Vox Populi for Civ VI

[adrifranchise]

So Civ V has been one of my favorite games and really opened my eyes to the Civilization franchise. I have had hundreds of hours into Civ V but since I was only 17 with my first job all I could afford was Brave New World. I was not familiar with the modding community at that time so the only mod I had was the barbarian immersion mod off of steam workshop.

Browsing through this forum as of late especially with the controversial mystery of whether this DLL code will get released or not and I kept seeing the praise for the Vox Populi mod for Civ V so I decided to go back to Civ V and download VP and wow have I been missing out. While it was refreshing to go back to what I know, it added some many new things where I was just getting so immersed.

Now I do realize this is a Civ VI forum and there is a reason behind this thread. I created this thread for everyone to help brainstorm a number of different mods that could theoretically act as a Vox Populi for Civ VI. I know it is not going to get as much love as VP especially without access to the DLL but we have to start somewhere. So what is a collection of mods that could act (for now hopefully) as a Vox Populi for Civ VI?

Hopefully 2K (because I have a sneaking suspicion that if it were up to FXS, we would have had the DLL by now) can see the passion that the modding community has. If it's a money issue (which if i was a betting man I would probably bet it is) and the conflict with releasing new content, I would say that is a poor argument given the fact that VP requires all DLC (I dropped $30 on the bundle to get everything I needed) so there is still money to be made. I hate to see respected modders like @Gedemon retire because of this.

Anyway back to the reason of the thread. I will start off with some suggestions for the unofficial Vox Populi
@Infixo's Real Strategy
Sukritact's Simple UI adjustments
Sukritact's Global Relations
Warfare Expanded: Reloaded

Let me know what you guys think. If this is not the right place for this I apologize

 

[Sostratus]

Well, you really need a group of people to accomplish the following:

-devise the set of features which should and could be added to “complete” civ6
-devise the design principles of the mod by which to balance any new features/reworks and the existing game content
-devise AI that can handle this new version of the game
-test and refine this model via playtesting

I don’t think a VP style mod for civ6 can really happen without that level of integration between a group with several different areas of expertise.

 

[adrifranchise]

Well, you really need a group of people to accomplish the following:

-devise the set of features which should and could be added to “complete” civ6
-devise the design principles of the mod by which to balance any new features/reworks and the existing game content
-devise AI that can handle this new version of the game
-test and refine this model via playtesting

I don’t think a VP style mod for civ6 can really happen without that level of integration between a group with several different areas of expertise.

I agree with you. Just wanted to make a food for thought post but you have definitely given me something to think about

 

[oedali]

This is my one and only wish for Civ 6 as well. I am one of those die hard fans having been playing the game since the 90s and wish for more challenging AI. I took a 6 month break and came back hoping the AI improved now on Deity but seems about the same based on my first game. (Which I won on turn 160)

I gave Real Strategy a try once before but there seems to be lack of concrete proof that it makes the AI indeed better? Plus I read that with the latest patches that makes it even more questionable. I used to be a VP player and weekly feedback provider back in Civ 5 days too - really enjoyed the continuous testing and itirative improvements. Feels like a different era..

 

[adrifranchise]

This is my one and only wish for Civ 6 as well. I am one of those die hard fans having been playing the game since the 90s and wish for more challenging AI. I took a 6 month break and came back hoping the AI improved now on Deity but seems about the same based on my first game. (Which I won on turn 160)

I gave Real Strategy a try once before but there seems to be lack of concrete proof that it makes the AI indeed better? Plus I read that with the latest patches that makes it even more questionable. I used to be a VP player and weekly feedback provider back in Civ 5 days too - really enjoyed the continuous testing and itirative improvements. Feels like a different era..

Unfortunately the push to expand to wider audiences really holds the AI and the game back. I understand it from a business position but then also release the DLL code so the modding community can release a mod like VP for Civ VI and allow both parties (strategy enthusiasts looking for a more challenging game and casual players not looking for much of a challenge) to be happy.

 

[Sostratus]

I agree with you. Just wanted to make a food for thought post but you have definitely given me something to think about

There's a lot of stuff that players perceive to be a problem with the game that could be alleviated with balancing numbers. Unit combat, game pacing, a lot of AI tendencies, and so forth.
Even just changing the xml (without resorting to LUA) we can do all sorts of stuff. But different people have different visions of what constitutes balance, so there’s going to be inherent clash unless you can get a group to agree to a set of principles beforehand.

 

[Casworon]

Great to see someone else enjoying Vox Populi! It really is a gem

The big problem with Civ VI is the lack of the DLL. But i agree there is still a lot that can be done without it. But it is obviously going to be much more limited. The big thing is the AI. An alternative approach is simply to re-balance the game to be more AI friendly. Buffing the way the AI currently plays. This being one of the only real approaches we have since apart from the lua method seen in the Real Strategy mod, there doesn't seem to be much else we can do to improve the AI.

A Vox Populi-like for Civ VI is conceivable but it would require a lot of effort. Most likely done by a team of modders unified with a single vision and with plenty of free time for play-testing. Might happen might not.

 

[Sostratus]

Unfortunately the push to expand to wider audiences really holds the AI and the game back.

The Ai situation, or whatever people percieve it is, has more to do with the priority of putting out multiple platform game, than the fact that it is on several systems.
For example, 1UPT is not necessarily the bane of all AI programming for all time. There are a lot of games from the nintendo gameboy advance+ era that utilize 1upt, include ranged units, different terrains, etc. (Hexagons vs square tiles is functionally irrelevant here.) Advance Wars, to me, is a fantastic example of a game that has a combat system fundamentally very similar to civ6. No one really complained that the AI was actively bad at that game, and it was marketed to children.

I also happen to think AI bashing is a little too widely resorted to, and again, a lot of their issues could be alleviated if they were simply flavored to play the game in a more "meta" fashion - don't slot awful policies, focus on campuses and theaters instead of endless faith spam, etc. Some Ai personalities already play this way and it shows in how dominant they can be.

A Vox Populi-like for Civ VI is conceivable but it would require a lot of effort. Most likely done by a team of modders unified with a single vision and with plenty of free time for play-testing. Might happen might not.

I suspect we will have to get further into the NFP to understand what the devs want to do before people will say "okay, where can the community take this from here?"

 

[adrifranchise]

Great to see someone else enjoying Vox Populi! It really is a gem

The big problem with Civ VI is the lack of the DLL. But i agree there is still a lot that can be done without it. But it is obviously going to be much more limited. The big thing is the AI. An alternative approach is simply to re-balance the game to be more AI friendly. Buffing the way the AI currently plays. This being one of the only real approaches we have since apart from the lua method seen in the Real Strategy mod, there doesn't seem to be much else we can do to improve the AI.

A Vox Populi-like for Civ VI is conceivable but it would require a lot of effort. Most likely done by a team of modders unified with a single vision and with plenty of free time for play-testing. Might happen might not.

I agree the DLL is extremely important. The problem is if they are going to release it or not. I am not going to speculate because it is really hard to decipher what their plans are. But Vox Populi was a complete game changer for me. As I said I played a lot of the base with BNW but can not believe what I have been missing all this time. Have definitely put more time in that than I have Civ 6. It'll also make it a lot easier to wait for whatever updates NFP brings.

The Ai situation, or whatever people percieve it is, has more to do with the priority of putting out multiple platform game, than the fact that it is on several systems.
I also happen to think AI bashing is a little too widely resorted to, and again, a lot of their issues could be alleviated if they were simply flavored to play the game in a more "meta" fashion - don't slot awful policies, focus on campuses and theaters instead of endless faith spam, etc. Some Ai personalities already play this way and it shows in how dominant they can be.


I suspect we will have to get further into the NFP to understand what the devs want to do before people will say "okay, where can the community take this from here?"

I agree with waiting further into the NFP to understand what they want to do. I think these "free community updates" will be a good indicator of what they would like to do but the modding community can still play an instrumental role in all of this. Wasn't it GS where they even incorporated mods into the game ie map tacks? I feel like there could be a happy medium here