Future Update - Speculation Thread

[lordfistas]

According to updated config for 2kqa_d: launch/30/config/betakey: 2kqa_d and that the Tuesday/Thursdays are in most cases for reveal new exp/dlc, I assume we can be surprise tomorrow. This beta can has something to do with Xbox event.
Check latest Phil Spencer tweet according xbox event:
"Excited for the kickstart of Xbox 20/20 tomorrow with Inside Xbox. Especially love that all games have never been seen in an Xbox show before. New games for a new generation, studios large and small. Lots more thru the summer (...)"

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I don't think what we are seeing on SteamDB is tied to the Xbox show. But there's a chance it could be shown tomorrow or next week.

 

[Nikolai II]

This is a bit presumptive. For one, the actual leader design is as easy as a few sketches thrown together by a single artist; the design for the rest of a civ's assets takes a lot more research and development. Not to mention other moving parts that need to be planned and funded like the music.

Take it from one who knows a little about game development, the leader graphics like in civ6 cost a ton. Easily among the most expensive to do.

 

[Jeppetto]

Yes. I agree this supports that suspicion. But I don't understand why it has it's own launcher. If I knew what the various different launchers did, it might help.

To go out on a very tenuous branch, I postulate that they will be doing some kind of remote demo from 2kqa_d, showing whatever special content is on it.

Oh, I assumed it was only changing some assets or stuff that shows on current launcher, didn't look into it deep.

 

[Ivan Hunger]

This is a bit presumptive. For one, the actual leader design is as easy as a few sketches thrown together by a single artist; the design for the rest of a civ's assets takes a lot more research and development. Not to mention other moving parts that need to be planned and funded like the music.

For two, you are presuming that Firaxis is starting from scratch on both new civs and new leaders, when in all likelihood there exist examples of both in various states of completion. I would argue that it is far more likely there are more partially developed leaders than civs (and further along in development), given that civs are likely not greenlit past early development unless it is fairly certain they will be released, if not in an expack then as bonus DLC. The music department said at some point that they were given a list for each expack.

By contrast, if alternate leaders are only planned for existing civs, particularly if they are only planned for base game civs (really, the only base game civs with strong cases for alternate leaders), and especially if they are series staple leaders intended to pander to long-time fans, then the devs have already known their alternate leader shortlist for years. They don't need to be designing off the cuff, they could have been working on alternate leaders piecemeal since the release of vanilla VI.

So, no, unless you have some special insider info that the devs intentionally put off alternate leader design expack by expack, I don't think I'm far from the truth at all.

You say it is "likely" that civs are not greenlit past early development, yet you give no reasons why this is likely. Georgia's inclusion in the game, which was inspired by memes that arose after the early development period of vanilla, would suggest this isn't the case.

Your entire argument is based on the premise that there are already alt leaders secretly in development, but you have no evidence of this beyond your own wishful thinking. Asking your critics to prove a negative, in this case that there are no alt leaders already in development, only further demonstrates how weak your argument is.

Music composition is by no means cheap, but anyone who has experience with modern game development can tell you how absurdly expensive art assets are, especially animated assets. Getting a model to look good on modern computers is oppressively time consuming. Music can't be rushed, but it is rarely the bottleneck in the development process.

 

[Stalagna]

In new content, I'd like to see some new spy missions. One specific one I'd want is a "Strategic Resources Heist" option in an enemy encampment district. Nothing worse than not having access to the resources you need for your units in the mid and late game. I think the espionage system could also make the diplomatic victory a bit more engaging. Possibly some kind of mission in the government plaza that aids with diplomatic favor or something. Or a mission that if successful can trigger an immediate vote in the World Congress for victory points.

 

[Pistol90]

Also one thing which will be HUGE disappointment for all of us I believe is if they dont fix crashes on large maps. Not being able to play Giant Earth is very,very hard thing to swallow, other earth maps looks really akward -- you need that 180x94 size to have feeling like earth geography --- this really needs to be fixed.

 

[Kwami]

Also one thing which will be HUGE disappointment for all of us I believe is if they dont fix crashes on large maps. Not being able to play Giant Earth is very,very hard thing to swallow, other earth maps looks really akward -- you need that 180x94 size to have feeling like earth geography --- this really needs to be fixed.

I suspect that fixing an unsupported mod is not a top priority for the developers. Much better to spend time fixing the broken things in the core game (e.g. the pantheon bug) and adding new content. If they can also fix the giant maps, well, great. But don't bet on it.

 

[Gedemon]

Take it from one who knows a little about game development, the leader graphics like in civ6 cost a ton. Easily among the most expensive to do.

And that's why they have a ton of artists and one part-time AI programmer.

While modders have one fantastic artist (hi @sukritact !) and a ton of request for a better AI.

Guess which part is locked to modding ?

 

[Nikolai II]

Guess which part is locked to modding ?

I'm sure Shaun has not forgotten the modders. But he is one man.

 

[AntSou]

The latest unnamed DLC does not show up in the Depot list, unlike the other four.

 

[Gedemon]

I suspect that fixing an unsupported mod is not a top priority for the developers. Much better to spend time fixing the broken things in the core game (e.g. the pantheon bug) and adding new content. If they can also fix the giant maps, well, great. But don't bet on it.

I don't bet on it either, but I do hope there are enough customers buggering them about that to make it at least a low-middle-list priority. It was working exceptionally well on exceptionally large maps (230x116 !) when the game was released in October 2016.

Since the GS patch, the game has trouble with size above 128x80.

I'm sure Shaun has not forgotten the modders. But he is one man.

I'm sure if this was just about him and us, he would have already open everything, he did a fantastic job with the modding framework, which make the situation even more frustrating.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

The latest unnamed DLC does not show up in the Depot list, unlike the other four.

There is no depot (and therefore no name) for it yet.

 

[Gyrofalcon]

Does this launcher nonsense, implicate that Civ6 will after update, be behind a 2K launcher? "Yes, you started Civ6 from Steam, sure we'll let you play. But first you'll have a look at some upcoming sport games from 2K"
Please. No....

 

[Kwami]

Does this launcher nonsense, implicate that Civ6 will after update, be behind a 2K launcher? "Yes, you started Civ6 from Steam, sure we'll let you play. But first you'll have a look at some upcoming sport games from 2K"
Please. No....

I think it's just a different option to select from the launcher that Civ VI already has.

 

[Gedemon]

Does this launcher nonsense, implicate that Civ6 will after update, be behind a 2K launcher? "Yes, you started Civ6 from Steam, sure we'll let you play. But first you'll have a look at some upcoming sport games from 2K"
Please. No....

It's already behind a launcher, if you've not deactivated it.

 

[Kwami]

I don't bet on it either, but I do hope there are enough customers buggering them about that to make it at least a low-middle-list priority. It was working exceptionally well on exceptionally large maps (230x116 !) when the game was released in October 2016.

Since the GS patch, the game has trouble with size above 128x80.

Well, sure, but that's because they added a bunch of stuff that slowed the game down and took up a lot more memory. You can see it when you run the built-in benchmarks for vanilla and GS. The GS scores are always way lower for the AI and for frames per second. And if you open your task manager, you'll see a lot more memory being used than in vanilla, too.

I would imagine that performance improvements are also on the nice to have list, but new stuff probably still comes first.

 

[Gedemon]

Well, sure, but that's because they added a bunch of stuff that slowed the game down and took up a lot more memory. You can see it when you run the built-in benchmarks for vanilla and GS. The GS scores are always way lower for the AI and for frames per second. And if you open your task manager, you'll see a lot more memory being used than in vanilla, too.

I would imagine that performance improvements are also on the nice to have list, but new stuff probably still comes first.

It crashes on vanilla too.

And I bet it crashes because of performance improvements.

 

[Xefjord]

I am really missing the bigger maps as well.

One thing I will say, Sims 4 announced a new expansion today that sounded (imo) extremely disappointing, so I now have 40 dollars to divert somewhere else and I hope that we can get some announcements for Civ 6 soon. Let me throw money at you

 

[XX36789]

It's already behind a launcher, if you've not deactivated it.

How do you deactivate it?