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[10ebbor10]

Truly, what is purity but an older chain. Rather than being chained by nature, you're are chained by the past, by the societies of old now long destroyed. The drive to conserve the past, and that which is truly human, will once more lead to the same faults, the same flaws, and the same end.

In order to truly advance, in order to adapt, we need to move past our basest desires, transcends ourselves and improve ourselves.

[Dansmithers]

Truly, what is purity but an older chain. Rather than being chained by nature, you're are chained by the past, by the societies of old now long destroyed. The drive to conserve the past, and that which is truly human, will once more lead to the same faults, the same flaws, and the same end.

In order to truly advance, in order to adapt, we need to move past our basest desires, transcends ourselves and improve ourselves.

BEEP BOOP SON... BEEP BOOP

[Puzzlemaker]

Yeah, Supremacy is probably closest to my personal beliefs, with harmony being in second.

[umiman]

I like Purity's ideology but I like Supremacy's design more. Also purity units are so freaking strong.

The game really, really needs superweapons though. Not those lame-ass espionage ones that are almost impossible to get but buildable ones.

Like Purity should get nukes. Alien-lovers should eat a dick. And Supremacy should get the planet buster or a super planetwide laser cannon.

[Niveras]

Supremacy = orbital cannon. Looks cool but functionally just damage.
Purity = planetbusting nuke (too bad elevation doesn't exist). Scorched earth policy, no one has a use for the area anymore.
Harmony = bio-terrorism: different kind of miasma that reduces tile yields, creates aliens, causes nearby aliens to prefer the miasma, gives aliens a high combat bonus (like, 300% maybe). Basically hands-off damage without necessarily risking the area itself - but could still risk the city if the aliens could (chortle) capture it. (I say chortle because the aliens are so, so not a threat right now, in any sense of the word. Siege worms won't even attack a freshly popped outpost. Very rarely I lose a worker to a siege worm but that is all. I'm sure it's an AI issue and not just related to their non-scaling unit strength.)

GDI/NOD, obviously.

[Ultimuh]

Something occurred to me.. The Supremacy affinity does seem like the start of a Borg-ish commune.
Thus making the emancipation victory an assimilation process.

Speaking of which..

The harmony what?!
Yeah go ahead you tree hugger.

Purity all the way!
 

Irrelevant. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

[Puzzlemaker]

Yep, there is even a "hive mind" supremacy tech.  So assimilation would be a pretty good word for it.

[Retropunch]

So I've put a good 8-10 hours into it so far (Gemini/veteran difficulty, epic, massive map - 4 or 6 players) and I have to say I quite like it. It's my favorite Civ game since Alpha Centauri and seems to have a lot of potential for expansions - I'm not a huge normal Civ fan though, I must say.
It IS bland though - the different races are so incredibly bland (minor differences and just borderline racist) as well as technology that mostly just seems to be minor improvements ('wonders' are especially bland). I did expect a lot more story/atmosphere - they seem to have really not tried to create one, and the mini-quests are so minor (+1 here or +1 there) that it just feels a bit half done in some ways.

The Harmony/Purity/Supremacy thing is fun though, as is balancing culture upgrades/health/energy. There's definitely replay-ability, and the planets seem different enough to do some interesting enough challenge games.

Final verdict: If you're craving a 4x (as I have been) it's pretty good, otherwise it's definitely worth a buy once they release a couple of expansions (and do a deal on a combo pack) or if some good mods come out soon. I imagine it would be well balanced for a multiplayer game, although power does feel a bit 'behind the scenes/stat based' somehow.

[LordBaal]

I imagine it would be well balanced for a multiplayer game, although power does feel a bit 'behind the scenes/stat based' somehow.

I wonder the same about the score. Maybe is just bad AI or I'm doing something wrong, but I'm ranking last almost 200 points behind everyone (all the other factions without exceptions are around 550~590) and yet no single one can stop me at conquering their lands. I'm currently besieging a capital and my military units are all around the most advanced ones. I think is because each one of them made at least one wonder while I didn't. No matter I'm just about to capture two wonders in the capital of a Pan Asian whatever.

It's weird, they all seem to bully me based on my lower score, yet the ones that dared to cross swords with me only managed to mount puny expeditions with basic troops that I swatted like flies, only to have their lands conquered with relatively very ease.

[Jelle]

Can I probe you guys for some more opinions? I've been taking a good look at the tech web and (beyond once more seeing the beauty in the tech web vs tree) have been changing some things up. Bunch of things and not quite finished yet, just posting an image of the overview to see what you guys think of the layout.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also has anyone completed the signal victory yet? I've no idea how much time it takes compared to the three affinity victories so I'm not sure how the balance is there.

[LordBaal]

Can I probe you guys for some more opinions? I've been taking a good look at the tech web and (beyond once more seeing the beauty in the tech web vs tree) have been changing some things up. Bunch of things and not quite finished yet, just posting an image of the overview to see what you guys think of the layout.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also has anyone completed the signal victory yet? I've no idea how much time it takes compared to the three affinity victories so I'm not sure how the balance is there.

I'm not but in my current game I'm sure the a computer player will reach it soon. There has been some rather cryptic messages about it but I'm unsure if they are actually building something or it was a unrelated wonder or what.

[Retropunch]

I imagine it would be well balanced for a multiplayer game, although power does feel a bit 'behind the scenes/stat based' somehow.

I wonder the same about the score. Maybe is just bad AI or I'm doing something wrong, but I'm ranking last almost 200 points behind everyone (all the other factions without exceptions are around 550~590) and yet no single one can stop me at conquering their lands. I'm currently besieging a capital and my military units are all around the most advanced ones. I think is because each one of them made at least one wonder while I didn't. No matter I'm just about to capture two wonders in the capital of a Pan Asian whatever.

It's weird, they all seem to bully me based on my lower score, yet the ones that dared to cross swords with me only managed to mount puny expeditions with basic troops that I swatted like flies, only to have their lands conquered with relatively very ease.

Yeah I feel that the scores are generally just messed up. It seems a very weird thing of measuring things in a game this complex, and it seems very off. I'm absolutely destroying them on my current game and still am placed far below the AIs in terms of points.

[Niveras]

Also has anyone completed the signal victory yet? I've no idea how much time it takes compared to the three affinity victories so I'm not sure how the balance is there.

I did it once, but I honestly don't remember much about it. It is functionally almost identical to the transcendence victory: you build the beacon (mind flower), turn it on, wait/defend for some turns. When I built the mind flower it only took 10 turns (but there are other buildings, like the mind stem, which somehow accelerate that wait). I think the beacon took 30 turns but your net energy income is completely zeroed out for those turns so unless you have a high stockpile, you won't necessarily be able to buy units to defend it if things go sour (though with the AI as it is, I don't see that happening unless you're really unprepared). I think it also costs some energy to turn it on?

I was kind of disappointed with this ending, even moreso than the others. In the others, you're clearly victorious: either you're evolved god-beings, you smashed all other leaders, you returned to earth as liberators, or you've settled the last remnants of humanity on the new planet. Under the signal victory:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

you finally piece together the signal and shoot it off into space and then... nothing. You don't get an answer back. There's no alien secret technology. No super fleet appears to glass your enemies and elevate you. I guess all the other leaders just look at this huge beam heading out into the universe and go "whelp, gosh golly, they sure got the better of me, guess I shouldn't stomp their face anymore."

I guess it's pretty much equivalent to the spaceship victory of previous civs: you send the ship out but don't necessarily get any response back from it. But there, you're sending yourselves. Everyone else might be left on the planet to die, but your faction will be the only one to survive (well, maybe) in the stars. There's nothing about the Beacon that will keep your faction alive one turn later when 5 other factions smash your remaining city.

But I'm just quibbling...

[Neonivek]

Well the Space Victory usually has three connotations
1) You got to space you are clearly the greatest civilization who ever lived (A lot of the endings of Civ is "Yeah you might have lost... but you will forever be known as the best")
2) You are completely elevated above the competition. While they control the earth, you shall control the stars
3) Alpha Centauri...

[LordBaal]

In Civ II I once bested a civ that already launched their space ship. Mine had better engines but crappy everything else, if I recall correctly only had about 18.something % of success rate, it beat the other ship and I won the game. In your face sucker!

But I get the point. Yeah, I sent a ship loaded with a lot of people on a one way trip that lasted years and if they ever come back at all it would take them decades, if not centuries.

How that's supposed to help me today? It wont. How it will help me to stop those tanks and planes from bombarding me? It wont.

It's a stupid victory condition by itself. Now, it should give you a lot of points (enough to win easily) but not be a victory condition by itself. Granted, the game has it as an alternative in order to have this "Science Victory" and as a lead towards SMAC, but still feels pretty idiotic. Like Niveras say, will all the other countries on Earth say "Oh boy, his space ship reached some distant ball of dirt before ours, which will never affect us not only on our lifetime, but for many generations and possibly never again. We better depose all weapons and submit to his will"