PolyCast Episode 39: "No Sarcasm There At All"

[DanQ]

A couple of regular co-hosts missing but the panel is zany still. The thirty-ninth episode of PolyCast, an official podcast of Apolyton Civilization Site (ACS), is now netcasting. "No Sarcasm There At All" is co-hosted by Daniel "DanQ" Quick, Makahlua and returning guest co-host Annalee "Cartimandua" Barney with first-time guest co-host Alexander "Alexander I" Strub; it runs for 44m59s.

PC is a bi-weekly one-hour audio production of ACS is an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; its sibling show ModCast focuses on Civ modding. ACS is the only known website to produce its own Civ podcasts.

[DanQ]

Summary of Topics

- 04m06s | News
  Electronic Arts says that they'll buy  Take-Two Interactive, but are told maybe later. Then there's the making of Civilization IV  with Lead Designer Soren Johnson.
- 14m10s | Forum Talk
  A greater use for Artillery, particularly defensively, is explored prompted by a listener's suggestion, what to do about the Stealth Destroyer the CivIV expansion Beyond the Sword introduced, and addressing the obsolesnce of Castles in-game.
- 26m35s | Research Lab
  What allure do civilization-specific events hold.
- 30m36s | Senate
  Is it necessary to improve every tile and does razing make Civ games too easy.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
  The best facial hair of leaders in CivIV including BtS and why there aren't more women posting in Civ, and indeed most other games', forums.

[Heraclitus]

Nice episode I'll comment it later.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Heraclitus
Nice episode

I'll comment it later.

'k.

[Heraclitus]

A good episode. The bloopers were fun, the guest co-hosts were good. Since the voices of both Cartimandua and Alexander I were distinct and they were different enough to be memorable. Alexander sounds like a likable fella I’d have a beer with while Cartimandua sounds like a 20ish girl playing civ. It would benefit the show if they came back for more episodes.



The civilization specific events were very interesting, I never had one happen to me before. I must probably be running the wrong civics with the wrong civs. Pop rushing Lincoln doesn’t really leave much room for historical flavor events. Neither does theocratic Stalin.



I’m glad there was an episode all about civ4, nice to hear the old girl still has enough interesting stuff to talk about. I was getting a bit tired of CivRev.



[I’ve moved some random suggestions not really related to this episode to the next post for clarity] *



I liked the castle discussion, I so agree that castles are there for too short a period. Why not have them provide a free drill promotion to Archer units? Or make them have a healing effect on units similar to hospitals, since they will go obsolete long before hospitals even if we extend their life-span?



Moving them to gunpowder is reasonable but metallurgy is what really allows castle busting canons, firing a musket at a castle just won’t do. Here is a thought, if units and buildings can require two or even more techs to be available, why can they require two to be obsolete?



/on a side note, polycast gives me ideas on how to spam the forums without getting banned. You can quote that, its pure gold I tell ya! /



Also why not make castles not dependant on tech but on the number of walls in your civ? Like cathedrals in regard to temples? You could have a castle for every two or three walls, we could just skip the tech requirement or push it down to a tech Mathematics or Construction and we could hike up the defensive bonus it provides.



See? That is going straight into a thread. This show is a great +1 generator.

[Heraclitus]

Speaking of content why hasn’t the Polycast ever covered any of the alternative civ games. Not regular coverage, but perhaps an episode where you talk about Freeciv after playing it, or perhaps an interview with V on the Courts of Candle Bre or what’s it called (is that sub forum still on poly?). Or a mention of the Civ-like MMO beta.

Also no mention of GalCiv. There is a new beta out, that is probably worth a mention especially since it’s a good opportunity to comment on the merit of public betas and digital distribution. Also one episode with guest co-hosts talking about strategy in GalCiv might be good. Sure not many hosts and co-hosts play galciv, but there is Solver he did a review and I think Imran can remember what the game is called now so there you go two.

People on CFC (WTF is that anyway?) know what apolyton is, why not people on the official GalCiv forums? They could go like: “Oh that’s the site with the TBS podcast!” Come to think of it why didn’t the modcast team start a thread on a GalCiv site or even our Subforum to have people nominate mods worth talking about?


A lot of GlaCiv players are also Civ players, this could be a deciding factor in how people allocate time. It could even reinvigorate our stagnant GalCiv forum. I mean why not even invite people from the galciv site if we have people from WTF CFC? By letting people like that co-host we can tap the ultimate power in the universe: vanity. People just like to promote shows they are in, surely you’ve noticed that?


Why not assign a ambassador of sorts to the site? I mean we technically are a GalCiv fansite right? What made Apolyton strong in the day was SMAC, CTP and Civ. CTP2 had some modding on it but not much game talk, SMAC got old and civ is covered just as much on WTFCFC.

[Solver]

I'm mentioned

[Jaybe]

I enjoyed this episode almost as much as the Xmas Special! I agree with much of what Heraclitus said in post 5; participants, topics and levity involved were well appreciated.

re Stealth Destroyer, read my post in the related thread. A seeming design problem prohibits its being a stealthy destroyer that can also detect subs.

re Castles (and walls), a solution is to make them NOT ignored by gunpowder units (by changing bIgnoreBuildingDefense in CIV4UnitInfos for each unit)!
Yah, I know it's blasphemy, but they would still require extra effort to take, even by Infantry or armor; only air units (as in gunships) do I have ignoring walls/castles. That's how it is in my CustomAssets.

... pardon me now as I listen to it again.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Heraclitus
A good episode. The bloopers were fun, the guest co-hosts were good.

Since the voices of both Cartimandua and Alexander I were distinct and they were different enough to be memorable. Alexander sounds like a likable fella I’d have a beer with while Cartimandua sounds like a 20ish girl playing civ. It would benefit the show if they came back for more episodes.

Annalee (Cartimandua) was a participant in the PolyCast Christmas Special and has agreed to continue to be on the return guest co-host list for the show. Alexander has agreed to be on the list as well.

The civilization specific events were very interesting, I never had one happen to me before.

Me neither -- you're running BtS with Solver's events as well, I take it?

I'm glad there was an episode all about civ4, nice to hear the old girl still has enough interesting stuff to talk about. I was getting a bit tired of CivRev.

I liked the castle discussion, I so agree that castles are there for too short a period. Why not have them provide a free drill promotion to Archer units? Or make them have a healing effect on units similar to hospitals, since they will go obsolete long before hospitals even if we extend their life-span?

Hmmmm. I'm not convinced on the second suggestion, but the first is intriguing to me -- I hadn't thought of it before. Even though I'm not a warmonger, I think it has potential to explore.

Also why not make castles not dependant on tech but on the number of walls in your civ? Like cathedrals in regard to temples? You could have a castle for every two or three walls, we could just skip the tech requirement or push it down to a tech Mathematics or Construction and we could hike up the defensive bonus it provides.

I still believe Castles should be dependent on technology -- both to build, and expiring at Gunpowder -- though indeed keeping Walls a prerequisite to it continues to make sense to me.

See? That is going straight into a thread. This show is a great +1 generator.

; your post is on-topic and engages further conversation on what we discussed, so .

Originally posted by Solver
I'm mentioned

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Heraclitus
Speaking of content why hasn't the Polycast ever covered any of the alternative civ games. Not regular coverage, but perhaps an episode where you talk about Freeciv after playing it, or perhaps an interview with V on the Courts of Candle Bre or what's it called (is that sub forum still on poly?). Or a mention of the Civ-like MMO beta.

Alternate Civs coverage on the show is not something I can recall having been discussed internally before but it certainly not been ruled out.

What "Civ-like MMO beta" are you referring to? I admit nothing's coming to mind at the moment based on that description.

Also no mention of GalCiv. There is a new beta out, that is probably worth a mention especially since it's a good opportunity to comment on the merit of public betas and digital distribution. Also one episode with guest co-hosts talking about strategy in GalCiv might be good. Sure not many hosts and co-hosts play galciv, but there is Solver he did a review and I think Imran can remember what the game is called now so there you go two.

... why not people on the official GalCiv forums? They could go like: Oh that's the site with the TBS podcast!

We have covered several GalCiv News items in the past but there was lukewarm reception to it at best. This was/is not surprising given our community for that game here is small, and is understandable given the strong community surrounding the official site owned and operated by developer/publisher Stardock. As you also say few of us regular co-hosts have played the game, much or recently.

We expect News items on the GalCiv series to continue to be on the show from time-to-time. We are still considering ways to expand coverage it within consideration of such other factors -- no guarantees.

Come to think of it why didn't the modcast team start a thread on a GalCiv site or even our Subforum to have people nominate mods worth talking about?

One of the as-of-yet unreleased pilot episodes of ModCast discussed a GalCivII work and the team is now seriously considering covering works of it as they're settling into a routine and in response to recent feedback for that show.

Originally posted by Jaybe
I enjoyed this episode almost as much as the Xmas Special! I agree with much of what Heraclitus said in post 5; participants, topics and levity involved were well appreciated.

re Stealth Destroyer, read my post in the related thread. A seeming design problem prohibits its being a stealthy destroyer that can also detect subs.

Sigh...

re Castles (and walls), a solution is to make them NOT ignored by gunpowder units (by changing bIgnoreBuildingDefense in CIV4UnitInfos for each unit)!
Yah, I know it's blasphemy, but they would still require extra effort to take, even by Infantry or armor; only air units (as in gunships) do I have ignoring walls/castles. That's how it is in my CustomAssets.

Hmmm. While a technical solution, personally I don't prefer it as I believe Castles' effects should be obsoleted by Gunpowder.

... pardon my now as I listen to it again.

[Cartimandua]

It's fun to listen to the polycasts and to hear people's personalities in a different way than just in writing. The regular polycast hosts are very entertaining and have a great rapport with each other. It's a great environment for a guest host to come in and feel at home.

And hey, I am a girl in my 20's who plays Civ

[Lancer]

I listened to the show and was very impressed by the breadth of knowledge of the participants about all things Civ. Very impressive! It did make me wonder if in their place I could contribute nearly so well. No, it made me aware that I could not. Cudos to you guys and gals, very well done!

[Alexander I]

Originally posted by Heraclitus
Alexander sounds like a likable fella I'd have a beer with

Make mine a root beer and you've got yourself a deal there, buddy.

Originally posted by Heraclitus
I'm mentioned

Just chalk it up to hero worship.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Cartimandua
It's fun to listen to the polycasts and to hear people's personalities in a different way than just in writing. The regular polycast hosts are very entertaining and have a great rapport with each other. It's a great environment for a guest host to come in and feel at home.

And hey, I am a girl in my 20's who plays Civ

Originally posted by Lancer
I listened to the show and was very impressed by the breadth of knowledge of the participants about all things Civ. Very impressive! [..] Cudos to you guys and gals, very well done!

On behalf of the panel, thank you kindly.

Originally posted by Alexander I
Make mine a root beer and you've got yourself a deal there, buddy.

That would sound good to me too.

Just chalk it up to hero worship.

[Jaybe]

OMFG, let us all hope that any sarcasm aimed at AE doesn't come back to bite us in the posterior!

Oh, the problems of having a publicly traded company, subject to HOSTILE takeovers.

EDIT: Sorry, I had a dislexic moment. I meant EA (as in Electronic Arts), you know, whatever that company mentioned in the podcast was.