Civilization: Beyond Earth

By DrunknMunky
in PC Gaming

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Civilization: Beyond Earth announced, ready to colonize this fall

by Alexander Sliwinski on Apr 12th 2014 11:45AM

 

 

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth was just announced at developer Firaxis' panel at PAX East. It's not a sequel to Alpha Centauri (those rights are owned by EA), but 2K Games is finally giving fans the spiritual successor to the sci-fi strategy game they've been constantly nagging Firaxis about for over 10 years.

The elephant in the room has been tackled right up front at the PAX East panel happening right now. Firaxis' Will Miller, who is lead designer on the Beyond Earth project, said, "The heart and soul [of Alpha Centauri] lives at Firaxis. For all the fans of Alpha Centauri, this is the game we've made for you."

 

Civ_BE_box-art.jpg

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/04/12/civilization-beyond-earth-announced-ready-to-colonize-this-fal/

 

-----

 

Sid Meier?s Civilization: Beyond Earth announced as spiritual successor to Alpha Centuari

 

Saturday, 12th April 2014 16:46 GMT By Stephany Nunneley

 

Sid Meier?s Civilization: Beyond Earth was announced as the latest triple-A title from Firaxis Games today during a PAX East 2014 panel.

 

The game is said to be the spiritual successor to 1999?s Alpha Centuari, which should make fans of the lauded sci-fi turn-based strategy game extremely happy.

Details on the game slipped out ahead of time, due to an early button push by French site JeuxVideoPC, and NeoGAF was able grab the meaty bits from it before the article was pulled.

Here?s a list of featured mentioned in the article:

  • Players will go beyond earth as with Alpha Centauri.
  • The game starts on an alien world.
  • Lush, Airy and Fungal are the three world types.
  • Cities built can be expanded to other planets which will include outposts.
  • The player can be the first human to explore a new planet and they may encounter neutral creatures and races.
  • Relics are in the game.
  • Diplomacy can be used with other players from the beginning of the game.
  • Fog of War is still present.
  • Orbital units can be commanded like satellites.
The game is slated for release in the fall on PC and we?ll update this post as more information becomes available.

Civilization-Beyond-Earth-2-156x91.jpgCivilization-Beyond-Earth-4-156x91.jpgCivilization-Beyond-Earth-3-156x91.jpg

 

http://www.vg247.com/2014/04/12/sid-meiers-civilization-beyond-earth-announced-as-spiritual-successor-to-alpha-centuari/

 

 

:woot:

  • yowanvista and neoadorable
  • Like 2
Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1209163-civilization-beyond-earth/
Share on other sites
Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

Posted
  • Author
  • Veteran
Posted

Huge posts at GI & PCG with details

 

Civilization: Beyond Earth
Civilization: Beyond Earth Announced - Here's Everything You Want To Know
 
by Mike Futter on April 12, 2014 at 11:00 AM

CivBE03-610.jpg

 

My first reaction when I heard that the next Civilization game takes players to an alien world is probably not so different than other strategy fans. "Why not just call it Alpha Centauri?" I muttered to myself. It was also the first question I asked co-lead designer Dave McDonough (who is teamed up with Will Miller) and lead producer Lena Brenk.

"There is a lot of inspiration from Alpha Centauri in this game," McDonough says. "We even have a couple of people who worked on that game still on the team and helping us make the game. It's not Alpha Centauri 2. It's not a sequel. It's a whole new imagining of what civilization in the future, civilization in space could be. There are many homages and nods and winks to Alpha Centauri. And there's a huge creative and spiritual debt we owe to the groundwork that game laid, but this is a whole new idea." It also helps to now that the Alpha Centauri property is still owned by EA. "The heart of Alpha Centauri lives at Firaxis, though," Miller says.

Beyond Earth presents an opportunity for Firaxis to throw off the shackles of human history and give players the chance to sculpt their own destinies. Civilization games typically have a set endpoint at humanities modern age, but Beyond Earth has given Firaxis the opportunity and the challenge of creating a greater sense of freedom.

"There's no modern age arrival point at which time you can crown a winner, so we could decide what it means to win," McDonough says. "We decided to make it the next great leap, the next great turning point in the story of the human race. You get to decide what that is."

The five different victory conditions that represent that next major event in human history are tied to the new technology web. At the start of the game, players will choose leaders and factions (no longer bundled with one another) and choose colonists and equipment to settle the land. Once descending from orbit, the technology web allows players to move in a number of directions.

 

Continues...

 

-----

 

Civilization: Beyond Earth interview - everything you need to know about the new factions, aliens, technology and more

 

Tom Senior at

17:01 on 12 April 2014

Civilization: Beyond Earth interview - everything you need to know about the new factions, aliens, technology and more

 

Civilization-Beyond-Earth-610x346.jpg

 

Civilization: Beyond Earth has been announced. We're the first in the world outside of Firaxis to play it, and you'll be able to read my hands-on impressions in the next issue of PC Gamer UK. While I was at Firaxis, I had the chance to sit down with the two lead designers, Will Miller and David McDonough for a comprehensive hour-long chat about every aspect of Beyond Earth. Read on for details on Beyond Earth's affinities, its dramatic sci-fi tech research web, orbital gun platforms, alien Siege Worms, new high-concept win conditions and loads, loads more.

 

It's a great big interview, so we've split it into chunks. Here's what you'll find on each page, if you want to skip straight to a bit that interestes you.

 

Page 2: On building your own faction, merging narrative with game systems, and the three affinities that your civ can pursue.

Page 3: On the planet itself, what the different biomes will be like, alien life, the extreme technologies you can research on the new tech web and the new victory conditions.

Page 4: On AI, diplomacy, extreme espionage, the best units you can research and launching satellites that can shoot lasers.

Page 5: On Beyond Earth's science fiction influences, the design process and the legacy of Civilization.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/04/12/civilization-beyond-earth-interview-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-factions-aliens-technology-and-more/

Grand Master

PGHammer

Posted
Posted

As well it SHOULD be the "spiritual successor" to Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire - while EA got those rights by acquiring the publisher (at that time, franchise rights typically belonged to the publisher), Firaxis was the developer of record, and none of the AC/ACX development team went anywhere.

 

What I like so far are some features that were NOT present in AC/ACX - which was limited to a single non-Earth planet by design - multiple planets FTW.  Diplomacy could be used in AC/ACX from the beginning as well - in fact, you could win a Diplomacy victory.  If anything, this can be seen as somewhat a "prequel" or "reboot" of AC/ACX - mainly because of things that can be done that couldn't be when AC/ACX originally launched.

 

I'll be watching with bated breath.

Grand Master

neoadorable

Posted
Posted

WOW WOW, why is this not available NOW? Looks amazing, spectacular and touching trailer. So true. Maybe this will help a little to make people realize we need to put more effort into off world exploration and settlement. As Carl said, the eventual choice of every civilization is spaceflight or extinction.

 

Aside from the rather unlikley eventuality of launching large payloads from right next to big cities the trailer was breathtaking - loved the combination of advancement/optimism and urgency/pessimism, loved the pyramids surrounded by water, loved Fifth Avenue overcrowded with Blade Runner-esque immigrants...didn't love the use of "mankind", should be humanity :rolleyes:

 

But yeah, if i'm still alive then day one purchase, too bad it's not out right now heh heh

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • GitHub removes manual model selection from Copilot free and student plans

      By Karthik Mudaliar · Posted

      GitHub removes manual model selection from Copilot free and student plans by Karthik Mudaliar GitHub is removing the ability to manually select an AI model from its Copilot Free and Student plans, making its automatic routing system the default and only way to choose a model. This means users on these tiers will no longer be able to deliberately select a particular OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or Microsoft model for a task. In its announcement, GitHub said Copilot Auto will dynamically choose what it considers the best model for each request. Free and Student accounts will retain access to models from multiple families, although the available selection will continue to depend on the restrictions attached to each plan. GitHub did not identify a fixed pool of models that Auto will always use, and its documentation warns that model availability can change over time. GitHub describes Auto as more than a random fallback system. On supported surfaces, its task-optimization technology evaluates the complexity of a request alongside real-time information about model health and availability. Straightforward prompts can be routed to faster and less expensive models, while more demanding coding tasks may be sent to higher-cost reasoning models. The company says this approach should reduce rate limiting, latency, and failed requests. Auto generally selects one model along natural prompt-caching boundaries rather than repeatedly switching models during a session, as GitHub found that mid-session changes increased costs without producing sufficient improvements in output quality. Users can still check which model generated a response. In Copilot Chat, the information appears when hovering over an answer, while Copilot CLI and the Copilot cloud agent display the selected model alongside their output. Auto is available in Copilot Chat, Copilot CLI, and the cloud agent, with the exact implementation and release status varying between supported development environments. The latest restriction follows several months of adjustments to Copilot’s individual plans. GitHub temporarily halted new Pro, Pro+, and Student subscriptions in April as it sought to manage demand and service reliability. It later introduced token-based billing and began gradually reopening individual-plan registrations on June 17. Alongside the picker change, GitHub is retiring the “Preview” label from Microsoft-developed models. It argues that the label is no longer necessary because Auto handles model routing and models are continuously updated behind the scenes.
    • Grand Theft Auto VI pricing revealed alongside Ultimate Edition and pre-loading details

      By thartist · Posted

      Look up 'inflation' kid. Ask an AI for the numbers between both games.
    • Google reportedly set to lose two key Gemini and DeepMind researchers to Anthropic

      By Karthik Mudaliar · Posted

      Google reportedly set to lose two key Gemini and DeepMind researchers to Anthropic by Karthik Mudaliar Google is reportedly preparing to lose two more prominent artificial intelligence researchers, with Gemini contributors Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel planning to join rival AI developer Anthropic. According to a report from Bloomberg, both researchers are viewed internally as important contributors to Google’s flagship Gemini model family. Adler worked on Google’s AI coding efforts, while Pritzel was involved in the process used to train AI systems. Neither company has publicly confirmed the moves. The report also does not say when the researchers will formally leave Google or what positions they will hold at Anthropic. Training a large AI model requires decisions covering its architecture, data preparation, distributed computing infrastructure, and post-training methods that shape how the finished system behaves. Researchers with experience operating at the scale of Gemini are consequently difficult to replace quickly. Both Adler and Pritzel have previously contributed to Google DeepMind’s scientific research as well. They are listed among the authors of the company’s work on expanding AlphaFold protein-structure predictions across entire proteomes, alongside AlphaFold researchers including John Jumper. The reported departures arrive shortly after another important change within Google’s Gemini organization. Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer is leaving Google for OpenAI, after returning to the search company in 2024 through its deal with Character.AI. Shazeer is particularly well known as one of the authors of the Transformer paper, whose architecture became the foundation for most modern large language models. Anthropic, meanwhile, has been recruiting recognizable figures from other leading laboratories. OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla AI director Andrej Karpathy joined Anthropic’s pre-training team in May. His move, followed by the reported recruitment of several Google researchers, suggests Anthropic is strengthening the research teams responsible for the core capabilities of future Claude models rather than concentrating solely on product and enterprise sales. The competition is complicated by the companies’ extensive commercial relationships. Anthropic competes directly with Google’s Gemini models, but it also relies on Google as an infrastructure partner. In April, Anthropic announced an expanded agreement with Google and Broadcom covering multiple gigawatts of next-generation Tensor Processing Unit capacity. TPUs are Google-designed accelerators used to train and run large AI models. via Bloomberg
    • Researchers claim Microsoft's quantum breakthrough is flawed by basic Python errors

      By Primey_ · Posted

      This article makes my head hurt. Lots of confusing words
    • Google adds built-in computer control to Gemini 3.5 flash

      By Karthik Mudaliar · Posted

      Google adds built-in computer control to Gemini 3.5 flash by Karthik Mudaliar Google has added Computer Use as a built-in tool in Gemini 3.5 Flash, giving developers a single model that can reason about a task and operate graphical interfaces across browsers, mobile devices, and desktop environments. The feature is available through the Gemini API and Google’s Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, although it remains a preview feature for now. Computer Use enables an AI agent to examine screenshots and return actions such as mouse clicks, scrolling, and keyboard input. A developer’s application must execute those actions, capture the resulting screen, and send it back to Gemini, creating a continuous loop until the task is completed. Google says the integration can be used for activities including repetitive form filling, application testing, research across multiple websites, and longer enterprise workflows. Gemini 3.5 Flash can work with browser, mobile, and desktop environments, whereas Google’s earlier standalone Computer Use model was primarily positioned around browser interaction. The main change is consolidation. Computer control was previously offered through the separate Gemini 2.5 Computer Use preview model. As Neowin reported when that model was introduced, it was designed to interpret a visual interface and generate actions without requiring a website-specific API. Google later brought Computer Use to preview versions of Gemini 3 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash in January 2026. The latest release now incorporates the tool into the stable Gemini 3.5 Flash model rather than requiring developers to select a specialized model solely for interface automation. Gemini 3.5 Flash itself was announced in May as Google’s latest fast model for coding and multi-step agent workflows. It supports a one-million-token input context window and up to 65,000 output tokens, along with adjustable thinking levels that let developers trade additional reasoning for lower latency and cost. Google also added that Gemini 3.5 Flash received targeted adversarial training for computer-use scenarios. The company is also offering safeguards that can require user confirmation before sensitive or irreversible actions and automatically stop a workflow when suspected prompt injection is detected. Its developer documentation describes configurable protections for areas such as financial transactions and changes to sensitive records. Google isn't the first to bring Computer Use to its platform. Anthropic has made computer control available through Claude, while OpenAI has continued improving computer-use performance in its recent models. Microsoft has also applied the concept to business workflows, including a Computer Use capability for the Researcher agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Dedicated
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • First Post
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      D0nn13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Rookie
      +ChiefOfNeo went up a rank
      Rookie
    • One Year In
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      One Year In

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      463
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      177
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      124
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      79
    5. 5
      Xenon
      76
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!