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Today Firaxis Games and 2K made quite a big announcement for the future of Sid Meier's Civilization VI, and it appears they're nowhere near done with it.

Announcing the New Frontier Pass, which will run from this month until March 2021 it's going to bring in six new DLC packs with six free updates placed in-between their releases for everyone. The free packs will include all sorts of things from balance to new maps. As for the actual DLC, each one will provide at least one new civilization and leader (some have two), new game modes (that might need other DLC), new buildings, new units and quite a bit more.

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Pack list

  • Pack #1: Maya & Gran Colombia Pack. Adds two new civilizations and leaders, one new game mode*, new City-States, Resources, and Natural Wonders. Available May 2020.
  • Pack #2: Ethiopia Pack. Adds one new civilization and leader, one new game mode**, one new District and two new Buildings. Available July 2020.
  • Pack #3: Adds two new civilizations and leaders, one new game mode**, new World Wonders, and one new map. Available September 2020.
  • Pack #4: Adds one new civilization and leader, one new game mode, new City-States, and numerous new Great People. Available November 2020.
  • Pack #5: Adds one new civilization and two new leaders***, one new game mode, a new District, and two new Buildings. Available January 2021.
  • Pack #6: Adds one new civilization and leader, one new game mode, new World Wonders, and one new map. Available March 2021.

*New game mode requires the Gathering Storm expansion to play.

**New game mode requires either the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions to play.

***New leader requires Rise and Fall expansion to play.

The porting studio and occasional publisher, Aspyr Media, who did the original Linux port of Sid Meier's Civilization VI have been contacted (see update below) about it. They've been pretty silent recently (Borderlands 2/TPS are missing updates) but thankfully 2K have been pretty clear. In their press release they said:

The Civilization VI - New Frontier Pass will be available for $39.99 on Xbox One, PS4™, Nintendo Switch™, Windows PC, Mac and Linux, with mobile platforms arriving later this year.

If you don't want all of it, each part pack will be available individually too the New Frontier Pass is a Season Pass.

You can pick up a copy of Civilization VI on Humble Store and Steam.


Update: Aspyr Media's press people got back to us, and said "For Linux, it will sim-ship." when asking about dates of the DLC for Linux. So with that in mind, we should see same-day support for the DLC.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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23 comments
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DMG May 11, 2020
Did they finally fixed AI or it still as bad as it was in beginning and question "what else can we do" was more about "how else we can milk money from those players, without fixing the game"?
Breeze May 11, 2020
Quoting: DMGDid they finally fixed AI or it still as bad as it was in beginning and question "what else can we do" was more about "how else we can milk money from those players, without fixing the game"?

The AI will always be bad because of how complex the game is. When the game first came out, the AI was a joke, it would almost never build or use planes. Once you had planes, you would automatically win. Now the AI can use planes and it is better.

IMO with the expansions, there is too much going on to be enjoyable. When I play, I turn off a bunch of things, depending on what I feel like doing. I always turn off spies and global warming.

Anyone know of a Civ 5/6 type game that is much simpler and has a decent AI?
Kimyrielle May 11, 2020
Quoting: Breeze
Quoting: DMGDid they finally fixed AI or it still as bad as it was in beginning and question "what else can we do" was more about "how else we can milk money from those players, without fixing the game"?

The AI will always be bad because of how complex the game is.

I don't think I can agree with that. There is no reason why the diplomacy AI needs to behave like a drunkard, yet it has been doing that since Civ 1. Being best buddies in round N, then declaring war out of thin air in round N+1? Give me a break, that's not a game being too complex, that's just a badly written AI.

If you want an example of games WAY more complex than Civ 6, and still have an AI that doesn't do overly stupid things every other minute, just go look at any of Paradox's grand strategy titles.

About the packs. I dunno. I feel that Civ 6 already has plenty of Civilizations to pick from. The additional ones won't add a lot to the game. This is indeed more about milking every last possible drop before announcing Civ 7.


Last edited by Kimyrielle on 11 May 2020 at 5:07 pm UTC
Mountain Man May 11, 2020
QuoteAspyr Media, who did the original Linux port of Sid Meier's Civilization VI have been contacted about it. They've been pretty silent recently (Borderlands 2/TPS are missing updates)...
I've been largely disappointed with Aspyr. They did some good work early on bringing games to Linux and then all but abandoned the platform.
Nevertheless May 11, 2020
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: Breeze
Quoting: DMGDid they finally fixed AI or it still as bad as it was in beginning and question "what else can we do" was more about "how else we can milk money from those players, without fixing the game"?

The AI will always be bad because of how complex the game is.

I don't think I can agree with that. There is no reason why the diplomacy AI needs to behave like a drunkard, yet it has been doing that since Civ 1. Being best buddies in round N, then declaring war out of thin air in round N+1? Give me a break, that's not a game being too complex, that's just a badly written AI.

If you want an example of games WAY more complex than Civ 6, and still have an AI that doesn't do overly stupid things every other minute, just go look at any of Paradox's grand strategy titles.

About the packs. I dunno. I feel that Civ 6 already has plenty of Civilizations to pick from. The additional ones won't add a lot to the game. This is indeed more about milking every last possible drop before announcing Civ 7.

I think different Civilizations added a lot more to the game than in any other Civilization game so far. Terrain and maps also have more influence on games, and specialized Civs, together with new terrain and new district types can potentially change the game very much. Thinking about new game modes to switch on or off in game setup (it's not scenarios!).. make me feel these dlc's are far from low content milking upgrades.
Then.. oh yeah.. the bad, bad AI. I think it has become a lot better and more calculable diplomatically over time. Still, I agree, I would love to have less AI starting bonuses, and a higher challenge in mid- and endgame on higher difficulties instead.
Liam Dawe May 11, 2020
Quoting: Mountain Man
QuoteAspyr Media, who did the original Linux port of Sid Meier's Civilization VI have been contacted about it. They've been pretty silent recently (Borderlands 2/TPS are missing updates)...
I've been largely disappointed with Aspyr. They did some good work early on bringing games to Linux and then all but abandoned the platform.
If they're getting these DLC up at the same time, as we've been told and quoted in the article, they've clearly not abandoned it.
Liam Dawe May 11, 2020
Quoting: GuestStill they don't seem to care much about Linux since BL2/TPS are missing updates.
No one knows what's going on there, it could be a publisher decision and they cannot talk about it. Talking in absolutes when no one knows only spreads rumours and doesn't help anything.
Kimyrielle May 11, 2020
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: Mountain Man
QuoteAspyr Media, who did the original Linux port of Sid Meier's Civilization VI have been contacted about it. They've been pretty silent recently (Borderlands 2/TPS are missing updates)...
I've been largely disappointed with Aspyr. They did some good work early on bringing games to Linux and then all but abandoned the platform.
If they're getting these DLC up at the same time, as we've been told and quoted in the article, they've clearly not abandoned it.

To be fair, this is very likely because of their agreement with Firaxis covering the DLCs, so they probably HAVE to. Aspyr did NOT port any newer game to Linux since then. They did indeed abandon Linux.
Liam Dawe May 11, 2020
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: Mountain Man
QuoteAspyr Media, who did the original Linux port of Sid Meier's Civilization VI have been contacted about it. They've been pretty silent recently (Borderlands 2/TPS are missing updates)...
I've been largely disappointed with Aspyr. They did some good work early on bringing games to Linux and then all but abandoned the platform.
If they're getting these DLC up at the same time, as we've been told and quoted in the article, they've clearly not abandoned it.

To be fair, this is very likely because of their agreement with Firaxis covering the DLCs, so they probably HAVE to. Aspyr did NOT port any newer game to Linux since then. They did indeed abandon Linux.
Again, speculation, no one knows and it doesn't help anyone to act like we know and say they have abandoned anything. Don't spread the negativity that's just not needed.
Purple Library Guy May 12, 2020
Slightly off topic . . . I've played Civ 6 a bit, enough to make a couple of false starts while I got things figured out and then win a game. And I pushed religion moderately hard, because it was a thing I could do. Maybe if I'd pushed religion a bit harder I could have actually won a religious victory, but I felt like if I could be dominant enough to win on religion I could probably have won with something else first (which I did).

But what I was wondering was, has anyone done some evaluating to see if it's worth it? The religious stuff gives you some perks, if you play your cards right the religious district ends up providing a moderate amount of stuff, whatever kind you're going for, and if you do it certain ways you'll get stuff for everyone that worships the religion yadda yadda. But it soaks up a ton of resources building all the holy this and holy that--not just the districts, but the wonders and stuff. Plus, it takes up space you could put other districts in, and picking religious oriented techs and civics might delay getting secular things you also want. And hey, if you skip it your people might end up worshipping someone else's religion but that won't matter after you conquer their ass. At the end I found myself wondering if all those resources poured into religion were on balance rewarding or a money pit. Anyone have any idea?


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 12 May 2020 at 12:17 am UTC
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