Soren Johnson at GDC22, covering Anton Strenger's "Bringing New Myths and Representation to Civ"

[UWHabs]

TBH I really liked getting NFP as timely DLCs.

That way we had time to digest them one at a time. However, as people have pointed out it's a QA disaster.
I played Civ VI this weekend on the train on my Switch and I forgot how slow it has become with NFP. That wasn't always the case. The base game that shipped on the Nintendo Switch SD card was surprisingly fast, even playing large maps.

Sounds like NFP style season pass is the future at Firaxis

My only problem with them and the schedule was that there were a couple of times, I knew a new civ and patch was coming out in like a week, so I didn't want to start a new game until I saw what was in the new pack. But yeah, the fact that it was on a schedule probably meant that you had less engagement on any pass item vs a normal expansion, but you basically had 6 chances to draw someone in.

So, for example, completely making up numbers, if you have a new expansion doubling the number of active users, and then falling off over time, if each NFP item only saw a 25% increase, because there were 6 of them, you basically have "150%" increase in active users now. Now, obviously, whether that engagement stays longer than a full expansion, who knows. But I could also see for a slightly more casual player, it's nicer to be able to have less features to learn and discover with each update. You don't have to learn a couple new major features and have 6 or 8 new civs sitting there to figure out, plus a bunch of rebalancing. You can focus on the 1 or 2 civs, and the 1 or 2 game modes or features.

 

[pokiehl]

The reason that narrative is brought here is because it is directly said that it brought in more active players, so it is only rational to assume they would want to go 100% that way for Civ 7.

I don’t think it’s all that rational to assume that at all. I think it’s typical CFC overreacting to every iota of information about Civ.

Put another way: Anton himself devised and led NFP so why wouldn’t he tout its metrics at his talk?

 

[Andrew Johnson [FXS]]

Re: this forum and overreaction, I just might bring up the pages and pages of speculation about the sticker on the bottom of Grant's mug in one of the NFP promo videos. If I recall, it's the factory sticker for the company that put the sealant on.

 

[Leyrann]

I don’t think it’s all that rational to assume that at all. I think it’s typical CFC overreacting to every iota of information about Civ.

Honestly, that's half the fun if you ask me.

 

[pokiehl]

Re: this forum and overreaction, I just might bring up the pages and pages of speculation about the sticker on the bottom of Grant's mug in one of the NFP promo videos. If I recall, it's the factory sticker for the company that put the sealant on.

Honestly, that's half the fun if you ask me.

Sure, I get the fun of it—this is an enthusiastic community for a beloved game series, and it’s part and parcel of these forums.

But I think it’s healthier for everyone to begin the overreacting with an acknowledgment that it’s just baseless speculation. You already see people in this thread getting angry and worked up about Civ 7: NFP parts 1, 2, and 3, like it’s all been set in stone and confirmed and Firaxis has pre-emptively charged their credit cards.

On top of that, with how definitively everyone is discussing this speculation, it’s but a matter of time before the game of “pass the message but slightly change the wording every time” takes root and ten threads later we shall have: “Anton already confirmed that Civ 7 is exclusively using a live service model and he practically confirmed microtransactions and NFTs are coming! And aliens are real! Boycott these greedy developers! “

 

[Leyrann]

Sure, I get the fun of it—this is an enthusiastic community for a beloved game series, and it’s part and parcel of these forums.

But I think it’s healthier for everyone to begin the overreacting with an acknowledgment that it’s just baseless speculation. You already see people in this thread getting angry and worked up about Civ 7: NFP parts 1, 2, and 3, like it’s all been set in stone and confirmed and Firaxis has pre-emptively charged their credit cards.

On top of that, with how definitively everyone is discussing this speculation, it’s but a matter of time before the game of “pass the message but slightly change the wording every time” takes root and ten threads later we shall have: “Anton already confirmed that Civ 7 is exclusively using a live service model and he practically confirmed microtransactions and NFTs are coming! And aliens are real! Boycott these greedy developers! “

Fair enough, I do prefer to keep it to reasonable speculations and not draw any conclusions. I've previously explained why I think moving to a small DLC only model would be a bad idea, and I expect Firaxis will have considered the same arguments; it's their job after all, and even if they somehow missed it, we know they read this forum.

Speaking of, I'm more worried about 2K forcing something on them than Firaxis themselves deciding to cut expansions completely. Still I think it'll be fine though, the benefits of large expansions are obvious for anyone to see, and should definitely be enough to convince greedy executives.

 

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

I like seeing the messages with people's enjoying being represented by a city state or civ.

The 'bright side" the Firaxis/2k seeing the financial benefits of selling expansion is that should be a bigger investment in the "foundation" of the game. Spend the money now on AI and automated QA any they can make it back over the lifetime of the game.

 

[Leyrann]

I like seeing the messages with people's enjoying being represented by a city state or civ.

The 'bright side" the Firaxis/2k seeing the financial benefits of selling expansion is that should be a bigger investment in the "foundation" of the game. Spend the money now on AI and automated QA any they can make it back over the lifetime of the game.

I hope so, but I'm worried 2k might not have such a long-term vision. What I know of them hasn't exactly endeared them to me, in particular the very strong suspicion that they explicitly forbid Firaxis from talking to the community outside of designated moments like livestreams (which, of course, Firaxis has never commented on for obvious reasons).

 

[The_J]

Anton just announced that he's leaving Firaxis and going to Respawn Entertainment, https://twitter.com/antonstrenger/status/1509126035903766528 .

 

[pokiehl]

Anton just announced that he's leaving Firaxis and going to Respawn Entertainment, https://twitter.com/antonstrenger/status/1509126035903766528 .

I was wondering where he would end up after he announced that he resigned from Firaxis last year.

Glad he’s still in games, and wish him all the luck in the world.

 

[acluewithout]

Anton Strenger, the lead designer of the Civ6 "New Frontier Pass", has given a presentation at this year's "Game Developer's Conference".

Really good read. Thanks for posting it.

I've always thought Firaxis have been very thoughtful in how they've put Civ VI together, choice of leaders included, and I think this shows with Anton's comments.

It's a little sad to see that Firaxis had decided internally they were basically "done" with Civ VI when they released New Frontier, although their public comments had made that reasonably clear at the time. I'm still disappointed the game didn't get one more expansion, but the reality is the base game was excellent, the two major expansions together were awesome, and NFP and the various bits and pieces added really great stuff to the game even if it didn't quite add up to a third expansion. It's a great game, one I'm still playing (when life gets out of the way long enough that I have spare time to play), and I guess the reality is that Firaxis could only ever devote so much resource to the game, so at some point it had to end. And really, if the only complaint is that Civ VI is a good game that could have been something better, well, that's a very small complaint.

I've no idea what we'll get for Civ 7. I really like the cadence of the season pass. But I'd also be concerned that iterating on the game that way might result in even more shallow gameplay.

[BTW, haven't posted for a while, but have been reading posts and enjoying the chat. I hope everyone else is doing well and staying safe. Best regards, ACW.]

 

[Haig]

ACW hopefully we get some real new Civilization news soon and you can get back to the fray. I really miss having First Looks of leaders, analyzing screenshots for details when a new game ia announced etc.

 

[marius_kaparius]

Hi everyone, I'm also hoping that we start to get new news soon. These days I'm trying to find every little hint for what is next in Dungeons and Dragons and it is not nearly as much fun as sleuthing with you guys.

 

[shaglio]

Hi everyone, I'm also hoping that we start to get new news soon. These days I'm trying to find every little hint for what is next in Dungeons and Dragons and it is not nearly as much fun as sleuthing with you guys.

D&D Beyond just merged with Wizards of the Coast. That seems pretty fun to me.

 

[Zegangani]

Hi everyone, I'm also hoping that we start to get new news soon.

Woaw! that made me look at the calender and realize it's almost a whole Year since the last (final NFP) Game Update!! Does that mean we will be getting News next week? or the week after it? Q2 of 2024?
Tbh, I don't care if it would take even some few more weeks/months if it means the final Game update will truly fix the biggest Issues of the Game (crossing fingers for a Fix to the Asset Limit Bug and the Monopoly Tourism Bug).

 

[aieeegrunt]

Woaw! that made me look at the calender and realize it's almost a whole Year since the last (final NFP) Game Update!! Does that mean we will be getting News next week? or the week after it? Q2 of 2024?
Tbh, I don't care if it would take even some few more weeks/months if it means the final Game update will truly fix the biggest Issues of the Game (crossing fingers for a Fix to the Asset Limit Bug and the Monopoly Tourism Bug).

And for the love of God

FIX THE SCIENCE TYPO THAT BROKE THE AI