Sid Meier Civilization Beyond Earth

[stargazer1235]

Basically Civ 5 is going to space this year and colonizing a new planet. It is a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri (even if the devs won't admit it) and was announced at PAX east on Sunday. Targeted release date is Q3 of 2014.

Link to Trailer:

Link to Website:

http://www.civilization.com/

[The Destroyer]

I can't wait for this

[Uncle Mort]

Excellent news!

[victory143]

Is it a new game or a DLC? Either way it's on my steam watch list

[John Crichton]

Great...I'm gonna lose another GF.

[pxi]

It looks interesting, although it doesn't sound like they'll be keeping the unit-designing features of Alpha Centauri.

One to watch for me.

[Red Iron Crown]

Alpha Centauri is one of my all-time favorite games, some of the features it has still haven't made it into modern 4x games (custom units, deformable 3D terrain). Really ahead of its time. I hope this modern take keeps the flavor of the old one.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

Does anyone know if you'll have to start in ~3000 BC and work you way up to > 2050, or will you start off in space?

[ZedNova]

Here's some screenies for ya.

[pxi]

Does anyone know if you'll have to start in ~3000 BC and work you way up to > 2050, or will you start off in space?

AFAIK you are given control over a colony ship or somesuch which then lands on an alien planet. Later other colonies arrive.

They also talked about having an orbital layer, and satellites being useful.

[The Destroyer]

Civ V on a planet. Interesting, but I was hoping that you would need to go from 3000 BC>2050 and then you can go on more than one planet

[TerLoki]

Alpha Centauri is one of my all-time favorite games, some of the features it has still haven't made it into modern 4x games (custom units, deformable 3D terrain). Really ahead of its time. I hope this modern take keeps the flavor of the old one.

Yes, this. I absolutely adore Alpha Centauri, and if this game really is following in its footsteps then I support it wholeheartedly.

[Jananton]

Ah yes, Alpha Centauri was a favorite of me too. One of the last computer games that came in a relatively big cardboard box and included a printed manual the size of a quite fat pocket book with very detailed background information. That's the kind of detail I especially liked in games those days and still do. ;-)

Greets,

Jan

[Red Iron Crown]

Sadly, it looks like 3D terrain and custom units are out. Too bad.

[pslytely psycho]

Ahhhh, Alpha Centari, a game as yet unequaled decades later. I have played every version of Civ since Civ1. AC was the best. (too bad some one hasn't done a graphics/gameplay overhaul to it....) It was the Psychotic stepsister to Civilization....twisted, psychopathic, nerve stapling, mindworm wielding leaders...deformable terrain, custom units, planetary intelligence. No other game quite like it.

I will most assuredly buy it, play it (hopefully love it), and TRY not to compare it to AC. Boy will that be hard. When Civ V came out and was missing some of the game mechanics like religion (since Gods and Kings and Brave New World, I can't seem to remember what else was lacking. ) all I could do was keep thinking how much better IV was...BNW put V at least on par with IV.

I haven't played AC in years, but it was a real whore to me for nearly a decade. Bloody few games (TW Medieval II, AOE, and a very few others..) can fall into that category.

Hey, nice video interview with the developers. Interestingly enough, they never mention AC, but they mention a new open tech 'web' rather than a tech tree and hint at some of the game mechanics (some of it sounds a lot like AC).

Edited April 17, 2014 by pslytely psycho
additional information

[gutza1]

I'am really excited for this. I'm planning on reflecting the outlook that humanity should both try to adapt to a new enviroment while remembering its past, so I'm planning on playing a mix of harmony and purity, with a bit of supremacy thrown in (we need MOAR COMPUTERS!!!)

[Spartwo]

The trailer happens to go with almost any song.

[pslytely psycho]

Hmmmm. I didn't realize Alpha Centari was still sold. (BOXED no less...) with the expansion pack. Might have to buy it to play until Beyond Earth releases. My disk died many years ago.

http://www.mastertronic.com/product/sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-complete

How far hardware has come in 15 years. Here are the recommended requirements for AC from 1999.

CPU: Pentium 133 MHz

RAM: 16 MB

Windows: 7 / XP / Vista / 98

Graphics card: 2 MB

Sound card: DirectX 6.0 compatible

Disk space: 60 MB

Disc drive: 4x CD-ROM

Input: Mouse & keyboard

Hehehehe......my phone has better specs.....except for the CD-ROM...

Can you believe nowadays they did all of that with a mere 60MB of disk space? On a 133 MHz chip! Programmers today are spoiled man!

[Brethern]

Hmmmm. I didn't realize Alpha Centari was still sold. (BOXED no less...) with the expansion pack. Might have to buy it to play until Beyond Earth releases. My disk died many years ago.

http://www.mastertronic.com/product/sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-complete

How far hardware has come in 15 years. Here are the recommended requirements for AC from 1999.

CPU: Pentium 133 MHz

RAM: 16 MB

Windows: 7 / XP / Vista / 98

Graphics card: 2 MB

Sound card: DirectX 6.0 compatible

Disk space: 60 MB

Disc drive: 4x CD-ROM

Input: Mouse & keyboard

Hehehehe......my phone has better specs.....except for the CD-ROM...

Can you believe nowadays they did all of that with a mere 60MB of disk space? On a 133 MHz chip! Programmers today are spoiled man!

Not to mention that the games were a higher quality as well.

[pslytely psycho]

Not to mention that the games were a higher quality as well.

True to a point, I think. There was plenty of garbage then as well, I think the perception is colored a bit by the sheer volume of games available now. But, at the same time, programmers pulled off some incredible feats of optimization simply due to the hardware of the time. Extremely fast processors, large memories and HDDs, and dedicated video cards have made optimization of code less of a priority. As long as it runs ok, I don't think 'cleaning' the code is as important to most companies as it once was. Some pretty bad code can run well on most modern systems, code that would of brought old machines to a grinding halt.

It is interesting though, that after years of gaming being dominated by a handful of AAA companies, that there seems to be a subtle shift to smaller teams writing more visionary games. The indie market (IMHO), which usually produced games that I at least, rarely found to be interesting for more than a short time, has in the last few years been producing some of the more interesting games. I never really owned any indie titles before KSP, since then I have picked up Outlast, State of Decay, Next Car Game, (ok, Bugbear has the Flatout series, so maybe their not strictly indie, but definitely not a AAA house), and Don't Starve. (the one exception to this was 2D boys World of Goo, which I only got after reading amazing reviews of it by people who normally were considered 'hard core' gamers. That piqued my interest)

Of course, the smaller studios HAVE to take risks in order to be seen above the glut of games coming from the major publishers, 90% of which are merely sequels or rehashes of the same old games. This I think, spells nothing but good things for gamers. The indies have to put out better code, playability and originality or be drowned in the chaff.

Just an opinion from an old guy who only dabbled in programming back in the Paleozoic era...

'splosions are the sprinkles on your ice cream sundae....Jeb

[KerbMav]

Smaller companies are exactly that, smaller: no share holders to satisfy with timely releases (of questionable quality) every few months, smaller meetings and faster decisions, no big marketing costs for the masses as they appeal to niche gamers mostly (e.g. KSP for the brain people ), no big real estate costs, less people to pay ... but as hinted above, AAA houses are no longer AAA, which is the biggest asset of indies, the big ones fail left and right most of the time.

[gutza1]

True to a point, I think. There was plenty of garbage then as well, I think the perception is colored a bit by the sheer volume of games available now. But, at the same time, programmers pulled off some incredible feats of optimization simply due to the hardware of the time. Extremely fast processors, large memories and HDDs, and dedicated video cards have made optimization of code less of a priority. As long as it runs ok, I don't think 'cleaning' the code is as important to most companies as it once was. Some pretty bad code can run well on most modern systems, code that would of brought old machines to a grinding halt.

It is interesting though, that after years of gaming being dominated by a handful of AAA companies, that there seems to be a subtle shift to smaller teams writing more visionary games. The indie market (IMHO), which usually produced games that I at least, rarely found to be interesting for more than a short time, has in the last few years been producing some of the more interesting games. I never really owned any indie titles before KSP, since then I have picked up Outlast, State of Decay, Next Car Game, (ok, Bugbear has the Flatout series, so maybe their not strictly indie, but definitely not a AAA house), and Don't Starve. (the one exception to this was 2D boys World of Goo, which I only got after reading amazing reviews of it by people who normally were considered 'hard core' gamers. That piqued my interest)

Of course, the smaller studios HAVE to take risks in order to be seen above the glut of games coming from the major publishers, 90% of which are merely sequels or rehashes of the same old games. This I think, spells nothing but good things for gamers. The indies have to put out better code, playability and originality or be drowned in the chaff.

Just an opinion from an old guy who only dabbled in programming back in the Paleozoic era...

'splosions are the sprinkles on your ice cream sundae....Jeb

Smaller companies are exactly that, smaller: no share holders to satisfy with timely releases (of questionable quality) every few months, smaller meetings and faster decisions, no big marketing costs for the masses as they appeal to niche gamers mostly (e.g. KSP for the brain people ), no big real estate costs, less people to pay ... but as hinted above, AAA houses are no longer AAA, which is the biggest asset of indies, the big ones fail left and right most of the time.

I know I'm not a moderator, but get back on topic guys.

P.S: You should read my post on the strategy I'm going to use when playing this game.

[95tiger59]

I was reading an interview with the main developers and they said custom units would be included I'll see if I can find were

[stormy1997]

Wow either this is the biggest coincidence ever or there is a God and he answered my prayers... I was just posting a thread about how there are no games that deal with humanity's transition from modern to space-faring, and the page timed out because I was AFK. I closed it down, and then was about to start the thread again when I saw this, clicked on it, and it was literally EXACTLY what I was asking for. I HAD EVEN REFERENCED CIVILIZATION IN THE THREAD I WAS WORKING ON!! Talk about coincidences.