Future Update - Speculation Thread

[Eagle Pursuit]

My current unfounded speculation: there will be a season ticket type set of DLC announced in the next 4-6 weeks. We'll see one more empty depot added before then, for a total of four DLC coming out over the next 8-12 months with 2 new civs per DLC and 10 achievements per DLC.

I agree on the quantities, but I'm less certain about the timeframe. All I can think is it will likely drop before July, but later seems more likely than sooner.

 

[RohirrimElf]

I agree on the quantities, but I'm less certain about the timeframe. All I can think is it will likely drop before July, but later seems more likely than sooner.

what do you think about the updates that come with the dlc packages eagle? How much weeks/month do you think they are apart of each other? It would not make sense to create multiple dlc packages to release it as one expansion right?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

what do you think about the updates that come with the dlc packages eagle? How much weeks/month do you think they are apart of each other? It would not make sense to create multiple dlc packages to release it as one expansion right?

I think there's two possibilities for release of the DLCs. It's possible they could release multiple DLCs simultaneously like Vikings and Poland and let us take what we want, like an expansion buffet. Or more likely they put one out per quarter, starting with Q2 (which happens to be 2K's fiscal Q1).

 

[sugerdady87]

- An expansive conquest system: I would like to see vassal and tributary states as opposed to absorbing the enemy city directly into your realm

 

[Killer Rabbit]

This seems to be strong evidence that the "season ticket" speculation may have been accurate. Bummer--I'm still really hoping for a full third expansion focusing on the late game.

(More DLC Civ/Leader packs after that would of course be welcome too!)

But who knows, it could still be a full expansion...

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

This is the first day in many weeks that i checked in when the day was almost over (monday). Normally i cant resist the temptation to peek.
But then i thought for a moment a real dlc has reached us with zoomzoom without checking twitter. Almost hyped.
Firaxis might be officially trolling us. Next dlc depot will be dontblink, hurryup or soonTM. Refresh rate would be high on civfanatics.

If they don't name the 4th one "SoonTM" I will be deeply disappointing. The fact that none of them have been named that so far is already annoying xD

 

[bite]

hmmm, I was hoping for a 3rd expansion, but I am moving more and more to another DLC run (which of course does not preclude another exp later)

 

[Smity2k1]

DLC makes way more sense than another expansion IMO. I never really understood the 'big expansion' aspect of Civ, season pass type DLC seems to make more sense.

I think expansion sized DLC works better for games with a story.

 

[acluewithout]

My current unfounded speculation: there will be a season ticket type set of DLC announced in the next 4-6 weeks. We'll see one more empty depot added before then, for a total of four DLC coming out over the next 8-12 months with 2 new civs per DLC and 10 achievements per DLC.

I agree on the quantities, but I'm less certain about the timeframe. All I can think is it will likely drop before July, but later seems more likely than sooner.

I think there's two possibilities for release of the DLCs. It's possible they could release multiple DLCs simultaneously like Vikings and Poland and let us take what we want, like an expansion buffet. Or more likely they put one out per quarter, starting with Q2 (which happens to be 2K's fiscal Q1).

Good grief! What on earth is going on!?!

So, I guess all the various QA and Smoke relate to the different DLC?

Seems crazy they would release a bunch of DLC at once. Wouldn’t sales be better if they stretched out the DLC? But if they were going to release them one at a time, why have all of them in the database all at once?

It looks like we’re going down the DLC route, but I guess nothing rules out a Third Expansion? I find it somewhat surprising they wouldn’t do a Third Expansion - seems like there’s enough room for one and plenty of consumer appetite.

You know what would be awesome? Third expansion and then civ / scenario DLC. 3XP would have all the new mechanics but maybe no leaders etc. DLC pack would have leaders / Civs / scenarios but would also let FXS tweak and patch mechanics over the course of the next year or so, and maybe have a few smaller mechanics (like Indonesia / Khmer DLC did with Religion).

Sigh. But also, you know, maybe not. Maybe just DLC. Anyway. It’ll be what it’ll be. Just hope it’s something soon, because I am really over waiting, and getting increasingly restless stuck at home...

- An expansive conquest system: I would like to see vassal and tributary states as opposed to absorbing the enemy city directly into your realm

I do think not having multiple ways to hold Cities is a big shortcoming.

Civ VI very deliberately pushes you to go wide, which I think is the right approach for a 4x game particularly Civ. But the catch is, because the game focuses on wide, you end up with masses of undifferentiated Cities and heaps of micro.

Having two or three different City types (eg Core, Vassal and Colony) would allow for more and better differentiation, and just make the whole expansion mechanics more interesting. ie instead of just deciding when and where to expand, you’d also have to consider what sort of city to expand with.

(BTW, @bite Splitting the threads in two was a great idea. Very handy having a thread with most recent news, then I can come here for the chat.)

 

[WillowBrook]

Seems crazy they would release a bunch of DLC at once. Wouldn’t sales be better if they stretched out the DLC? But if they were going to release them one at a time, why have all of them in the database all at once?

As has been suggested already, they may be adding the depots several weeks apart just to show those of us who are paying attention that they are working on new stuff. I don't think they'll release them all at once, but will spread them out over up to a year.

I think you'll have the option to pay for all four at once up front at a discount or individually when released.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

This is my speculation:

They took the survey results to heart.

They are going the paradox route when it comes to DLC.

They've seen peoples desires for more frequent updates and they've gone to the trouble of porting it out to nearly every conceivable platform. To me this tells us there will be more content and it will come in the form of more frequent but smaller plug and play features.

I suspect there are a few DLC. These DLC will be a first for civ series in that they will contain not only civs but also features. There are so many smoke branches because they want to make sure each DLC will operate independent of the others and also work all together.

They've shown a willingness in the past to do major overhauls with systems in patches (religious victory was overhauled, units added, UI adjustments etc). I think we should expect these kind of changes in smaller incremental DLC.

Theoretically, if they had done GS like this I theorize one DLC would have looked like this: Feature: Strategic resources overhaul. Canada added (they get bonus iron) and England revamp included (workshop of the world helps them benefit from new strategic resource system.

Then another pack would have been "Weather" that would have added all the natural disasters and perhaps global warming and including overhauls of all the older civs to account for the new system and perhaps Maori due to their agenda etc.

This is all speculation but I think there is both precedent and evidence to back it up.

How will they justify this PR wise? Guess what a lot of people have said? they want the GS rule set without certain things like global warming. This system would allow just that. They will emphasize the fact that you can pick which systems you want in the game rather then be forced to play with all of them.

Lastly, from a corporate point of view the paradox model is basically a money printing machine.

 

[acluewithout]

hmmm, I was hoping for a 3rd expansion, but I am moving more and more to another DLC run (which of course does not preclude another exp later)

As has been suggested already, they may be adding the depots several weeks apart just to show those of us who are paying attention that they are working on new stuff. I don't think they'll release them all at once, but will spread them out over up to a year.

I think you'll have the option to pay for all four at once up front at a discount or individually when released.

I guess only having ten achievements suggests they’re only initially releasing one dlc? The others are presumably for later?

Sadly, I think a Third XP is unlikely. I’ll be disappointed not getting a Third XP after all this waiting. I’m also getting a bit fed up with some of the persistent shortcomings, particularly unit gaps, lack of strong end game content, and (as someone mentioned above) soft power options.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

- An expansive conquest system: I would like to see vassal and tributary states as opposed to absorbing the enemy city directly into your realm

I would absolutely KILL for tributary states or vassals. I desperately want more soft power options and other forms of dominance other than direct military conquest.

 

[acluewithout]

more soft power options

That’s the perfect way to put it, and exactly what the game needs. Something like Core Cities, Vassals and Colonies.

 

[adrifranchise]

so what do these DLC depots tell us? I’m assuming we are not looking at one big expansion anymore but rather 3 smaller DLC (as of now) maybe civs with a mechanic or two. Or maybe Zoomzoom is going to be the depot they use to get something out there quickly?

 

[Nerevatar]

I honestly believe that the additional depots are purely for conmunication in an official unofficial way. Seems like a cheap way to say 'something is coming' without promising anything and without going through the marketing channels.

Whether all the speed references is a hint about feature(s) or it us just to say 'coming as fast as possible' will be interesting to see.

 

[Marino Palla]

It could be great to bring back fantoches states from civ 6. They could have autonomy but a percentage of the ressources and gold would go to the colons or smthng like this. Adding Ethiopia as the only african state that barely resisted to colonization'd be also logic.
And I really love the idea of a nomadic civ, but it must be genuinely hard to fit it into the actual gameplay

 

[Karmah]

But expansions are by essence an addition of mechanics under a limited number of themes (like GS with ecology and diplo vic) while smaller DLC are more about content using said mechanics (new civs). While I understand then that you can break the latter into Dlcs, for the mechanics I don't see it and I fear that this department will be left behind.

 

[oSiyeza]

And this is why I believe a DLC season does not make sense at all:

- This appears to have been planed for some time. But the last content added to the game was in September, more than 6 months ago (proabbly another 3 will pass before something gets released). Games dont get regular DLCs afer such a long time for a reason, Civ6 is not trending anymore, a lot of players will have moved to new things and you simple need something more relevant than a DLC to catch on old players. In other words, if you want to keep players invested in new DLC content, you simple dont leave the game without new content for one such a long time.
- This long developement time does not make sense for a DLC and, again, we have no reason to think that plans changed.
- If they are adding DLCs, they are developing and testing multiple DLCs at once. Again this does not make sense. From a business model, it is much better to release one DLC at a time, with short developement times to keep players invested, and to receive money all along the process, so you know how well are you doing, you profit from the previous DLC when developing new ones, and the game is not abandoned without new content for a long time.

In other words, everything I see here points to me to the oposite of a bunch of independent DLCs.
Now, more than ever, I think a new expansion makes much more sense.

But whatever it is, an expansion or a big civ pack, it has a bunch of pieces that they are developing and testing in parallel.

 

[Lord Lakely]

So what does this mean? No XPac, but a bunch of DLC-packs instead?