New Expansion Speculation Thread

Don't give Fireaxis too many ideas, the next expansion could be Civ 6 : My Big Fat Greek Expansion. Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Empire, Kingdom Pergamon, Kingdom of Antigonus and of course the Bactrian Empire. Rhodes will be the 'Venice' of Civ6. The alt leader will be Philip II of Macedon.

For a moment I thought those were Meso-American city state names - I was very confused.
What's the significance of the update? Eagle eyed people always find something interesting in the game files...

 

I hope he's leading a Maori Civ. Polynesia was my favorite Civ from Civ V, but that was more due to a gameplay perspective. The idea of a Polynesian blob Civ is a little problematic, and their gameplay niche of early embarkation is sort of covered by Norway. There's a lot of really neat things you could do with a Maori Civ, so I hope they get the inclusion. Comes at the price of maybe a more prominent inclusion or vet, but if they play in a fun way, I'll be alright with it.

 

No, that's Civ7's lineup.

...Those names do look surprisingly Mesoamerican.

 

Then the bust turned out to be Gorgo.....

Well, I've never seen a depiction of Kamehameha I with facial tattoos. I don't think the Hawaiian chiefs/kings wore them.

I don't think the Puebloans threw axes. I remember people speculating it was a unique unit for a Shawnee Civ.

I wouldn't want the Civ to be called Nigeria. I find the Benin Empire to be a little more interesting than the Hausa (they are more similar to the Songhai/Mali), plus it also has a possible female leader choice in Queen Idia.

 

Hawai'ians practed tattooing, but not facial tattooing to my knowledge--not in the vein of Maori facial tattoos at any rate.

Personally I don't believe Firaxis would leave out ta moka to avoid offending the Japanese (who probably won't be offended anyway). Leaving out Japanese royalty to avoid offending the Japanese is understandable; leaving out tattoos on a leader who has nothing to do with Japan would be silly--even petty. Either the Polynesian leader is a hoax, a WIP, or has been misidentified--I'm inclined to believe he's WIP.

 

As someone (I think it was Guandao?) pointed out earlier, the devs are probably just going to add the tats later. Usually that's the last thing you would add anyway (because you need to finish the skin texture before overlaying it with digital paint)

Also the T-poses suggest he's a work in progress.

 

Me too. My all time favorite is Coa-xialca-ble (followed by Se-samke-kse).

 

though it would be kind of funny if he just walked like that.

 

Yeah, that seems to be the explanation which makes the most sense. I'm still convinced the leader is Hongi Hika.

Ok, the "2nd leak" picture doesn't really tell us much. There's a xebec ship which could just be a new Barbarian unit or another new naval unit will can be built by all Civs. I think it's unlikely to be a unique unit for a Civ. And "Queen Waifu" has a background.....she could be a scenario leader, but I'm leaning towards an alt/new Civ leader.

I'm surprised our leaker hasn't been caught or fired by Firaxis yet. Unless Firaxis wanted this to leak out....

 

Based on Firaxis Twitter, they hosted a Halloween party the weekend before the first leak. And since these pictures appear to be cell phone shots of art tacked to a wall... it may have been a physical security breach.

That's pretty ballsy to just walk in and start taking pictures. I bet they have security footage of whoever did it.

 

Yes, I'm sure they got a clear faceshot on halloween ;P

 

So our leaker possibly has more pictures to leak?

 

Who knows? It would kind of suck to reveal all the civs before the First Look fun even begins though.

 

I honestly don't want everything to be revealed before official marketing begins, either. It would take some fun out of the first looks, despite them also having UAs, UUs and so on to reveal.

Maybe the leaker had to be in-and-out quickly to not get caught and perhaps forced to delete the photos they took, and these are the only ones they got in time.

 

Would it hurt sales, though, to confirm that a second expansion is in the works? If, in fact, they've already committed resources to creating one, what would be the harm in mentioning it? Is there some marketing benefit to maintaining absolute radio silence, to the point that not only the content, but even the existence of a pending expansion gets released to the public via leaks?

Schrödinger's Expansion feels unloved.

 

I'm honestly half-convinced these leaks are happening on purpose.
No, I don't have anything substantial to back up that statement, just my gut feeling and knowledge of working in the marketing industry.

Leaks are somewhat of a new form of advertising a game, that happens to be great for testing ideas that might turn out to be unpopular.
For example, some people are so afraid that Eleanor of Aquitaine will make it to the game as an alt leader that they're looking for clues of her being in a scenario, rather than just a full-fledged leader.
Maybe FXS wasn't too sure about including her: making her appear in a leak is certainly a good way to test the water.
If it turns out everyone hates it and they scrap her entirely, they get away with it because they don't have to give any explanation regarding decisions they make for something we're not supposed to know of, to begin with.

I'm not saying that's necessarily what happened here. But there's still a distinct possibility that these leaks are not happening randomly...

 

I agree with @Trav'ling Canuck in that I would think any sign of another expansion coming can only be good for the game. As for myself personally, I hate surprises and I hate hype trains almost as much: just tell me what's going to be in the game/expansion and let me decide for myself whether to get hyped or not. (Yes, that's bad marketing, but it would be less disingenuous. )

 

If you are so concerned about leaks, then why are you reading this thread? Seems a bit silly...

 

As bad or sloppy as Firaxis can be at accuracy; they tend to lift their game around "native" races that exist today, knowing that the chances of creating a firestorm are significantly higher. If he is Maori I expect the necklace to be modified, and the facial tatts to be added.
And it will not be New Zealand. NZ would be -like Australia- lead by a Prime Minister.

I prefer to find out the old fashioned way yet pragmatic enough not to be too fussed... but c'mon - you're being a bit naïve here Xur. There is no way to not find out leaks other than avoid the internet sites we love altogether (and even that might not be enough!). That and while I'd prefer to find out in the way Firaxis wants to reveal it; I'm still going to take any news over no news.
Some of us are just hoping that it isn't all leaked to keep the suspense going longer. That's all.