14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Firaxis is ready to offer more details about the Polystralia faction of the new Civilization: Beyond Earth, which is designed to be the economic powerhouse the gamers will use if they loved the Morgan Industries faction in the classic Alpha Centauri.
In an interview with GamePlanet, the two leading developers working on the turn-based strategy title, Will Miller and David McDonough, explain that the mix of Australia and other Pacific Ocean nations managed to become the breadbasket of the world after the catastrophe of the Great Mistake.
The faction has a lot of wealth, and that means they can afford to pursue tactics and policies that require a lot of money to implement.
Firaxis states, “Of all the factions in the game they probably represent the greatest combination of cultures from our current world. So they’re very much building a Civ of international cooperation. As an opponent, they’re more likely to be friendly and more likely to be collaborators in efforts you’re working on, and that sets them apart from some of the more inherently hostile factions like Brasilia and especially ARC, the American Reclamation Corporation.”
Once they arrive in the new world of Civilization: Beyond Earth, the Polystralia colonists will be ready to develop an industrial infrastructure and then work together with any other friendly factions in order to dominate the space around them.
The leader of the faction will be Hutama, who is young and wealthy, with trade and diplomacy as his primary skills and an ability to appeal to the masses.
McDonought adds, “He’s the closest of any of the leaders to what you might call a celebrity. He has a television show, and is known as an international figure before he becomes an official of the Polystralian state.”
The fact that Hutama is young and seemingly focused on cooperation also means that players will get interesting choices when interacting with him.
Civilization: Beyond Earth will include a variety of factions that allow gamers to choose how they want to approach the game and what win condition they want to try and achieve.
The turn-based strategy title will use the core mechanics seen in the fifth Civilization title, but the developers are trying to introduce some innovative ideas and to make the alien flora and fauna an important element of the overall experience.
Civilization: Beyond Earth will be launched on the PC on October 24 of this year.
