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Build a civ: Firaxis shows you how to create a faction in Beyond Earth

Civilization: Beyond Earth factions

In Civilization, when picking a faction to play, you’re getting a whole package of bonuses and traits based on the history of that culture. But Civilization: Beyond Earth has left history, and those factions, far behind. So that means you have to build your own. 

The latest Beyond Earth livestream, which has been uploaded to YouTube, details exactly how future rulers will construct their infant factions, building them with different bonuses, selecting the special citizens, even choosing the spaceship they land on. 

Factions are made up of sponsors, colonists, cargo and the spacecraft. The sponsors are the big organisations that send you up into space in the first place, and they all confer specific traits that will, in part, define a post-Earth civ. That might be a boost in military might, or it might be the production of more food.

The colonists you pick are like specialists. Taking on a bunch of refugees will help you grow more food, while engineers boost production. Unfortunately there are no hairdressers or or ad executives, so it doesn’t look like Ship B of the Ark Fleet made it.

After picking your colonists, you get to choose your ship. While it just exists to get you and your faction to the new world, it does provide some handy early game bonuses, such as mapping all the alien nests or the coast.

Finally you get to decide what cargo you squeeze inside the ship. Snacks? Hardcore pornography? Weapons? I can only assume the first two fit into the raw materials category, since they are the building blocks of human civilization.

The rest of the stream details the first steps of a new civilization, taking a look at the tech tree and colony management.

Already got any thoughts on what your first civilization is going to be?

And if you fancy playing Beyond Earth next month, you might want to check out Firaxis’ first official convention, Firaxicon.