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Think of buying a Civilization game day one as buying an early access game. You're funding the development of the finished product. 
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Oct 24, 2014 06:55
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Speedball posted:Civ 2 came out the box with Elvis the Luxuries Advisor. It was, therefore, perfection. I'd say Civ 1, but that let you build Roads-railroads into and over the ocean(Activate a settler in a boat. do work.) and 1-turn land improvements via how the work per turn was done(It was applied immediately on pressing the button. So you could build it, re-activate the unit, press again, etc, till the last turn required. Crazy days.
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Oct 24, 2014 07:37
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Speedball posted:Civ 2 came out the box with Elvis the Luxuries Advisor. It was, therefore, perfection. Man, I miss the FMV advisors from Civ 2. I still remember the first time I visited the High Council while in Anarchy and being super freaked out.
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Oct 24, 2014 15:36
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Civ-style games always need a few months' worth of shakedown at minimum before they start being decent. I'm not really surprised that Beyond Earth is a little shaky. Problem is, it's not just shaky, it's also kind of badly designed in some aspects. Having now played several dozen rounds of my first game, Gamespot's 7/10 might be on the money: First thing to notice is that the UI is butt ugly, and its only saving grace is that it isn't convoluted. The Civ V UI looks like a masterpiece by comparison. Literally everything is a monotone dark blue-grey that's kind of ugly on its own, and also blends too much with the color palette of the wold itself. The world itself has the same issue, where biomes don't really look any different from each other unless you look harder than you should need to. Each element of the world looks great individually, and it flows well, but it all blends together too much. The leader portraits also suck, and their dialog is rather bland. I haven't interacted with them much, but I haven't yet discerned any distinct personality differences yet. The Favor system that they kept touting is really just a quick fix for a specific issue with Civ V diplomacy, which was that the AI would often ask you for resources and get annoyed when you refused them, but they would always refuse you. But by asking for a favor, they become obligated to accept your request - or possibly deny it if they don't like you (I haven't tested favors yet, though I have some favor points from a couple civs). Culture, as you may have heard, has been downgraded to being just a bunch of numbers. It's a big problem because I have literally no motivation to get more culture except to expand my borders. There's literally nothing more to say about it. This is more of a neutral point, but the aliens are really menacing, by which I mean they are scary when they're out for blood, but they aren't always out for blood unlike barbarians. But many of them, even right at the start, are strong enough to one-shot your explorers. That's a big issue because you need lots of explorers to perform lots of excavations, both on random sites and on quest-specific sites. So, quests. This is the single biggest improvement over Civ V and is definitely BE's saving grace. They have a fascinating, if simple and straightforward, narrative progression, but they also play an important role in pushing you towards a specific affinity and give you a narrative context to do so (assuming you aren't building towards an affinity like I was). I still haven't figured out exactly what kinds of things trigger a new quest, but I pretty quickly had over a half dozen quests, some of which mutated to reflect the affinity I was building towards. They did a great job with this system. Another thing they did a great job with are the visual designs for each element. Yeah, I said before the overall look was really bad, but each element on its own looks amazing. The aliens all look pretty badass - which were apparently designed after the bugs in Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind because they loved the movie, and manga, so much - and hit as hard as they look like they are. There are gaping fissures and canyons in the ground that units have to walk around and really cool resource tiles. If the world weren't so monotone and washed out, BE would look amazing. And lastly there's the tech All in all, this feels like an enthusiastic attempt by an amateur to make his (their, really, since it was co-directed) dream Civ game. They got the things they wanted to right, but neglected the things they didn't care as much about. So Civ BE is an eclectic mix of good and bad elements, but based around a solid framework that keeps things familiar enough so that anyone who's played Civ V can just jump right in. I might be exaggerating about the game's visuals (not the UI though, that sucks), but it's just not working for me. tl;dr This is a good game but imo not a good successor to Civ V.
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Oct 24, 2014 16:23
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Sounds like Vanilla Civ V!
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Oct 24, 2014 16:33
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Sounds like Vanilla Civ V! Like I said, probably needs an expansion before it really takes off.
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Oct 24, 2014 17:10
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A lot of the reviews seem to be able to be summarised as "it's not Alpha Centauri 2, therefore it sucks" which is kinda irritating.
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Oct 24, 2014 19:05
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xelada posted:A lot of the reviews seem to be able to be summarised as "it's not Alpha Centauri 2, therefore it sucks" which is kinda irritating. Which is kinda sad, because what seems to work about Beyond Earth REALLY works, the ability to customize your strengths as you go.
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Oct 24, 2014 19:16
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Hey you're gold now, I think your half-joking plea to vote for the thread worked
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Oct 24, 2014 19:16
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JT Jag posted:Hey you're gold now, I think your half-joking plea to vote for the thread worked It often happens as soon as someone mentions it. That's the power of awareness, I suppose.
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Oct 24, 2014 19:19
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xelada posted:A lot of the reviews seem to be able to be summarised as "it's not Alpha Centauri 2, therefore it sucks" which is kinda irritating. Yeah, and they quite clearly weren't trying to make AC2. They're trying to make Civ 5, but in the future. By which I mean, they've kept all the 'innovations' I disliked about going from 4 to 5 (anything from minor things, like roads costing upkeep, to bigger issues like the slower combat and non-stacking units) and they've added pretty much nothing of what was special about Alpha Centauri. I'm more irritated by all the reviews starting with 'Now, a lot of people aren't going to like this, because it's not based on actual history' Mainly because I prefer games that aren't restricted to staying true to history, and it's annoying to have reviewers pressure the game-makers into going the other way. I probably won't be buying, for the same reason I don't play Civ 5: It rewards entirely the wrong play-style compared to my preferences.
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Oct 24, 2014 19:32
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I bought it and now I can't play it. Why is a Civ using DX11 anyway? I guess I'll have to am muse myself by blasting more aliens.
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Oct 24, 2014 23:55
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In a point that may be relevant to the thread, it has been suggested that one of the factions in Beyond Earth (the American Reclamation Corporation, to be exact) may be EXALT. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to follow the appropriate questline to see for myself, but there's something for the thread to chew on!
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Oct 25, 2014 00:14
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Bobbin Threadbare posted:It often happens as soon as someone mentions it. That's the power of awareness, I suppose. I to this day regret complaining about people from the soccer forums voting my LP down. I went from a decently rated LP to way, way too high. I should be voted one as penance, but only after you vote this a five, because this is a damned good LP.
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Oct 25, 2014 06:29
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Aliens are threats up until you get tier 3/4 units. then it's the same. And Tourism/Culture victory. HA. Also, roads cost gold up until Supremacy 3. Then they become free. it is weird.
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Oct 25, 2014 10:56
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Tomn posted:In a point that may be relevant to the thread, it has been suggested that one of the factions in Beyond Earth (the American Reclamation Corporation, to be exact) may be EXALT. Oooh, that sounds intriguing. When I get enough time, ill try that
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Oct 25, 2014 14:56
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Deadmeat5150 posted:Why is a Civ using DX11 anyway? It's 2014. And anyway, I'm pretty sure you don't have to run it in DX11 mode. Afaik, there are two executables, one of which isn't DX11.
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Oct 26, 2014 02:23
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Deadmeat5150 posted:I bought it and now I can't play it. Why is a Civ using DX11 anyway? So that it can replocate all the graphical glitches in Civ5! Kinda sad how it's either military or science victory, though.
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Oct 26, 2014 06:57
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SOrry for no updates yet, I'm fighting off a severe case of total creative burnout.
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Oct 26, 2014 06:59
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Speedball posted:SOrry for no updates yet, I'm fighting off a severe case of total creative burnout. TCB is harsh. I reccomend taking a break and doing something you don't normally do but you think you might enjoy.
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Oct 26, 2014 07:07
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Ratoslov posted:TCB is harsh. I reccomend taking a break and doing something you don't normally do but you think you might enjoy. Good advice. Today's activities included learning how to field strip an M1911 handgun and taking a jackhammer to an old piece of driveway we're getting replaced. Those count? ...also I've been snared by playing an indie 4X game, but a pretty good one: Endless Legend. Way, way better than Endless Space. Though there are a couple of factions that remind me of cool fantasy versions of Civ V civs. The Wild Walkers are wood elves who are better at building stuff than the non-tree-lovers (Hiawatha!) and there is a robot cultist faction who only have one city, but get new recruits and resource gains by brainwashing independent monster villages. They are robot cultist Venice. Hmm, if they're robe-wearing cultist robots, would that make them robe-ots?
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Oct 26, 2014 07:14
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Puns like that your creative faculties seem just fine mister. t When I get stressed or burnt out or whatever I just grab about a hundred shotgun shells and go blast flying clays at the skeet range. Sectoid heads they're not, but exploding those things is great relief anyway
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Oct 26, 2014 07:16
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Speedball posted:Good advice. Now I am imagining you doing both of these tasks at the same time, and the absurdity put a smile on my face.
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Oct 26, 2014 07:30
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Speedball posted:Today's activities included learning how to field strip an M1911 handgun and taking a jackhammer to an old piece of driveway we're getting replaced. Those count? I tend to sit in front of a computer all day, and I've found getting out for physical stuff like that very refreshing (I'm the guy who actively volunteers to help friends move). Last weekend I helped my parents set up an electric fence so they can corral the neighbor's alpacas in one area. They save on lawn service charges, mom gets dung for her gardening, and the neighbor spends less on feed.
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Oct 26, 2014 07:46
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Ciaphas posted:Puns like that your creative faculties seem just fine mister. t I *will* buy that O/U one of these days...
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Oct 26, 2014 08:18
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So having played a bit over 200 turns of Beyond Earth, in my 100% honest opinion I can say that Beyond Earth is a better game than Civ V ever was. And, more importantly, it lends itself far better to narrative. Speedball, you will love it, and the rest of us will almost definitely love whatever insanity you make out of it.
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Oct 29, 2014 00:20
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ViggyNash posted:So having played a bit over 200 turns of Beyond Earth, in my 100% honest opinion I can say that Beyond Earth is a better game than Civ V ever was. And, more importantly, it lends itself far better to narrative. Hee hee hee. Failing that I have alternative ideas for something to turn into more crazy LPs, but I've been spreading myself thin lately. Gotta focus!
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Oct 29, 2014 00:54
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Played the Beyond Earth demo for several hours just now, and it's got me wanting more. Demo only lets you play as Brasilia and cuts you off after 100 turns, but that's enough time for One More Turn to draw you in even more. Still, I never buy games full price, so I'll need to wait a while before it finally goes on sale on Steam before getting it. Still, now I'm jonesing to play deeper into a game, and as someone other than Brasilia...
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Oct 29, 2014 03:13
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GhostStalker posted:Played the Beyond Earth demo for several hours just now, and it's got me wanting more. Demo only lets you play as Brasilia and cuts you off after 100 turns, but that's enough time for One More Turn to draw you in even more. I managed to grab it for $37.50 off GMG, but idk if they're still running that. e: Yep, it's still there in the VIP section. Just means you have to make an account to get it, which costs nothing anyway.
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Oct 29, 2014 03:37
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http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/10/civilization-beyond-earth-cross-promotion/ Hah.
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Oct 29, 2014 03:39
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you know, when you are ready for Plastic Snake 2, you could do one last update on the Civ V LP with that image.
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Oct 29, 2014 04:19
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ViggyNash posted:I managed to grab it for $37.50 off GMG, but idk if they're still running that. Yeah, I'm still going to wait for a couple of patches to fix the game first. By that time, Steam should have it on sale.
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Oct 29, 2014 04:44
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Speedball posted:http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/10/civilization-beyond-earth-cross-promotion/ They could have gone further than that. Who knows? They might.
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Oct 29, 2014 10:30
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Speedball posted:http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/10/civilization-beyond-earth-cross-promotion/  Well played, Firaxis, well played.
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Oct 29, 2014 15:28
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Speedball posted:Good advice. I was disappointed by Beyond Earth so I picked up Endless Legend on your recommendation. It is super fun!
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Oct 29, 2014 16:34
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Siegkrow posted:Plastic Snake 2 I'm already doing my part to make this happen.  If anyone can help me come up with some loading screen logs (including Codec conversations), I'd appreciate it! I am shocked at how much I'm actually enjoying Beyond Earth. Sure, the AI is absolutely laughable and diplomacy may as well not be there, but I am absolutely in love with the Tech Web and the quests (the ones that work). Also, nice to see wide viable again. It also has significantly fewer bugs than I was expecting. It even runs better on my laptop than Civ 5. Speedball posted:http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/10/civilization-beyond-earth-cross-promotion/ Clicking that button if you already own the game should immediately close Civ 5 and boot up BE.
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Oct 29, 2014 19:51
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So what's Endless Legend/Space like, are they both fun/good games? I was thinking of buying a good 4x game since I haven't really done so since GalCiv 2.
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Oct 29, 2014 22:26
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Koorisch posted:So what's Endless Legend/Space like, are they both fun/good games? Haven't played Endless Legend yet, but hopefully it improved on that.
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Oct 29, 2014 22:28
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Endless Legend is so much better than Space it's not even funny. I'll let other people elaborate on it. I have...stuff I need to do and also more unwinding to do as well.
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Oct 29, 2014 22:34
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Vicevirtuoso posted:Clicking that button if you already own the game should immediately close Civ 5 and boot up BE. That's what I was hoping when I saw the image, but oh well.
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Oct 29, 2014 23:33
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