Civilization: Beyond Earth Winter Update Includes Major Changes to Wonders

Civilization: Beyond Earth was released just a few months ago to great reception, and we loved the hell out of the game (check out our review). Today, the developers at Firaxis have released the Winter 2015 update for the game, which serves two major purposes: further balance updates and improvements to the game, and laying the groundwork for integration with the upcoming Sid Meier's Starships, which launches very soon.

What's interesting about this integration is that both teams at Firaxis, working on Beyond Earth and Starships, have been "interested in the idea of having two separate games able to pass information between them, and what that might mean for players." For the two games to connect to each other, you'll need to create a free my2K account, and Firaxis is incentivizing players to do just that by offering a free Glacier planet map for Beyond Earth. 

Along with this connectivity between titles, Firaxis is adding an update ticker in the main title screen of Beyond Earth, containing information and updates about the game.

With regards to game balance, the Wonders in Beyond Earth have undergone major revisions based on feedback from players. 

"One of the most consistent pieces of feedback the team received was that certain Wonders were built only rarely, and players reported that some felt like marginal upgrades over other resource buildings. The Beyond Earth team took a general cost pass on all the Wonders in the game, and changed the effects of most of them," writes Firaxis. 

Additional gameplay changes have also been implemented as a result of the changes to the Wonders. 

"Trade routes in particular have undergone two important changes. First of all, trade routes are still one of the primary resource generators for a given city. Now, trade routes will be unlocked primarily through city population. Constructing a Trade Depot allows trade routes to be built and gives the city one trade route slot. Other trade routes now unlock at population thresholds. This prevents players from using small cities as massive trade hubs during the middle- and late-game. Secondly, there is now an “auto-renew route” option, as requested by many players.

"Friendly aliens no longer prevent citizens from working plots, much to the joy of Harmony factions, who understand that nothing tills the soil quite like Siege Worms, and that Wolf Beetles are the mascots for many Academies."

There's also bug fixes, AI adjustments, and user interface improvements. The update is available to download now via Steam.