I wonder if the policy applied by some companies for their games in particular RPG games would be applied also to a game like civilization.
These companies sometimes release mini addon which can be quests or some new tools and charge it 2-3$.
I wonder if you would be willing to pay 2-3$ for a mini-addon like a unit,new treaties,new technologies or new graphic improvement in other words anything which would enhance CIV longevity.
Let's be clear i'm not speaking about an expansion but just a mini-addon which adds something to your civing experience.

dont think that would work for civ4, as its highly modable...
the major reason to buy warlords for example arent thos two units and 8 leaderheads, but the really advanced AI....

I think the original poster is talking about Oblivion, which offers little downloads like a new skin for the horse model for $2 each. Personally, I think paid downloads are nothing but a perfect excuse for developers to intentionally hold back otherwise finished content from their games (and sell it later).

Fortunately, I don't think Firaxis would ever stoop to this low a level. Besides, Civ games are hard enough to balance already, let alone if you kept introducing new units or civs or whatever. How would you handle multiplayer if one player has "downloadable unit x" and the other doesn't?

Overall it's a bad idea in my opinion. Any way you look at it, players lose.

For me the issue is not the money, but the lack of a common baseline if such things would be added. I like to play with unaltered gameplay mods. It's time-consuming enough having to re-do mods every time there's a patch... now if you had to write code to accommodate the presence or absence of a bunch of mini-add-ons, that'd be a nightmare!

For me the issue is not the money, but the lack of a common baseline if such things would be added. I like to play with unaltered gameplay mods. It's time-consuming enough having to re-do mods every time there's a patch... now if you had to write code to accommodate the presence or absence of a bunch of mini-add-ons, that'd be a nightmare!

Exactly. But the "skin" idea is a pretty neat one. Offer for-pay downloads that only affect the appearance of the game, and only on your computer. You like the Malinese? Download the new Malinese skin set for only $2.99! All units uniquely modeled and/or skinned for your favourite nation.

$2.99 for 1 CIV, $.99 each for additional CIVs.
$14.99 for all CIVs.

I could imagine more impressive wonder movies being made available, various terrain sets, a special $4.99 Hallowe'en / Christmas colours download with UU Santas and worker elves.

Those really into it could pay for by-country correct skins for military units, complete with uniforms of the era that the unit was built. Pretty cool to see "early" American musketeers dressed as Frontiersmen and/or Redcoats, then ones built later on skinned as minutemen, then Civil War era riflemen, etc. France would be awesome, with units built with no land connection to the capital wearing Zouave uniforms. WWII Panzers would be modeled/skinned as Panzers I-IV, Panthers, Tigers, etc., depending on when they were built, or perhaps randomly, Battleships could be individually modeled to represent accurate silhouettes of individual historical ships from the correct nation, etc.

The creme de la creme would be the uniform modifications based on promotions, so that woodsmen infantry would have army ranger uniforms, while commando infantry would be green berets, adding combat promotions would increase the number of medals on the chest of the skin, those rare city raider infantry would be in SWAT team outfits, and city garrison infantry would be in national guard uniforms.

Only problem I see is that it would get a bit tricky to tell what the actual composition of the units coming towards you is, but that is what mouseovers are for!

:lol: OK, this is mostly tongue in cheek, but I would seriously pay $10-15 for a graphical add-on which re-skinned/modeled all the units by Civ. Love the Jaguar warrior, and would love to play with Aztec-specific archers (blow-gunners?), axemen, riflemen, tanks, etc.

For some good in-depth scenarios/mods, I would. But if the mini-add on is a couple of new units or something like that, no.

... ... ...

:lol: OK, this is mostly tongue in cheek, but I would seriously pay $10-15 for a graphical add-on which re-skinned/modeled all the units by Civ. Love the Jaguar warrior, and would love to play with Aztec-specific archers (blow-gunners?), axemen, riflemen, tanks, etc.
How about Ket's Flavor Mod with Unaltered Gameplay? Now that's free.

No way, I wouldn't pay for them!

No. I would never waste my money on it. And Bethesda suck for doing it with Oblivion.

Funny you should ask this the day Firaxis announces it's cooperation with Valve's Steam service... ;)

I'm not completely opposed to the idea. I guess it would depend on the content.

Exactly. But the "skin" idea is a pretty neat one.

Ah yes, I wholeheartedly agree. That would be cool.

I also agree with the opposite... namely, I would pay major bucks for add-ons to further dumb down the graphics and bells and whistles to make the game more playable for me on anything larger than Small maps or past the year 1900 :). I already use the minimal graphics settings and lots of dumb-down mods, but it's still sloooowwwwwww in the late game.

I wouldn´t pay a single devaluated peso for them!

2-3$ (around £1-1.50 for us Brits) for just a new unit or new tech! Pah! :nono:

The thing that makes the CivFanatics community special is the fact that they share all their ideas and projects with everyone else. FREE! That's the way it should be. :salute:

P.S. I know I havn't done any mods but I'm currently in the process of learning and am near to cracking XML.

Even though I like the idea of commercial add-ons, I wouldn't purchase them. The reason is the amount of problems plaguing any new game or game content releases, which is why I tend to wait a few months before purchasing a new game. For example, I waited 8 months before I got Civ IV (and saved some money in the process as I got it for $25), and I still haven't gotten Warlords. Bethesda's reputation is so bad that I'll wait for about two years before buying Oblivion; by that time I hope all the bugs will be fixed. Game content tends to be aimed at impulsive purchases, and as such I doubt I'll be buying it with a significant time delay.

Of course you could just do this all yourself and then sell each download for a price from your private site

You can´t. All the mods belong to Firaxis. ;)

I have $5 for anyone who makes me a cruise missile + code all ready to go....but the AI must know how to use it too ;)