Next Civ game most likely will be a fantasy game

[James_Champagne]

My question for this supposed spinoff is this: Which fantasy series do we blatantly rip off?

Lord of the Rings? Game of Thrones? Warhammer Fantasy? Warhammer 40K?

Game of Thrones please... was excited when CIV VI announced the zombie mode because I was hoping it would be like some kind of Long Night/White Walker apocalypse, but the actual reality was a bit of a disappointment (as soon as I found out the zombies were unable to destroy a civ completely, I lost interest)

 

[FinalDoomsday]

Smokey skies scenario into full game please!

If true I just hope they avoid Orcs and Elves fantasy as theres a lot of strategy games in that field and you dont want to compete with Total War: Warhammer.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

My question for this supposed spinoff is this: Which fantasy series do we blatantly rip off?

Lord of the Rings? Game of Thrones? Warhammer Fantasy? Warhammer 40K?

If we do rip one off why not Game of Thrones?

Most likely that won't happen but instead they can do a Civilization: Mythology with many factions rooted in Civ already: Egypt, Greece, China, Maya etc.

 

[KayAU]

Absolutely! I watched a Pravus Gaming Walkthrough of BE with expansions, and it seemed like a lot of fun. So many good ideas were in it, like the way they handled Artifacts, the Tech tree, and of course, the quests.

Absolutely, there's a lot to like. Exploration is particularly strong, and there are other aspects I would point to as well, such as Affinities, Virtues, and Personality Traits (your leader can level up in this game). Espionage is done very well, and the music is excellent.

If they had made that second expansion, I believe it could have raised it to another level, perhaps closer to that of SMAC. Here are some of the things I would have liked to see:

• A few more Biomes and aliens
• A few more quests
• More variety to Marvels
• New feature: natural wonders
• New feature: planetary council
• Some refinement to diplomacy

Perhaps they'll include it in the sequel.

 

[Linklite]

So, I must be blind. I've only just realised that Atlantis appears on the in game icon, and not just the update video...?! I'm really curious what that is supposed to mean, now. I'd assumed that it was just a gimmick for the video, but for it to be on the update itself?

I think that rules it out being a hint about future content, at least in my opinion. Perhaps there is a special set of circumstances that unlocks it...maybe Apocalypse Mode? It's not just having SS on, that's for sure.

 

[Alexadamz]

and of course, the quests.

We have had multiple mods for Civ with this kind of idea, and I never understood why Civ 6 never had it officially. I thought they could bring it back from CivBE and was really disappointed it never came back. I thought SS and H&L could bring some of it back, but it is just at the beginning.
Quests with choices is a great way to increase the gameplay, making it more unique each different playthrough. Too bad we never saw it for Civ6.

 

[Miserable Old Git]

Fantasy in; me out. (Constant daily player since civ 1).

 

[Blue Monkey]

Unfortunately, it never made it out of Beta, but I'm reminded of the Civ III Steampunk Scenario & Lost Worlds Mod being developed by @KingArthur , @Blue Monkey , & Balthasar (RIP).

Thank you for the remembrance. Never say never!

 

[OzzyKP]

In case it wasn't clear, i'm obviously talking about the next game being an spin-off, not CIVILIZATION 7. I just feel like the Season Pass was a testing ground.

The pattern for the last couple releases has been two expansions that expand the main game and a spin-off (like Colonization or Beyond Earth). I think Firaxis were probably split on doing a fantasy spin-off (after their two Civ6 expansions) or doing an unusual third expansion for the base game. It looks like they compromised by making NFP include a bit of both. Which tells me that there won't be another spin-off this time. Either they keep dripping out content like this in DLCs/season passes, or they are going straight to Civ7.

That said, if they did have any thoughts about doing a fantasy spin-off, I'd be over the moon if they hooked up with Kael and made a Fall from Heaven 3.

 

[sonicmyst]

Personally, I would rather like the fantasy-based components and mechanics of the civ game as a separate scenario or ruleset instead of a spin-off game.

This means the dev team would be more grounded and focused on the more historical aspects of civ and the fantastical features be treated as a fun side bonus on a separate ruleset.

 

[Arent11]

And it's the reason why 4/6 of the the Season Pass mods were fantasy stuff instead of stuff most people asked for. It was Firaxis method to tenderize Civ6 players into the idea:

*Apocalypse mode with disaster calling soothsayers.
*SS mode with vampires, mages, illuminati and Cthulhu cultists.
*Legendary mythological heroes.
*Zombie mode.

On top of that the Atlantis hint in the TSL Earth map along the elephants in the last season pass video.

If it's made well, I wouldn't have a problem with a master of magic equivalent. But I do not consider civ 6 well designed, so I'm not sure whether they are able to pull something like that off.

 

[Arent11]

If 2K+Firaxis are going to buy the rights to any game it should be for SMAC from EA.

SMAC2 will be a guaranteed hit

In fact, it's 2021 and I'm playing much more often SMAC than any other civ game

 

[Vandlys]

Anything is possible but this is quite speculative to say “most likely”

Exactly this.

In case it wasn't clear, i'm obviously talking about the next game being an spin-off, not CIVILIZATION 7. I just feel like the Season Pass was a testing ground.

We did have a scifi game... That being said, i'd argue that more than half the content of the last "expansion" + some possible hints in the last dev video >>>> one scenario in the first xpack

Indeed we had a sci-fi game, for which there were no real in-game clues, correct? If so, that theory flies right out the window.

I was aware of you talking about a spin-off, but I'm still not convinced.
First of all, when you say "more than half of the content of the last expansion" I'm assuming you are talking about NFP, in which case you just stated a falsehood.
The content for NFP was:
9 new leaders (no fantasy)
8 new civs (no fantasy)
6 new game modes (4 fantasy: Heroes & Legends, Zombie Defense, Apocalypse, Secret Societies)*
12 new city states (no fantasy here)
2 new resources (no fantasy here)
3 new natural wonders (can all be attributed to fantasy)
2 new districts (both not fantasy)
4 new buildings (all not fantasy)
4 new wonders (all not fantasy)
? new great people (not fantasy)
2 new maps (not fantasy)
*Personally, I find it a bit hard to call this fantasy. Heroes & Legends are just as fantastical as Religion, and that's a base game feature you don't count.

I gave everything about the benefit of the doubt, and if we tally the raw numbers without calculating the "worth" or "share" in game (arguably a Civ could be seen as more than a great person, for example), we come up to 52 new things (not including any great people). 7 of those things can be attributed to fantasy. That's 13,5% (rounded up).
Again, we're not talking about worth or share in the game, that might differ, but I think you'd still have to argue quite a while to convince anyone that "more than half the content" (i.e. at least 50.1%) is fantasy related.

Secondly, all these interpretations from these videos are just that: interpretations. You might be right, you might be wrong, but you can't use your interpretations as proof that you are correct. You need to find substantial evidence to support your claims.

I agree with the OP, but my reasoning is that the devs obviously like fantasy things and a fantasy follow-up would give their imagination free reign. Erion the Elf-Lord leads the Elf people, Thorgund Mightyhammer rules the Dwarfs, and so on.

I thought most people at FXS were in any way, shape or form people with an affinity for history. They take liberties with their interpretations and like to fantasise about alternate realities, but actualy fantasy like LOTR and Warhammer? Do you have any concrete reasons why you'd say people at FXS have an affinity for this (enough to make a video game)?

 

[Pistol90]

Fantasy in; me out. (Constant daily player since civ 1).

Agree. How could you even call that Civilization game. Like you have orcs from middle-earth being civilization ???

P.S. btw, i love middle-earth, and love fantasy games like Battle for Middle earth ... but Civ is historical progression game, thats what Civ is about. It would be like making cartoon racing game and calling it Gran turismo.

 

[Arent11]

Agree. How could you even call that Civilization game. Like you have orcs from middle-earth being civilization ???

Master of magic.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Civ games usually have spin-offs using the same engine. Civ5 had sci-fi (AC remake), Civ4 had colonization remake, so... Fantasy is possible, and generally fits in. Microprose had "Master of Magic" game, they had Civ2 scenario based on it in expansion, they also had "Midgard" scenario. So, yep, this fits into their "remake old games using latest engine" theme

 

[Arent11]

My question for this supposed spinoff is this: Which fantasy series do we blatantly rip off?

Master of magic. You have all kinds of races: Klackons, Trolls, Elves, Barbarians, Halflings - it's a bit of a Tolkien ripoff, but not entirely

I think the Klackons came from Master of Orion. So it's not a complete ripoff.

Moderator Action: Post edited to remove off-topic section. ~ LK

 

[Askia Muhammad]

I'd much prefer a fantasy game over a sci-fi game with one major exception - if they did a game where the map was a galaxy/universe like Stellaris etc instead of a "space on a single planet" i'd be interested.

I wasn't interested in Beyond Earth mostly because the factions were very bland and uninteresting and I don't care for sci-fi that is confined to one planet.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

Honestly, I don't understand the completely irrational hate for Western culture that pops up in all kinds of unrelated topics. You would assume that people using computers would somehow love natural science & celebrate quantum mechanics, theory of evolution & the Western, natural scientific civilization

I think very few people "hate" Western culture. Assuming someone hates something just because they don't agree with it, or points out some of its limitations is reductionist.

As Socrates said "the unexamined life is not worth living".

 

[Linklite]

I'd much prefer a fantasy game over a sci-fi game with one major exception - if they did a game where the map was a galaxy/universe like Stellaris etc instead of a "space on a single planet" i'd be interested.

I wasn't interested in Beyond Earth mostly because the factions were very bland and uninteresting and I don't care for sci-fi that is confined to one planet.

Galactic Civilizations might be good for you, 3 is really good. It's basically Sci fi version of Civilization, but set in space. Planets take up one tile, but they have a grid "inside" which let's you set up the format of the colony.