What's next for paid content in the Civ franchise?

[mrwho]

Kinda interesting that so far there is roughly a 50/50 spit on whether there will be more content for VI (not including a spin-off). I can't remember things feeling this ambiguous for V.

 

[_hero_]

I don’t think the dll has anything to do with whether they’re finished or not. The Civ 4 dll came out in the first year of the game and the Civ 5 dll came out before BNW.

Civ 4 didn't have paid DLC and I think in Civ V they saw that the dll let modders release civs that competed with paid content. It is entirely reasonable to assume the people in the finance side don't want them releasing the dll until they are done with dlcs.

 

[pokiehl]

Civ 4 didn't have paid DLC

Huh? Civ 4 had 2 entire expansions (Warlords and BTS) and the dll came out before both of them.

and I think in Civ V they saw that the dll let modders release civs that competed with paid content. It is entirely reasonable to assume the people in the finance side don't want them releasing the dll until they are done with dlcs.

That’s not really true. The majority of modded civs for 5 do not require the dll whatsoever - compatibility for dll mods is actually quite messy for 5 because you can only have one dll mod at a time.

Beyond that, the notion that mods hurt dlc sales whatsoever is extremely spurious. I can just as easily suggest that most users of mods are more dedicated fans (vs casual) and so would be far more likely to purchase dlc. For Civ 6 it’s even more doubtful considering the proliferation of the game on platforms that don’t even have access to modding, further downplaying any supposed negative effect mods have on dlc sales.

I dunno, this whole idea that the devs or publisher are “scared” of mods is pretty corny to me and overstates the popularity of mods by a long shot. (I say this is a prolific modder and someone who would never play the game without mods enabled)

 

[ManoftheHour333]

I've been saying something similar to this but I think Civ VII shouldn't release too soon. I think Firaxis should learn from Humankind's response, and in the meantime, try to milk as money as they can from the VI engine to put towards making VII blow people's socks off. I say that they spend the rest of 2021 developing a 2nd season that's mostly full of balance with some alt leaders/personas (Never understood why we only got 2 personas...weird to introduce just them). Considering that these would be balance patches (Probably no AI fixes/overhauls :/ ) and would take less development time, they could still sell it and make some money on it while figuring out and working on Civ VII. Spend all of 2022 like they did 2021-releasing the 2nd pass in stages to keep a little bit of hype up. And then in spring of 2023, they could drop Civ VII with Humankind probably losing a bit of steam for maximum effect...and profits.

Really hope that they don't throw us a spinoff. I don't think the market for a non-historical civ game is especially high among audiences and it would make the Civ series looked dated in comparison to competitors as it'd have to be on the Civ VI engine.

I just really don't want them rushing another huge civ game that's gonna last for most of the decade just to compete with something they don't even know anything about. Wait until the market is open and you've had ample time to prep before you drop a huge (And hopefully impressive) game.

 

[konokoni]

Interesting that we're all looking at the same statements, social media posts, etc. but drawing very different conclusions from what we see. Hats off to the marketing & dev teams for maintaining an impressive level of ambiguity around this.

My read is that Civ VI is done (outside of potential bugfixes). There are definitely some things that could be interpreted otherwise, but from where I sit, "final," "end of cycle," etc. verbiage has been thrown around enough to suggest that they're moving on to The Next Thing. No guesses as to what that will be; maybe they've finally freed SMAC from IP ownership purgatory? I can dream...

 

[Duke William of Normandy]

https://twitter.com/tronster/status/1385914017282240512?s=20

That sweatshirt. It doesn't say New Frontier Pack. It says End of Cycle

There were also macaroons.

 

[_hero_]

Huh? Civ 4 had 2 entire expansions (Warlords and BTS) and the dll came out before both of them.



That’s not really true. The majority of modded civs for 5 do not require the dll whatsoever - compatibility for dll mods is actually quite messy for 5 because you can only have one dll mod at a time.

Beyond that, the notion that mods hurt dlc sales whatsoever is extremely spurious. I can just as easily suggest that most users of mods are more dedicated fans (vs casual) and so would be far more likely to purchase dlc. For Civ 6 it’s even more doubtful considering the proliferation of the game on platforms that don’t even have access to modding, further downplaying any supposed negative effect mods have on dlc sales.

I dunno, this whole idea that the devs or publisher are “scared” of mods is pretty corny to me and overstates the popularity of mods by a long shot. (I say this is a prolific modder and someone who would never play the game without mods enabled)

Sure. I'm just saying this is how some people in finance and some CEOs at software companies think. I agree that it's ridiculous but I have actually witnessed it first hand so I don't consider it corny at all. Not nearly as corny as many of the other explanations I have heard. "The devs are afraid the mods will make them look bad at their jobs" probably takes the cake for me.

 

[Kupe Navigator]

it is clear that game NEEDS a clean-up patch and clean any bugs and stuff. I do not expect any civ changes with this game but just cleaning/fixing up bugs. There is on on going volcanoes not Erupting properly and floods not flooding properly. The graphics glitch when having some graphic heavy mod is still there...
I REALLY hope Fraxis would address this with clean-up patch in may or June...
please don't abandon the game!

 

[Duke William of Normandy]

 

[Unmitigated Gaul]

Wait there’s a graphics glitch associated with a mod you have and Firaxis is supposed to clean it up?

 

[Kupe Navigator]

Wait there’s a graphics glitch associated with a mod you have and Firaxis is supposed to clean it up?

not techically modder's fault... look there is ongoing glitch in which when you have graphical heavy mods like City lights and JNR's Urban Complexity mod, some of your graphics may glitch. I do believe it to be a bug and was hoping for a fix.

 

[mrwho]

Man you really don't like the Civ 6 devs do you?

If the devs never touch this game again, I'll go away with a very positive impression of the game and the team behind it.

 

[ggalindo001]

After spending a fair amount of the weekend playing the open dev of Humankind:

1. The devs do have a lot to be proud of in Civ VI. There are a few things that I really am jazzed about with Humankind, but the Civ series has taken a strong leap forward in Civ VI and Humankind is more like Civ 6.5 as a result.

2. As much as I would love to see some significant improvements in the current Civ VI iteration (more challenging AI, better more robust diplomacy, bug fixes, etc.), I would completely understand the Firaxis team cashing in their chips here, and focusing more significantly on Civ VII. I think this is the right business decision -- and not try to go head to head with Humankind launch with a 5+ year old engine that is frightfully flawed.

3. What could actually -help- sales in the Humankind shadow is release of DLL. It wouldn't surprise me if it gets released in the coming months as a result.

4. I would predict one last patch, likely a few months out, to fix some of the glaring bug issues....and that is it.

I don't think the Firaxis team need to worry too much about Humankind from the vantage point of people purchasing one game or the other.....I think that Humankind is coming at that lull in the dev cycle where Firaxis can pay attention to how it is received, etc. without the direct pressure of head to head competition.

For what it's worth, I'm looking forward to Humankind's full release -- will be good to have some fresh ideas come into the series.

 

[Kupe Navigator]

Man you really don't like the Civ 6 devs do you?

If the devs never touch this game again, I'll go away with a very positive impression of the game and the team behind it.

I like what they have created... BUT not how they are managing the game. There management is just barely above how Nexon manages their games.

 

[shmily_dana]

I'm hoping for more CIV 6 support. At least until I can buy the parts to build a new pc to run newer games. I know I'm probably in the minority in not having a machine that meets the minimum for Humankind.

 

[9gkj548hkm20vk79dj689bnj4]

I got a glitch with City Lights mod where a city (that I captured) was stuck at -10 amenities and refused to grow. However it did not become a free city.
Wow.
Not sure what was happening so I disabled the mod.

 

[Xur]

custom games with “no duplicate civs” still allow duplicate civs. Been like this for the last 3 or 4 patches. The jersey colours have a little “conflict” icon that does not update properly after making changes. The entire custom game setup menu is a mess. There are always obvious bugs in this game, and they persist for several patches. I dont recall such a lazy attitude to QA in previous civ games. They, seemingly, cannot make a patch without ruining something else.

On one hand I hope Firaxis just drops civ6 and deliver civ7... but on the other hand civ7 is not something I look forward to, because of how civ6 turned out. I think their brand need a patch.

 

[James_Champagne]

Yeah, I really hate to say it, but I think the NFP overall was a bit of a mess. There were some good ideas, I think they were just poorly implemented, and it seems the game's buggier now than I ever remember it being... it's weird, I thought the game was really great post-GATHERING STORM, and almost kind of wish they had maybe ended it then and there.

 

[ThunderLizard2]

OP - it will be left to rot.

 

[Gedemon]

Based from past iterations, even if the April update was the last update with new content, there will surely be a (months) later update with just a final patch.

Wait there’s a graphics glitch associated with a mod you have and Firaxis is supposed to clean it up?

There are two kind of mod-breaking patch.

One can be resolved by modders, and modders do expect them.

One can not, and basically says "we don't care about mods" if they do not try to resolve it.

This is the later, and was introduced in September AFAIK. And I'm pretty sure they still care, in my opinion they'll try. Doesn't mean they'll solve the issue, especially if everyone has moved to another project except a few people part-time for a "tidying up & real last" patch.