PolyCast Episode 240: "Embrace the Confusion"

Enveloping you. The two-hundred-and-fortieth episode of PolyCast, "Embrace the Confusion", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua" and "MadDjinn" with returning guest co-hosts "CanusAlbinus", "OneCrazyCanadia", Lotfi "ZTZaorish" Kerzabi, Daniel "dacole" Cole, "DarkestOnion"DarkestOnion, fuzzyfractal42, Scott "AlphaShard" Dirk. It carries a feature-length runtime of 78m10s.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 03m23s | News (Part 1 of 2)
On the heels of Civilization: Beyond Earth -- Rising Tide being released, a retrospecive panel from Firaxicon 2015 that has a disconnect between title and content.
- 11m38s | Rotational (Part 1 of 2)
Speaking with the first two of rotating guest co-hosts about CivBERT, "OneCrazyCanadia" and "ZTZarosih" (17m17s).
- 24m12s | News (Part 2 of 2)
The reviews are in for Civilization: Beyond Earth's Rising Tide expansion and they are "generally favourable".
- 24m12s | Rotational (Part 2 of 2)
The next and final four guest co-hosts rotating through to discuss CivBERT are "daolce", "DarkestOnion" (35m17s), Andrew "fuzzyfractal42" (54m22s) and Scott "AlphaShard" Dirk (64m11s).
- 68m20s | Contest
A record of the five listeners during the episode's livestream recording who won a copy of Civilization: Beyond Earth -- Rising Tide by completing the sentence "[o]n my first turn in [in this expansion], I'd...".

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Counting game, sound effects and missing a beat.

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.

Off to a flying start, I like it a lot

I agree with the general feel of the panel, it's not bad, far from unplayable but its longevity is questionable

This was a very soft episode. The live show was good fun, though

Of course, I can't blame the PolyCast for a boring Firaxicon panel, but those quotes were bland and uninspiring. Except maybe Mr. Solomon talking about exploration; because that exact part doesn't go well with Beyond Earth gameplay (isolated science race). It made me think how much better the Civilization 5 mechanics are implemented into the gameplay.

And I honestly don't understand the reviews. Beyond Earth got "generally favourable" reviews, and is still a mediocre title in my opinion. I'm maybe not swayed by the novelty of a Civ game; rather, the longevity matters. Scoring a title based on "potential" and post-patch speculation is wrong and very misleading.

The best part was definitely the guests! Especially dacole, because his style of play is so different. This time, the comparison to Alpha Centauri was both valid and interesting (gameplay, setting), because it shows how hard they've missed the content part of Beyond Earth. I still don't understand why anyone thinks factions based on geopolitics are interesting... beyond Earth.

Today it's 10th anniversary of Civ4's release. Did you already broach it or celebrate it in one of the next episodes?

stormtrooper412 said:

Off to a flying start, I like it a lot

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I agree with the general feel of the panel, it's not bad, far from unplayable but its longevity is questionable

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Thank you for passing that along.

Rubin said:

This was a very soft episode. The live show was good fun, though

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Of course, I can't blame the PolyCast for a boring Firaxicon panel, but those quotes were bland and uninspiring. Except maybe Mr. Solomon talking about exploration; because that exact part doesn't go well with Beyond Earth gameplay (isolated science race). It made me think how much better the Civilization 5 mechanics are implemented into the gameplay.

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We have more Firaxicon panels to cover in coming episodes. Hopefully you'll find more to your interest in one or more of them. (Speaking for myself, I did.)

And I honestly don't understand the reviews. Beyond Earth got "generally favourable" reviews, and is still a mediocre title in my opinion. I'm maybe not swayed by the novelty of a Civ game; rather, the longevity matters. Scoring a title based on "potential" and post-patch speculation is wrong and very misleading.

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Our understanding of the reviews we covered are based on how the Rising Tide expansion for BE is at release, including those of us on the panel save one.

The best part was definitely the guests!

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Especially dacole, because his style of play is so different. This time, the comparison to Alpha Centauri was both valid and interesting (gameplay, setting), because it shows how hard they've missed the content part of Beyond Earth.

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Through our panelists, regular and guest, we welcome opportunities to have as many different perspectives and playstyles of Civilization players represented on the show. I decided to employ a 'rotational' of guests throughout this episode itself, as compared to the usual episode-to-episode, given its timing relative to the release of CivBERT.

I still don't understand why anyone thinks factions based on geopolitics are interesting... beyond Earth.

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Oh, I see what you did there.

Ramkhamhaeng said:

Today it's 10th anniversary of Civ4's release. Did you already broach it or celebrate it in one of the next episodes?

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Given that the CivIV release anniversary had not yet past in our recording schedule, it has not as of yet been observed on the show.

Don't care about CivBE but it was fun to listen to. Reading aloud some reviews from people with, ahem, surface experience with strategy gaming can naturally flow into a very deep comedy.

You made it sound BERT is one big patch away from being a great game. Still don't remember Firaxis fixing games with patches as opposed to fixing it with expansions.

Ilitarist said:

Don't care about CivBE but it was fun to listen to.

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Glad you enjoyed the listen.

Reading aloud some reviews from people with, ahem, surface experience with strategy gaming can naturally flow into a very deep comedy.

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You made it sound BERT is one big patch away from being a great game. Still don't remember Firaxis fixing games with patches as opposed to fixing it with expansions.

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This would be two patches or more (Firaxis Games has already alluded to them in plural form) for an expansion pack.