waste they would be on the development of video games. Like a history buff working in Hollywood it just doesn't make much sense.

The developers of Beyond Earth doesn't have much of a interest in philosophy or science fiction like the minds behind SMAC had, nor do they seem to have any other interests that could replace them. Maybe it is the size of the team or the target audience or maybe something else, but even if they had a handful of hardcore history nerds on their team with creative ideas on how to depict how warriors that would not just be honouring the proud traditions of a nation but of the whole of the distant homeworld itself would look like I doubt those guys would have much influence on the game. Because that's too much effort. Instead some artist who have read too many cheap comic books gets to design them, that's safe and the kids will think it looks awesome.

Actually, I can't care less how the game will look. SMAC was ugly as hell with leader pictures and secret project movies as the only bright side. What matters for me is how they will handle diplomacy, UI, combat and overall game mechanics.

SMAC looked lovely when it came out, and it's aged much much better than most games of that era.

This, I might be biased since I've played so many times that it has gotten a sentimental value for me but I think that even if I had played it for the first time today I would have liked the look of it.

 

[Hellraiser]

i can understand vehicles becoming bigger and bigger, but why do the men become taller? o_O

Genetic engineering or better healthcare.

 

[Eyeball]

Power armour, dude.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

battle armor makes you bigger, wider, not just taller.

 

[Storyfag]

i can understand vehicles becoming bigger and bigger, but why do the men become taller? o_O

Genetic engineering or better healthcare.

More likely the latter, since it's the PURITY faction, therefore I'd expect them to scoff at genetic engineering.

 

[Hellraiser]

More likely the latter, since it's the PURITY faction, therefore I'd expect them to scoff at genetic engineering.

Who said it's purity of 'sap genes and not 'thal ones.

Or maybe another kind of purity:

 

[Johannes]

Cartoon scifi, in every way.

 

[King Arthur]

It's definitely not hard sci-fi (someone earlier said it was). Hard-soft is basically about plausibility, so it depends on your own subjective opinion of what is plausible. If you think hovertanks are going to define warfare five hundred years from now, sure it's hard. Otherwise it's soft. Alpha Centauri was also soft.

The bloody problem is that everything is so uninspired. It's a hunk of mediocrity, every last detail of it. The units look like they could be from command and conquer. The three choices (purity, supremacy, adaptation) remind me of the three choices you have at the end of Mass Effect 3, Deus Ex 3, and in fact every modern Sci-fi banality. The floating rocks are from Avatar, and the landscape graphics are like that Pandora game, Civ 5, even Majesty 2 or something. 3D TB strategies seem to all look alike.

Alpha Centauri is a very distinguishable title. You get to play as an Orweilian dystopia, a Huxley/Rand dystopia, fascists, etc. The Environmentalists were a bit insipid, but even they had moments of badassery. The lore presented through the (very well done) quotes had them overrunning the fascists with mind worms, which is just a delightful situation. You have these humans who make themselves out to be the ultimate killers, with all their bunkers and artillery, then these aliens come by and are like "oh please." It reminds me of Aliens the movie, where the shock troopers who accompany Ripley are picked apart in the same dramatic fashion.

Someone mentioned above that modern game designers are uncultured swine, who aren't interested in anything interesting, and that, I must say, is why video game stories are so lousy. I don't think video games will ever aspire to the same heights of storytelling as literature, but they could at least take a few tips. And they did! they did! In older games I notice nods to things like Homer's Odyssey and whatnot, and in Alpha Centauri I mentioned they must have been inspired by things like 1984 and maybe Solaris. But in these modern games I find such nods totally lacking. I saw some interview with a writer on the Project Eternity team, where she was asked about her literary influences, and she basically listed a few pop fantasy novels, then moved on to a bunch of video game shit. I think some video games are good and all, like Planescape: Torment, but they really aren't the medium for new and interesting ideas. They all seems to comb over novels for their ideas (Fallout took much from classics like Canticle for Libowitz), so as 'influence,' they're second hand.

This game is going to be shit I tell you. The people in charge of it have no idea what they are doing. But it will sell millions.

 

[Spectacle]

Someone mentioned above that modern game designers are uncultured swine, who aren't interested in anything interesting, and that, I must say, is why video game stories are so lousy. I don't think video games will ever aspire to the same heights of storytelling as literature, but they could at least take a few tips. And they did! they did! In older games I notice nods to things like Homer's Odyssey and whatnot, and in Alpha Centauri I mentioned they must have been inspired by things like 1984 and maybe Solaris. But in these modern games I find such nods totally lacking. I saw some interview with a writer on the Project Eternity team, where she was asked about her literary influences, and she basically listed a few pop fantasy novels, then moved on to a bunch of video game shit. I think some video games are good and all, like Planescape: Torment, but they really aren't the medium for new and interesting ideas. They all seems to comb over novels for their ideas (Fallout took much from classics like Canticle for Libowitz), so as 'influence,' they're second hand.

I guess the main difference between the old and new generation of game designers is that today's designers grew up with video games as their main and probably only hobby, while the guys from the 90's and back came into gaming as adults and had more diverse backgrounds and interests.

 

[Shadenuat]

I wonder if friendly toy-like models allow developers to publish game with lower PG rating.

 

[Zeriel]

Someone mentioned above that modern game designers are uncultured swine, who aren't interested in anything interesting, and that, I must say, is why video game stories are so lousy. I don't think video games will ever aspire to the same heights of storytelling as literature, but they could at least take a few tips. And they did! they did! In older games I notice nods to things like Homer's Odyssey and whatnot, and in Alpha Centauri I mentioned they must have been inspired by things like 1984 and maybe Solaris. But in these modern games I find such nods totally lacking. I saw some interview with a writer on the Project Eternity team, where she was asked about her literary influences, and she basically listed a few pop fantasy novels, then moved on to a bunch of video game shit. I think some video games are good and all, like Planescape: Torment, but they really aren't the medium for new and interesting ideas. They all seems to comb over novels for their ideas (Fallout took much from classics like Canticle for Libowitz), so as 'influence,' they're second hand.

I guess the main difference between the old and new generation of game designers is that today's designers grew up with video games as their main and probably only hobby, while the guys from the 90's and back came into gaming as adults and had more diverse backgrounds and interests.

Yeah, this is especially problematic when most games are made for kids, or at least that money 13-28 demographic. There are very, very, very few games that could serve as a legitimate inspiration for mature adults.

 

[Wise Emperor]

Sid please go. The retards need you. They look up to you..

 

[Infinitron]

Firaxis On How Civ: Beyond Earth Really Isn’t Alpha Centauri

Excerpt:

RPS: One of your big influences is Alpha Centauri, as you have made very known. For one, why append that onto Civ? Why not make it it’s own thing, and just do an AlphaCentauri successor? Why make it a Civilization game specifically?
PR: I’ll jump in here. Alpha Centauri’s IP is owned by EA, so we don’t have access to it. Which is one easy answer, but…

Miller: That’s an easy answer, but I think even if we had the Alpha Centauri IP available I don’t know if we would’ve decided to do a sequel to it. I mean this is really such a different game, and if you look back at Alpha Centauri and how it’s a companion to Civ 2, or is it Civ 3? It’s a very good companion to those games but I think what we brought to the table with this game is what we’ve learned in the decade since we made that.

I think fundamentally Beyond Earth is a much more optimistic perspective on our future in space. I mean, in Alpha Centauri you get to a planet on the Starship Unity and you’re already at each others throats. It’s kind of a pessimistic way to start everything, but this is a much more optimistic view. And of course there’s conflict, but we wanted to present this aspirational product, and that has influenced a lot of the decision making.

And of course we love Alpha Centauri, we pay homage to that all over the place in this game, but it is a very different game. I’d even, I mean you could say spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri, because we built this game for fans of that game, but it’s different enough that I don’t even think that you can put it in the same [lineage]. It’s a Civ in space, that’s about it. Beyond the winks and nods.

 

[Muty]

Some gems from that interview:

McDonough: I’m much more irreverent when it comes to Civ. My favorite Civ was Civilization Revolution, actually. There’s a drama there and a speed there and a liveliness that the core Civ kind of lacks, and we’re try to bring some of that into this project. So these two different perspectives I think work very well together, and we respect each other a lot. That makes for a great working relationship.

We made an iOS game called Haunted Hollow before we came onto this, and it has a similar destabilizing agent in the angry town mob. But this idea of a destabilizing agent is important, that you have to contend with and it kind of keeps you on your toes.

 

[Space Satan]

>There’s a drama there

 

[Morgoth]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-20-civilization-beyond-earth-preview

"True Civ games always have an optimistic bent," confirms Miller.

I never asked for this.

 

[Nodder]

Someone mentioned above that modern game designers are uncultured swine, who aren't interested in anything interesting, and that, I must say, is why video game stories are so lousy. I don't think video games will ever aspire to the same heights of storytelling as literature, but they could at least take a few tips. And they did! they did! In older games I notice nods to things like Homer's Odyssey and whatnot, and in Alpha Centauri I mentioned they must have been inspired by things like 1984 and maybe Solaris.

In his interview on Troy Goodfellow's podcast, Brian Reynolds that he was listening to "Les Miz" when he was writing the dialogue for SMAC, which is why some of the diplo choices are so grandiose when you can accuse other faction leaders of villainy.

This game is going to be shit I tell you. The people in charge of it have no idea what they are doing. But it will sell millions.

Is that what happened to XCOM under Firaxis' watch? What's the RPG Codex consensus on that game (and the expansion)?

 

[tuluse]

Is that what happened to XCOM under Firaxis' watch? What's the RPG Codex consensus on that game (and the expansion)?

Jake Solomon, the lead on XCOM, actually knew what he wanted to do but was overridden by executives and play testers who couldn't understand time units.

The consensus seems to be that XCOM is an ok tactics game that is good for what it is.

 

[anus_pounder]

Some gems from that interview:

McDonough: I’m much more irreverent when it comes to Civ. My favorite Civ was Civilization Revolution, actually. There’s a drama there and a speed there and a liveliness that the core Civ kind of lacks, and we’re try to bring some of that into this project. So these two different perspectives I think work very well together, and we respect each other a lot. That makes for a great working relationship.

We made an iOS game called Haunted Hollow before we came onto this, and it has a similar destabilizing agent in the angry town mob. But this idea of a destabilizing agent is important, that you have to contend with and it kind of keeps you on your toes.

 

[Morgoth]

I wonder if friendly toy-like models allow developers to publish game with lower PG rating.

...or to get kinky gals interested in playing this. It's not just about expanding the customer base, it's also about scoring cool equality credits.

 

[Nodder]

Is that what happened to XCOM under Firaxis' watch? What's the RPG Codex consensus on that game (and the expansion)?

The consensus seems to be that XCOM is an ok tactics game that is good for what it is.

What about the setting/lore? Because it's wise that Firaxis is making no pretension about this game being Alpha Centauri 2, since in that department it looks to be clearly inferior and indicative of modern game writing.