DLC 05 anticipation thread

[Cerilis]

This thread is for the upcoming DLC, keep your wine somewhere else.

I'd like to have some cheese though!

 

[Zaarin]

This thread is for the upcoming DLC, keep your wine somewhere else.

I'd like to have some cheese though!

Unfortunately, neither Southeast Asia nor Africa are widely known for their cheese. But now I'm craving haloumi and paneer...

 

[pgm123]

Unfortunately, neither Southeast Asia nor Africa are widely known for their cheese. But now I'm craving haloumi and paneer...

I guess Ethiopia has ayib, which is like a farmer's cheese.

So Ethiopia as the African civ confirmed.

 

[Zaarin]

I guess Ethiopia has ayib, which is like a farmer's cheese.

So Ethiopia as the African civ confirmed.

Forgot about that. I love Ethiopian food, but I don't usually order the spicy stuff that's served with cheese.

 

[Futumch]

Haloumi = squeaky cheese! Not from mice, but from the noise when you bite it.

I think the Zulus just made different sorts of yoghurt from milk, which was pretty important to their culture (as were cows in general).

Hopefully there will be an announcement relating to the upcoming expansion in this next week. Fingers, legs, eyes and teeth crossed!

 

[AvianBritish]

Oh I love Haloumi! My favorite cheese of all! (Paneer second and then any "French cheese" third)

Is this a hint that in the Africa DLC we will get Cyprus? I would love Cyprus!
(I am joking, I know Cyprus is European. Rome also has Paphos in its city list too if I recall correctly)

 

[durfal]

Is this a hint that in the Africa DLC we will get Cyprus? I would love Cyprus!
(I am joking, I know Cyprus is European. Rome also has Paphos in its city list too if I recall correctly)

Cyprus is geographically officially in Asia (South of Turkey and west of Syria) though historically and culturally it's always considered European.
It's even part of the European Union.

 

[Wingednosering]

I think they claimed their next DLCs were going to add leaders from Africa and SE Asia to appease critics of the Eurocentric vanilla game lineup (plus with Kongo being a Civ that can't found any religion, and it's the only black African Civ in the game, brings up a whole another can of worms). Also TSL Earth map complaints. Then, they started work on these DLCs and have been struggling to finish them for some reason. Or perhaps most of their team already started work on the next expansion?

My guess is that the vanilla release was supposed to be more eurocentric, with more ethnically diverse nations slated for expansions (still clinging to my idea of a new world style expansion that adds a ton of native civs all at once).

In addition to seeing all the criticism, they probably just grabbed two civs slated for the first xpac that would sell well without taking too much out of the xpac's sales pitch. Fast tracking two civs that had already been designed/conceptualized makes far more sense than adding two new civs from scratch 'just because'.

Back on topic: Haloumi is incredible.

 

[AvianBritish]

Cyprus is geographically officially in Asia (South of Turkey and west of Syria) though historically and culturally it's always considered European.
It's even part of the European Union.

I'm not going to argue with you about if the island of Cyprus is in Asia or not (it's always difficult with islands) but how do you know it's officially geographically Asia out of curiosity? It's in the European Union using the Euro, has Greek, Turkish, Persian, Venetian and British/English cultures and links but it's also on the African tectonic plate putting more confusion into the mix.
It's like a more confusion version of Azerbaijan.

 

[BrokTheFanatic]

What would be fun is a Neanderthal civ. Start with special units 'Giant warriors' and 'Mammoth riders'. Have a minus (like -2 bulbs in each city) to science and can't build a campus. Bonus to making Stonehenge. Automatic 'not human' negative in diplomacy with all other civs. Can't make spies or be spied upon.

Any timetable on when expansion/DLC will be ready?

 

[God of Kings]

Can't make spies or be spied upon.

Other civs can recruit anthropologists to study them instead.

 

[Abraxis]

Cyprus is geographically officially in Asia (South of Turkey and west of Syria) though historically and culturally it's always considered European.
It's even part of the European Union.

Actually, through a poorly understood quirk of plate tectonics and a literal interpretation of their naming conventions, Cyprus is official a part of Australia.

 

[Xur]

What would be fun is a Neanderthal civ. Start with special units 'Giant warriors' and 'Mammoth riders'. Have a minus (like -2 bulbs in each city) to science and can't build a campus. Bonus to making Stonehenge. Automatic 'not human' negative in diplomacy with all other civs. Can't make spies or be spied upon.

Any timetable on when expansion/DLC will be ready?

I predict about 180 pages of hype in this thread, before you get another 5$ dollar pointless DLC followed with a patch that fixes a lot of obscure bugs and not the most important bugs. If you expect something amazing, then I am 100% sure you will disappointed. If firaxis was serious about fixing this mess, they probably wouldn't only have one dude on the AI. He is obviously not capable of handling that task... or even worse, Firaxis know the AI sucks, but they wont change it because old computers would have horrible turntimes.... wouldn't surprise me.

 

[AvianBritish]

Actually, through a poorly understood quirk of plate tectonics and a literal interpretation of their naming conventions, Cyprus is official a part of Australia.

As I said before; Cyprus is actually part of the African plate, so we might get it as a DLC!
Cyprus for more Greek-like civs!

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

or even worse, Firaxis know the AI sucks, but they wont change it because old computers would have horrible turntimes.... wouldn't surprise me.

That's not even worse. It's a legitimate concern. Making a game playable on the widest variety of hardware increases the potential playerbase. It's good business strategy.

 

[Zaarin]

Haloumi = squeaky cheese! Not from mice, but from the noise when you bite it.

I think the Zulus just made different sorts of yoghurt from milk, which was pretty important to their culture (as were cows in general).

Hopefully there will be an announcement relating to the upcoming expansion in this next week. Fingers, legs, eyes and teeth crossed!

Paneer squeaks, too--or if it doesn't, your Indian restaurant isn't using good (read: freshly homemade) paneer.

What would be fun is a Neanderthal civ. Start with special units 'Giant warriors' and 'Mammoth riders'. Have a minus (like -2 bulbs in each city) to science and can't build a campus. Bonus to making Stonehenge. Automatic 'not human' negative in diplomacy with all other civs. Can't make spies or be spied upon.

Any timetable on when expansion/DLC will be ready?

I was going to object that Neanderthals weren't stupid, but then I remembered that Firaxis loves their stereotypes and my objection died in committee.

 

[BrokTheFanatic]

I was going to object that Neanderthals weren't stupid, but then I remembered that Firaxis loves their stereotypes and my objection died in committee.

Hah, I guess we don't really know other than that they lost and we won. Have read a number of ideas on it. Wonder what name would work for their leader...

Other civs can recruit anthropologists to study them instead.

How about, kill a Neanderthal unit with a Anthro nearby and it becomes an artifact

Or maybe it is time for the civ expansion, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". Or maybe if you nuke each other enough, the apes just show up and start killing everyone off. Along with their appearance comes the GP Charlton Heston that can 1 time purge your land of all apes while yelling "get your paws off me you..."

 

[Manifold]

As I said before; Cyprus is actually part of the African plate, so we might get it as a DLC!
Cyprus for more Greek-like civs!

Absolutely! that makes sense. A hint for Cyprus is a hint for the Minoeans, Mycenae or Phoenicia.
The first hint was about Proboscis, so this is also the second hint for Carthage. Carthage also fits to an generic scenario about seafaring and trading with Srivijaya/Majapahit/Indonesia. This would be very cool dlc.

 

[Xur]

That's not even worse. It's a legitimate concern. Making a game playable on the widest variety of hardware increases the potential playerbase. It's good business strategy.

Doubt we will agree. But it has been established a long time ago that supply and demand is a thing - you can't just take "demand" out of the equation because you want to cater to a larger group of people. You will only supply a lesser product, that in the end will lower demand across the board.

No, a good business strategy, would be making a good game and not limit it by people on 10-year old PCs. They would get good reviews and in turn get more copies sold. Give people what they want and get success. Don't tell people what they want and cant have - that's not how you sell stuff.

But whatever... hype away and defend Firaxis.

 

[bbbt]

Doubt we will agree. But it has been established a long time ago that supply and demand is a thing - you can't just take "demand" out of the equation because you want to cater to a larger group of people. You will only supply a lesser product, that in the end will lower demand across the board.

No, a good business strategy, would be making a good game and not limit it by people on 10-year old PCs. They would get good reviews and in turn get more copies sold. Give people what they want and get success. Don't tell people what they want and cant have - that's not how you sell stuff.

But whatever... hype away and defend Firaxis.

They are following the demand. Look at achievements in steam on 5 or 6 - the vast majority of players play on Prince or lower. They don't want a challenging AI. Heck, a majority of the complaints about the AI on steam are more about it's "personality" (basically that it's too same-y and it denounces them too much). Their numbers basically show that animated leaders with 'personality' sell more copies than a challenging AI.

You might want to read up and get a basic idea of how a tactical AI works if you think a decent one for something with as many moving parts as Civ would only eliminate '10-year old' machines. Even having it do the level of analysis/forecasting of the lowest level of your basic desktop chess AI would probably nuke most modern machines. They can certainly do better than they are doing, but it's never going to be truly challenging (barring a move to perhaps a hosted AI in the future). I'm not even sure they have the AI re-evaluating mid-turn (i.e. if it moves and gets new information from the fog of war), as that might be too time intensive.