Ed Beach's quote / future expansions

[Haig]

http://www.shacknews.com/article/78473/civilization-5-devs-on-forging-a-brave-new-world

"Now that the game has dealt with both its early and late-game content, though, I wondered what was left to tackle. When is Civilization 5 complete? "I don't think we're out of ideas," Beech said, tight-lipped.

Shirk, pointing out the expansiveness inherent in a game that is about the entire human experience, remarked: "Obviously with a game like Civ you could go on making content for any number of years."

----

Many people where adamant that G&K would be the only expansion, heck I remember threads about how Civ V was "done" before the release of G&K when there was a big break in DLC.

I think the above quote is pretty cool, it's not like it says that there will be more expansions, but I think Ed Beach has been godsend for Civ, the features and details of G&K and BNW are amazing.

I'm perfectly happy for the announced features and civs of Brave New World, but I know they could design even more great stuff for my beloved Civ V. Only thing we might run out of is significant empires, but that's a matter of taste I guess..

 

[Irkalla]

Some notable things that I feel that would still be missing from the game are racial/ethnic issues, colonies and decolonization issues, and pre-agriculture play. I think Civ needs to cover, in some manner, the darker side of humanity and civilization. You know, to show that civilizations aren't always composed of civilized people.

For example, as Assyria, perhaps you could play politics and blame recent economic troubles on Babylonians in your country. Bonus points if you went Autocracy. More bonus points if you forcibly deported these people from your country, or "whipped" them to scare your cities into producing more.

Or, perhaps, you could be playing as Portugal, which I know damn well ought to be in Brave New World; having a mass of colonies, each of which are a valuable source of slaves; and suddenly geopolitical pressure is tightening the vice on you, forcing your hand towards decolonization efforts. In the year 1992. Better late than never, right?

Or maybe you're just members of a very young species, still discovering things about the world, yourself, and others like you. Perhaps you've just learned that you can make up sequences of sound to transfer the thoughts from your head to another member of your species. Maybe you've just discovered that you can take these hard, useless bits from your favorite fruit and use them to make more of the delicious fruit. Or, perhaps you've only discovered that if there's a big, scary thing, throwing rocks at it will make it stop being scary. And make it start being dead. Fire sure would come in handy right about now, wouldn't it? If only you knew about it.

As for the direction of the game, I think Civ 5 was a sinking ship before Ed was brought on. From my point of view, it seems like Ed has been a significant driving force behind a better game for all of us; and I, for one, am rather satisfied with the course he's laid in.

 

[Pouakai]

As I said when this was last brought up, what I reckon they meant by that is when they stop making content for Civ 5, it won't be due to a lack of stuff to include. You've got millenia of human history to include, countless political entities, resources, themes and so forth. They'll stop making stuff because of poor sales, or calls from higher-up to bring out a new game or whatever. It just won't be from a lack of content

 

[Ekmek]

As for the direction of the game, I think Civ 5 was a sinking ship before Ed was brought on. From my point of view, it seems like Ed has been a significant driving force behind a better game for all of us; and I, for one, am terrifically satisfied with the course he's laid in.

I've been pretty happy with Ed's direction.

But really what can be done? The big things like religion (and now trade) have been addressed. Sure they can refine and improve stuff but there isn't anything they can add as a new system.

refined stuff I'd want is modding tools but national food which would make maritime city-states and food trading possible would be nice. but neither are features you can pitch a new xp on.

 

[Irkalla]

I've been pretty happy with Ed's direction.

But really what can be done? The big things like religion (and now trade) have been addressed. Sure they can refine and improve stuff but there isn't anything they can add as a new system.

refined stuff I'd want is modding tools but national food which would make maritime city-states and food trading possible would be nice. but neither are features you can pitch a new xp on.

I just mentioned three things that would add to the game. How'd you miss that?

 

[Haig]

Yeah Irkalla could immediately come up with cool ideas, so if each expansion would add three big features and a handful of civs and units to go with them, I would gladly expect expansions three and four. Also Steam makes it easier to distribute things too.

Rebellions, units getting "disease" from jungles until discovery of medicine, corporations, pollution, civil wars.. there's more ideas.

I'm perfectly happy with Brave New World, so I'm not trying to be greedy, but like Ed Beach said, ideas haven't run out of yet..

 

[mo123567]

I want three new eras. 1 prehistoric and two full future eras.

A fun mechanic for a prehistoric era could have everyone start off as small bands of barbarians. The world could be joined together by glaciers that gradually melt away. You would have to find and follow mammoths or other wildlife to stay alive as well as find resorces that disapear like ruins when found.(maybe randomly spawn as well) This should force all the groups to spread out and eventually become separated on different continents when the glaciers melt. Resorces would increase your prehistoric technology until you turn into a civilization. There would be more bands of barbarians than there are civ slots so only the first ones to fill the civ slots could become civilizations. If you get left behind, you still have a chance to take over an existing civ or you will stay a barbarian and eventually get destroyed. Also, the map would have a short memory during this era, maybe a few turns, so you would only start manintaining a map once you become a civ.

For future eras, I would like to see the game culminate into some sort of end. Maybe there could be multiple possiblities depending on how the game goes. There could be some kind of pollution/global warming mechanic that puts you in a race to stop it or find a way to leave the planet before it's too late. There could be a way to form a utopian global society, or global dictatorship. Through scientific research you can eventually reach trancedence or something like that. Basically, the victory conditions could be taken further into the future to reach a more total absolute conclusion to civilization as we know it.

Civilization V could tell a story of civilization on Earth from it's very formation till it's final stage, whatever that may be.

That would be the most epic civ game ever. If the Sims 3 can be around forever and keep releasing expansions, so can Civ 5. I could definately go for two more high quality expansions.

 

[Pouakai]

If a prehistoric start has the technology "Don't eat that!" I'll be happy.


Seriously, one thing I've noticed that is missing beyond the features from IV (at least for me) is the lack of feeling like you're in the modern era. I'm not sure if it was the music or what, but with IV I got a sense of actually being in modern times and almost having a different feel to the game there, but with V it's very similar (with the only changes in warfare). Maybe the World Congress and all that will change it, I don't know. I'm not even sure what I'm on about

 

[Jman5]

At the PAX event the guys were discussing BNW and EXCOM. One of the developers was talking about Civilization's success and said it's probably the most quietly successful game around. That every time it come out it sells huge numbers.

I wouldn't be surprised if they continue pumping out expansions and DLCs until they begin work on Civ 6. It's a cash cow for them, which is fine by me.

 

[mo123567]

If a prehistoric start has the technology "Don't eat that!" I'll be happy.


Seriously, one thing I've noticed that is missing beyond the features from IV (at least for me) is the lack of feeling like you're in the modern era. I'm not sure if it was the music or what, but with IV I got a sense of actually being in modern times and almost having a different feel to the game there, but with V it's very similar (with the only changes in warfare). Maybe the World Congress and all that will change it, I don't know. I'm not even sure what I'm on about

Yeah, "Don't eat that!" could be followed by "Fire hot" and "My club bigger than your club".

I definately miss the era specific music. Another great touch would be updated tile improvement visuals for each era and some sort of automatic visual upgrades for outdated units. No more archers shooting airplanes. There should be some weak generic militia units for technologically behind civs.

 

[alpha2117]

10 No Brainer Expansion ideas

1 - Alternate leaders - we all want to play against a rabid Hitler or Rome led by crazy Caligula or Stalin, Mao, Kublai Khan or some other variant of the opposition we face now. Also ideally the AI acts more like the real personalities of those people.
2 -Maps with proper start locations and resources.
3 - More tech choices to make the experience different (with tech trading a possibility this makes total sense)
4 - More late game tech
5 - More future tech
6 - A slew of civilizations that haven't been done yet (including a ton outside of Europe - Australia, Indonesia, Argentina etc etc)
7 - Optional disasters like Earthquakes, Tidal waves and Plague and improvements designed to reduce their damage
8 - More diplomacy options
9 - More varied Luxuries and other Resources
10 - Rebellions (using the alternate leaders) and other negative and positive internal options

Give people the option to opt out of Rebellions, Disasters, Future tech etc and those sort of things give people the option of a much richer and more varied game whilst also being able to avoid them if they dont like those features.

 

[Nyanko]

I cant think of a Civ since 2 that has had more than two expansions... Honestly, I think once they finish the fine tuning of Brave New World, they'll start on CiVI.

On a different note,
The title, Brave New World makes me think of a Dystopic futuristic state where humans are born in jars... Perhaps there will be a Human Production Line building? Or was I the only one that ever read that book?

 

[Bobert13]

Yeah, "Don't eat that!" could be followed by "Fire hot" and "My club bigger than your club".

Don't forget their preceding tech, "Unga Bunga", the complex language tech.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I think they could make a final expansion pack that brings the total number of leaders/civs up to 50.

They could add features such as Pollution, Health in cities, Random Events, Vassalage, Corporations (in a way it would make sense with the new Trading System).

 

[Fabiano79]

Im not sure if I want new expansions for civ V. Not that I think its a bad game, Im just concerned about how much time will take to us to see Civ VI. Usually Firafix takes what, two, three years to create a new civ game? So, we are already talking about 2015, 2016. Thats a long wait...

 

[SamBC]

I think the limit in new things to add is partly based on what actually chimes with the current gameplay and doesn't add complexity to no worthwhile end.

 

[Camikaze]

As for the direction of the game, I think Civ 5 was a sinking ship before Ed was brought on. From my point of view, it seems like Ed has been a significant driving force behind a better game for all of us; and I, for one, am rather satisfied with the course he's laid in.

Ed Beach was credited for "Additional Design and Gameplay" in the Design Team and "AI/Gameplay Lead" in the Programming Team for Civ5 Vanilla. So 'brought on' means 'handed the reins'. So credit should certainly go to Ed Beach, but assuming the Lead Designer doesn't have dictatorial power, there's a whole team around them (of which Ed Beach seems to have been a key part for Jon Shafer) that deserves credit too.

 

[lp_04]

Some notable things that I feel that would still be missing from the game are (...) pre-agriculture play. (...)

I don't think pre-agriculture play to be good. What we need is a good post-agriculture/pre-writting play (i.e., the Neolithic Era represented or an ancient era without Archery and Agriculture). I know there are some historical changes (like US in -4000) but they are not as bad as pottery in -3500 or archery in -3000!!! So there could be a Neolithic (and not pre-historical) Era covering -10 000 to - 4000. In order to please Greeks and Trojans, the ancient era could be set as default and this could be an option.

Note: this idea is being developed by Rise and Fall of Empires Unofficial Expansion team both in a PC and Boardgame

 

[blackcatatonic]

I cant think of a Civ since 2 that has had more than two expansions... Honestly, I think once they finish the fine tuning of Brave New World, they'll start on CiVI.

True, but then again, the number of expansions has been increasing with each new game: Civ 3 was the first to have 2, and Conquests was really a glorified scenario pack. Civ IV was the first expansion to have 2 expansions which introduced new Civs and new content. Added to the fact that, with 43 Civs (vanilla, DLC + both expansions), BNW will give us more playable Civs than ever before, I don't think there's any reason to think that the 2-expansion per game precedent will limit them this time.

Personally, I think they should move on to Civ 6 now, and I think they will... but then I was one of the people who was convinced they were done with V, even when the 'One World' speculation was rife

On a different note,
The title, Brave New World makes me think of a Dystopic futuristic state where humans are born in jars... Perhaps there will be a Human Production Line building? Or was I the only one that ever read that book?

You're not. I love that book

The novel was my first thought too, but given what we know about the expansion so far, I'm interpreting 'Brave New World' more as a utopian rather than a dystopian vision: Gods and Kings was very 'Old World'-oriented (religion, predominantly medieval/European Civs), so the 'New World' in Brave New World I'm seeing as suggesting the addition of modern/ex-colonial Civs (Brazil, and, I hope, Indonesia; African peoples such as the Zulu) as well as the remaining Civs not yet added with a strong trade focus (Portugal), the opening of trade routes across the globe (trade routes, tourism) and the movement towards the idealistic global UN-type vision of everyone working together (Global Congress). Apart from the occasional war, natch.

That said, I would quite like to see some kind of nod to the novel in there. I expect it might turn up as a Great Work, and I think a dystopian futuristic scenario would be so cool I might even play it myself.

 

[lp_04]

I cant think of a Civ since 2 that has had more than two expansions... Honestly, I think once they finish the fine tuning of Brave New World, they'll start on CiVI.

On a different note,
The title, Brave New World makes me think of a Dystopic futuristic state where humans are born in jars... Perhaps there will be a Human Production Line building? Or was I the only one that ever read that book?

Nop. I read that too.
There are many cult people here, I'm shure