News

Bewilderment. Daniel "DanQ" Quick is accompanied by Michael "emeseles" Lucas-Smith, Makahlua and Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew as regular players on TurnCast (TC) focusing on co-operative multiplayer experiences in Civilization IV/V. Its fourteenth episode, "Why This Conversation is Happening", marks the beginning of the show's second season; now netcasting, it has a runtime of 09m59s.

TurnCast is the third spin-off of the Civ strategy-centric PolyCast on which Quick, Makahlua and Bellew serve as regular co-hosts; the modding-centric ModCast was the first, and the console-centric RevCast the second, such spin-off.

A few weeks ago, strategy gaming blog Flash of Steel published a piece written by Civilization 5 designer Jon Shafer. In his piece, Shafer argues why he thinks "that the middle market for strategy gaming is alive and well".

Concluding with the statement that "the so-called “death” of the middle market is very much a myth, and that’s great news for everyone", this short article can be found here.

As we're coming back from some holiday downtime, we're just getting caught up on the latest news. Most importantly, Firaxis last week announced their next project: they are remaking the original X-COM! Titled XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the game was revealed by gaming magazine Game Informer, who are running an entire series of articles about the game on their website and have put the game on the cover of their upcoming February edition, which will have more articles with detailed information.

Contrary to the game announced last year simply titled XCOM (which is a first-person shooter), Firaxis's XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be a (more or less) faithful remake of the original cult classic, a turn-based tactical squad game combined with a real-time strategy layer. You can find the original announcement here, the first screenshots here, a 13-minute video interview with members of the development team here (where lead designer Jake Solomon explains his deep affections for the original X-COM), and more articles here and here. Even more features will be published over the coming month, which will be accessible from the game's hub on GameInformer's website.

It has been a while since any Firaxis title received this much loving attention from any professional gaming outlet! Thanks to many people, including Soren Johnson and Darsnan, for the news tip! You can find screenshots and discuss the game in our forums.

The GotM has landed once again on Alpha Centauri and this time we have another surprise for you. Of course, we have custom factions, nice graphics and some well-written fiction, as usual. So what's so special about this new SMAC scenario?

(Click on the image to read the introductory story and/or participate in the contest.)

Well, the author, Kilkakon (with the help of Buster's Uncle and Buster's Aunt) gives us a glimpse at his very unusual mod: Lost Eden which features new artwork, predesigned units with a wide range of tactical options, redesigned technology tree, original quotes... Well, it's not all in this scenario, but this should give you a small taste, so I should stop here.

So, the January 2012 GotM is called "Lost Eden GOTM: Stranger in a Strange World" and it's a SMAC scenario (no need for the expansion pack - SMAX). You'll step into the shoes of the innocent military genius Brother-General Tristan who fights against the intolerant original AC preacher-lady, Miriam. Hmm.. you've always wanted to teach her a lesson, haven't you? .. Now is the time!


If you remember Poke'mon fondly, or just think the very notion of it crossed with AC is funny, you ought to read the Kilkakon's story and check out the scenario (estimated time of play: 45-60 minutes).

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To qualify, you need to capture New Jerusalem to end the conflict. Tristan, however, wants to reduce civilian losses as much as possible. Each population unit in an original Believer base (whether you captured it or not) counts towards score for this Game of the Month.




If seeing an anatomically correct Poke'mon with no britches on will ruin your day, best not to download this - if your curiosity gets the better of you, you were warned.

Looking to where we've been to get where we're going. The one-hundred-and-thirty-seventh episode, "Not Just a Lame Clip Show VIII", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and Lisa "qnl" Bang with 13 first-time and returning guest co-hosts in another compilation of segments archived from previous episode recordings and not released previously. With a runtime of 59m59s, it leads off the show's sixth season. The summary of topics is as follows:

- 00m48s | Miscellaneous
Whether or not to give Open Borders to an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-controlled civilization for gold in Civilization V (recorded for Episode 122), and balancing the intelligence equation for Civ AI in general (04m13s; recorded for Episode 124).
- 07m36s | Senate
To, or not to, trust unit automation in CivV (recorded for Episode 127), going for a CivIV Cultural Victory through the Cultural Slider (10m01s; recorded for Episode 129), which Great People to target post-Liberalism technology (15m35s; recorded for Episode 132), areas of play under which beginning CivV players are lacking (26m42s; recorded for Episode 134) and are mounted units weak in CivV (35m52s; recorded for Episode 136).
- 49m39s | Forum Talk
Why some of Civilization V's luxury resources are not as strong as others (recorded for Episode 135).

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Business as usual, and expressing remorse.

The first recording of PolyCast in 2012 is to be broadcast live on Saturday, January 14th at 12PM ET North America (timezone converter). Listeners are encouraged to rate the show on iTunes. A bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy, sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

Honesty starts from within. Daniel "DanQ" Quick is accompanied by Michael "emeseles" Lucas-Smith, Makahlua and Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew as regular players on TurnCast (TC) focusing on co-operative multiplayer experiences in Civilization IV/V. Its thirteenth episode, "A Little Crazy", is now netcasting with a runtime of 09m59s.

TurnCast is the third spin-off of the Civ strategy-centric PolyCast on which Quick, Makahlua and Bellew serve as regular co-hosts; the modding-centric ModCast was the first, and the console-centric RevCast the second, such spin-off.

Let the Christmas spirit ring. The 2011 PolyCast Christmas Special is now netcasting. "Rockin' Around the Civvin' PC" features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and Lisa "qnl" Bang in this all-listener generated topics of conversation.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 02m21s | Email #1
Answering Norman Ma regarding the effect of game speed in Civilization V and particular victory conditions.
- 07m05s | Email #2
Responding to a message from Jason Hermsen who makes inquiries on a number of topics to Civ: comparable strategy games, adaptability of the franchise to other gaming genres (12m03s), preferred talent that would be new to its development (14m55s), minimizing warfare desirability (23m50s), and renewing the expansion vs. Downloadable Content (DLC) release consideration (27m06s).
- 32m54s | Forum Post #1
From "Dale", on the direction of the Civ franchise from its adaptation to the console to a presumed Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game.
- 42m28s | Forum Post #2
From "eastkitton", looking for the "most INTERESTING to play" DLC for Civilization V.
- 46m06s | Forum Post #3
From "Alexander", what an "ideal" holiday modification for Civ would be.
- 49m33s | Forum Post #4
Select points from "MARDUK" on the pros and cons to a number of gameplay suggestions.
- 60m03s | Forum Post #5
Addressing both a question and a request from "Tremonti".
- 62m50s | Forum Post #6
From "AwesoMe", seeking the panel's view on science as executed in CivV.
- 70m36s | Forum Post #7
From "E_T", on the "resurgence" of CivIV play as backlash to the state of CivV.
- 78m30s | Forum Post #8
From "Mythdracon", choosing and being specific about the most important "fix" needed for CivV presently.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Assorted season's greetings, request to rate the show on iTunes and shoutouts to those in its live audience crowd, and renewal notices not just for this but all podcasts under the PolyCast umbrella.

Recording live before a listening audience every other Saturday, PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; with a record-breaking 28 episodes and 3 specials comprising its fifth season, it has been renewed for a Season 6.

Sibling shows RevCast focusing on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding and TurnCast on Civ multiplay are also set to return. TC is to return for another 13 episodes beginning the same month as PC's start, and RC to run for 6 episodes every other month beginning in February; MC is on hiatus until after the anticipated and expected release of Civilization V's source code. PC's next new episode is to be released on January 7th, 2012.

Regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and Lisa "qnl" Bang discuss Civilization strategy on PolyCast, a bi-weekly podcast. The second episode sampler from its fifth season is now available for listening. Targeting both would-be and current listeners to get a sense of the content and atmosphere of the show, it runs for 04m59s. (It's labeled as "#9" as part of an ongoing collection of samplers).

Recording live before a listening audience every other Saturday this calendar year, PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; its fourth annual Christmas Special, 90 minutes in length, is to be released on December 4th. Sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

What, really. Daniel "DanQ" Quick is accompanied by Michael "emeseles" Lucas-Smith, Makahlua and Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew as regular players on TurnCast (TC) focusing on co-operative multiplayer experiences in Civilization IV/V. Its twelfth episode, "Totally Helpful", is now netcasting with a runtime of 09m59s.

TurnCast is the third spin-off of the Civ strategy-centric PolyCast on which Quick, Makahlua and Bellew serve as regular co-hosts; the modding-centric ModCast was the first, and the console-centric RevCast the second, such spin-off.

Q-squared. Regular co-hosts Matt "elthrasher" Morgan, Mike "dukeblue1987" and "ScottieX" lead the thirty-seventh episode of RevCast (RC) entitled "Quantity Over Quality"; now netcasting, it has a runtime of 29m59s. The summary of topics is as follows:

- 01m24s | Topic #1
Introducing Civilization: Revolution's American civilization by stirring an overview into the starting and Ancient bonus mixture.
- 11m45s | Topic #2
Finding it an exercise to overstate the strength that is America in the Medieval Era.
- 18m54s | Topic #3
On CivRev's measured American prospects in the Industrial and Modern Eras.
- 23m28s | Topic #4
Having one's work cut out for them in defending from America.

RevCast is the second spin-off of the Civ strategy-centric PolyCast; fellow sibling ModCast focuses on Civ modding and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

Colour difference irrelevant. Daniel "DanQ" Quick is accompanied by Michael "emeseles" Lucas-Smith, Makahlua and Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew as regular players on TurnCast (TC) focusing on co-operative multiplayer experiences in Civilization IV/V. Its eleventh episode, "Give Grief", is now netcasting with a runtime of 09m59s.

TurnCast is the third spin-off of the Civ strategy-centric PolyCast on which Quick, Makahlua and Bellew serve as regular co-hosts; the modding-centric ModCast was the first, and the console-centric RevCast the second, such spin-off.

Artemis - WePlayCiv Pitboss Server - First Civilization 4 pitboss game is live!

WePlayCiv's first Artemis hosted Civilization 4 Pitboss game is up and running! Entitled 'Newb Bashing Fun', the game is set on a Hemispheres map and has the following participants:

benjpeters (Willem van Oranje of the Dutch)
fed1943 (Suleiman of the Ottomans)
Nugog (Tokugawa of the Japanese)
Kloreep (Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire)

Follow their progress here, or check out how to get your own Artemis hosted Civilization 4 Pitboss game here.

We have received a generous offer from an anonymous donor who would like to see more people chipping in on WPC donations -- and who are Solver and I to disagree with that? This donor has very kindly pledged that if we as a community can reach the monthly goal of $100 in donations for the month of December, this person will match that amount and donate an additional $100!

Now, especially with us having just set up a new server for Pitboss hosting, WPC certainly could use a little bit of extra cash -- servers don't grow on trees, you know!

So I hereby want to ask everyone: if you would ever consider donating to WPC, please donate this month if you can! Your donation in itself already greatly help us out by paying for our monthly server bill, but if we can reach the goal of $100 that your gift will not only help cover December's instalment, it would also end up instantly paying off January as well!

Of course, we understand that not nearly everyone is in a position where they can donate money to some silly website (especially in this economy), so we generally don't try to beat you guys over the head with pleas for money. But it's probably a good idea to every once in a while (and a little bit more than we have been so far) point out that WPC doesn't run on rainbows and unicorn farts: Solver and I have a very real $100 server bill to pay at the end of every month. We are more than happy to cover a share of this ourselves, but in the long run we can't afford to pay for everything on our own. Donations are critical to keeping WPC alive! And while income from donations has sustained us so far, we have been seeing a bit of a downturn recently so this offer couldn't have come at a better time.

So if you are in any kind of position where you can afford to spend just a little bit of money on us, even if it's $5 or $10, every little bit helps to keep us going. And with this generous offer on the table, there's no better time to donate than this month. Having an extra $200 in the bank by January would give WPC a very strong boost to our financial health going into 2012!

To donate, simply go to the main forum index and click on Donate Now on the right-hand side of the Donations box at the top.

Pre-recorded or live? Balance of Civilization IV, Civilization V and Civilization series in general coverage? Favourite regular co-host? These are a few of the ten questions being asked of the 2011 PolyCast (PC) audience as its fifth season nears its conclusion.

To provide your input on/by January 8th, 2012, follow the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P9W3M6H

Recording live before a listening audience every other Saturday, PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; audience members are also encouraged to rate the show on iTunes. Sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

WePlayCiv are happy to announce that we are launching a new service: a community Pitboss server. This is a machine (named Artemis) that is 100% dedicated to hosting Pitboss games and is open for anyone in the Civ community to use. We strive for as close to 100% uptime as possible: we don't plan on taking the server offline for vacations or the like (as is often the case when individuals host games), we will minimize downtime for server maintenance and we have multiple admins to ensure someone is always around to do game setup or admin.

Anyone looking for a host for any Civ4 PitBoss games needs to look no further: you can sign up for hosting right here in this thread! We will host all your games: new or existing, from 1 to 18+ players, with any settings and mods you like. Of course, this is only as long as our server resources last, but we don't expect to hit a cap anytime soon (we've tested with 10+ simultaneous games, which is more than the total number of currently active PitBoss games tracked by PlayYourTurn). This service is open to anyone in the Civ community, you need not be an (active) member of WePlayCiv: you'll only need a forum account to request a game to be created for you and for maintenance requests.

In the future we hope to be able to support Civ5 Pitboss as well, once it is released. To find out more, please visit the forum thread.

Seeking attention seekers. The one-hundred-and-thirty-sixth episode of PolyCast, "Strike Our Fancy", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick and Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew with first-time guest co-hosts Ben "Ozbenno" Collins, Jay "QuantumTarantino" Bond and "Thalassicus"; it has a runtime of 59m59s; listeners are encouraged to rate the show on iTunes.

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 00m55s | Forum Talk
The best way to cure city sickness in Civilization IV's later(r) game, and then an intensive focus on both the best and worst unique civilization abilities in CivV (08m12s).

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Asking the right questions and a missed opportunity as an afterthought.

Recording live before a listening audience every other Saturday, PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

OMG, I think I'm getting a nosebleed........

Follow the latest news over at the 2K forums, and spurt joyously in our thread discussing this!!!!

What do you reckon folks? I wonder what's in the patch? Xmas Civ 5 PBEM and/or Pitboss........

Follow the rumours here, or make your own here.....

Going on smooth. The forty-sixth episode of ModCast is now netcasting. Entitled "Perfect Perlin" with a runtime of 56m57s, it features core panelists Peter "Maniac" Steenbeke and Jacob "xeinwolf" Turner with first-time guest co-host Rich "Cephalo" Marinaccio and return guest co-host "MadDjinn".

The summary of topics is as follows:

- 00m46s | Topic #1
On the PerfectWorld3 map script for Civilization V by Cephalo.
- 10m15s | Topic #2
Discussing the continental graphic styles.
- 22m00s | Topic #3
Transitioning from Python to LUA programming between CivIV and CivV.
- 31m05s | Topic #4
How Downloadable Content (DLC) releases affect modding.
- 46m05s | Topic #5
Going over the 1066AD scenario from CivV's Viking DLC.

ModCast is a recurring audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game modding; sibling show PolyCast focuses on Civ strategy, RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.