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[dapperbandit]

It's been a while since we've had a thread about Civilization: Beyond Earth.

But rejoice!

Yesterday Pete Murray from Firaxis treated us to a livestream of the start of a game. While we get a closer look at things like the Tech Web (replacing the tradition Tech Tree) and the Virtues system (replacing Social Policies), the focus of the session was on early exploration and the local wildlife. Murray plays the same game twice and shows us how the alien lifeforms will respond to aggressive or non-aggressive behaviour from the player.

The gameplay was initially broadcast on Twitch but is now on Youtube which you can watch below.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

It seems likely we'll get more livestreams soon as 2K and Firaxis will be at Gamescom.

October can't come soon enough!

EDIT

IGN recently did a video that gives you a good glimpse at the early game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k51JPuGzabQ

 

[Hooks]

Can't wait for October!

 

[UnluckyKate]

watching. digging

 

[Sendou]

Yeah I'm pumped for this game. Thanks for the links. Watched the live-stream some but it'll be good to watch it from start to end.

 

[wagamer]

Noo I can't watch these too much because I don't want to be spoiled at all... but from what little I've seen, it looks very good. Definitely one of my most anticipated games this year.

 

[jimbobsmells]

So excited, think I'm going to lose a lot of time to this game!

 

[Slackbladder]

Arrghh...the wait is killing me! Arrgghhh....

 

[MNC]

Finally getting the hang of civ 5. This could not come at a better time.

 

[aravuus]

Can't wait. I never thought I'd like a Civilization game but as it is, Civ V is one of my most played games on Steam

 

[RAIDEN1]

If only it was real-time based....never been a fan of turn-based strategy...

 

[dapperbandit]

OP here

I was thinking of doing an info dump as well since a lot of info has come out since the last thread for this game was made. This would be kind of tricky to do in a concise way though since the way new information comes out for this game is a little weird.

There's a drip feed of info that comes out of previews. The first time anyone saw Elodie, the leader of the Franco-Iberia faction, was in an article on a French or German website, I don't remember which.

But currently, the only faction and leader not to have been revealed is the Slavic Federation. I suspect they'll get aired in gameplay from Gamescom.

But other little details come out of interviews and previews that really make me excited for the game. For example, each of the game's three Affinities, (Harmony, Supremacy and Purity) gets 4 or 5 "super units" that only a player of that affinity can build. One of Harmony's is something the develpers ended up calling the Rocktopus, a creature clinging to a clump of floatstone, one of the game's strategic resources. The Rocktopus is essentially an organic satellite that can go up and down from the orbital layer to attack stuff on the ground.

If only it was real-time based....never been a fan of turn-based strategy...

Begone from this place.

 

[kulapik]

This makes me want to install Civ V.

But who plays Steam games anyways lol

 

[MrGlass]

Thanks. WIll watch some more when i get some time but i like what i've seen so far.

 

[FloatOn]

Finally getting the hang of civ 5. This could not come at a better time.

I wish I could say this. It flies right over my head

This game looks great but I doubt I'll have time to learn all the intracacies

 

[MNC]

I wish I could say this. It flies right over my head

This game looks great but I doubt I'll have time to learn all the intracacies

Honestly, the game pretty much tells you what to do on the easy difficulties. It's just a matter of building up your technology tree, pumping units (if you want to go military), mostly automating exploration and building, and just advancing your civilization as you go.

 

[Serandur]

Civilization must be the longest-lasting series I'm personally a fan of that still doesn't disappoint me. Can't wait to play this.

 

[Dhruv_hanom]

This might finally get me onboard the civ series

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

If my PC can play Civ 5 on low-medium settings, is it safe to assume I can play this too or is it more demanding?

 

[MNC]

I hope this will be different enough from Civ5. I want big colonization of multiple planets and more than just a space skin over the existing game. Going through the first part, so far it seems like a skin... But this video was of course shot with a purpose in mind!

 

[Malmorian]

I need this in my veins SO badly

 

[Qassim]

GoTY 2014

 

[UnluckyKate]

Love how micro and macro looks far from CiV 5. I'm really really not convinced by the art direction though. UI and especially pop ups looks bare bones and I'm not sold of the putrid green all over the place. really hope for more diverse biodome

 

[Woorloog]

If my PC can play Civ 5 on low-medium settings, is it safe to assume I can play this too or is it more demanding?

I reckon it will have slightly higher requirements but probably works.
I wonder if they have finally moved to threaded AI, would reduce turn-wait time so much...

*sigh* So interested in this but i figure it is going to be so much better after one or two expansions i'm not sure i want to get it at launch (well at the first sale, not buying games at full price some very special exceptions aside).

 

[rockmanjoe]

Hope the diplomacy and AI are good...

 

[dapperbandit]

Hope the diplomacy and AI are good...

It's yet to be seen how good the AI is. Beyond Earth has the same one unit per tile system Civ V had and the AI was never very good at using it, leaving their archers exposed etc. So far it looks like they've put some effort into giving the alien lifeforms some meaningful motivations though. They're more likely to attack you near nests, if you destroy nests they become more aggressive, if you leave them alone they might do the same etc.

As for diplomacy, there's a new system called Favors. So if you want to trade something but the other faction has nothing to trade for it, you can give it to them and they'll owe you a favour. Sort of like an IOU, you can get them to do something for you in the future. This could be a good way to encourage someone to help you out in a war or if they have something you really need down the line. You can apparently accumulate several favors from Civs meaning you can actually be quite manipulative if you so choose.

Again, that's the theory but how it works in practice is yet to be seen.

 

[BibiMaghoo]

Sad thing is I won't want to buy it at launch.

Because DLC bundle.

Then gold bundle.

Then complete bundle.

I guess their games tend to have years long legs though, so it may be quite a wait.

 

[Woorloog]

I reckon my friend would want to know if the AI can finally deal with other AIs to allow passage through territory for war.
In CIv 5, he had this case where another AI had the territory between my friend and his enemy, and the enemy just couldn't figure out how to attack my friend due that second AI...

Sad thing is I won't want to buy it at launch.

Because DLC bundle.

Then gold bundle.

Then complete bundle.

I guess their games tend to have years long legs though, so it may be quite a wait.

Yeah, that's what i'm thinking. The base game is going to have issues (unlike Alpha Centauri where the expansion has more issues), and there will be DLC and expansions that fix and expand the game...

 

[FutureZombie]

The worst thing about Civ V is how long it takes to move an army. Now they add miasma, and it's going to take more micromanagement to move around the map. That's going to become tedious very quickly.

 

[dapperbandit]

The worst thing about Civ V is how long it takes to move an army. Now they add miasma, and it's going to take more micromanagement to move around the map. That's going to become tedious very quickly.

You'll be able to clear it with workers, or if you go for the Harmony affinity, miasma will actually heal your troops not hurt them.

 

[MNC]

I want to be able to coexist or capture the aliens and use them for my own military actions!

 

[dapperbandit]

I want to be able to coexist or capture the aliens and use them for my own military actions!

Then Harmony is for you. Coexisting and then allying with the aliens is their bag.

Later on you'll be able to genetically engineer something called a Xeno Titan which is basically a Kaiju from Pacific Rim.

 

[Kinthalis]

I reckon it will have slightly higher requirements but probably works.
I wonder if they have finally moved to threaded AI, would reduce turn-wait time so much...

*sigh* So interested in this but i figure it is going to be so much better after one or two expansions i'm not sure i want to get it at launch (well at the first sale, not buying games at full price some very special exceptions aside).

Threaded AI that is also working in the background while it's your turn. I LOVED that about Galactic Civ II. EVERY turn based game should have the AI churning in the background while it's the player's turn in order to minimize turn wait times.

Man I would love it if Rome 2 did that...

I queued up the vids on youtube. WIll watch tonight at home, thanks OP!

 

[Oppo]

Thanks OP. I was just thinking about this game yesterday, wondering where it was at.

 

[Dante Morgan]

Why hadn't I heard of this game before? It looks amazing! I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one from now on.

 

[Woorloog]

Threaded AI that is also working in the background while it's your turn. I LOVED that about Galactic Civ II. EVERY turn based game should have the AI churning in the background while it's the player's turn in order to minimize turn wait times.

Exactly what i mean. Stardocks TBSes have much, much faster turn change times compared to other TBSes as they bother to make threaded AI. Unfortunately their games, post-GalCiv2, aren't very interesting, are buggy and DLC has taken over.

BTW, i've heard that using strategic view in Civ 5, you can cut down the turn wait time quite a bit...

 

[wagamer]

Wonder when can I preorder this from Steam? GMG sells preorders already, although I suppose you can't get Steam keys yet from there either?

 

[Kinthalis]

Exactly what i mean. Stardocks TBSes have much, much faster turn change times compared to other TBSes as they bother to make threaded AI. Unfortunately their games, post-GalCiv2, aren't very interesting, are buggy and DLC has taken over.

BTW, i've heard that using strategic view in Civ 5, you can cut down the turn wait time quite a bit...

Which is weird. Single threaded AI being limited by the rendering thread maybe?

We definitely need a more modern engine for this game.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Firaxis/2K preorders generally go up (with goodies!) a few weeks before release on Steam.

There's a lot of interesting things going on in the design, even from what little they have shown. The virtues system seems like a pretty substantial upgrade over Civ 5's culture implementation, since it's not longer so directly punishing for picking from different trees. The ideology system seems better spread out through the entire game this time, and the expedition site feature on scouts is a great way to keep that unit relevant all game.

The customization of the embarkation loadout, the way players are staggered into the map over a period of time, the lack of starting settler tech, and the more customized station city-state replacements all seem like upgrades over Civ 5.

There's going to be a lot of people who say it's just modded Civ 5, but I don't think that does some of the things that we saw in the video justice.

 

[Neper]

It looks insanely good!

 

[lukeskymac]

I wish I could say this. It flies right over my head

This game looks great but I doubt I'll have time to learn all the intracacies

If that's the case, do yourself a favor and stay away from Europa Universalis as well. Not only it's more complex, it does a horrible, horrible job explaining itself.

 

[lukeskymac]

Which is weird. Single threaded AI being limited by the rendering thread maybe?

We definitely need a more modern engine for this game.

It probably just has the same effect of unchecking "Show AI moves"

 

[Instro]

Looking forward to this so much. I hope to god they fix the turn times though, waiting on AI in late game Civ is so bad.

 

[jblank83]

I was excited about this at first, and am now less so. It looks much more like Civilization than Alpha Centauri was. I'm also still feeling the sting of buying Civilization 5 day one, buggy and feature-poor.

I'm still hopeful but I think I'll wait awhile after launch to see how it shakes out.

 

[MNC]

Then Harmony is for you. Coexisting and then allying with the aliens is their bag.

Later on you'll be able to genetically engineer something called a Xeno Titan which is basically a Kaiju from Pacific Rim.

You're doing a terrific job of selling this game to me

Has anything been said about multiple planet colonization? I'm guessing given the way this game works, no. Which is a shame, but no loss.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Has anything been said about multiple planet colonization? I'm guessing given the way this game works, no. Which is a shame, but no loss.

Not really in the scope of the game. The settlement effort was more or less all in focused on this one planet. It's not really about sprawling space empires with fractional claimants of planetary areas. Firaxis designs games so that they move with measurable pacing and don't drag out forever, which is what multiple planetary colonization (and maps for each) would basically do.

The closest thing I've seen in Civ to that kind of effort is out of the Caveman2Cosmos guys and their mutimap support in Civ 4, but that mod is, um, something special. I like it but it's not for everyone, to say the least.

 

[timetokill]

God damn I want this game

 

[LurkerPrime]

Thanks for the link OP, I wish I had time to watch it right now.

Firaxis hasn't let me down yet, and hopefully CivBE continues to impress... because I want Firaxis to live long and prosper.

I wish I could say this. It flies right over my head

This game looks great but I doubt I'll have time to learn all the intracacies

That's the nice thing about how these games are designed. 4Xes in general have a very generous range of difficulties and match selection stuff (e.g. game size, speed, number of enemies... and so on) that allow you a great deal of flexibility in how you play. Younger players or complete novices to the genre can still have fun on the lower difficulties, amping it up as they begin to grasp the game more, and the higher difficulties are practically a different game.

But yeah, they sure take a lot of time to get good at!

One day I'll get there...

 

[DSN2K]

this is pretty much the game Ive wanted for about 10 years.

 

[Woorloog]

Younger players or complete novices to the genre can still have fun on the lower difficulties, amping it up as they begin to grasp the game more, and the higher difficulties are practically a different game.

I remember how i played Civ 2 as a kid (i was, what, 8-9?). I had no idea what "difficulty" meant (English is not my native language). But i did know some of the words, King, Prince, so on. So i picked the one i liked most. Ended up being relatively high... and i wondered why my cities revolted so much. The same with barbarians. Picked at random, more or less. "Raging Hordes"... ah, fun.
I think i eventually figured the system out.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I'd like to give Firaxis some credit on the less obvious bits of fluff-the tech voiceovers have the same sort of extreme ideological bent that the ones in SMAC had. The alien world really is pretty alien in artistic layout, and the way that you can choose to interact with the planet's native life right from planetfall is a big step away from the RAWR BARBZZZZZZZZZ of Civ.