[LP] Leader Pass Pack 3: Rulers of China Revealed (Coming Jan. 19th)

[Eagle Pursuit]

The Empress

I love the background image. It's so evocative.

 

[AntSou]

The different patterns all over the different fabrics.

Kublai Khan textures (lol):

Ba Trieu textures:

And back to pre-nfp quality:

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I'm really happy with the effort they put into Wu Zetian's model. Let's hope the ability is equally good.

 

[Zaarin]

The texture and model look great. My one critique is what is up with that hard blue-green backlighting? Is Emperess Wu at a sci-fi/cyberpunk nightclub?

 

[AntSou]

The texture and model look great. My one critique is what is up with that hard blue-green backlighting? Is Emperess Wu at a sci-fi/cyberpunk nightclub?

I don't usually pay attention to the colour of light used, only really noticed it when comparing the two suleimans (old suleiman is warm yellow, new suleiman is white), but I think the blue light hitting her from that angle helps in portraying the background and the model as a cohesive whole.

 

[Nikolai II]

Hello Fellow Civ 6 Fans,

Reading over all of the above, I wonder what Ed Beach is up to weekly and monthly at Firaxis. He is still the Executive Producer for Civ 6 and assumingly for Civ 7? or am I wrong. I too would like to see more Wonders in the game from the LP and see the leaders have more significant UA and UU etc. I typically only play a few different leaders these days. Other than Germany, I don't play any of the original leaders in Civ 6. Enjoyed a few from the NFP (I loved Menelik II and love faith based leaders) and now really like Nader Shah with trade routes from cities to the capital city for growth. I am sure some don't. Living my whole life in the Pacific Northwest, I have always wanted to see more Native (Indian) Civs in the game. Yet I don't know how Firaxis could make them a dominant civ to play long term. One thought I have had was making land bonuses massively huge? Fishing and Farming in particular and huge bonuses for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and cows, sheep, horses, buffalo etc. having massive production to all cities not just that one city. Overall making them a powerhouse on Domestic production since they have a strong history of living off the land back in their time before the Industrial Revolution came around in the 1880's. I have not played as Poundmaker (Cree) since he was introduced. Yet I like he is there...just not a strong enough player when you need to go against Germany or Greece or England or Norway. I am sure there are many players on this board that disagree with me and play as the Cree or Aztecs regularly. I guess it all comes down to game play style victory condition and difficulty level / skill level.

Also tied into the LP is the lack of newly added achievements? or has Firaxis / Steam included them from NFP and LP and I just don't see it.

Love to see Civ 7 have more wonders and leaders that significantly stick out and can go head to head with anyone where their UA and UU play critical roles in saving your cities and or taking over cities when their city walls are 100+ in strength.

I agree with one comment...if Civ 7 is not announced this year or next Jan 24 then you wonder...what are they really doing. Companies like Firaxis are planning 5 years out to stay in business and what is the next big thing or what do they need to improve on to keep current customers and continue to grow. Hence you would think that Ed and his team have been working on Civ 7 for the past 2 years. Bare minimum having production meetings discussing plans for Civ 7 and what overhaul new game dynamics will be implemented like going to hexes in the past and perhaps keeping the best victory conditions in current Civ 6 and creating 5 new victory conditions and all the fundamentals and infrastructure that is needed for those victory conditions etc.

If Civ 7 is not announced soon then I believe that Firaxis will lose a large percent of their customers and they will move on to other games or get fed up and find new hobbies to peek their interest. I don't consider myself a gamer at all ... I only love playing Civ 6 and always want to play to most current installments and upgrades. Been playing Civ since 1993 with Civ 1 which was on floppy disks.

Let's GO Ed Beach....after the LP has completely rolled out in March give us a huge announcement that Civ 7 will be out for Christmas this year!!!!!

Thoughts?

Brew God

Pretty sure the devs have a plan there. Chances are, they begun thinking of Civ7 at the latest shortly after Civ6 came out. Perhaps even planned some early ideas, even. But these things take time. And some companies doesn't reveal their next game before months before release.

 

[Zaarin]

I don't usually pay attention to the colour of light used, only really noticed it when comparing the two suleimans (old suleiman is warm yellow, new suleiman is white), but I think the blue light hitting her from that angle helps in portraying the background and the model as a cohesive whole.

Yeah, I figured the intended effect was "moonlight," but...moonlight is not blue-green. It's not even blue.

 

[BigChinggis]

Yeah, I figured the intended effect was "moonlight," but...moonlight is not blue-green. It's not even blue.

Well the moonlight *is* white, and looks blue-green because it's reflecting off of her teal skirt.

 

[Zaarin]

Well the moonlight *is* white, and looks blue-green because it's reflecting off of her teal skirt.

Her skirt is dark blue, and you can see the light is blue-green on her neck, sleeve, and (red) collar. No natural light would be that strongly blue-green; the only source of blue light on Earth is ambient lighting from the daytime sky. Even moonlight is pale yellow.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Pretty sure the devs have a plan there. Chances are, they begun thinking of Civ7 at the latest shortly after Civ6 came out. Perhaps even planned some early ideas, even. But these things take time. And some companies doesn't reveal their next game before months before release.

Project Rene wants to have a word (Sims 5). Though that's debatle where it's going.

However, I think that works where user input is valued and/or important.

 

[Zaarin]

Project Rene wants to have a word (Sims 5). Though that's debatle where it's going.

For the past few years it seems to have been a trend to drop a teaser trailer then go radio silent for years (Starfield and TES6 both spring to mind), but lately more reasonable marketing practices seem to have come back into fashion (e.g., Jedi: Survivor--or the more cautious marketing strategy Starfield seems to have adopted since being acquired by Microsoft with Phil Spencer holding Todd's leash breaking radio silence). Considering how badly managed Sims 4 has been, though, who knows what EA is doing with Sims 5 except trying to counter the Paralives hype. Anyway, Firaxis will hopefully be more rational when marketing Civ7; they did a pretty good job marketing Civ6.

 

[BigChinggis]

Her skirt is dark blue, and you can see the light is blue-green on her neck, sleeve, and (red) collar. No natural light would be that strongly blue-green; the only source of blue light on Earth is ambient lighting from the daytime sky. Even moonlight is pale yellow.

I've definitely seen moonlight of that color before. Especially on Winter nights.
I'm getting "The dress is blue-black/white-gold" flashbacks...

 

[Zaarin]

I've definitely seen moonlight of that color before. Especially on Winter nights.

It's a trick of the eye because humans do not have great color perception in lowlight. Since you mention winter, you could also be seeing the effect of Rayleigh scattering from light reflected off snow.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

For the past few years it seems to have been a trend to drop a teaser trailer then go radio silent for years (Starfield and TES6 both spring to mind), but lately more reasonable marketing practices seem to have come back into fashion (e.g., Jedi: Survivor--or the more cautious marketing strategy Starfield seems to have adopted since being acquired by Microsoft with Phil Spencer holding Todd's leash breaking radio silence). Considering how badly managed Sims 4 has been, though, who knows what EA is doing with Sims 5 except trying to counter the Paralives hype. Anyway, Firaxis will hopefully be more rational when marketing Civ7; they did a pretty good job marketing Civ6.

The rationale I've heard for the super early trailers is that they've been made by a third party on contract to help recruit devs so that they can actually begin making the game. Thankfully, Firaxis doesn't engage in that practice.

 

[Zaarin]

The rationale I've heard for the super early trailers is that they've been made by a third party on contract to help recruit devs so that they can actually begin making the game. Thankfully, Firaxis doesn't engage in that practice.

Makes sense for some indie and small studio trailers I've seen, but it doesn't seem like Bethesda would need to do that, either.

 

[Nikolai II]

Project Rene wants to have a word (Sims 5). Though that's debatle where it's going.

However, I think that works where user input is valued and/or important.

"Some companies" I said. Not all. But you doubt that Firaxis has something coming they haven't announced yet? AAA games takes years to plan and execute. Chances are Civ7 started planning years ago. Of course, when it comes will have to be seen.

 

[SecretWeapon]

Project Rene wants to have a word (Sims 5). Though that's debatle where it's going.

However, I think that works where user input is valued and/or important.

Even though it probably mindlessly makes money, The Sims franchise is in such degree of mistrust that even EA gave a cheese. The fact the their competition rn is only an indie FUTURE game made by a team of like 5 people that's ages away from being released AND IT'S WINNING just reflects awfully on them as well.

Spilling the beans too early can be a recipe for disaster (see Bayonetta 3 for the most recent example)

 

[Republic of San Montuoso]

For the hard-blue light on Wu Zetian's shoulders, could it be that as if she was surrounded by lanterns with a round paper lampshade?

If you look at the Chinese palace during night, you see that there are lots of those blue lanterns floating on ropes between the roofs (don't have any screenshot at hand, sorry). When @Zaarin pointed out the colour, that's what I immediately thought about, the lanterns.

But I might be wrong. I have a tenacious habit of being wrong.

 

[Zaarin]

For the hard-blue light on Wu Zetian's shoulders, could it be that as if she was surrounded by lanterns with a round paper lampshade?

If you look at the Chinese palace during night, you see that there are lots of those blue lanterns floating on ropes between the roofs (don't have any screenshot at hand, sorry). When @Zaarin pointed out the colour, that's what I immediately thought about, the lanterns.

But I might be wrong. I have a tenacious habit of being wrong.

Paper can't change the color of light (regardless of the paper color, the light it casts will still be candle yellow), but blue-green glass could. However, it took until the 20th century before East Asians began putting glass in their windows, never mind their lanterns, so... But as I said in the other thread, the in-game light seems to actually be blue-white and looks much more natural. (Moonlight is actually yellow, but it can be perceived as blue because, like I said before, humans don't have the best color perception in low light. It's the same reason only the brightest stars appear as anything but white.)

 

[Kwami]

(Moonlight is actually yellow, but it can be perceived as blue because, like I said before, humans don't have the best color perception in low light. It's the same reason only the brightest stars appear as anything but white.)

Well, OK. But if moonlight sometimes appears to us as blue, then it makes sense to model it as blue for a night-time scene since.

 

[Zaarin]

Well, OK. But if moonlight sometimes appears to us as blue, then it makes sense to model it as blue for a night-time scene since.

Yes, and I'm fine with the blue-white light seen in the actual videos (though yellow-white would look more natural). What's seen in the screenshots is a harsh blue-green that looks like neon light, and that's what this discussion is about.