Starships is a tactical combat game and a strategy fleet game, more details revealed

By Sherif Saed

Creator Sid Meier has revealed a few details about the newly-announced Starships.

Meier spoke to Eurogamer.de and explained some game mechanics, how similar Starships is to Beyond Earth and more.

First, Meier talked about what we’ll be able to do in the game. “The key elements are designing and building your own starships,” he said.

“Develop different kinds of weapons, stealth abilities, armour and shields. Put all the different pieces of a ship together in different ways, to get different kinds of ships. Some will be fast, others will be powerful, some are used for stealth, and your role will to be the admiral of this fleet.

“Build a fleet of a few very powerful ships or one of many smaller ships, there a lot of variations. Then you take this fleet into the galaxy and in each star system you visit, there will be some sort of mission, a problem to solve, some way that you can help the people living there. After solving these missions, they become part of your federation. Eventually you run into other civilisations doing the same thing and you will recognise some of the leaders from Civilization: Beyond Earth.”

On top of that, you get to to decide where to send your fleet. Different destinations will bring different quests, such escort mission, combat, which makes it a “combination of a tactical starship combat game and a strategy fleet game,” according to the legendary designer.

Meier also talked a little bit about what sort of victory conditions we can expect.

“There is what we call the population victory, which is to control more than half of the galaxy. For this, you travel form one system to another, helping them out with their problems and let them join your federation. So, by doing good throughout the galaxy, you expand your federation.

“here is a science victory, where yours will be the leading civilisation in terms of technology and science. Then there is the classic Civilization domination victory, in which you eliminate your opponents. There is also a wonders victory, if you want to focus on wonders. So, there are various ways to win.”

The developer has also released a couple of screenshots.