[NFP] Community Update Speculation Thread (Post June 2020 Update)

[Jewelrunna]

I kind of feel alone on this island, but I hope Colombia is not nerfed. I think they're fine where they are at. Pretty powerful, but not as OP as others see them. I guess your mileage may vary, but in my 3 games with them, I've found them strong, but not an instant win civ by any means. I've had easier domination victories with other civs, even.

If they do nerf, I guess they could remove CG/GG stacking. Besides, I hate micromanaging, so it wouldn't be that big of a loss. I really hope they don't touch the CUA. It's fine as it is. It's what makes Colombia, Colombia. I like having faster scouts, settlers, workers, melee and archers. And don't touch the promotion bonus -- that's just a nice quality of life thing to have.

No, if any civ needs a rework it's the Maya. They need to address their perimeter malus and freshwater malus. It's a great civ otherwise, but it feels like I'm playing with an anchor around my leg.

Agree completely here on all fronts. The only thing that's egregious about GC is the General stacking, we patched that out of the game a while ago with every other Civ, so it's pretty clear that it's not a mechanic that the devs want to have in the game. It's simply too strong, too easy to use, and really un-fun to play against. Not denying that GC aren't incredibly strong, but nothing's wrong with having a top-tier.

My main wish for the game at this point is more units, I've said for a while that the unit tree is the dumbest thing about Civ VI.

 

[Kupe Navigator]

Well, Carl did confirm that they're working on a fix for the Work Ethic bug. He didn't say when we'd get it, though.

When Earth is burned up.

 

[AsH2]

When Earth is burned up.

Just some excerpts from GameDaily.biz Firaxis Games on Civilization VI's New Frontier pass, and keeping the game fresh four years on

"For us as developers, live service means an ongoing commitment to keep the game alive through new material and through continued updates to the base game--things that prevent the game from settling into an established pattern of play,” Bonacorso explained. “For us, this year is very much about our team learning how to treat Civilization VI as that live service game: putting out new material, seeing how our fans react, and trying new ideas."

..

Delivering content like this on a regular basis requires a keen sense of development times. It also calls for some confident decision-making and foresight. Bonacorso said that in this sense, Firaxis has settled into a comfortable routine.

“Since we've completed work on Civilization VI and it's expansion packs, we have a lot of good working knowledge about how long it takes us to develop new leaders, civs, and content for the game,” she explained. “Every time we release something, we have an opportunity to revisit balance and update the game, and so we could start with the question ‘how often do we want to release new material for Civilization VI? What could we do with a monthly cadence?’ And from that we worked backwards into the schedule we have: a release of paid content based around civilizations and leaders, followed by a community update for everyone who owns the game.”

 

[Kupe Navigator]

Just some excerpts from GameDaily.biz Firaxis Games on Civilization VI's New Frontier pass, and keeping the game fresh four years on

..

So bug will be fixed in 4 years? I mean it is better than waiting till Sun swallows the earth but...

 

[Lord Lakely]

Fix the bug that cancels Work Ethic after the Holy Site gets pillaged. Seriously. I feel cheated out of my prod bonuses. :-/

 

[Sostratus]

I think how “OP” GC is (outside of general stacking which absolute should go) really depends on how skilled the player is at tactical warfare. If you are really good, the +1 move is basically an “I win” button. If you are more moderate then it’s strong but maybe not overbearing.

Regardless, I find the CGs being free and automatic maybe a bit too much for how good their uniques are. Perhaps if they couldn’t get normal GGs.
Haciendas are also quite good and eventually people will wake up and realize this.

 

[Leucarum]

Haciendas are also quite good and eventually people will wake up and realize this.

I suspect at present a lot of GC games are more or less over well before Haciendas arrive on the scene...

 

[Sostratus]

I suspect at present a lot of GC games are more or less over well before Haciendas arrive on the scene...

I just mean if they get nerfed hard, they have plenty to fall back on.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I don't seem able to trade Strategic Resources on a per turn basis. Is that new, or has it been there since GS & I just missed it? Either way, I want them to bring in per turn Strategic Resource trading.

 

[Kupe Navigator]

Fix the bug that cancels Work Ethic after the Holy Site gets pillaged. Seriously. I feel cheated out of my prod bonuses. :-/

Fraxis: sorry we are too lazy. But hey here is new and improved game features.

 

[Sostratus]

I don't seem able to trade Strategic Resources on a per turn basis. Is that new, or has it been there since GS & I just missed it? Either way, I want them to bring in per turn Strategic Resource trading.

I don't think it's ever been a thing. I've really wanted it for a while.

 

[The googles do nothing]

I would like to see them tie more game elements together. I'm starting to miss the immersive feel of the simple vanilla game. For example, Diplomatic Quarter, Diplo Screen Trading and Diplomatic Visibility which don't interact at all. Area of Effect buildings share there benefits without having to have cities connected by rail, road, sea, or air.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I don't think it's ever been a thing. I've really wanted it for a while.

Ah thanks. It's been several months since I was last able to play......so couldn't remember if I'd mis-remembered.

 

[monikernemo]

Fix the bug that cancels Work Ethic after the Holy Site gets pillaged. Seriously. I feel cheated out of my prod bonuses. :-/

Just build buildings over the holy site

 

[acluewithout]

I would like to see them tie more game elements together.

Yes. Couldn't agree more.

I think the tying things together does happen over time, and often doesn't require huge new mechanics. Three examples that spring to mind.

• First, Religion and Diplomacy. FXS have slowly, slowly been making a link between the two, with certain Wonders that only someone that's Founded a Religion can build which also give Diplo Victory Points, HS Tier 3 Building which now gives Diplo Favour, plus all the Religion / Suzerain stuff.
  
  
• Second, Appeal and "Other" Game Mechanics - it used to feel like Appeal as mechanic just didn't do anything or connect with anything other than Tourism. But over various patches, and while it certainly doesn't matter every game, it now feels like there's enough mechanics that Appeal does feel much more relevant in some games, e.g. in addition to Sea Side Resorts and National Parks, there are also certain Civ Abilities (eg Australia, Teddy), Earth Goddess, Alcazars, various other Improvements etc. The result is that Appeal is still situation but does connect to other mechanics in the game better. Feels like it's in a good place.
  
  
• Third, Diplomacy and Military. Linking Diplo Visibility to Military Bonuses was such a good change. Made spies way more interesting. I love your Printing Press is now a key military technology. This part of the game feels really good.

But there's still a bunch of other mechanics where it still feels like things should tie together more. e.g.

• Religion and Loyalty. I liked the update that gave a +3/-3 loyalty for Religion, but FXS haven't gone any further with that which is a shame. Like, seriously, why isn't there a Loyalty related Enhancer Belief?
  
• Diplo Currencies. e.g. Why do we have Delegations and Embassies for Civs, but Envoys for City States? Couldn't we basically have Envoys for both?

I also think there's just a heap of places where I feel like the game is just missing a bit of polish or content. I've mentioned elsewhere wanting a bit more variety in Religious Units. People have discussed Military Unit gaps to death. But there's also stuff like maybe having another Dedication each era (eg 5 instead of 4, because 4 does feel very tedious sometimes), or having a few more Alt Building Options.

Often, the stuff I most look forward to with future content is where things get tied together better or we get those little bits of extra polish / gap filling. Seriously, my highlight for NFP so far has been the "Maize" resource and a City State UU, and adding Diplo Favour to Pagodas.

In fairness, the list of stuff Firaxis can / should / be great if they could add must be just endless, particularly given some many previous iterations of Civ. And then there's also all the bug fixing and other stuff. And there must also be diminishing returns with some stuff eventually. I guess the hope is that with a Season Pass model, FXS does get the opportunity to tie up some of these lose ends more.

 

[Uberfrog]

I'm hoping for a fix to the no-city challenge where people just glide to an easy diplo victory without really playing as Maori.

I mean it’s not exactly gliding to victory... it involves a good deal of exploring, endless backward and forward trading for gold and DF and save scumming. It’s also in no way easier, or faster (or more fun) than building a city and playing properly.

Let people have their weird challenge... it doesn’t affect me, and it’s not like it can happen by accident.

 

[Kupe Navigator]

just to let people know... don't expect any bug fixes but expect a lot of gameplay improvement... that you can't play properly because of bugs. ( oh and expect a lots of new bugs too)

 

[Pure24]

just to let people know... don't expect any bug fixes but expect a lot of gameplay improvement... that you can't play properly because of bugs. ( oh and expect a lots of new bugs too)

But Firaxis do fix bugs... they just did in the last update. When did you expect them to fix the Work Ethic bug? With the update itself in June? The gap between tweaking the religious bonuses and releasing the Ethiopia/Secret Societies content was too short for them to fix the bug.

Maybe it is just my experience, I haven't had too many game-breaking bugs. And stuff like multiple districts/pantheons were things you had to specifically play for. It's not like you could just accidentally trigger them...

 

[ehecatzin]

It should definitely be restricted to their own continent. It doesn't make sense for Simon Bolivar going zoom zoom global conquest.

I hope they just restrict the areas Bolivar can get the extra movement. If somebody should be able to zoom zoom conquest across the world that's Mongolia.

While I agree a nerf is needed, I hope they just reign it back and rather revise civs that are just straight up worse or boring to play as.

 

[Arianrhod]

I really don't have high hopes for getting any new units via Community Updates or DLC. If we were, I really think they would have said that in the marketing material. Really hope I'm wrong about that.

I, for one, refuse to consider this a complete game until it contains trebuchets. The marketing team should forward that up if they haven't already.

I kind of feel alone on this island, but I hope Colombia is not nerfed. I think they're fine where they are at. Pretty powerful, but not as OP as others see them. I guess your mileage may vary, but in my 3 games with them, I've found them strong, but not an instant win civ by any means. I've had easier domination victories with other civs, even.

I don't see "instant win" as the first threshold where unbalance becomes concerning.

You could completely gut one of Colombia's bonuses -- it barely even matters which one -- and they would likely still be a top tier civ. This isn't a sign of "good balance" any more than nerfing them into the ground would be. If a nerf 'cripples' them and turns them into a middling civ, then they get a song on the World's Smallest Violin for the 20ish civs that are still actively worse than they are.

Ideally we could bump everything else to their level, but that requires both AI and delicacy the trebuchet-deniers who make this game are incapable of, so a nerf is just the most straightforward and practical solution. But if you don't consider them all that, you may feel free to list alternative civs that are in an even more dire need to be investigated.