Civilization VI Adds Climate Change With Gathering Storm Expansion

[crazyeyesreaper]

Sid Meier's Civilization VI will get its next expansion dubbed Gathering Storm on February 14th, 2019. This latest expansion will add nine new Civs to play as, along with new buildings, mechanics, and technologies, which are all par the course for a Civilization expansion. What is different here is the focus on mother nature's wrath, with natural disasters being a major part of the game. Catastrophic volcanic eruptions and earthquakes will become moments of crisis, destroying or damaging nearby cities. This on top of the issues carbon and pollution will inflict on the general environment to the point you can actively seek to destroy it yourself as a means to negatively impact other Civs. Meanwhile, they have options at their disposal with which to try and thwart your evil plans, including using expanded diplomacy options brought into play by the World Congress, which also makes a reappearance in this expansion.

Rather than using the environmental issues as a gimmick, Firaxis has instead tied it into the core gameplay. Players will now generate carbon as they use fossil fuels throughout the ages, for example, coal during the industrial revolution. As fossil fuels usage rises so will carbon, thus the race for renewable energy becomes more important as the issues related to climate change will start to have a far more significant impact, such as the flooding of coastal settlements and resource wars over dwindling fossil fuel reserves. It is at this point, you can opt to go to war in an effort to conquer your neighbors and take their fossil fuel reserves, or you can take on the worst polluters to save your sinking settlements and postpone the inevitable. In Civilization VI: Gathering Storm the choice is yours. You can view the announcement trailer below and first gameplay trailers at source below.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[windwhirl]

So, in theory, you could drop a bunch of nukes and screw with the environment forever? Sweet! LOL

 

[Divide Overflow]

Civilization VI: Al Gore edition.

 

[Mistral]

They'll be asking $40 for this? Most of that better be going towards fighting global warming and saving the dolphins...

 

[GoldenX]

Remember that this is a company that's still not using micro-transactions. I would like to keep it that way.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I guess most of the commenters here don't even play/own the game? They've added much requested features and I for one is really looking forward to this expansion. Yes, the price is a tad steep, but somehow I'd rather pay that than see them implement some system where they expect people to pay for useless skins or some other crappy system that limits the unlimited playability of the game.

I think this news post focuses a bit one sidedly on the weather aspect, when things like canals, tunnels and a lot of other much requested features were added as well. The weather part can be controlled in the settings.

 

[Frick]

Remember that this is a company that's still not using micro-transactions. I would like to keep it that way.

I guess most of the commenters here don't even play/own the game? They've added much requested features and I for one is really looking forward to this expansion. Yes, the price is a tad steep, but somehow I'd rather pay that than see them implement some system where they expect people to pay for useless skins or some other crappy system that limits the unlimited playability of the game.

It's not an either/or situation. It's too much for an expansion, full stop.

 

[TheLostSwede]

It's not an either/or situation. It's too much for an expansion, full stop.

Guess what? You don't have to buy it...
It'll also most likely be discounted after some time, so those unwilling to pay the full price, can pick it up later.

 

[GoldenX]

It's not an either/or situation. It's too much for an expansion, full stop.

Just like Blizzard. I prefer a full expansion over DLCs and micro-transactions.
Wait some time and they will sell a complete edition at the price of the original game.

 

[oldtimenoob]

global warming is fake news....

 

[Nephilim666]

global warming is fake news....

You're so edgy.

 

[GoldenX]

global warming is fake news....

And there were a lot of weapons of mass destruction on Afghanistan.
I'll tell you a secret, don't let Gandhi get his hands on one of those.

 

[TheLostSwede]

global warming is fake news....

But climate change isn't...

 

[R0H1T]

Fake news, I guess this is where everything is headed? If you don't like the data call it fake news, don't like the message ~ shoot the messenger, don't like the other side ~ mail them bombs

 

[Deleted member 178884]

It's not an either/or situation. It's too much for an expansion, full stop.

It must be sad putting a price of your favorite games? Why are you here to complain? I'm buying it to support the company, your clearly forgetting these people need to make a living, not pleasing your idiocy and dictating how much they can price a game, you don't want it don't buy it, period.

 

[Vayra86]

Fake news, I guess this is where everything is headed? If you don't like the data call it fake news, don't like the message ~ shoot the messenger, don't like the other side ~ mail them bombs

Its the Information Era bro, this is how we wage war these days.

It must be sad putting a price of your favorite games? Why are you here to complain? I'm buying it to support the company, your clearly forgetting these people need to make a living, not pleasing your idiocy and dictating how much they can price a game, you don't want it don't buy it, period.

So wait, because its a 'favorite game' all bets in terms of pricing are off? As far as I'm concerned, Firaxis has been remaking Civilization for over a decade now, and pricing it like this is just lazy as hell if you consider the content that's added. They've been resetting the formula how many times now? Its the exact same as Activitions' yearly CoD parade.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Its the Information Era bro, this is how we wage war these days.

Very clever

So wait, because its a 'favorite game' all bets in terms of pricing are off? As far as I'm concerned, Firaxis has been remaking Civilization for over a decade now, and pricing it like this is just lazy as hell if you consider the content that's added. They've been resetting the formula how many times now? Its the exact same as Activitions' yearly CoD parade.

Depends on the user, casuals will buy stupidly overpriced DLCs/Microtranscations (like the battlefront 2 stunt) and they're perfectly happy with that, It may be priced "lazy as hell" in your opinion, but to me it's worth buying, I've put thousands of hours into strategy games and this is one of them. If your whining about launch prices maybe wait for a sale or something?

Its the exact same as Activitions' yearly CoD parade.

And yet nobody said it about intels quad core refresh every year until AMD kicked them in the nuts, If you don't like a game don't buy it, I can't speak for COD myself since the one's I've played feel identical with just a small refresh which isn't for me.

 

[TheLostSwede]

For those interested in the other new features, this is a much better read https://civilization.com/news/entri...w-expansion-release-date-pc-february-14-2019/

Climate change is just one minor part of what has been added, but apparently this is the only thing worth focusing on?

Personally, I'm mostly excited by this part.

• ENGINEERING PROJECTS: Shape the world around your empire to overcome unfavorable land conditions by making improvements like canals, dams, tunnels and railroads. When settling cities, consider the flood risk to coastal lowland areas, but keep in mind that in the late-game, new technologies like Flood Barriers can be used to protect these tiles.

Oh and apparently they added ski slopes.

There's also a 40 odd minute stream here of the developers playing the new update

 

[Frick]

It must be sad putting a price of your favorite games? Why are you here to complain? I'm buying it to support the company, your clearly forgetting these people need to make a living, not pleasing your idiocy and dictating how much they can price a game, you don't want it don't buy it, period.

Uh. What? I don't even know how to react to this. Are you saying they don't make any money on the games, despite Civ VI being the best selling game in the very successful franchise, leading to an almost explosive revenue growth by Take Two? Are you saying nothing can be too expensive? Is $200 a good price for this? A lot of full games manages to be sold at $40 and still giving the studio a profit, why is a $40 expansion ok? The market is what dictates the prices of goods, not the makers of those goods.

For the record the only Civ game I really liked was Civ3; I'd have this opinion on any expansion pack, regardless of how I felt about the game.

 

[Vayra86]

Depends on the user, casuals will buy stupidly overpriced DLCs/Microtranscations (like the battlefront 2 stunt) and they're perfectly happy with that, It may be priced "lazy as hell" in your opinion, but to me it's worth buying, I've put thousands of hours into strategy games and this is one of them. If your whining about launch prices maybe wait for a sale or something?


And yet nobody said it about intels quad core refresh every year until AMD kicked them in the nuts, If you don't like a game don't buy it, I can't speak for COD myself since the one's I've played feel identical with just a small refresh which isn't for me.

Wait. Wait wait. Nobody said anything about Intels quad core refresh every year? Where have you been living, on Mars? This has been a complaint since Ivy Bridge.

And its fine if its worth buying to you, nobody told you you couldn't spend 40 bucks on it. Frick is just saying he would never do it at that price. What's the problem here? The irony in your comment is that you talk down on 'casuals' and here you are, defending a Civ VI expansion at a bad cost/content ratio. The most casual 4X on the planet. And then you even top it off by saying 'Don't play CoD, it looks the same every time' in a topic about the sixth installment of the same concept - and then I'm not even counting all the spinoffs like BE, mobile versions, Alpha Centauri...

I mean... do you even reflect

 

[Dragonsmonk]

Wait. Wait wait. Nobody said anything about Intels quad core refresh every year? Where have you been living, on Mars? This has been a complaint since Ivy Bridge.

And its fine if its worth buying to you, nobody told you you couldn't spend 40 bucks on it. Frick is just saying he would never do it at that price. What's the problem here? The irony in your comment is that you talk down on 'casuals' and here you are, defending a Civ VI expansion at a bad cost/content ratio. The most casual 4X on the planet. And then you even top it off by saying 'Don't play CoD, it looks the same every time' in a topic about the sixth installment of the same concept - and then I'm not even counting all the spinoffs like BE, mobile versions, Alpha Centauri...

I mean... do you even reflect

Chill your horses

He said that you don't have to buy a game if you don't like it and that he cannot speak for COD as he only played two and they felt similar and hence didn't buy again.

This whole "discussion" seems to get a bit out of hand;
To recap on what has been said
- $40 is expensive for an expansion
- don't buy it if you don't want to buy it
- wait until it gets cheaper if you want it, but it's too expensive

and guess what.... all of those points are correct, depending on point of view!

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Wait. Wait wait. Nobody said anything about Intels quad core refresh every year? Where have you been living, on Mars? This has been a complaint since Ivy Bridge.

Tell that to intels growing sales figure, they've been selling quad cores like hotcakes every refresh up until skylake came, funny how when amd kicks them in the nuts all the intel fanboys change their tune and all of a sudden they complain about quad cores, if it was a real "complaint" intel wouldn't have sold that many quad cores through till skylake.

The irony in your comment is that you talk down on 'casuals' and here you are, defending a Civ VI expansion at a bad cost/content ratio. The most casual 4X on the planet.

The irony is I'm comparing a "40$" EXPANSION to VIRTUAL CURRENCY, there's a large difference, come back when you've gotten educated.

I'd have this opinion on any expansion pack, regardless of how I felt about the game.

Then the game had no replay-ability for you - it's not for you so why are you here complaining and discussing it? If you don't value your time on this game there's no point complaining about it since your only wasting your time here.

 

[Vayra86]

Tell that to intels growing sales figure, they've been selling quad cores like hotcakes every refresh.

Precisely, and in the same way, Civ VI had good sales numbers even though its doing the very same thing for the umpteenth time. Criticism on price/content can exist alongside the product. Which was my point all along.

The irony is I'm comparing a "40$" EXPANSION to VIRTUAL CURRENCY, there's a large difference, come back when you've gotten educated.

First off you're missing the irony altogether in that comparison. The irony is about one or the other being casual.

And no there isn't a difference. Its criticism on content at the price its being sold at, because of how much content is being offered. 40 bucks for a handful of new events and buildings, alongside a single new ingame system/mechanic is quite steep. Here are some comparisons of 'expansions' that have done exactly the same thing, note the price (most of them add a new gameplay system, new units and new buildings/techs just like Civ does, bar some exceptions):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/289130/Endless_Legend/

Hell, even Total War Warhammer 2's DLCs, which are considered pricy for what they offer, contain far more content in terms of new assets and systems. I could give you five more examples if you want...

Then the game had no replay-ability for you - it's not for you so why are you here complaining and discussing it? If you don't value your time on this game there's no point complaining about it since your only wasting your time here.

So you're saying every topic on (X) should be a circlejerk of fans telling each other they're going to buy it? There are the Firaxis/Civ forums for that, this here is a tech forum with a broad audience and equally as many opinions. How is someone else's comment on price harmful to your purchase? And why is it not possible to have a discussion on the content that is on offer versus the price its sold at? Because this is a real trend you see these days, and it'd be interesting to take note. The fact you chose to be in denial of it, doesn't make it any less real.

 

[SoNic67]

Climate change is just one minor part of what has been added, but apparently this is the only thing worth focusing on?

If that "minor" part is about brainwashing us while we try to have fun... yes, it is definitely something to focus on.
Climate changed on Earth since before humans were present, constantly. Ice Ages followed Super Heat periods, no need to blame humans for this. All the carbon that we are burning today is result of plants sequestrating it in the oil and coal. So it was in the Earth's air at some point.
Forest fires, volcanic eruptions, make more CO2 than all of us, humans. No need to guilt us, in a game, about something like that.
"OMG, I am breathing out CO2, I need to stop doing that to save the polar bears!"

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Criticism on price/content can exist alongside the product. Which was my point all along.

And you've ultimately achieved? Absolutely nothing - We can't influence the casuals or even dent their profit.

Its criticism on content at the price its being sold at, because of how much content is being offered. 40 bucks for a handful of new events and buildings, alongside a single new ingame system/mechanic is quite steep.

And how much do other AAA companies charge for "DLCs" and "Add-ons" BS? The purpose of the company is to make the most money they can, 40$ is fair enough to me.

So you're saying every topic on (X) should be a circlejerk of fans telling each other they're going to buy it? There are the Firaxis/Civ forums for that, this here is a tech forum with a broad audience and equally as many opinions. How is someone else's comment on price harmful to your purchase? And why is it not possible to have a discussion on the content that is on offer versus the price its sold at? Because this is a real trend you see these days, and it'd be interesting to take note.

. It's too much for an expansion, full stop.

Then what's the purpose for fricks post saying "it's too much for an expansion, full stop? If it was "full stop" and that was it he's gone against your idea of discussing a broad range of opinions and he's failed to expand enough upon his argument.