I am enjoying playing the vanilla mod-free Civilization: Beyond Earth, but after playing through a number of times, various things have occurred to me to be 'missing' from the game.

As I don't really have the skills to create mods myself, I have compiled this short list to inspire those who do - the first five could even be combined to make some sort of aquatic mod pack!

In a world where humankind has suffered great disaster on Earth, and then travelled through interstellar space to seed new planets, it's surprising that cities still have to be built on solid land. Even in the early 21st century, solutions to the problem of rising sea-level include floating neighbourhoods or cities.

Civ 5's Gods and Kings expansion pack introduced Dutch Polders to Civilization - unique farm improvements, which could be built on marshes and flood plains. I would love to see polders - and coastal polders ('floating farms') - brought forward 600 years to Beyond Earth. On a new world, with a scramble for space, it's only logical that artificial land-creation would occur, much as it had on Earth in low-lying and coastal areas.

Other games set in a technologically superior future, such as Anno 2070, include a wide variety of underwater resources. Why should the only resources at sea be oil, algae and coral? Why not harness the power of underwater geothermal vents? Mine titanium or silica or basalt from the ocean crust? Build generators powered by tidal energy?

It seems unlikely that all of the resource pods sent from earth, and every crashed satellite just so happens to be on solid ground. It would be great to see these also appearing on- or underwater (perhaps only visible to the player once a certain tech. has been researched).

This is the final watery idea, I promise! The game feels very lacking in ocean-faring vessels without submarines. Sure, the deep oceans of a new planet might not be the safest places to venture, but that doesn't mean that they should be avoided entirely. Plus, how will I manage to obsessively explore the Fog of War of each world, if I can't send a sub under the ice caps? Every little hex of black left in the endgame makes me die a little inside.

You know what it's like: you travel light-years across interstellar space, only to discover that every single planet is populated by identical aliens. I'd love to see a wider variety in the natural fauna, rather than the same beetles, bugs, wasps, sea dragons and Krakens appearing on every playthrough. Even if the base stats. remained the same, a wider variety of shapes and colours would be very cool.

Sometimes those stations just get in the way. Rather than destroying them or waiting for them to disappear, it would be great to be able to annex them. As well as military annexation, I think it would be great to have annexation quests, whereby completing certain specific tasks (such as acquiring a particular resource, or having a certain number or excess energy per turn) would give you the option to annex. The station could then grow like a regular outpost (but perhaps keeping its original tier 3 trade bonuses).

Orbital units which - like earth's ISS, and many more - do not stay in the same place above the planet. What's the point in a deep space satellite, if it has to constantly change which direction it is looking in? A satellite in geostationary orbit will have its view blocked by the planet every (planetary) day. The addition of 'moving' orbital units would be more realistic, and could include, for example, surveillance satellites, which carve a line in the Fog of War around the planet.

I've read this in a few of the critical reviews of Beyond Earth. Introducing natural disasters to the game would definitely add something. Earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis are the obvious examples, but also storms and floods, Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), meteors and asteroids.

CMEs for example could destroy generators (some or all), destroy units (such as non-human supremacy units) and be observed through aurora at the planet's poles.

This would be my dream mod or scenario. In an alternative universe, instead of eight separate missions to a new planet, Earth is united in its vision to seed the galaxy in the name of humanity. On this new planet, there is only one civilization: United Earth. Instead of interacting and 'competing' with other civilizations, you have to keep your population happy by balancing your approach between purity, supremacy and harmony. The more you lean towards one affinity, the larger that section becomes in your society; however those parts of society who prefer the other two affinities become unhappy, and de-stabilise your civilization.
Instead of the us-versus-them problems of regular game-play, you face challenges such as social cohesion and unrest, natural disasters, more aliens, and astronomical phenomena.
The only victory condition is Utopia, and requires the creation of a perfectly happy, perfectly healthy civilization.


Please feel free to add your own ideas to this thread. What inventive and imaginative things would you like to see introduced to Beyond Earth?