PolyCast Episode 237: "See the Progression"

To present day. The two-hundred-and-thirty-seventh episode of PolyCast, "See the Progression", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and "MadDjinn" with first-time guest co-host Lotfi "ZTZaorish" Kerzabi. It carries a runtime of 59m59s.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 01m04s | Open Mic
Passion and performance bounce and bristle as the panel discusses feedback for Episode 236 of the show including applications of eXpand in the 4X genre of strategy gaming and snowballing.
- 26m56s | News
Digesting an article and video on hybrid affinities in Civilization Beyond Earth: Rising Tide, followed closely by another presentation showing the BE expansion's new leader-specific traits (38m50s).
- 43m06s | Research Lab
The how and when of when City States could meet unsettled land in a would-be Civilization VI.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Punny disposition and turning back time.

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.

On the topic of expansion as far as incentivizing people to go wide, how do you feel the lack of "luxuries" has affected BE gameplay?

Do you think it was a mistake on the part of the developers not to include resources that can give an immediate boost to health, thereby removing an element that made settling territory in the early game more attractive?

Because I do agree that civilizations should feel like civilizations, but territory and resources in BE just don't seem to have as much appeal as they did in Civ 5.

Hi again Westwall.

Westwall said:

On the topic of expansion as far as incentivizing people to go wide, how do you feel the lack of "luxuries" has affected BE gameplay?

Do you think it was a mistake on the part of the developers not to include resources that can give an immediate boost to health, thereby removing an element that made settling territory in the early game more attractive?

Because I do agree that civilizations should feel like civilizations, but territory and resources in BE just don't seem to have as much appeal as they did in Civ 5.

Click to expand...

On Episode 225 earlier this year, we responded to an email from a listener like yourself about the state of resources in Civilization: Beyond Earth (see 03m49s for the start). I believe that topic answers your question. If you feel it does not, or you would like to follow-up otherwise, by all means I hope that you will do so.

Cool, big ups.

Regarding the Civ 6 discussion about endless tracts of unoccupied wasteland late in the game, I have a really simple solution that might even be able to be modded into Civ 5: Remove the 5-ring max cultural expansion limit. Make it unlimited, but with the restriction that a city can't expand into the 6th ring until all the 5th ring tiles are claimed (by that city, another city, or another Civ). Likewise, each successive ring can't be claimed until all the current ring's tiles are taken.

This will ensure that, late in the game, you don't have large swaths of unclaimed tundra/snow/desert spawning barbarians. But it will negate the need for players or the AI to build tiny useless cities to take up space and it will eliminate the way the early game's borders snake out to grab a luxury before anyone else can (that can still be done within the 5-ring area as usual).

I'm a warmonger so I typically have a bunch of GG's laying around. Often they get used to grab oil etc that is just beyond my borders, but otherwise I would use them just to claim land. Perhaps in Civ 6, another unit could be used for a similar purpose. Maybe after a certain age, explorers can be used same as GG's now, but without the fortress.

the discussion about ICS missed an important point about the city tile.

why is the city tile is so important?

• it's free.
• alot of entites (notably, wonders & social policies. less so, maritime city states) give out stuff on a city by city basis.

in civ1, 2, 3, and civ5 before BNW it is optimal to ICS. considering the logarithmic city population growth curve and the fact that a city can build only one copy of a building, building new cities is always good. additionally, more cities -> more land -> more resources -> sell them or build more units.

Ask Makahlua how she feels about any semblance of "diplomacy-diplomacy" confirmed to have been removed from BE in the Rising Tide expansion.

I seemed to remember that was a sticking point in one of the earlier casts.

Well they've done it, you can no longer warn another faction not to settle near you.

If they plop a city down near your territory, you have to either bear it, downgrade relations or declare all out war.

shaglio, Lucius, Hail: your comments above were incorporated as part of the Open Mic segment of Episode 238's recording yesterday.

Westwall said:

Ask Makahlua how she feels about any semblance of "diplomacy-diplomacy" confirmed to have been removed from BE in the Rising Tide expansion.

I seemed to remember that was a sticking point in one of the earlier casts.

Well they've done it, you can no longer warn another faction not to settle near you.

If they plop a city down near your territory, you have to either bear it, downgrade relations or declare all out war.

Click to expand...

For Episode 239!