Civilization; Beyond Earth, Game 1 (part 1); Indigenous lifeforms
"I'm glad to have this time with you tonight, my friends," Luna said as the others joined.
"So are we," Eddy agreed.
"Let's get started," Leon added.
All of them were playing the new game Civilization; Beyond Earth. It was their first time playing together, and none of them could wait to begin.
"So, it's Leon and Edward, me, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity," Luna said, listing off the players. "This could be interesting."
"Fluttershy is still hesitant to get the game," Twilight said. "Mostly because of the whole 'killing aliens' thing."
"She'd think differently when Siege Worms and Krakens are trying their best to kill you off," Eddy mumbled.
"Yeah, the aliens are jerks early on," Rainbow said. "But I can't complain too much. After all, mid-late game is when they start losing out."
"Hmm. Speaking of aliens and another world, do you suppose that they'll have gems and other valuable minerals?" Rarity asked.
"I know they have Titanium and Gold," Luna said, "but gold doesn't give you money in this game, only culture."
"What? Really?"
"Yeah. In this game, energy is money," Leon said. "Kind of ridiculous. I mean, if I have to go out and buy something, what am I supposed to do? Carry a bunch of batteries in my wallet and exchange them for stuff? 'Sir, you gave me two double-As and a triple. It costs three double-As total.'"
Everyone snickered. "That would be rather strange and inconvenient at times," Rarity admitted, still giggling.
"It fits in with the futuristic setting of the game, though," Luna put in. "And yes, the aliens can be quite infuriating. But let's get to playing, instead of merely talking about it."
"The Princess is right," Rainbow agreed. "Are we going to gossip all night, or are we going to play?"
"Alright; I'm Franco-Iberia," Leon said. "Bonjour and Hola, everyone!"
"Wait, what am I supposed to use, then?" Eddy demanded. "There's no Britain or England or equivalent in this game!"
"You can play Polystralia."
"Aussies aren't British!"
"They're half-British. And probably the closest you're going to get."
"Nah. I'll play Slavic Federation. I won't be the only Englishman upset over this, though."
"A lot of people won't be happy that their countries either weren't included or were counted as part of one of the factions," Leon pointed out. "I doubt people in the Baltic States are going to like being included in a new Soviet Union in the game."
"No, and I doubt the Vietnamese or Japanese will like being held in bondage with China, either," Eddy finished. "At least Hutama speaks English."
"If you're both finished, I'd like to make my choice," Rarity interrupted. "Hmm. The Kavithan Protectorate looks flashy."
"I'll go for the Pan Asian Cooperative," Twilight said.
"Mouthful, and the color matches your fur," Eddy said.
"If we were on camera, I'd give you such a look right now," the violet unicorn said with some slight indignation. "But yes, the name is a little long. Let's just call it the PAC."
"Yep. I'll go with the ARC, then," Rainbow confirmed.
"And I'll play as Brasilia." Luna added. "I think that's it for the factions. What kind of world do we want?"
"Whatever the replacement for continents," Leon suggested.
"DItto," Eddy agreed.
"Okay. Now for us all to customize our factions."
Leon chose to go with Engineers, as an Arsenal and Tectonic Scanning. It was a combination that he liked; he preferred to kick off war with the aliens aright away, and have an extra unit for exploring. Some would say that the free Soldier unit was the weakest choice. That ignored the fact that that Soldier would then have the chance to level up before any unit established by other factions, unless they also chose that customization. A free worker wouldn't do much good if it's work was interrupted, or, worse, if it was killed by aliens. Tectonic Scanning would reveal resources that would normally be hidden, though he would still need the technologies to work those resources. As for Engineers... production was always good to have.
He had picked Franco-Iberia because he liked it's passive bonus; it would gain a free technology for every ten virtues developed. That would require a bit to fully unlock, but the rewards could be great.
When the loading screen finally gave him the option to start, he took a close look at the landscape. The tiles were mostly golden-brown, so he guessed the world was one dominated by plains. One of the tiles he would be able to land on was next to the sea, and he could see an algae resource nearby. A resource each of Tubers, Fruit, and Gold were all close at hand and could be worked within the city's three tile working radius; it would be a very good and rich city site, so he chose that spot to start out. His spaceship came out of the sky and assembled his capital city there, the Grand Metropolis of Le Coeur.
"What the?" Eddy said. "They really misspelled the name of this Russian city. I'll fix it."
"What are you-"
"You'll see it when you find me."
Leon frowned; he wanted to know just what Eddy had renamed his capital, but that would have to wait. He ordered his city to build an Old Earth Relic, equivalent to a Monument in Civ 5. He also sent out his starting Explorer and Soldier units, having them explore the tiles around Le Coeur. At once, the Explorer found a Resource pod, and he gave it orders to check it out the next turn.
His Explorer quickly found an Alien nest to the northwest when he moved it one tile in that direction. He frowned again; Explorers were weak; even Scouts from Civ 5 were stronger. Yeah, a bunch of guys with sticks are stronger than a guy with a gun and a moon rover. The point being that if the Explorer was attacked, it would most likely die. Moreover, the nest was covered with miasma, which, unless one was going with the Harmony affinity, was bad news, as units that went into it would suffer damage and eventually die if they weren't extracted, while aliens would actually heal in it. He took the Resource pod, which contained 20 Culture. His soldier found another next to the southeast, though this one had no miasma around it. On the next turn, he took that one as well; this one contained some Energy.
"Apparently I just captured a battery," he said.
"Yeah. I got to that only had energy," Twilight said. "At least the Culture is useful at this stage of the game. The Energy... not so much."
"When units cost something like 200 bucks plus, yes, it's a little silly to only get 30 Energy."
"We'd say Quid where I come from," Eddy remarked.
"Which literally means 'what'," Leon replied.
"Uh huh."
Le Coeur finished building it's Old Earth Relic, upon which he got a quest decision; it was whether he would prefer all Old Earth Relics to have free maintenance or provide +1 additional Culture.
Um, I kind of expected to pay maintenance when I built this, so extra Culture. He was now making four Culture per turn; 1 from his Headquarters and 3 from the O.E.R. He started building on a Worker.
An Alien Wolf Beetle wandered into range of his city. He blasted it; the missiles took off about a third of the aliens' health. Although dissatisfied, he knew honestly that, without defensive buildings, he could expect no better. While the aliens literally could do nothing to harm him at this point, as they weren't strong enough to destroy his city and he hadn't built any tile improvements yet, he didn't like the thought of them wandering around inside his territory.
A few turns later, his Explorer found an Alien Skeleton, which would provide a free Alien unit for him when it was excavated. Even though he was a Purity player, having a free unit that could go through miasma without taking damage - indeed, healing in it - was a bonus. He quickly sent the Explorer there and began excavating the Skeleton.
"So," Rainbow said, "Me and Twi are kind of new to this game. What's changed between the last game and this one?"
"Um, we are all on another planet hundreds of years in the future fighting aliens and getting stomped by Siege Worms," Eddy said deadpan.
"Yeah, we know that," Rainbow replied, with a little exasperation. "What I mean is, what's changed gameplay-wise? I mean, I know about the aliens, but not about other stuff."
"Ah. Well, internal trade routes are a lot stronger, providing both food and production for your cities, and both cities profit from them. You can now excavate stuff and you can send various satellites into orbit for all sorts of benefits. And, as you no doubt have already discovered, the tech tree is now a tech web. Finally, the policy system has been reorganized into four virtue trees; one for military power, one for growth, one for Culture and Science, and one for production. Oh, and the affinities. That's there, too."
"Okay. Sounds cool!"
"It is," Leon agreed. "Would you believe that some people call it a mod of Civ 5?"
"It runs on the same engine," Twilight reasoned. "But it's honestly a different game altogether, especially with all the changes you mentioned. It feels enough like the previous game for players to feel comfortable, but at the same time it adds a lot of new stuff. And besides, Civilization 5 became super popular when DLC started coming out, so if people wait a bit, they'll start seeing big changes that will make the game better."
"Exactly. I'm honestly tired of all the complaints," Leon said.
"You think you've seen complaints? There's not a day that passes when somepony doesn't criticize how Equestria is run," Luna told him. "A few have valid arguments, which me and my sister look into. But a lot of it is just, well, rubbish. A disproportionate of it comes from the nobility; I can start to see why so many human countries have done away with it."
"Let me guess; they need more excessively expensive bubble bath for their Olympic-sized bathtubs?"
Luna giggled. "I swear, I got one very similar to that a few weeks ago. Yes, most of them are that ridiculous, if not more so. I will never put into law a motion for 'peasant scum' to be put into their 'place'. I went straight to that noble's house and gave him quite a talking to."
"How come most of them feel that way?" Eddy asked. "I would have thought that even they would be able to tell which way the wind is blowing."
"You'd think so, but you'd be wrong," Twilight put in. "You forget, I lived in Canterlot most of my life; I've run into ponies like that all too often. Most of Equestria's nobility live there. Even at school, there were groups of foals from noble families. Some were okay; not all nobles are snobs. But more than a few of them formed... I don't want to say school gangs, but there's no other way to put it. Fortunately for me, they knew to stay away, as I was Celestia's student, but other kids weren't so lucky, and got picked on daily because of their low birth."
"Didn't Celestia try to stop it?"
'Of course she did! She still does, and with Luna helping, the school is becoming a better place. But she had, and still has, an entire country to run. She has to try to do that, which includes revising laws, being present at court, checking the economy, making royal visits to various towns and cities, as well as find time for the school. I'm not surprised that she enjoys the time off from her job that she gets."
"We're all trying to run a country at the moment," Eddy put in.
"This isn't the same, and you know it. The poor Princesses have to put up with this kind of stuff everyday, as do the ponies of lesser wealth, who obviously have it much worse, because they don't have the royal influence to repel transgression."
"Don't you count as part of the nobility now? Seeing as your brother married a Princess and all that."
"...I wish I could say with one hundred percent certainty that I did, but, well, Shining hasn't received the best reception from all the nobility. Prince Blueblood and the rest of his cronies like to talk about my brother as though he didn't deserve to marry Cadence, which he DID; they love one another, and the services they've done for Equestria more than qualify them to be together. I just wish that spoiled brats who never had to work a day in their lives would realize that."
"Kinda why we split from England," Leon said.
"Oh, don't start," Luna interrupted. You and Edward would never get done arguing over that."
"Sorry."
"Are you sorry as in really sorry, or sorry as in, "I'm sorry I can't continue with my antics?'"
"...I choose to skip my turn."
"Uh huh. I thought so." In spite of her serious tone of voice, Leon could detect a sense of amusement from her.
On screen, meanwhile, he received an alien Raptor Bug for free upon excavating the skeleton. His Explorer, without any further modules, would have to be sent back to the capital in order to excavate anything else. He began sending it on a roundabout route, so it could continue revealing the map. His Soldier found an alien nest, which was occupied by a Manticore, a ranged alien unit.
Better not get too close. Who knows how many other aliens are nearby?
A much worse problem came next turn. A Siege Worm crawled into shooting range of his city.
No! He blasted it with the city's defenses. It barely scratched the monster, which nonetheless went off in another direction once the turn went by. Those things could take a pounding, and massacre any early units they chose to move through. Which was more or less what it did; the Siege Worm didn't seem to care what was in it's way, so long as it reached whatever destination it had decided upon. It wasn't so much deliberately attacking units and cities as bulling it's way through them to reach it's chosen destination. Only Krakens did more damage than Siege Worms, at least among the alien units.
I so can't wait to go full Purity.
The next few turns weren't all that interesting. His Worker finished building; he sent it to improve the fruit.
"Oh, come on!" Rainbow moaned.
"What-"
"I was about to kill this alien nest, and all of a sudden all these stinking aliens come and surround my soldier! Now I'm gonna lose it for sure."
"We could restart."
"No way! I'm not letting this stop me. It's just so annoying."
"Hint," Leon said, "aliens will become aggro if you're within two space of a nest."
"Great. Could have used that info sooner, but at least I have a better idea of what to do later."
Leon didn't try to argue. He kept his own Soldier from going within two tiles of the nest as he edged around it. His Raptor Bug, able to move three spaces in total, found a yellow border in the south. "Eddy, I think I've found your northern border."
"Oh, yep. I see you. You want open borders?"
"Yeah. What do you want for it?"
"Friendship pact. Or cooperative, whatever."
Leon considered. He had no intention of going to war with anyone (well, maybe the aliens, but they didn't have cities or improved resources to capture) at the moment. Of course, Eddy would be free to build cities in his direction, which would benefit him and leave Leon with less space to expand. But he decided that the risk was worth the exploration. "Okay."
Eddy sent the request (which included open borders for both of them), which Leon accepted. On the next turn, he moved his unit into the territory of the Slavic Federation. "Meet the Russians," he said to himself.
"And Poles. And Latvians. And Siberians, and Ukrainians and... hell, I'm not going to list all of them. Come in and see for yourself."
Leon did.
"Well, what do you think? Did I correct the spelling for this town?"
Leon snorted in laughter. The capital of the Federation, formerly Khrabrost, was now titled Crab Roast. "Just make sure you have crabs, or whatever counts for crabs on this planet, to roast."
"Oh, believe me, Leo my boy, I will. In the meantime, we'll roast aliens instead. Already cooked a couple Wolf Beetles that got too close."
"You two don't seem to realize that there are other ways of dealing with the aliens than just killing them," Twilight interjected. "If what I've read on the forums is true, if you get an alien nest inside your borders without destroying it, the aliens will turn friendly, and whatever Xenomass the nest is on will be given to you, same as if you'd built the proper improvement."
"Tell that to Siege Worms and Krakens. Their favorite thing to do is kill workers and munch military units."
"A good Supersonic Fence can counter both problems, in addition to taking the choice to make your trade units invulnerable to aliens."
"Where's the fun in the game without fighting?"
"How can you get anything done if all you do is build units instead of buildings and wonders to go with them?"
"The aliens go out of their way to make trouble!"
"They wouldn't do that as much if you didn't attack them all the time!"
While Twilight and Eddy argued, Leon kept moving. With the fruit connected, he went after the gold. The fact that it was worthless except for culture still puzzled him. I seriously hope we don't try and blow our own planet to pieces, or whatever happened that made the people in the game have to move to another planet. I mean, what happened afterwards to society? Energy replacing gold as currency? Seriously?
Suddenly, a wild Kraken appeared just outside his capital.
No no no no NO! Get out of here! He blasted the beast with the city's defenses. Luckily, it moved away next turn, but he was getting annoyed - and very worried - with all the high strength aliens roaming around his city.
Le Coeur finished building a Colonist - a Settler - which he sent east. Assuming this planet has an 'east'. I have no idea how things we take for granted would be rocked on another world. It was unprotected at the moment, but he would receive a free Soldier when the Colonist founded an Outpost. He was also sending his Explorer up to provide some form of protection.
He promptly got a quest decision the next turn; whether to contain an outbreak of Earth plants (Harmony) or to let it spread (Purity and Supremacy). He chose the latter, aiming for a level of Purity soon.
"...could see it as survival of the fittest; they can't survive, their tough luck."
"That's the most biased form of 'survival of the fittest' I've ever heard! It's hardly survival when you're using guns and advanced technology to kill them all!"
"Are you two going to argue this point the rest of the night?" Luna asked. "Unfortunately, I do not have unlimited free time, and none of you do either. If you want to waste the time I have with you, that falls on your heads, not mine."
Ed and Twilight abruptly fell silent.
"That's better."
The next few turns played out fairly well. Leon's Colonist was left alone by the aliens. He set it on a hill tile in the east that bordered water in the east and a mountain to the west. When he hit the button, the outpost started to grow. Unlike in Civilization 5, the Colonist did not instantly transform into a city, complete with six border tiles. Instead, it gradually grew into a city, absorbing one tile at a time. Only after all six surrounding tiles were absorbed did the Outpost turn into a city. He did get a free Soldier unit, as he'd hoped for. That was useful for scouting, as well as for fending off the aliens.
As though thinking of them conjured them up, an alien Wolf Beetle walked to within two tiles of his newly founded Outpost. Frustrated, he sent his soldier to block it. The turn after, he attacked the alien. The combat results weren't very much in his favor - 33 damage suffered, compared to 40 inflicted - but it was to be expected from early game units. Combat Rovers did even worse, as they were effectively glass cannons; high attack power, low defense. Naval units were even worse in that respect. High affinity ships could kill one another in one shot, sometimes two. Krakens usually found ways to survive into the endgame as well, attacking ships whenever they saw fit to do so. Gunboats, the starting naval units - assuming one immediately went for the tech that allowed for naval transport - were infamously weak and vulnerable to all sorts of catastrophes. In fact, Leon had come up with an apt name for them; Kraken Food.
The alien counterattacked on it's turn, though it's only achievement was to beat up on his Soldier some more and suffer even more damage itself. The icon on it's head was still green, so he supposed he hadn't warranted the aliens' aggression quite yet.
He finally got the decision to take a level of Purity or Supremacy, in regards to his choice to allow the Earth plants to grow free. He chose the Purity decision, which immediately made his Explorer units invulnerable to aliens and gave an upgrade for his Soldier units, which now became Marines. He gave them a bonus to combat strength, as opposed to plus five health healed per turn.
"Ugh, can't wait to get rid of all this miasma," Rainbow said suddenly. "It's really uncool how many tiles near me have that stuff."
"If you go Harmony," Twilight answered, "you'll eventually end up healing in miasma, instead of taking damage from it."
"Yeah... I don't think so. Why would I replace my hoof with a crab claw, or my tail for some sort of vine-thing?"
"It's just a game."
"And I don't want my people in the game to be some sort of nature mutants. Buuuuuuut thanks for the offer."
"Fine."
"Supremacy is where it's at," Eddy put in. "If you don't want to become a native lifeform, there's always becoming a cyborg."
"Half robot. No thanks; I'd prefer not to be enslaved to a central city computer."
"But it's so much fun! Your mind is kept constantly in video-game and telly land while your body is doing all the hard work."
That actually started a giggle from the blue pegasus. "I guess that wouldn't be that bad. But I'm leaving my options open."
With a Marine instead of a soldier, Leon felt that he now had a significant advantage over the alien that had come near the outpost. Although the Marine hadn't healed, it was still stronger. The alien unit died under the weight of the assault.
The next few turns went well. He succeeded in building a Trade Depot, so he could immediately build some trade units. However, considering that they would be subject to alien attack without having built a Supersonic Fence first, he started on that instead. He also queued up a Ranger, which was the first ranged unit of the game, similar to an Archer from Civ 5.
He continued moving is other Marine through Ed's territory. The Englishman was having alien problems as well. However, he'd been more liberal in building units than Leon had; he sported a couple of Marines and a Ranger already, and Leon knew he all too likely had other units hanging around somewhere.
"Supremacy already?"
"Aye. You got Purity already?"
"Yep."
"Going to be hard to keep up with your tea time if you're half-robot."
"Actually, no; there's a mandatory hour when we just stop what we're doing have tea. Then everyone goes back to doing whatever they were doing beforehand."
"Sounds kind of like that Asterix comic where Asterix goes to Britain."
"You mean the one where Caesar makes it policy for his legions to attack the British only at five o' clock and on Sundays?"
"Right on."
"Yeah, kind of. I'm surprised you know about it; I wasn't aware they sold across the pond."
"They do, but you usually have to look in a dedicated comic store."
"Ah."
"Ugh, these aliens are going out of their way to cause trouble," Rarity said. "I've been hard pressed by this nest that spawned outside my borders, and aliens keep emerging from it, and I can't go and destroy it because there's just too many of them. I was barely able to get a Colonist out; the Soldier guarding it was nearly killed."
"Build more units," Eddy suggested.
"And miss out on building up my city?"
"If you can't get the most out of your tiles, your faction is going to stagnate," Twilight reasoned. "Although I'm in favor of Harmony... How many tiles is it away from your Capital?"
"Three, and I doubt I'll have the money to buy it any time soon."
"Well, build what you have to kick them out. Supersonic Fence is a must."
"Thank you, Twilight dear."
Eddy spent the next turn firing on aliens; two Wolf beetles were killed by his units. A Raptor Bug was left critically injured, and Leon's Marine happened to be right next to it, so he did Eddy the favor of clearing out the bug.
"Hey! Who's been killing aliens?" Twilight demanded.
"Why should we care?" Eddy asked.
"Because their icons all just turned orange."
"Oh. Yeah, that could be a problem."
"Ok, I say that until the next five turns have passed, nopony attack aliens," Rainbow suggested.
"Oh, bother," Rarity murmured. "I'd hoped to clear them out. I suppose their turning orange means they'll be more aggressive?"
"Yes," Twilight answered, not amused.
"...That could be troublesome," the white unicorn said worriedly.
Leon watched as more aliens began to show up, both in his territory and in Ed's. The next several turns were tenuous. The aliens pillaged the tile of fruit; in a moment of rage he blasted the alien responsible.
The turn after that was somewhat better; his Supersonic Fence finished, and the aliens were forced to leave. The Gold mine finished, he sent his Worker to repair the Fruit.
"Bother," Luna muttered, "they destroyed my algae improvement. Leon, Edward, next time, can you wait until we are all ready before you start blasting the aliens?"
"Sorry Princess. Won't happen again," Eddy said quickly.
"...Yes," Leon said after a second longer.
"You too, Rainbow Dash."
"Hey!"
"I know you too well. You love being competitive, and you enjoy combat in these kinds of games, do you not?"
"...Maybe..."
Three turns later, the alien icons turned green once more. Leon heard several sighs of relief, one of them coming from his own mouth.
"Let that be a warning to you guys," Twilight said.
Leon chose not to say anything in response to that. Deep down, he knew she was right. Instead, he kept an eye on what he was doing at present. The Ranger finished, which was good, seeing as he didn't want to lag any more behind the Slavic Federation - behind Ed - than he had to, if at all.
He heard a faint voice coming from his headset. "Oh, is it that time already?" he heard Luna say. "What... past!? Oh my!"
"What's going on?" Rainbow asked.
"I am terribly sorry, my friends, but I am five minutes late already to raise the moon!"
"Whoa, really?"
"I was wondering why the moon wasn't up yet," Twilight mused. "I kept checking my clock and I was wondering if it was wrong."
"One reason I must leave, and quickly put this to rights."
"Are you coming back?"
"With genuine regret in her voice, Luna said, "No. I must attend court tonight, and my schedule is really busy. However, I'll save the game; that way, we'll be able to come back some other time."
"'Night, Princess!' Eddy said, trying to sound cheerful.
"Good night, my friends. To another night of friendship and pleasure!"
Leon got of the game, stood up, and stretched.
To another night, hanging out with my friends.
Stats
Page generated in 0.023 seconds
Total duration
969 users online
411,907 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Ya, another chapter! And it's of beyond earth
I couldn't find this story to favorite after I got a new computer and I managed to now see an update on it here. 
5508830 Glad to know you're enjoying it
5510477
Thank you!
Finally! Took you long enough.
5511394 Sorry, sidetracked by other stuff :(
5521944 don't worry. I know what it's like.
5522799 Thanks for understanding. Unfortunately, a lot changed between when I started writing this and when it finished. For example, now level one Purity only doubles the combat strength of your explorers when they are defending, instead of making them immune to aliens :(
5527978 Then make the next chapter with the changes, with everyone complaining about it
5528216 LOL, they will. I guess they had to try something to balance the game, and I guess invincible explorers was too overpowered.
5530045 Going all out war against the aliens and then block your territory with explorers.
5531070 LOL. Inefficient, but it would work, I guess. Kind of sucks that there's no tech in the game to equal Satellites in Civ 5, because the only way you find anything or anyone in this game is by manual exploring.
5531811 Yep