Sid Meier Brings Us Farther into Space in Strategy Game Starships

[roseofbattle]

Sid Meier Brings Us Farther into Space in Strategy Game Starships

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The latest from Sid Meier builds off of Civilization: Beyond Earth.

Space is the final frontier, and you'll be seeing more of it from Civilization designer Sid Meier [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/sid%20meier]. 2K Games and Firaxis Games have announced Sid Meier's Starships will arrive in early 2015 on PC, Mac, and iPad.

Players control a fleet of starships as they build a planetary federation and protect planets. Turn-based combat encourages strategy, and there's a deep roster of customizable ships. Furthermore, 2K Games noted the maps are unique and have dynamically generated tactical combat.

Civilization: Beyond Earth [http://escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/civilization%20beyond%20earth] was set in space, and Meier wanted to go further into "exploring the next chapter in the story of Civilization: Beyond Earth," Meier said. "What happens after we colonize our new home and eventually build starships to take to the stars? What has become of our long-lost brothers and sisters from the planet Earth?"

Meier added he wanted to create an experience focusing on starship design within a universe of interstellar adventure, diplomacy, and exploration. Meier is working on the game with a small team at Firaxis.

2K Games didn't go into detail, but there should be an element of cross-connectivity for people who own both Beyond Earth and Starships to "enhance and expand upon both game experiences."

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More news about Sid Meier's Starships will be available in the future. We shouldn't expect to wait long for the game, though; it launches in "early 2015" for PC, Mac, and iPad. There was no mention of an Android version.

Source: GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/articles/firaxis-reveals-new-interstellar-strategy-game-sid/1100-6424728/]


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[gigastar]

Its a bit sad that ive gotten to the point where the words "exploration", "combat" and "diplomacy" dont really turn me on anymore.

Either way, ill withold judgement until i get more details.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

I can't say much on the matter other than that I can already sense Civ:BE owners fuming either due to them working on this instead of improving BE (despite the small team), or because this is a standalone game and not an expansion to BE given it uses the same resources and ideologies.

 

[Trekkie]

I'm gonna hold my judgment till i see more, but right now all i see is galactic civilizations.

 

[JarinArenos]

Looks to heavily crib from that Civ IV space mod that was included with the... whatever the 'ultimate pack' was that included several major overhaul mods as stock options.

Headline had me expecting Sci-Fi "Sid Meier's Pirates!"... left disappointed.

 

[RoonMian]

Looks to heavily crib from that Civ IV space mod that was included with the... whatever the 'ultimate pack' was that included several major overhaul mods as stock options.

Headline had me expecting Sci-Fi "Sid Meier's Pirates!"... left disappointed.

I think you mean the "Final Frontier" mod included in Civ IV: Beyond the Sword.

Sci-Fi "Sid Meier's Pirates!" would have been awesome but since I had so much fun with Final Frontier this does it for me as well... All I can say is: Hnnnnnnng... I think I'm gonna need to break my "not more than 5 Euro for a game"-rule again.

 

[bliebblob]

Reserving judgement until I see some gameplay and all that jazz of course, but...

An announcement with a proper release date?! No kickstarter, no greenlight, no early access, and not even the ever popular "When it's done."?! Not to mention said release date is relatively soon and not in two years plus delays?!
IMHO they deserve a pat on the back just for that.

Wait... Ipad?
...
...
This is going to be some kind of free-to-play mobile shenanigans isn't it? Please no...

 

[Lightspeaker]

I want to be excited but on Ipad coupled with the almost universal "meh" that Beyond Earth got sort of turns me off.

Plus as JarinArenos says above...was hoping for "Sid Meier's Pirates in Space" rather than a TBS. Not that I don't love TBS but still. :-\

Very much withholding both judgement and excitement.

 

[jabrwock]

I want to be excited but on Ipad coupled with the almost universal "meh" that Beyond Earth got sort of turns me off.

If it's a TBS, then it could work on iPad. It's not like you need complicated inputs for a TBS, and the iPad3 has decent graphics that could handle something like that (it would nuke your battery though).

I too would prefer "Pirates! in space". I've heard "SPAZ" (Space Pirates and Zombies) is pretty much that.

 

[webkilla]

The few screenshots given do not really tell me much

But I will look forward to seeing TB do a WTF is on it

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I'm always up for games like these, but not if they're simple reskins of other, more complete products.

So lets hope that's not the case this time.

Also, lets hope he didn't sell his soul to the mobile game microtransaction bullshit trend.

 

[8BitArchitect]

Looking at that last screenshot, this looks a bit like Final Frontier, just a full paid game.

If that's the case, this better cost $10. Final Fontier was a bit lacking in content, as is Beyond Earth.

 

[BoogieManFL]

They sure are getting their money's worth out of the Civ V engine...

But seeing as how I feel a bit ripped off by Beyond Earth, I won't be paying for this one until it's cheap.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I can't say much on the matter other than that I can already sense Civ:BE owners fuming either due to them working on this instead of improving BE (despite the small team), or because this is a standalone game and not an expansion to BE given it uses the same resources and ideologies.

Both of these. I guess I can't complain too much since Beyond Earth was gifted to me, but still... There's no reason to play it over Civ 5. It's a worse game in almost every way. Still, after some good expansions, it might surpass Civ 5, but now, it seems like the game was just a quick cash in to fund this new game.

 

[visiblenoise]

I can't say much on the matter other than that I can already sense Civ:BE owners fuming either due to them working on this instead of improving BE (despite the small team), or because this is a standalone game and not an expansion to BE given it uses the same resources and ideologies.

I don't even own BE and I'm disappointed. My one niggle about Civ 5 is that historical themes don't do much for me, and I really wanted BE to be good.

 

[mruuh]

Despite all the lukewarm expectations in this thread (and elsewhere, when talking about Civ:BE), I got a gamer-boner from this trailer. Let's face it, with Meier and Firaxis, the resulting game will at worst be average, which is miles ahead of 90% of the trash that gets released these days.

FWIW, I got a somewhat Homeworld-y vibe from the trailer. Turn-based Homeworld or Civ5-like combat system in 3D? Color me interested.

 

[Recusant]

I've read that Mister Meier himself is rarely directly involved much in individual games these days. I hope this case is different, but after Beyond Earth, I'm reluctant to trust Firaxis. And frankly, after Civ 5, I'm reluctant to trust Sid.

 

[Zontar]

Personally I liked Beyond Earth, felt like a large improvement over the Civ-in-name-only that was 5. I'll keep an eye out for this one, though as always holding judgment until release.

 

[mruuh]

Personally I liked Beyond Earth, felt like a large improvement over the Civ-in-name-only that was 5. I'll keep an eye out for this one, though as always holding judgment until release.

I am on the fence regarding BE vs. Civ5. I liked the affinity system in BE much more than virtues in Civ5, but on the other hand, I missed religion and culture from Civ5. Diplomacy is equally bland in both, so that's a tie. All of the endings/victories in BE are sort-of phoned in, and do not feel impactful at all - it's mostly just "build this, then build that, and now you're done, here's a little text box with two sentences about how you won". I could go on, but basically, each game has some aspects better, some worse than the other.

Both games are basically good, all the pieces are there, but it feels like they ran out of ideas/money/enthusiasm halfway through and did not do anything memorable with those pieces.

 

[Gennadios]

I'm kind of surprised at the amount of "meh" in this forum. I wasn't really impressed by BE and don't think that Firaxis should be working on another game until BE is worth playing, but I'm surprised that I'm not the only one that felt it.

Either way, the first outing of Civ in space I just didn't care for at all. After about a week of figuring out what the various types of madeupresourcium do I kind of realized that there was no effort put into speculative scifi past the broad synopsis and went back to Alpha Centauri.

It would probably take good reviews and a sale for a purchase.