DLC 05 anticipation thread

[Leathaface]

This wait is way too long. Maybe if they were planning to release DLC06 only around a month after DLC05 drops, maybe they should have thought of releasing DLC05 sooner and DLC06 a bit later.

The way the announced the DLC's it sounded like they would be released not long apart.

 

[ARevera1]

They may be planning to release them like:
Week 1: First Look
Week 2: DLC 5
Week 3: First Look
Week 4: DLC 6

 

[Katakanja]

They may be planning to release them like:
Week 1: First Look
Week 2: DLC 5
Week 3: First Look
Week 4: DLC 6

I'm sure @Eagle Pursuit will along shortly to explain it in more detail, but according to his recent updates, this is unlikely given that they seemingly haven't started any testing on DLC06 yet, unless they are going to hold off on DLC05 for even longer.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

DLC05 Report – July 18th, 2017

Analysis of testing.

DLC05: The DLC was initially announced May 5th and testing began May 25th. As of June 2nd, the qa build updates have been occurring twice a week, even on the week with a major holiday. They are currently on the 14th qa build of the series.

In previous testing phases, we observed the rate of qa build updates increase in the last few weeks before release, however those testing phases only lasted a month and we are well into our second month of testing. I now believe that we will not see an increase in the rate of test build updates.

In an alternate thread, we discussed what the differences between release build numbers (eg 1.0.0.X) and what to infer from it. I’m testing this as a prediction tool for the first time. The difference between previous build numbers have been 12, 54, 18, and 19. Ignoring the outlier (54), it would seem to indicate 11-18 test builds and then a release build. At the steady rate that has been observed, the 18th build will occur on or around July 27th while the 19th build would occur on or around August 1st. This is extremely tentative at the moment, but I would be pleased to see this work out and add another method to the toolbox.

Usually, we have seen the hidden achievements added to Steam 7-8 days ahead of a DLC release. Since hardly anything has happened as usual, it’s difficult to expect that this will as well. But if it does, then a release on the 27th would have achievements added this week, probably on the 20th. And a release on the 1st would have them added next week, probably on the 25th. August 3rd; July 27th, etc.

Despite the bleakness of our current outlook, on the whole, things have slowly been building to a head for a month. Something productive has occurred nearly every single weekday. I think that we are not far off. There is a pretty high likelihood that the DLC and patch could be released with little to no predictive activity beforehand. Therefore, I am setting my current prediction range as being Thursday, July 20th to Thursday, August 3rd. If anything predictive does occur, we can narrow it down from there.

Mac and Linux and cross-platform multiplayer: The Mac and Linux qa builds became active in early July. Strangely, they have not tested DLC05, but have been updating regularly. My theory is that the Mac and Linux DLC and patch will not be releasing concurrent with DLC05, and that their qa builds are being updated to use against the PC qa builds testing cross-platform multiplayer functionality. The PC patch will likely have cross-platform multiplayer capability, but this won’t be accessible until the Mac and Linux release at some point in the future, probably mid-late August.

DLC06: Despite being announced and having its Steam app introduced alongside DLC05, no testing of any kind has begun on it. It will not come out with DLC05. My guess is that it will come out with a Fall patch, in either September or October.

Civ GH: Ideas for what this might be have ranged from add-on app to freeware DLC to expansion. QA builds were unexpectedly added for it in late June, but no further testing has occurred. At the present time, it seems that it will not be coming out concurrent with DLC05. The mystery will persist.

TL; DR: July 20-August 3rd

 

[Balkans]

And they could simply say - hey guys, the dlc is coming in 2 weeks... Nice post and analysis btw.

 

[Katakanja]

And they could simply say - hey guys, the dlc is coming in 2 weeks... Nice post and analysis btw.

They don't even need to be that specific, since I'm sure the thing they are afraid of is saying "It's gonna be ready in two weeks!" then encountering a serious bug and that means they have to delay it for an extra week or two, and having people up in arms that they can't keep to their original date.

All they need to do is have some kind of dialogue with their fanbase, even if its just to let us know "Hey, we're still working on it guys!" rather than having us rely on the hard work of Eagle Pursuit who is essentially engaging in the digital equivalent of peering through the windows and going through the bins around the back of Firaxis HQ to find clues as to what kind of progress they are making. I'm sorry, but when you stop and actually think about what's going on here in this thread, it's absurd the lengths we have to go to.

They do livestreams, but only immediately before they have new content out. Why is this? I mean, I'm sure their schedules are busy, but even if they did it as infrequently as once every two weeks with whoever felt like volunteering each time from within the team, but did it regularly, they could throw out general progress updates that could be as vague as they liked and we would be more willing to wait things out, because there would be the sense that Firaxis is at least engaging with the community.

 

[shaglio]

One thing to consider when trying to discern patterns based on past behavior is the cross platform thing. In the past, they followed a certain pattern, but they were only concerned with the Windows DLC. This time, they might exhibit a different pattern if they are trying to release Windows, Mac, and Linux all at the same time.

Mac and Linux and cross-platform multiplayer: The Mac and Linux qa builds became active in early July. Strangely, they have not tested DLC05, but have been updating regularly. My theory is that the Mac and Linux DLC and patch will not be releasing concurrent with DLC05, and that their qa builds are being updated to use against the PC qa builds testing cross-platform multiplayer functionality. The PC patch will likely have cross-platform multiplayer capability, but this won’t be accessible until the Mac and Linux release at some point in the future, probably mid-late August.

Maybe they've only been working on the Mac and Linux qa builds because they're already done working on the Windows qa build.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

One thing to consider when trying to discern patterns based on past behavior is the cross platform thing. In the past, they followed a certain pattern, but they were only concerned with the Windows DLC. This time, they might exhibit a different pattern if they are trying to release Windows, Mac, and Linux all at the same time.



Maybe they've only been testing the Mac and Linux qa builds because they're already done testing the Windows qa build. ray:

They have been updating and testing the PC qa build as well. My reasoning for this theory is that the PC qa builds contain DLC05 while the Mac and Linux do not. So why do they keep updating them? Because they are strictly testing something in the patch that involves all three, ie cross-platform multiplayer.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

And speaking of updates, 2kqa_c has updated. Busy day; that's all three platforms.

 

[shaglio]

And speaking of updates, 2kqa_c has updated. Busy day; that's all three platforms.

This could be the start of something special!

 

[Zelda1983]

Lets hope.

 

[DJ_Tanner]

They don't even need to be that specific, since I'm sure the thing they are afraid of is saying "It's gonna be ready in two weeks!" then encountering a serious bug and that means they have to delay it for an extra week or two, and having people up in arms that they can't keep to their original date.

All they need to do is have some kind of dialogue with their fanbase, even if its just to let us know "Hey, we're still working on it guys!" rather than having us rely on the hard work of Eagle Pursuit who is essentially engaging in the digital equivalent of peering through the windows and going through the bins around the back of Firaxis HQ to find clues as to what kind of progress they are making. I'm sorry, but when you stop and actually think about what's going on here in this thread, it's absurd the lengths we have to go to.

They do livestreams, but only immediately before they have new content out. Why is this? I mean, I'm sure their schedules are busy, but even if they did it as infrequently as once every two weeks with whoever felt like volunteering each time from within the team, but did it regularly, they could throw out general progress updates that could be as vague as they liked and we would be more willing to wait things out, because there would be the sense that Firaxis is at least engaging with the community.

Yeah you are giving people waaaay too much credit. If they came out every 2 weeks and never said anything concrete they would get savaged anyways. Sure some would like it more, but there would be plenty of people decrying the fact that they never actually say anything. Plus is SUPER hard to not say anything. So you can't just put random intern out there on the livestream. Now you have higher ups who are, if nothing else, approving what gets/doesn't get said and people terrified they make the horrible mistake of opening a dialog box they weren't supposed to. Those would require a ton of effort to actually be vague as every inch of the stream would be dissected. So it would be a ton of work and the end result some may be a bit happier and there would be just as much outrage, so the cost/benefit seems terrible.

As much as 'everyone' wants more African civs there are going to be a ton of people mad because you know not that African civ. So really why announce too much? People stay angry longer than they stay excited. Putting out the information right before the content just makes more sense, those that will be excited remain excited up until the release and those that are gonna be angry are just as angry.

 

[Katakanja]

Yeah you are giving people waaaay too much credit. If they came out every 2 weeks and never said anything concrete they would get savaged anyways. Sure some would like it more, but there would be plenty of people decrying the fact that they never actually say anything. Plus is SUPER hard to not say anything. So you can't just put random intern out there on the livestream. Now you have higher ups who are, if nothing else, approving what gets/doesn't get said and people terrified they make the horrible mistake of opening a dialog box they weren't supposed to. Those would require a ton of effort to actually be vague as every inch of the stream would be dissected. So it would be a ton of work and the end result some may be a bit happier and there would be just as much outrage, so the cost/benefit seems terrible.

As much as 'everyone' wants more African civs there are going to be a ton of people mad because you know not that African civ. So really why announce too much? People stay angry longer than they stay excited. Putting out the information right before the content just makes more sense, those that will be excited remain excited up until the release and those that are gonna be angry are just as angry.

You're so cynical DJ, its not healthy

If they make it clear from the beginning that they wont talk specifics, and hold to that rule, then when some hothead decides to hassle them for not giving concrete details, the more level-headed individuals within the community are more likely to come outin defence of Firaxis, and only have to point to the fact that the company is trying to be more open as proof of Firaxis's willingness to engage in dialogue.

Its another upside to interacting with the community; we naturally become more inclined to defend a faceless corporation that we at least perceive as benevolent, regardless of whether they are or not

As for the danger of some intern opening up a window they shouldn't (and I'd at least like to think that the Civ dev team would be willing to forgive said imaginary intern for such a mistake, given that the Game Director himself is painfully aware of how easy such accidents can be ) I'm not suggesting they only do livestreams of them playing the latest hot off the press game build. Quite the opposite, just play a normal game with the version that's currently in our hands and goof around a bit, recount some interesting anecdotes about game development and engage in some awkward banter

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I don't know. I think I would rather have more video dev diaries with the potential for posters and screens not blacked out fast enough than livestreams.

 

[Katakanja]

I don't know. I think I would rather have more video dev diaries with the potential for posters and screens not blacked out fast enough than livestreams.

*Sigh* This is why we can't have nice things

 

[Human Crouton]

I really don't even care to know the DLC ahead of time, or require much information at all. All I need is something like "We are aware of this bug/issue". I mean Civ 5 was good, but there were certain little things they just never fixed. Like rationalism being so good that there was no reason to take anything else. As far as we know, they never even realized this.

 

[BrokTheFanatic]

I will venture that the Illuminati are to blame for this delay. Since they control everything, then they must be the ones to blame. Q.E.D.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I really don't even care to know the DLC ahead of time, or require much information at all. All I need is something like "We are aware of this bug/issue". I mean Civ 5 was good, but there were certain little things they just never fixed. Like rationalism being so good that there was no reason to take anything else. As far as we know, they never even realized this.

They did. They talked about it when Civ VI was announced; how the map would drive strategy instead of having a go-to path every time.

2K or Firaxis probably decided social policy issues weren't worth the man-power hours to balance as they were wrapping up development on the game.

 

[Katakanja]

They did. They talked about it when Civ VI was announced; how the map would drive strategy instead of having a go-to path every time.

2K or Firaxis probably decided social policy issues weren't worth the man-power hours to balance as they were wrapping up development on the game.

Yet they found the time to nerf Tradition and flip the position of the Liberty settler policy. If you're going to leave them overpowered, just go all in

#notbitter

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

ACHIEVEMENTS ARE UP

10 of them.