14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Firaxis in charge of Sid Meier’s Starships is announcing that the title is designed to include the Affinity concept that was first introduced in Civilization: Beyond Earth and will use it to show the various ways in which humanity can evolve as it explores the stars and discovers new ways to augment itself.
In the already available turn-based strategy title, the system gives players bonuses based on their choices and the leaders change their appearance to show their allegiances, with diplomatic bonuses associated with each of them.
For Sid Meier’s Starships, the style of the various factions as they choose an Affinity will be even more extreme.
Firaxis explains in a blog post that “Harmony-aligned leaders’ skin changing color and their clothing becoming even more rounded and flowing. Purity leaders continue to keep the ‘normal’ human appearance, albeit with even grander clothing. And Supremacy leaders have far more cybernetics than anyone in Beyond Earth.”
But the effects of Affinities also extend to gameplay: Supremacy will be able to use a wonder at the start of the game, Purity doubles rewards earned from missions, while Harmony is able to make repairs for their ships at half the cost of others.
The developers at Firaxis suggest that other mechanics associated with Affinities will be revealed as the game gets closer to launch date.
Sid Meier’s Starships moves the turn-based strategy genre to space
The Civilization series has been focused on planets, on the way players can shape the world around them as they evolve with one faction and seek to dominate all others, either militarily, diplomatically, scientifically or economically.
For Sid Meier’s Starships, the developers are moving to deep space, with gamers challenged to use fleets to explore the universe, deal with troublesome enemies and discover the remnants of humanity, who are under attack by a powerful force.
The game will introduce a range of strategic choices, but it will also feature tactical battles between ships, with customization and design playing an important role.
There’s also diplomacy to deal with, new tech to discover and planets to manage in order to power a faction.
Sid Meier’s Starships is supposed to be launched on the PC before summer and the leader of Firaxis himself has been working on the code of the title and handles all livestreaming duties.
