[Gothos]

Taps - currently the consensus is that the strongest factions are Polystralia, Slavic, ARC and F-I. True enough, they're pretty powerful, and bonuses of the African Union or Brasilia don't really compare.
Hutama gives you those 2 extra trade routes which is HUGE with how op trade convoys are in this game.
Kozlov's free tech is an excellent tech slingshot that you can pick when you use, which can be very strong.
Fielding's espoionage bonuses... well. The bigger the map, the better. All you need to do is keep Stealing Science everywhere, the boost is massive. This probably brings them to better tech capabilities than anyone else.
The old french lady - free techs, what's not to like? Not as controllable as Kozlov's, though. Over the course of the game you'll get maybe... 4-5 techs like this. ARC's might just be stronger than that.

I've seen the AI shell a station with a gunbout to 0 HP for several dozen turns without capturing. Sound tactic if it remembered there's a maximum xp you can get from aliens and stations.
Also reg. aliens - with Might virtues you can farm them for extra science, so it has this going for it, which is nice.

As for aggressiveness, there might just not be any need for it. There's plenty of space in the game for everyone, in my games there was always still a lot of land left to colonize when I actually won. I do hate it when they snipe my goddamn Firaxite.

Mind you, a little heads up for the victory conditions:

Spoiler

Emancipation will have you stick units into the wonder you build, one per turn until you reach 1000 total unit strength sent.
Promised Land will have you build a gate and pop earthling settlers to... settle, one a turn. They can form settlements up to 6 pop, and they follow the regular settling conditions (can't settle within 3 tiles of another city). You have to settle 20 earthlings.
Transcendence will have you build a huge-ass glowing flower and wait for it to charge from all the mind stalks and whatnot that you build in your cities. Takes 20+ turns.
Contact will have you build a beacon, activate it for a hefty amount of energy, and then it will siphon all your excess energy until it can fire. Took me about 23 turns.

This post has been edited by Gothos: 28 October 2014 - 08:37 AM

[Tapper]

The thing I feel most about with the low aggression is that if the AI doesn't pressure the player into spending research/production on short term, limited objectives, all research + production will go to future objectives, which lets the player win.

I've had several small settlements sit on borders with other factions to block access and hog resources, and they're not being attacked even if I have only a small military overall, nor do they get contained. I get some diplomatic malus on relations (covet tiles you own or something), but nothing more.

Regarding Koslov: I do agree the tech choice is good, and indeed less random than F-I, but it probably takes a human intelligence to trigger it at the right time. F-I can repeat it, though, and the slower the game pace, the better that is.

[Cause]

Gothos, on 28 October 2014 - 08:36 AM, said:

Taps - currently the consensus is that the strongest factions are Polystralia, Slavic, ARC and F-I. True enough, they're pretty powerful, and bonuses of the African Union or Brasilia don't really compare.
Hutama gives you those 2 extra trade routes which is HUGE with how op trade convoys are in this game.
Kozlov's free tech is an excellent tech slingshot that you can pick when you use, which can be very strong.
Fielding's espoionage bonuses... well. The bigger the map, the better. All you need to do is keep Stealing Science everywhere, the boost is massive. This probably brings them to better tech capabilities than anyone else.
The old french lady - free techs, what's not to like? Not as controllable as Kozlov's, though. Over the course of the game you'll get maybe... 4-5 techs like this. ARC's might just be stronger than that.

I've seen the AI shell a station with a gunbout to 0 HP for several dozen turns without capturing. Sound tactic if it remembered there's a maximum xp you can get from aliens and stations.
Also reg. aliens - with Might virtues you can farm them for extra science, so it has this going for it, which is nice.

As for aggressiveness, there might just not be any need for it. There's plenty of space in the game for everyone, in my games there was always still a lot of land left to colonize when I actually won. I do hate it when they snipe my goddamn Firaxite.

Mind you, a little heads up for the victory conditions:

Spoiler

Emancipation will have you stick units into the wonder you build, one per turn until you reach 1000 total unit strength sent.
Promised Land will have you build a gate and pop earthling settlers to... settle, one a turn. They can form settlements up to 6 pop, and they follow the regular settling conditions (can't settle within 3 tiles of another city). You have to settle 20 earthlings.
Transcendence will have you build a huge-ass glowing flower and wait for it to charge from all the mind stalks and whatnot that you build in your cities. Takes 20+ turns.
Contact will have you build a beacon, activate it for a hefty amount of energy, and then it will siphon all your excess energy until it can fire. Took me about 23 turns.

My god man how do you have the time?

As a Civ newbie can you give me any tips? I have been focusing on doing nothing but trying to grow larger. Peacefully. I suspect I should read the manual

[Gothos]

In this game, you want to keep expanding, peacefully can do it too. Just remember to keep your trade routes for internal trade, it's obscenely overpowered right now. While you're doing that, research/quest enough for at least affinity lvl 4 and the right tech for the first unique unit, they'll give you one hell of an edge if you get to them early - even if just to dissuade the AI from attacking.

Wonders are pretty crappy mostly, only bother with ones that have unique bonuses.

In short: work your tiles, grow your cities, build new cities, repeat. Get a lot of workers. Get all the culture you can get, virtues kick ass (especially Prosperity right now). If you abuse internal trade enough, you'll catapult away from AI in no time.

[Morgoth]

So the game became available for mac and With a 30 % discount, so I've completed some hours of gameplay over the week-end.

First impression is that it's a good game. It's a new civ experience after all. At the same time I wish they'd been willing to be braver in the implementation. It's a little too similar to civ 5, right down to the diplo screen using the exact same phrases.

There is so much they could have done with narrative in this game. A little more flourish in the writing as you explore downwards through your chosen affinity for instance. Better tech and wonder descriptions would have helped immensely. Right now it's all so uninspired. As if it was an afterthought. Something they cobbled together at the end. It's rather weird, as it seems they wanted to build a good narrative, and they certainly had the cash to hire someone capable.

The lack of skill is especially noticeable in the quests, which by themselves are an excellent addition in my opinion. It's clear that they have implemented the quests as another layer of customization. Another way to make every game feel different. However, it's all so bare bones and stilted it becomes just another mechanical choice.

In addition, the aliens are too weak. On the sea you have to worry up until the late game, but on land you crush the aliens, even a well developed hive, with just a few soldiers and one level of whichever affinity. The much advertised siege worms are innefectual and predictable. They do not move much from the hive, so they're not particularly dangerous, and even though they have a lot of health their damage is rather embarassing. Easily killed, even early. Hopefully there'll be a mod that vastly increases their damage.

I mean, if the wildlife is supposed to be properly scary a siege Worm should be able to crush a 2nd lvl vehicle in one attack. I did purity and a single top level marine killed siege worms with ease. I killed a siege worm early with two marines and two rangers.

[Primateus]

I agree with you, Morgoth, on several of your points. Especially the Siege Worm. While it does kill many units in one hit there are many others it doesn't. Sadly, the much anticipated Shai Hulud is just a really pale shadow of what it could have been.

This post has been edited by Primateus: 01 December 2014 - 10:27 AM

[Gothos]

True enough, Morgy. There's a lot of potential, and the ambience and general feel of the worlds is appropriately alien, but... it's as if the crative flame burned out too early in the development process. There's room for so much to be added to the game, overhauled, fixed, fleshed out... I dread that they're making a conscious decision with this to flesh the game out with DLCs in the future.

It's a pity that all you need to kill a siege worm is a single lvl 1 ranger (will take forever, but still!). I'd say the aliens should spawn stronger units as the game progresses, perhaps adapting to the units they're facing, imitating our solutions. I look back to Alpha Centauri and how the mind worms and the planet itself drove the story, it was magnificent. For now, it's all a bit bland on that front.


All that said, it's still a carrier for the "just one... more... turn..." disease, and is infectious. I'm sad to say that even if they do put the game fixing stuff into DLC, I'll buy it first in line.

[Morgoth]

I did my first serious run as a growth focused African Union and started With so much floatstone it seemed obvious I had to go for Purity. Naturally, aliens do not fit into my beautifully terraformed New Earth, so I slaugthered them in droves.Partially because I wanted to see what would happen, too.

Not much did. Sure the aliens were a little more agressive, but they never did attack me head on, and throughout the game not a single hex was ever plundered or whatever it is they do. They didn't disrupt my game in the slightest, and served only as a means to gain two levels of experience for my soldiers.

I even left a 3X3 hex area containing three hives alone, just to see what would happen, but not much did.

[Gothos]

Morgoth, on 01 December 2014 - 11:46 AM, said:

I did my first serious run as a growth focused African Union and started With so much floatstone it seemed obvious I had to go for Purity. Naturally, aliens do not fit into my beautifully terraformed New Earth, so I slaugthered them in droves.Partially because I wanted to see what would happen, too.

Not much did. Sure the aliens were a little more agressive, but they never did attack me head on, and throughout the game not a single hex was ever plundered or whatever it is they do. They didn't disrupt my game in the slightest, and served only as a means to gain two levels of experience for my soldiers.

I even left a 3X3 hex area containing three hives alone, just to see what would happen, but not much did.

Indeed. There's nothing to gain from treating the aliens nicely. There's that when you're Harmony lvl 4+ and you leave a nest alive within your borders, if the aliens are friendly enough they become neutral and won't attack your units. Also makes nests act as a xenomass well. But..... you still can't move units on top of aliens for, say, digsites and whatnot. They won't attack your enemies. It's pretty ineffectual. Sadly.

[Gorefest]

So, how does it compare to Alpha Centauri?

*feels old*

[Gothos]

Gorefest, on 01 December 2014 - 12:46 PM, said:

So, how does it compare to Alpha Centauri?

*feels old*

A lot more approachable, has better game flow, but... not nearly the depth and spirit. Not even close.

[Gorefest]

Shame. I liked the idea in AC that you had various approaches to the future and the interaction with the alien life forms. Oh well, there's always GC2 to retreat to.

[Gothos]

GC3 has been in beta for quite a while now, waiting for the new game myself.

[Morgoth]

There's a victory path in C:BE which at it's core is a way to join your consciousness to "Planet". I didn't even notice it was there until I got a promt saying I could not accomplish that condition.

So yeah, the storytelling of this game is so painfull I cannot but conclude that the entire creative team have read one book between them, and that it was almost certainly the DaVinci Code.

This post has been edited by Morgoth: 01 December 2014 - 02:01 PM

[Solidsnape]

Santa is bringing this game to me on Xmas day.
The problem is, he's bringing dragon age 3 too.
Now I don't know which one to play first. Either one is going to swallow hours and hours.

[LinearPhilosopher]

I played CIV 2 and III. Would you guys reccomend this title? avg price on my website is 30-40$ USD

[Gothos]

I'd recommend Civilization V first, then if you liked that one I would recommend Beyond Earth.
Might want to wait on a steam sale for both, though. You want Civ V with both expansions, and that bundle is kinda pricey.

[LinearPhilosopher]

Gothos, on 04 December 2014 - 05:26 AM, said:

I'd recommend Civilization V first, then if you liked that one I would recommend Beyond Earth.
Might want to wait on a steam sale for both, though. You want Civ V with both expansions, and that bundle is kinda pricey.

not on g2a.com, their prices are even lower than steam.
appreaciate the recomendation. Why do you rec cvi5 first over simply hoping into the new one?

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 05 December 2014 - 02:33 PM

[Morgoth]

because Beyond Earth has turned out to be a re-skin of CIV 5 with some innovation, but with several regressions when it comes to mechanics.

[Gothos]

BalrogLord, on 05 December 2014 - 02:32 PM, said:

Gothos, on 04 December 2014 - 05:26 AM, said:

I'd recommend Civilization V first, then if you liked that one I would recommend Beyond Earth.
Might want to wait on a steam sale for both, though. You want Civ V with both expansions, and that bundle is kinda pricey.

not on g2a.com, their prices are even lower than steam.
appreaciate the recomendation. Why do you rec cvi5 first over simply hoping into the new one?

CiV, with the two excellent expansions, is a full-fledged great game right now that I'd recommend to anyone. Beyond Earth... well, it has some issues with gameplay depth. Of the two, CiV is most definitely the better game.