All Quiet on the Civ Front

[RohirrimElf]

Whatever firaxis is up to. It is good to see some action.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

An announcement between late November and late March seems the most likely window to me, with release ~2.5-3 months later.

Maybe they are (also) testing an autumn/winter/expansion-pre patch?

Interesting, perhaps it could be a new DLC pack between expansions?

I'd assumed they'd want something fresh to spruce up sales going into the holiday season, even if it was just a next expansion announcement or maybe a pre-holiday patch. Now with the Switch version hitting the market for that time frame, I'm less confident of this. The Switch may be what they rely on for this selling season, in which case they'll hold off on anything else until the new year.

So, I'd say the odds of the state of Schrodinger's expansion being resolved are:

10% resolved as an expansion announced in 2018 for release in 2019
5% resolved as a new non-expansion DLC in 2018
15% resolved as a pre-holiday patch
65% resolved one way or the other between January and March in 2019
5% we're still wondering on April 1, 2019​

To plagiarize from TMQ: all predictions wrong or your money back.

 

[WillowBrook]

LTest is now associated with an executable named LauchPad.exe. I have no idea what to make of this.

Edit: LaunchPad.exe, not LauchPad.exe.

 

[UWHabs]

I'd assumed they'd want something fresh to spruce up sales going into the holiday season, even if it was just a next expansion announcement or maybe a pre-holiday patch. Now with the Switch version hitting the market for that time frame, I'm less confident of this. The Switch may be what they rely on for this selling season, in which case they'll hold off on anything else until the new year.

So, I'd say the odds of the state of Schrodinger's expansion being resolved are:

10% resolved as an expansion announced in 2018 for release in 2019
5% resolved as a new non-expansion DLC in 2018
15% resolved as a pre-holiday patch
65% resolved one way or the other between January and March in 2019
5% we're still wondering on April 1, 2019​

To plagiarize from TMQ: all predictions wrong or your money back.

Still so many potential options.

Part of me kind of expects a new patch to come out at the same time as the Switch release date, although I don't think we got one on the PC when they had the iPad release, so maybe not. Even still, I would be absolutely shocked if there's not a decent sized patch this fall, just because it has been a long time since the last patch.

As for marketing, if I had to guess timelines, I would not expect a PC patch announcement before the Switch release date either, since I don't think they would want to cannibalize their own marketing. Even if they give a good time after, they could announce the patch in early December for a Winter/early Spring release. More likely would be a winter announce or a spring expansion, although none of us truly know the date. We're also somewhat guessing that the timelines of the next expansion will follow the timelines of the previous expansion - for all we know, their marketing told them that the announcement 3 months before the patch was a bad idea, and they should simply drop both the expansion and the announcement of it the same day! I know the marketing team for the company I work for is a fan of keeping the time between the announcement and the actual release as short as possible to get people excited and buying right away, as opposed to announcing early and then having the excitement die down before the expansion actually comes.

So, basically, yeah, still anything can happen

 

[Cagarustus]

I hate waiting but all the more sweeter if they hit a home run.

 

[pokiehl]

I know the new depot thing is probably nothing, but the speculation that it may be something new is exciting. Even just a map pack to whet the appetite...come on Firaxis, I want to throw my money at you!

 

[acluewithout]

Still so many potential options.

Part of me kind of expects a new patch to come out at the same time as the Switch release date, although I don't think we got one on the PC when they had the iPad release, so maybe not. Even still, I would be absolutely shocked if there's not a decent sized patch this fall, just because it has been a long time since the last patch.

As for marketing, if I had to guess timelines, I would not expect a PC patch announcement before the Switch release date either, since I don't think they would want to cannibalize their own marketing. Even if they give a good time after, they could announce the patch in early December for a Winter/early Spring release. More likely would be a winter announce or a spring expansion, although none of us truly know the date. We're also somewhat guessing that the timelines of the next expansion will follow the timelines of the previous expansion - for all we know, their marketing told them that the announcement 3 months before the patch was a bad idea, and they should simply drop both the expansion and the announcement of it the same day! I know the marketing team for the company I work for is a fan of keeping the time between the announcement and the actual release as short as possible to get people excited and buying right away, as opposed to announcing early and then having the excitement die down before the expansion actually comes.

So, basically, yeah, still anything can happen

I’d be amazed if we don’t get a patch before the end of the year.

I think an Expansion by Feb or March is most likely, but it certainly could be June next year.

If we got a decent patch this year, I’d be okay waiting longer for the next expansion. I’m more concerned they might rush the next expansion - RnF felt very rushed as is.

Even if there are some good patches, and the next expansion is solid (and really builds on RnF and base game rather than being just more random disconnected mechanics), I don’t think the game will really become truly great without a few more dlc after that expansion. I really think the game will end up needing separate dlc focusing on particular mechanics to really nail it, eg dlc focusing on colonialism, war, tax, near future tech. I’d have thought small post expansion dlc would be good money spinners, but I think it’s still very unlikely we’ll get that - sadly, it’ll be one more expansion and some final patches, then that’s it. Which will be a little sad.

 

[Zaarin]

Given what we've seen in DLC in the franchise so far (civs, maps, scenarios), I'd be shocked to see mechanics added via DLC. Civs added with mechanics patched in (like the religion tweaks that accompanied Khmer/Indonesia), maybe, but mechanics sold in and of themselves...unlikely. Which is fine by me, because one expansion is unlikely to cover all the major civs still missing and still accommodate interesting newcomers or dark horses.

 

[c4c6]

LTest is now associated with an executable named LauchPad.exe. I have no idea what to make of this.

I have to ask: is it truly "Lauch"? (German botanical genus of onions, leek, garlic, buckrams ...) - could be a hint to security aspects

or LaunchPad.exe (as in astronautics for vertical take-off)?

 

[WillowBrook]

I have to ask: is it truly "Lauch"? (German botanical genus of onions, leek, garlic, buckrams ...) - could be a hint to security aspects

or LaunchPad.exe (as in astronautics for vertical take-off)?

Oops, typo. It's LaunchPad.exe. Thanks for catching that! No German botanical code words to speculate about.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I have to ask: is it truly "Lauch"? (German botanical genus of onions, leek, garlic, buckrams ...) - could be a hint to security aspects

Alternate leader for Germany confirmed!!!

Oops, typo. It's LaunchPad.exe. Thanks for catching that! No German botanical code words to speculate about.

Or not.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Oops, typo. It's LaunchPad.exe. Thanks for catching that! No German botanical code words to speculate about.

BE2: Martian Edition.

 

[WillowBrook]

I'm guessing that LTest and LaunchPad.exe are related to something to make modding easier. No solid support, but I want to be the first to guess in case that's right.

 

[Arent11]

BE2: Martian Edition.

That would be cool. Apart from the very bland civs, I had much fun with Beyond Earth.

In the original BE all factions were do gooders, highly idealistic, without weaknesses or fail. That doesn't work.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

That would be cool. Apart from the very bland civs, I had much fun with Beyond Earth.

In the original BE all factions were do gooders, highly idealistic, without weaknesses or fail. That doesn't work.

Still hoping Firaxis makes a deal with EA so Alpha Centauri lore can be re-made.

 

[Zaarin]

Still hoping Firaxis makes a deal with EA so Alpha Centauri lore can be re-made.

EA doesn't make deals. They stipulate terms.

 

[Leyrann]

EA doesn't make deals. They stipulate terms.

There's a lot of things I want to say about this topic, but most would probably earn me a warning at the very least...

 

[shaglio]

To plagiarize from TMQ: all predictions wrong or your money back.

Hey! What's a Canadian boy doing reading about American football?!?!?!

 

[WillowBrook]

The ltest, pdreview, and 2kqa_a branches were all updated this afternoon.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Hey! What's a Canadian boy doing reading about American football?!?!?!

When you're a Hamilton Ti-Cats fan and they've just finished blowing a 14-3 halftime lead to lose 35-32 in overtime, you seek solace in any form of football where you don't care who wins.