PolyCast Episode 35: "By Popular Request"

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by jkp1187
Clearly, you were never a M*A*S*H fan....

Kelly, he's referring to Korea. The 38th parallel split North & South Korea following WWII.

[Locutus]

Thanks for the compliments guys Good to hear people are looking forward to ModCast As with PolyCast we'll need a few weeks to find our bearings but I think it'll be a good show.


AAHZ, as Dan points out, topics are decided a couple of days before we record, your thread was in its infancy then. I agree it would've been a good candidate otherwise. We have (and want to have) a sizable listener base on CFC as well though, so we try to find a mix of topics from both sites.

As far as discussing the Christmas Special goes, yes, we did make off-hand references to it a couple of times, but to say we talked about it a majority of the time is a gross exaggeration. It's just that it was the most successful thing we've done to date with PolyCast and Kelly was there but Dan and I weren't, so only natural that we'd want to talk about it. I'm sorry if that wasn't to your liking, but that certainly won't be a regular thing -- maybe Imran and Maki may make reference to it once or twice next week but beyond that we'll be moving along.

Regarding KMad, we didn't invite her just because she has a cute avatar, she's quite an adequate Civ player in her own right. I'm sorry if you felt she came across as ignorant this time, but give her a chance. Despite her pretense of being a n00b, I suspect she's the best Civ player among the regular hosts, certainly better than me and possibly better than Maki (Dan and Imran aren't even in her league )

The show will obviously change with a different host line-up, we don't really know exactly where it'll go from here either, it's not like we already recorded the next 10 shows. If it turns out we don't like the new direction (or if you guys tell us you don't like it) you can rest assured we'll look into ways to remedy that, but for now let's give it a chance. If PolyCast always stayed the same I think many people would eventually get tired of that too, so as far as I'm concerned change is in principle not a bad thing (even though I'll miss doing the show).

I deeply apologize as PolyCast is extremely important to you, i know this, but i am trying to help by showing my frustration.

Don't apologize, if you guys don't tell us what you like/dislike about what we do it's kinda hard for us to improve the show, which we're always looking to do.

Originally posted by Jaybe
Next week's episode (Modcast #1) eagerly awaited, because 45' was TOO SHORT, dangit! I was obviously NOT one of those who wanted shorter episodes.
... Will Modcast be in with the iTunes Polycasts ('cause that's how I get mine)?

Yeah, we realise that while some people want shorter shows, others won't like that or even want more. That's why adding the ModCast to our line-up is a good thing, it'll basically allow us to do both: shorter shows, but more content overall. That, and it'll allow us to cover the modding aspects of our Civ better, which so far we've not begun to do justice...

We will definitely have 3 different feeds for PolyCast (with each their own iTunes entry): one that has everything, one with PolyCast-only and one with ModCast-only. The current feed will have everything on it, so if you want to get both PolyCast and ModCast you don't have to do anything. If you want to only listen to one show or the other you'll have to unsubscribe from the current feed and subscribe to one of the new ones, which will go up sometime over the next week (probably shortly after we release ModCast #1 this weekend). These feeds will appear on the PolyCast website (including links to the entries in iTunes, Zune Marketplace, etc).

I like the bloopers at the end of the episode. A popular way to do it (e.g., Geekbrief.tv (nudge, nudge) ), and effective.

Heh, no fair If Dan and I were as cute as Cali Lewis we could compete with her blooper reels, but I'm afraid we'll just have to do our own thing

Originally posted by Heraclitus
BTW Giving him his own show is a great idea, yes I know it’s not “his” show, but I can help but think about it that way. Kudos on adding an Argentinean guy to that show! Can’t wait to check out the Modcast.

I don't think the ModCast will really be 'my' show, if anything it'll be Tony's show since as the editor he'll be doing the bulk of the work to get it together every other week.

That'll allow me to continue to weekly harass him and Dan behind the scenes though to make sure we continue to improve both shows

Originally posted by Lancer
You've had some discussion of which are the best, but I have a question, what in you guys (everyone's) opinion is the very worst Civ and which leader of that civ makes it the absolute worst situation? I'd like to try a game or two to see how bad it can get.

A lot is situational and I think the leader choice is actually far more important than the civ choice, or at least you can't really see them as separate things. But as far as that goes, I would say that the Americans and Germans are probably the worst civs, since they both have late UUs and UBs (with the Germans being slightly better because they have better ones). Of the leaders of those civs I'd say Roosevelt and Bismarck are the weakest because of their traits. Still, 'weak' is a very strong term: while there are a few leaders in Civ4 that are clearly stronger than others, IMO none are significantly weaker than the median.

Originally posted by Heraclitus
Getting people from different parts of the US might be a nice touch too, since I seem to recall someone with a southern accent in one of the early episodes.

Both Maki and Kelly are from the South and have Southern accents, if very mild ones (especially Maki). Imran currently lives in the South too, though he's originally from New Jersey (and while you can take a man out of New Jersey, you can't take New Jersey out of a man ) Between them, Dan being Canadian, Tony being from Arizona, Ken living in Maryland and me apparently having a Minnesota accent I think we got most of North America covered

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Locutus
... and me apparently having a Minnesota accent I think we got most of North America covered

If anyone's wondering to what Wouter's referring to , it's found in PolyCast Episode 23. (I didn't even have to do a bit of lookup to confirm that episode number... )

[Imran Siddiqui]

maybe Imran and Maki may make reference to it once or twice next week but beyond that we'll be moving along.

Now you know I will . Nah... I haven't even listened to it yet (yes, I got a bit of a backlog).

Dan and Imran aren't even in her league

Oh, like that's saying much!

while you can take a man out of New Jersey, you can't take New Jersey out of a man

Jersey

Sorry, I only really ever read things that reference me in these Polycast threads . No, I'm just kidding.... nah, I'm really not.

[Lancer]

Dan, I downloaded and it took forever then asked me if I wanted to put 'Music Jutebox' or something like that on my comp. I declined since I didn't need it for the recent ones. What's up?

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Sorry, I only really ever read things that reference me in these Polycast threads . No, I'm just kidding.... nah, I'm really not.

Originally posted by Lancer
Dan, I downloaded and it took forever then asked me if I wanted to put 'Music Jutebox' or something like that on my comp. I declined since I didn't need it for the recent ones. What's up?

You downloaded the MP3 versions? What program asked you this question? It's sounding something specific to your PC.

You can listen to all older episodes using the same software you did for listening to the more recent ones e.g. Windows Media Player, Winamp. (We recommend Winamp.)

[Elhoim]

Kudos on adding an Argentinean guy to that show!

I’m going to miss Wouter Snijders, His voice is clearly recognizable and he is fairly intelligent. Not to mention the contrast with all the raging American barbarians… that came out wrong. Ehh, no come to think of it It didn’t. Anyhow try inviting some Australians, Brits and even a few non-native speaker Euros. Heck I’d pay good money to hear Serb!

I can assure that modcast hosts sound very different between each other. We only have two americans, and one sounds like an elf and the other like a dwarf.

[snoopy369]

"54-40 or fight" refers to the border of Washington (then called Oregon Territory) with Canada, back in the mid-19th century...

[DanQ]

Originally posted by snoopy369
"54-40 or fight" refers to the border of Washington (then called Oregon Territory) with Canada, back in the mid-19th century...

[Sirotnikov]

yikes
so much staff

this site won't have any users soon
they'll all be converted.

do you at least pay them?

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
yikes
so much staff

this site won't have any users soon
they'll all be converted.

do you at least pay them?

Less than I pay myself, so...

[Sirotnikov]

to think i passed up an opportunity

i was right thought. i'm too busy for this site
really.
i should be banned or something.

[Solver]

It would be my pleasure

[Nugog]

Originally posted by DanQ

I'm Canadian -- not American.

I will avoid the obvious comment.

I have only just listened to the show - a bit behind at the moment.

I gotta say I enjoyed it - it seemed to "flow" more - less breaks and "episodic music" - yet covered quite a bit of stuff.

Firstly - KMadeleine -

Secondly - DanQ - play about 10 games of Civ as Stalin with all victories except domination turned off. I would hope then he would be in your top 5 leaders. I find the trait combo very interesting - challenging at times to get the most out of it - but........

Locutus - good luck with ModCast - Polycast will miss you.

Maki - come back!

Imran - umm...............

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Nugog
I have only just listened to the show - a bit behind at the moment.

I gotta say I enjoyed it - it seemed to "flow" more - less breaks and "episodic music" - yet covered quite a bit of stuff.

Secondly - DanQ - play about 10 games of Civ as Stalin with all victories except domination turned off. I would hope then he would be in your top 5 leaders. I find the trait combo very interesting - challenging at times to get the most out of it - but........

If you're saying that Stalin is only able to win when only a domination victory is possible, then that helps my point as to why he is not in my top 5 leaders. Remember, I'm a builder not a warmonger (though always endeavour to be able to defend myself and quite possibly finish what anyone else might start).

My top leaders are derived from my favourite traits list, and his Aggressive and Industrious are in the bottom half of mine. I may still try playing as Stalin someday, but I doubt I'd uncheck any victory conditions.

Maki - come back!

She does.

Imran - umm...............