PolyCast Episode 178: "Everything You Want to Talk About"

[img=right]http://civcomm.civfanatics.com/polycast/images/polycast_logo.jpg[/img] The wait is over. The one-hundred-and-seventy-eighth episode of PolyCast, "Everything You Want to Talk About", is the third of three to be published in as many weeks for the third July in a row... and the one no doubt most anticipated. Featuring regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua" and "MadDjinn", Firaxis Games Senior Producer Dennis Shirk and Principal Programmer Ed Beach join alongside returning guest co-hosts Joel "colonelmustard" Myers and Rob "flitcraftrz" Zacny to celebrate the release of Civilization V: Brave New World. With a runtime of 84m05s, the summary of topics is as follows:

- 03m04s | Interview
Diving into celebrating the release of Civilization V: Brave New World in conversation with representatives from its developer, question via email requesting an ability to exclude particular City State types, and from the recording's live chat, about how the developers chose what civilizations to include, leading to a reveal of some that were short-listed but didn't make the cut and why. Then, on making choices with respect to civilization leaders and unique attributes.
- 10m32s | Interview
From varying users in the chat, why the early game gold crunch is "ouch", overseeing and counteracting the financial Venetian empire and revisiting the unique abilities of Germany and Japan with Zulu on the mind.
- 18m05s | Interview
Stemming from the chat still, whether the BNW Artificial Intelligence (AI) considers trade routes when declaring war, the absence of their scaling for map size and a seeming disconnect between the East India Company National Wonder and the Dutch civilization; then, AI considerations for war and a civilization's selection and relations in light of Ideological adoption.
- 31m35s | Interview
Satisfaction level with the new Cultural, and any consideration for introducing a Religious, Victory condition while balancing both as levels in a One City Challenge; further from the chat, why a civilization is able to vote for itself in the introduced World Congress mechanic and City States' peace and war status as it pertains to dispositions between civilizations.
- 42m58s | Interview
Looking for an update on using Modification Packs and Scenarios in multiplayer post-Brave New World; the exclusion of Random Events as seen in Civilization IV's Beyond the Sword expansion, what components were cut if any during development and alternate titles considered for this Civ series expansion as well was where CivV is to go beyond its newest title.
- 56m15s | Review
From industry views and that of users of BNW, a brief look at two of the former followed by a detailed examination of another: "delivering exactly what it promises" through late game importance for end game outcomes. Delving into the experience further, "much more screw your neighbour" given the revamped Culture mechanic and engaging the World Congress (60m51s). The "forest for the trees" considers the changing faces up and down the warmongering avenue (64m40s), and then being "no longer locked in" by civilization uniqueness, secondary systems and victory path (73m09s).

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Uncertain topic of conversation, expected fixes for the upcoming fall BNW patch and complimentary ambiguity.

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.

Yes!!!

Been patiently waiting for this podcast for a week after I was unable to catch it live last time around

... You considered Canada, but picked Brazil. Oh, lord, bring on the contempt. .___.

Interesting, they were choosing between Vietnam, Khmer and Indonesia but Indonesia came out on top. I definitely agree with the cluster strategy from a practical standpoint but I wish that having one didn't discount the other

And also, they care more about the story of the leader than their might within history. If you take that into account you can't really get angry at them for choosing Maria, etc

And cool! You asked my question!

Talcove said:

... You considered Canada, but picked Brazil. Oh, lord, bring on the contempt. .___.

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That was interesting. They called it a "cluster" between Canada, Australia and Brazil.

There was a cluster for Indians with Inuit, Shoshone and other Western native groups.

Then there was the Southeast Asian cluster I referred to above.

seancolorado said:

Yes!!!

Been patiently waiting for this podcast for a week after I was unable to catch it live last time around

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And cool! You asked my question!

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Talcove said:

... You considered Canada, but picked Brazil. Oh, lord, bring on the contempt. .___.

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seancolorado said:

That was interesting. They called it a "cluster" between Canada, Australia and Brazil.

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Perhaps next time for Canadian inclusion. Beyond the City State and Natural Wonder references, we can continue to turn our attention to mods... one that added a Canadian civ is the only one I've used with CivV to date.

The "cluster" the Firaxians referred to was that all three countries in question were once colonies.

Hope all enjoyed the show!

DanQ said:

The "cluster" the Firaxians referred to was that all three countries in question were once colonies of the British Commonwealth.

Hope all enjoyed the show!

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Was Brazil part of the UK?

Maddjinn, I think I was the only one believing the frankensteins were top level players

crawf0rd said:

Was Brazil part of the UK?

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No, it was part of Portugal. This would also technically have made it part of Spain during that same time that Portugal was.

I amended my post above to reflect that Brazil too was once a colony, but not of the UK. (I was thinking of Australia and Canada when I had appended that point.)

Please make Germany and Japan strong civs. For too long have they been weak and boring. I want to feel fear as I realise I have Germany or Japan as a neighbour.

Awesome episode The sound clip that starts at 01:04:40 is particularly sweet. Does anyone know what it is?

Securion said:

Please make Germany and Japan strong civs. For too long have they been weak and boring. I want to feel fear as I realise I have Germany or Japan as a neighbour.

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I was a little surprised to hear about Japan being high on the list of Civs being considered for an overhaul (especially given the gripes these forums have about India, though that seems to have been relieved a bit by the change in game mechanics). It's true that Japan's UA is completely passive and Ed Beach seems determined to make the game more active. (Also, Japan's UA has been nerfed quite a bit since vanilla.) Still, I've never considered Japan in dire need for a change.

ritchie said:

Awesome episode

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The sound clip that starts at 01:04:40 is particularly sweet. Does anyone know what it is?

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-- it's the Brazilian civilization's war music.

Great episode. It was interesting to hear from Dennis Shirk and Ed Beach about AI considerations for war which seems to be among the top current topics on the forum. It seems many are experiencing no war at all from the AI against the human player while others are experiencing wars but maybe not as much in the early game. Some are experiencing the shuffle of doom ... built up military while they are relatively weak that shuffles along their border and nothing ever happens.

I thought it was interesting that they admitted in GnK the AI was declaring war more often than what they intended and they added additional checks, such as, trade routes for the AI to consider before going to war and that they did not change anything specifically to make the AI more passive and the rest of the code is essentially the same as in GnK on that front. The conversation ended there since it answered the question if they AI was made more passive but a follow up could have been addressed with the new addition or additions to what is checked if that may need rebalancing of if they feel that is working as intended currently.

I personally like the new changes but again it was interesting to hear that they felt they ramped up the AI DoW's too much in GnK and I personally didn't like the early DoW's that I could just expect as an automatic at any opportunity from the AI but one has to wonder if this is a feature that will never satisfy the people that play. Some will always feel the AI does not declare war enough while others will always feel they declare war too much often to their own detriment.

I would have liked to know if they feel this feature is working roughly as intended to their expectations now in BNW although it may be too early to tell.

its good we now known what a happened to "The Mother Land Call" wonder all over a modern copy-write law its too bad did Firaxis ever ask the creator or his descendants if they could use it in the game?

Such historical nations like Germany being so boring just isn't good enough. Really hoping they change them. I think I have only ever used them once.

Just got a chance to listen, absolutely awesome! Lots of answers!

I want them to add all of those Civs...expansion 3! Let's go!

Securion said:

Please make Germany and Japan strong civs. For too long have they been weak and boring. I want to feel fear as I realise I have Germany or Japan as a neighbour.

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bcaiko said:

I was a little surprised to hear about Japan being high on the list of Civs being considered for an overhaul... It's true that Japan's UA is completely passive and Ed Beach seems determined to make the game more active. (Also, Japan's UA has been nerfed quite a bit since vanilla.) Still, I've never considered Japan in dire need for a change.

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bradeh said:

Such historical nations like Germany being so boring just isn't good enough. Really hoping they change them. I think I have only ever used them once.

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I too admit to not having chosen to play either Germany or Japan in some time -- in fact, the last time would be before the Gods & Kings expansion. That said, I often play 'random civilization' in single-player or multiplayer and I've never quit a game because of a roll of either.

starstx said:

Great episode.

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... it may be too early to tell.

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Considering there is at least a fall balance patch to come, I believe this is a fair analysis.

arik24 said:

its good we now known what a happened to "The Mother Land Call" wonder all over a modern copy-write law its too bad did Firaxis ever ask the creator or his descendants if they could use it in the game?

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Dennis said that 2K's legal department made it clear to them that they would not be able to clear the use of the name for the expansion. We were not told the reason(s) why (and we'll likely never know given the nature of such negotiations), but in any event I'd say it's the copyright holder's loss!

kingchris20 said:

Just got a chance to listen, absolutely awesome! Lots of answers!

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SuperWaffle247 said:

I want them to add all of those Civs...expansion 3! Let's go!

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about the "lets fix Germany and Japan" do they really need to be fixed at all ? Germany has overlap with the Zulu yes that is true but as some have pointed out Germany UA works for all eras while the Zulu UA only works for melee units which runs out at the Renascence as for Japan just scale the UA for BNW and your set although I will admit they could add a thing about Japaneses culture that would make it little better