PolyCast Episode 241: "Baby Steps"

Forward momentum. The two-hundred-and-forty-first episode of PolyCast, "Baby Steps", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and "MadDjinn" with first-time guest co-host "Sedwick". It carries a runtime of 59m59s.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 01m17s | News
A patch promise with an expedient turn around for Civilization: Beyond Earth -- Rising Tide is realized, and Civilization Revolution 2+ is coming later this year (29m50s).
- 22m49s | Open Mic
Feedback received for Episode 240 leads to a testy conversation.
- 37m49s | Miscellaneous
The "Retrospective" on Civilization V from Firaxicon 2015 draws attention to prototyping, intro movie, leaderheads and expansion naming among other points.
- 49m21s | Time Machine
Reviving a dormant and most previously collapsed segment, celebrating the ten year anniversary of Civilization IV's release.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Humour before information, fleeting sales record and helping oneself.

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.

Very fun to listen to as always.

My ideas for Warscore:
- If you're "dominating" you should be allowed to give up half(?) your warscore to "force an AI to make peace
- You should be able to tell the AI to not settle near you etc. - and if they decline you get a bonus-modifier for your warscore if you declare war on them within a timer

Black Market:
I was actually surprised how useful this is in my modded games. Since that patch I found myself so often going for that little bit of extra titanium for more Orbital Units or other Resources for that extra Building that I just unlocked. And I was SO disappointed when I found out that I couldn't create Geothermal that way.

Unfortunately, in the actual unmodded game there is little to no time to really use it as games just end too fast to really profit from the investment.

And MadDjinn is so right about the Land-Naval-Production-Problem.

About Scoring a game for it's "potential": I actually don't think that's a problem at all if you clearly say that you're scoring it the way you do because of that. As long as people know that that's a factor everything should be just fine - except if the person is a professional reviewer whose Score becomes part of Metacritic of course... but that's a very different issue.

I personally give Beyond Earth a 100 points based on what I fantasize about what this game could become!

...and that's it, those are my random comments to random things I noticed.

I recently started playing Civ and listening to PolyCast again since Rising Tide came out. It's great to see the episodes are still entertaining and informative! However, I don't think I really "get" the Time Machine segment. I usually listen to PolyCast to hear discussion between the hosts, and it felt a little weird to have a few minutes of script-reading. I'm not sure what the original segment looked like in seasons past, but I think I would have preferred a to hear more of a retrospective discussion about Civ IV and how the game feels now, looking back on it.

(I also listened to Episode 240--I really liked the mini-interview format and would actually have preferred they went on a little longer. It seemed like those guys had a lot to say, and since they're not the regulars it'd be nice to hear more to see what other opinions the community has.)

Ryika said:

Very fun to listen to as always.

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Black Market:
I was actually surprised how useful this is in my modded games. Since that patch I found myself so often going for that little bit of extra titanium for more Orbital Units or other Resources for that extra Building that I just unlocked. And I was SO disappointed when I found out that I couldn't create Geothermal that way.

Unfortunately, in the actual unmodded game there is little to no time to really use it as games just end too fast to really profit from the investment.[/i]

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What is it about your modded games that makes the Black Market useful? Either through peaceful settling, warring expansion, external trade routes or a combination of both would appear to give you what you are looking for otherwise.

MattZed said:

I recently started playing Civ and listening to PolyCast again since Rising Tide came out. It's great to see the episodes are still entertaining and informative!

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Welcome back, listener, and thank you kindly.

However, I don't think I really "get" the Time Machine segment. I usually listen to PolyCast to hear discussion between the hosts, and it felt a little weird to have a few minutes of script-reading. I'm not sure what the original segment looked like in seasons past, but I think I would have preferred a to hear more of a retrospective discussion about Civ IV and how the game feels now, looking back on it.

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This was the first time the Time Machine segment was scripted, and only on rare occasions is there any scripting on the show. Anticipating extended discussion on the first patch for Civilization: Beyond Earth -- Rising Tide which was realized, I made the decision to acknowledge the anniversary of Civilization IV's release in this way and in a short block of time. To your comment about your preference, I recommend the Forum Talk topic comparing a number of aspects of it and CivV as of then on Episode 125 from 2011: it is not an exact match as it was recorded before either expansion for the latter was released, but still a close match even today I feel.

(I also listened to Episode 240--I really liked the mini-interview format and would actually have preferred they went on a little longer. It seemed like those guys had a lot to say, and since they're not the regulars it'd be nice to hear more to see what other opinions the community has.)

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You are touching upon the double-edged sword I see to the guest rotational approach for an individual episode: greater breadth at the expense of greater depth of opinions expressed. It is primarily for this reason that we take this approach only on special occasions, such as shortly after a new Civ title has been released where experience with it is not likely sufficient for depth yet. Moreover on subsequent appearances where one or more of these, and/or other, individuals are a/the guest for an entire recording depth will have better opportunity to surface.

Interesting episode

some observations:

Dan, do you have a flu or something, your voice sounded a bit funny

also, Sedwick has the perfect "radio" voice, that was really nice

stormtrooper412 said:

Interesting episode

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Dan, do you have a flu or something, your voice sounded a bit funny

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Close: I was getting over a cold at the time of recording.