This is what happens when asking about multiplayer or modding ...

[stealth_nsk]

Not having modding tools/wizards/what have you is really really lame at this point. You should not have to be a programmer to make a new civ for example. Just look at blizzard and their world Editors for warcraft 3 or starcraft 2, regular people can make big changes to the Maps and game play.

It's not necessary to have such tools on release. In any case people will need some time before they'll be able to make something worthy.

 

[Hajee]

Not having modding tools/wizards/what have you is really really lame at this point. You should not have to be a programmer to make a new civ for example. Just look at blizzard and their world Editors for warcraft 3 or starcraft 2, regular people can make big changes to the Maps and game play.
I have respect for those who know it of course but XML, API, LUA etc no regular person knows what that is! Why keep modding for the "elites" only? Maybe im spoiled by blizzard but we should not need a degree in programming to add a new unit or civ.
So i guess, no news means no news...

To your point "You should not have to be a programmer to make a new civ for example". For civ 5 you did not need to know "programming". I knew nothing about xml/sql code what so ever. Never made mods before either. The Mod-buddy for civ 5 was easy to learn and use and the Civ Fanatics site had great walk troughs on how to mod. It took a me a day to read guides to learn how to use xml.

As for Art assets, I do agree it was difficult more so then doing data. So I believe they will add a new tool for the SDK to make art alot easier.

The world builder was also simple to use for civ 5for making maps

 

[MadDjinn]

as per the usual, no surprise that 'random 2K facebook person' dodged the Q on these two topics. Its rarely something they (2K) want to talk about.

 

[Ryika]

To your point "You should not have to be a programmer to make a new civ for example". For civ 5 you did not need to know "programming". I knew nothing about xml/sql code what so ever. Never made mods before either. The Mod-buddy for civ 5 was easy to learn and use and the Civ Fanatics site had great walk troughs on how to mod. It took a me a day to read guides to learn how to use xml.

Yeah, making a Civ is really just copy-pasting stuff and reading some basic guides on how files must be loaded.
Making an _interesting_ Civ that plays very different from all the others requires knowledge in coding, but that's a given. There's only so much you can do within the restrictions of pre-built functionality.

@topic: It's a bit sad that there's no youtuber who's also experienced with modding to look at the game files and give us a basic overview of what's in there and make an informed guess on what modding capacity to expect.
Well, assuming they're even allowed to do that.

And the lack of info on Multiplayer is very concerning indeed. They made some big announcements on new modes and then completely dropped the topic.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Probably a big reason iss that modding and multiplayer have

-a Lot that can go wrong (so they don't want to overpromise)
-are minority interests

 

[Xyriach]

To be fair, their Facebook responses tend to be very marketing orientated "watch this space" and "keep watching for updates" etc, so I'm not exactly surprised that they didn't open the can of worms that is multiplayer. Many software companies have been stung badly by making any sort of claim about multiplayer or online services as they can come under criticism if anything goes wrong on launch day. They've likely been told or agreed to leave that subject well alone.

Not saying it's the case, but I'd warn my team off going near it as a subject unless it was the core product. Which in Civ, I'd argue that the single player experience is still the dominant product.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Frankly I'd prefer they get the base game tightly nailed down before devoting too much work to modding or MP.

 

[Leyrann]

To your point "You should not have to be a programmer to make a new civ for example". For civ 5 you did not need to know "programming". I knew nothing about xml/sql code what so ever. Never made mods before either. The Mod-buddy for civ 5 was easy to learn and use and the Civ Fanatics site had great walk troughs on how to mod. It took a me a day to read guides to learn how to use xml.

As for Art assets, I do agree it was difficult more so then doing data. So I believe they will add a new tool for the SDK to make art alot easier.

The world builder was also simple to use for civ 5for making maps

Not to derail, but can someone tell me where to find this mod-buddy for Civ 5? Or the world builder, for that matter? I knew where to find it in Civ 4, but I never managed to find it anywhere in Civ 5.

 

[qdlaty]

Umm, guys, do you think it's likely that this guy deleted his own comment? It's not there anymore. o.O
[There was a screenshot, but it's not important anymore I guess]

PS: This is my first post here. I've been civ fan for some time, though I didn't play much besides Civ 2 and Civ 5. I've preordered and I'm waiting for Civ6. I only thought about creating an account here now, cause this thing worries me a bit.

EDIT: Hah, I just noticed anandus was the guy. I hope you deleted the comment cause you didn't wanted us to know your secret identity. :>

 

[Stilgar08]

I'm not very interested in MP with CiVI so far but nevertheless I'd stick to what the developers and marketing guys publish. And it's this:

ENHANCED MULTIPLAYER: In addition to traditional multiplayer modes, cooperate and compete with your friends in a wide variety of situations all designed to be easily completed in a single session.
source:

Spoiler :

http://www.firaxis.com/?/games/single/sid-meiers-civilization-vi - same on steam, of course...

So my guess is, it couldn't get worse than CiV and won't be. It will be there right from the start. I dunno how bugfree it'll be though, of course....

 

[metalhawk]

MP is the most important to me.

I played thousands of hours of CiV, probably 75% or higher in MP (typically co-op). I always missed the amazing mod-ability in MP that Civ IV had. For example, I would have loved to play Faerun etc. in MP. It's clear that to some level it *could* have been implemented in V, but wasn't for some reason (based on the many mods that CAN work in MP via implementation as DLC).

I'm glad that the top level announcement has it listed, but have concern as others do, so I have continued to hope they'd announce more before launch. I'm still crossing my fingers for something in the next week.

But even the devs have been tight-lipped about stuff that hasn't been announced, particularly things related to MP and Mods, at least with V. I explicitly asked Ed this at Firaxicon last year and he skirted the issue and basically didn't say anything. This was *after* V was done and out and no updates coming. It was clear that there was something to be said but that couldn't be said due to PR limitations/priorities etc. I've wondered if he couldn't say anything then because they'd already moved the resources to VI and couldn't mention that at the time either.

 

[Abraxis]

I hope there is no easy modding support on release. People need to play the game before they can have any hope of being able to add to it in a meaningful way, that's just a fact. Release the tools along with the game on release day and we're bombarded with poorly implemented mods from people who haven't even played the game trying to make it more in line with their preconceived notions of how it should have been developed with no regard for what it actually achieves.

I realise this doesn't really harm me or anyone else, as I can ignore them, and should thus be regarded in a more live-and-let-live fashion... but it does make the initial list of mods sloppy and dense with low quality trash. Which is annoying to sort through, and lingers there forever. It makes me not want to bother with any of it for the first few months anyways.

Let the community in general process the game on even footing, rather than divide us right out of the gate. Let everyone digest it as it is, understand, and discuss it, then allow us to tweak it and turn it into something greater. I think this leads to a much healthier and productive culture around the game based on evolution rather than revolution. One of these concepts has a future, the other just leads into a cycle of mediocrity.

 

[Ryika]

I hope there is no easy modding support on release. People need to play the game before they can have any hope of being able to add to it in a meaningful way, that's just a fact. Release the tools along with the game on release day and we're bombarded with poorly implemented mods from people who haven't even played the game trying to make it more in line with their preconceived notions of how it should have been developed with no regard for dependencies they're .

I realise this doesn't really harm me or anyone else, as I can ignore them, and should thus be regarded in a more live-and-let-live fashion... but it does make the initial list of mods sloppy and dense with low quality trash. Which is annoying to sort through, and lingers there forever. It makes me not want to bother with any of it for the first few months anyways.

The first bunch of mods will always be bad, no matter when the tools are released. Tons of people getting familiar with the tools, not having the experience of what's possible to edit, etc. Not having much experience with the game itself just adds to that, but as you said yourself, you can just ignore mods until further down the line. After all, you seem to be ignoring all the small mods that are released these days anyway, all the joke-mods, the "First time mod project, let me upload something that I haven't even tested myself (and therefor doesn't work)!"-mods. The steam mod library will always be filled with tons of trash.

I'd say people being able to mod away the things they don't like asap easily trumps your argument.

 

[Abraxis]

I'd say people being able to mod away the things they don't like asap easily trumps your argument.

With no regards to the indirect dependant systems they break in the process, then come onto the forums complaining about how the game was designed.

But yes, I agree with you -objectively speaking. Despite my feelings on the subject.

 

[Gorbles]

Why couldn't modding be announced properly? I admit it's unlikely at this point, but when civ VI was announced, I was hoping they'd have something in the game like a Civilization mapmaker as part of the game. My main gaming experience in the past is with Blizzard, which makes modding an essential part of their RTS games, to the point where people who learn how to use it can create any type of game they want. Seriously, people are creating entire MMOs in the Starcraft 2 editor, it's a major part of the game because Blizzard invested in it.

I would definitely like and use a program like that, where you can at least create maps, civilizations, leaders, and other easy modifications in a nice format without messing with the XML files themselves. A map editor, civilization editor, and leader editor as a side program would be pretty nice.

Do you want to hazard a guess at how large Blizzard's team(s) are by comparison to pretty much anyone else in the industry?

I'm very tired of people using Blizzard as a comparison to everything.

 

[treadwin]

Let's turn this around.

If you had to leave something out in order to make the release date, would it be modding?

Or would you be OK with an announcement, "We have delayed the release of Civ VI until 1st December, so that we can get modding working properly." ?

 

[Lyoncet]

Although we don't know what form it will take, it's probably worth noting that Ed Beach virtually confirmed modding support on the Gorgo livestream today. (Link is timestamped.)

Although perhaps I'm misunderstanding and the question is less "Will it be possible?" and more "How accessible will the game be to modders?"

 

[Uberfrog]

In today's livestream they briefly mentioned modding support (one of their motivations behind supporting multiple leaders), and stated that they will be giving us more information Advanced Starts and Multiplayer stuff before release.

 

[Lyoncet]

In today's livestream they briefly mentioned modding support (one of their motivations behind supporting multiple leaders), and stated that they will be giving us more information Advanced Starts and Multiplayer stuff before release.

Huh, you don't say. (Hint: look up two posts. )

 

[Nikae]

Making modding easy leads to truckloads of random trash. If it is hard, at least harder at start, the people doing it are willing to invest time and effort, not just 'hey Ma I made a mod' and the overall results will be of better quality. Yes, it is an elitist way of thinking about it, but it is very annoying to trudge through the self-advertising junk when looking for something new.

Also, about the Blizzard parallel, please also take a look at how mod friendly Diablo and Hearthstone is, and consider the size of the player base for Starcraft compared to Civilization, before the Blizzard fanboy attack on 2k...