Will they announce Civ6 this month?

[Luckystrike77]

I'm convinced Civ6 will be announced this month (or in june the latest), and released Q3/Q4 this year.

Why?

Watch the pattern of the previous releases:

Civilization 1

Release Date: Late 1991

Civilization 2

Release Date: February 29, 1996

Civilization 3

Release Date: October 30, 2001

Civilization 4

Release Date: October 25, 2005

Civilization 5

Release Date: September 21, 2010

Civilization 6

Release Date: September/October/November, 2015?


This is their most popular title, and Civ 5 sold more then 7 million copies world wide. Makes no sense not making a new one with a targeted release of 2015. If they wait until next year it will be the longest period ever between two Civ-titles. Civ 4 and 5 were also announced in may (Civ3 as well, if I recall correctly).

Time will show, and prove me right! Let's start celebrating already.

 

[Makavcio]

Judging from Civ:BE, they don't have any ideas how an improved Civ game should look like. I've got like 10.000 such ideas, probably not unlike other people here, but the devs seem to be rather content with the poop they offered us the last time.

We shall not talk about SM:Starships.

 

[Luckystrike77]

I'd also place my bet on Ed Beach as lead designer of Civ6. The lead designer of Brave New World. Would be really interesting to let him follow his vision for a Civ-game from scratch.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Ed and Dennis Shirk are the only two people I'd feel comfortable with making Civ 6, however I heard that for every new thing they take one old thing, and I think that's just bad design thingy.

However, I am ready for a new Civ 6.

 

[Luckystrike77]

Yeah, I believe in Dennis too. He has the Civ-blood running through his vains.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I suspect they have a game release planned for the fall and I hope it's Civ 6. I think that if it is, they will announce it before the end of June. Pay attention to the big cons coming up like PAX and E3.

 

[Cptobvious]

Will be very hard to top Civ BNW in gameplay or improve upon graphics of the civ5 engine.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Vanilla X is never better than Complete X-1. It just needs to be better than Vanilla X-1 with several novel design elements. Later, Complete X will be better than Complete X-1.

 

[dasaard200]

I shall wait, listening with maybe half an ear, for the Grand Announcement; I intend to keep playing V !!

 

[poom3619]

If you ask me, it will be announced when it's announced. It will be finished when it is finished. We can have many theory but we are ultimately nothing more than ardent bystander. What if Firaxis end up take a year or two to work on it secretly without so much hype the fan made, so that there's no rush or "Can we see it? Please!please!please!" and they can make a masterpiece this type without much external pressure. We never know.

So I prefer to channel my hype toward anything that more than serie X - Y+1 th iteration. Something that has preview, dev diaries, buildup and anything of sort.

Time will prove whether you're right or wrong. I see few reason why they will or will not wait to see how their competitor release will flop miserably or end up threaten Civ position as the best 4X or quasi-historical game we presume it is.

Vanilla X is never better than Complete X-1. It just needs to be better than Vanilla X-1 with several novel design elements. Later, Complete X will be better than Complete X-1.

IMO, This do applied in some series (The Sims and Civ) but there are some who actually build it's sequel from Complete version of prequel, or redesign it from the ground up but still deliver more than the Complete prequel. If it's about Civilization. I wouldn't expect much for the vanilla anyway.

 

[nokmirt]

Will be very hard to top Civ BNW in gameplay or improve upon graphics of the civ5 engine.

Yeah right the AI can't even use air sweep. They need a brand new AI for civ VI. I think it is too soon for that.

 

[Delnar_Ersike]

Yeah right the AI can't even use air sweep. They need a brand new AI for civ VI. I think it is too soon for that.

They could hire notque, Ninakoru, or myself if they can't find anyone else for the task.

For the record, I think that Civ4 vanilla is better than Civ3 Conquests. Civ3 vanilla was also better than Civ2: Test of Time, even if Test of Time did have those neat little Fantasy, SciFi, and Regular Extended game worlds (Regular Extended was just Regular with an Alpha Centauri Map added on that you would settle once your spaceship arrived).

 

[calad]

Judging from Civ:BE, they don't have any ideas how an improved Civ game should look like. I've got like 10.000 such ideas, probably not unlike other people here, but the devs seem to be rather content with the poop they offered us the last time.

We shall not talk about SM:Starships.

It is not about ideas but execution. Civ5 and BE are both heavily botched games so firaxis does not have skills and determination to make civ6 a good game. It would become another sad flop.

 

[twilson1972]

Will be very hard to top Civ BNW in gameplay or improve upon graphics of the civ5 engine.

The single biggest problem for me is the AI.

I love naval games (islands maps), or terra style games- the aspect of exploration, but when the AI struggles to even spread across an islands map and never seems to settle across ocean it becomes hollow. Im actually playing maps i hate now (pangea) because the AI cant use navies so it feels cheesy to use them myself. My first immortal game was tiny islands and i was stunned to see no AI spread properly, and no AI built a strong navy. Add in the fact that it is often best not to settle any more cities and the terra map becomes pointless for civ v

To me the AI is a step back from BTS, probably because it was simpler for the AI, on BTS i remember being invaded by sea and even losing my capital once (i used to hate having ragnar across the sea from me)


I dont know if the AI has improved in 'civ be' as i dont own it... but i suspect not as 90% of those who buy the game wont care that the AI is awful.

 

[Luckystrike77]

I love 1 unit per tile for multiplayer games, because it is a superior system in itself. The problem is that it is utterly complex for the AI compared to the previous battle systems. AI has never been worse then in Civ5 mostly because of this.

 

[Delnar_Ersike]

The single biggest problem for me is the AI.

You're definitely not alone...

To me the AI is a step back from BTS, probably because it was simpler for the AI, on BTS i remember being invaded by sea and even losing my capital once (i used to hate having ragnar across the sea from me)

One of the main reasons this is no longer the case is actually because naval warfare in Civ5 is different than land warfare. For one, you only get high-strength, ranged naval units starting with frigates, and because ranged warfare is so important for taking cities in Civ5, this means that you can only really start taking cities with navy in the mid- to late-renaissance (unless you're Byzantines, because Dromons are essentially Chariot Archers of the sea). The other aspect is that naval melee units are weaker than both land infantry units and land cavalry units: infantry have the advantage of defensive terrain bonuses and being able to heal in enemy territory, while cavalry have the advantage of moving after they attack, letting them get out of harm's way. The AI has not been updated to take either aspect into consideration, so while their land unit control is just barely adequate, their naval unit control is terrible.

I dont know if the AI has improved in 'civ be' as i dont own it...

The AI was not improved in CivBE: the C++ code seems to be almost identical to Civ5. From playing on the free weekend, I was able to replicate a lot of Civ5's AI issues in CivBE. For example, if a city has automated specialist control, has at least one production specialist slot, and is set to production focus, the citizen automation AI will allocate population to unemployed citizens instead of tiles that contain 1 hammer and a number of other yields.

but i suspect not as 90% of those who buy the game wont care that the AI is awful.

Correction: 90% of those who still play the game don't care that the AI is awful. In fact, I'd wager that most people who bought the game do care that the AI is awful, which is one of the main reasons why most people who bought the game no longer play it.

 

[Tabarnak]

I will bet my money for 2016 instead.

 

[Navelgazer]

Maybe they can get TellTale to help with the new AI.

Lincoln will remember that...

 

[Aheadatime]

Pretty sure they count BE as their big release. Civ6, imo, could take as long as 2018. I really really hope I'm wrong, btw, but I just have a feeling that it's going to be a while.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

They need to get a big title out the door this year to keep up cash flow and appease the 2K overlords. I suppose the could run a BE expansion, but I don't think there is enough market for that unless the next patch for BE is completely awesome.

I also don't know where the XCOM franchise is at. They may have something in the gate for that.