Daniel Boone
Go Royals!
Wait, is this an April Fools joke or not, I’m actually not sure.
April Fool's: 2K buys Paradox, Millennia is the "next civ game in development"
- Thread starter The_J
- Start date
Of course it is an April Fools joke.
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Well, I'm one for two: Crate Entertainment on their Farthest Frontier forum announced their "Beary Good News" Update which replaces all the villagers in their graphics with - Bears
That one I caught - actually, pretty hard not to!
For the 2K Paradox conundrum, I plead that I'm still recovering from a birthday just last week . . .
That one I caught - actually, pretty hard not to!
For the 2K Paradox conundrum, I plead that I'm still recovering from a birthday just last week . . .
I am an internal developer working on the latest iteration, and I’ve been now duly authorized to give CivFanatics a sneak peek at some of the new features we have already implemented:
• Single-player mode will be consolidated with multiplayer mode for more fun, so you will always be playing with someone around the world! (note: this new feature requires an always-on internet connection)
• Total social media integration with Facebook, Instagram, and X. When you play, your friends and family can see so they can join in on the experience!
• CivBux is an exciting, totally optional additional experience allowing you to purchase in-game goodies to get the jump on your friends. Falling behind in a war? Need that library today? Fear no more!
• Partnerships with our corporate partners are an upcoming and fantastic new feature designed to bring more realism to our games. Just by watching a few ads through our unobtrusive ad window, you can build these special unique buildings in your cities. Imagine your civilization having its own Pepsi-Co bottling plant! Thrilling!
We’re really stoked about these positive and therefore irreversible changes.
• Single-player mode will be consolidated with multiplayer mode for more fun, so you will always be playing with someone around the world! (note: this new feature requires an always-on internet connection)
• Total social media integration with Facebook, Instagram, and X. When you play, your friends and family can see so they can join in on the experience!
• CivBux is an exciting, totally optional additional experience allowing you to purchase in-game goodies to get the jump on your friends. Falling behind in a war? Need that library today? Fear no more!
• Partnerships with our corporate partners are an upcoming and fantastic new feature designed to bring more realism to our games. Just by watching a few ads through our unobtrusive ad window, you can build these special unique buildings in your cities. Imagine your civilization having its own Pepsi-Co bottling plant! Thrilling!
We’re really stoked about these positive and therefore irreversible changes.
Core Imposter
Felon
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- May 13, 2011
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And I will still be playing Civ IV.
Thorvald of Lym
A Little Sketchy
I immediately thought of the Bears at Play cosmetic mod way back in Civ2.
AnthonyBoscia
Emperor
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Good news! Our automatic installer has detected your location and has already preregistered you for an upcoming release. To save hard disk space, your old Civilization game data will be removed.And I will still be playing Civ IV.
Core Imposter
Felon
- Joined
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Better news, I have a game computer with no ethernet card. Where lurks my old precious games. Good luck getting in.
Core Imposter
Felon
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Just think how easy we are making it for our entire actual real-life civilization to just be wiped out.
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Based on a brief sampling of the daily news, I'm not so sure it hasn't already been wiped out . . .
Some articles are negative, some are mixed saying that it has good and bad aspects. Given that there are new DLCs coming (yes, nearly release day DLCs, bah), they'll probably be working on it for a bit. I'd not discount it if you have a 4X hole to fill.
And as many started to figure out, this was indeed an April Fools' joke. Thanks for playing along
.Thanks for contributions from Lyond, Birdjaguar, Leif, blake00, Quintillus, Arakhor and Gedemon. Many thanks to Leif, who took the initiative this year to start the brainstorming on this
.I hope everyone enjoyed it
.EDIT:
Yeah, that part was starting to make me angry, as "This ISN'T what we want! "
...than I started thinking: "Hey! Isn't today the first of April?! "->
Most believable (and most cruel) April's fool's joke ever!
So... you thought that customizable GDR skins are totally reasonable
?
<Nexus>
Traveler of the Multiverse
???So... you thought that customizable GDR skins are totally reasonable
I wasn't talking about anything like that:
But it was a good joke
Thanks for it 
I thought it was suspect as soon as I saw this: adding in "beloved leaders like Gandhi."???
I wasn't talking about anything like that:
View attachment 687847
But it was a good joke
blackbutterfly
Emperor
Sadly, yes.
TBH Civ VI has a legacy of 30(?) year old game engine that's mostly still text editing XML files (though XML maybe a more recent development. i.e. 20 years ago) when we are in an age where generative AI can now code for you, tools are orders of magnitude more high tech and new languages that have better support for concurrency (Rust, Scala, etc.) and memory management (Rust, etc.).
Though Unity took a dump (can I say that?) on everyone who chose it, like Amplitude for HUMANKIND, it is vastly superior.
It took me all of 30 mins to make my first mod for HUMANKIND using Unity, a toolkit I'd never used before.
An acquisition or partnership with another studio (like Amplitude IMO rather than Paradox) maybe wise.
Firaxis is not new to partnerships: for Marvel's Midnight Suns (which I highly recommend!) they partnered with a bunch of studios, not least one called "Martian Brothel"
These partner studios produced many of the cut scenes, writing, etc. for Firaxis to produce its first RPG(?).
So, yes, it is indeed an April Fool's. If we've been dragging our feet a bit on figuring out why post weren't appearing to this thread, it was all the idea of some jokester who thought it would add to the joke to make it look like everyone was buying into it.
I'm a bit sad that it's a joke though, as I really would like to see what could come of Millennia with a studio with the resources of Firaxis behind it. Hopefully, as we (eventually? some time before 2030?) learn more about Civ VII, I'll instead be more excited about what Civ VII will offer. But we had to do something Civ-related as a joke this year, there hasn't been anything else to talk about!
---
As for Civ modding/engines, Civ has not kept the same engine from iteration to iteration (except possibly from V to VI?). IV, for example, used the Gamebryo engine, and I believe I through III all used custom in-house engines; whether code was carried forward between them or not, I don't know. Civ has also had varying approaches to modding. III is very end-user friendly, as you can do most tasks through a visual scenario editor, and as a result there are a wide range of historical scenarios created by historians or history enthusiasts who have no technical background. IV introduced XML, but also Python and C++ modding, becoming more technical, but also making it the most moddable Civ ever. I haven't dug much into Civ VI modding yet, but what I have done includes SQL modding, which has its advantages and downsides.
I would like to see VII have a beginner-friendly modding option like III, while still allowing the flexibility of the latter games for those who have the know-how to dive deeper.
It's certainly possible that Firaxis is using newer technologies for Civ VII, and perhaps that's part of why we haven't heard much yet - adopting new technologies tends to result in slower development until the team masters the new set of tools. Although, I'm personally more a fan of the "don't bite off more than you can chew" approach - Unity and DOTS sounded promising in theory for Cities: Skylines II, but in practice a more incremental approach probably would have served them better. Either way it will be interesting to see what Firaxis chose (or if they see this thread and decide... you know what... maybe that isn't such a bad idea).
I'm a bit sad that it's a joke though, as I really would like to see what could come of Millennia with a studio with the resources of Firaxis behind it. Hopefully, as we (eventually? some time before 2030?) learn more about Civ VII, I'll instead be more excited about what Civ VII will offer. But we had to do something Civ-related as a joke this year, there hasn't been anything else to talk about!
---
As for Civ modding/engines, Civ has not kept the same engine from iteration to iteration (except possibly from V to VI?). IV, for example, used the Gamebryo engine, and I believe I through III all used custom in-house engines; whether code was carried forward between them or not, I don't know. Civ has also had varying approaches to modding. III is very end-user friendly, as you can do most tasks through a visual scenario editor, and as a result there are a wide range of historical scenarios created by historians or history enthusiasts who have no technical background. IV introduced XML, but also Python and C++ modding, becoming more technical, but also making it the most moddable Civ ever. I haven't dug much into Civ VI modding yet, but what I have done includes SQL modding, which has its advantages and downsides.
I would like to see VII have a beginner-friendly modding option like III, while still allowing the flexibility of the latter games for those who have the know-how to dive deeper.
It's certainly possible that Firaxis is using newer technologies for Civ VII, and perhaps that's part of why we haven't heard much yet - adopting new technologies tends to result in slower development until the team masters the new set of tools. Although, I'm personally more a fan of the "don't bite off more than you can chew" approach - Unity and DOTS sounded promising in theory for Cities: Skylines II, but in practice a more incremental approach probably would have served them better. Either way it will be interesting to see what Firaxis chose (or if they see this thread and decide... you know what... maybe that isn't such a bad idea).
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