Civ: Beyond Earth's Rising Tide expansion might not have done enough to dredge Firaxis' game up from the swamps of mediocrity, but it did feature a horrible bug that kept the diplomacy system from working as it was supposed to. Oh, wait, that's bad. The bug made it so that your allies sometimes wouldn't join in when you've decided to do a war, and that's the absolute height of rudeness in my opinion.

Anyway, it's a moot point now, as Firaxis has issued a quick hotfix that eliminates the bug.

Here's Firaxis' David Hinkle explaining the problem, and how it's been fixed:

"Previously, there were some cases where a player would go to war, but their allies would not join them in the fight. Now, when a player declares war, all the player s allies will also declare war on the target. If you are at war, and then you form an alliance with a faction that has not yet met your opponent, your new ally will not join the war automatically, since they don t have prior diplomatic contact. This change will not apply to existing save games with an active war or alliance, but will apply to all games going forward."

As patches are wont to do these days, this one will automatically download itself on Steam. In fact, it probably already has, but I thought I'd tell you in case you were wondering why diplomacy was suddenly working.

Even hardcore fans mostly agree, if Beyond Earth taught us anything, it s that you ve got to go further than merely another solar system to escape the shadow of Alpha Centauri. With that in mind, Rising Tide is a smartly put together expansion. It doesn t make Beyond Earth the game that some of us wanted, especially in terms of finding its own groove instead of just being Civ in space, but it does at least put its focus on the biggest criticisms instead of simply bolting on a few more toys and random cool features. It s closer. Not there, but a good deal closer.

For me, one of the changes I most appreciate is the reworking of Affinities. In the original Beyond Earth, these had your society developing down one of three paths—Purity, Supremacy or Harmony. I personally loathed this system, not for the core mechanical idea, but because it philosophically felt less like charting a future for humanity than signing it up to one of three dogmatic space cults, complete with silly space robes. Rising Tide allows for Hybrid Affinities, mixing and matching them. This opens up new options, but more than that, it feels endlessly more appropriate. Why wouldn t you combine technology and aliens? It s just slightly morbid common sense.

This is essentially Rising Tide s approach across the board: big changes, important changes, but not necessarily dramatic changes that completely overhaul what came before. It s a more appropriate name than it might sound, and not really referring to its new aquatic cities. They re fun to play with, both in their new mechanic of acquiring territory by moving around the ocean, and a rare example of something feeling like future tech instead of just modern military equipment with a chrome finish. They re still one of the least important fundamental changes Rising Tide makes.

Other similar offerings include four new factions (one sea based, totally unlike Alien Crossfire, one spy based, totally unlike Alien Crossfire, and two others focused on diplomacy and production respectively). Worlds are now peppered with Artifacts that can be combined in groups of three to unlock bonuses, and brand new Marvels—huge alien structures that start quests for everyone once discovered. Neither cancels out the basic problem of these worlds usually feeling like Earth if our canyons were randomly full of melted cheese (and despite two new biomes, Frigid and Primeval, Fungal remains the only really alien feeling one), but they re decent low impact additions to the main game that contribute to the feel of a series finally heading in the right direction.

That direction being Alpha Centauri, it s no surprise that the diplomacy section has seen the biggest overhaul. The new system has two basic goals, to make things more transparent, and to give the leaders more personality. Sorry, typo. I mean any personality, rather than them being just a load of cardboard cutouts. Unfortunately, while they do have more than they did, Beyond Earth continues being more comfortable with the numbers side of humanity than its humans.

The more mechanical side works better. Each faction now has a Fear and Respect bar, the first based on your strength and the latter based on how your actions mesh with their philosophies, such as worrying about your peoples health. Everyone also now has Traits that offer direct upgrades, and advantages that others can buy into using the new Diplomatic Capital resource—a stipend each turn in exchange for a boost. You can have up to four in play, and swap them out, as well as spend DC to purchase units and buildings outright. Combined, all this opens up a much more interesting diplomatic metagame of mutual favours and reasons to side with specific leaders, without ruling out making deals with assorted devils if the need arises. It s also now much easier to read them, and see when you re clashing with someone or they re likely to bail on a deal.

Rising Tide doesn t turn Beyond Earth into a whole new game. Expect that, and you ll be disappointed. It does however move it closer to what it should have been, with its understanding of some of the big problems helping to at least soften the blow of their lingering disappointment first time around. It s the expansion it needed to do first, both in terms of building on the game if you are in the mood for more, and showing that the series has the right course in mind.

Rising Tide will blur the ideological lines set up in Civilization: Beyond Earth. By investing evenly in multiple affinities you can research and field hybrid units. If you blend the technologist Supremacy track with the organic Harmony track, you can recruit floating fleshy battle tanks. If you devote yourself to Harmony and the isolationist, industrial Purity path you unlock cooler robots and battle walkers called Golems. It's mad science, basically. Both feature in the new trailer above.

What does that all have to do with rising tides? Well, the expansion also lets you build cities on water. Find out more about that in our hands-on video preview. The expansion is out this Friday October 9.

Watching a designer play their own game is sort of like watching a five-star chef eat their own meal; they know exactly how it's supposed to be approached. I got a chance to play the first 100 turns of the Rising Tide expansion to Civilization: Beyond Earth with co-lead designers Will Miller and David McDonough, asking them questions and picking their brains about everything Civ along the way. They told me if they like to build wide or tall, their favorite play-styles, and more, all while showing off the latest 'sponsor' to be revealed from Rising Tide, the diplomacy-based Integr. Watch the video above or click here to hear what they have to say.

2K Games has posted a video of the Firaxis Mega Panel recorded at PAX Prime 2015, in which XCOM 2 Creative Director Jake Solomon and Art Director Greg Foertsch, and Civilization: Beyond Earth—Rising Tide Co-Lead Designers Will Miller and David McDonough discuss their approaches to design, and show off a little bit of what's new in each game. The best part? A fun little segment at the end of the video that reveals a brand-new XCOM 2 enemy called "the Faceless."

There's a lot of good stuff in the video for fans of both series, but for my money—since I'm currently in the midst of my first-ever playthrough of XCOM: Enemy Unknown—it's the discussion of the bad guys in XCOM 2 that really sells it. Mutons are even bigger and brawnier than they appeared when we first laid eyes on them in July, and the fan-favorite Chryssalid has been "improved" as well with the ability to burrow underground and then spring out to attack resistance fighters who wander too close. It's basically a land mine that turns people into zombies. 

As for the Faceless, we don't know much beyond they're not lookers. None of the panelists say anything about the creature beyond the name, but it appears to be some kind of shapeshifter or bodysnatcher.

Civilization: Beyond Earth—Rising Tide comes out on October 9, XCOM 2 comes out on February 5, 2016, and the second annual Firaxicon fan convention happens on October 3. Did you miss out on PAX Prime this year? Catch up on our coverage right here.

I remember there being a lot of anger when Civilization V launched. It just wasn't Civ IV, the glorious, glorious Civ IV. But a few expansions (and a lot of mods) later, has public opinion changed? With the help of a thousand-plus survey respondents, I ventured to find out.

First, some caveats. I left out Alpha Centauri, because A) it dropped the Civilization name and B) it isn't fair to put a horse in a toddler race. Though I would love to see a horse absolutely smoke a bunch of dumb toddlers, who can barely walk, never mind run. It's a funny picture. 

Anyway, I also left out any game not in the main Microprose and Firaxis series, which includes Civilization: Call to Power. We're left, then, with Civilization, Civilization II, Civilization III, Civilization IV, Civilization V, and Civilization: Beyond Earth. Among them, which is the best?

The best Civilization game

According to my survey, Civilization V is the best Civilization. It seems public opinion did change. After a couple big expansions, a bunch of map packs and new civs, plus a ton of mods on Steam Workshop and otherwise, the majority like what Civ V has become. I have to agree: I still love Civilization IV, but if I were going to recommend any Civ to a friend, I'd have to start them with Civ V.

Civilization IV, of course, came in second with 21.6% of the vote. No other game in the series came close, which I first assumed was because most people in the survey started with Civ IV or Civ V. That's not the case: only 17% of respondents said that Civ IV was their first Civilization, and 22% said Civ V was their first. Many of you started with Civ III (22%), Civilization II (18%), or Civilization (18%).

As expected, several survey takers mentioned Civ V's easy-to-use mod support, expansions, hexagonal grid, and lack of unit stacking. "This one started out a bit uneven, but the two expansions ended up giving this one the most interesting choices per turn," said one person. "Also, I loved the addition of one-unit-per-tile and hexes—can't live without them now." That sums it up neatly.

On why Civ IV is the best, however, Leonard Nimoy came up (of course), as well as unit stacking and the expansions. It seems there are two camps: the no-stacking hex camp and the stacking square camp. It's one or the other, friends—declare your allegiance.

The worst Civilization game

This is no big surprise. According to my survey, the worst Civilization is Civilization: Beyond Earth. Had I included Alpha Centauri, I'm certain it would've been voted the best, so it's extra sad that its spiritual successor fared so poorly. A whopping 56.3% of voters declared it the worst Civilization, saying things like: "It's ugly, lame, and boring," "It's simply a space expansion for Civ V," and "It lacks personality." My goodness.

Civilization and Civilization III were the next worst, but each only gathered about 12% of the total vote. It's pretty clear that Civilization V is the absolute favorite, followed by Civ IV, and that Beyond Earth is the loser. We can roughly order the rest by considering the ratio of 'best' to 'worst' votes each got:

1. Civilization V (11.58)
2. Civilization IV (3.72)
3. Civilization II (0.61)
4. Civilization III (0.53)
5. Civilization (0.13)
6. Civilization: Beyond Earth (0.04)

Other results

86.3% of respondents said they've put over 100 hours into their favorite Civilization. 16.8% said they've played over 500 hours, and 11.3% say they've put in over 1,000 hours.

Most of you have won a game of Civilization by achieving a victory condition—only 3.9% said they haven't.

The most popular victory condition is Domination (44%), followed by Science (30%), Cultural (18%), and Diplomatic (6%). Almost no one likes the Time condition, in which you try to achieve the highest score within a certain number of turns.

51% of respondents agreed to make a Joint Declaration of Friendship with me, while 49% said that "making such a declaration at this point in our relationship would be premature." So, people are pretty split on joke questions.

Civilization stories

I also asked survey takers to share a story about a really good game of Civilization they've played. Here are some of the best (lightly edited for clarity).

"I'm not sure that this is my favorite game, but probably the proudest I've been. It's the game in which I gained the Bollywood achievement on Emperor difficulty in Civ 5. That requires that you win a cultural victory as India with just 3 cities. It was a real race to the finish line, because I was up against some serious powerhouses like Brasil (culture) and Korea (science). In the end I had to bribe several nations to wage war against Korea and nuked them myself for good measure to prevent them from building their final spaceship part in time. My waves of rocking musicians got me to culture victory probably only a turn or two away from Korea's science victory. It was my first game on Emperor difficulty and I couldn't keep the AIs in check by taking their cities due to the achievement I was going for, so I was very happy to get it just in time."

In Civ 3 I had an epic tussle with Cleopatra in one game with our empires at war for nearly 2000 years until all my horses suddenly became tanks and I rolled her over.

"In Civ IV, a grueling gunpowder-era war left me with 40-45% of the map, but technologically behind my two remaining rivals. Attacking either would ruin me and give the game to whoever was left alone, so I had to transition frantically into tech and a peaceful victory condition.

As I hit the modern era, my captured and reorganized territories from the last great war were finally turning profitable, but then disaster stuck - when, in last place, I hit modernity, it turned out that not one single pip of aluminum spawned on my half of the map! Double building time for all modern units and wonders when both my rivals had the aluminum bonus was untenable. I was finally catching up in research, but I couldn't build any of the fruits of my research.

When my general espionage bar revealed that both rivals were working on their Space victory, I made a plan - I signed a ruinous trade deal with the one that was further behind to give me that sweet sweet aluminum I needed, and sent a wave of Spies to sabotage the mine and SS part production of the leader. The last 100 turns of that game was one if the most vicious wars I've played in civ, all without a single shot being fired, a brutal race against time and resource shortages by all sides. When I launched the Alpha Centauri mission just three turns ahead of second-place China, it felt like a glorious accomplishment, not the admittedly dry usual endgame."

Kamehameha wouldn't be my friend right after I discovered him. After a few thousand years of a successful and booming trading relationship I nuked him for that.

"Civ 5, playing as Russia and I started on a mostly mountainous peninsula. I ended up out-expanded and out-teched by the Carthaginians and that evil slime Ghandi. With the navy of Carthage at my doorstep I went all in for naval tech. After a grueling 100+ turn war against a larger and more advanced foe I emerged victorious, and with a massive and advanced navy to boot.

With all of Carthage fallen the next logical course of action was to sail my great armada around the great sea taking every port I could find, while my inferior ground forces held the neck of my peninsula against all the remaining factions. In the end, I lost when Ghandi completed the science victory, but that massive struggle and the ensuing Great Sea Crusade was some of the most fun I've had in any Civ game."

Gandhi is an asshole.

"I was once caught in between two friends of mine. My territory was in the center of the continent, and theirs were above and below me. I befriended both of them since I was playing South Korea and not interested in domination at all.

Both of them were, however, and it wasn't long before they started sending me messages to band together and kill the other. Before I knew it both of their armies were gathered at my borders, requesting open borders and ready to mess the other one up. It eventually ended with me opening borders to both of them, but not declaring war on either. I let them slaughter eachother and began mass-producing military units. This eventually led to me seizing both capital cities. Good stuff."

It's basically the weekend, so I'm going to use that as an excuse for why I got confused when I went to the Steam page for Civilisation: Beyond Earth and it told me it was already in my library, despite the fact that Tom had told me only seconds earlier that Firaxis has made it free to play this weekend.

I'm here to save you from that same split second of confusion. If you go to your Steam library, you will find Beyond Earth available to download and play until the end of Sunday. You've probably got a long list of games on there, so remember to look under S for Sid Meier.

I'm pretty sure they're doing it to encourage people to get on board before the release of the Rising Tide expansion, but who cares? It's a great game—we gave it an 87—and it's free. Cancel your plans.

Last year was the first-ever Firaxicon, a convention dedicated to all things Firaxis, with activities including panels and presentations, advance hands-on time with Civilization: Beyond Earth, and "An Evening With Sid Meier." It must have gone over pretty well, because 2K Games announced today that it's doing it again this year.

Attendees of the second annual Firaxicon—and yes, it's now officially described as an annual deal—will have the opportunity to take part in a meet-and-greet with members of the Firaxis development team, attend panels hosted by the lead developers of XCOM and Civilization: Beyond Earth as well as Firaxis Creative Director Sid Meier, play pre-release versions of Civilization: Beyond Earth—Rising Tide and XCOM 2, do some board gaming with the Firaxis staff, and take part in various "community giveaways, challenges, and competitions," with XCOM and Civilization-themed prizes.

"Firaxicon provides us with a rare opportunity to sit down and talk with the people who enjoy our games most," Meier said. "This has quickly become one of the studio s most popular events of the year. Our team members very much look forward to giving the fans an in-depth look at our latest projects this fall."

This year's Firaxicon will be a one-day event, running on October 3 in Baltimore, MD. Tickets are $40 each and may be purchased through Eventbrite.

Water isn't something new or unique to Civilization: Beyond Earth. Oceans and lakes have been in the Civ series since the very beginning, but Beyond Earth's first expansion, Rising Tide, changes what you can do on and with those water tiles. More water based resources, better and expanded water units, water-focused Civs, and the biggest change of all: cities built on water that can be moved. But Rising Tide doesn't only expand Beyond Earth's water gameplay, it also brings much needed updates to the UI and a brand new way to trade and interact with opposing Civs. Watch the video above for my full thoughts on Civilization: Beyond Earth's Rising Tide expansion.