Do you actually think any of our opinions now will be taken onboard?

[Abaddon]

Ok, so in the past, developers have lurked about here, sometimes even posting..

But do you honestly think, any petitions or angry opinions are going to sway development of ciV now?

Personally i think you are trying to close the gate after the horse has bolted (you're waaay to late )

But, then again, its still fun ranting and raving right?

Or are you getting your cannons of angst ready for the X-packs

[Hail]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

Ok, so in the past, developers have lurked about here, sometimes even posting..

But do you honestly think, any petitions or angry opinions are going to sway development of ciV now?

i do not think that any pleas or petitions will change anything. i actually feel that the "ideas & suggestions" subforum is of no value to firaxis.

however i do think that every civ sequel should strive to be better, not just different!

maybe someday someone, inspired by the ideas & suggestions in the "ideas & suggestions" subforum, will create an alternate civ!

[sk065]

Actually, your wrong - the 2k community manager over at the 2k forums wants to know our opnion on what DRM to implement in CIV 5. I would advise everyone to go over there and give their opnion on the matter as it seems they are going to seriously listen to what we have to say on the matter.

[Camikaze]

Of course the developers listen intently to all of my ideas and suggestions. They'd be missing out on pure genius if they weren't. I'm sure they must...thousands of posts can't all be for nothing...right?

Right?



But in all seriousness, I would think that by this stage, whilst most of the game has undoubtedly been planned fully, developers would be focusing on community ideas more than any other time, to perhaps resolve any issues that are coming up, and to get a final idea of what the community wants, now that the community has has some info to respond to. Doesn't mean they're going to agree with everything, though.

[Kriku]

I think that the ideas might make it into the expansion packs, even if the main version has a critical Christmas season deadline and probably has a fixed scope by now.

[Rowain deWolf]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

But do you honestly think, any petitions or angry opinions are going to sway development of ciV now?

They do listen once the opinions are based on facts. Once we have played the game they will listen what works and what needs adjustment. This is a thing they have done in the past.

Listening now to people who don't have a clue how the game works and plays would be foolish. Most of the 'angry' petition is just the usual stupid 'oh noes i have to rethink my playstile', 'oh noes there comes something new' fear.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

But do you honestly think, any petitions or angry opinions are going to sway development of ciV now?

No .

[Camikaze]

Originally Posted by Dale

No .

At what stage, if any, are community ideas, or community sentiment, taken into account in the design/development process?

[Rowain deWolf]

Originally Posted by Camikaze

At what stage, if any, are community ideas, or community sentiment, taken into account in the design/development process?

example:

Originally Posted by Sirian

In summer 2004, Jon and I had a lengthy back and forth on CivFanatics about what ought to be in Civ4. I bet if any of those posts survive, it would make for some interesting reading today.

- Sirian

[Chalks]

I tell you what - at this stage, I'd be extremely pleased to see firaxis ignoring the opinions of the community, since apparently there are plenty of people here who think it's their place to criticise new aspects of the game that they cannot possibly understand.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Camikaze

At what stage, if any, are community ideas, or community sentiment, taken into account in the design/development process?

During design of course. After my experience with Civ4 testing (and other dev studios testing their games) at this point in the dev cycle almost all components would be in (if not all of them in) and stress testing of the engine about to begin.

[Camikaze]

Originally Posted by Dale

During design of course. After my experience with Civ4 testing (and other dev studios testing their games) at this point in the dev cycle almost all components would be in (if not all of them in) and stress testing of the engine about to begin.

Would there likely be any time at which the chalkboard would have to be revisited due to stuff picked up in testing, or by this stage are any changes most likely going to be very minimal; not affecting the inclusion/exclusion of any whole features?

[Lord Khorak]

Of course opinions now will be taken on board. More importantly, really good ideas right now will be taken on board.

Firaxis is hardly new to the game, like any other veteran development company they're going to be aware of the nature of the internet, and will be filtering out the usual garbage that always happens to see what can be done to address issues they may not have realised were a problem, or implement/modify any idea that would improve it.

It's just there's thousands of people posting, and they can hardly give a pat on the back to every single person/post that gave them a new little idea for the game.

[ShadowWarrior]

I think designers are going to listen to our opinions of the game after we have been playing it for a while so that they can make the sequel better. So we don't have any influence over Civ 5's development at this stage, I think they will start listening to what we have to say after the game is released. So our inputs then will be used for Civ 6 (or perhaps Alpha Centauri II?)

[Daedal]

It's pretty late in the game to accept radical new ideas. If you ask the devs for octagonal tiles now (because hey, if 6 sides are better than 4, why not 8 sides? ) you'll probably get laughed at, and not just because it's a silly idea. But there's still plenty to be tweaked before V goes gold.

Besides that we can expect two expansions to come out, many patches along the way, and many more mods and unofficial patches from CFC members. If a good idea comes out in these forums somebody will probably pick it up.

[Gamemaster77]

Im guessing they will still look around here for any minor enhancements and changes. Anything major like hex vs square will obviously be dismissed.

[Hail]

Originally Posted by Dale

During design of course. After my experience with Civ4 testing (and other dev studios testing their games) at this point in the dev cycle almost all components would be in (if not all of them in) and stress testing of the engine about to begin.

sort of agree, but i think that civfanatics is not representative enough to take it into account. more so, since on most issues there is no consensus

[r_rolo1]

Originally Posted by Daedal

It's pretty late in the game to accept radical new ideas. If you ask the devs for octagonal tiles now (because hey, if 6 sides are better than 4, why not 8 sides? ) you'll probably get laughed at, and not just because it's a silly idea. But there's still plenty to be tweaked before V goes gold.

Besides that we can expect two expansions to come out, many patches along the way, and many more mods and unofficial patches from CFC members. If a good idea comes out in these forums somebody will probably pick it up.

True enough. Civ developers routinely pick ideas from the forums, that is a proven fact. But our ranting now will have pretty much nil effect on the core mechanics of the game as it will get out in the fall, because those should be pretty much done by now ( ok, there might be some room for graphics talk, that should be in polish time, but that is a completely diferent issue ).

That does not invalidate that our rantings might serve for a x-pak in the future ( not obviously for a patch ) as long as you don't ask anything too radical ( like the square grid back )

[Earthling]

No, and they probably shouldn't. At best from any debate here we'll see some fellow players whom we agree with and maybe look for their mods...The fact is people can't agree on the basic concepts of what they feel the game should be and of course the developers are going to ignore it all.

[Truronian]

No, though I would be surprised if reaction to various cIV features and the Ideas and Suggestions board hadn't at last perused at some point by developers.