New From Sid Meier - Beyond Earth

[Zarathud]

I am going to be the heretic here and state that the UI choices are often terrible.

Yes, I can click on a thing and immediately get access to an action. But it's very difficult for me to know what my production/stats look like when I'm making those choices in either the city/production screens and the strategic decisions. The research web is interesting with the branch/limb options but the results read like a terrible mess until you get back to the main screen. I can't even run automatically in full screen (144 MHz refresh trumps 1080p apparently. If this wasn't Civilization, there would be a lot more criticism.

[jztemple2]

Got my first game completed in only sixteen hours, getting a Transcendence Victory on Turn 390. This was on the default Mercury setting. Did have to fight one war to knock out my neighbor who had just built the Mind Flower. Turns out those things are pretty fragile, I was able to destroy it by just entering the hex; made me realize that I really needed to protect my Mind Flower when I finally built it.

Have to say, I sure miss the victory screens from early Civs; was it Civ3 or Civ4 that had the replay of the game on line charts showing everyone's rise and fall? This one is rather bland.

[Kraken]

Have to say, I sure miss the victory screens from early Civs; was it Civ3 or Civ4 that had the replay of the game on line charts showing everyone's rise and fall? This one is rather bland.

Heh. I still miss the palace.

To me, the biggest disappointment (in Civ 5) was freezing you out of the scoreboard if you use any mods at all, even something as innocuous as Strange Religions. Sure, some mods change the game so radically that one cannot compare those scores to vanilla Civ...but there should be an alternate scoreboard for modified games.

Setting high scores is the only payoff for winning, and I resent being excluded from that.

[Exodor]

To me, the biggest disappointment (in CiV) was freezing you out of the scoreboard if you use any mods at all, even something as innocuous as Strange Religions. Sure, some mods change the game so radically that one cannot compare those scores to vanilla Civ...but there should be an alternate scoreboard for modified games.

Setting high scores is the only payoff for winning, and I resent being excluded from that.

Didn't Civ V do the same? It was annoying with that game, too.

I've found a few things I don't like. Unit promotions have been streamlined and are now nothing but vanilla +10% combat effectiveness. And judging from the mod I'm using units are capped at level 4 (the mod removes the cap). Hopefully that can be addressed with a mod or in the inevitable DLC.

Constantly renewing trade routes is annoying. There should be a toggle to make a route permanent or at least a way to double or triple the time before it asks you to renew.

I also have no idea how the victory conditions work. For now I'm trying to grow my empire and kill bugs. A few of the my hippy neighbors seem to object to the bug-killing so I'll probably get to experience war soon.

[jztemple2]

I am going to be the heretic here and state that the UI choices are often terrible.

Yup, fully agree with this. To find out who's at war with whom, I have to go to a leader, bring up the deal screen and ask them to declare war (or ask for peace). Then I mouse over the names of the other factions and see if they are fighting this leader or not. Sheesh.

Also, AFAIK, I can't see any summation of what deals I have with what factions. I can bring up a screen and look at the individual deals, but not a summary. Maybe it's there somewhere, but I couldn't find it after twelve hours of playing.

[Newcastle]

I am going to be the heretic here and state that the UI choices are often terrible.

Yup, fully agree with this. To find out who's at war with whom, I have to go to a leader, bring up the deal screen and ask them to declare war (or ask for peace). Then I mouse over the names of the other factions and see if they are fighting this leader or not. Sheesh.

Also, AFAIK, I can't see any summation of what deals I have with what factions. I can bring up a screen and look at the individual deals, but not a summary. Maybe it's there somewhere, but I couldn't find it after twelve hours of playing.

Yeah the UI leaves a lot to be desired. Some of my thoughts/observations on it

1. The Tech web while innovative really is uniform, need a better way to distinguish what is what. Even though there is a filter, it would be nice if there was a bigger differentation between what is an improvement V. Wonder...etc. Should also have a filter for wonders.

1B - Should have a list format of what you are researching and what you have queued up, rather than having to pan all around the web to see what you have queued up.

2. When you hover over a tile, what can built there pops up by the mini map, should be closer to the mouse point.

3. While the gear icon in the left is helpful to do an instant build, it would be nice to know what you just built and also the production/food/culture values of the city.

4. The + icon in the lower right really needs to be distinguished better, its very hard to miss at times.

Am sure as I play the game more and more I'll figure things out, but right now the UI has a lot to be desired. I do like the game though, just needs some tweaks in the UI to make it better. And of course a better system of delivering information of whats going on in game (ie who's at war, info when deals are being discussed).

[Kraken]

To me, the biggest disappointment (in CiV) was freezing you out of the scoreboard if you use any mods at all, even something as innocuous as Strange Religions. Sure, some mods change the game so radically that one cannot compare those scores to vanilla Civ...but there should be an alternate scoreboard for modified games.

Setting high scores is the only payoff for winning, and I resent being excluded from that.

Didn't Civ V do the same? It was annoying with that game, too.

Edited because that's what I meant. IIRC CIV had the same flaw, but modding the older game wasn't as common (or necessary). IMO the InfoAddict mod is crucial to Civ 5...and from the complaints I'm seeing in this thread, BE desperately needs the same mod...which will undoubtedly break the scoreboard when it finally comes out.

[Orgull]

I'm really enjoying it.

That being said, it's about as rough as CIV V Vanilla was on release (with less info screens and worse UI). I'm certain that with a few patches, some DLC and an expansion, it will get a lot better. It suffers from EXACTLY the same problems as CIV V Vanilla imho. The first act is exciting, the last act is mind-numbing. The AI doesn't seem to be as obviously bad as CIV V's but it doesn't seem to be significantly better either. As for balance? Fugghedabouwdit. It's not even on the same planet with 'balance'.

Despite it's problems, I'm still going to play the hell out of it!

[Butterknife]

Won my second game, this one a Promised Land victory. I had fun, but I'm going to have to take a break -- if anybody asks me where to send a trade route again, I'm going to scream. Also ran into a bug where I destroyed a station at the beginning of the game, and then for the entire rest of the game any time anybody destroyed a station every AI would call me up and complain to me about it as if I had destroyed it. You can tell which bugs they just decided to ship with.

Flawed diamond at this point, after 22 hours I would say the 80% reviews are spot on. Very enjoyable, but rough around the edges.

[jztemple2]

Article on Kotaku regarding some code found in CivBE about religions.

MetagamingAtLast has been poking through the game's files, and found a few mentions of a religion mechanic. Religion and ideology are two of the biggest and most important aspects of a Civilization V game, and while ideologies are in Beyond Earth (renamed as Affinities), there was no room for religion. At least at launch.

Maybe these are leftovers from an aspect of the game that was cut, maybe they're placeholders for content coming later down the pipeline. Whichever, they're clearly not leftovers from Civ V's original code, seeing as they make specific mention of Beyond Earth-specific stuff.

[Brian]

Also ran into a bug where I destroyed a station at the beginning of the game, and then for the entire rest of the game any time anybody destroyed a station every AI would call me up and complain to me about it as if I had destroyed it.

I walked an explorer through two of the hexes adjoining a station and the game failed a trade quest claiming that I attacked them.

Another bug I'm experiencing is when upgrading units the 3d model window will show two units on top of each other. For example, a rover unit and a soldier unit combined.

[Jeff V]

So it seems the biggest difference between this game and SMAC was the lack of a incredibly dedicated and talented beta test team.

I'm most of the way through my first game at medium difficulty level (3rd I think?) The AI is better at combat than Civ 5. the indigenous life forms are not simply recycled barbarians. I've had tem slip through my grunts to attack the soft ranged units in the rear -- something that never happened in Civ 5. Once you move beyond your starting area, you need to recon in force. I don't like that it seems impossible to maintain a positive health early-mid game (I'm +12 now, 350 turns in). I also don't know if it's better to focus on a single virtue or not...I'm level 18 on Harmony and nothing on anything else. We'll see what happens.

[TiLT]

So it seems the biggest difference between this game and SMAC was the lack of a incredibly dedicated and talented beta test team.

Wasn't SMAC pretty buggy at first too?

[The Meal]

So it seems the biggest difference between this game and SMAC was the lack of a incredibly dedicated and talented beta test team.

Wasn't SMAC pretty buggy at first too?

Oh yeah.

[Jeff V]

They actually had a patch out the same day the game launched (and got some crap for that). The biggest problem, IIRC, was multiplayer was borked; but that wasn't from lack of testing. BR didn't plan on including it with the original release, then decided he did have time for it, but it wasn't as simple as he thought.

[LordMortis]

Paid for, downloaded, and played way too much yesterday.

No bugs for me. Don't hate UI. Some things could be better, like making it easier to find specific items in the tech web. But so far I'm liking it way better than vanilla CivV, which did nothing for me at all.

I haven't gotten into heavy combat or virtual realization yet. I'm sure there are way more surprises, like the earlier mentioned mind flower. I don't know much about victory condition or orbitals or flying units or finding/denying synergy with the planet. I see techs talk about alien cool down or some such thing.

But so far I'm digging it. The one thing I really don't like so far is my old machine has a long load time and the game gives no indication that it's actively loading, so it appears as though the game is locked up.

[tgb]

Started up my first "real" game at the difficulty where AI and player are balanced (Vostok?). 85 turns in and I'm really enjoying it so far. The only thing I have a problem in is having to micro-manage units when they cross the map in order to avoid stopping in xenomorph shit miasma.

Other than role-playing, is there any reason someone going for the Harmony affinity can't shoot the occasional bug? I've got one sitting on a dig site, and it refuses to move. Also there's that quest to kill a sand worm.

[LordMortis]

Oh, that reminds me I don't care for non persistent trade routes or units stopping in Miasma without warning. You ought be able to turn Miasma warning and persistent trade routes.

[Newcastle]

Other than role-playing, is there any reason someone going for the Harmony affinity can't shoot the occasional bug? I've got one sitting on a dig site, and it refuses to move. Also there's that quest to kill a sand worm.

Kill away. I was very hesitant at first, but I've done limited "clearing" operations to clear out an area I not only want to settle but also to thin their herd some. After they killed 2 colonists, I took action and went heavy at them for about 20 turns or so, enough to clear some space for abotu 3 cities. One thing that helps is having the first notch in harmony which brings down their threat level. I've heard its ok to attack the bugs, just do it limited in scope and pace yourself. I guess the bugs have various shades of green/orange and red. Green I guess is semi friendly but can be aggressive, and red is perma war. Even after my limited clearing actions they were still green. I'm a bit colorblind w/ the red/green spectrum so might be a bit off on that.

[LordMortis]

Green I guess is semi friendly but can be aggressive, and red is perma war. Even after my limited clearing actions they were still green. I'm a bit colorblind w/ the red/green spectrum so might be a bit off on that.

Where do you find this?

[Newcastle]

Green I guess is semi friendly but can be aggressive, and red is perma war. Even after my limited clearing actions they were still green. I'm a bit colorblind w/ the red/green spectrum so might be a bit off on that.

Where do you find this?

I think that its the color of the individual icons over the alien units. I read this somewhere either civfanatics or QT3.

[Stuie]

They all turned orange for me toward the end of my first game, and started attacking my units on sight. I had done *something else* that I thought precipitated the sudden change in alien attitude.

Spoiler:

*something else* being starting to build the Mind Flower.

[LordMortis]

I want to go home and play.

Wait. That;s a good sign

[Brian]

the game gives no indication that it's actively loading, so it appears as though the game is locked up.

That's what I thought at first as well but then I noticed that the cursor will show a small, spinning globe during load times.

[LordMortis]

the game gives no indication that it's actively loading, so it appears as though the game is locked up.

That's what I thought at first as well but then I noticed that the cursor will show a small, spinning globe during load times.

I have a really old machine. That tiny blue spinning circle goes away and I still have an indeterminate amount of time to wait. I just need to remember it's a TBS, so I should get up and get a coffee or go outside for a smoke... no I should quit smoking, so I'll just obsess staring at a blank screen.

Maybe this month I'll buy a new machine and monitor... and computer stand. Oh, how I need to ditch that CRT and get something bigger and sit with my face further than a foot away from the monitor.

[Exodor]

Green I guess is semi friendly but can be aggressive, and red is perma war. Even after my limited clearing actions they were still green. I'm a bit colorblind w/ the red/green spectrum so might be a bit off on that.

Where do you find this?

I think that its the color of the individual icons over the alien units. I read this somewhere either civfanatics or QT3.

As soon as I got the "social policy" (not sure what the BE equivalent is) that granted me science for every alien I killed I embarked on a campaign of Bug Genocide. They're still green to me despite me killing them all on sight.,

[ydejin]

I want to go home and play.

Wait. That;s a good sign

Same for me!

[Jeff V]

I did not care for the unceremonious "you lose" screen. No demographics screen, no comparative scoring. I had no idea what my metrics were compared with the other players. I really hope this is on their to-do list to fix.

Second game, I'm making more of an effort to stay healthy. At 3 cities, I have no more healthful buildings to construct and I'm at zero. It looks like I'm going to hit the skids again mid-game.

[Stuie]

I did not care for the unceremonious "you lose" screen. No demographics screen, no comparative scoring. I had no idea what my metrics were compared with the other players. I really hope this is on their to-do list to fix.

Second game, I'm making more of an effort to stay healthy. At 3 cities, I have no more healthful buildings to construct and I'm at zero. It looks like I'm going to hit the skids again mid-game.

The stats are available... they are just buried. Go to Other > View Replays and select a game to view.

[jztemple2]

Second game, I'm making more of an effort to stay healthy. At 3 cities, I have no more healthful buildings to construct and I'm at zero. It looks like I'm going to hit the skids again mid-game.

I was down to about -39 on health, which isn't a lot of fun, but I focused on the tech needed to raise it. In the end I was up to about +49(!) and this motivated me to go on a city building binge. Even with twelve cities I can still keep health positive. I didn't get much into Civ5, but I remember in Civ4 it got to be a real pain once you went above about a half dozen cities; apparently this isn't true in CivBE.

[LordMortis]

ugly bug. Need to remember to do multiple saves now.

A worker stopped on a city on its way to another location. An artifact expedition finished and gave me production which finished another unit putting two workers in the same hex. The game freaked out an locked up.

I just happened to save the game on that turn. My only save.

[tgb]

I think where the game really shines is in the "interesting decisions", whether is practicality vs. Affinity progress in the research bush and quest decisions, or whether to go wide vs. deep in the Virtue tree. It seems as though I have to agonize over them more than in any 4X game I can recall.

I don't have the issue some do with having to reset trade routes, since needs change and the number of routes per city is pretty limited.

[ydejin]

ugly bug. Need to remember to do multiple saves now.

A worker stopped on a city on its way to another location. An artifact expedition finished and gave me production which finished another unit putting two workers in the same hex. The game freaked out an locked up.

I just happened to save the game on that turn. My only save.

Autosave should be on by default. Try clicking on Load Game and then hitting the "Autosave" button next to the "Steam Cloud" button and you'll see your autosaves.

[tgb]

OK. What's with workers executing the "road to" order one tile at a time and then having to get the order AGAIN????

Grrr.

[RMC]

OK. What's with workers executing the "road to" order one tile at a time and then having to get the order AGAIN????

Grrr.

Never had that issue, unless the worker runs into another worker, then it stops and says order canceled. But that was the same as in Civ 5.

[baelthazar]

OK. What's with workers executing the "road to" order one tile at a time and then having to get the order AGAIN????

Grrr.

I have this too. I think it happens with alien forces get too close to the worker (it resets their orders). As the alien forces are pretty much EVERYWHERE the entire game, that means workers get disrupted frequently (seems to be when the alien is around 2 hexes away).

It is strange, because I rarely have the aliens attack workers.

[Jeff V]

I don't have the issue some do with having to reset trade routes, since needs change and the number of routes per city is pretty limited.

Three per city, after six cities that is 18 trade routes and some need to be reset nearly every turn. It gets old late in the game when the planet has been sterilized of alien life and if you are not at war with anyone, the rest of your units are asleep (except for workers). At this point, I just want to keep advancing until the next significant event.

[Newcastle]

OK. What's with workers executing the "road to" order one tile at a time and then having to get the order AGAIN????

Grrr.

Are there alien units nearby? Happened to me when there were aliens within 2 hexes of the worker unit.

[RMC]

OK. What's with workers executing the "road to" order one tile at a time and then having to get the order AGAIN????

Grrr.

Are there alien units nearby? Happened to me when there were aliens within 2 hexes of the worker unit.

Ahh.. Yes I have had that happen. I am a mean bastard and just kill aliens as soon as I see them. So they stay away or die.

[jztemple2]

I don't have the issue some do with having to reset trade routes, since needs change and the number of routes per city is pretty limited.

Three per city, after six cities that is 18 trade routes and some need to be reset nearly every turn. It gets old late in the game when the planet has been sterilized of alien life and if you are not at war with anyone, the rest of your units are asleep (except for workers). At this point, I just want to keep advancing until the next significant event.

In my current game I have twelve cities and the constant resetting of the trade routes is getting really annoying.

Also, FYI, I'm running all internal routes, so it's an exchange of food and production, and holy smokes you can grow cities fast that way.