The first big patch for Civilization: Beyond Earth rolled out to PCs this week, and much of it focused on balance in the game. One of the game's mechanics that was hit the hardest was the Health system, and one "before and after" picture shows just how much has changed.
Civilization: Beyond Earth Review – A Safe Twist On A Classic Series
Health in Beyond Earth was supposed to be a less punishing version of Civ V's Happiness, but players quickly found that the system was perhaps too forgiving. Players would regularly win games while having comically low Health scores because the benefits of not wasting time on the system outweighed the moderate penalties for having low Health. Because of this, the recent Beyond Earth patch set out to give Health more teeth as a mechanic, and it looks like it was successful.
After the patch went out, one Reddit user put together a picture (which you can find below) that shows the effects of low and high Health on a civ both before and after the balance patch. Before the patch, it's easy to see that having abysmal Health would set the player back only a little, halving the player's city growth and docking him 10 percent in production, science and culture. After the patch, however, a player with very low health will suffer halved culture, science and production, and city growth will stop entirely.
Check Out Our Full Guide Of Beyond Earth Tips And Tricks
The new patch also increases Health's benefits for players who choose to invest in it. Previously, players with high Health scores would enjoy 10 percent boosts to production, science and culture, but now those maximum bonuses have been doubled. In the new version of Beyond Earth, Health can be a powerful ally as well as a harsh enemy.
The patch also gives players incentives to fight for every single Health point, as the bonuses and penalties gradually rise and fall (to certain maximum and minimum values) with each Health point gained or lost.
Civilization: Beyond Earth is now available for PC and Mac. A Linux version is set to release by the end of the year.
