Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

[Trash]

I wonder, will they let me lower or rise the sea levels? Will I be able to fire massive planet busting bombs that fuck up the atmosphere and deform the planet's crust? Will the fiction be as mindblowingly horrific as it was in SMAC? This is important to me.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I wonder, will they let me lower or rise the sea levels? Will I be able to fire massive planet busting bombs that fuck up the atmosphere and deform the planet's crust? Will the fiction be as mindblowingly horrific as it was in SMAC? This is important to me.

I'm not holding my breath, after their decisions in Civ5 and X-com.

 

[Morgoth]

And will there be an easter egg to prevent Sandra Bullock from crash-landing and fuck half my planet up??

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Funny thing is that the original UFO had a 90s comics art design

I hear that a lot but except for the intro the ingame art wasn't really all that comicsy. Maybe it's because at that time the graphics wasn't as sophisticated to allow for such nuances but it always seemed to me the game was done by Gollop and the intro was rustled up and slapped to it by Microprose without much thinking.

Comic book art style doesn't mean that the game has to be cheerful, does it? I always thought UFO's art style went well together with the game itself. If you want an example of cinematics that don't fit the game at all then look at Myth TFL.

Some new screens

Wow, so inspired. Did they actually set the release date to Autumn to make people think they spent any time and resources on this?

 

[Trash]

UFO's atmosphere worked wonders also largely through the gloomy music during missions.

To think that UFO designer Gollop who is a fucking legend and who starts a Kickstarter with an actually playable alpha in place is struggling while hipster fag after hipster fag gets his pipedream fueled. People are retards.

 

[Syril]

What is this turd? Why can't we have a good game for once?

 

[kris]

Looks quite bland and uninteresting, but at least they have some interesting ideas in it. Like building your faction (which really might be nothing more than what you do in Elemental).

The possibly most important thing missing from all these games since SMAC is the tiered terrain.

 

[you know what time it is]

Firaxis' Secret Project is coming along nicely.

 

[Topher]

I haven't played a Civ game since Alpha Centauri and it doesn't look like this game is going to change that.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I haven't played a Civ game since Alpha Centauri and it doesn't look like this game is going to change that.

This. I tried playing Civ 4 for a bit, and while it wasn't boring, it just didn't feel the same.

 

[Space Satan]

Settlers turn into Outposts now, who cost a lot and grow very slow. Seem like a new way to limit the expansion and Infinite City Sprawl.

 

[Jaedar]

Settlers turn into Outposts now, who cost a lot and grow very slow. Seem like a new way to limit the expansion and Infinite City Sprawl.

Because making expansions cripplingly bad is a good mechanic in a 4x game.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Because making expansions cripplingly bad is a good mechanic in a 4x game.

cIV alread solved Infinite City Sprawl by simply giving costs to cities.

 

[Jacqueline]

I wonder, will they let me lower or rise the sea levels? Will I be able to fire massive planet busting bombs that fuck up the atmosphere and deform the planet's crust? Will the fiction be as mindblowingly horrific as it was in SMAC? This is important to me.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/beyond-earth-the-alpha-centauri-connection/1100-6418924/

What were some of your sources of inspiration for Beyond Earth, either in terms of setting, tone, or how you wanted to the game to play?

The direction came from the designers and from Mike Bates, the lead artist on the game. They’re all focused on making sure that we’re working with an optimistic vision of the future since Civilization is a game about progressing through history and becoming stronger and better over time.

they seem to be going for a lighthearted spess adventure feel and the civ 5 engine does not handle terrain deformation at all to my knowledge. the time of voxels are long gone

 

[Zeriel]

Funny thing is that the original UFO had a 90s comics art design

I hear that a lot but except for the intro the ingame art wasn't really all that comicsy. Maybe it's because at that time the graphics wasn't as sophisticated to allow for such nuances but it always seemed to me the game was done by Gollop and the intro was rustled up and slapped to it by Microprose without much thinking.

I wonder, will they let me lower or rise the sea levels? Will I be able to fire massive planet busting bombs that fuck up the atmosphere and deform the planet's crust? Will the fiction be as mindblowingly horrific as it was in SMAC? This is important to me.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/beyond-earth-the-alpha-centauri-connection/1100-6418924/

What were some of your sources of inspiration for Beyond Earth, either in terms of setting, tone, or how you wanted to the game to play?

The direction came from the designers and from Mike Bates, the lead artist on the game. They’re all focused on making sure that we’re working with an optimistic vision of the future since Civilization is a game about progressing through history and becoming stronger and better over time.

they seem to be going for a lighthearted spess adventure feel and the civ 5 engine does not handle terrain deformation at all to my knowledge. the time of voxels are long gone

This was exactly my fear when I saw the trailer/saw it was a Civ branded game. It's a family-friendly franchise that can't have anything objectionable to soccer moms. Such wasted potential, needless to say.

 

[Spectacle]

Meh, there's plenty of room for a sci-fi civ game with an optimistic view of technology and the future. Not all good SF has to be dark, and we already have Alpha Centauri.

 

[Jacqueline]

Meh, there's plenty of room for a sci-fi civ game with an optimistic view of technology and the future. Not all good SF has to be dark, and we already have Alpha Centauri.

no but i agree, problem with firaxis tho is that all recent games by them have bee so bland and sterile, at least in my eyes.

This was exactly my fear when I saw the trailer/saw it was a Civ branded game. It's a family-friendly franchise that can't have anything objectionable to soccer moms. Such wasted potential, needless to say.

they have already stated that they want the ios audience but i think you are underestimating the sensibilities of soccer moms if you think they will want to play this game.

 

[Space Satan]

For fuck's sake people on civ forums are beyond retarded. They actually argue that automation of building and SMAC governor systems were hurting the game and removed best aspects of the game - each turn manually isuing orders in 30 cities to build units or other stuff. And adding automation dumbed down the game.

 

[Onyxme]

A list of features:

• Victory Conditions: Harmony - Awaken a semi-sentient super organism within the planet and reach a new level of consciousness

Sounds like there's more SMAC in this bitch than it seemed at first. I'd rather they'd come up with something original.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

no but i agree, problem with firaxis tho is that all recent games by them have bee so bland and sterile, at least in my eyes.

Am I the only one that believes that Civ V at least has character going for it, and is far from bland? It is the 4x with the most character since SMAC, in my honest opinion.

 

[Zeriel]

I can't ascribe much character to Civ V because it's just gradeschool caricatures of history. It was better before V, but if V is their template of storytelling and character, we're utterly fucked.

 

[Space Satan]

Civ V is a boring piece of shit. With broken diplomacy, broken combat, broken AI, broken UI, in other workd - with broken EVERYTHING, except for leader animations. It's a very definition of grand strategy popamole

 

[Onyxme]

I can't ascribe much character to Civ V because it's just gradeschool caricatures of history. It was better before V, but if V is their template of storytelling and character, we're utterly fucked.

I don't see though how it was better before, Civ has never been about history per se. What defines character in a 4x game to me is art style, factions and lore.
Civ V has a clear art style, unlike many other Civ games.
Civ V has very unique factions, that actually feels like they play extremely differently depending on their historical context, also the leader animations are a nice addition.
The lore is history, like all other Civ games...

You can say what you will about the gameplay, but really I do feel that Civ V really has a unique feel, so much so that many newer 4x games try to copy Civ V when it comes to the feel and character (age of wonders III, Warlock I + II).

 

[Trash]

I can't ascribe much character to Civ V because it's just gradeschool caricatures of history. It was better before V, but if V is their template of storytelling and character, we're utterly fucked.

After reading that interview I fully agree. Civ Rev as the highlight of the series? Mobile gaming named as an influence? The Firaxes of Xcom: Enemy Unknown is a wholly different beast from the developer that made SMAC. In fact, I bet this will be to SMAC what Xcom was to UFO.

 

[tuluse]

A cool thing about the Civ series was an undercurrent of subversive humor, hidden away. The intro to the first game is Genesis with all the parts about god removed. All the leaders mentioning that their words are backed up by NUCLEAR WEAPONS once you build them. Even the music that played for leaders. I remember Stalin had this really grim march. There are few other things I've forgotten. This continued into Civ4, check the description for using slavery on a city for one example.

It seems to be completely gone from Civ5.

 

[Zeriel]

I can't ascribe much character to Civ V because it's just gradeschool caricatures of history. It was better before V, but if V is their template of storytelling and character, we're utterly fucked.

I don't see though how it was better before, Civ has never been about history per se. What defines character in a 4x game to me is art style, factions and lore.
Civ V has a clear art style, unlike many other Civ games.
Civ V has very unique factions, that actually feels like they play extremely differently depending on their historical context, also the leader animations are a nice addition.
The lore is history, like all other Civ games...

You can say what you will about the gameplay, but really I do feel that Civ V really has a unique feel, so much so that many newer 4x games try to copy Civ V when it comes to the feel and character (age of wonders III, Warlock I + II).

It's in the small details, but they're there.

Civ 3 had nice touches like the 2D townscape of cities showing wonders--I'll take 2D artwork to 3D pyramids randomly dropped into the ocean next to your town every day. Wonders videos being generally more impressive than the paintings with STAR TREK narration we got in V. There was also the palace customization that evoked some sense of culture. The civopedia was more factual, more informative, and generally better written in previous games. Tech tree was also better and more logical, but that's more about game/systems design, so I'll leave that aside.

IV was even worse than V, though, from an initial appearances perspective, so if you are comparing V to IV, I'd agree with you.