Civilization: Beyond Earth will soon be published. Now some Let’s Players were invited to the Firaxis headquarters and brought back some nice footage, which shows us nice gameplay. Since they were only allowed to play the first 100 turns, still many things stay unclear. We still get an insight in the quests, the aliens, technologies and the mechanics. It’s nice to watch them and get a feeling of what’s nice and what not so. You’ll find the videos at the end of this text. I watched them and try to write a summary for you here.<\/p>\n
Obviously all let’s plays here have to start in the beginning. So we get a clear picture on the different fractions and buffs from the starting choices.<\/p>\n
ARC<\/strong> (Covert Operations are 25% faster, +25% on intrigue)<\/p>\n Pan Asian Cooperativ<\/strong>e (+10% production towards wonders and +25% working speed)<\/p>\n Franco-Iberia<\/strong> (free technology for every 10 virtue points)<\/p>\n Slavic Federation<\/strong> (Orbital Units stay in orbit 20% longer and the first one launched grants a free technology)<\/p>\n Polystralia<\/strong> (Cities can support one more trade route each)<\/p>\n Kevithian Protectorate<\/strong> (Outposts convert into cities 50% faster)<\/p>\n Brasilia<\/strong> (units have +10% Defense in Melee combat)<\/p>\n African Union<\/strong> (+10% food in every growing city when healthy)<\/p>\n Scientists<\/strong> (+2 Science in every city)<\/p>\n Refugees<\/strong> (+2 Food in every city)<\/p>\n Aristocrates<\/strong> (+3 Health and +1 Energy in every ciy)<\/p>\n Engineers<\/strong> (+2 Production in every city)<\/p>\n Artists<\/strong> (+2 culture and +1 health in every city)<\/p>\n Continental Survey<\/strong> (Reveals the coastlines on the map)<\/p>\n Retrograde Thrusters<\/strong> (Wider Area to chose for the first settlement)<\/p>\n Tectonic Scanner<\/strong> (shows Petroleum, Geothermal and Titanium ressources)<\/p>\n Fusion Reactor<\/strong> (Begin with +100 energy)<\/p>\n Lifeform Sensor<\/strong> (reveal Aliens on the map)<\/p>\n Hydroponics<\/strong> (Begin with 1 extra population)<\/p>\n Laboratory<\/strong> (Begin with pioneering technology)<\/p>\n Raw materials<\/strong> (Begin with a clinic in the first city)<\/p>\n Weapon arsenal<\/strong> (Begin with a soldier unit)<\/p>\n Machinery<\/strong> (Begin with a worker unit)<\/p>\n Civilization: Beyond Earth has streamlined some minor things and introduced some big changes. The first thing we see is the foundation of our capital. The position we can choose out of a certain area. No more thoughts whether to move the settler and loose a turn or take only the second best spot.<\/p>\n Also not all civilizations start at the same time. You start first! Other civilizations drop down one by one and reveal their position to you. If they are not cheating, they AI must be pretty to good to avoid a rush strategy to take them out immediately.<\/p>\n A big change is in the wildlife. Firaxis never gets tired of mentioning that the aliens of Civilization: beyond Earth are not like the barbarians in Civ 5. They are not necessary aggressive, if you aren’t towards them. They can also be a ressource for knowledge later on, probably tamed and send against your enemies. I hope they still can also capture cities and be an independent force. Even more since no city states were present and probably are a bit difficult to implement into this setting.<\/p>\n The next big change in Civilization: Beyond Earth is the techweb. It is no longer necessary to develop most of the early technologies to reach the advanced ones. They are no longer arranged in a line, but in a web. So one can very fast go very deep into one of the branches, ignoring most of the early technologies. This gives great freedom and will probably require a few runs or some time reading the different technologies to have a good research strategy. Since most technologies can be reached much faster this will also show how good work Firaxis did with the balancing. Overpowered technologies can again be exploited to win the game easily.<\/p>\nColonists<\/h3>\n
Spaceship<\/h3>\n
Cargo<\/h3>\n
Gameplay<\/h2>\n
Civilization: Beyond Earth Lets Play Videos<\/h2>\n
Full playlist<\/h3>\n