Mohawk Games, the developers of Old World, have released the latest update for their game. This update gives you a new ability for zealot generals, regencies have been reworked, tile improvement recommendations can be disabled, and many more things.
Discuss this update with us here (and read the full list of changes too).
Old World is currently available in the Epic Store, on GOG and Steam.
Today, the developers of Ara: History Untold have released a dev diary about Q&A testing a 4X game.
In this video they talk about what aspects to prioritize for testing, how the interconnection of mechanics make testing complex, how leaders and nations are balanced, the issue of land sharks and more.
The source is here and you can discuss the video with us here.
PCGamesN has posted a new article called “New Civilization 7 details hinted by Firaxis job listing”.
The advert rather obviously indicates that the next part of the series is in development (as we know), and that Firaxis this time has a rather long-term plan, trying to develop a marketing plan for the next game for up to 5 years. This is somewhat longer than for most previous titles, for which the continued development was finished before even 3 years, and agrees with the recent late-stage developments for Civ6, including the NFP, the leader pass and current updates.
More worrysome is the line “understanding of games-as-a-service, virtual goods, and emerging technologies and trends,” which in worst case can be attributed to block chain, NFTs and loot boxes, and in maybe (not necessarily) better cases to AI content (as e.g. the last GalCiv4: Supernova edition has with AI generated aliens). Or simply any other future, not yet foreseen trend.
In any case, it seems that the next title will have a more focused long-term development than previous titles.
Read the full article here, and discuss it with us here.
The very popular Civ4: Colonization mod “We The People” has now been released in version 4.1. This version comes with, among other things, a new map size named “massive”, updates to the Russian and French translation and more background music. Check here for the latest release.
The Humble Bundle has made again the Sid Meier Bundle (repeat from last year), containing a lot of our favourite games!If you pay at least 14.20€, you get
As other minor games included are the early games of Sid, Sid Meier’s Pirates, Sid Meier’s Railroads, Covert Action and the remakes of Ace Patrol, Sid Meier’s Ace Control and Ace Control: Pacific Skies.
All keys are available via Steam for Windows, some are available for Mac and Linux. All donations coming from this Humble Bundle go to Trees, Water, People, a charity which has started by planting trees, but is now doing a lot more. The recommended price for this Humble Bundle is 25€, and we can’t say this would be too much for all these games, it’s rather too little for all the play time you get out of it.
This humble bundle is avialable for the next 14 days, until November 3. But get it now, and contribute to the already 1187€ which have already been raised for charity!
Discuss this Humble Bundle in our forum here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/humble-bundle-sid-meiers-ultimate-collection.675540/
RockPaperShotgun has released a new article called “The Rally Point: Why Alpha Centauri kind of helped when I had a breakdown“.
The title implies a very personal story from the author, but at the end it is actually purely about Alpha Centauri. The author praises the factions, the story, and the underlying AI, which made the game so very sympathetic.
An excerpt:
Most unusually, even today, is how helpful allies can be. Truly aligned friends will actively aid you. I’ve had several games where my armies defended allied colonies while their leaders showered me with free technology without prompting, or I bankrolled an industrial power as they bombed our enemies. It encourages less gamey thinking.
Another very interesting indie game has been released: Hexarchy. This 4X game goes to a smaller scale than the typical civ game, and mixes in a deck building element to expand your empire with techs, units, etc, instead of the normal expansion by building. The general idea should certainly attractive to civ fans, and the shorter games allow an easy game in between.
For the release there is a 20% discount, you can buy it for 15.60€ instead of 19.50€, and a free demo is available as well. And we also have a thread for the game, of course.
A game which mostly has been flown under the radar is now on sale: Pax Nova. This game seems to be a mixture of Civilization, with a bit of SMAC and a bit of Master of Orion. You explore space, and colonize different planets in a typical 4X manner. The game is right now on sale, with a 80% discount for 4.90€. We would love to hear some first-hand experiences with this game in our thread here, please let us know how this plays!