Future Update - Speculation Thread

[Metecury]

I hope we get more units for the different eras, perhaps in the civics tree as well making it more relevant to balance culture with science.

Also, I'd love to see an enlightenment era in between renaissance and industrial though I'm not holding my breath.

And please, please, please give us back the gift unit feature. It was so much fun to use it in multiplayer with friends and for proxy wars when your allied city states got attacked.

 

[Kimiimaro]

Whatever's the case, I'll set some mild hopes for 20th April, the original day of Boston Marathon (maybe) somewhat hinted by runner and Ed's suspiciously close tweet, and simultaneously the day of the sale's end.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I would still like them to add "please declare peace with my friend, ______." It can't be that difficult and would solve a lot of my small annoyances with the game.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I'm still against plagues as a mainline game feature for purely mechanical reasons. They're not predictable like most of the natural disasters in the game. There is no immediate benefit to them as a trade-off. And it further discourages Tall play. I haven't seen many suggestions for Plagues that deal with these issues without also being incredibly complicated.

I don't see why over time your citizens couldn't develop an immunity, whether its by constant exposure or finding a cure.
I can see them indirectly helping with a Diplomatic Victory too by granting you points for helping in a Epidemic/Pandemic Emergency.

 

[RohirrimElf]

Friaxis almost never allows titles to compete for hype/news and with their surprise announcement to the spin-off Xcom title I wouldn't expect to see anything on the Civ front until it releases Apr 24.

my thoughts exactly. Based on the last 3 years of watching firaxis social media. 24 april might even be a bit conservative.

 

[DefiantMars]

I don't see why over time your citizens couldn't develop an immunity, whether its by constant exposure or finding a cure.
I can see them indirectly helping with a Diplomatic Victory too by granting you points for helping in a Epidemic/Pandemic Emergency.

That might work for the late game, especially if there were buildings to help fight against it. But I still think plagues could cause easily cause massive problems in the early game. I already said this in my previous comment, but to reiterate, I think there are a few major issues with the concept of disease outbreaks in a regular game of civ that need to be sorted out from a gameplay perspective:

• First, there is no way to predict them.
• Second, there is no immediate positive side to disease outbreaks.
• Third, the factors that make disease more likely are already game elements that can be considered weak.

Disease were absolutely important in the development of human history, but gameplay comes first. If these three issues can be resolved in a way that isn't incredibly convoluted, I'd be open to the possibility.

Even if it wasn't a complete subsystem and just another form of disaster/potential emergency, there would need to be a clear trigger case, like how droughts appear where there are no forms of vegetation.

Then there needs to be some kind of silver lining that isn't barred by era or technology. Something that will make living through it less of a complete downside. Later down the line, there can be ways to further mitigate or even gain advantage out of it; I don't think there is any shortage of ideas for the latter half of this issue. But the early game part needs some kind of boon to offset how much it could hurt.

Addressing the first issue I listed would help the "bad tile" and Tall problems to an extent. Marshes and estuaries are an important part of ecology, so it bums me out a bit by how frequently it is a good idea to harvest them. Similarly, rainforests are often home to incredible biodiversity. So the negative appeal for those who aren't Pedro is a bit disappointing sometimes. Rainforests aren't quite as bad anymore since they can be Lumber Milled now.

I think that they're often a sizable investment since you have to build an Entertainment complex and two tiers of building, but I do like that Zoos provide bonuses for keeping them around (although I didn't get to take much advantage of this my last Maori game).

So if there were more infrastructure pieces or policies that can maybe persuade you to keep Rainforests and Marshes around instead of harvesting them and not risking diseases or "wasted" tiles, I would like that.

I am definitely hoping that they'll buff Citizen slots in an update. It would be nice to have more reasons to run them regardless of whether or not disease mechanics existed.

 

[bene_legionary]

I would like some sort of Institution system like EU4. Civ 6 will always be a 4X game but I feel like elements of Grand Strategy games would be really nice. Perhaps the starting tech of most eras would be institutions; say, the Ancient Era will be Agriculture / Despotism, Classical would be Metal Working / Political Philosophy, Medieval would be Apprenticeship (probably need a new tech to fill this one, I don't know which because this wasn't particularly influential as I consider it, unlike Agriculture) / Feudalism, Renaissance would be Banking or Printing / Enlightenment, Industrial Era would be Industrialization / Nationalism, Modern Era would be Flight / Ideology, Atomic would be Nuclear etc etc.

Another thing I would like is the scaling down of technology costs but add in incremental bonuses and that certain civs may have bonuses to having a special type. Say, Metal Working also needed a forgery tech and a casting tech that gave small bonuses, and then led to another tech like metal tools that led to Iron working. but that is so drastic of a change I would put it on as something for Civ 7.

My largest nitpicks about Civ 6 is amenities (they don't matter, make them the old way where you would get rebels everywhere and buff tall play a bit, I suppose), diplomacy (give more options. also you accepting delegations should make the AI like you, and give a Casus Belli when you refuse. Same with demands, make it like an ultimatum where if they don't cede cities you'll attack. Maybe even declare war if it isn't met.) Trading needs an overhaul, and more formations. Maybe ranged units + melee units stack on top for more vibrant army forms? I used a mod that allowed me to do this (of which the AI used too) and they were much better at conducting warfare because... catapults don't block units from capturing cities, and they have times where they can use units well enough that their attacks use multiple units on one tile and pull back when they are losing form (But this mod had other changes I didn't necessarily agree with, like ranged anti-cav.). But now I'm just describing my want for a Civ 7 here. Oh, and the AI needs to recognize when another civ is getting too strong. Grievances should have fixed this but it didn't. But the AI is too weak to do anything. Above all nitpicks, my largest concern is the AI. Yes, they can finally use formations of support and attack units. Yes, the barbers can actually kill you like they did to Rome. But they need to be able to have plans for themselves, to understand where a district can be placed or, if there are any better places, buy that tile instead to place that district there instead of being stupid and placing campuses in horrid +1 locations, and utilize adjacency bonuses. But I'll wait.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

my thoughts exactly. Based on the last 3 years of watching firaxis social media. 24 april might even be a bit conservative.

Personally, I'm looking more towards a May announcement.

 

[RohirrimElf]

Personally, I'm looking more towards a May announcement.

seems logical. I have not totally ruled out 28 and 30 april yet.

 

[LMT]

Personally, I'm looking more towards a May announcement.

If an announcement came in May, would that mean an August release?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

If an announcement came in May, would that mean an August release?

This last XCOM thing is due 10 days after announcement. We don't really know what we are dealing with here. So who knows if the previous 12 week (which included 2 weeks with major holidays) marketing campaign is still applicable?

 

[pokiehl]

If an announcement came in May, would that mean an August release?

Literally no one knows anything. Uncharted territory.

 

[WillowBrook]

If an announcement came in May, would that mean an August release?

If it turns out to be a series of DLC, 10-14 days post-announcement would be possible for the first one to drop. As others have said, we really don't know what is going on, beyond that they're working on something.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Terra Incognita is a land filled with both uncertainty and promise.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Then there needs to be some kind of silver lining that isn't barred by era or technology. Something that will make living through it less of a complete downside. Later down the line, there can be ways to further mitigate or even gain advantage out of it; I don't think there is any shortage of ideas for the latter half of this issue. But the early game part needs some kind of boon to offset how much it could hurt.

For the early game my ideas are:
Apothecary building in a new Medical District.
Building an aqueduct can now help no matter if you had fresh water or not.
Stop sending trade routes and close borders to infected Civs.

Personally, I'm looking more towards a May announcement.

April showers bring May flowers. What do Mayflowers bring? Pilgrims! So maybe we will get a New World Scenario?

 

[Jeppetto]

I hope we get more units for the different eras, perhaps in the civics tree as well making it more relevant to balance culture with science.

I dunno, it already decides power of your Diplomatic Favor, your Influence over City-States and, naturally, policies and tourism. I feel like it has enough power in it as it is.
This broadcast has been brought to you by 'I liked buying loayality of city-states with gold as it gave good gameplay fantasy of grey eminence and provided gold with gameplay focus, making Diplomatic Victory an Economic Victory' gang.

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

One thing that I've learned is that "Interesting Design" doesn't always mean "Good Design". That's what I'm trying to say here and why I brought up the quality of those odd-ball civilizations. I simply don't think the Kongo are a good benchmark for civ designs. The raw power of their bonuses can quite potent, but they are reliant on mechanics with considerable issues and they're unable to utilize a core gameplay feature that than just being discouraged from it. I get the Religion is by its nature opt-in, but imagine if we had civs that couldn't access tourism mechanics or spaceport projects so they could never achieve a Science or Culture victory.

I would not like to see more civilizations like that. I would rather have more Maori-like designs.



I'm still against plagues as a mainline game feature for purely mechanical reasons. They're not predictable like most of the natural disasters in the game. There is no immediate benefit to them as a trade-off. And it further discourages Tall play. I haven't seen many suggestions for Plagues that deal with these issues without also being incredibly complicated.

It just means you prefer balance and good design of civ over interesting design enabling unique gameplay experience and I allow possible design issues like a Kongo one to have unique game experience. Upsides and downsides It could be a bad idea if Firaxis would go 100% asymmetric and unique civ design. On the other hand it is doable in many board games. "Root" is a good example. Nevertheless, if we have over 40 civs now I don't think one more "out of the box" ones would cause a big problem.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

The Development Tools are the modding tools. But that doesn't mean we'll get an update of those tools, at least once they were updated a few months before a patch/DLC and were not made public when that patch was released, but much later, with another patch.

For further discussion, go to the Speculation Thread please.

It's also possible that if they are adding new mechanics, they are adding tools to mod them.

 

[Jeppetto]

The Development Tools are the modding tools. But that doesn't mean we'll get an update of those tools, at least once they were updated a few months before a patch/DLC and were not made public when that patch was released, but much later, with another patch.

For further discussion, go to the Speculation Thread please.

I meant what the proving ground was specifically, If we know

EDIT: To be specific, I wasn't sure If this was reference to something announced or worked on before or just depot that we still don't know what it means

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

That might work for the late game, especially if there were buildings to help fight against it. But I still think plagues could cause easily cause massive problems in the early game. I already said this in my previous comment, but to reiterate, I think there are a few major issues with the concept of disease outbreaks in a regular game of civ that need to be sorted out from a gameplay perspective:

• First, there is no way to predict them.
• Second, there is no immediate positive side to disease outbreaks.
• Third, the factors that make disease more likely are already game elements that can be considered weak.

Disease were absolutely important in the development of human history, but gameplay comes first. If these three issues can be resolved in a way that isn't incredibly convoluted, I'd be open to the possibility.

Even if it wasn't a complete subsystem and just another form of disaster/potential emergency, there would need to be a clear trigger case, like how droughts appear where there are no forms of vegetation.

Then there needs to be some kind of silver lining that isn't barred by era or technology. Something that will make living through it less of a complete downside. Later down the line, there can be ways to further mitigate or even gain advantage out of it; I don't think there is any shortage of ideas for the latter half of this issue. But the early game part needs some kind of boon to offset how much it could hurt.

Addressing the first issue I listed would help the "bad tile" and Tall problems to an extent. Marshes and estuaries are an important part of ecology, so it bums me out a bit by how frequently it is a good idea to harvest them. Similarly, rainforests are often home to incredible biodiversity. So the negative appeal for those who aren't Pedro is a bit disappointing sometimes. Rainforests aren't quite as bad anymore since they can be Lumber Milled now.

I think that they're often a sizable investment since you have to build an Entertainment complex and two tiers of building, but I do like that Zoos provide bonuses for keeping them around (although I didn't get to take much advantage of this my last Maori game).

So if there were more infrastructure pieces or policies that can maybe persuade you to keep Rainforests and Marshes around instead of harvesting them and not risking diseases or "wasted" tiles, I would like that.

I am definitely hoping that they'll buff Citizen slots in an update. It would be nice to have more reasons to run them regardless of whether or not disease mechanics existed.

100% true Gameplay comes first.
The only reason to include diseases is its historical context and despite some cool ideas I still think it would be made by force. If you include a feature like this, with a big downside into the game, you must either make it a core mechanic you can play around, or give some upsides in return. Or make it just irrelevant, witch is absurd. Why even bother adding irrelevant features. Diseases as one of the main mechanics would work in the "Struggle the World" game with an endgame aim to survive, not a classic 4K like Civilization where it could be a meh side feature, or rage quit factor.