14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since I was playing Civilization II, I was one of those players who wanted to always be ahead in the tech race, discovering physics while others were still in the Dark Ages, deploying satellites while other factions were still in the pike and musket phase of their own history.
When I played Alpha Centauri, I was often opting to lead the University faction, with its bonuses to research, even if that made me less than competitive when it came to production and especially to combat.
After all, getting the better unit sooner would compensate for my morale problems and would also allow me to use special projects to boost my power.
I also tend to turtle in order to actually create this scientific advantage, with a limited number of very well-placed cities connected by roads and with a rapid reaction force that can cover them all in case of attack.
The same approach in Civilization: Beyond Earth will have different results based on the way the player approaches the tech web and on the way neighbors react to the gamer’s faction.
A tech web with branches and leaves
Firaxis has eliminated the tech tree that many of us have been exploring in older Civilization titles and introduced a web, which gives players more freedom when it comes to research and aims to increase the need to focus on one desirable tech.
Each branch has leaves, sub-techs, even if this is no longer a tree and the entire concept makes it much harder to be a classic research-focused turtling player in Beyond Earth.
The special projects or wonders are less powerful here and the number of units that can be deployed is more limited.
A faction that has more technology has more options but is not necessarily more powerful and this, coupled with the small choices that gamers get to make every few turns and the new affinities, makes it much more important to have a clear goal and actively work to achieve it.
As the Franco-Iberians, I tried repeatedly to focus on a few cities, have solid defense and simply beat my enemies with knowledge, but as I tried to cover too many techs, I was defeated by both the Brazilians and the ARG.
The tech web initially seems a little confusing and comes across as a cosmetic change, but it really transforms how gamers need to approach long-term thinking in Civilization: Beyond Earth and adds to the re-playability of the game.