Firaxis please make game playable from day of release!!!

[IronfighterXXX]

I don't see the point of this thread. Did you really think Firaxis would say, "well we were going to release it unplayable, but since you asked..."

Yes, this is exactly what I thought.

Seriously though, the point of this thread is to show that there are players for which is more important that game will be somewhat balanced, bug free than if Gandhi will be leader of India or graphic (but currently I'm not fan too )

We have some valid basis for concern based on track record, and yes I think in a strategy title the game's playability should be prioritized over its appearance.

This conceptually needs to be separated out. "Balance between civs" and "balance of things you can do in the game" are two separate concepts. The latter is more important.

Taken to extremes, the latter can make it so one-sided that doing anything other than 4 city tradition is a false choice, or anything other than ICS false choice, or anything other than culture false choice etc to the extent that the game because centralized around a tiny fraction of its possible options, which then overwhelm other considerations.

That kind of stuff hurts the game a lot more than stuff like "Poland's unique stuff is better than France's".

Those are important thoughts with which I agree.

I don't want to justify the modern plague completely unfinished games being released too early (like civ5)"

We, as players community have made this by buying partially finished games or even worse pre-ordering them.

 

[Acken]

I don't really care for on release balance, or rather I don't believe in it. I'm skeptic beta testers even have time and skill to assess the balance of a game in such a short period. So it will be released unbalanced.

What concerns me more is patching since I consider balancing a dialogue between the developers and its community. The developers need players and time to point out issues. But nothing can be solved with slow patching or ignoring issues. CivBE definetly got the short hand of the stick there and BNW got a semi decent fixing. Nothing too game breaking but a lot of imbalances that are left out since release.

That said what I'd like on release day is stability and playability. And the glaring balance problems to be fixed like Horsemen civ5 or trade routes civBE. That stuff don't need a genius to figure out.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Given that the team is nearly the exact same as Civ 5s, I can't help but consider that both Shirk and Beech are more than aware of our complains over the past 6 years.

Sure this is an opinion of VERY limited information but from what I gathered they seem to have their head in the game, nothing has been taken out so Civ 5 players can very easily adapt into Civ 6 with ease (Tourism, Religion, Trade Routes etc are all in).

They emphasise a bit on Multiplayer and it seems to suggest that work went into it.

They've also, albeit they also did this for Civ 5 emphasised on modding, but to me, and I don't know if I'm wrong or not on this one since I don't remember the days of Civ 5 pre-release, they even suggested "we have more toys for modders to play with" they seem to insuniate that the game will be easier to mod, including in-game assets.

To me it seems like they know they screwed up last time and are trying to make it up for.

 

[Westwall]

It's kind of a given that a new engine from the ground up will see issues.

If there aren't any major issues with playability and bugs, it'll be unprecedented in the history of the series.

 

[IronfighterXXX]

Whenever you set a hard release date 5 months out, you'll inevitably run out of time (as delays always happen in software development) and the game will feel a bit rushed. It's inevitable.

I don't really care for on release balance, or rather I don't believe in it. I'm skeptic beta testers even have time and skill to assess the balance of a game in such a short period. So it will be released unbalanced.

It's kind of a given that a new engine from the ground up will see issues.
If there aren't any major issues with playability and bugs, it'll be unprecedented in the history of the series.

Seems everyone reconciled with imbalanced and buggy game on release; therefore why should Firaxis care.

 

[AriochIV]

Seems everyone reconciled with imbalanced and buggy game on release; therefore why should Firaxis care.

I'm not saying we shouldn't care, or that we shouldn't complain about it. I'm just suggesting realistic expectations. Nobody plans to release a buggy or imbalanced product, but it still happens. It's not because Firaxis doesn't care.