Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

[Zeriel]

1 UPT would be fine with an excellent AI, but that's clearly not happening.

Anyway, I think the solution to doomstack is not something as silly as 1 UPT unless you are making a very specific wargame (hi Panzer General, no you do not belong in Civ). Master of Magic and later Age of Wonders had a nice middleground, with sizable stacks but an upper limit. It makes for interesting positioning gameplay without doing away with a sense of scale and grandeur. Combining that with tech unlocks to reach that stack size would also be a pleasant alternative.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Have people forgotten about C2P?

You could combine 12 units into an army.

 

[KoolNoodles]

Have people forgotten about C2P?

You could combine 12 units into an army.

C2P had a lot of interesting ideas. Ocean cities and ocean topography, advancing well past modern times, space colonies, and religious units spring to mind, though it has been a while.

It's too bad it lost a ton of "Civ" charm in the process and had flaws for sure. I played it a lot though, because it still felt like an evolution on Civ 2, though maybe more accurately a mutation. Then Civ3 came out pretty soon after that, so not much reason to play anymore.....

 

[tuluse]

Call to power was made when another company had the rights to the Civilization name. It otherwise has nothing to do with Sid Meier or his company. It was also not a very good game. As Roguey would say, it was a cargo cult 4x.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

C2P had an awesome Alexander The Great scenario that came with the game.

http://au.ign.com/articles/2000/11/10/developer-journal-call-to-power-ii-entry-2

 

[Forkrul]

After reading through this thread and reading all the praise of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, i decided to get it. Is it best to start with the main game or with the expansion?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

vanilla.

 

[tuluse]

After reading through this thread and reading all the praise of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, i decided to get it. Is it best to start with the main game or with the expansion?

The expansion was made by another dev, just avoid it.

 

[catfood]

After reading through this thread and reading all the praise of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, i decided to get it. Is it best to start with the main game or with the expansion?

Make sure to grab kyrub 's AI patch.

 

[Forkrul]

Got it thanks.

This game looks interesting. Nice music, atmosphere and story. Why can't new games be made like this?

 

[Forkrul]

if i build a farm in a rainy square i don't get +1 food and it has a black circle around the food icon. I checked the manual but can't find any mention of this. Anyone know why?

 

[JoKa]

at the start of the game you have a cap on all the resources you can get per square - you have to research certain technologies to lift that cap (3 techs, one for each resource).

 

[mastroego]

You need to unlock more technologies to raise the cap.

Special bonus resources, though, allow to harvest more than the current cap.

 

[mastroego]

Got it thanks.

This game looks interesting. Nice music, atmosphere and story. Why can't new games be made like this?

We've been asking that question for 15 years.
No answer yet.

Anyway, the game is great, do keep at it.
To give an idea of its true depth, trying reading something of this famous strategy guide (it's for the expansion, too):
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/198636-sid-meiers-alien-crossfire/faqs/8430
In particular, learn the basics about the game macro-phases, and crucial tools like Population Booming.

Also, the expansion isn't so bad.
It's true that the new factions are like the original ones on steroids (someone said that somewhere), but I like the Consciousness and the Pirates nonetheless.
Anyway, you're surely good without it, especially as a new player.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

the answer actually is very simple: quality and care are expensive, in time and money.
shit sells anyway. retarded shit sells even more to retarded people.

 

[Morgoth]

 

[Knut]

are those "smart" faction nation leaders best they could have come up with? quests instead of progressive story, so i can "make my own story?" wtf? the biggest strength of SMAC were the confines of the setting and characters WITHIN which you made your story through gameplay, not this bunch of generic derps.
cartoony, oversaturated and unconvincing visual style (units ->wtf?), lack of imaginative touches in vein of SMAC videos, conversations seem to be one-liners devoid of hints of characterisation, interview seems to say it all, actually.

best to wait for some credible reviews but it's increasingly hard to give a flying fuck about this sanitized, "optimistic" abortion of a game it's shaping up to be.

ಠ_ಠ

 

[Spectacle]

It is understandable that these guys are unable to replicate a masterpiece like SMAC, but I have to wonder if they honestly believe their own PR and think that this shit is in any way a worthwhile successor?

 

[Knut]

even when raping their "spiritual ancestor" they managed to do it impotently and lazily. i learned the hard way to turn on bullshit alert when sytagm "spiritual successor" is thrown around.

 

[Drakron]

Doomstacks were stupid and easily exploitable, anyone who thinks otherwise just liked winning easily I guess.

That is not the point.

You cannot make combined arms without stacks, AA is pointless because its a support defense unit that only have a point in a stack ... no reason to build certain units because they cannot pull their weight.

Stack limit would be one thing, no stack is another ... instead of doomstack you just created another exploit that is traffic jam since units cannot even go over a occupied stack.

even when raping their "spiritual ancestor" they managed to do it impotently and lazily. i learned the hard way to turn on bullshit alert when sytagm "spiritual successor" is thrown around.

Its pretty much a Civ V mod with some new stuff, like AI but its still pretty much Civ V + Expansions.

 

[Knut]

Its pretty much a Civ V mod with some new stuff, like AI but its still pretty much Civ V + Expansions.

agreed. i think civ v is salvageable enough, but they've done too little to mitigate the "mod" feeling and failed to capture the atmosphere of excitement of colonizing the new planet.

i still can't get over retarded one-liners from leaders and ridiculous looking map and late-game units. it's a living proof that 3d art and animation don't mean shit in incompetent hands.

 

[kris]

What's your point? Can do the same to a human, and later the AI will actually use a navy(unlike Civ4), and paratroopers(though that's more rare).

Doomstacks were stupid and easily exploitable, anyone who thinks otherwise just liked winning easily I guess. Maybe 1UPT is too far in the other direction, but combat, such as it was, was not very good in earlier Civ games. Civ5 "warfare" against human opponents blows similar Civ4 out of the water. It's just too bad the modability is atrocious.

It is the other way around as far as difficulty go. I am not sure I can beat highest difficulty in Civ4 (okay, haven't tried), while I can easily beat the highest diffculty in civ5. Mostly because the AI can't possibly beat you in war.

Both systems have their drawbacks, but the CiV is the one were it is easy to beat the AI.

 

[tuluse]

Doomstacks might have been stupid, but I don't see how they were "exploitable". That was the mechanic, it was making doomstacks.

 

[Spectacle]

What's really strange is how they completely forgot how doomstacks were no problem in civ I-II and alpha centauri due to the collateral damage rule. You could put all your troops in one tile, but it was a risky move instead of the only way to play as in civ III-IV.

 

[Drakron]

Endless Legend allows stacking to 4 units I think, they travel as 1 but when starting a battle they separate so you can give individual movement and attack orders.

1UPT was a decision they made from the start without considering the map sizes and titles, its very clear it doesnt work and negative affects the game because the AI cannot handle moving so many units at once, it really bogs down phases at late game since there are so many units to move.