14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Firaxis working on Civilization: Beyond Earth is ready to give players a little more details on the new orbital layer that will be part of the turn-based strategy title and about the way it can be used in order to support offensive and defensive modes.
Will Miller and Dave McDonough, the two co-designers working on the title, are saying that the core combat and exploration will still take place on the terrain map, which mostly obeys the exact same rules that gamers remember from Civilization V, including the fact that one hex can only be occupied at one time by one military unit.
They tell Gamespot that the orbital layer “reinforces the drama happening on the ground. The solar collector is one of several domestic-themed satellites that improve tile yields, push back miasma or generate miasma, if that's what you want to do. There's also a number of military satellites which act as static buffs above your military.”
Solid use of orbital layer assets in Civilization: Beyond Earth will allow gamers to expand their coverage, as long as they focus their resources and their research correctly, in order to cover enemy territory and support their units when they go on the offensive with some limited time buffs.
Firaxis also states, “Satellites don't move. They are temporal, so they don't last forever. And they can't overlap their influence. So it's this kind of treacherous puzzle you're playing up there, competing with other civs to get the best real estate and to expand your coverage as quickly as you can so you can exercise influence both domestically and militarily.”
Civilization: Beyond Earth will offer a spiritual successor to the classic Alpha Centauri, although plenty of the mechanics have been updated to appeal to modern audiences.
Gamers will be able to use Favors in the diplomacy screen in order to make sure that the other factions support some of their decisions and initiatives.
At the same time, the technology evolution is no longer linked to a tree but to a web system, which means gamers have more opportunities to customize their units and to choose which Affinity they want to become associated with.
There are also changes to how the player deals with the local fauna and flora.
Civilization: Beyond Earth will arrive on the PC on October 24 of this year and those who pre-order can get access to six maps based on exo-planets.