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#4026246 - 10/23/14 07:55 PM Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth  
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Pielstick Offline
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Pre-ordered some time ago.

Pre-loaded last night.

Should unlock here in a little over 3 hours.


As a fan of the whole Civ series and many hours spent playing Alpha Centauri I'm very much looking forward to this.

Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#4026260 - 10/23/14 08:17 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Cool, please let us know how it is thumbsup

Another fan of SMAC here, but one who had gotten burned by too many pre-orders lately so waiting to hear the condition of this one on release before buying.


i7-7700k@4.5ghz, GTX1080Ti,BenQ XL2420G-g-sync,Oculus Rift
#4026274 - 10/23/14 08:49 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Pre-ordered und pre-loaded, too. yep

I'm a BIG Civilization fan and a new iteration with a SciFi setting is something I wished for a long time.

I know it's not a real successor to Alpha Centauri (which I loved) but I hope it recaptures the feeling of colonizing an alien planet.


"...late afternoon the Air Tasking Order came in [and] we found the A-10 part and we said, "We are going where!? We are doing what!?"

Capt. Todd Sheehy, Hog pilot, on receiving orders during Operation Desert Storm

#4026316 - 10/23/14 11:00 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Pielstick Offline
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Less than three minutes now.....

SMAC was an absolute masterpiece. It's still available on GOG with Alien Crossfire. There's a mod for Civ4 called Planetfall that does a pretty good job of recreating SMAC in the Civ4 engine. More recently there was Pandora which was very much in the spirit of SMAC. I'm ashamed to say I have it but have never played it! I've heard it's not a bad effort at all.

In the last few years there's been a string of disappointing sci-fi 4x games. If anybody is going to get it right it will be Fireaxis.

Midnight whoohoo

#4026330 - 10/23/14 11:34 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Pielstick Offline
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The Engine Room
Boo!

0033 and still not unlocked cuss2

BTW, the top review on the Steam Store page made me chuckle:

"No need to worry about Ghandi nuking you."

#4026335 - 10/23/14 11:51 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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FlashBurn Offline
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On my vary short BUY list for next month. Hope its good!

#4026352 - 10/24/14 12:12 AM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Fudge93 Offline
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Well it's unlocked here now. Restart your steam client if it's still locked.


combtpilot.co.uk
#4026374 - 10/24/14 12:57 AM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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vocatx Offline
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Is this available without going through Steam?


4H_V-man

System Specs:
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#4026433 - 10/24/14 03:10 AM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Pielstick Offline
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The Engine Room
Got it unlocked just after 1am. Fired it up to check it out.

It's now after 4am.

Yes, definitely a Sid Meier strategy game.

One...

More....

Turn....

#4026476 - 10/24/14 05:13 AM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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DaBBQ Offline
Bug Stompe....Quisling
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No game stopping bugs? In which way does the game feels like civ 4 or civ 5?

#4026493 - 10/24/14 07:29 AM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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HogDriver Offline
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I'm a big Civ fan, but they completely lose me when they do the sci-fi versions of it. I played through Alpha Centauri once, then went back to Civ 2 gold.


I refuse to buy a flight sim that I have no interest in playing, on the off chance that MAYBE someday they'll make the one I really want to play.

#4026503 - 10/24/14 08:25 AM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  

**DONOTDELETE**
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Any feedback from those who've played Alpha Centauri? How does it measure up to the classic?

When I left my country I brought with me my Alpha Centauri CD, that's how much I liked the game.

#4026506 - 10/24/14 08:49 AM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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I played for four hours today.

Just scratching the surface of its depth and subtlety. No joking...there are so many possible twists and turns in the game relating to "virtues", and technologies, not to mention "sponsors" and faction characteristics, that replayability is unlimited.

I'm a SMAC player from way back...played it until my keyboard wore out, but this is better.

It has a Civ5 base that is misleading..it's not Civ5 at all.

I'm still just scratching the surface of this thing, and it's really good.


"You'll never take me alive" said he,
And his ghost may be heard if you pass by that billabong
"Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me?"



#4026527 - 10/24/14 11:25 AM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Pielstick Offline
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Ok, so it unlocked for me at 1am, I played it until 4am, about 200 turns. I dived straight in, no reading the manual. I didn't really follow the development of the game either, other than hearing you can't build cities in the ocean. Small map, normal difficulty, just checking stuff out.

It's not really a remake of SMAC. The factions are totally different, they don't come with pre-defined ideologies or characteristics, it's up to the player to customise their faction through decisions made during the gameplay. The Civ lineage is very apparent, and if you've played Civ5 you'll feel instantly familiar and comfortable with this game, but there's enough differences in game mechanics to make it something new.

When you make your faction you choose a sponsor, which means you get a leader with certain characteristics and traits. You then pick your colony ship loadout, which gives you certain bonuses straight off the bat. Once you establish your first outpost it's up to you to start picking virtues. There are three virtue trees:

Harmony - adapting and living in harmony with the alien ecosystem. Think genetic engineering.

Supremacy - adapting to the alien environment through technology. Think cybernetic augmentation and AI.

Purity - retaining a pure human identity and physiology. Think exo-suits.

As you progress down the virtue tree you get to choose certain perks and your virtue score also gives perks as it reaches certain values.

Instead of Civ's barbarians we now get native life forms. They're not quite like SMAC's Mindworms, they come in several different types. They spawn from alien nests which must be cleared by your units. If you progress far enough down the harmony virtue I think you actually get to build and control native life forms. SMAC players will remember the native fungus. In this game it has become "miasma". If your units end their turn on a tile with miasma they suffer damage. You can research technology that renders your units immune to miasma.

In terms of resources you get the familiar energy (gold in Civ), food and production. Resources are gathered based on tile terrain type and improvements built. You can build worker units that build terrain tile improvements. Ditto with the borders and territory which work pretty much the same as in Civ.

The technology tree is a lot like the one in any space sci-fi game..... i.e. it takes some getting your head round to familiarise yourself with what the techs actually do because it's not immediately apparent, unlike in Civ.

Graphically the game is very nice, it's using the Civ 5 engine so if you've played that you know what to expect. The big difference being you will need to familiarise yourself with the different types of terrain and resource on the alien map.

In terms of AI, on normal it seems fairly docile. My nearest neighbour is friendly with me and asked me not to build any more bases near him. I agreed, but some terms later I built a base anyway. He expressed his displeasure, as did the other factions. One of the factions is now hostile towards me. The alien life form AI is also fairly docile if you leave it alone. If you start going out of your way to attack them then they seem to become more hostile and aggressive

There's other layers to the map, such as orbital improvements (think spy satellites, orbital weapons, stuff like that), and a covert ops layer. I haven't really checked these out yet.


All in all initial impressions are very good. I haven't noticed any game breaking bugs. I really like how your faction's nature is defined by decisions you make through gameplay. Definitely got that "one more turn" gameplay that the Civ series is so famous for.

#4026673 - 10/24/14 03:42 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Para_Bellum Offline
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Ok, here are my first impressions after some 5-6 hours, roughly 200 turns:

1.) The setting

I like it. It feels positively different from Civ 5. The alien planet makes for a much more dangerous and "explorey" atmosphere.

2.) The aliens

Much more dangerous than the barbarians. Siege Worms are...frightening. As are nests with 4-5 alien swarms.

3.) Quests and decisions

I like both the new quests and the decisions that let you define your faction.

4.) The AI

Pretty good. I'm playing at Vostok (moderate) difficulty and have seen some factions trying to peacefully cooperate with me as well as some massive attacks by others.

5.) Science, Research, Affinities

So far working rather well. Different affinities will definitely influence your playstyle. Lots of depth. Lots to discover.

Ok, back to playing...


"...late afternoon the Air Tasking Order came in [and] we found the A-10 part and we said, "We are going where!? We are doing what!?"

Capt. Todd Sheehy, Hog pilot, on receiving orders during Operation Desert Storm

#4026687 - 10/24/14 04:14 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  

**DONOTDELETE**
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cool! thanks for the detailed reviews. Definitely picking this one up... if ever I get to settle somewhere. Too busy, I miss my gaming days.

#4026702 - 10/24/14 04:32 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Pielstick Offline
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Well I just got the carpet pulled out from under my by the AI biggrin

I picked the Kavithan Protectorate as my sponsor, established four outposts/cities. Because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with the tech tree my cities were growing at a much slower pace than the other factions. My immediate neighbour was Polystralia who were pretty friendly to me. I spent a lot of time trading with them and clearing alien life forms from the continent we both occupied. On a nearby continent were the African Union and ARC.... the former was neutral towards me and the latter was hostile because they felt I was expanding too close to Polystralia.

I'd just got to the point were I was kind of getting to know what I was doing...... I developed a big negative health value so I had to research some techs and build some improvements that turned that around to a pretty nice positive health tech..... I just realised I had to launch miasma repelling orbital platforms to clear miasma from tiles allowing them to be improved..... I was just starting to pick up some real growth.....

When the bastid African Union pulled a coup d'etat in my capital.

Next time get a counter intelligence operation running sooner.

Last edited by Pielstick; 10/24/14 04:34 PM.
#4026724 - 10/24/14 05:26 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Magnum Offline
Lifer
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Lifer

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Naples, Florida
I'm a idiot... pre-ordered it 2 days ago before release on a impulse, love the Civ series games but not a sci fi or alien fan... played today for the first time, not for me...boring and insanely deep. And more damn alien creatures then need be, in the screenshot thread... I'm surrounded by them in the opening turns... not a planet I want to call home. wink

jmo

#4026741 - 10/24/14 05:50 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Dart Offline
Measured in Llamathrusts
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Lifer

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Alabaster, AL USA
I'm still hammering away at Civ V...President Jackson is nearing his goal of converting all the heatherns to the religion of American Exceptionalism.

In a way that only Andrew Jackson can.


The opinions of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

More dumb stuff at http://www.darts-page.com

From Laser:
"The forum is the place where combat (real time) flight simulator fans come to play turn based strategy combat."
#4026742 - 10/24/14 05:52 PM Re: Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth [Re: Pielstick]  
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Does anyone remember how bad the very first Civilization cheated? It was a nice game for the very small HD footprint, original and stylish, but it certainly cheated. While I concede it must be difficult to program behavior without some exploits given to computer factions in order to compensate for human ingenuity, some of it was really apparent so that I definitely felt that it killed some of the immersion, in time, playing it for several years I definitely felt that it was less an open strategy game but more just calculating x amount of turns ahead of time, more like a math puzzle. It's actually an illusion of a game, but it did set the beginning for the 4x genre.

You could confirm that the opponent civilizations were artificially boosted to keep pace with the player, for instance, if a race would build a World Wonder, you might reload a saved game position to a turn just prior to that civilization building it, and then to find out that civilization wasn't building that Wonder at all. Technology discoveries seemed to be injected likewise at arbitrary times rather than earned.

Then there was the issue of the frustrating combat results, the computer's omniscience in locating the player's cities, and the overly aggressive diplomacy whereby computer empires would never make peace nor hardly ever live by agreements, accept with one another and their combined prejudice against the player.

Civ 2 felt more like what Civ 1 should have been, but by then I started losing interest in the formula and I never approached a Sid Meier game again.

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