September Update Thread

[Leucarum]

I have a hard time seeing the skull associated specifically with Hamlet. It's a universal cultural symbol. You could easily associate it with Mesoamerican cultures or (when piled up) with Timurids.

You are probably right. Was just throwing it out there... Though a Venice DLC at the same time as you buffed coastal cities makes a LOT of sense.

 

[Casworon]

Terra map and 'Continents and islands' get me very hyped.

Less buffs for coastal cities than i imagined. But i guess there approach is making them feel very different from land cities. Needing to get a harbour and its buildings to really benefit, however those buildings are now much much cheaper with veterancy reducing their costs. Also some of the new great admiral bonuses look super useful.

Again i am very impressed with the changes in the patch. I'm so happy Firaxis seems to be much more engaged

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Hyped for the Terra map as well.

Overall a great patch from the looks of it, all of these changes were needed except perhaps to the boost of Mausoleum, which was already a fantastic wonder. But I'm not complaining, except I expect this to make it super hard to get because the AI will rush it like the other Petras.

And it's much less situational than the others.

 

[Gedemon]

I’m a bit intrigued by the wait. Why would Firaxis wait that long this time around? What would they gain or the game gain by the wait? I don’t think they would do it out of spite, but there must be either a financial or a strategic benefit. Or, well, it just got pushed back.

Pretty sure it's the later, but I wish they'd take more time to release their new expansions/DLC and liberate some to fully open modding ASAP.

If a dev is lurking among us and feeling like manifesting yourself to us, mere mortals, I've a question: Does the AI try to settle the other continent in the Terra map? I imagine it would in late game, when the AI seems to start a second push into settling if they find room but does it have any special behavior in the Terra map?

AFAIK it doesn't actually have a special behavior, even if it does settle the other continent on YnAMP Terra Map.

I've not played enough vanilla games (ie R&F/GS rulesets), but wouldn't different rules for "colonies" (to prevent revolts on that kind of map) be more important ?

I appreciate you don't mean "world builder" when you say modding, but I still think it's unfair to not count world builder updates in this regard. They're modding tools, and likely one of the most user-friendly and important tools for these kinds of games.

Yes, a WorldBuilder is probably the most wanted tool for this kind of game.

And yes, it must be the must user-friendly possible, because it's not meant to be used only by modders but by all players.

So no, it's not a modding tool, you can't modify any rules with it, can't add new civilizations, new units, new anything, you can just make a map, and can't even change the placement rules for features/resources on it, you need an external mod for that...

And even if it were (a modding tool), none of its update has added something new for modding: I could do maps with the initial WB back in 2016. I've added floodable rivers in custom maps using YnAMP since a few months, I was setting Coastal height on those maps before the WB update related to that, etc...

But maybe a should simply rephrase:

Still not a single word about new modding capabilities.

And yes, that means nothing new for modding before they announce the third expansion.

 

[Gorbles]

I've been modding for a long time, right? I don't know if it's a particular Civ. modder thing or something, but I've never seen mapmakers excluded from being counted as "modders". Like I said, you want something more than that - that's fine. That doesn't mean making maps isn't also modding.

That's all I wanted to say. The rephrase is also fairer, yeah. Sorry, I get as passionate about these things as you do, it just manifests differently. It's hard for me not to be picky when there are updates to these technical things when they're immediately met with pessimism.

 

[Jkchart]

Masks like the one on the shelf are typically associated with the Carnival of Venice. But it's not Carnival season. That's in... February.

Eagle, your skepticism with that is noted and appreciated.

HYPE.

 

[WillowBrook]

I have a hard time seeing the skull associated specifically with Hamlet. It's a universal cultural symbol. You could easily associate it with Mesoamerican cultures or (when piled up) with Timurids.

It's pretty universal, yes, but the first thing I thought when I saw it was "Poor Yorick", followed by "plague". I predict a health and plague mechanic for a third expansion coming in February. (Of course, no one should be putting much faith in my predictions at this point, but I'll continue to make them. )

 

[Smity2k1]

The Renn Fest in Maryland (not very far from Firaxis) is one the largest in the country and just started its season. Maybe Firaxis employees are just hype for that? (In fact, I'm hype for the Renaissance Rumble: https://www.facebook.com/renaissancerumble/)

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I'm like 50% "these are Halloween decorations" and 50% "THIS MEANS SOMETHING".

 

[Gedemon]

I've been modding for a long time, right? I don't know if it's a particular Civ. modder thing or something, but I've never seen mapmakers excluded from being counted as "modders". Like I said, you want something more than that - that's fine. That doesn't mean making maps isn't also modding.

That's all I wanted to say. The rephrase is also fairer, yeah. Sorry, I get as passionate about these things as you do, it just manifests differently. It's hard for me not to be picky when there are updates to these technical things when they're immediately met with pessimism.

Not pessimism, more like despair after 3 years lost trying to mod a game that don't want to be modded like civ4 and 5 were.

And I don't even blame the devs, I blame the marketing or whoever is responsible of the lack of pre-release communication, and I blame myself for having high expectations based on past iterations of the franchise.

 

[Kwami]

To be fair, the demand for DLL sources and other mod tools is almost certainly dwarfed by the demand for bug fixes, balance changes, and new features. I do hope that we eventually get everything, but it's hard to fault Firaxis for prioritizing things that more players will use.

 

[Gedemon]

To be fair, the demand for DLL sources and other mod tools is almost certainly dwarfed by the demand for bug fixes, balance changes, and new features. I do hope that we eventually get everything, but it's hard to fault Firaxis for prioritizing things that more players will use.

On the other hand you'd have a better AI, community patches, and a HumanKind mod already available for civ6 if they had released the source code in the same timeframe as civ4.

 

[Disgustipated]

Very excited about these changes. Haven't had a chance to read the whole thread yet. I love coastal cities, I never cared if they were suboptimal. I wanted my empire to look realistic after all. I especially love the great admiral changes since I felt like most of them were fairly weak. I'm one of the few players who regularly settles coastal cities. As you can guess, I love Dido. She's my girl.

Just wanted to give a big thank you to Firaxis for continuing to support this game. Of course this definitely makes me feel like there's a 3rd expansion coming. All but confirmed as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

According to some sources, Venetian carnival masks were first worn as a response to plagues, tying the two symbols together.

 

[Kwami]

On the other hand you'd have a better AI, community patches, and a HumanKind mod already available for civ6 if they had released the source code in the same timeframe as civ4.

But I wouldn't use them, because I don't use mods that alter game play. Especially since they tend to break with every patch! I would bet almost anything that the majority of players don't use mods like those.

Again, I do hope that you get what you want. Just not if it means less of what I want.

 

[tedhebert]

I'm stuck at the office guys, you're all killing me, can't watch the video !!!

Anyone has a written list of features ?

 

[Gedemon]

But I wouldn't use them, because I don't use mods that alter game play. Especially since they tend to break with every patch! I would bet almost anything that the majority of players don't use mods like those.

Again, I do hope that you get what you want. Just not if it means less of what I want.

By definition better AI and community patches are not meant to change the rules of the game, but I concede that they do alter gameplay in the sense that they will prevent you to use fixed exploits and force you to play differently against a better AI.

I understand your point about not using mod, but you can also understand that you're playing a game you like since 3 years while I haven't enjoyed it once because I don't like it at its core, and I'm still waiting for the tools allowing me to change it to something I'd like to play.

And those tools were released 6 months after civ4 release, 2 years after civ5 release and not even announced yet 3 years after release for civ6.

Against my fault to have expected those, but then lesson learned, and people wanting to play on an Earth map or a Terra Map for civ7 will have to wait for Firaxis versions, mine will not be available for that game, not before it can be really modded.

 

[darko82]

Still not a single word for modding.

That's why disappointed. If they won't do it, I won't buy anything from them

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Not pessimism, more like despair after 3 years lost trying to mod a game that don't want to be modded like civ4 and 5 were.

And I don't even blame the devs, I blame the marketing or whoever is responsible of the lack of pre-release communication, and I blame myself for having high expectations based on past iterations of the franchise.

Gedemon, I'm sorry, but long have you had to wait to mod both Civ 4 and Civ 5?

I think what we can do is WAY more than what we could do with 4 or 5 (especially 5), unless someone had direct access to DLLs.

The game is still in its infancy and most of the amazing mods didn't start to come out until AFTEr the DLL was released and even then that usually was releaseda fter the devleopment cycle for the game was "completed" in full.

Not to mention that even though we don't have much of the LUA exposed I still find that there's enough to find loopholes and tricks to get certain things.

 

[Victoria]

Rock bands have been subtly buffed, could not read all the text but overall more benefits and less banal ones.