Weekly eXchange #222 – Polls, Polls, And More Polls.

Join Nate and Troy as they bring you all the important information on all of your favorite 4X and strategy games! This week they talk about Civilization 6: Gathering Storm, Age of Wonders: Planetfall, Empires in Ruins, Galactic Civilizations 3: Retribution, Endless Space 2, Starsector and much much more. As well as continued coverage for your other favorite 4X and strategy games.

Music for eXplorminate by Mangadrive

Show Notes:

Civilization 6 update – Phoenicia first look and Phoenicia Gameplay Premiere (Dev Livestream) – 01:55
Age of Wonders: Planetfall update – 06:18
- Age of Wonders 3 Steam page
Empires in Ruins update – 11:39
- Dungeon of the Endless Steam page
Galactic Civilizations 3 update – Journal 1 and Journal 2 – 13:53
Endless Space 2 update – 20:22
- Endless Space Steam page
Starsector update – 24:04
- Predestination Steam page
AI DLC forum thread – 27:34
What is… Conan Unconquered? – 30:41
January Poll Results – “What was YOUR new 4X Game of 2018 from our list?” – 34:17
- Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War Steam page – 40% (66 votes)
- Northgard Steam page – 14% (24 votes)
- What the… – 10% (17 votes)
- Space Tyrant Steam page – 10% (16 votes)
- Abstain – 25% (42 votes)

Games played – 38:16

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16 Comments

BTAxis 7 years ago

A small correction on the Starsector item, the patch notes discussed and linked in the notes IS NOT an actual update that was put out. It is just a work-in-progress changelog for the upcoming patch, which will be out when it’s out. The current version of the game that is available to players is still 0.9a.

eXplorminate 7 years ago

Good catch, thanks.

BlackSmokeDMax 7 years ago

Polls, damn polls, and statistics! – proper title?? 😉
Pretty sure I missed voting in the poll you mentioned in the show, ugh. Firefox (my main browser) and whatever settings/add-ons I use doesn’t let me see the polls, I have to remember to use chrome to see and vote in the polls.
Good show, sound was great once again.

Cullster 7 years ago

Wait – if the moderators are involved in a conversation it isn’t interesting Nate? Hmmmm something to think about…

eXplorminate 7 years ago

We, sometimes, change the direction and flow of the conversation… Unintentionally.

Qubix 7 years ago

When it rains it pours, so many updates and releases coming around the same time!
– ES2 Penumbra
– EL Symbiosis
– GC3 Retribution
– Civ6 Gathering Storm
– TW: Three kingdoms
Oh my, where to find time to play all of these!?
Already picked up ES2/EL expansions, but they were a bit buggy on release so I’ve decided to wait for the first round of patches before I start any new campaigns in those.

Qubix 7 years ago

Fired up Steam right after posting my message above, and noticed that ES2 was auto-updating. The first post-Penumbra patch has been released. Let the games begin! 🙂

EVrett 7 years ago

How about polling viewers on what they think about the Civ 6 EULA privacy changes? 2k just turned ALL its games into dataming spyware. Who was warning you about this shit getting worse if gamers do nothing..oh ya that was me.

eXplorminate 7 years ago

I could do that, but it wouldn’t just be for firaxis.

Evrett 7 years ago

New EULA: “The information we collect may include personal information such as your first and/or last name, e-mail address, phone number, photo, mailing address, geolocation, or payment information. In addition, we may collect your age, gender, date of birth, zip code, hardware configuration, console ID, software products played, survey data, purchases, IP address and the systems you have played on. We may combine the information with your personal information and across other computers or devices that you may use.” Basically all 2K/Firaxis games are now spyware and maps for any hacker that wants to buy your info. Please use your platform to make people aware.

eXplorminate 7 years ago

OK, but can you look at the other major studios too? This way we can see if it is something exclusive to Firaxis or industry wide.

Evrett 7 years ago

The list is huge. Any game made by Activision-Blizzard, Total War and Gamers Workshop/Warhammer still use RedShell unapologetically . Endless Space/Legends, Pillers of Eternity series, Sunless Sea/sky, Dead in Vinland etc etc all are made in Unity which data mines for its creators. Any game made by 2k/Firaxis. I like to pick on Firaxis because they are popular trendsetters. Civ 5 pioneered the Steam Worshop and if Jon Shafer and Derek Paxton had their way we’d all be paying for mods which is how the service was going to be until just before release. Steam decided taking control and centeralizing mods away from community websites was worth more than mod makers making an income.

eXplorminate 7 years ago

Okay, is there any studio out there making a mainstream game that isn’t guilty?

Evrett 7 years ago

Not many. But there is a difference between the way companies like Paradox and some of the Unity games ask you to opt (required by EU law) in vs Firaxis sneaking Redshell under the hood and not telling anyone. There are still developers out there like Illwinter who arnt interested in the Data trade but we certainly arnt giving them incentives to stay that way. Businesses exist to make money and why pass on the data money game when its clear the people who are taking part are still doing quite well even after they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Developers dont care because they know gamers dont care about their privacy any more than smokers care about their lungs.

eXplorminate 7 years ago

There’s truth there. I’ll include something about this in an upcoming show.

BlackSmokeDMax 7 years ago

I’d blame this *more* (not completely) on 2K or Take2 than Firaxis. Most likely they are just following instructions from their corporate overlords.

Weekly eXchange #222 – Polls, Polls, And More Polls.