I think my main problem with the way that Civ 5 was handled was that each expansion felt like part of the game as originally conceived. That is, they released the game in pieces rather than as a coherent whole. Compared to its predecessors, vanilla Civ 5 was pretty featureless. This rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. It just looked and felt over monetized. G&K, at the very least, should have been the initial release version.

Mansen wrote:
Sure they did - The intermissions would trigger as Planet became more active, aggressive. As the story tells.

Some heralded changes, others reacted to changes.

You got some story (mostly the planet story) as it progressed -> fungal bloom increasing, more worms appearing etc.

Other story you got by certain events happening. Such as your first mindworm unit getting defeated.

[QUOTEusername='[VGN]Albion;174189']seems interesting, i will wait for actual gameplay footage though[/QUOTE]



Seems best with the skepticism around.

BlueTemplar wrote:
Actually, now that I think of it, Alpha Centauri had something resembling it : pages of text telling your story on Planet popping up when specific conditions were met... they didn't have any gameplay effects though.

Sure they did - The intermissions would trigger as Planet became more active, aggressive. As the story tells.

BlueTemplar wrote:
Actually, now that I think of it, Alpha Centauri had something resembling it : pages of text telling your story on Planet popping up when specific conditions were met... they didn't have any gameplay effects though.

Yeah, they were a sort of "proto-quest," if you like--a bit more like the story told between episodes in a campaign in the RTS of the time (Warcraft, StarCraft, etc.).

Actually, now that I think of it, Alpha Centauri had something resembling it : pages of text telling your story on Planet popping up when specific conditions were met... they didn't have any gameplay effects though.

BlueTemplar wrote:
Funny how similar this seems to EL quests... did they take inspiration from it, there's a third game I'm not aware of using this mechanic or it "just happened"?

The "quest" mechanic has existed in strategy games for quite some time. Age of Wonders II had them (as does the new iteration in the franchise; I don't recall if the original did). AoW2 came out about 12 years ago. The quests were static and/or scripted with the campaign and were meant to infuse the fantasy 4X genre with with more RPG elements. I doubt that EL was really even on Firaxis' radar when it came to designing these elements, but the idea of quests has been floating out there for quite some time. I welcome the addition. It creates new storytelling opportunities for developers and has the potential to guide players in a meaningful, thoughtful way.

Quest System: Quests are injected with fiction about the planet, and help to guide you through a series of side-missions that will aid in resource collection, unit upgrades, and advancement through the game.

Funny how similar this seems to EL quests... did they take inspiration from it, there's a third game I'm not aware of using this mechanic or it "just happened"?

seems interesting, i will wait for actual gameplay footage though

Haaruka wrote:
Only downside for me probably is that It takes forever to finish the "game" specially if Im playing with my friends who take forever with their turns

I hardly ever play with friends, or online. I have about a dozen games going at a time, and every now and again I do a doze or so turns in a random game. This works for me.

Only downside for me probably is that It takes forever to finish the "game" specially if Im playing with my friends who take forever with their turns

ZumboPrime wrote:
I only started playing the Civ series with the Gold Edition (G&K + DLC). I tried playing vanilla, but it was just so bad. Balance and feature-wise. BNW makes it much better, but the game itself is unstable as ♥♥♥♥. If you click anything while not in the playing stage or lobby, it will crash. If you're doing something else while playing Civ 5, it will crash. If you're just playing the game with nothing else on your PC running, Civ 5 will ♥♥♥♥ing crash. Lately it's been somehow just shutting itself down instantly sometimes, not even a "program not responding". And Firaxis considers the game "complete" so no stability patches.



As you can probably guess, I'm not going to give them any money until 1) Firaxis has proven they're not releasing another broken game and 2) it's on sale.

Only problem I have is that during the load screen if I minimize the window or go to the steam overlay my mouse cursor will disappear. Easy to fix. I've never had any of the other issues.

ZumboPrime wrote:
I only started playing the Civ series with the Gold Edition (G&K + DLC). I tried playing vanilla, but it was just so bad. Balance and feature-wise. BNW makes it much better, but the game itself is unstable as ♥♥♥♥. If you click anything while not in the playing stage or lobby, it will crash. If you're doing something else while playing Civ 5, it will crash. If you're just playing the game with nothing else on your PC running, Civ 5 will ♥♥♥♥ing crash. Lately it's been somehow just shutting itself down instantly sometimes, not even a "program not responding". And Firaxis considers the game "complete" so no stability patches. [...]

Had none of the crashes you mentioned, so it may be problem with your software.

I've been playing since CIV2. With the release and balance patches post BNW aka CIV5 Complete, the game is pretty good. I hate 2 things. The warmonger penalty and the stupid diplomacy. The A.I. is okay, but it's weak when it comes to naval combat. Oh well. I have lots and lots of hour sin to it, so I will be getting Beyond Earth when it comes out for sure.. after a couple of patches and expansions. I will not put up with the b.s. that was Civ 5 vanilla, never again.

Varadhon wrote:
I think my main problem with the way that Civ 5 was handled was that each expansion felt like part of the game as originally conceived. That is, the released the game in pieces rather than as a coherent whole. Compared to its predecessors, vanilla Civ 5 was pretty featureless. This rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. It just looked and felt over monetized. G&K, at the very least, should have been the initial release version.

I only started playing the Civ series with the Gold Edition (G&K + DLC). I tried playing vanilla, but it was just so bad. Balance and feature-wise. BNW makes it much better, but the game itself is unstable as ♥♥♥♥. If you click anything while not in the playing stage or lobby, it will crash. If you're doing something else while playing Civ 5, it will crash. If you're just playing the game with nothing else on your PC running, Civ 5 will ♥♥♥♥ing crash. Lately it's been somehow just shutting itself down instantly sometimes, not even a "program not responding". And Firaxis considers the game "complete" so no stability patches.



As you can probably guess, I'm not going to give them any money until 1) Firaxis has proven they're not releasing another broken game and 2) it's on sale.

Firaxis took the opportunity to announce a new game at PAX East: Civilization: Beyond Earth. It is billed as a true spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri. Here's a little info from the game's main site: http://www.civilization.com/#info



Here's some additional press coverage: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/04/12/civilization-beyond-earth-breaks-free-from-history-heads-to-th/

Mansen, I can. G&K really improved vanilla CIV5, and BNW... well, since it came out I put a lot of time into CIV5.



Vanilla was around 25 hours. The game was a mess.

Gods and Kings added another 100 or so hours.

Brave New World... well, I'm at 400 hours now.



/Shame

Can't comment to the Civ 5 expansions - I bought both of them on sale and never really tried them out or got an idea of how much I actually received.

Mansen wrote:


(A lot of people are going to complain that they could have made it a DLC, not a stand alone and that they are becoming greedy - See my Colonization reference in my earlier post)

Becoming greedy? imo they have been greedy for a while now. Lets not forget that Gods and Kings as well as Brave New World were both retail priced outside of bundles.



and to me that means they were pretty much charging customers $60 to fix a game that should have been good in its vanilla state. This time I'll wait until after they release the DLCs that fix the games and get the bundle...

Varadhon wrote:
I'm not prepared to be cynical about Civ: BE just yet. lol

Too many promising titles that have turned out... poorly for me not to be cynical up front - Especially when they are already talking about making it more casual before any gameplay has even been shown.



I'll stay cynical for now and be unexpectedly happy if it does turn out good.

Nasarog wrote:
I am excited but this game, but it does bear a striking resemblance to Pandora.

That's another problem - Barring the storyline of Alpha Centauri, they're all basically just "empire building in space" games. Firaxis are going to have to work hard to make Beyond Earth seem unique and fresh - Especially when they're demanding full retail price for what is essentially the same basic engine and presentation as Civ 5 (A lot of people are going to complain that they could have made it a DLC, not a stand alone and that they are becoming greedy - See my Colonization reference in my earlier post)