PolyCast Episode 206: "More Insidious"

Hear it to believe it. The two-hundred-and-sixth episode of PolyCast, "More Insidious", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and "MadDjinn" with first-time guest co-host Michael "UberMarklar" Bryant. Carrying a runtime of 59m59s, the summary of topics is as follows:

- 01m20s | Miscellaneous (Part 1 of 2)
The ambition in bringing a Civilization experience into Minecraft with CivCraft is followed by much: CivV being one gaming writer's favourite game of the past decade (07m09s); its arrival on Linux with a port for the operating system (11m02s; recorded for Episode 204); Civ being called the "most addictive" video game (15m26s) in a well-circulated popular culture magazine; on the "grand strategies" of Civ developer Firaxis Games (21m40s) and how Civilization V is played according to a survey with at the time nearing 20,000 responses (29m56s; recorded for Episode 205).
- 49m35s | News
Many-a-review for Civilization: Revolution are in and they're mostly not positive.
- 53m19s | Miscellaneous (Part 2 of 2)
Civilization: Beyond Earth won a few awards at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and the composer of Civilization IV's Grammy-award winning theme returns to the series with the theme for the upcoming Civilization Online (54m43s; recorded for Episode 204).

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Biting tongues and never failing at a particular task.

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; listeners are encouraged to follow the show on Twitter, and check out the YouTube channel for caption capability. Sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding, SCivCast on Civ social gaming and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

The thing I found with World of Warcraft was not so much that it was addictive to play, but that, because it's a subscription based game, I always felt compelled to play as much as I could in order to get my money's worth. I found that I was playing even when I had no desire to do so just so I wouldn't be wasting money.

That and doing Dungeons and Raids meant you were forced to play until the group was done, unless you wanted to make yourself a pariah.

But, that's just my 2

Questionable entries in a Rolling Stone top ten list? Inconceivable!

Original Starcraft was a crappy game. Ech ech ech, terrible. Total Annihilation was a far better RTS, (best ever? parabolic trajectories, artillery min and max ranges depend on map's gravity setting) came out a year earlier, and was more addictive because it was more fun. Peewees, pewpewpewpewpew.

I'm surprised to hear little support for Patronage, particularly its left side. 6 Allies will boost your science 15-20 percent. 10 Allies can get you up to 33%. The next policy can get you 12-14 happiness.

If you put in the time to cultivate the gold and the quests, left side of Patronage is very strong. And their ability to fight for you is often critical on high difficulties. I think the presenters are missing out.

Nick31 said:

I'm surprised to hear little support for Patronage, particularly its left side. 6 Allies will boost your science 15-20 percent. 10 Allies can get you up to 33%. The next policy can get you 12-14 happiness.

If you put in the time to cultivate the gold and the quests, left side of Patronage is very strong. And their ability to fight for you is often critical on high difficulties. I think the presenters are missing out.

Click to expand...

Science from Patronage: A small fraction of Rationalism. And typically there's only 2 fillers between completing the first tree and the time Rationalism can start.

Happiness from Patronage: That's actually less than what you'd get from Monarchy alone.

You can win the game with full Patronage instead of full Rationalism especially going Diplomatic, but the turn count going that way is significantly longer than the standard for Diplomatic:
1. Full Tradition
2. Two filler Policies only [such as Patronage opener & consulates to raise minimum starting point to 25 points when combined with pledge to protect]
3. Full Rationalism
4. Freedom (level 3 tenet to choose being the one providing influence for trade routes from city states)
5. Whatever you want
This is because the real bottleneck for Diplomatic victory is tech (getting to Globalism)

Ha, well you take Patronage after completing Tradition. And if you're quick Culturally, you can open at least two Patronage policies before being able to open Rationalism.

Certainly Rationalism on its own is better for science, particularly in getting to the Specialist boost. But, if you're on the appropriate map, and you're doing well with units clearing camps, I find you can get to Patronage so quickly that you're really just maybe delaying Rationalism one policy...

And, of course, you'd be pumping in culture, faith, food, and units that you'd be missing out on going straight rationalism and using gold to buy buildings.

As to the overall nature of the survey, I think people are fiddling with other things after Tradition rather than organizing a good Patronage game. I personally find that to fend off aggressive AI, having a good CS core is important. Not in all circumstances of course, but if I'm culturally doing well, it's a compliment to Rationalism that will follow. I rarely touch right side Patronage, but Left-side, even just taking up to Science is 3 quickish policies.

Just so you're aware, the video you played clips of on the CivCraft segment doesn't match the mod you were covering. There are two Minecraft mods named CivCraft, though technically there is one Minecraft mod named CivCraft (which is based on Sid Meyer's Civilization) and one Minecraft modpack named CivCraft (which does not contain the CivCraft mod and is not based on Sid Meyer's Civilization). The two are totally unrelated, and the audio from the YouTube video you played is for the latter.

The addresses for CivCraft the mod, based on Civilization:
http://civcraft.net/
http://www.reddit.com/r/CivilizationCraft

The addresses for CivCraft the modpack unrelated to Civilization:
http://civcraft.org/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Civcraft

Eklinaar said:

Just so you're aware, the video you played clips of on the CivCraft segment doesn't match the mod you were covering. There are two Minecraft mods named CivCraft, though technically there is one Minecraft mod named CivCraft (which is based on Sid Meyer's Civilization) and one Minecraft modpack named CivCraft (which does not contain the CivCraft mod and is not based on Sid Meyer's Civilization). The two are totally unrelated, and the audio from the YouTube video you played is for the latter.

Click to expand...

Pardon that -- I had missed the slight difference in the Reddit reference in the description of the YouTube video in question. Fortunately there was nothing of gameplay 'substance', so to speak, in the audio used.

I especially enjoyed the debate on whether Piety was worth it or not. I'm not sure who the speakers were but it went something like this:

"Piety can be good if ..."

"No, actually, Piety's bad."

"Well, Piety alone is tough, but if you take it with ..."

"No, it's just bad. I mean, it's not BAD, but there are always better SPs to invest in."

"I don't know, there are some powerful synergies with some of the Liberty SPs, if..."

"No, really. It's bad. Just, don't do it. Just ... don't."

Sure, sometimes, but if you're focusing on religion, you should consider...

No, not even then. NOT EVEN THEN. Please, just trust me on this, okay?


Anyway, our next topic ...

Whoever guy #2 was (MadDjinn?), congrats for very politely sticking to your guns . Sorry. Piety ... Bad.

It raises the question -- surely, Firaxis they can track games through Steam, see what the typical winning strategies are (SP choices, build orders, etc.) on Immortal and Deity. Why not use those to implement some crowd-based AI improvements, not to mention see ahead of time what SP trees are underpowered?

I maintain that Piety can be used effectively in combination with other Social Policies, though not as a first Social Policy as I've said and argued on the show... and so long as we're talking about Brave New World of course. I agree that Piety alone is a bad choice in and of itself, but not absolutely.