Congratulations to CFC for getting us FREE DLC! (the mongols)

[DarkMaster]

Should i show you some of the graphical bugs we have (there are some)?

But seriously: It doesn't have a good taste.

I agree on not feeling right, but it's free, so I think that makes up for it. But really, I don't think the guys who write the graphics code are the same guys who develop textures / sounds / buttons. Sure, there's some coding time involved in putting the civ in the game, but I think the overlap is minimal. I understand very little about game design, but do you think the guys who create Genghis Khan, create the Mongols painting and the UU painting and etc are the same that deal with textures not initializing correctly? What about the guys who created the soundtrack? They can do the Mongols soundtrack while the game is being patched.

I know it feels weird, but it doesn't make sense. Maybe, and I'll agree with you, they should just hold on until the game is improved and release everything as a small exp pack or something like that. But I don't think it's greedy, nor that it slows down the patching.

 

[CrimsonEdge]

I have a recommendation for everybody who bought the game and is dissatisfied with it. It works with every other game that anyone else has been dissatisfied with for the PC and has worked for me in the past.

Stop talking about it and quit playing it. Don't buy DLC. Don't buy expansions. Don't buy future titles. Posting on forums only spreads awareness of a product and, in turn, even if the awareness is negative, people will buy it 'just to see'.

Buck up. We've all made purchases we regret. Take your loses and move on. Don't buy another Civ. Play Civ4. Whatever. Complaining about something that is free is an even more absurd thing. Stating that you're getting something for free when other problems exist is like saying "You know, the visuals in this animation are great but the sound just doesn't cut it. They should have spent more time on the sound!" Who is they? The guys who did the animation?

Don't assume that content people are the same people who fix bugs.

Ugh.

ETA: It's one thing to say "Yeah, this should be changed." It's another to say "This game is awful."

ETAA: I don't buy the argument that 'people are not satisfied with the game.'

Current: Peak:

47,748 72,400 Counter-Strike: Source
44,545 70,662 Counter-Strike
39,249 69,059 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Multiplayer
27,267 40,930 Sid Meier's Civilization V
19,041 29,317 Team Fortress 2
17,234 22,868 Left 4 Dead 2
14,145 17,327 Football Manager 2010
5,945 8,790 Empire: Total War
5,390 8,738 Garry's Mod
4,853 7,281 Condition Zero

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

For now, and probably forever we will never know. All we can do is speculate whether if they already had made the Mongols Civ along with the Babylon Civ at the same time with all the other Civs, and decided to maybe sell the latter later, or not.

I can think that maybe they went along with giving us the Mongols free to pacify us, or some of us, to think that they are still doing whatever they can to make this game better while we wait. Kinda begs the question on how many things (they call it DLCs) they are withholding from us, and if they do have many other Civs and other soon to be called DLCs, proves the point that their scheme from the beginning is to milk more money out of us after the half-completed vanilla version was released.

 

[dexters]

Ummm,the UA is super overpowered for humans.

Mounted +1 movement points? Jesus of Nazareth.

 

[zonk]

there is nary a crime that approaches the heinousness of over cooking a steak

Amen to that

Personally, this excites me not in the least... it's not the lack Mongols that makes V unsatisfying nor would my disappointment in V be satiated by tossing in a couple free civs, whether it's a meaningless ploy to faxblast press releases implying "see? We love our base, we really do!" or a truly repentant "We are truly sorry we rushed this".

 

[Jaroth]

Great news, I can't wait! It's really cool of them to offer a new civ and scenario for free after the not-so-popular release. With this and the new patch on the horizon, things are starting to look a little better.

 

[seasnake]

Not a bad thing to get a free civ. I'm willing to wait for a patch a little longer because the more they delay it the more bugs I hope they're catching.

 

[YoHo]

The D2D deal was for a double Scenario and Civilization pack. This does not appear to be that, so it should not count as the D2D offer.

Further, clearly the DLC group is separate from the core gameplay group. That's how its working at say bungie which is offering their first DLC map pack soon and is still also offering gameplay patches to the core maps which were broken.

These are separate things and one does not have to interfere with the other.

As for whether this was a rush or a planned decision. I agree, they probably were going to charge $5 for it and this is somewhat damage control. So what? I'm not going to refuse it because its damage control.

 

[clearbeard]

... Or possibly the dawning realization that they can't uphold their DLC system with Mod support being any good.

....

I've been wondering how long it will take some enterprising modder to post the Babylon civ as a mod. Doesn't seem like it would be that hard. All in all still kicking myself that I didn't wait a year or so for the "complete" edition like I had originally planned (and did with Civ 4).

That said, free content with professional level artwork and animation is always something I'll download, whatever the rationale behind it!

 

[dexters]

Question: Anyone know if we will ever be able to get Babylon if you didn't get the CE/Best buy special offer?

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

Great news, I can't wait! It's really cool of them to offer a new civ and scenario for free after the not-so-popular release. With this and the new patch on the horizon, things are starting to look a little better.

It is best to say that things may get a little better after we get the first full patch. A free Civilization isn't going to change my view from cautiously optimistic to potentially being optimistic.

 

[Robert Plomp]

Hey, The_J, good friend you forgot to mention in your frontpage article that Civfantics is mentioned by name! (which was the main reason why I posted it here!)

Exact quote: "as a free gift to the legions of Civ fanatics. (Don't mess with them, they're really well organized."

@dexters: Babylon will be available for $5 as well on October 25th!

 

[Wardancing]

Question: Anyone know if we will ever be able to get Babylon if you didn't get the CE/Best buy special offer?

didnt read the article, but on page one i see this:

Maybe this is in another thread, but I also note in that post that Babylon will be available for only $5.

There was grousing before release that a civ wasn't worth $10, but might be worth $5. Sounds like 2k agrees.

 

[CrimsonEdge]

For now, and probably forever we will never know. All we can do is speculate whether if they already had made the Mongols Civ along with the Babylon Civ at the same time with all the other Civs, and decided to maybe sell the latter later, or not.

I can think that maybe they went along with giving us the Mongols free to pacify us, or some of us, to think that they are still doing whatever they can to make this game better while we wait. Kinda begs the question on how many things (they call it DLCs) they are withholding from us, and if they do have many other Civs and other soon to be called DLCs, proves the point that their scheme from the beginning is to milk more money out of us after the half-completed vanilla version.

Then don't purchase the DLC.

This argument has been used countless times for countless games. People still buy DLC. DLC continues to break records. The process rinses and repeats.

A collective of people complain about a game feeling unfinished, unpolished, empty, etc. Company then releases DLC. It's the new alternative to the expansion. Why? Expansions are risky.

Look at Titan Quest. A game that, just like many of you, people said was 'empty, buggy, incomplete.' They patch, patch, patch, people still feel this way. Suddenly: Expansion. People stop complaining about the game feeling empty, being buggy, feeling incomplete. Company goes under.

Why?

Expansions are risky. DLC is not.*

Even further, when a game has many expansions and a NEW game is released, players of the old content expect EVERY SINGLE DETAIL from the past game to still be in the new game. It's like EQ2. When EQ2 came out, EQ players said two things:

1. THE GAME IS INCOMPLETE (EQ had some 7 expansions by that point I believe). Compared to EQ at launch, EQ2 had just as much content.

2. THE GAME IS BUGGY (EQ had some 6 years to fix all of the bugs in the title). Compared to EQ at launch, EQ2 had just as many bugs.

But I digress. If you feel that Firaxis is undermining you, or you feel they did not deliver on their product, or whatever else, just don't buy any products from them. Period.

ETA: If you even, for a second, believe that Firaxis is some god game company, you're absolutely wrong. If nobody buys their next product they will go under.

 

[vlkm]

Love the age of DLC, content that should be there in the first place but we might/might-not charge you for it.

 

[dexters]

Maybe they were going to sell Babylon and Mongolia for 2.50$ each.
Then they decided to sells Babylon for 5$ and give Mongolia for free as an apology or bribe.

haha

Well, since this is Civ5, we don't take bribes. time to randomly dow on 2k.

 

[zonk]

I've been wondering how long it will take some enterprising modder to post the Babylon civ as a mod. Doesn't seem like it would be that hard. All in all still kicking myself that I didn't wait a year or so for the "complete" edition like I had originally planned (and did with Civ 4).

That said, free content with professional level artwork and animation is always something I'll download, whatever the rationale behind it!

Heh... the same occurred to me - Hoi3 made the gambit work by EMPLOYING the modders for sprite packs which became DLCs.

Frankly, since it's all DRM/Steam nowadays anyway -- I wish more shops would simply license out the core engine, let the modders work their magic, then go halfies on the revenue while the shop deals with distribution.

 

[Infiltrator]

Mongols sound nice, albeit the City State bonus is kind of meh.

 

[gaiko]

I'm thinking the same thing myself. Not being one to complain about freebees, I say keep up the loud complaining!

The only qualm is that the Mongol UA and UU highlight one of the more broken aspects of the early game: overpowered horsemen. It gives one the unfortunate impression that the devs either had little idea how short-circuiting the other features in the game with this "optimal conquest strategy" creates an uninteresting game unless one refrains for its usage; or that, worse yet, the devs are deliberately promoting this angle.

Rather like putting out Babylon on top of already overpowered scientist GPs. "Hey kids, you can break the game, too! See how powerful you are?"

I HOPE that is not the line of thought.

it's very probable Genghis was going to be a paid DLC, but with the uproar of civ 5, I think they will try to appease fans with it being, supposedly, free.

unfortunately, you can't fix game mechanics with add on civs. As it is, I am upset that companies now focus making their money on DLC sales.

 

[BobDole]

Not sure why everyone's gotta complain about free stuff. Look, is the game perfect? Yeah, we know the AI can be braindead at times and that diplomacy has issues, but they seem to be working on it, and there's a free new civ available in the meantime. Free. If they were charging for this, I would be really pissed off that they were trying to rake in some cash while there were issues with the game still...but they aren't. Did they intend to sell it initially? I don't know, all I know is I'm not going to complain about getting extra content for free. I'll complain if they start hawking more DLC and the game isn't patched up to expectations.