Expansion Pack PREVIEW!

[monkspider]

Looking through the game files reveals a lot of unused material, much of it hints at what may be to come in the first expansion pack. Leaderheads, flags, and even a possible new unit were found after a little digging.

Of the leaderheads, Augustus and Menes seem to be most complete. They have concept art, and even some lines of dialogue in some of the files. It is important to note that before E3 all of the previews that were coming out mentioned there were 19 civs. After E3, the number changed to 18. Many of us speculated on which civilization was dropped. It seems that we now know who that 19th civ was: Sumeria. Sumeria seems to have come the closest to making it in. A flag depicting the Sumerian beast of burden, the Aurochs, possible UU art, and concept art for a leaderhead (as well as a smaller button for a second). A host of smaller 10x10 buttons were created for leaders that apparently were considered at some point. I hope that we see a lot of these in the future, in particular Meiji. It is interesting that the Sioux were included over the Iroquois. I can only imagine that this was done because the Sioux have more recognizable leaders (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse).

The flags were very interesting as well. To see what can only be a Viking flag was very cool. Perhaps the most useful revelation to come out of my work was finding two alternate flags for existing civs. A lot of people were upset that the Persian flag depicted an Arabic symbol rather than the traditional Persian lion. This flag corrects that. I can see why it was changed though, the three lions look a bit "busy" on the world map. If there was an interest in posting a mod that would allow the Persians to have the Lion flag, I will post it. The Prussian Eagle was very cool to see also. As for the mystery flag, I have no idea what it is for. It may have been for the Sioux, but I have no idea what it is attempting to depict. Any guesses?

The unused unit artwork is very intruiging. While it looks generic enough, it is not used by any unit in the game, and appears to be in the time period that it would be used for Sumeria. It is referred to only as "Vulture". It should be noted that there is some history of Sumeria using artwork of vultures to depict some kind of a major victory.
http://joseph_berrigan.tripod.com/si...estele1red.jpg
http://joseph_berrigan.tripod.com/si...evulturesa.jpg

Without further ado, I present the first preview for Civilization IV's expansion pack to appear on the web!

[Andrew1999]

Check out Rhye's flags pack thread.

It's got some of this stuff with colors for the existing Civs and some things from the scenarios. The flag you couldn't figure out is Byzantium.

[Killazer]

Yeah it seems to me they released the game very streamlined because it looks like it is just waiting for expansions to augment it. They have probably planned an expansion and maybe even done some work on it before they even released civ4 I am thinking.

[monkspider]

Thanks for the link, it looks like maybe what I thought was for Persia was actually for the English.

[Henrik]

Three blue lions on yellow should the danish coat of arms methinks...

[LzPrst]

That is the final drop. They release a game and then just wait a little and release the expansion making us bleed out of our ears in order to get the full deal. May they be cursed with ethics courses for eternity!

I am never buying another firaxis product ever again. I loved civ. now I hate it. I have come to associate it with sloppiness, incompleteness, corporate greed and bugs.

And do some damn research! The Vikings never had horns on their helmets! Also the Byzantine flag is of course byzantine, it is the mark for Pontifex Maximus IIRC which is the head of the Roman Faith. Yes Roman, the byzantines never called themselves byzantine, that is a 19th century term coined by historians. The split between the East and West Roman Empires was never ment to be a complete division. It was done in order too effectivize power in a time when the empire was under considerable stress, inside and out. The poorer western Roman Empire just happened to collapse under this strain. The Eastern Roman Empire (not calling themselves Eastern even) continued where Rome left off. The emperor called himself Basileus Romaion. Which is Greek for "King of the Romans". The "Byzantine" civilization is merely the remnants of the roman empire and they codified Roman laws, and stayed Roman to the core. Except they spoke greek... They adapted to their surroundings and thus differed from the 2nd century roman empire just it differed from the 1st century BC empire.

[Solver]

So you never thought that it's not expansion stuff but rather something that was considered at one point during the development and then got cut?

[Sava]

monkspider sighting


btw, good stuff

[monkspider]

Originally posted by Solver
So you never thought that it's not expansion stuff but rather something that was considered at one point during the development and then got cut?

Of course, but speculating about the expansion pack is more exciting.

And I would eat cardboard if at least some of these leaders/civs don't make it into the XP.

[Solver]

I do myself really want to see Sumerians and another Egyptian leader .

[Julinoleum]

''No clue''


I think it is the Western or Eastern Roman Empire flag....

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Solver
So you never thought that it's not expansion stuff but rather something that was considered at one point during the development and then got cut?

The way I figure it, if Firaxis knew from the start that they wouldn't do something until an expansion pack, they probaby wouldn't have put much effort into it while developing the original game. On the other hand, a significant percentage of the cutting was probably deferral to an expansion pack rather than decisions that things would never be part of the game at all.

As for people who are critical of expansion packs, there are two ways of looking at the issue. If a developer deliberately leaves a feature out of the original product that they otherwise would have included in order to save it for an expansion pack and thus make the expansion pack more valuable, that is a detestable exercise in greed. But the prospect of selling expansion packs can make it worthwhile to do things that would not have had enough impact on sales of the original game to justify the development expense, or that could not have been ready in time to include in the original game. Expansion packs can also justify an investment in gameplay improvements and additional features, some of them based on feedback from players, that are too big and complex to be worthwhile to work on as patches. So expansion packs have the potential to be a force for good, not just a force for greed.

[Solver]

Uhmm, but Firaxis couldn't know from the start which civs would be in and which wouldn't. Different combinations were tried, and what you're seeing might merely be the effect of that. Having concept sketches for leaders hardly falls under serious effort.

[SirOsis]

I'm still waiting for the Hot Coffee mod. All that looks good though.

[monkspider]

Original post updated to take into account new information that has become available. An early version of Alexander is also now included.

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback. If anyone still needed to see the original version, it is available here http://members.cox.net/monkspider/xppreview.JPG