PolyCast 438: Something to Believe In [Part 1]

By | August 30, 2024
PolyCast Logo

The four-hundred-and-thirty-eighth episode of PolyCast, “Something to Believe In [Part 1]“ is now available for streaming on the PolyCast YouTube Channel. This episode features regular co-hosts CanusAlbinus, Stephanie “Makahlua”, Phil “TheMeInTeam”, and Jason “MegaBearsFan”. Topics for this episode include:

News
00h01m43s | The Death of the 2K Launcher
00h04m24s | August Challenge of the Month: Rotating Redux
00h09m52s | Civilization VII Gameplay Reveal
00h11m22s | Ages
00h20m47s | Crisis
00h30m21s | Leaders
00h44m00s | Civics, Technologies, and Governments
00h52m27s | Diplomacy


NOTE: This Episode was recorded on August 24, 2024.

PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production recording live every other Saturday at 12 Noon US Eastern Time throughout the year, in an ongoing effort to give the Civilization community an interactive voice.

Come join us to discuss this episode with us here.

Civilization 7 – the wonders

By | August 29, 2024

Our member Henrique3d has made an overview over all the Civ7 wonders! There are quite many, and the look great too! For a high-resolution version of the image, and the discussion, please check here.

Current sales: Civ4, Civ5, Civ6 and Millennia

By | August 28, 2024
Sales

There are currently various Steam sales going on, most likely due to the recent Civ7 info.

Civ4 is currently discounted by 85%.

Civ5 is currently discounted by 75%.

Civ6 is currently discounted by 90%.

Millennia is currently discounted by 50% (see also thread here).

Tropico 4 – currently free on GOG (until August 29 … or so)

By | August 27, 2024

In case you want to play as a small-scale dictator before Civ7 gets around, you now have the option with Tropico 4!
The island dictatorship simulator is currently for free, for another 1 days and 15h from the time of this post.
Get it here, and discuss it with us here.

Civ6: Short online downtime August 27

By | August 26, 2024

The Firaxis community manager Gilgamesch has noted today in the forum that tomorrow (August 27), the Civ6 online services (presumably multiplayer and potentially mod workshop) will be shortly offline (2h).

For more info please see this thread.

EDIT: The downtime is over.

Sullla’s AI Survivor Season Eight – Playoff Game 1

By | August 26, 2024

AI Survivor is an annual competition of all Civilization IV AI Leaders by long-time Civilization enthusiast and streamer Sullla.

Surprisingly, Brennus of The Celts won a very rare Diplomatic victory in Wildcard Game 2. In hindsight, the result was not that shocking considering the overwhelming presence of less peaceful leaders in this game. Regardless, Brennus is not renowned for being a successful leader in AI Survivor. Favorite Sury of Khmer was quickly dispatched this time with Brennus gaining most or all of the Khmer spoils leading to an overwhelming advantage he never gave up. The Raging Barbarians were more impactful this round, with Alexander of Greece losing a city to the invasion and DeGaulle of France having some early issues expanding, until he built the Great Wall. Only Brennus advances to the playoff round. Read more about the first wildcard game here.

Playoff Game 1 is here and it is all high stakes for the remaining leaders from now on. The peaceniks and aggressors are evenly matched in this game with three leaders on each side. The field has been whittled down to the strongest performing leaders this season, so predictions may be tougher. This game is highlighted by three strong performers historically in Mansa Musa of Mali, Gilgamesh of Sumeria, and Pacal of The Mayans. Lincoln of America, Hammurabi of Babylon, and Elizabeth I of England round out the field. (Note that the Raging Barbs option is turned off for the Playoffs, as it is only used for the Wildcard games.) Be sure to make your picks in the picking context.

Sullla’s AI Survivor Season 8 continues Friday, August 30th on Sullla’s Twitch Channel at noon EST.

We welcome you to join the fun by discussing here

Civilization VII – Civ switching, the whole controversy

By | August 24, 2024

Civilization 7 has been announced, and the whole forum knows (nearly) only 1 topic: Civ switching. In Civ7 you pick a leader, and one civilization from the antiquity to play through the antiquity. When arriving to the age of exploration, you will stay with your leader, but pick another civilization (from a set of exploration age civs), and the same for the modern age. Some of these civs are marked as being the “historical choice”, based on your previous civ.

As expect, a part of the forum is livid, with the main thread racking up 40 pages already, and this is a short summary:

Our member paisley_trees, a history student and civ enthusiast, has been discussing this in-depth (see video and thread here), in a very balanced way, and made alternative suggestions for the wording. The wording of “historical choice” has also caused issues from a Native American point of view, as there are concerns that colonized people might be replaced by colonizers (there is currently no indication that this will happen). The video and its suggestion addresses this.

It seems that roughly 50% of the forum population would prefer if you could keep your civ (and another 25% really don’t want to have this mechanism), but on the other hand, 75% will anyways still buy Civ7, even if they might not like this mechanic.

This has obviously contributed to the civ communities main hobby before a new release, which is guessing for new civilizations. We might (not confirmed) be getting 15 civs per age, in total 45, of which 15 have already been revealed or identified. A separate thread is currently discussing which civ might be following whom. The community manager Sarah has also confirmed that new in-depth reveals will be coming, and we are looking very much forward to hear more about the civ-switching (although we don’t know if the first reveal will be about this).

And that is the “short” summary.

Sullla’s AI Survivor Season Eight – Wildcard Game 2

By | August 22, 2024

AI Survivor is an annual competition of all Civilization IV AI Leaders by long-time Civilization enthusiast and streamer Sullla.

In what I now call “The Year of the Peacemongers” Pericles of Greece won a space victory in Wildcard Game 1. Pericles is the sole leader to advance to the Playoffs from this matchup. The only true warmonger on the map, Catherine of Russia, was quickly dispatched early game. Poor Hatshepsut (Hatty) of Egypt failed once again to score any points this game, despite getting out to a very impressive start. Hatty was eventually excised from this game late by Zara of Ethiopia, who played strong but not enough to overtake Pericles’s tech lead. Hatty remains the only leader never to score a point in AI Survivor. Surprisingly, raging barbarians were not very impactful on this map except for Asoka, who did have some early issues. Read more about the first wildcard game here.

Wildcard Game 2 is a reverse makeup of leaders than the first Wildcard Game. Almost all the leaders are either warmongers or at least aggressive, except for Washington of America. Suryavaram of Khmer is the most decorated in this matchup, but this appears to be anyone’s game. Raging Barbarians are again online for this matchup so expect some earlier shenanigans from those uncivilized brutes. Be sure to make your picks in the picking context.

Sullla’s AI Survivor Season 8 continues Friday, August 23rd on Sullla’s Twitch Channel at noon EST.

We welcome you to join the fun by discussing here