14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Firaxis says that the Civilization: Beyond Earth will include a cultural system that’s based on mechanics seen in previous titles in the series that also has some interesting twists that should offer players more options.
David McDonough and Will Miller, the two leading co-designers working on the game, are telling the official blog that they will introduce a new set of virtues for the title that will be broadly similar to the social policies from Civilization V.
They explained that, “We looked at the idea of choosing across different virtues versus going deeper within a particular virtue and added the idea of “kickers.” These are bonuses you can earn either by going deep down a particular path, or buying virtues across all the trees. The depth kicker is a bonus for staying within a line.”
Firaxis is also offering breadth bonuses in order to cater to those players who are interested in discoveries from different areas of the tech tree.
As always when it comes to the title in the Civilization series, the idea is to offer players as many options as possible to shape their faction and their game, while also bringing interesting choices that encourage them to replay the entire experience.
When it comes to units, the studio is also enhancing the ideas seen in previous titles in the franchise by adding an upgrade mechanic alongside the already existing promotions.
This means that players who manage to keep their units alive can enhance them with new abilities that are based on newly discovered tech, while also giving them more power as they gain experience.
The team also offered a little more info on how the three Affinities affect the game, adding, “Just because you share an Affinity with another faction doesn’t mean your units will be like theirs. They may choose entirely different upgrade abilities, so even if your troops look alike, they may not necessarily fight the same way.”
Firaxis has said that it wants its new title to be a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri, but has also warned fans that it does plan to introduce a wide array of new gameplay mechanics.
So far, only two civilizations for the turn-based strategy experience have been revealed, but more info on the rest will soon be offered, perhaps even during E3 2014.
Civilization: Beyond Earth will be launched before the end of 2014 and will only be offered on the PC.