Firaxis announces Civilization: Beyond Earth for Fall 2014

[Thanatos]

I'm really excited for this. It's pretty much Alpha Centauri 2 in all but name.

[Vítor Gaspar]

Vitor you should take a look at the orginal game Sid meiers alpha centauri.... there is no countries the organizations or factions that exist there are ideologic base, not national based.
When i mean ideologic, i mean one is spartan ( militaristic), other is faith based, other is technocratic, and other is enviromentalist guided, while other is capitalisti guided etc, and they usualy reflect that in their apearence and design story line, at least in alpha centauri was like that, there were no nations, or anything that sets them apart in relation to earth dynamics at least.
For them to say there only be 8 factions at start at least, im guessing it will be similar to alpha centauri, wich had 7 originaly.

Brazilia in this context, might as well not be brazil related for instance...

I'm guessing they're straying away from that. Firaxis mentioned the factions would be "sponsored" and "nation-based", so I guess there's a link to the states back on Earth. I never played Alpha Centauri (I know) but I'm not sure whether it took place after the immediate landing on an alien planet or some time after.

This seems to take place immediately after the first contact so, in a way or another, the crumbling states on Earth may be still alive for a period. It would be sweet if we had "news" from home during the 2000 years journey on this new planet. It would be pretty dramatic. It would also fit in with some of the possible victory conditions (you can return to Earth - either to assimilate the Earthlings or to help settle the planet again) in-game.

So, all things considered, I do think "Brazilia" has something to do with Brazil, and a Brazilian, French, American and Arabic-based faction will be featured.

[Tankfriend]

I never played Alpha Centauri (I know) but I'm not sure whether it took place after the immediate landing on an alien planet or some time after.

It's immediately after the landing, and - similar to Civ - you start out with a lone colony pod and scout.
However, the colonization mission is sponsored by the UN (well, it didn't survive planetfall...), and there is no contact with Earth.

[Kanaric]

I'm really excited for this. It's pretty much Alpha Centauri 2 in all but name.

yup, best game of all time IMO.

Only reason it doesn't use SMAC IP is that the person who owns the IP, former Firaxis game designer who made the first game, owns it and has a dispute with Sid Meyer.

[Thanatos]

I thought it was EA.

[Markas]

EA own the rights to the name and Take-Two/2K Games the game.

[Maximinus Thrax]

yup, best game of all time IMO.

Definitely the best of all the Civilization-related games out there, a title which is still a major source of inspiration for Sid Meier and his team when it comes to implementing new features, even after 15 years. Like Thanatos stated, this game promises to be a direct successor of Alpha Centauri. We'll have to wait and see if this game will manage to surpass the brilliancy of AC.

[Kanaric]

I thought it was EA.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/arti...Alpha-Centauri

Sid Meyer and Brian Reynolds never would say why they wouldn't make it. Alpha Centauri is Reynold's game and Sid Meyer and him never will talk about why it wasn't made. EA has nothing to do with it it's always been considered a personal dispute.

[Knight of Heaven]

I'm guessing they're straying away from that. Firaxis mentioned the factions would be "sponsored" and "nation-based", so I guess there's a link to the states back on Earth. I never played Alpha Centauri (I know) but I'm not sure whether it took place after the immediate landing on an alien planet or some time after.

This seems to take place immediately after the first contact so, in a way or another, the crumbling states on Earth may be still alive for a period. It would be sweet if we had "news" from home during the 2000 years journey on this new planet. It would be pretty dramatic. It would also fit in with some of the possible victory conditions (you can return to Earth - either to assimilate the Earthlings or to help settle the planet again) in-game.

So, all things considered, I do think "Brazilia" has something to do with Brazil, and a Brazilian, French, American and Arabic-based faction will be featured.

I dont know about this new game, but in Alpha centauri the Colonies, the factions were divided by ideologies, not nations, meaning there would be people from alot of original earth nations of UN in one colony, thats why i said Brazilia might not necessarely represent Brazil directly.
And the game begins immediately after landing , the UN main ship jettison the pods and all they land in diferent places in the new planet after a bloody violent chaos on board, originated in the ideological conflicts, within UN expedition.
As i said i dont know about this new game though, it might be diferent.
One of the things i likedin AC was that we actualy designed our own units, and costumize their own upgrades.

[Markas]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/arti...Alpha-Centauri

Sid Meyer and Brian Reynolds never would say why they wouldn't make it. Alpha Centauri is Reynold's game and Sid Meyer and him never will talk about why it wasn't made. EA has nothing to do with it it's always been considered a personal dispute.

Nobody seems to know who has the IP. EA definitely has the name rights as the publisher of the original and from what I've read is generally thought of as possessing the IP rights as well rather than Reynolds.

[Ulyaoth]

I'm both extremely happy and disappointed with this news. Alpha Centauri was my first 4x game, remember great games in that. Just not sure about how firaxis will do, though to be fair I never really gave civ5 much of a chance. Hope they keep the best features, the detailed terraforming and unit creation and such.

I remember a game where the fundamentalist faction was gigantic, the planet was mainly one big continent with me on one end jutting up, and she'd taken over about three times as much land, with the Russian dude a buffer between us. She invaded him and took him out in like two turns and I realized in horror she had like ten times the army I had so I planet bustered her army at a conquered Russian city to split the continent saving me from being overrun. Then I commenced nerve gassing the hell out of her. I loved nerve gas.

[Vítor Gaspar]

I dont know about this new game, but in Alpha centauri the Colonies, the factions were divided by ideologies, not nations, meaning there would be people from alot of original earth nations of UN in one colony, thats why i said Brazilia might not necessarely represent Brazil directly.
And the game begins immediately after landing , the UN main ship jettison the pods and all they land in diferent places in the new planet after a bloody violent chaos on board, originated in the ideological conflicts, within UN expedition.
As i said i dont know about this new game though, it might be diferent.
One of the things i likedin AC was that we actualy designed our own units, and costumize their own upgrades.

Apparently this one will differ from the original AC. It won't be a UN sponsored spaceship. Your mission takes place with a private spaceship, apparently run by a private organisation, but which is sponsored by a earthly state. The state that sponsors you (you get to choose that), plus your initial spaceship customization, as well as the things you're bringing for the mission and the leader you select, will define your faction traits. As the sponsor has implications with the leader's choice, it will mean the ideologies may arise from the Earth sponsors. For all we know, in PC Gamer they mentioned the Brazilians would have the most militaristic traits (which is a very odd choice, but then again, by 2200 something may have happened with Brazil and South America)

The confirmed sponsors/factions as of now are Brazil[ia?], the United States [ARC - American Reclamation Corporocracy] and China/Japan/Korea/whoknows [the PAC - Pan-Asian cooperative]. France and some Pan-Arabic faction are also hinted.

[Markas]

No Polish faction? but.. they can into space! They even had their own steam achievement.

Wonder who'll get to do the Voice acting for tech research and stuff. Personally I'd want Shatner in true Shatnerian style-

'I don't know but I've been told... Deirdre's got... a Network Node! Likes to press the... on-off switch!... Dig that crazy... Gaian witch!'

In fact I want every announcement to be made in Shatner Tambourine man style.

[James the Red]

Essentially its a science fiction based sort-of sequel that takes place on a newly discovered planet, the story is essentially that if the civs in a Civ game acchieved Space victory, but wrecked the Earth in the process and now the civs have sent expeditians to a new planet and are competing over this new planet.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=524179

There are different victory conditions, the 'Domination' one is back of coarse, so you can win be crushing the other civs. The 'Contact' victory is winning by being the first faction to achive contact with intelligent aliens, which I'm guessing is this games Science victory, the equivalent of the Space victory in the other Civ games.

There are 3 other victory conditions that also tie into the 'affinities' system this game will have (affinities seem to be this games version of Social policies from Civ V).

The Harmony affinity is making your people live in harmony with the planet and bioengineering themselves and the native alien life to work together, victory from merging consciousness with an underground super lifeform in the planet.

The Supremacy affinity is using tech to merge people and technology, cyber upgrading themselvs and such, think Transhumanism. Victory from building a warpgate and going back to earth to turn the earthlings into robot-people too.

The Purity affinity is the protection of human identity from the others, using good old fashioned human engineering to create super weapons, victory from building a warpgate to bring humans to the new planet and crush the native wildlife.

[Ishan]

Similar thread merged.

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

This is going to be awesome.

[weirdoascensor]

[Thanatos]

You know, I was excited earlier for this game, but the more videos I watch, the more it looks like a dumbed down version of Alpha Centauri. In fact, so far, aside from the fact that you can now research in every direction, it only confirms my initial gut reaction that this is Civ V, but with a SPESS skin thrown on top.

Also, I never really understood why on earth the new factions are based on countries and locations, as opposed to ideologies. Isn't that what this game is supposed to be about? Being beyond Earth?

[The Useless Member]

Blargh. Looks like CIV 4. They have seemed to skimped out on the post-launch game in exchange for future DLC. Dissapointing and I will not probably buy until a few years after it's out due to it looking so... empty.

[Kanaric]

You know, I was excited earlier for this game, but the more videos I watch, the more it looks like a dumbed down version of Alpha Centauri. In fact, so far, aside from the fact that you can now research in every direction, it only confirms my initial gut reaction that this is Civ V, but with a SPESS skin thrown on top.

Also, I never really understood why on earth the new factions are based on countries and locations, as opposed to ideologies. Isn't that what this game is supposed to be about? Being beyond Earth?

I agree actually.

The different planet types I thought were going to make a huge difference, like outpost, are just different tile sets. This is by far the most disappointing aspect of the game. I was thinking it was going to be different kinds of aliens too depending on the planet, sandworms on desert, SMAC throwback on fungal, and something else on terrestrial planets. Nope.

No unit design, just some XP ranking system.

No government system, just some thing where you use another form of XP to rank talents like it's world of warcraft. It's like the devs for this are obsessed with XP.

No more height, just typical Civ stuff there too.

The nations are unimaginative, not at all like Alpha Centauri where they even had interesting background stories for everyone including the leaders. Also the "storyline" is totally missing like what was in that game. Sure it's more "open world" but it also makes me think it's lazier and non committal. Like if they want it to be open world why are they saying you some future-country from earth?

Combat looks identical to Civ 5. At least in the early game stages.

Diplomacy is regular Civ fare, not the excellent system from SMAC. This is quite bad as Civ 5 diplomacy is terrible.

I wasn't a huge fan of Civ 5, it was a good civ game but it wasn't that interesting other than that. Distant Worlds was a more fun game for me, more interesting, and deeper. It seems like they are trying to streamline and simplify their games and as a result is losing interesting and challenging aspects from the game like it's lost its soul.. Alpha Centauri had a lot of concepts that required you to think.

I don't like how they want to remove "hard" mechanics from the game like pollution, global warming, corruption, and things like that. Right now cities are just you building stuff there, there is no deep gameplay to be had in Civ at all other than unit positioning.

The only thing new or interesting in this games is that you can be pro or anti-planet rather than having fungus worship becoming standard.