This week's Firaxis livestream demo of Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth was hosted by Civ veteran MadDjinn, who gave fans some strategy tips they'll be able to use in the game once it drops next month.
Beyond Earth Will Be Playable At Firaxicon Tomorrow
The demo started with some gameplay as the game's Slavic Federation faction. MadDjinn went into how to best utilize one of this faction's bonuses, a free technology earned after the player's first satellite launch. Many early players used that free tech to get a technology called Genetic Mapping for its food-boosting Wonder and early points in the Purity affinity.
MadDjinn, however, suggested a gambit where the player chains two free techs – one from the satellite launch and one from an early Wonder – to claim two techs in the final ring of the Tech Web, which allows players to claim a lot of early Purity points and unlocks the Aegis, a very powerful military unit, relatively early in the game. He also recommends a certain tech for Purity players called Servomachinery, which gives Purity players powerful units that don't need Floatstone, the resource that most other Purity units require. The ability to mine Floatstone is on the opposite side of the Tech Web from most other Purity technology, so it can be a struggle to move toward this technology while moving toward other Purity tech.
What We Know About Wonders In Beyond Earth
MadDjinn's gambit actually demonstrates the new possibilities the Tech Web allows, where techs that usually would only come into play in the late-game can be accessed early on by crafty players. MadDjinn also took this opportunity to demonstrate how late-game techs can make farm improvements super-powered. In the beginning of the game, farms produce – predictably enough – food for your civ. With a couple of late-game techs, though, farms can start to produce extra energy, production and science.
The demo then went over into a mid-game save with the Polystralia faction. In this save, MadDjinn demonstrated the trade mechanics of Beyond Earth, including a new nerf for Polystralia's ability. Instead of letting every city construct additional trade routes, only Polystralia's capital is granted extra trade routes. Trade routes can provide powerful bonuses in Beyond Earth, though they can also provide little to no bonus. It all depends on which two cities are looking to trade.
Viewers also saw that civs can now trade science per turn in the game's diplomacy screen, though the AI highly values science and is reluctant to trade it for cheap.
The video goes on to take a look at saves from several other civs, and MadDjinn really demonstrates a lot of strategic tricks that can be used to get ahead in a game of Beyond Earth. It's an impressive display, and his scheming even inspires the Firaxis developer to look into changing the balance of different game mechanics once or twice. If you want to see the whole video, you can check out Firaxis' Twitch channel or just find the video below.
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth will launch for PCs on October 24.
