Civilization: Beyond Earth

[fragger]

This is a new entry into the Civ franchise, due out in October. There are a few screenshots and a video at the site below. Looks pretty cool, and appears to be a stylish makeover of another of Sid's earlier Civ-style classics, Alpha Centauri (which I loved dearly).

https://www.civilization.com/en/games/civilization-beyond-earth/

There is some more info, screenshots and a demo clip of the gameplay on display at Steam.

[PZ]

Wow, fragger!  You can do Steam!!!   ???

Screenies look great - very colorful and detailed

[Art Blade]

Wow, fragger!  You can do Steam!!!   ???

:-D :-X

[fragger]

 

"This demon's tempest will not hold us out if we really want in" - Beowulf :-()

[Stiku]

Should be wonderful to explore alien worlds in this, with the known CIV interface, I do remember Alpha Centauri which was great.  ^-^

[fragger]

Agreed :)

This game apparently will have customizable units like Alpha Centauri did, and will feature a "tech web" instead of a tech tree, in which you begin at a central point and direct your techs outwards along diverging research lines. Looks quite innovative 8)

[Binnatics]

Sounds interesting indeed. This together with the video I saw on Steam, is quite something. Civ isn't my type of game but I'm definitely looking forward to your experiences :-X :)

[fragger]

Cheers mate :) The game should be released next week, so expect some blather from me soon :-()

[PZ]

 :-X

[Art Blade]

 :-D go on :)

[fragger]

Well, I'd like to go on, but...

Spoiler

FUCKING STEAM WON'T LET ME LOG ON TO INSTALL!!!

I've been trying to connect with them for the last half-hour but apparently they've gone bye-byes for the time being.

So much for trying out my new game...

I may have a rapid new net access, but it hasn't put an end to my hassles with Steam. The bastards are still managing to piss me off >:((

[PZ]

...I may have a rapid new net access, but it hasn't put an end to my hassles with Steam. The bastards are still managing to piss me off >:((

Wow, fragger - seems like you never get a break from those Steam people!  ???

[fragger]

Tell me about it :-()

Blow me down - just after I let loose here, I went back to Steam for one more attempt to stick my foot in the door and they condescended to let me in ::) Installation now complete. My copy came with a DLC code for a pack of six new map styles (which I have downloaded) but I'll get to those by-and-by. First, I need to learn how to play the flipping game :-D

And there's gonna be some learning. I've had a wee bit of a play, and it promises to be quite engaging. HOWEVER - there's a pretty steep learning curve involved. For anyone who has never played any of the Civ games (and who never played Alpha Centauri), getting a head around this title could prove to be a tad daunting.

Alpha Centauri was Sid Meier's follow-up to Civilization II and while it retained the basic Civ gameplay it was quite different in a number of ways. The same obtains here - Beyond Earth displays the same kind of radical departure from Civ V whilst retaining the essential core gaming concept. There's a lot to take in even for a seasoned Civ veteran like my good self, but it'll be a case of learning by doing. There is an online manual and the ever-handy Civilopedia, but I haven't poked into those much yet.

First impressions:

Cool-looking graphics depicting a truly alien environment. This is a foreboding-looking world and humans are the newcomers - other things already live here. Whether we'll get on or not remains to be seen...

Interface seems fairly accessible and the game's atmosphere is a little reminiscent of Alpha Centauri's. Map is hexagon-based like Civ V. Units are interesting to look at and are neatly animated (what little I've seen of them so far). I've spotted a couple of "herds" of alien critters skittering about, dunno what they are yet or whether they mean good or nasty.

I think I could get happily lost in this game, once I start to gain a glimmering of the hang of it.

Very early days, but I'm enthusiastic :-X

[Art Blade]

I like spoiler tags. You'll never know what's going to hit you.. 

[fragger]

 :-D

You didn't hear the verbal equivalent, although my neighbours probably did. Since I can't stick a spoiler over my mouth and I w@&k in a pet goods place, maybe I should buy a muzzle :-()

[Art Blade]

hehe  ;D

Reminds me of a Garfield comic strip. Garfield takes a paper bag, sticks his face in, pulls his face out and seals the bag. He then puts it on the ground and walks away (although he made sure Odin, the dog, was watching the whole act). Odin walks over to the bag, opens it so the opening points towards his face and you see that something similar to a hurricane comes out of the bag blowing right into Odin's face.  ^-^ Maybe you should curse into a bag, too  :-()

[Stiku]

AMD Released a Performance driver for CIV Beyond Earth  >:D
Also I did'nt notice first but the game is Mantle ready, so the newest and last gen AMD cards are getting benefits playing via Mantle.

[fragger]

Neat :-X

Art, I'll keep that in mind, if I can find a Kevlar bag :-() I'm generally pretty restrained when I post here (despite the last spoiler) but I have been known to colour the air a tad when properly motivated >:D

Just got home from w@&k a short time ago. Gonna have some dinner, then crack open a beer or two and play some more BE ^-^

[Art Blade]

 :-D

Alreet bazz.. let rip!  :-()

[fragger]

There are some quite notable changes from Civ V in BE, some of which will take time to get familiar with.

One big change is the "Tech Web". Instead of the traditional inter-branching tree structure where techs lead to other techs in an overall linear manner, techs in BE are researched from a central starting point with the branches radiating outwards. It means that you can focus on just one branch of the web and completely ignore others altogether if you want. This couldn't be done in earlier Civ games because sooner or later you would want to pursue a particular tech but would first have to discover two or more prerequisite techs from other branches before you could pursue the one you really want.

Here's the central part of the Web (not a very clear pic, but I had to shrink the original 1920x1080px image to post it efficiently. A bit clearer when clicked on):

[smg id=7281 align=center size=600]

The techs themselves, and what they will allow, are going to take some getting used to. A player will know what to expect in Civ V when techs like "Archery" and "Flight" are researched. Techs in BE such as "Swarm Robotics" and "Transcendental Maths" are not so self-suggestive of what they will yield (although it does tell you in a pop-up when you hover the pointer over the little icons associated with the tech, just as in Civ V).

Here's a bit of what the world looks like (once again, shrunken image):

[smg id=7282 align=center size=600]

Very alien compared to Civ V's lush and familiar world. There are different types of alien creatures running around which can be quite tough to fight off. There's one called a Siege Worm which is a particularly nasty piece of xenobiology. These things will burrow up from underground in a twisting/turning fashion and will lay waste to your farms, power generators and any other improvements you may have built. And they're TOUGH - most of your units (especially early on) will get creamed if they try to attack one. However, if a worm gets within two hexes of your city, the city itself can safely range-attack it. It'll take about seven good hits to bring it down though.

Most alien creatures seem to be relatively non-aggressive, unless your units stray too close to their nests. Then they will attack. But even then, after a while they will go back to being non-aggressive. It appears that there are techs and "Virtue" decisions you can attain (Virtues are what used to be called "Policies" in Civ V) that will enable you to get on better with aliens. It seems that it's even possible later in the game to have aliens units under your command (a la Alpha Centauri). Except for Siege Worms - they're always cranky and ready to have a go at anything.

There's tons of new stuff to learn about. An experienced Civ player should be able to pick it up relatively quickly, but if you haven't played any Civ games I'd recommend getting familiar with Civ V before attempting this title. Having said that, there are tutorials and a handy adviser/tip system that you can turn off later, once you get familiar with things.

[PZ]

I like the 3D look of the game board  :-X

[Art Blade]

the web idea is cool :-X

[fragger]

One thing I've noticed is that the game is surprisingly graphics-intensive. I had to turn off anti-aliasing and drop some of the graphics options down a bit to get it to run smoothly. Civ V is much, much smoother. As I uncover more of the map, naturally there is more for the program to display and I expect the speed will drop even more as I continue to explore. Like many strategy games, BE uses a "fog-of-war" system - the map details are invisible until you move units out into the world to reveal them. I've uncovered less than half the current map so far and there is a noticeable drop in the frame rate. It'll be interesting to see how it behaves when the entire map has been revealed and I have more units out and about.

The map is 3D, as is Civ V. It can't be rotated, but you can zoom the view in and out (five zoom levels) and smoothly autoscroll it. Your view is as though you're looking down on everything but at an angle. Imagine a relief-map on a table and you're standing at the end of the table. If there are mountains at the far end of the table and mountains at the near end of the table, you will see the two lots of mountains at different angles due to your perspective - the mountains at the far end of the table will be seen almost side-on whereas the mountains at the near end of the table will be almost directly below you. This is how the map in BE (and Civ) is presented. When you scroll up or down you can see this kind of perspective in action as the map appears to "unroll" beneath you. Similarly when you side-scroll, the 3D-ness of the terrain is evident. It's a pretty cool system.

[Art Blade]

nice :) let's hope that the frame rate won't drop too much.

[Stiku]

Performance test with the Civ BE :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8640/benchmarked-civilization-beyond-earth