PolyCast Episode 242: "Should We Start?"

A question no one is looking for an answer to. The two-hundred-and-forty-second episode of PolyCast, "Should We Start?", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and "MadDjinn" with first-time guest co-host Brian "Drusain". It carries a runtime of 59m59s.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 03m08s | Open Mic
Getting started with listener feedback with Episode 241, then revisiting Episode 240 in a substantial way (09m52s).
- 25m32s | Senate
How Virtues, and secondarily Affinities, have been impacted by the Rising Tide expansion for Civilization: Beyond Earth.
- 35m58s | News
What starts as a review of the open beta dates for Civilization Online springboards into balancing fantasy with strategy, open conflict with cooperation, profit with popularity and its place within the Civ brand.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Target acquired, this not that podcast, mumbling and uncertain meaning.

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.

Right, actually forgot to answer that Question about the Black Market. I remember I read it but I must have gotten distracted before actually typing an answer. Yes, it's mostly slower/longer games with my own Modpack (see Signature) and the general building overhaul that I've been working on - which primarily increases the strength of buildings with location/resource requirements to make them more impactful.

@Virtues: Why exactly do you people skip the free Settler if they open with Prosperity anyway? Free Settler -> Explorer Charges -> Might (for Domination) or Knowledge (for a peaceful approach) seems such an obvious synergy to me. One gets the Prosperity Synergy Bonus and the 2 extra Virtues count towards the t1-Synergy bonus. Especially if followed by Might to farm Aliens, as one will be missing 2 Virtues for the free one anyway, so practically the Settler only costs 1 Virtue.

@Civ Online: That game looks nothing like it has anything to do with Civ.. But DAMN, those character models! I almost wish I was bisexual so I could fully appreciate both of them.



Found a very critical problem though:


That's just a gamebreaker.

Ryika said:

@Civ Online: That game looks nothing like it has anything to do with Civ.. But DAMN, those character models! I almost wish I was bisexual so I could fully appreciate both of them.

Spoiler :

Found a very critical problem though:

Spoiler :

That's just a gamebreaker.

Click to expand...

you are a she!?

Civ Online is an attempt by 2K to enter the enormous and growing Asian market. their market does have its peculiarities.

It was funny to hear the talk about the CIV-spinoff. As if the whole thing was more than a cash grab to get player money and a portfolio enhancement for the company to make it more attractive for investors ("see, we have a foot in the asian market!"). The idea that they'd actually put effort into the game to add some sort of CIV-like feeling is precious.

Also interesting to see how you disregard the free settler. I guess it's a combination of warmonger playstile and low AI difficulty that makes skipping more attractive?

I'm always amazed by how diverse experiences can be in Civ.

I just finished a Chungsu domination only game. (Apollo, Standard, Standard, Primordial, with only Domination victory available)

Air units were probably my primary military force. Their range, both attack and rebase, has grown since vanilla and is obscene. Once they are upgraded and tiered up a bit, with 3 in each city, a constantly advancing group of three or four cities worth is unstoppable (at least by the AI, which in fairness doesn't do enough, if anything, to counter). There is rock, paper, scissors with them against various units, but you quickly learn how they will do in any given battle. Plus you can get them to any part of your empire very quickly.

I've found the hybrid units to be quite useful and in some cases, necessary. Many seem to be far more powerful than the standard units. I've found the standard units to be very underpowered in the late game now. For example, the Autosled. Quick to build, great movement, hover (even over ice for those locked resource pods) and far stronger than a rover. They do require resources, but in the current version of the game, the player swims in resources.

Granted, I haven't found all of the hybrids useful just yet, but they certainly seem to hold their own against standard units.

Yeah, i have to agree that the hybrid affinities aren't necessary, and possibly even something that hinders your progress toward most of the victory conditions, the exception being domination. The funny thing about CivBERT though is I tend to always go for domination, where as I tend to vary my victory types more in Civ 5. Also, surprisingly, my phone has CivBERT in my autocorrect term list...