Support NeoGAF

[Fragamemnon]

I expect/hope to see a Extended UI mod for BE at some point. There's lot of additional info they could be displaying. Though I think it will up to Firaxis to deal with the city management screen, which I really don't like.

On Steam Workshop right now there is a BeBa "Beyond Balance" mod. I finished a playthrough with it and while it doesn't correct all of the problems, it does stop the outrageous stuff like turn 110 or so planet carvers and trade route absurdity.

 

[spiritfox]

Rocktopi are pretty awesome. Stupid, but awesome.

Also, I'm not getting the endgame achievements for some reason. My first game did, but any games after that didn't give me anything. I did get achievements during those playthroughs so it's not Steam's issue. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[Lashley]

Best ways to improve health?

 

[Poodlestrike]

Best ways to improve health?

Virtues. If you expand too quickly, you'll run into the city health vs. population issue, and your city count ends up putting you straight in the red. Virtues are (as far as I know) the only way to up empire-wide happiness.

 

[Lashley]

Virtues. If you expand too quickly, you'll run into the city health vs. population issue, and your city count ends up putting you straight in the red. Virtues are (as far as I know) the only way to up empire-wide happiness.

Thanks, I'll try and utilize them

 

[ConceptX]

20% off during Steam pre-order
25% off on release

I guess I should've waited and saved a few $

I kinda feel the same. Maybe it's because I've 2000+ Civ5 hours under my belt and I'm growing tired of the formula, but after a couple of BE games I have little desire to play a third.

Do you feel that it's just too similar to Civ5 to warrant a purchase?

Reviews are much more mixed than I expected, which makes me wonder if it means they will not develop a BE expansion and just go straight to "6" (Though I imagine development would be in tandem), or develop a BE expansion faster than originally to try and flush out some of the missing content.

 

[Ogimachi]

Best ways to improve health?

Prosperity virtues if you want a wide empire, otherwise biowells, early gene garden and quest choices that give health.
Might has a good virtue, which gives 0.5 Health for every military unit, but if you're focusing on health and science buildings early on, that bonus won't be that useful until mid-game.
Knowledge will make you research techs which give health much faster, but its only health boost is rather poor: +1 Health for every 8 population in a city.
Industry is probably the strongest tree, and good enough for health, but if you're going really wide, Prosperity is the way to go.

It might even be OP. In my last game I built 6 cities, conquered another 6 and still had 40 Health to spare (with 4 of them still giving negative health for annexation).

 

[Poodlestrike]

Holy crap, there's a Holy See sponsor with a working (2D) leader graphic, complete with a Supremacy appearance (possibly more, haven't played with it yet). Fear the space pope!

 

[Ogimachi]

Still looking for some help with the art files, but this will be my first mod:

 

[v4skunk84]

I don't understand the problem people are having with the native wildlife. What are you guys doing? Wiping them out?
If you don't attack them they will not attack you unless you move close to a nest. I have 2 sand worms in my area now, all they do is attack the Russians who move through my open borders.

 

[dawid]

How many workers do you usually have per city?

The "number of cities"-penalty on Health really gets you if you've been chilling with just +2-3 points before starting a new city. Definitely gonna keep that buffer bigger in my next game.

Anyone else confused about what the arrows in the trade route-window represents? What is the cost and what is the return?

 

[bjaelke]

Inbound and outbound trade

 

[Poodlestrike]

I don't understand the problem people are having with the native wildlife. What are you guys doing? Wiping them out?
If you don't attack them they will not attack you unless you move close to a nest. I have 2 sand worms in my area now, all they do is attack the Russians who move through my open borders.

The worms keep screwing with my improvements, so I sort of have to wipe them out.

How many workers do you usually have per city?

The "number of cities"-penalty on Health really gets you if you've been chilling with just +2-3 points before starting a new city. Definitely gonna keep that buffer bigger in my next game.

Anyone else confused about what the arrows in the trade route-window represents? What is the cost and what is the return?

Generally less than 1 worker per city is enough, at least until you unlock Terrascapes or something.

Arrows to the left are what you gain, arrows to the right is what the other guy (or city) gets.

 

[Chaos17]

Sorry, but I have to call bullshit here. Aliens don't enter your city circle just to attack something. They don't even kill workers in the second circle. Turn 5? Just no. I'm happy to help, but there's no need for hyperbole.

A worm attacked one of my farm and destryed a worker at the same time until I researhed the tech (fence something) that keep them away to enter my city.

 

[munroe]

I don't understand the problem people are having with the native wildlife. What are you guys doing? Wiping them out?
If you don't attack them they will not attack you unless you move close to a nest. I have 2 sand worms in my area now, all they do is attack the Russians who move through my open borders.

The icon above them is green, any explorer that goes near them (not near a nest) will get attacked, they're so aggressive.

 

[dumbo]

Exploration is awful with all the aliens and miasma. Is there a better unit for exploration than the explorer? I feel like its not really a unit to send out to reveal the map. Too squishy and valuable unlike the scout in Civ V.

Get the purity level 1 ability and your explorer becomes basically immune to bugs.

 

[SyenceLabb]

My wallet and productivity is telling me noOOOo.....

But my body, my bahhh deeeee is tellin' me yeaaa ahhhh.

I want this.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I'm not feeling the same faults of the game as other people are apparently. I think the UI is mostly fine, but for the overview menu being difficult to spot. And I have a few criticisms of things that could improve, like seeing miasma on both view modes....

 

[Uthred]

Game just isn't as fun without the 'real' historical stuff I find. Obviously some people prefer the sci fi stuff but playing this made realize the history aspect is one of the major reasons why I love the series.

To be honest the bizarre not-history aspect of the mainline Civ games is probably what I like least about them. But on the other hand it does go a long way towards adding flavour to each faction even without conscious effort on the part of the game/designers. Something that is a bit missing here. For example, if I pick the romans even if Im largely ignorant of history theres a depth of character to the faction due to, if nothing else, cultural osmosis. The factions here are sort of missing that (there is stuff in the civlopedia and to be honest the barebones start is good in one way as it lets you imagine what your faction is like based on your initial picks). Actually speaking of that its weird that on the screen where you pick your sponsor theres no info on said sponsor, considering how much free screen real estate there is there it feels like a missed opportunity.

 

[marvelharvey]

I'd rather be playing with Space Gengis and Cyborg Queen Victoria, than the current bland selection of nobodies.

 

[Facism]

I'd rather be playing with Space Gengis and Cyborg Queen Victoria, than the current bland selection of nobodies.

same lol. Atomic Suleiman.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I'd rather be playing with Space Gengis and Cyborg Queen Victoria, than the current bland selection of nobodies.

Give it a little time. There's already a mecha-pope.

 

[Brohan]

So i've seen alot of mixed reactions.. And so i'm wondering if it's worth buying right now or if it is better to wait until it is available for cheap..

What do you guys think?

 

[Chariot]

So i've seen alot of mixed reactions.. And so i'm wondering if it's worth buying right now or if it is better to wait until it is available for cheap..

What do you guys think?

It's not a bad game, but it isn't fantastic as it is now. No need to buy it now if you have other games yoi want to play.

 

[bjaelke]

Give the demo a try

 

[Poodlestrike]

So i've seen alot of mixed reactions.. And so i'm wondering if it's worth buying right now or if it is better to wait until it is available for cheap..

What do you guys think?

Give the demo a shot. At the moment, I think I'd recommend most people to wait for the first expansion or a sale, though I myself am really enjoying it.

 

[twobear]

So, I'm currently 1 point in Harmony, 1 point in Purity, and 14 points in Supremacy. I've researched Hypercomputing but I can't figure out how to build an Emancipation Gate.

Weirdly, the game let me build a Beacon, which I'm pretty sure is the Victory Wonder for the Harmony affinity? But nothing seems to be happening.

Is my game bugged?

 

[Poodlestrike]

So, I'm currently 1 point in Harmony, 1 point in Purity, and 14 points in Supremacy. I've researched Hypercomputing but I can't figure out how to build an Emancipation Gate.

Weirdly, the game let me build a Beacon, which I'm pretty sure is the Victory Wonder for the Harmony affinity? But nothing seems to be happening.

Is my game bugged?

The Beacon is actually required for the contact victory; if you select it, you can spend 1000 energy to start the victory countdown (little icon in the bottom left, above the selection name). I haven't done a Supremacy victory yet, so I can't comment on that.

 

[Artanisix]

Is there any way to establish early military dominance / early wins through fighting?

I'm really bad at CIV games but I just can't get into the macro-farmy type of gameplay. I wanna fight early but I don't know how I would tech/virtue my way to do it.

 

[Brohan]

Ok i guess i will wait it out a bit, thanks for the quick replies.

 

[twobear]

Ah okay I got this now. I have to build a Lasercom satellite to progress the Emancipation victory. I don't think that was obvious but maybe I'm stupid.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Is there any way to establish early military dominance / early wins through fighting?

I'm really bad at CIV games but I just can't get into the macro-farmy type of gameplay. I wanna fight early but I don't know how I would tech/virtue my way to do it.

It's a lot tougher here, but if you emphasize production and military research/virtues, you can probably make it work. It's also important to prioritize your Affinity level, since that's how you upgrade your units.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

So, I'm currently 1 point in Harmony, 1 point in Purity, and 14 points in Supremacy. I've researched Hypercomputing but I can't figure out how to build an Emancipation Gate.

Weirdly, the game let me build a Beacon, which I'm pretty sure is the Victory Wonder for the Harmony affinity? But nothing seems to be happening.

Is my game bugged?

You build it by selecting it in the build menu from a city like every other wonder. But this time you also select a tile where to place it.

 

[twobear]

Wow, well, I see what everyone means about the victories being underwhelming.

 

[beato_angelico]

I would love to read a postmortem on the UI design in this game.

They had a perfectly functioning UI in Civ5, and this game is using the same engine. How they could actually remove functionality and make a UI worse than Civ5 is a real head scratcher.

My guess is they threw the UI together at the last minute.

it's bugging me as well. my impression with the demo is positive, but you would expect something more polished since it's really a total conversion of civ 5.

 

[sueil]

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/20...d-earth-cant-quite-get-beyond-civilization-v/

Tom Chick nails my feelings perfectly.

 

[Dylan]

I've been playing the game if it feels like a reskin. They even use some of the same exact text I feel like this could had been an expansion.

^ Yeah this struck me as particularly sloppy. They didn't even bother trying to rephrase some of the dialogue, it's literally cut and pasted into this game from Civ V.

 

[Facism]

^ Yeah this struck me as particularly sloppy. They didn't even bother trying to rephrase some of the dialogue, it's literally cut and pasted into this game from Civ V.

"i'm sorry this has caused a divide between us"
"get over it"

 

[Ogimachi]

I think the negative/disappointed reactions are largely due to poor marketing. Some people were expecting SMAC 2, others thought this was a sequel to Civ5 but with a sci-fi setting, and some believed this was an expensive Civ5 DLC.
The press was already familiar with the game, so they knew what to expect and gave higher scores.

To be honest, I had my own (strong) concerns, and my expectations were rather low. Some things still baffle me, such as the lack of mod support in MP, only 8 leaders and no demographics, but I was actually surprised by how much I like the game.
It's obviously far from SMAC2 or a Civ5 sequel, which is why the underwhelming reaction on steam reviews is understandable, but I'm afraid this reaction will make them stop working on the game sooner than planned and release just a few pieces of DLC and patches.
Not our fault, of course, but I don't think T2/Firaxis will approach this with self-criticism on how they presented the game.

 

[Oppo]

I can't stop playing it. I know it's got some issues, but I just find it super engrossing.

 

[CloudWolf]

Is there any way to establish early military dominance / early wins through fighting?

As of now in Beyond Earth, there isn't really. You could try to attack cities of the other players with your early units, but you will fail unless you literally surround the city with siege units. Your units only really become strong against cities after the third affinity upgrade.

In Civ V is perfectly possible to win the game early though war though. Just play a game as the Huns or Assyria and you can kill everything once you research mathematics.

 

[BrassDragon]

I gave it a few more goes, played with the balance mod but I'm really not feeling it.

Divided fanbase, okay gameplay with a few baffling design decisions, re-used assets, lack of polish and ambition, not living up to its pedigree... yep, Beyond Earth is to Firaxis what Dragon Age II is to BioWare.

 

[Esch]

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/20...d-earth-cant-quite-get-beyond-civilization-v/

Tom Chick nails my feelings perfectly.

OOF.

I agree that the AI design is pretty terrible though.

 

[exmachina64]

I think the negative/disappointed reactions are largely due to poor marketing. Some people were expecting SMAC 2, others thought this was a sequel to Civ5 but with a sci-fi setting, and some believed this was an expensive Civ5 DLC.
The press was already familiar with the game, so they knew what to expect and gave higher scores.

It helps that I went into media blackout and avoided most of the game's marketing and previews.

To be honest, I had my own (strong) concerns, and my expectations were rather low. Some things still baffle me, such as the lack of mod support in MP, only 8 leaders and no demographics, but I was actually surprised by how much I like the game.
It's obviously far from SMAC2 or a Civ5 sequel, which is why the underwhelming reaction on steam reviews is understandable, but I'm afraid this reaction will make them stop working on the game sooner than planned and release just a few pieces of DLC and patches.
Not our fault, of course, but I don't think T2/Firaxis will approach this with self-criticism on how they presented the game.

I've played through four games now on Mercury. I need to ramp up the difficulty and see if I can handle it.

The exoplanets DLC are the only maps that present a bit of a challenge. I haven't looked through the advanced set-up, are there similar options to changing the map like Civ 5?

I hope Firaxis doesn't abandon BE early and instead works to release one to two expansions. Offering more maps as DLC and focusing on more meaty content for expansions would be acceptable. (Bearing in mind the engine's restrictions and game's similarities to Civ 5) I'd like more visual differences between various exoplanets.

 

[Rubixcuba]

I have Sim City 2013 levels of disappointment. I really like the new gameplay additions, the aliens are much better than barbarians and the opening 100 turns are enjoyable. Yet everything else is just so lacking

 

[Askherserenity]

I'm surprised the press haven't been calling out the game much at all. I can see a lot of people being dissapointed with this and yet everyone has been giving it pretty good scores.

Only reason I'm playing it now is because it's pretty much just Civ 5 and feels a very tiny bit new. I'll take what I can get but I am disappointed.

Only actual new feature/improvement this game has over 5 is the affinities and the music is ok.

Hopefully they'll support the game as much as 5...but I have a feeling we'll see 6 sooner rather than later.

 

[dimb]

I'm surprised the press haven't been calling out the game much at all. I can see a lot of people being dissapointed with this and yet everyone has been giving it pretty good scores.

Most of them probably want to breeze through one game and move on with their lives.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I'm surprised the press haven't been calling out the game much at all. I can see a lot of people being dissapointed with this and yet everyone has been giving it pretty good scores.

Only reason I'm playing it now is because it's pretty much just Civ 5 and feels a very tiny bit new. I'll take what I can get but I am disappointed.

Only actual new feature/improvement this game has over 5 is the affinities and the music is ok.

Hopefully they'll support the game as much as 5...but I have a feeling we'll see 6 sooner rather than later.

If we're setting aside the aliens, the tech web, the unit upgrading system, and the Virtues, then yeah. Nothing's changed. Totally worthy of a thorough lashing.

<.<

 

[sueil]

If we're setting aside the aliens, the tech web, the unit upgrading system, and the Virtues, then yeah. Nothing's changed. Totally worthy of a thorough lashing.

<.<

Except that except for maybe virtues all those systems have massive issues on top of all the massive issues civ 5 already had. 1upt just doesn't work and it is building a house on a broken foundation.

 

[ChawlieTheFair]

I want like some sort of highlighting system for the tech web, like being able to see which will give you new units etc.