DLC 05 anticipation thread

[Manifold]

Do we get another hint to the further African Civ? Or is Shaka already confirmed?
The one with the Proboscis and the second leader for Egypt was too easy.
Even if we know the African Civ, we can still speculate about the leaders and scenarios.

 

[Katakanja]

I said this before, but it's probably been about 40 pages since then, I don't know why anyone is expecting Shaka. Unless they've decided to change him vastly from his previous appearances, he's going to be a warmonger with conflict based abilities. Both of the Civs in the last DLC were warmongers, especially Macedon which probably benefits more from an offensive playstyle than any other civ in the game at the moment.

I would be very surprised if they added another war-focused civ so soon. In the name of variety, we're more likely to see a passive civ next, perhaps cultural or science based. If the first DLC is the SEA one, THEN the chances of Shaka and the Zulus being the African civ goes up a little since they will be coming later. I still don't think Firaxis is going to add another warmonger so soon after Alex, unless they have some kind of innovative ability we haven't seen before that they really want to try out up their sleeves.

 

[Leyrann]

I said this before, but it's probably been about 40 pages since then, I don't know why anyone is expecting Shaka. Unless they've decided to change him vastly from his previous appearances, he's going to be a warmonger with conflict based abilities. Both of the Civs in the last DLC were warmongers, especially Macedon which probably benefits more from an offensive playstyle than any other civ in the game at the moment.

I would be very surprised if they added another war-focused civ so soon. In the name of variety, we're more likely to see a passive civ next, perhaps cultural or science based. If the first DLC is the SEA one, THEN the chances of Shaka and the Zulus being the African civ goes up a little since they will be coming later. I still don't think Firaxis is going to add another warmonger so soon after Alex, unless they have some kind of innovative ability we haven't seen before that they really want to try out up their sleeves.

Three unique units!

 

[Katakanja]

Three unique units!

Ahahah, and perhaps throw in a unique encampment for good measure too

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Well, now there's the obligatory question, you guessed it: How does this affect your forecast?

It's a fairly versatile prediction set, so I will keep it the way it is for at least a few days, see how the end of the week goes.

@Ma2ge It's a package containing all the 2k games on Steam. The change a few days ago was unrelated to Civ.

 

[MooFreaky]

Endless Legend has the same problem with brain dead AI, but people don't complain so much about it in that game for some reason. It's a great game though, definitely worth a whirl.

 

[bbbt]

I agree Shaka is unlikely.

I think the odds on favorite is Mansa Musa and Mali, just on the "fan favorites people are likely to buy" front, followed by Ethopia.

Who knows though, they have surprised before, and with the DLC now in digital deluxe, that might give them more flexibility.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

The Zulu have a popular following. Remember the backlash when they weren't in G&K? That works in favor of them being a DLC. They would sell well.

 

[bbbt]

Endless Legend has the same problem with brain dead AI, but people don't complain so much about it in that game for some reason. It's a great game though, definitely worth a whirl.

Yeah on paper it seemed perfect for me - like a hybrid of Civ and Heroes of Might and Magic, two of my favorite games (and I love Age of Wonders which is also a similar hybrid, though skewing much more to the HoMM side). I plan on giving it another whirl.

 

[bbbt]

The Zulu have a popular following. Remember the backlash when they weren't in G&K? That works in favor of them being a DLC. They would sell well.

He's definitely a civ staple, I expect him at some point. He just seems like someone people prefer to play against rather than as. And as Katakanja noted, potentially too similar to Alex (the warmonger staple you love to hate) to come that closely on his heels (unless they've decided heck with it, we'll get all the mascots out of the way).

And frankly, with the complaints about Mvemba, following him up directly with another subsaharan leader who is famous mostly because of his interaction with Colonial powers (even if it's resistance instead of acquension) seems like a slightly poor choice. Adding a pre-colonial civ first seems like the smarter approach.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

He's definitely a civ staple, I expect him at some point. He just seems like someone people prefer to play against rather than as. And as Katakanja noted, potentially too similar to Alex (the warmonger staple you love to hate) to come that closely on his heels (unless they've decided heck with it, we'll get all the mascots out of the way).

And frankly, with the complaints about Mvemba, following him up directly with another subsaharan leader who is famous mostly because of his interaction with Colonial powers (even if it's resistance instead of acquension) seems like a slightly poor choice. Adding a pre-colonial civ first seems like the smarter approach.

There will certainly be some grumbling about representation. There always is. But that time when the final civ for G&K was revealed to be Sweden when everyone expected the Zulu; it was a firestorm of forum rage.

And yeah. People probably prefer to play against Shaka rather than as him; but that doesn't mean it isn't worth the value to add him to the game. There's a reason he is a series staple after all.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

The Zulu have a popular following. Remember the backlash when they weren't in G&K? That works in favor of them being a DLC. They would sell well.

I'm not opposed to Shaka, but we have quite a few warmongers in game already, The last DLC in fact, had 2...
I'm not sure he could be represented any differently... and if Zulu were represented any other way, it would incite the aforementioned backlash. It would be interesting to see on an Earth map if Mvemba could hold him off, however... I'm not sure where Zulu would start but probably right in Kongo's kitchen

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I'm not opposed to Shaka, but we have quite a few warmongers in game already, The last DLC in fact, had 2...
I'm not sure he could be represented any differently... and if Zulu were represented any other way, it would incite the aforementioned backlash. It would be interesting to see on an Earth map if Mvemba could hold him off, however... I'm not sure where Zulu would start but probably right in Kongo's kitchen

I don't actually see Persia as a warmonger. Cyrus likes war, and he gets a bonus for it; but Persia is good at Culture Victory too. Macedon does one thing, and does it well. And they are the only civ narrowly focused on domination.

 

[Gingerboy29]

So @Eagle Pursuit, who is your guess for the African Civ? Any name? .

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

I don't actually see Persia as a warmonger. Cyrus likes war, and he gets a bonus for it; but Persia is good at Culture Victory too. Macedon does one thing, and does it well. And they are the only civ narrowly focused on domination.

I use Cyrus as a well-rounded civ as well... but it seems in the current iteration of the game, his extra-movement surprise war is consistently the most impactful of his bonuses. My favorite part of his design is the Paradaiza, but I've been screwed by wonky terrain placement too many times.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

So @Eagle Pursuit, who is your guess for the African Civ? Any name? .

Mali is my top guess, but Ethiopia and Zulu are close contenders in my estimation.

 

[bbbt]

There will certainly be some grumbling about representation. There always is. But that time when the final civ for G&K was revealed to be Sweden when everyone expected the Zulu; it was a firestorm of forum rage.

And yeah. People probably prefer to play against Shaka rather than as him; but that doesn't mean it isn't worth the value to add him to the game. There's a reason he is a series staple after all.

I don't disagree that he's worth adding, I just don't know that anger with him not being there would actually translate into people buying the DLC. He seems like expansion material in that respect. But I'd guess the 2k/Firaxis marketing team has access to much better research on that than I do. Also, hopefully more marketing experience than my exactly zero

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

Why not a civ that better represents that region than the Zulu kingdom, like Great Zimbabwe or Kingdom of Mutapa? My impression is that the region around zimbabwe has a more influential and longer civilized history to represent that area better. So why not adapt some of the typical features of Shaka to for example a king of Mutapa?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Why not a civ that better represents that region than the Zulu kingdom, like Great Zimbabwe or Kingdom of Mutapa? My impression is that the region around zimbabwe has a more influential and longer civilized history to represent that area better. So why not adapt some of the typical features of Shaka to for example a king of Mutapa?

I wouldn't mind that, but I doubt they would do that over having the Zulu. The Civ representation of the Zulu has the cockroach-like power of remaining in the series despite better judgment, not unlike Gandhi.

 

[oedali]

Endless Legend has the same problem with brain dead AI, but people don't complain so much about it in that game for some reason. It's a great game though, definitely worth a whirl.

It has actually improved a lot with the patches, and there's also an AI+ mod in Steam workshop that makes it even better. Try that and Serious difficulty - has been keeping me fully entertained while waiting for this Civ 6 patch..