ModCast Episode 67: “Newborn Smell”

By | November 26, 2016

modcast_logoRefreshing. The sixty-seventh episode of [url=http://thepolycast.net/modcast]ModCast[/url] is now netcasting. Entitled “[url=http://thepolycast.net/modcast/season8.php#mcepisode67]Newborn Smell[/url]” with a runtime of 48m00s, features regular co-hosts [url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/member.php?u=20480]Rob “Rob (R8XFT)” Riley[/url], [url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/member.php?u=243820]Jett “TPangolin”[/url] and [url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/member.php?u=145352]Scott “AlphaShard” Dirk[/url].

The summary of topics is as follows:

– [i]01m58s[/i] | [b]First Game Impressions[/b]
The release of [i]Civilization VI[/i] brings about first impressions of the game itself.
– [i]14m39s[/i] | [b]First Modding Thoughts[/b]
The same release leads to first thoughts on the potential scope of the game’s modding.
– [i]29m41s[/i] | [b]First Wants[/b]
Modding and gameplay mesh in consideration of first wants for [i]CivVI[/i].

[u]ModCast[/u] is the first spin-off of the [i]Civ[/i] strategy-centric [url=http://thepolycast.net/polycast]PolyCast[/url]; fellow sibling [url=http://thepolycast.net/turncast][u]TurnCast[/u][/url] focuses on [i]Civ[/i] multiplay.

Shekelesh unit pack available for Civ III

By | November 25, 2016

Register’s Shekelesh unit pack is now available to download to enhance your Civ III ancient era experience!

shekelesh

The pack includes an archer, horse spearman, oxen cart, spearman and two swordsmen; a perfect combination to use in a mod based on the Ancient World. The Shekelesh were named by the Egyptians as one of the Sea Peoples, and these units will be invaluable to modders interested in creating the perfect ancient invasion scenario and to those creating a specific civilization based on the Shekelesh.

Register credits Kinboat, utahjazz7, CamJH, Plotinus, Micaelus, Steph, and Moeniir for their resources that helped him to create the units. This excellent pack just goes to show that Civ III modding is still thriving and still generating some interesting, good quality and extremely useful mods!

 

PolyCast Episode 270 Topics List

By | November 24, 2016

polycast_logoThis Saturday, November 26th, 2016 is to see the [url=https://www.youtube.com/user/thepolycast/live]twenty-fourth recording[/url] of [i]Civilization[/i] strategy podcast [url=http://thepolycast.net/polycast]PolyCast[/url]’s tenth season. Beginning at 12PM ET North America ([url=www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=PolyCast+270+Recording&iso=20161126T12&p1=188&ah=2]timezone converter[/url]), Episode 270’s topics list is set as follows:

[b]News[/b]
– 2K Says [i]Pre-Civilization[/i] Games Infringe on “Civilization” Trademark (Link 1  | Link 2)
– First [i]Civilization VI[/i] Patch Has Arrived (Link 1 | Link 2)

[b]Forum Talk[/b]
– Reviewing [i]Civilization VI[/i] (Link 1 | Link 2)

[b]Intro/Outro[/b]
– [i]CivVI[/i] City With 2+ Billion People (Link 1Link 2)

– [i]CivVI[/i] Discount Was Too Good to Be True (Link)

[url=http://thepolycast.net/polycast]PolyCast[/url] is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the [i]Civ[/i] community an interactive voice on game strategy; listeners are encouraged to [url=https://twitter.com/thepolycast]follow the show[/url] on Twitter and [url=http://www.youtube.com/user/thepolycast]subscribe to[/url] its YouTube channel. Episode topics list is subject to change. Sibling show [url=http://thepolycast.net/modcast][u]ModCast[/u][/url] focuses on [i]Civ[/i] modding, [url=http://thepolycast.net/turncast][u]TurnCast[/u][/url] on [i]Civ[/i] multiplay.

One More Turn Episode 508: “In the Know”

By | November 23, 2016

omt_logoFamilial angst gives way to associative strife. The eighth episode of dramedy podcast [u]One More Turn[/u]’s ([u]OMT[/u]) fifth season [url=http://onemoreturn.net/episodes5.php#episode508]is now available[/url]. Entitled “In the Know”, it has a runtime of 08m33s. A story set in the near future, [u]OMT[/u] features geeks deal with non-geeky problems. One can [url=https://twitter.com/onemoreturnshow]follow the show[/url] on Twitter and [url=http://www.youtube.com/user/onemoreturnshow]check out[/url] its YouTube channel for caption capability.

[u]OMT[/u] features the voice talents of [i]Civilization[/i] strategy-centric podcast [url=http://thepolycast.net]PolyCast[/url] regular co-hosts [url=http://apolyton.net/forums/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=2]Daniel “DanQ” Quick[/url] and [url=http://apolyton.net/forums/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=22677]Stephanie “Makahlua”[/url] among others; Quick is also the show’s writer and creator. Selections of American music and soundtrack composer [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2228215]Kevin MacLeod[/url]’s work is included throughout the series. Episode 509 is scheduled for release on [i]November 30th, 2016[/i].

Civ4 and Civ3 War Academy Articles Restored

By | November 20, 2016

We are happy to announce that the War Academy articles have been restored for Civilization IV and Civilization III.

In addition, all Civ2 and Civ1 articles are also restored couple weeks back.

Thanks for your patience while we re-link the articles to their proper page hierarchy. This is an ongoing and manual effort.

PolyCast Episode 269: “That’s Our Number”

By | November 19, 2016

polycast_logoCounted. The two-hundred-and-sixty-ninth episode of [url=http://thepolycast.net/polycast]PolyCast[/url], “[url=http://thepolycast.net/polycast/season10.php#episode269]That’s Our Number[/url]”, features regular co-hosts [url=http://apolyton.net/member.php/2-DanQ]Daniel “DanQ” Quick[/url], [url=http://apolyton.net/member.php/22677-Makahlua]Stephanie “Makahlua”[/url], [url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/member.php?u=136315]Philip “TheMeInTeam” Bellew[/url] and [url=https://www.youtube.com/user/SBFMadDjinn]”MadDjinn”[/url] with returning guest co-hosts [url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/member.php?u=145352]Scott “AlphaShard” Dirk[/url] and [url=http://forums.2kgames.com/member.php?84564-MegaBearsFan]Jason “MegaBaersFan” Grade[/url]. It carries a runtime of 59m59s.

The summary of topics is as follows:

– [i]01m18s[/i] | [b]News[/b]
The number of [i]Civilization VI[/i] [url=https://www.facebook.com/civ/photos/a.349831890358.197044.117631940358/10154540390300359/?type=3]tops[/url] [url=https://www.vg247.com/2016/11/07/civilization-6-hits-1m-players-in-just-two-weeks-is-the-most-popular-third-party-game-on-steam]one million[/url] and the game’s Mac port [url=https://twitter.com/aspyrmedia/status/790712736963584001]has[/url] [url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civilization-vi-for-mac-now-available-on-steam.601761]arrived[/url] and on the Linux [url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/3135647/linux/will-aspyr-release-civilization-vi-for-linux.html]possibility[/url] (06m47s); then, [i]CivVI[/i] [url=https://www.teamliquidpro.com/news/2016/10/21/discovering-new-land-with-mrgametheory]entering the[/url] [url=http://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/liquid-civilization.600699]realm[/url] of eSports (10m53s) and game developer [b]Firaxis Games[/b] [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYzLFaBzfTM]plays[/url] multiplayer and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9oGTVER1rY]shows[/url] [url=https://www.facebook.com/civ/posts/10154540764420359]off[/url] its Artificial Intelligence as it fights itself (27m02s).
– [i]39m13s[/i] | [b]Miscellaneous[/b]
Sid Meier is [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1d08T8_wI4]interviewed[/url] [url=https://www.facebook.com/civ/posts/10154543192465359]marking[/url] 25 years for the [i]Civilization[/i] gaming franchise and listening to [i]CivVI[/i]’s all-but-complete soundtrack for free… [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqJFVg05b8Q]legally[/url] (49m37s).

– [i]Intro/Outro[/i] | [b]Miscellaneous[/b]
Scripting scriptless and ‘back in the day’.

[url=http://thepolycast.net/polycast]PolyCast[/url] is a bi-weekly audio production recording [url=https://www.youtube.com/user/thepolycast/live]live every other Saturday[/url] throughout the year, in an ongoing effort to give the [i]Civilization[/i] community an interactive voice; sibling show [url=http://thepolycast.net/modcast][u]ModCast[/u][/url] focuses on [i]Civ[/i] modding, [url=http://thepolycast.net/turncast][u]TurnCast[/u][/url] on [i]Civ[/i] multiplay.

Faerun for BNW now updated to v15

By | November 18, 2016

FramedArchitect’s Faerun for BNW v15 Beta is now available!

faerunheader

Faerun is set in the fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms on the European-inspired continent of Faerun and has the following features:

  • Choose from 25 Civilizations reflecting Faerun’s major kingdoms.
  • Load Faerun with any map or map script with any settings.
  • Play on four Faerun Scenario Maps with true start locations.
  • Recruit powerful Heroes, including Bards, Rangers, Druids, Wizards, Assassins and Paladins.
  • Over 50 Spells that can be cast at will by Arcanists, Clerics and Heroes.
  • 10 unit races, including drow, dragons, dwarves, orcs and gnomes, each with special abilities.
  • Follow the path of Good, Neutral, or Evil by choosing an alignment, each with unique strengths and weaknesses.
  • Send your heroes on pilgrimages to Cult Centers to entice up to 15 Deity Pantheons into your cities.
  • Over 100 new buildings and wonders, organized on a new technology tree.
  • 4 new and challenging Victory types: Good, Neutral, Evil and Magic.

Download Faerun, immerse yourself in the Forgotten Realms and let FramedArchitect know your thoughts on his fantastic creation!

Civ6 “Fall 2016 Update” Patch Release

By | November 17, 2016

civilizationvi_day30_heroFiraxis and 2K Games have released the first patch for Civilization VI. The “Fall 2016 Update” will automatically install when starting the Steam client; if it doesn’t install automatically, try restarting Steam.

Check out the full patch notes below and discuss the patch on the forums.

[NEW]

  • Maps
    • Added a balanced six player map.
    • Added a balanced four player map.
  • ‘Cavalry and Cannonades’ Scenario Added
    • Combat scenario with reduced unit maintenance costs and no strategic resource requirement for units.
    • Larger starting army and additional starting techs.
    • Time limit: 50 turns.
    • Goal: Possess the largest territory.
  • DX12 Support
  • Complete Logitech ARX Support

[GAMEPLAY UPDATES]

  • Added additional notifications.
  • Added a “time defeat” for running out of time. This is always disabled if a Score Victory is available.
  • Added additional Hotkey support (next unit, next city).
  • Added the ability to rename cities.
  • Added UI to show the next tile a city will grow to.
  • Added a visual cue for Barbarian Scouts that are alerted to your city.
  • Changed Dan Quayle rankings.

[BALANCE CHANGES]

  • Added prerequisite project (Manhattan Project) for Operation Ivy.
  • Added Metal Casting as a prerequisite for Economics tech.
  • Adjusted religious pressure when a religion is first founded to give them more resilience and convert the city.
  • Adjusted relationship decay rates.
  • Reduced the effectiveness of cavalry production policies.
  • Reduced Warmonger penalties in most instances, and adjusted how this reacts to returning versus keeping a city. The last city conquered from a player now provides a heavy warmonger penalty, even if you have a Casus Belli against this player, because you are wiping out a civilization.
  • Reduced border incursion warnings if the troops are within their own borders.
  • Increased the number of Great Works of Writing slots in the Amphitheater to 2.
  • Increased Counterspy operation time.
  • Increased the cost of Religious units and applied additional charges.
  • Units may no longer be deleted when they are damaged.
  • Deleting a unit no longer provides gold.
  • Updated Island Plates map to have more hills and mountains.
  • Units may no longer remove features from tiles that are not owned by that player.
  • Fallout now prevents resource harvesting.
  • Barbarian camps must spawn further away from low-difficulty players’ cities.

[AI TUNING]

  • Adjusted AI victory condition focus to increase their competitiveness in Science and Tourism.
  • Adjusted AI understanding of declared friendship.
  • Adjusted the AI approach to beginning and ending a war based on potential gain and loss.
  • Increased AI competitiveness in building a more advanced military.
  • Increased AI usage of Inquisitors. Especially Phillip.
  • Increased AI value of upgrading units.
  • Increased AI use of Settler escorts.
  • Tuned AI usage of units that cannot move and shoot, like Catapults.
  • Tuned AI city and unit build planning.
  • Improved the ability of city-states to maintain a strong military.

[BUG FIXES]

  • Fixed some production Social Policies, Great People, and Pantheon bonuses that were not applying correctly.
  • Fixed Royal Navy Dockyard not getting the right adjacency bonuses.
  • Fixed some issues with how the Great Wall was built by players and AI, including proper connection to mountains and removing other players’ Great Walls as potential connection points.
  • Fixed a unit cycling error with formations.
  • Fixed a bug where the first military levy that expired would return all levied units (including those levied from other city-states) to that city-state. Now it should only return the levied units that actually originally belonged to the one city-state.
  • Fixed several issues when Airstrips and Aerodromes are occupied, including forced rebasing of enemy units and UI updates.
  • Fixed an exploit that allowed ranged and bombard units to gain experience when attacking a district with 0 hit points.
  • Fixed an issue with wonders when transferring city ownership – conquering a city with a wonder would not track that wonder, and could lead to problems when attempting to use Gustave Eiffel.
  • Fixed an issue where the Settler lens would not always show the right information to the player.
  • Fixed an issue where AI would counter gold changes with the change desired, rather than the total amount of gold desired.
  • Fixed an issue where the Tutorial intro and outro videos would appear off-center in certain resolutions.
  • Fixed some crashes with units.
  • Fixed an issue where multiple leaders of the same civilization would frequently show up in a game.
  • Fixed an issue where Trade Route yields were doubling in some instances.
  • Units in formations now break formation before teleporting between cities.
  • The achievement ‘For Queen and Country’ was unlocking too frequently.
  • AI with neutral relationships should accept delegations barring exceptional circumstances.
  • Can no longer declare a Joint War if it is invalid for either party.
  • Save game files should no longer be case sensitive.
  • Certain wonders were sending extra notifications.
  • Players will no longer receive any warmongering penalties from a joint war partner for actions in that joint war.
  • Liberating a civilization back to life will now bring them back into the game properly.
  • Observation Balloon range bonus was being incorrectly applied when stacked.
  • Text and grammar fixes.

[VISUALS]

  • Buildings on snow will now have snow on them.
  • Added an Industrial Barbarian Encampment.
  • Added a ranger tower to National Parks.
  • Fixed some issues with buildings not culling around other world items properly.
  • Fixed an issue with some Districts not showing properly.
  • Miscellaneous polish applied to multiple improvements, districts, and buildings.

[MULTIPLAYER]

  • Turn timers are always disabled on the first turn of a new game.  This happens regardless of the advanced start or turn timer type selected.
  • Allow multiplayer lobby’s private game status to be toggled once the lobby has been created.
  • Cap the max players to 12.
  • Added LAN player name option to options screen.

[UI]

  • Added the number of specialists working a tile.
  • Added some additional icons for espionage, promotions, etc.
  • Added additional Civilopedia shortcuts, including right clicking a unit portrait.
  • Added the signature to the diplomacy action view/deal view so that we can differentiate between duplicate players. Also added multiplayer screenname in diplomacy.
  • Added Trade Route yields to the Reports screen.
  • Added City Center to the City Breakdown panel.
  • Added rewards and consequences to mission completed popups.
  • Updated the leader-chooser when beginning a new game.
  • Updated the end game Victory screen.
  • Updated the multiplayer staging room.
  • Updated city banners.
  • Updated Espionage mission chooser flow.
  • Updated to display what cities are getting amenities from each resource.
  • Changed resource icon backings to reflect the type of resource it is.
  • Auto-scroll to the first Great Person that can be claimed.
  • Improved search functionality in the Civilopedia.
  • Removed Barbarian data from player replay graphs.
  • ESC now closes the Tech, Civic, and Eureka popups.
  • When loading a game, the era blurb will be the current era of the saved game, rather than the starting era of the game.

[AUDIO]

  • Added some missing mouseover sounds.
  • Fixed the Oracle quote.
  • Fixed an issue where the Advisor voice was not playing in some languages.
  • Fixed compatibility issues with some sound cards, especially those set to high playback rates.

[MISC]

  • Added a setup option “No Duplicate Leaders” that is enabled by default.  This option prevents multiple players from selecting the same leader.
  • Updated leader screen to support enabling/disabling bloom according to the ‘Enable Bloom’ graphics option.
  • Plot Tooltip Delay is now available in the Options menu.
  • Auto Cycle Units is now available in the Options menu.
  • Benchmark updates.
  • Credits updated.