Hotseat will not be available in Civ VII — A plea to FXS_Sar and Game Devs (POLL)

[pokiehl]

this is an article from aug 28 th on that topic.
Anybody can confirm?

Civilization 7 Confirms Important Multiplayer Feature

Sid Meier's Civilization 7 confirms the inlcusion of a very important multiplayer feature that fans have been constantly asking about.

gamerant.com

Unfortunately, that’s an inaccurately written article. Yes the Switch confirmed “local multiplayer” but it just means LAN, not Hotseat.

The Civ 7 Switch page leaves no ambiguity: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/sid-meiers-civilization-vii-switch/

“Local wireless (2-6 players)”

 

[BrotherInJah]

Yeah I'm in the same boat. My wife and kids love to play hotseat on the PC for games IV, V, Beyond Earth, and VI. Real disappointing that I will not be able to play with them anymore. I had preordered the Founder's Edition for the Shawnee (my wife is partially Shawnee heritage) but canceled it earlier today. Hopefully they add it at launch or add it in.

We play via lan. Run steam in offline mode and host the game from one machine. There where some guides online.

 

[AtlantisAuthor]

Just read an article saying Civ 7 will be cutting out local hot seat multiplayer before coming here. If that's true then I have to say it's a huge mistake on Firaxis' part. I played both 5 and 6 with friends locally for many, many hours around the PC and later the TV (XBox Series X); there's just something about playing with friends and family around the living room, seeing their reactions and hearing each others' smack talk in real time that simply can't be duplicated online. I almost NEVER play ANY game online with strangers anymore (had more than enough of that toxicity), and asking others to invest in the same new game to play with me from their house...yeah, that's a tall order.

I know the argument is that games are "trending away" from local multiplayer; one could cite, for example, Halo's abandonment of splitscreen local multiplayer. But I don't think that it's "games" or the hobby that's trending away from local multiplayer, it's the INDUSTRY that's trying their best to dictate it. And let's get down to the real issue here: any time that a player is offline is time their experience can't be monitored, gated, controlled, or exploited for additional $$$ after the initial point-of-sale. Don't tell me that interest has waned in multiplayer when my Switch still gets tons of playtime whenever family comes over with Mario Kart, Smash Bros., etc.; we have the most powerful machines and the biggest, sharpest displays in the history of the hobby and yet we're increasingly being limited to a single person sitting in an empty room playing on those big screens. And that's a travesty, guys.

I don't care if Firaxis considers local hotseat "niche"; they should make the effort to include it as an option for those of us who do make use of it. It wouldn't require any significant changes to Civ 7's basic UI or mechanics as far as I can tell; it's just that they don't want to.

I'll put it this way: a Civ 7 without local hot seat multiplayer is a single-player-only Civ where I'm personally concerned. And that is patently unacceptable, Firaxis. Please FIX THIS.

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[Riconatic]

Just read an article saying Civ 7 will be cutting out local hot seat multiplayer before coming here. If that's true then I have to say it's a huge mistake on Firaxis' part. I played both 5 and 6 with friends locally for many, many hours around the PC and later the TV (XBox Series X); there's just something about playing with friends and family around the living room, seeing their reactions and hearing each others' smack talk in real time that simply can't be duplicated online. I almost NEVER play ANY game online with strangers anymore (had more than enough of that toxicity), and asking others to invest in the same new game to play with me from their house...yeah, that's a tall order.

I know the argument is that games are "trending away" from local multiplayer; one could cite, for example, Halo's abandonment of splitscreen local multiplayer. But I don't think that it's "games" or the hobby that's trending away from local multiplayer, it's the INDUSTRY that's trying their best to dictate it. And let's get down to the real issue here: any time that a player is offline is time their experience can't be monitored, gated, controlled, or exploited for additional $$$ after the initial point-of-sale. Don't tell me that interest has waned in multiplayer when my Switch still gets tons of playtime whenever family comes over with Mario Kart, Smash Bros., etc.; we have the most powerful machines and the biggest, sharpest displays in the history of the hobby and yet we're increasingly being limited to a single person sitting in an empty room playing on those big screens. And that's a travesty, guys.

I don't care if Firaxis considers local hotseat "niche"; they should make the effort to include it as an option for those of us who do make use of it. It wouldn't require any significant changes to Civ 7's basic UI or mechanics as far as I can tell; it's just that they don't want to.

I'll put it this way: a Civ 7 without local multiplayer is a single-player-only Civ where I'm personally concerned. And that is patently unacceptable, Firaxis. Please FIX THIS.

I am not sure if there is two things getting confused now.

Civilization 7 has local multiplayer.
Civilization 7 does not have hotseat multiplayer.

 

[fantsu]

Unfortunately, that’s an inaccurately written article. Yes the Switch confirmed “local multiplayer” but it just means LAN, not Hotseat.

The Civ 7 Switch page leaves no ambiguity: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/sid-meiers-civilization-vii-switch/

“Local wireless (2-6 players)”

Civ VI on Switch had hotseat, local multi and LAN. There is a way to change between local multiplayer (wireless) and LAN (with ethernet cables between different Switch consoles, just like in many other Switch titles like MK8D, Splatoons or ARMS and so on.
Usually it works so that LAN gives you possibility for online rules (like in Mario Kart you can get 12 players instead of just 8) but without shared Joy-Cons. I already wonder whats the difference between those in CIV VII, or if its even possible.

 

[TheSpaceCowboy]

This poll is invalid. There should be an option for those of us who never play hotseat or multiplayer.
I'm against the inclusion of hotseat at launch because the resources required to implement it are an opportunity cost which would deprive us of content that could be of more benefit to single players

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

This poll is invalid. There should be an option for those of us who never play hotseat or multiplayer.
I'm against the inclusion of hotseat at launch because the resources required to implement it are an opportunity cost which would deprive us of content that could be of more benefit to single players

Hotseat is the cheapest thing they can implement, they already have multiplayer support, Hotseat is nothing more than the original multiplayer. All they have to do is do a small interface for it, and make sure to optimize the swapping of perspectives. And there, you have hotseat implemented.

 

[Nikolai II]

Hotseat is the cheapest thing they can implement, they already have multiplayer support, Hotseat is nothing more than the original multiplayer. All they have to do is do a small interface for it, and make sure to optimize the swapping of perspectives. And there, you have hotseat implemented.

Even "easy" and "cheap" features take time and resources to implement and test, though.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Even "easy" and "cheap" features take time and resources to implement and test, though.

"opportunity cost which would deprive us of content that could be of more benefit to single players" is a stretch.

You're right, we should focus on Single Player, let's can multiplayer altogether instead!

 

[AtlantisAuthor]

I am not sure if there is two things getting confused now.

Civilization 7 has local multiplayer.
Civilization 7 does not have hotseat multiplayer.

I was referring specifically to hot seat local multiplayer; I've edited my earlier post to clarify that point.

 

[Nikolai II]

"opportunity cost which would deprive us of content that could be of more benefit to single players" is a stretch.

You're right, we should focus on Single Player, let's can multiplayer altogether instead!

Not what I suggested.

 

[abj9562]

I taught all three of my children how to play with hotseat. In turn they have taught my grandchildren how to play the same way. While it is not a highly used mechanism. I do think it needs to be in the game. In my own case it has led to more than 20 new players (family and friends) because of how I used it to introduce people to the game. If each person I introduced Civilization bought just 10 additional games or DLC's at say $40 each. That is $40 * 10 purchases * 20 people. Or about $8000 in additional sales. I can't be the only one who has brought new consumers to the table in this manner. Heck if only 1/10 of 1% of 10 million consumers (that is 10,000 people) do or did this, it comes out to over $80,000,000 in sales during the franchise's history. Why they would cancel a future revenue stream is beyond me to understand.

 

[TheSpaceCowboy]

"opportunity cost which would deprive us of content that could be of more benefit to single players" is a stretch.

You're right, we should focus on Single Player, let's can multiplayer altogether instead!

Civilization VII *should* have abandoned multiplayer

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Heeell no, Civ is great with friends.

 

[pokiehl]

Civilization VII *should* have abandoned multiplayer

Absolutely disagree 10000% man. Multiplayer civ is awesome and one of my favorite ways to spend time with my friends. It’s the same for a lot of other folks too. I’d be so disappointed if we lost multiplayer.

 

[Ayubalugu]

Sign the Petition https://chng.it/f9YGm9LbKk
Bring back hotseat in Civilization VII

The whole GMR http://multiplayerrobot.com and PYDT https://www.playyourdamnturn.com communities play their MP games using the Hotseat feature.

 

[BackseatTyrant]

I don't know if anyone has brought this up yet, but I feel the hotseat function is useful for playtesting mods and scenarios before showing them to anyone else

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Ed said that they chose to leave out Hotseat because of lower percentage of its users...

And in the words of Trinity the Tuck : "I call shade"

(Source, Ursa Ryan's QA with the devs)

I'm sorry, while I understand the need to priotizie other multiplayers, all this tells me is you don't feel the need to find time to implement the switching of players. That's all that Hotseat is, it's not this complicated multiplayer system that needs careful tuning. If you have multiplayer, you can have Hotseat. It's as simple as that. The game's literally turn-based...

 

[Swissy]

Ed said that they chose to leave out Hotseat because of lower percentage of its users...

And in the words of Trinity the Tuck : "I call shade"

(Source, Ursa Ryan's QA with the devs)

I'm sorry, while I understand the need to priotizie other multiplayers, all this tells me is you don't feel the need to find time to implement the switching of players. That's all that Hotseat is, it's not this complicated multiplayer system that needs careful tuning. If you have multiplayer, you can have Hotseat. It's as simple as that. The game's literally turn-based...

They actually aren't prioritizing other multiplayers. They are focusing on the console multiplayer. Competitive multiplayer on PC is literally unplayable by the info released thus far. In that same Ursa Ryan video they plainly stated they are leaving competitive multiplayer gaming to the competitive multiplayer community. The limitations on the number of players in multiplayer will severely hamper competitive multiplayer. The whole era system and the possibility of snatching victory from defeat at the end will not go well with competitive multiplayers. Add to this the fact that teamer games, the most visible aspect of competitive multiplayer on Youtube and Twitch, hasn't really been addressed yet. So, it doesn't matter how easy something could be implemented, the corporate decision has been made to limit the multiplayer aspects of Civ 7 and focus more on modes that fit nicely with consoles, limited amount of players and co-op play modes.

 

[pokiehl]

mpetitive multiplayer on PC is literally unplayable by the info released thus far. In that same Ursa Ryan video they plainly stated they are leaving competitive multiplayer gaming to the competitive multiplayer community. The limitations on the number of players in multiplayer will severely hamper competitive multiplayer. The whole era system and the possibility of snatching victory from defeat at the end will not go well with competitive multiplayers. Add to this the fact that teamer games, the most visible aspect of competitive multiplayer on Youtube and Twitch, hasn't really been addressed yet. So, it doesn't matter how easy something could be implemented, the corporate decision has been made to limit the multiplayer aspects of Civ 7 and focus more on mades that fit nicely with consoles, limited amount of players and co-op play modes.

I didn't take that interview to mean anything negative about multiplayer at all, so I'm not sure how you took that away from it.

Plainly they are prioritizing multiplayer, and are especially interested in cross-platform multiplayer. There's nothing that makes competitive multiplayer "literally unplayable" and they didn't even 100% shut down the idea of a potential Civ league.

Then Ed went on to talk about how they're trying to give multiplayer games as much flexibility as possible to make their own rules. AND they said that a more traditional Civ 5/Civ 6 multiplayer experience is being worked on, but they wanted to prioritize the core Civ 7 experience first.

All of that shows a focus on multiplayer to me. I would like to hear confirmation about Teams coming back though because I love co-op Civ.