Firaxis wants us to win while we're wet in Rising Tide

Lead designers Will Miller and David McDonough talked to us about what's coming in Rising Tide, the upcoming expansion to Civilization: Beyond Earth.

"So all of the new factions are designed to be latecomers to the colony development thing," McDonough explained, "and to come from a lot more dangerous or more extreme origins, so they're more intense, they've got some game-breaking rules or perspectives that will really change the way the game plays, which especially comes out in the new diplomacy system."

Diplomacy needs to "provide a stage for these character's personalities to play out on," according to co-lead Will Miller.

"We don't have the historical personalities that our players are bringing into the game like we do in Civ V," he said, before later explaining that the expansion also needs to better show players their relationship with the AI at any given time, and that they want to help players "wheel and deal power" in a way we haven't seen before in a Civ game.

McDonough then told us about the titular element of this expansion, the tide that rises: "It makes the whole surface of the planet playable. So previously where seas were a passive barrier, or just something to sail across on your way to somebody else's continent, now they're rich terrain spaces in their own right."

In-between naval engagements and mobile water cities, players "can play an entirely aquatic Civ; you can beat the game without ever setting foot on land, if you want."

Rising Tide is heading to Civilization: Beyond Earth on PC this October, and will follow after to Mac and Linux.