Information on the Winter 2015 update for Beyond Earth

We’re preparing another update for Civilization: Beyond Earth. This update has two major purposes: Further balance updates and improvements to the game, and laying the groundwork for integration with Sid Meier’s Starships. Both the Starships and Beyond Earth teams have been interested in the idea of having two separate games able to pass information between them, and what that might mean for players. This is our first experiment with this cross-game connectivity. We’re handling this through my2K. If you log into your my2K account within Starships or Beyond Earth, then we will be able to establish a connection between the two games. If you don't already have a my2K account, you'll need to create one. For now, this system works for Beyond Earth and Starships, but may extend to future titles as well. The first time you log into your my2K account from Beyond Earth, you will get an exclusive map: the Glacier planet. The my2K system has been used on other 2K titles previously, including Firaxis’ Haunted Hollow. Along with this connectivity, we’ve added “Incoming Transmission” to the main title screen of the game. Key information and updates about the game will appear in this menu location. In terms of game balance, the Wonders have undergone major revisions. 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. Complete notes on the changes are below. Additional gameplay balance changes were made as a result of the changes to the Wonders, but also in response to systems reported as too powerful. 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. The team also took the opportunity to fix bugs, adjust the AI, and add user interface changes. We’d like to thank you for your continued feedback on Beyond Earth, and we hope that you enjoy these updates. Full patch notes can be found here: http://www.civilization.com/en/news/2015-02-information-on-the-civilization-beyond-earth-winter-2015-update/