We continue our summer GOTMs by going to a favourite holiday destination: Greece. This time you play as Alexander on a large continents map, on epic speed and on Prince level. You need to achieve a diplomatic victory, but all other victory types are enabled. You have until August 31 to unite the world.
For more information please see this thread.
Eurogamer has published a new article with the title “Can you make an anti-imperial empire game? The 4Xperts behind Civilization, Syphilisation and Victoria 3 discuss eXperimental 4X design“.
The mentioned “4Xperts” are Civ5’s Jon Shafer, along with Nikhil Murthy, the designer of Syphilisation, and Ryan Sumo, who is working at Paradox for Victoria 3 and Europa Universalis IV. And as it turns out, these three know each other and are friends, as it is not uncommon in the game dev scene.
In this interview, they talk about the challenges in 4X games, how some of the concepts are intertwined with ideology (especially of imperial/colonialist idelogy), and how 4X games don’t only have to be about strategy, but can also tell a story (not necessarily the Civ games, but e.g. the Paradox games, or as we know, Alpha Centauri).
An excerpt from the interview:
Jon: Edwin, you mentioned Endless Legend, and I think to compare that to Civ – in Civ, there are expectations for what a game about history should be. And if you start changing the script a lot, then you’re not really delivering on that, in the same way. Whereas in a fantasy game, or a science fiction game, as a designer, you can go wild with the rules, especially from the base Civilization formula. You can push that in certain directions, but making it so that, say, only certain civilizations can declare war, for what Civilization is trying to do, it doesn’t really make sense.
It definitely feels like on the historical side, there’s a lot of potential to explore human relationships and politics and the tensions between people trying to compete and cooperate, how that plays out. If you’re trying to stick to a more traditional formula, being a little bit more interesting in your setting or your themes, can kind of open up the space there. It’s interesting with a historical game, you get a lot ‘for free’ in a way, but also the expectations for what you’re going to do are more specific.
Nikhil: I’m actually gonna push back a little bit there. When I started making Syphilisation, I made it a group report instead of having you actually decolonize India, putting you into the game as the Indian National Congress or something. Because all of our history games are like alternate history games, right? It’s not like there’s a 6000 year old Gandhi, watching over you from 4000 BC, choosing everything the country does [as in Civilization]. The reason I didn’t implement it as decolonizing India directly is that then there’s a possibility space I didn’t feel qualified to implement. I don’t have an answer to the question of what if the Indian independence movement was more violent? What if Jinnah had taken over the ANC leadership in the 1920s? I just don’t have answers for this.
You can read the whole article here, and discuss it with us here.
Amplitude have posted a new scenario challenge for Humankind!
This time you get a cross-over from Amplitude’s space game Endless Space, and you must leave ravaged planet to find a new home.
The official description is the following:
The Aurigan Summer Scenario Challenge
Auriga, home to such iconic factions as the Vaulters, plays a key role in the unfolding story of the Endless universe. It’s a beautiful planet, but also a dangerous one. Wracked by cataclysms before, the world seemingly recovered, only to spiral towards destruction once more. Can you lead your people to find a way to escape or to survive the increasingly hostile environment, even without the help of the near-magical powers of Dust?
How to play the scenario:
- Download the save AuriganSummer.ctr
- Place the save in “/Documents/Humankind/Save Files”
- Load the save labeled “AuriganSummer” in game
- (optional) If you want to submit a score to the leaderboard, check this post
Scenario Conditions
- Victory Condition: Most Fame at game end
- End Condition: Space Race, Endgame Technologies
- Game Conditions: Nation difficulty, Fast game speed, no DLC or mods
- Leaderboard Submission Deadline: August 28th
- Leaderboard Ranking: Fastest Victory, tiebreaker by Fame
We hope you’ll have fun building a glorious city full of wonderful structures!
For the official post please click here, for all information please click here, and join us here for the discussion.
Mohawk Games, the developers of Old World, have released the latest update for their game. This update includes an option to set the city density on the map, an option to customize your leader, and many smaller things like bugfixes and UI improvements.
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.
The Civilization IV Hall of Fame has been updated – 8 games were accepted since the previous update.
Congratulations to @SittinDown for the highest score of the update with a Standard, Normal, Noble, Domination game for 111,172 points.
ruff_hi was the most active player during this update, submitting 3 games.
New Number One Entries:
A number of players gained number one positions:
Alexfin with a 980 AD, Standard, Normal, Monarch, Diplomatic game for 91,549 points.
Firmlife with a 1540 AD, Huge, Epic, Prince, Espionage game for 27,755 points.
ruff_hi with a 1838 AD, Small, Epic, Noble, Espionage game for 31,681 points.
New QM/EQMs
Congratulations to Firmlife for becoming an Elite Quattromaster – Settler (BTS) and a Quattromaster (BTS). Congratulations to ruff_hi for becoming an Elite Quattromaster – Noble (BTS) and a Quattromaster (BTS).
Meena Shamaly, host of the “Game Show” on ABC, and who also sings in the game score of “Old World“, has interviewed Christopher Tin. They talk about his career, how he got to compose Baba Yetu, how the grammy gave him many more options, like going into opera, and why he liks choires.
An excerpt from the description:
Along with scores for machines colonizing Mars in Offworld Trading Company and pro golf simulation in the PGA Tour sereis, Tin’s output in the world of video games is as diverse as it is constantly surprising. His career extends to the world of film (such as creating Mandarin big band arrangements for Crazy Rich Asians) and collaborating with ensembles such as the Soweto Gospel Choir and the Angel City Chorale. In 2023, his work has led him to an opera commission, where he’s been tasked with creating a new ending for Puccini’s famously unfinished masterpiece, Turandot.
You can listen to the whole podcast here, and discuss it with us here.
For the Civ4 GOTM we have this time an easy, but confusing game. You play Zara Yacoub of Ethiopia on a standard size donut map on Noble level. This game has unrestricted and aggressive leaders, tech brokering is deactivated, alliances are permanent, and sea levels will rise, it’s a chaos! You have until August 15 to get through this mess in any way you want.
For more information please check this thread.
Today, PC Gamer has published an article about Hexarchy, titled “Hexarchy turns Civilization into an accessible 4X card game that you can finish in an hour”. In this article PC Game describes a bit how the deck building mechanics work, how you gather resources, and that you can finish a match in a single evening.
An excerpt:
While it prevents you from executing the kind of grand, hundred-turn-long schemes that the most exciting Civ games often end in, it serves Hexarchy’s quickplay format. Virtually everything you’ll do will inch you closer to victory, and a few of my matches still ended memorably. After the Russians destroyed the heavily buffed mamluk I was relying on to defend my capital, the city was left wide open. A spot of pillaging later, and they’d sent a Cossack forward to capture it, sweeping up all the points generated by its wonders and clinching the game.
You can read the full article here, and discuss it with us here.