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[Descan]

The only way to make the one-unit-per-tile acceptable is to increase the... resolution? I guess? The number of hexes.

One way I just thought of would be to increase the number of hexes per-hex. Split a hex into constituent hexes, so a city takes up one super-hex (that is, a hex as it is now), and so does a resource-tile, while a unit takes up a single sub-hex. So you can have 7 units in the same tile as a city, as here:



Obviously not perfect...

[Aqizzar]

I really want to see more details about the new faction designer.  At first I thought "three ultimate goals" was a little limiting, but SMAC has basically the same thing.  Then again, I thought that was a little limiting too, not to mention you could pick and choose policies from every axis.  The new one better be able to do that, and not go down the road I see in a lot of post-2005-ish games of over-codifying customization options.

Meanwhile, I was playing around with Alien Crossfire's faction designer, and realized I was basically making the Human Hive by a different name.  I'm not sure what that says about me.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

You're an unspoken fan of Legalism so long as you're the one making the laws?

[Shadowlord]

Cities needed to be toned down, they were ridiculous to capture.

You were supposed to use some kind of artillery, not charge them with your troops.

[puke]

You're an unspoken fan of Legalism so long as you're the one making the laws?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is exactly what it says.

I never knew AX came with a faction designer!  I was always pretty happy with the Hive though.  And with Li Si.

[Aqizzar]

You're an unspoken fan of Legalism so long as you're the one making the laws?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is exactly what it says.

Does that make me special or something?  I thought everyone secretly wanted to be an autocrat...

I really love the city names in SMAC.  I wonder how the player-designed factions will mesh with that in CBE.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I think there are still factions despite your ability to customize them, as they once mentioned "Brazillia" in one of the interviews.

[Descan]

Starting nations, it says. And then you choose your load-out, a la starting with a culture boost or a production boost or scientists for a research boost, etc.

I don't think I want to be an autocrat. I WOULD like to be the Emperor of the Gaels circa 800-1000 AD and guide them to greatness, but... No over-riding societal control like the Hive. >_>

[Aqizzar]

No over-riding societal control like the Hive. >_>

Clearly you're just not using your imagination enough.

Today's Dictate from Emperor Aqizzar: Change places!

[Chaoswizkid]

I actually really loved stacking in Civ4. Of course, I only ever really played much with the Total Realism mod, which did really neat stuff with stacking.
Like, multiple units of the same type gave increasing bonuses to the whole stack, to a limit of 3rd level bonuses. If you wanted a unit of a type to get 3rd level bonuses that it's unit type grants, you'd need 4 though, because it doesn't get 1st level bonuses from itself.

So if you had something like
4 Infantry
3 Armored
2 Artillery

Your Infantry would have lvl 3 Infantry bonuses, Lvl 3 Armored bonuses and Lvl 2 Artillery bonuses, while your Armored would have lvl 3 Infantry bonuses, lvl 2 Armored bonuses and Lvl 2 Artillery bonuses, etc.

This also worked out well because you could only really play Total Realism on a custom giant Earth map, so lots of units made sense, but making a single gigantic doomstack was inefficient, so you and everyone else would have smaller groups of doomstacks. It felt like moving around actual armies with diverse force compositions at every single era.

As opposed to the "In this real-world model of a 10 mile by 10 mile square, there are only helicopters", which is one of the reasons I wasn't as fond of Civ V as I was IV.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

I've always been a bit depressed that Civ V is the new standard of TBS. I think the game simplified areas that didn't need to be simplified and instead of bringing around simple tweaks to existing mechanics they decided to completely scrap them.

The one-unit-per-hex (yes we're still talking about this) is a perfect example. A better system would be just adding an attrition system for units in stacks, where units take substantial damage if over their supply limit. Countries could favour quantity by focusing on ideas/techs that lower attrition or they could elect to go for stronger more elite units in smaller numbers.

The biggest gripe I have with the old TBS like Civ 2/Alpha Centauri is the supply system. I hate how units had a "home town" and if they venture too far away they would start doing all kinds of damage. It also added annoying micro management where if you have a production base pumping out units you had to manually set their home cities to other cities so they wouldn't kill themselves.
There should simply be a supply limit based off the distance from the nearest friendly base and terrain. Players should be more invested on building supply trains (via roads and other improvements) and not march through arctic desert.

All that said and done I can't really find myself getting invested in the title. The more I hear about it the more it sounds like a reskin of Civ V. While Alpha Centauri did have good gameplay I think it's mostly the stories, personality and ideas that it portrayed that made it great. Alpha Centauri had a deep engrossing heavy sci-fi world but I just can't see Beyond Earth having anywhere near the same "soul".
It could also just be that I'm grouchy at new TBS for not being exactly what I wanted and that I now declare Grand Strategies the zenith of strategy gaming.

[Chaoswizkid]

It could also just be that I'm grouchy at new TBS for not being exactly what I wanted and that I now declare Grand Strategies the zenith of strategy gaming.

I still envision a day when the modders of old will rise up from the anonymous depths and begin anew their work of making a Massively Multiplayer version of a Close Combat game. Paradox, Cornered Rat and Reto will all quake in fear in the face of almost-innumerable, scaled maps of the world being stomped underfoot by so many different, distinct battlegroups as generals jockey them about the place while the battles themselves take place in quite possibly the best Real Time Tactical war simulator engines ever developed...

/manly tears

[Sinistar]

Meanwhile, I was playing around with Alien Crossfire's faction designer, and realized I was basically making the Human Hive by a different name.  I'm not sure what that says about me.

There's a bit of Yang in everyone.

Dammit, this thread is making me want to play SMAC again.

Oh and yeah, spiritual SMAC successor is fine and all that, looking forward to it.

[Guardian G.I.]

Posting to watch.
Alpha Centauri was a very good game, let's see if Beyond Earth turns out to be as good as SMAC.

[Culise]

Meanwhile, I was playing around with Alien Crossfire's faction designer, and realized I was basically making the Human Hive by a different name.  I'm not sure what that says about me.

There's a bit of Yang in everyone.

"It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, and become one with all the people."