PolyCast Episode 147: "Lots of Speculation"

[DanQ]

Just the way it's wanted. The one-hundred-and-forty-seventh episode of PolyCast, "Lots of Speculation", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and Lisa "qnl" Bang with returning guest co-host "MadDjinn" and first-time guest co-host "Peng Qi"; it has a runtime of 59m59s; listeners are encouraged to rate the show on iTunes and follow on Twitter.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 01m29s | News
Oh so much new information revealed publicly for the first time about the Civilization V expansion Gods & Kings. In order of consideration: civilizations; combat (11m39s); resources, diplomacy and miscellaneous (16m27s); religion (22m50s); and contradictions in two preview write-ups as well as a video one. (38m25s).
- 45m20s | Community Focus
The coming together of the Civilization fansite community for its third intersite Democracy Game, set in Civilization IV and its Beyond the Sword expansion.
- 48m00s | Miscellaneous
How the revelation of past Civ designer Soren Johnson joining Zynga leaves mixed feelings about his move, his next game involvement and social gaming in general.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
A staggering revelation called into question.

Recording live before a listening audience every other Saturday, PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding, SCivCast on Civ social gaming and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

[i_imperator]

I seem to be having trouble downloading this podcast and the previous turncast off itunes. Not too sure if it is a URL problem or something else. Ive updated itunes and qucktime but that hasnt fixed the problem. Anybody else having this problem?
Also apologies for not attending the previous livestreams, i have been busy with college exams, but im on holidays now!

[DanQ]

Originally Posted by stevoh

I seem to be having trouble downloading this podcast and the previous turncast off itunes. Not too sure if it is a URL problem or something else. Ive updated itunes and qucktime but that hasnt fixed the problem. Anybody else having this problem?

The server that hosts our RSS feeds is down still unfortunately. You can access them off of the official website and then load them onto iTunes manually in the interim.

Also apologies for not attending the previous livestreams, i have been busy with college exams, but im on holidays now!

No worries -- I can well relate to the importance that must be played on studying for and writing exams.

[Lemon Merchant]

Ceilidh is pronounced "KAY-lee"

Just FYI.

[MadDjinn]

Originally Posted by Lemon Merchant

Ceilidh is pronounced "KAY-lee"

Just FYI.

that's what I told him.

[Lemon Merchant]

Originally Posted by MadDjinn

that's what I told him.

Ooops. I missed that, sorry.

[DanQ]

Originally Posted by Lemon Merchant

Ceilidh is pronounced "KAY-lee"

Just FYI.

Originally Posted by MadDjinn

that's what I told him.

Originally Posted by Lemon Merchant

Ooops. I missed that, sorry.

The correct pronunciation from MadDjinn is included in the episode proper, and the fumbling of the pronunciation by me is in the blooper reel.

[MadDjinn]

Originally Posted by Lemon Merchant

Ooops. I missed that, sorry.

Originally Posted by DanQ

The correct pronunciation from MadDjinn is included in the episode proper, and the fumbling of the pronunciation by me is in the blooper reel.

Dan's edit cut it really tight, so it's hard to tell that it's there.

[Luckystrike77]

Nice! I look forward to listen to this, as always. Hopefully no microphone troubble this time...

[Buccaneer]

This is my first listen to a podcast in years and does it always have this much "yucking it up"? Kind of distracting to listen to.

[DanQ]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

This is my first listen to a podcast in years and does it always have this much "yucking it up"? Kind of distracting to listen to.

Sorry to learn that you do not find the banter to your liking -- we recognize that we cannot please everyone's preference in that respect.

Originally Posted by Luckystrike77

Nice! I look forward to listen to this, as always.

Hopefully no microphone troubble this time...

Yes and no. Phil was having some considerable connectivity issues the day we recorded this, so he ended up using a phone to call-in as opposed to his Skype VoIP account.

[Andulias]

Something worth noting - in the demo builds the journalists never got to the Renaissance era and therefore never tried out espionage. That's the main game though, while in the Steampunk scenario, which was very much playable as well, Espionage was there right off the bat, so don't jump to conclusions so quickly next time.

[DanQ]

Originally Posted by Andulias

Something worth noting - in the demo builds the journalists never got to the Renaissance era and therefore never tried out espionage. That's the main game though, while in the Steampunk scenario, which was very much playable as well, Espionage was there right off the bat, so don't jump to conclusions so quickly next time.

No conclusions were jumped to at all. If and when the previewers in question made reference to the Steampunk scenario, there was little to any indication that they had played it; even where they had, and in turn had experienced espionage through that, extrapolating that to the main game is tenuous at best.

[Andulias]

Originally Posted by DanQ

No conclusions were jumped to at all. If and when the previewers in question made reference to the Steampunk scenario, there was little to any indication that they had played it; even where they had, and in turn had experienced espionage through that, extrapolating that to the main game is tenuous at best.

I most seriously doubt the Espionage system in the scenario will be different in any way, especially since the way it was described was exactly what Firaxis have told us, word by word. There were only a few scattered tidbits of information, most of which just confirmed the official info. First-hand examples were given - for instance one previewer managed to catch an AI's spy in his capital and after the end of the turn the Ai civ that sent it contacted him to negotiate the consequences.

More importantly though, that shows something else - I guess not everyone played the same build, since many reviewers didn't say a word about the steampunk scenario, while in the preview I linked the author specifically stated they had no first-hand experience with religion. The truth is I found this information in a German, a Spanish and a Russian preview. That still doesn't mean that the articles out there that praise Espionage are based on thin air and vague promises. They might be, but we can't know for certain. Meanwhile your verdict on all this in the podast came across as quite, what would be the appropriate name of putting it, conclusive to say the least.

[DanQ]

What is being discussed as having been played by the previewers in question are indeed all builds of the as-of-yet incomplete CivV expansion, and I agree that they are not necessarily all the same builds. That said, it was stated on this episode of the podcast that we are ultimately speculating -- it's even in the title after all. We are conclusive in our view. I believe, as do my fellow panelists, that our speculation is based on sound reasoning given the volume of information at hand including the common assertion that the main game could not be played past the point that Espionage is introduced.

[TheMeInTeam]

Dan's edit cut it really tight, so it's hard to tell that it's there.

I'll show YOU a really tight cut.











In Madden.