[NFP] Secret Societies Speculation

[Leucarum]

I think a mysterious symbol above random cities, but with no discernible impact on gameplay, would be the way to go. It would certainly save on balance fixes, and give people on this forum hours of fun running tests to see if it actually means something.

Ooh. They could even have the symbol be randomized each time civ6 loads based on a seed generated from the most recent post in the inevitable 'mysterious symbols speculation' thread.

 

[AntSou]

I know it's in jest but I think that actually has some gameplay validity.

E.g. You could get a symbol over your cities indicating that you're suffering negative effects from a secret society there, but not which one.

Visibility is already a mechanic used with random Agendas. Perhaps you'd need a certain amount of Visibility to be able to see the actual effects of foreign Societies and which ones are operating where, etc.

 

[tiamats4esgares]

After seeing the release video for it, I think secret societies seems pretty cool but IDK if I can justify spending $5 for it or not. I have no interest in the new diplomacy crap or Ethiopia.

 

[PhoenicianGold]

After seeing the release video for it, I think secret societies seems pretty cool but IDK if I can justify spending $5 for it or not. I have no interest in the new diplomacy crap or Ethiopia.

It's one banana Michael, how much could it cost?

I think the secret societies form the bulk of the appeal of DLC 2. If you were the type of player who wanted the Illuminati or Lovecraft or vampires in the game, I think that's worth five dollars, especially since between the four societies there are four unique infrastructures, two new unique units, and one new resource; that's about worth another civ or two on top of Ethiopia.

It's better than soothsayers and Paititi imo...

 

[AntSou]

and one new resource

Wait, new resource? I missed that, what/where is it?

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Wait, new resource? I missed that, what/where is it?

The Ley lines only discoverable by the Hermetic Order.

 

[AntSou]

The Ley lines only discoverable by the Hermetic Order.

Ah yes, of course!

 

[SammyKhalifa]

So, who had vampires on their card?

 

[PhoenicianGold]

So, who had vampires on their card?

Does it count as a win if they had Vlad Tepes on their card?

Or does it count as a mega-loss?

I am borderline ecstatic about this development, though. It means we probably aren't getting a major fantasy expansion. And we definitely aren't getting Romania!

It would have been nice, though, to have a few societies that weren't so....British. Others have pointed out something like the White Lotus or the Hassassins; maybe we can get an expanded society list next year.

 

[AntSou]

I am borderline ecstatic about this development, though. It means we probably aren't getting a major fantasy expansion. And we definitely aren't getting Romania!

It would have been nice, though, to have a few societies that weren't so....British. Others have pointed out something like the White Lotus or the Hassassins; maybe we can get an expanded society list next year.

They could always add more societies later with other DLC, no? It seems like the kind of stuff that can be easily isolated.

E.g. A DLC focused on commerce/industry, possibly adding a new Economic Victory type, which also adds a new Secret Society IF you own the Ethiopia Pack.

 

[playshogi]

Secret Societies sounds great except for the Vampires. Not a fan of the fantasy element. I wonder why they didn't show the promotion tree for that one.

 

[acluewithout]

I really like the idea of the Secret Societies, although want to find out more about how they work.

It will be a little disappointing if there’s no real challenge joining one and or no real malus. Actually, it would be quite weird if there’s no malus, given Secret Societies are sort of about destabilising societies and or taking control over governments.

Secret Societies doesn’t feel as “fantasy” as I thought it would. At least, not really much more fantasy than the rest of the game, which is already a sort of skewed view of history.

Even the vampires are okay. If anything, I’m just a little sorry that FXS didn’t take a Vampire Civ in a more interesting direction. Making them just a military unit is a bit underwhelming, versus immortal amoral monsters pulling strings from the shadows. Oh well.

Love Cthulhu though. Cthulhu makes everything better.

 

[AntSou]

Secret Societies sounds great except for the Vampires. Not a fan of the fantasy element. I wonder why they didn't show the promotion tree for that one.

Either not complete in time for the video, or to just keep some element of surprise for later.

 

[PhoenicianGold]

They could always add more societies later with other DLC, no? It seems like the kind of stuff that can be easily isolated.

E.g. A DLC focused on commerce/industry, possibly adding a new Economic Victory type, which also adds a new Secret Society IF you own the Ethiopia Pack.

I think if the Ethiopia pack is successful enough, they might consider adding more secret societies. I could see the DLC packs testing the waters for what they might expand on in season 2. The plus side is it would probably have an assassins' guild and a white lotus organization. The minus side is I bet werewolves.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I think if the Ethiopia pack is successful enough, they might consider adding more secret societies. I could see the DLC packs testing the waters for what they might expand on in season 2. The plus side is it would probably have an assassins' guild and a white lotus organization. The minus side is I bet werewolves.

Isn't Sanguine Pact basically Assasins guild?
I could see the White Lotus Organization being based around the faith/culture and mainly environmentalism to distinguish it.

 

[PhoenicianGold]

Isn't Sanguine Pact basically Assasins guild?
I could see the White Lotus Organization being based around the faith/culture and mainly environmentalism to distinguish it.

Mechanically maybe? It's too vampiric to really compare to any real world equivalents like how Minerva Owls are the Illuminati or the Hermetic Order is precisely that.

I imagine an Assassin's guild could be quite different. No castles. The ability for assassins to be invisible with a coup de grace backstab. Pretty sure they could make assassins better than the vampire society.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Mechanically maybe? It's too vampiric to really compare to any real world equivalents like how Minerva Owls are the Illuminati or the Hermetic Order is precisely that.

Without knowing the other bonuses it could take inspiration loosely from the Order of the Dragon.

 

[leandrombraz]

I'm not sure if I got this right and assuming this doesn't change randomly on each game, it seems each society has its own early game action that unlocks it, so which of these actions you do first in your game will determine which society you get.

• Hermetic Order is unlocked by discovering a Natural Wonder;
• Owl of Minerva is unlocked by sending an Envoy. I assume the envoy you get when you are the first to meet a CS counts;
• The Void Singers is unlocked by discovering a Tribal Village;
• They don't show the Sanguine Pact, but I'll assume it unlocks by discovering a Barbarian Encampment, since that fits the pattern and the militaristic theme of this society.

So, early game exploration got a twist. Now you should care about what you discover first out of these four things. Tribal villages, City-States and Barbarian Camps are more likely to be the first thing you discover, so the Hermetic Order will be a rare society to get, compared to others. If I'm right about the Sanguine Pact trigger, you can play with Secret Societies but remove vampires if you turn off barbarians.

Edit: You aren't forced to use the governor title on the secret society, so that opens up the option to unlock a governor earlier than we usually do.

 

[monikernemo]

I'm curious about unique civ buildings (madrasa, grand bazaar etc.) in the game mode since they replace certain buildings for the game mode. Do they get overriden if we join a certain society?

 

[Pfeffersack]

I'm not sure if I got this right and assuming this doesn't changed randomly on each game, it seems each society has its own early game action that unlocks it, so which of these actions you do first in your game will determine which society you get.

• Hermetic Order is unlocked by discovering a Natural Wonder;
• Owl of Minerva is unlocked by sending an Envoy. I assume the envoy you get when you are the first to meet a CS counts;
• The Void Singers is unlocked by discovering a Tribal Village;
• They don't show the Sanguine Pact, but I'll assume it unlocks by discovering a Barbarian Encampment, since that fits the pattern and the militaristic theme of this society.

So, early game exploration got a twist. Now you should care about what you discover first out of these four things. Tribal villages, City-States and Barbarian Camps are more likely to be the first thing you discover, so the Hermetic Order will be a rare society to get, compared to others. If I'm right about the Sanguine Pact trigger, you can play with Secret Societies but remove vampires if you turn off barbarians.

Edit: You aren't forced to use the governor title on the secret society, so that opens up the option to unlocking a governor earlier than we usually do.

So I assume there is no way to bypass an unwanted choice and waiting for fulfilling another condition? Hmm, the more I think about it the more I would like to have it that way - this avoids just picking over and over the societies stacking on civ boni.