The next game from the mind of veteran Civilization designer Sid Meier has been revealed. 2K and Firaxis Games have announced Sid Meier's Starships, an interstellar strategy game.
Scheduled to arrive in early 2015, the turn-based game is coming to PC, Mac, and iPad. Pricing was not announced, nor were any details about a possible Android version.
In the game, you'll control a fleet of starships as you journey through the galaxy to complete missions, protect planets and their inhabitants, and build a planetary federation.
As you trek through the stars, you'll be challenged to expand your federation's influence and reach. You'll also amass futuristic technology and take part in turn-based combat using a deep roster of customizable ships, some of which you can see in the image gallery above.
2K adds that the missions you'll take on have their own unique maps, featuring "dynamically generated tactical combat" that should boost the game's replayability.
"When designing Starships, I was intrigued by the idea of exploring the next chapter in the story of Civilization: Beyond Earth," Meier said. "What happens after we colonize our new home and eventually build starships to take to the stars? What has become of our long-lost brothers and sisters from the planet Earth?"
"My goal was to create an experience that focuses on starship design and combat within a universe filled with interstellar adventure, diplomacy, and exploration."
2K also teases that Beyond Earth and Starships will feature cross-connectivity for people who own both games. The developer isn't talking specifics, but says that this integration will "enhance and expand upon both game experiences."
Starships was developed by Meier and a small team at Firaxis.
The trailer looks pretty bad with only some barely animated sprites moving around
Gives me the feeling this will be some browser game indeed, like konkol said
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Caaam aaan Sid... Mobile... Just give me a space version of Pirates! already... yes he can even keep space wenches in there so I can play like a Kirk!
A space version of Pirates! would be nothing less than orgasmic.
Lots of resources there. Perhaps one of them is "currency"? Still, we'll see when it comes out or at least gets closer to launch so we can see more gameplay.
So will this be another full priced Civ 5 mod like Beyond Earth ?
edit: well quite some stuff was written about Beyon Earth too and it turned out nothing but overhyped shite
Per aspera ad astra
Last edited by RainyDay on Mon, 19th Jan 2015 17:28; edited 1 time in total
Caaam aaan Sid... Mobile... Just give me a space version of Pirates! already... yes he can even keep space wenches in there so I can play like a Kirk!
A space version of Pirates! would be nothing less than orgasmic.
...
Lots of resources there. Perhaps one of them is "currency"? Still, we'll see when it comes out or at least gets closer to launch so we can see more gameplay.
This + combat ala Sid Meier's Ace Patrol !
Now this game got all my attention
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Back in the day I used to be all excited whenever I read about a new Sid game, now..I'm on the fence, I don't know what to think anymore.
The evil word mobile (=unwanted simplifications) easily destroys most of the hype for me as well, but if it's something decently crafted and close to a Pirates on space, then I can be happy again (sort of). *keeping the skeptical shield on, though*
well this one is done directly by Sid and his small team (I guess similarly to Ace Patrol). Hopefully with mobile they just mean PC first and tablet compatibility second like they ported Xcom(as they mentioned only iPad) and not mobiles or mobile business practices ;-/ I guess we will see more soonish when they unveil more info
In this case, you control a single fleet made up of many spacecraft, and maneuver that fleet about the galaxy, performing missions, spreading influence, and customizing ships for maximum battle effectiveness.
"When I did Pirates and Civilization and Railroads, we spent a year on a game," says Meier, "and two-thirds of that time was actively designing the game. Changing it, playing it every day. These days, we might spend two or three years on a game, but there's only the same amount of actual game design time. So what I wanted to get back to was a method of making games that really focused on game design, that allowed us to spend most of our time designing and maybe a little less of our time on all the other stuff needed to make games."
What Meier and Firaxis are making brims with potential. I can see elements of XCOM in it, for instance, mostly within the turn-based space battles that play such a central role. You move units into position and then attack opposing units or use special abilities to gain the advantage, and there's even a sort-of cover system in which asteroids function as natural barriers by interfering with your line of sight. And while those units may be spaceships rather than human soldiers, you still establish a relationship with your vessels by choosing which type to purchase, and how to customize them as you earn currency over time.
Says Meier, "We want people to get invested in these individual ships so that you recognize them from one encounter to the next. 'This is my battleship, this is my reconnaissance ship, this is my sneaky ship, this is my fast ship.' In XCOM, you get attached to these soldiers as they perform mission after mission. And the idea is kind of similar in Starships. You built these ships, you designed them, you upgraded them, they've been with you through this whole series of missions. You get to know them individually and what their strengths and weaknesses are. That's really the thread that goes through from one mission to the next."
As for any suggestion that Starships is too simple, well, Meier seems unconcerned. "It's a different system from Civ, for example, where you have many different units spread out in different places," he says. "But it kind of lends itself to the story we're trying to create and the situations that this game represents." And it's clear that it's on the battlefield where Starships is in its element. Ships can spawn vulnerable swarms of fighters for harassing the enemy, fire off torpedoes that persist over several turns, and use long- and short-range weaponry to turn enemy craft into space debris. In between battles, you level up your corvettes and battleships, further cementing their role in your ongoing combat strategy. There are multiple victory conditions--you can grow your influence until you gain half of the galaxy's population, or upgrade enough technology to earn a science victory, for instance--but the fun is in the fight.
What it means to engage in that fight has changed during Starships' development. Says Meier, "There's many different ways of approaching space battles. This was actually not our first attempt, but the problem is often losing control over what's happening. There's so much stuff that could be out there--real time, three dimensions--it's very easy to create a confusing situation where the player is essentially behind the curve all the time and tries to figure out what's going on. Since we wanted the focus to be on building and designing starships, and tactical space battle where you use these kind of ships in clever, tactical ways, turn-based made sense for us, giving you that time to think and plan."
And as they always do, sensible ideas require sensible decision-making and plenty of fine-tuning. An example from Meier himself: random maps. "I love maps, I love random maps, he says. "So we had to figure out, 'How do we create random maps in space?' The system that we generated with the asteroid fields and the planets and the jumpgates and things like that, kind of had that mappish feel where it made sense where your ship was. It was important where you positioned your ships, it was important how they worked together. It was bringing these elements together that would make for an interesting tactical battle, and that drove a lot of the decision-making. A lot of the choices we made were based on that feeling of giving the player the sense of control and of having interesting things to think about in the course of the battle."
The heavy reliance on the tactical layer is a very conscious choice. Meier refers to the driving force behind a game as its center of gravity. In Pirates, the strategic story was the center of gravity, while the swordfighting and ship battles functioned as small episodes within that grander narrative. In Starships, on the other hand, the strategy layer is meant to support the tactical battles without getting in the way. Get it right, and the player understands the rules and claim ownership of his or her own strategy. Get it wrong, and the player is overwhelmed with choices that don't seem to relate to each other. "I like the way it turned out," says Meier about the strategy/tactics balance. "It feels good to me."
Of course, Starships doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it's no coincidence that it takes place in space. The game is the next chapter in the Civilization: Beyond Earth universe, and aims to show us the fates of all those other humans that have spread across the Milky Way. Your mission, as whichever pre-ordained commander you choose, is to explore the galaxy, help out civilizations that are in trouble, and build your systems-spanning federation. Meier isn't certain whether Starships might spawn a new franchise of its own. "The question about whether it becomes a brand or a franchise is one that gets answered a little bit down the road," he says, "when we see how people like it." Meier himself is pleased with the results. "The variety of missions is something I'm happy with. Actually having different goals and different play styles being required for different missions was a fun challenge to put in there." As for me, I'm happy Sid Meier is getting a chance to show us his creations more frequently. There's so much more to discover out there--even beyond the final frontier.
In Pirates, the strategic story was the center of gravity, while the swordfighting and ship battles functioned as small episodes within that grander narrative.
So is he saying I played Pirates! wrong all my childhood!? I never cared for any strategic story what so ever. Finding my family was something that happend because the silver fleet was in town and apparently some evil spaniard with info was skulking around.
i remember i was 9 years old when i played it on my amiga 500+, took me a while to fully grasp the game so i initially kept ramming enemy ships only to start the sword fights.
if that was playing it wrong, then i dont wanna be right.
well this one is done directly by Sid and his small team (I guess similarly to Ace Patrol). Hopefully with mobile they just mean PC first and tablet compatibility second like they ported Xcom(as they mentioned only iPad) and not mobiles or mobile business practices ;-/ I guess we will see more soonish when they unveil more info
I'd play that. I really liked Ace Patrol because it kind of reminded me of the old Car Wars / Autoduel days. I think that's why I liked Flotilla a lot.
I'm interested in this, hopefully it will be a more fully fledged title than some mobile port. Personally I'm loving the resurgence of spaceship/space themed games recently. Was a period when there was none and all of a sudden there's loads of them.
looks quite fine from what i saw - much more complex than i hought after reading announcement info - kinda like mix of GalCiv and Last Federation with xcom-like combat
omg stop coughing in the vid.. It looks like a nice little game. but the spaceships themselves look a bit crap. Hope the combat involves elements more complex then what was shown, it was a little too simple for my taste.
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*keeping the skeptical shield on, though*
