BE Wishlist

[Buster's Uncle]

Not that there's any real point, the game being fairly far along, I think, but it's still fun to kick around ideas.

My big hope is that the game will be accessible to modding like SMACX, and not at all like ciV...

[BlaneckW]

As I've said, strategic depth to the tech tree which would, hopefully, as I'd want in a sequel, also relate back to more depth in social engineering.  A more advanced/in-depth Civilization game and not just a war-game.  Not that it's impossible the tech tree has strategic depth, but it's dubious when they spend most of the time talking about affinities.  Unless affinities includes a lot of possibility in regards social engineering strategy... I  don't know what it means.  It means mind worms versus gleaming robots.

[Buster's Uncle]

I've been saying for years that what primarily makes SMACX so special is the story(s).  They seem to be saying BE will be more open-ended -- I hope I've been misled...  Strong characters and a strong narrative thread would be a tough thing to do in a history game; but fit like a glove for a future/SF game.

I want a story - what sisko called, on our front page, "A transhuman odyssey".  A sprawling epic...

[Geo]

From the interview(s) with the designers, I get the impression the player needs to fill in the story. There's merely the outlines of it.
I bet we won't even get an ingame year of departure from Earth.

[BlaneckW]

I bet we won't even get an ingame year of departure from Earth.

Yes, that's very amusing and I'm sure he's just as amused as you are.

[Ford_Prefect]

Ok.  Here is what I would want from an SMAC sequel and hope they get right.

Required:
*  None of the micro-management hell that was in many of the civ series.  I want to be doing epic things, not micro-managing every citizen. 
*  Good non-cheating AI.  (I want the AI to provide an interesting opponent, not a zerg rush) 

What I would love to see:
* Easy to customize units, with meaningful choices.  Seriously, SMAC got this right and I haven't seen anyone do it as well (if at all) as SMAC.
* Story that is affected by your actions.
* Mod-ability.
* Probe-teams.
* Stacks of death. 

What I don't want:
* Game mechanics that make it virtually impossible to conquer the world.  (Either by exponential base cost or drone riots for being "too" large of an empire)
* 1 unit per square.

[Buster's Uncle]

I was never a fan of the escalating drones...

[BlaneckW]

I was never a fan of the escalating drones...

They're not as hard to deal with as you think.

[Buster's Uncle]

Oh, by the time they're a problem, I'm playing with morale at 40%, and they're no problem.  Just sayin.

[BlaneckW]

What I probably like most of Alpha Centauri would be related to strategic depth and the technology tree; the possibilities regarding how game may be played. AC basically has four different branching paths on the tech tree, and you can approach things differently every time you play - even just with regards the beginning game there is strategic depth. Sometimes I only play the beginning.

Of course, just being able to do things differently all the time is not important to me by itself, that's just a byproduct of the strategic depth of the game.  Merging the factions (affinities) function with the tech tree like in Beyond Earth does not immediately suggest strategy to me.  It doesn't suggest anything at all to me other than gimmick.

(click to show/hide)

I do not think the other Civ's have as much strategy. For a Civ game, it would just be whether to take the time to research the dead-end cavalry tech for a temporary boost in military, go republic or monarchy, etc, but it hasn't much depth or importance in my opinion.

On AC I might be good enough to win regardless of circumstances (I doubt the AI can kill me), but regarding the strategic possibilities available on how to approach the game, it is possible that I may still not really know what I am doing. Based the possibilities alone, I could be doing things completely different, that might be more optimal.

For that reason, even if Kyrub hadn't just done an update of the AI, the game would not be dead to me. This game will never be dead for anyone who wants content and depth and not just something "new." If you approach it that way, I am not certain that the content of AC actually runs out. The expansion, which actually offered more "content", I do not play, because I think it harmed the strategy. That being said, I like the real-world parallels of the original's factions more than anything mods or the expansion might offer, even while i consider the factions feature over-rated.

I probobably don't care as much as other people whether a game has "more than one right way of doing things," which is just another way of saying that you want more shiny baubles. Other people like the number of factions and such, but these could just be turned into government choices if not for their attachment to the story. And we all know by now that the Chinese Legalist faction (Hive) is the strongest anyway, from play-throughs and tests. You can play another faction but it is just a handicap. Morgan and University can probably research about the same (you'll get their research after Vassalizing them); the game didn't flesh out the Gaian option enough, and the military factions are probably not the best option in the long run.

So I consider the Faction feature over-rated (in it's strategic depth) other than teaching me Chinese history. Beyond Earth will be expanding on the Gaian option, but I don't care about Beyond Earth, or it's affinities (factions) function which it has bizarrely integrated with the tech tree, unless it offers the depth of Alpha Centauri.

[Geo]

Not that there's any real point, the game being fairly far along, I think, but it's still fun to kick around ideas.

Seabases. 'nuf said.

[Dio]

(click to show/hide)

I probobably don't care as much as other people whether a game has "more than one right way of doing things," which is just another way of saying that you want more shiny baubles. Other people like the number of factions and such, but these could just be turned into government choices if not for their attachment to the story. And we all know by now that the Chinese Legalist faction (Hive) is the strongest anyway, from play-throughs and tests. You can play another faction but it is just a handicap. Morgan and University can probably research about the same (you'll get their research after Vassalizing them); the game didn't flesh out the Gaian option enough, and the military factions are probably not the best option in the long run.

The Hive in the unpatched version of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri did not have Immunity to Efficency. This means the factions were signficantly more balanced against one another

[BlaneckW]

The Hive in the unpatched version of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri did not have Immunity to Efficency. This means the factions were signficantly more balanced against one another

Some immunity to inefficiency fits Legalist ideology, but my understanding was that it had a moral bonus that were probably even more unbalanced.  I'd take a hit to efficiency for a moral bonus.  It just represents energy.  Yang would be deadly with a moral bonus.

[Lord Avalon]

I was never a fan of the escalating drones...

They're not as hard to deal with as you think.

With your avatar I had to 

[Buster's Uncle]

...Sez Mr. Agonizer...