Hint at 3rd expansion from Firaxis??

I agree with you on this... BUT... a LOT of games offer meager 20-40 hours playtime value without much replay ability too... for THOSE game, it's not cheap...

 

And that may be about how long the average Civ 6 purchaser plays the game, too.

 

As Quill18 says, Canada has a rich, decades long history behind it . Sorry, couldn't resist. I love the fact that Canada made the cut for once.

 

The IGN video review refers to Gathering Storm as likely to be the last Expansion, and says there isn’t room for more mechanics.

...

Yeah. I’m not sending IGN a Christmas card this year. Boo.

...on a related note. There’s an interview where Ed (in passing) compares GS to BNW and says something like “in BNW we focused on Ideologies but this time we focused on the environment”. Which sounds a bit like they’re not going to do Ideologies.

Some of the recent FXS live-streams and activities also feel a bit “big party at the end of the line”, although maybe they’re just excited to be getting this expansion out given how big it is.

 

I've read somewhere that GS is their largest expansion yet for Civ series.

I felt that they are still not done yet with Civ VI.
#onemoreexpansion

 

If they don’t want to release the dll, then fine.

But they should contact some of the key modding guys, and work with them to buff the AI. It’d make the game better, and be a big publicity win.

I really hope you’re right.

Quite seriously, leaving aside the game, I’d really miss spending time with Ed, Sarah and the FXS guys. There is a lot of bad stuff in the news and media. Hanging out with the FXS is a real bright spot every year... even that year that nerf batted England...

Come on guys! Stick around!

 

That sounds like speculation and lack of imagination, respectively.

While the game could be complete from a feature standpoint, it's really difficult to accept some of their civ omissions as things stand. I also don't see why they'd want to move on to Civ VII yet. I feel like they built VI's engine with more longevity in mind compared to V. It's already proving to be more flexible.

 

Yep, sounds like they're saying "well every other Civ Game got only 2 expansions, so this one will too". Not overly convinced TBH.

 

I think they'd be insane not to release the dll. Some of the best Scenarios created for past Civ games were produced by Modders using the dll. Note that it probably wouldn't help me, either way, as my C++ skills are extremely rusty & I wasn't that good to begin with .

 

It seems our task is to be so overwhelmingly eager for an XP3 that they cannot help but sell one to us.

 

Hey, why do you think I keep posting about it? #onemoreexpansion

Civ VI will feel pretty “complete” after GS. (An aside: I hate that expression, “complete”. Really, I just mean the mechanics will feel satisfying overall.) There are sort of pointers either way whether we will or won’t get an expansion, with maybe more chunky dlc as a kind of middle ground.

But overall, I just feel like the game is not done yet. And by that, I don’t mean it’s not “good enough”. Just that, it still has lots and lots of unrealised potential that really should be delivered on. I really hope the money and marketing work out, and FXS can keep working on Civ VI. I’d love to be back here next November going through the same anticipation for a new expansion. And to be at that point, but next time anticipating an expansion building off the current post-GS build of the game, would be just amazing and is exactly what the franchise deserves.

 

Maybe that will sound a little bit radical, but i think that absence of some leaders and even civilizations is not a sign that they should be in the future. Sure, they are the face of the game, but they not a cornerstone of gameplay, and not so important in terms of it. It's just some adjustments in one or other way. Game mechanics or even units are more crucial i think. And maybe it's best to look on that parts of game that could be added in future or missing, to predict the upcoming expansion.

 

Aside from possible economic victory type with corporations etc. there isnt really much that can be added. Civ and leaders wise , the few big ones the are left could be released with a DLC scenarios , I mean what big ones we still miss ? Byzantium, Maya , Portugal all those can be as DLC's.
Its also depends what next game after civ6 they plan , if its already being made then yes this is last expanssion.

 

I disagree. Aside from Corporations & Ideology, there is still a ton of stuff that could be done to further flesh out Golden/Dark Ages; Major Civ & City State Diplomacy; Strategic, Luxury & Bonus Resources; Great People (especially Cultural Great People); Culture & Ethnicity; Religion & Pollution. These mechanics are great now, but I think they can be fleshed out even more.

 

Just one word for our contemplative reflection: Production.

Am I right that the lack of production is a constant source of mourning in this forum?

Well, I percepted this, too.
So far, my explanation for the slow production speeds was the pronounced 'wide' design in Civ6 (in contrast to Civ5's 'tall' approach).
With lots of cities, faster building speeds would have been a nuisance, as ordering new projects in every city, every other turn would have been an overwhelming chore!
But with long production times, only a few orders are finished each turn, only a few new decisions are necessary to be made by the player. And only with such an approach, the missing build queue was justified / bearable.

But maybe this wasn't the actual reason for this design decision - or at least not the only one?
Maybe the developers deliberately left some "space" for future content?
Maybe the plan was right from the beginning to add sources of additional production in the future? Sources like ... let me just throw in a term ... corporations, for example?
Corporations (let's stick to it just as a thought experiment) could make use of bonus ressources - which are definitely an underused and expandable game element at the moment - and add related hammers to cities they are present in.

Could the introduction of building queues in GS be not only the answer to an oftentimes made player request, but also the foreshadow of a future expansion that increases the production rates and therefore requires a more compfortable city management?
Who knows. But at least, it wouldn'tt hurt to have it in place - just in case!

 

I would disagree, even at 20 hours (about as low as it gets) for a one-time play a $60 game is still cheap. While I can recognize everyone's financial situation is different, if you look at the alternatives video games offer a lot for a comparative little. So pretty much at a worse case scenario you are at $3/hr and at that price point you aren't gonna find a lot of other options. Plus it is both active entertainment and on-demand. TV will be cheaper, but that is a passive entertainment and if you wanted something active the cheapest thing I can think of is bowling and even that is like $4/game and you gotta go out to engage with it.

All in all, even when games are expensive they are still comparatively cheap.

 

I thought the IGN review was fair enough. Sometimes more is just more. I think the only way to do another civ6 is to grow it in another direction. "Buy this Space/Fantasy/Caveman/Medieval Europe Game! Order now and also get this civ pack for the base game!"

 

I think there is a lot more that could be done around Ideologies (certainly a lot of mechanics from Civ 5 that still haven’t been brought across) and there’s a lot from RnF that could use more work, i.e. Governors, Government Plaza, Loyalty.

 

The thing about a 3rd expansion is that it would need to improve the quality of the game, not just the quantity of features. Simply stuffing more stuff in the game does not necessarily make the game better. With Gathering Storm, I feel like the game has almost reached a saturation point of new mechanics but there are existing mechanics that definitely need some love. So, I would prefer a rework of some existing features to make them better rather than just adding a ton of new mechanics. The loyalty mechanic is one area that definitely needs to be fleshed out.