At the Firaxis Megapanel at PAX South, Sid Meier and fellow Firaxis team members Will Miller and David McDonough unveiled the first gameplay footage of Starships – the PC/Mac/iPad galactic strategy title due out some time early this year.
The lengthy video explores the philosophy of Starships as well as Civilization: Beyond Earth and the relationship between the two, and 30 minutes in the gameplay demo for Starships starts.
You begin out by picking one of three Affinities (Supremacy, Harmony, and Purity), and from there select a leader of your federation, who each bring their own benefits to the table.
As you explore the galaxy, you'll come across planets you can bring into your federation by performing missions and gaining influence points with them. Like Civilization titles, you'll manage resources, research tech (via science points), and later on engage in diplomacy and negotiations.
The ships in your fleet are upgradable in a range of categories (engines, shields, armor, cannons, torpedoes, stealth, sensors, and more), and they can even be reconfigured before you go into battle.
The turn-based game largely takes place on a tactical hex map that can change as combat progresses. One instance shown in the demo is a battle around a planet with its own asteroid belt. The debris affects your attacks and movement. There are passages through the asteroids that will open and close as turns progress. There are even black holes to avoid in some maps.
The more missions your crew goes on the more fatigued they become, which drains their efficiency. This is recouped when you go on shore leave, which then begins the turn of the other federations in the game, who have their own agendas and fleets to back them up.
