PolyCast Episode 111: "Slightly More Balanced"

Though you could only likely tell once it's pointed out. The one-hundred-and-eleventh episode of PolyCast, "Slightly More Balanced", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and Lisa "qnl" Bang and returning guest co-host J.B. "RRRaskolnikov" Ferron; it has a runtime of 59m59s.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 02m16s | Forum Talk (Part 1 of 2)
The position that Civilization V's resources need to adapt as the game advances in time, and arguing that cities are too strong on defence.
- 14m03s | Senate
Spreadsheeting CivV diplomacy by its numbers.
- 21m16s | Forum Talk (Part 2 of 2)
Should Unique Units keep their special abilities upon upgrade, and moving from a resource supply to resource demand-based economic system in Civ.
- 44m41s | Open Mic
"MadDjinn" calls in to add to the discussion on a number of topics covered to this point, and both on Deity difficulty complaints and Great Person points comparison between CivIV and CivV.
- 55m21s | Miscellaneous
On some colourful observations of CivV leaders' personalities and habits.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Fun with palindromes, internal thoughts vocalized and an apparent open invitation to carry a tune.

PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution and ModCast focuses on Civ modding.

This is just a little thing that's been bothering me so don't take this too seriously (or at all).

Maddjinn and TMIT I have a bone to pick with both of you. Your pronunciation of important Civ words just does my head in!

At the risk of coming across as a word nazi I tactfully suggest that these are the words you learn how to say 'properly'.

Deity - Not "dee-it-ee" or "die-it-ee" but "day-it-ee" (as in Opus-Dei)
Piety - Not "pee-it-ee" but "pie-it-ee" (as in pious)
Melee - Not "mee-lee" but "meh-lay"
Cavalry - Not "kal-va-ree" but kav-el-ree

I'll leave your comment for TMIT and/or MadDjinn to respond to, snarzberry.

On a more general topic in relation to the show, how long you have you been a listener?

Hi, I've listened to only the past 5 or so casts myself. About your commentary about the deity flat bonuses I feel you (I don't remember who since I listened to it several days ago) dismissed the thread as absurd when I felt that I personally had a valid point about how they can kill immersion. If we are building a civilization from scratch alongside other civilizations, why do they start at the dawn of time with more knowledge than me (and more units)? I felt that was the important issue of the thread, not the slight mathematical advantage the techs give the AI. I even argued that the AI bonuses needed to be increased and expanded into different areas (%bonus in combat) to be able to effectively compete with the human player(s).

It made me cringe when the person simply dismissed the entire thread seemingly without understanding one of the main points presented within.

JohnnyW said:

About your commentary about the deity flat bonuses I feel you (I don't remember who since I listened to it several days ago) dismissed the thread as absurd when I felt that I personally had a valid point about how they can kill immersion.

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I'm leaving the addressing of this to Phil (TheMeInTeam) and/or MadDjinn, as they were the ones who discussed that thread.

I've listened to only the past 5 or so casts myself.

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Welcome, new listener. Hope you're enjoying the show!

snarzberry said:

This is just a little thing that's been bothering me so don't take this too seriously (or at all).

Maddjinn and TMIT I have a bone to pick with both of you. Your pronunciation of important Civ words just does my head in!

At the risk of coming across as a word nazi I tactfully suggest that these are the words you learn how to say 'properly'.

Deity - Not "dee-it-ee" or "die-it-ee" but "day-it-ee" (as in Opus-Dei)
Piety - Not "pee-it-ee" but "pie-it-ee" (as in pious)
Melee - Not "mee-lee" but "meh-lay"
Cavalry - Not "kal-va-ree" but kav-el-ree

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I guess we shouldn't get you started on Brett Favre

That being said, I approve of your tactful suggestion in principle.
I'm not really sure about Melee, but a free-for-all of pronunciation seems somehow appropriate.

I've been since civ 5 came out. I was just curious if you stopped doing them live now? This most recent one seemed more produced then the last few ones.

DanQ said:

I'll leave your comment for TMIT and/or MadDjinn to respond to, snarzberry.

On a more general topic in relation to the show, how long you have you been a listener?

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I've only listened to a few episodes and have enjoyed them. And my rant about pronunciation is mainly due to the fact that I'm a New Zealander who has recently moved to Canada and I'm having a lot of trouble making myself understood and it's really annoying!

well, as a Canadian, I'll pronounce the words in my dialect of choice, thank you (in this case, south-eastern Ontarian with a minor in Montrealer-franglaise)

and well, dialects are part of what make things fun


as per the flat tech boni:

There are plenty of %changes to pretty much everything the AI has that are by far more painful to deal with than a few techs at the beginning. More happiness = more GAs, more pop = more tiles worked + more science, more gold = more RAs, more everything. and that's just 1 adjustment.

It just seemed that there was too much emphasis on a flat simple bonus and not enough on the actual 'bonuses' which scale over the course of the game. Don't worry, I think Dan just randomly picked a thread to post there, it wasn't directed at anyone in particular. We didn't mention a thread or poster by name (I think), as there have been a few in both civfanatics and 2kforums complaining about the same things.

Why not pick on the extra settler and extra workers/units? That's more than they have to start with.

MadDjinn said:

Why not pick on the extra settler and extra workers/units? That's more than they have to start with.

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JohnnyW said:

If we are building a civilization from scratch alongside other civilizations, why do they start at the dawn of time with more knowledge than me (and more units)?

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^ this

I've only listened to a few episodes and have enjoyed them. And my rant about pronunciation is mainly due to the fact that I'm a New Zealander who has recently moved to Canada and I'm having a lot of trouble making myself understood and it's really annoying!

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Welcome to Canada then!! haha

MadDjinn said:

... I think Dan just randomly picked a thread to post there, it wasn't directed at anyone in particular. We didn't mention a thread or poster by name (I think)

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On the first account, yes and no -- I chose to link to that thread because it seemed to be the most consistent with what was being discussed that I could come across. Correct on the second.

blac said:

I've been since civ 5 came out. I was just curious if you stopped doing them live now? This most recent one seemed more produced then the last few ones.

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No, the episodes are still being recorded live. I'm glad that my post-production efforts on the live recordings have 'come together' to generate a consistency that is comparable to those that were pre-recorded. It's been a little over a month of experimentation and trial/error, and I too am thinking that for the most part the kinks in this respect have been worked out.

snarzberry said:

I've only listened to a few episodes and have enjoyed them.

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