Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[trev1972]

I just had a read of the latest check in, i think they are making a genuine effort to improve the game, and to bring players back in.
Do you think there is enough there to do so?

 

[Leucarum]

I just had a read of the latest patch notes, i think they are making a genuine effort to improve the game, and to bring players back in.
Do you think there is enough there to do so?

Using my local multiplayer Civ6 friends as a test case.. All but me and one other didn't enjoy 7 on launch.. So far the verdict for the holdouts seems to be positive but not enthusiastic. This is a step in the right direction, and they'll try it again but it's still not enough to convert them into regulars. Very positive noises on removing legacy paths, but eras and civ switching still seem like red lines for most of them.

I feel for the devs. Civ7 is such an interconnected game that if they want to make the controversial features optional it's tough to do outside of a drip, drip, drip of features as they rework systems... And that's not great for big marketing bangs.

 

[trev1972]

Using my local multiplayer Civ6 friends as a test case.. All but me and one other didn't enjoy 7 on launch.. So far the verdict for the holdouts seems to be positive but not enthusiastic. This is a step in the right direction, and they'll try it again but it's still not enough to convert them into regulars. Very positive noises on removing legacy paths, but eras and civ switching still seem like red lines for most of them.

I feel for the devs. Civ7 is such an interconnected game that if they want to make the controversial features optional it's tough to do outside of a drip, drip, drip of features as they rework systems... And that's not great for big marketing bangs.

Civ switching is a red line for me in all honesty, but it is because of how i play the game (civ switching would only work for me if every civ had a full historical path it could follow which will never happen)

When theyput out the first look at the game ahead of release, i can remember intense disappointment at the choices made, but i never imagine my disappointment would be shared by so many as i thought my way of playing was niche.

Yes i sort of feel for them too, they have painted themselves into a bit of a corner with the design choices.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

I just had a read of the latest check in, i think they are making a genuine effort to improve the game, and to bring players back in.
Do you think there is enough there to do so?

Came here to discuss this - the road map looks pretty promising.

Again, not sure it’s enough to win me over, but definitely I would classify their plans through the mentioned July patch to be moving things in the right direction.

I also think they are holding the next DLC until after that patch. I think they anticipate many returning when they release it and they’d like the experience to be much more tolerable or enjoyable when they do give it a second look.

 

[Core Imposter]

There is a certain amount of brand value deriving from spectacular failure.

 

[Xur]

I find this note from the 1.2.2 announcement to be extremely encouraging. Firaxis is aware of its audience and is absorbing criticism. This level of transparency fills me with confidence that the game will continue to get better--and not only at its edges.

They are where they are because they did NOT listen to fans. This is just marketing talk. They should be investigating why their quality assurance team or testers either didn't warn them or were ignored. There's a problem in their production pipeline that needs fixing. Many of us recognized issues immediately during the reveal video - why couldn't they? The disconnect is strange and not at all encouraging.

 

[Kwami]

They will have this patch now which will remove the civ switch -> if I understand correctly you can choose now any civ, so your current one as well?

No, you will still have to select a civilization that's appropriate for the age. The patch is allowing you the option to skip the unlock requirements. For example, you won't need to play as certain leaders or civilizations or improve three camels to choose the Abbasids in the exploration age.

They are where they are because they did NOT listen to fans. This is just marketing talk. They should be investigating why their quality assurance team or testers either didn't warn them or were ignored. There's a problem in their production pipeline that needs fixing. Many of us recognized issues immediately during the reveal video - why couldn't they? The disconnect is strange and not at all encouraging.

There are plenty of fans that actually like this game and those mechanics. Your opinion is not universal.

 

[Krikkit1]

They are where they are because they did NOT listen to fans. This is just marketing talk. They should be investigating why their quality assurance team or testers either didn't warn them or were ignored. There's a problem in their production pipeline that needs fixing. Many of us recognized issues immediately during the reveal video - why couldn't they? The disconnect is strange and not at all encouraging.

They did listen to fans. Just different fans. There are production pipeline problems… but they have to do with an absolutely terrible UI, rushed DLC(revenge), Launching without big maps, 1MoreTurn, etc.
The basic mechanics (Ages, Civ switches, Distant Lands) need a lot of polishing that they didn’t get. Some of that polishing would have addressed problems people have with the mechanics or the immersion they provide.
They knew that some people would not like those mechanics, they were just wrong about
1. number of people that strongly disliked them
2. how good the rest of the game was to overcome #1 (see poor UI, unpolished mechanics, etc.)

 

[protocol7]

Some of the fans who like the game seem to be sending a clear, strident message that the devs are never going to change the core mechanics of the game, so deal with it and/or shut up. But fortunately the devs seem to be focused on making the controversial mechanics optional in the most recent patch, step by step. I hope this continues.

 

[CliffCo]

Reminds me of the old saying about not being able to please all the people all of the time lol.
I still cant see the devs making the eras optional but i could be wrong and if so i'm sure it will make a lot of people happy.

 

[stealth_nsk]

"in their current implementation." means that ages won't be nixed. That will cap the breadth and depth of this iteration.

I think it's a bit naive to expect Firaxis to scrap all the core game mechanics in patches and make Civ8 under Civ7 name for free.

The ages are here to stay and civilization switching as well. What Firaxis is likely to do, is increasing the number of things which are carried over from early civilizations to next age. Currently it's policies only, but they are going to add something else, or just increase the number of policies.

Also, the comment about age end being abrupt is interesting. Probably this means ability to manually extend age if you have things to finish and/or carrying over more things, like some buildings keeping their value.

And I totally understand that for some people even altered ages and/or civilization switching are deal breakers. That's the cost of revolutionary changes, but I don't think it will hinder Civ7 success in the end, similar to how Civ5 lost many players with it's changes, but ended up great.

 

[protocol7]

Maybe they could at least make losing and moving around your units optional. Then there wouldn’t be much left in the era transition since you can also turn off crises and legacy paths. Previous games had era transitions that didn’t delete or move your stuff around and they were nowhere near as controversial.

The offscreen death of old civs and time gap will still be annoying to some people I’m sure, but at least the mechanical impacts could essentially be removed.

 

[CliffCo]

I don’t have an issue with losing units as I usually have plenty of commanders but the units getting shuffled is damn annoying and I’m hoping it will be one of the unnamed fixes added next week.

 

[Kwami]

I don’t have an issue with losing units as I usually have plenty of commanders but the units getting shuffled is damn annoying and I’m hoping it will be one of the unnamed fixes added next week.

Is it really such a big deal, though? You just spend 1-2 minutes putting them back and then it's as if nothing happened.

 

[CliffCo]

Is it really such a big deal, though? You just spend 1-2 minutes putting them back and then it's as if nothing happened.

If you have a small military maybe you can instruct them to move in a couple of minutes but not when you have 30 units to move, then wait several turns while they relocate. I’ve had both naval and land units that have taken 15 turns to move back to where they were in the previous era.

 

[protocol7]

It's annoying for me because I play militaristically and have a lot. Maybe I have enough commanders to keep them all, I'm not really sure, but everything is in the wrong place and it takes a while to get things back, not to mention it seems to dork with the army composition and I end up with a way different allocation of infantry, cavalry, and ranged than what I started with. It's worse because I guess nobody ever explained to me why this is a good thing and should work this way.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

I think it's a bit naive to expect Firaxis to scrap all the core game mechanics in patches and make Civ8 under Civ7 name for free.

Making these features optional certainly doesn’t constitute a “Civ 8” and frankly, the cost many of us paid for founders editions is basically the cost of two base games anyway.

All I know is that when they eventually do announce Civ 8, I won’t purchase if ages are included.

My hope is that cities being demoted to settlements and losing units will be toggleable options in the future. I may actually play again if I can quite literally continue building my civilization instead of arbitrarily losing half my army, then the remaining units being teleported to other places, and losing cities.

I’ve seen enough of the board game design, I’m begging Firaxis to select someone who isn’t named Ed Beach to lead development on the first expansion.

 

[trev1972]

Reminds me of the old saying about not being able to please all the people all of the time lol.
I still cant see the devs making the eras optional but i could be wrong and if so i'm sure it will make a lot of people happy.

I cant see it either.
I think fixing the transition, AND adding enough civs to allow every civ to have a full natural path would bring back a lot of people without alienating those who like the current mechanics.

But i cant imagine so many civs being added.

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

So one thing that's got lost amongst the patch announcement yesterday is that the peak was 7,500 and we're currently at 3,900 players on steam. New record absolute low and new record low peak.

I think this is the closest we're going to get to Firaxis admitting the numbers for Civ VII aren't looking good, and that there's not some mystical massive console audience propping up the numbers. They wouldn't need to signal a pivot this early if things we looking rosey

 

[CliffCo]

I believe next weeks patch will bring more people back to Civ7, I know of at least one person who has said they will return next week. As to how many we can only but guess and hope it will be many.