Expansion Packs

[Becomedeath]

Conversation at work about Excel made me think of this.

When Excel 2007 came out it was a massive improvement on it's predecessor, taking many of it's initial core concepts and pushing them into totally new directions. However, it's jump was in some ways a leap of faith and it was buggy, flawed and not quite what was originally imagined. So 2010 followed very quickly fixing a lot of the issues and adding more features that users had requested as improvements on existing new features.

Perhaps Civ 5 is similar. It's vastly changed the playing field from Civ 4 and in some ways hasn't quite hit the mark. Perhaps instead of flogging this particular horse to change A to fix B which sends C off and requires D changing to bring E into something close to what it's supposed to be, they will simply send in fixes here and there and then come out with Civ 6 after a far shorter period than lay between Civ 4 & 5.

Just a thought.

 

[MkLh]

Conversation at work about Excel made me think of this.

When Excel 2007 came out it was a massive improvement on it's predecessor, taking many of it's initial core concepts and pushing them into totally new directions. However, it's jump was in some ways a leap of faith and it was buggy, flawed and not quite what was originally imagined. So 2010 followed very quickly fixing a lot of the issues and adding more features that users had requested as improvements on existing new features.

Perhaps Civ 5 is similar. It's vastly changed the playing field from Civ 4 and in

The only major change I can see is 1UPT. Other than that V mostly removed stuff from Civ4 or replaced it with something slightly different (like maintencance costs with global happiness, civics with social policies etc.).

 

[anandus]

The only major change I can see is 1UPT. Other than that V mostly removed stuff from Civ4 or replaced it with something slightly different (like maintencance costs with global happiness, civics with social policies etc.).

And the hexes, culture-dependent social policies and different border pops (to name some more).

 

[Becomedeath]

Thats my point though, a lot of little changes that ultimately aren't a huge step away.

Lets consider 1upt to be on a par with Excel 2007's ribbon concept.

Massive step away from 2003, but a clever one. However, in 2007 they'd made it a cumbersome mechanic that took a lot of getting used to, in 2010 however it had a more natural feel to it. Perhaps 1upt could be in the same ball park?

1upt is the significant change however, and clearly the AI programming is more complex for it. Quite frankly I salute the Dev team for taking the plunge, but the AI clearly doesn't know how to handle it in combat situations.

I think that Civ 5 will be a learning curve, well I hope, and that either an expansion or a brand new version will be the outcome of that learning.

I seriously doubt that they don't know how to do it, but rewriting such a major mechanic isn't something that I'd like to patch into something I'd written, a release is the easiest way in my view. However, when I rerelease something, I do it to ~400 people, not ~10 million.

I certainly don't envy them, but I wouldn't look to an expansion to solve issues. The major issues that plague Civ 5 seem to me to require a drawing board and a lot of going back to it.

I would be sad to see 1upt go as it delivers a far more appealing and intelligent playstyle. But, as I've said in other threads, the testing prior to release for this clearly wasn't done properly and has left us with a version that is virtually beyond repair.

That said, you don't make the leap from mathematical logic to intelligence and anticipation in a single bound. I think more people should appreciate the complexity of the game they are playing.

Sadly, in my experience, this is not something that users typically are able to to.