When do you guys think Civ VI will get it's first expansion?

[ggalindo001]

For targeted expansions, I would think early Summer (North America) 2018.

Major systems that I would predict in the first addition:

1. Deeper introduction of districts, tech and civics trees. If you look at Ananse's BFG modpack, for example, there are complete subsystems in each of the major branches. I wouldn't envision going deeper in any branch, but rather new districts to further bifurcate some straight lining. For example, could see a separation of the Campus, Commercial and Industrial zones into multiple parts or add more "either/or" buildings to customize. This obviously would need to be driven by adding some more "meat" to the tech and civics trees.

2. I think that the middle game will become a lot more refined. Can see another level of units in each of the Medieval, Renaissance and Industrial eras, leaving for a 3rd expansion focused on eras after that (including going a little "beyond earth").

3. I am spitballing on this one, but I could certainly see a re-definition of the armies/navies in this game, to allow for true combined/mixed arms. When they first discussed armies, I was wanting it to be the combination of a ranged, horse, defense and melee unit into one tile. I like the corps and armies as implemented, but think they can take it further to allow for 1 unit of each in a tile. Will help AI, and will ease congestion. Again, spitballing.

Throwing a couple of other thoughts -- on a $29.99 expansion:

4-6 new civilizations, certainly going to include Mongolia and a North American Indian civilization. Other guesses include Zulu, and a southeast Asia civilization.

4-6 new leaders on existing civilizations. Best guesses are Washington or Lincoln for America, an alternative leader for Russia, an alternative leader for Rome, an alternative leader for Spain (Isabella).

4-6 new wonders. 6-10 new city states.

Moving to the second addition, I think the focus there will be on "beyond the cold war", including potentially a subsystem for non-civilization based warfare, more definable alliances, and again a possible "beyond Earth" type of additional techs. I would more prefer what they did with Brave New World, but don't see that actually happening for a second time.

 

[Esperr]

I would imagine a new VC will sneak its way into there at some point.

 

[CivCube]

Deeper introduction of districts, tech and civics trees. If you look at Ananse's BFG modpack, for example, there are complete subsystems in each of the major branches. I wouldn't envision going deeper in any branch, but rather new districts to further bifurcate some straight lining. For example, could see a separation of the Campus, Commercial and Industrial zones into multiple parts or add more "either/or" buildings to customize. This obviously would need to be driven by adding some more "meat" to the tech and civics trees.

Very cool idea. If there's a place for Civ 5 social policy-style decision-making, it's here. There should always be options that put out short-term fires but slightly mess up your long-term strategy.

I would imagine a new VC will sneak its way into there at some point.

Diplomatic, for sure. Maybe they'll add diplomatic units to the map and clutter things up even more--I want this!

 

[Esperr]

Diplomatic, for sure. Maybe they'll add diplomatic units to the map and clutter things up even more--I want this!

I really hope they introduce some kind of economic victory, maybe something to do with adding corporations and creating some kind of mechanic where you have to get x amount of market share to win. I really just want something more to do in the game then just kill people. They could also make the SV more interesting but I really don't know how, maybe it needs to stay the way it is, its needed for multiplayer for the awkward games where you somehow all stabilized against each other as a breaker. If only there was some way to create a VC that penalized you for going to war, as just killing everybody is the easiest way to get any other victory right now. Culture victory is fine I think. My dream would be for them to add a bunch of new interesting VC's that are all peaceful.

 

[CivCube]

Yep, I agree. Maybe going too far in the war direction makes you "not civilized" by definition--your tech tree could be replaced by a smaller set of techs and civics that when fully researched, replace you with an AI permanently or for a certain number of turns. Or maybe this is where a "dark age" could finally find its way into Civ, and you have to research blank techs before going back to the tech tree.

So you could theoretically still win, but you'd have to be really sure.

 

[bite]

For targeted expansions, I would think early Summer (North America) 2018.


Throwing a couple of other thoughts -- on a $29.99 expansion:

4-6 new civilizations, certainly going to include Mongolia and a North American Indian civilization. Other guesses include Zulu, and a southeast Asia civilization.
.

I agree whit you, but I think the Zulus will be used as a draw card on the last expansion

 

[mrc2022]

A Diplomatic remodel would be very good. Vassalage is missing since Civ 5, and it would go very well with the casus-belli

 

[Esperr]

Yep, I agree. Maybe going too far in the war direction makes you "not civilized" by definition--your tech tree could be replaced by a smaller set of techs and civics that when fully researched, replace you with an AI permanently or for a certain number of turns. Or maybe this is where a "dark age" could finally find its way into Civ, and you have to research blank techs before going back to the tech tree.

So you could theoretically still win, but you'd have to be really sure.

That seems kind of interesting, have some kind of war meter that everybody contributes to. And sends the world into the dark ages for a while where you either have zero research, or have to re-research some techs. Or maybe it could just be when a civilization gets wiped out completely.

Or even some system of crashing the world economy and everybody takes a gold penalty for a while and you get negative diplomatic modifiers.

 

[nzcamel]

I would have expect Civ5 stuff to take longer because the production values seem higher, but I guess that's not the case. I know Civ6 runs on a different engine than the previous two, which might lengthen the otherwise shortening development times, but I'll assume it won't do that too much for now.

Civ V likely took longer due to the change in lead designer.

2. I think that the middle game will become a lot more refined. Can see another level of units in each of the Medieval, Renaissance and Industrial eras, leaving for a 3rd expansion focused on eras after that (including going a little "beyond earth").

Big ups to another round of units. Jumping from knights to tanks strains my immersion lol

 

[Leyrann]

Civ1 came out in 1991, Civ2 in 1996, Civ3 in 2001, Civ4 in 2005, Civ5 in 2010, and Civ6 in 2016. Five years is a fairly consistent average between new releases.

Now for expansions:

• Interestingly, the first Civ3 expansion came out just about a year after Civ3 vanilla, and the second expansion about a year after that, and all around the same time of year (late October and early November).
• Warlords came out in the summer of 2006, about 20 months after vanilla, and Beyond the Sword a bit under a year after that.
• Gods and Kings came out around 19 months after vanilla, and Brave New World about nine months after that.

Now, I don't think this is enough data to reliably extract a trend from. However, I think that the Civ4 and Civ5 measurements are most reliable, being most recent and surprisingly close. I would have expect Civ5 stuff to take longer because the production values seem higher, but I guess that's not the case. I know Civ6 runs on a different engine than the previous two, which might lengthen the otherwise shortening development times, but I'll assume it won't do that too much for now.

Based on that, the next expansion can be expected in 16-20 months from release, or 12-16 months from now. I suppose it's not that implausible, looking at the data, to see an expansion pack for the Holidays this year. However, the development time will probably push it far enough that it wouldn't make it early enough for the holiday rush and it'll probably be pushed to Spring or Summer or 2018. I thing Summer of 2018 is the safest bet for next expansion, but I would definitely expect to see a second expansion within 13 months or so. But who knows, this game has surprised us all before, and again, it's not a big amount of data to work with.

So...what'd you guys like to see in the first expansion? They all generally have a theme too them, like Gods and Kings added religion and espionage, Brave New World did stuff for cultural victory and added ideologies, and all that stuff has been carried over to Civ6 in one form or another. But what does it seem likely they'll focus on with a Civ6 expansion? If this is the right place to ask, of course.

I hope we get more districts, more units, more techs and more civics. The districts are just too easy to "solve" with everyone figuring out within a few weeks that you should build IZ's and CH's whenever you could. Having districts that, for example, give some science and some culture, or maybe gold and food or something like that would make it much harder to find something that's simply the best, as well as increasing differences between cities. And for the others... Everything's just too fast. Units are just obvious, with Knights upgrading into tanks and Pikemen into AT Crew etc, but with the techs and civics too era's just seem to small even if you have a mod that slows down the timing to be more accurate. Mostly the late civics... If you're getting to the last governments, which "feels" like equal to our 19th or early 20th century, you're basically through. I had a game last week where I felt ahead in the science tree compared to civic tree, but then I noticed I was just this far away from finishing the civic tree.

That seems kind of interesting, have some kind of war meter that everybody contributes to. And sends the world into the dark ages for a while where you either have zero research, or have to re-research some techs. Or maybe it could just be when a civilization gets wiped out completely.

Or even some system of crashing the world economy and everybody takes a gold penalty for a while and you get negative diplomatic modifiers.

That second idea sounds like a great idea very poorly implemented. Would have to put a lot more stuff in it than "sometimes everyone gets a gold penalty and hates everyone (like they didn't already)".

 

[LethalLeigh]

I think it'll be out right in time for Xmas sales.

 

[Leyrann]

It won't go on sale right after it's released.

 

[UWHabs]

I'd guess summer 2018, although they may go quicker and target around Christmas this year.

As for what it will include, who knows. Hopefully Corporations will make their return, as they were fun back in the day and one of the rare ways that resources got multiple uses. I think it would also help give a better cost/benefit to harvesting a resource. If I know that late game my wheat might give extra gold or culture or faith or something, then maybe I'm less likely to harvest it earlier.

 

[kaspergm]

I'll also go with spring/early summer 2018. I find it unlikely we'll get an expansion already this year - not with the DLC(s) still in the pipes.

 

[Xur]

I would say that they are already working on it, but don't expect it till after the first round of DLC

Well, it's hard to state the opposite without being mentally challenged, right? What is the first round of DLC? It could be 4 DLC or 10000 DLC - it will always be the first round when it's before the 1st expansion.

Anyway... I'd expect a fast expansion. They haven't even fixed some of the very basic UI bugs yet - either they are super busy with the expansion or they are just phoning it in again.

 

[ComradeDavo]

It won't go on sale right after it's released.

Actually the main game had 10% off in the Black Friday Steam sale only a month after release last year, and had a similar % off at Xmas too. So an September or October expansion release would allow for that again.

But they might have summer in mind so a June release wouldn't surprise me either.

 

[V. Soma]

My bet is a 2017 expansion, maybe some weeks before Xmas.

 

[mrc2022]

Well, it's hard to state the opposite without being mentally challenged, right? What is the first round of DLC? It could be 4 DLC or 10000 DLC - it will always be the first round when it's before the 1st expansion.

Anyway... I'd expect a fast expansion. They haven't even fixed some of the very basic UI bugs yet - either they are super busy with the expansion or they are just phoning it in again.

The first round of DLC is the round of DLC included in the Deluxe package. Which is 4.

We should expect another DLC in Summer and an Expansion in Fall

 

[Jewman]

I hope theyre cash hungry and push it out this year. I'm a slave to civ and I'll buy it no matter what.

As for the content of such an expansion, I want above all a "stability" mechanic related to amenities, war weariness, religion and ideology.

Right now you can just ignore religion entirely if you're not going for a religious victory. In fact it's more efficient to do so. I would like multiple religions present in your civ to cause instability unless you formally adopt a religion, play certain policy cards or find amenities from other sources. This way you can't just ignore religion.

Then in the later game, religious instability is reduced through social tree techs and ideological instability (due to proximity, tourism and espionage) replaces it. This would be best combated through culture districts, social policies and military presence. I want peace time rebellions, whole regions revolting and new civs popping up, proxy wars... Cold War shenanigans.

I'm aware that right now the AI struggles with the amenities system as is (there always seems to be revolts in their territory). This would be the biggest obstacle to making this happen but I hope by years end they've figured out how to make it better.

 

[Xandinho]

In addition to Persia and Macedonia, I expect at least 6 more civs added in DLCs, new leaders and a pack of wonders. So, I believe we will have DLCs all this year and half of next year.
I think we will have the first expansion announced approximately in May/June 2018.