So when I heard you could unlock sid meiers as a playable skin, I thought it would be a nice easter egg or something.

But according to the quicklook, not only does it changes it's appearance, it also turns into an end-game killing machine, apparently. For example, the rookie went from 5 hitpoints to 26, and learned 11 skills, 5 of which are psionic end-game skills.

Here's two screenshots from before and after.

thoughts?

Sid Meier is not just a skin you can slap on. Sid is a living god amongst men. It makes all the sense in the world.

I haven't seen the entire Quick Look yet, but how do you unlock him? Is it just a character rename thing?

@AndrewB said:

I haven't seen the entire Quick Look yet, but how do you unlock him? Is it just a character rename thing?

I don't know if they had to do anything special beforehand, but it looked like they just put the name in and got Sid. The catch is that it brings up a message saying basically "look, this guy is hella powerful, so we're doing to have to turn off achievements (and leaderboards?) for the remainder of this campaign. You sure you still want to use him?"

Um, better than having him as paid DLC, I suppose?

@BBAlpert: That's what I figured. In that case, there's no problem here. It's like typing the money cheat into the console in The Sims. Just don't do it if you don't want an easy game. If it turns off achievements, all the better.

This whole thing is pretty ironic considering what Sid Meier himself actually talked about in the Critical Path project:

"If somebody is encouraged to use cheats, or is looking for cheats, I've kind of failed as a designer." - Sid Meier

Apparently, there's a "Ken Levine" cheat as well according to the wiki page here. Will need to try that out.

@Sweep said:

This whole thing is pretty ironic considering what Sid Meier himself actually talked about in the Critical Path project:

"If somebody is encouraged to use cheats, or is looking for cheats, I've kind of failed as a designer." - Sid Meier

Yeah, but cheats can be used for fun as well.

@BBAlpert said:

The catch is that it brings up a message saying basically "look, this guy is hella powerful, so we're doing to have to turn off achievements (and leaderboards?) for the remainder of this campaign. You sure you still want to use him?"

Oh really? I must've missed that, in that case it's totally ok with me, as long as there's a catch.

@BBAlpert said:

The catch is that it brings up a message saying basically "look, this guy is hella powerful, so we're doing to have to turn off achievements (and leaderboards?) for the remainder of this campaign. You sure you still want to use him?"

Oh really? I must've missed that, in that case it's totally ok with me, as long as there's a catch.

In a way I would've preferred if the current soldier would just get Sid Meier's likeness, but keep their current stats, armor, gear and so forth. Y'know, just a visual makeover.

@Dagbiker said:

@Dredlockz

@BBAlpert said:

The catch is that it brings up a message saying basically "look, this guy is hella powerful, so we're doing to have to turn off achievements (and leaderboards?) for the remainder of this campaign. You sure you still want to use him?"

Oh really? I must've missed that, in that case it's totally ok with me, as long as there's a catch.

Yah because some one cheating in a single player game really effects you.

If it affects leaderboards or achievements, it kinda does if you care about that stuff. And he dropped his issue when it became clear that it didn't, so the sarcasm just comes off as mean-spirited.

@BBAlpert: Is everyone in this thread actually fucking serious? It was OBVIOUSLY a specific developer mechanic because Sid isn't completely in the game yet. They had it set up to bring him in on a name change so it would be easier to show. OF COURSE you can't do that in the final version. Why even play the game at that point? Man, I understand why developers don't show anything but the final product now.

"Oh, well we weren't expecting to show Sid yet. He isn't complete but I can pop him in for you."

"GUYS YOU CAN JUST SPAWN SID IN WITH A NAME CHANGE OMGG"

This is why gaming is losing its intelligence and creativity. Catering. You guys are like the play testers who played Dishonored and didn't go into a room because the guards said you couldn't.

@Jace said:

@BBAlpert: OF COURSE you can't do that in the final version.

Boy, you sure seem real sure of yourself.

If it's a cheat, be happy such things still exist. I don't see a problem either way. It's not like you have to use it.

I think it'd be way better if Sid Meier showed up in full Phalanx getup and all the aliens died whenever they tried attacking him.

Are they cheats? I was under the impression that they were actually characters you could recruit into the game if you found them later. Maybe there are cheats to unlock them earlier than you are supposed to as well? That makes more sense to me.

@Jace said:

@BBAlpert: Is everyone in this thread actually fucking serious? It was OBVIOUSLY a specific developer mechanic because Sid isn't completely in the game yet. They had it set up to bring him in on a name change so it would be easier to show. OF COURSE you can't do that in the final version. Why even play the game at that point? Man, I understand why developers don't show anything but the final product now.

"Oh, well we weren't expecting to show Sid yet. He isn't complete but I can pop him in for you."

"GUYS YOU CAN JUST SPAWN SID IN WITH A NAME CHANGE OMGG"

This is why gaming is losing its intelligence and creativity. Catering. You guys are like the play testers who played Dishonored and didn't go into a room because the guards said you couldn't.

Um, wow.

This is kinda awkward, I'll have to be the guy that makes you look like a jerk.

Jake Solomon has talked about these "hero units" in other interviews before. You think they made all the assets and programmed that feature just for themselves in their demos?

"lead developer Jake Solomon confirms [Sid Meier] will not be the only game industry stalwart to turn up as a playable character"

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/10/xcom-enemy-unknown-sid-meier-not-the-only-heroic-game-developer-cameo/

@Dredlockz said:

@Jace said:

@BBAlpert: Is everyone in this thread actually fucking serious? It was OBVIOUSLY a specific developer mechanic because Sid isn't completely in the game yet. They had it set up to bring him in on a name change so it would be easier to show. OF COURSE you can't do that in the final version. Why even play the game at that point? Man, I understand why developers don't show anything but the final product now.

"Oh, well we weren't expecting to show Sid yet. He isn't complete but I can pop him in for you."

"GUYS YOU CAN JUST SPAWN SID IN WITH A NAME CHANGE OMGG"

This is why gaming is losing its intelligence and creativity. Catering. You guys are like the play testers who played Dishonored and didn't go into a room because the guards said you couldn't.

Um, wow.

This is kinda awkward, I'll have to be the guy that makes you look like a jerk.

Jake Solomon has talked about these "hero units" in other interviews before. You think they made all the assets and programmed that feature just for themselves in their demos?

"lead developer Jake Solomon confirms [Sid Meier] will not be the only game industry stalwart to turn up as a playable character"

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/10/xcom-enemy-unknown-sid-meier-not-the-only-heroic-game-developer-cameo/

Uhm, our wiki has had that info for some time now.

@Funkydupe: Hmm, It seemed obvious that changing the name and figuring out the hero characters that way was how you unlock them in the game, right?

I watched the video again, and they don't say anything about it being just a "dev hack" to show sid meier, they only said "I don't know if it works on this build", which could mean that it's an old build.

And being a game programmer myself, I think that creating the name feature and confirmation popup just for a temporary hack to show a character is a bit of overkill. I'm thinking that changing the name is how you unlock them, and thats why they say some people would probably figure them out in the first day.

I guess we'll have to wait and see

@Jace said:

@BBAlpert: Is everyone in this thread actually fucking serious? It was OBVIOUSLY a specific developer mechanic because Sid isn't completely in the game yet. They had it set up to bring him in on a name change so it would be easier to show. OF COURSE you can't do that in the final version. Why even play the game at that point? Man, I understand why developers don't show anything but the final product now.

"Oh, well we weren't expecting to show Sid yet. He isn't complete but I can pop him in for you."

"GUYS YOU CAN JUST SPAWN SID IN WITH A NAME CHANGE OMGG"

This is why gaming is losing its intelligence and creativity. Catering. You guys are like the play testers who played Dishonored and didn't go into a room because the guards said you couldn't.

Hahahaha you condescending tool :) I love seeing people like you look like a fucking a dick.

@Dredlockz said:

"lead developer Jake Solomon confirms [Sid Meier] will not be the only game industry stalwart to turn up as a playable character"

Oooh, does that mean it's not too late to hope for a daikatana wielding John Romero? Or how about Will Wright who screams 'You can't cut back on funding! You will regret this!' whenever a country withdraws from the council?

@Jeff: If you can change the name of a rookie to "Sid Meier" and instantly have him switch to that character with no context, no unlock path, no progression, no reward, just "Oh, I knew to type that" then they've made a terrible mistake. Sure of myself? Yeah, in the same way you're pretty sure of yourself that golden space bunnies probably aren't in the game. You haven't seen them yet, but you'd probably put money down that something that fucking dumb isn't in the final product.

@Dredlockz: Um, wow. This is kind of awkward. i'll have to be the guy that asks you to read my post again. I know Sid is in the game. I'm just saying you can't spawn him in with a name change at any time. IF you can, there has to be a cheat put in to allow you. Sid will be someone you unlock later on end-game.

@Arabes: Reading comprehension isn't commonplace at Giantbomb, is it?

@Jace said:

@Arabes: Reading comprehension isn't commonplace at Giantbomb, is it?

Speaking of reading comprehension: you do know what a "cheat" is, right?

It's not something that really requires "context, unlock path, progression, reward".

And...

@Jace said:

@Dredlockz: Um, wow. This is kind of awkward. i'll have to be the guy that asks you to read my post again. I know Sid is in the game. I'm just saying you can't spawn him in with a name change at any time. IF you can, there has to be a cheat put in to allow you. Sid will be someone you unlock later on end-game.

“We call them heroes,” says Solomon. “We’ve only shown one, we’ve only shown Sid – and so yes there are some other heroes: friends of XCOM that may make an appearance if the player can find them. But we’re not going to reveal who they are yet. Somebody will find them probably in the first day!”

From that very same PC Gamer interview. Since the game isn't out yet, it's way too early to say whether or not they're unlocked through normal progression (which would kind of spell doom for game balancing after you find them), or unlocked through "cheats", just like how Bill Clinton was in NBA Jam, but not really in NBA Jam.

@Gaff: Firaxis doesn't do "cheats." They haven't said Sid is a cheat. Please read, I implore you. Also, why would they put effort into making something that you can just break the game from the beginning with. What is the point of the game if you are given an option to play with zero difficulty.

It's the same reason you didn't have the option to start with all of the gear in Dark Souls. It defeats the purpose.

Practice restraint.

@Silvergun said:

@Dredlockz said:

"lead developer Jake Solomon confirms [Sid Meier] will not be the only game industry stalwart to turn up as a playable character"

Oooh, does that mean it's not too late to hope for a daikatana wielding John Romero? Or how about Will Wright who screams 'You can't cut back on funding! You will regret this!' whenever a country withdraws from the council?

I would pay real money for both of these.

@Jace said:

@Gaff: Firaxis doesn't do "cheats." They haven't said Sid is a cheat. Please read, I implore you. Also, why would they put effort into making something that you can just break the game from the beginning with. What is the point of the game if you are given an option to play with zero difficulty.

It's the same reason you didn't have the option to start with all of the gear in Dark Souls. It defeats the purpose.

Ya they should just have one difficulty setting too because why would anyone not just play on easy mode with cheats every time right?

@gorndonfredoman: Yeah, that's the point I was making. Nailed it.

@Jace said:

@Gaff: Firaxis doesn't do "cheats." They haven't said Sid is a cheat. Please read, I implore you. Also, why would they put effort into making something that you can just break the game from the beginning with. What is the point of the game if you are given an option to play with zero difficulty.

It's the same reason you didn't have the option to start with all of the gear in Dark Souls. It defeats the purpose.

For stupid fun maybe? It deactivates all the competitive stuff like leaderboards and achievements. Why is it a big mistake? Why can't people have dumb stupid fun whenever they want? What is your problem exactly?

@Jace: You are making statements out of assumptions. Keep arguing out of ignorance.

You know nothing more then anyone in this thread, and you sure as hell know less then Jeff.

@Jace said:

@Jeff: If you can change the name of a rookie to "Sid Meier" and instantly have him switch to that character with no context, no unlock path, no progression, no reward, just "Oh, I knew to type that" then they've made a terrible mistake. Sure of myself? Yeah, in the same way you're pretty sure of yourself that golden space bunnies probably aren't in the game. You haven't seen them yet, but you'd probably put money down that something that fucking dumb isn't in the final product.

Hey, so I don't know if they've put such a thing into the game but at this point I reckon Mr Gerstmann has probably seen a lot more of it than you have so if I were a betting man I'd put my money on it being in the game.

Regardless, why would this ruin the game? It clearly said in the QL that using Sid turned off any achievement stuff so it's just there for some fun. What's with all the pointless internet rage?

@Jace:

1. http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/564621-sid-meiers-civilization/cheatsDetails of enabling Cheat Mode in the original Civilization;
2. http://www.gamespot.com/civilization-ii/cheats/Details of God mode in Civilization 2;
3. http://www.gamespot.com/sid-meiers-civilization-iii/cheats/Now here's a spanner in the gears: the only cheat is revealing the entire map;
4. http://www.gamespot.com/sid-meiers-civilization-iv/cheats/Debug mode, enough said;
5. http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/938528-sid-meiers-civilization-v/cheats Debug mode, though GameFAQs says it only reveals the map, the official forums say it's a real, honest to goodness debug mode;

I could probably search out Sid's non-Civilization games, but for the sake of the argument, let's limit ourselves to the Civ series, being the most high profile series Sid has worked on. Then again, the only actual Firaxis developed games are Civ 3 to 5, so it goes both ways, I guess.

@Jace said:

@Gaff: Firaxis doesn't do "cheats." They haven't said Sid is a cheat. Please read, I implore you. Also, why would they put effort into making something that you can just break the game from the beginning with. What is the point of the game if you are given an option to play with zero difficulty.

It's the same reason you didn't have the option to start with all of the gear in Dark Souls. It defeats the purpose.

Jake Solomon changed the name of a normal character into "Sid Meier", which unlocked Sid Meier, bypassing the normal (if any) ways of recruiting Hero units. A dialogue box was already in place, warning the player that summoning Sid Meier (in this way, still unclear if that's the only method) would disable Achievements, much like in other games that have such "cheats"*. If something walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

*Which kind of leaves the impression that this a Microsoft enforced policy or something. Who knows.

I played the original X-COM on the easiest difficulty and I was fucking shit at it. The drama of doing kinda well and then having a random explosion kill all my dudes is why it remains one of my very favorite games. I could lose missions and not feel like I had to abuse my save games, so the easier difficulty made the game more fun. This usually lead me into an unwinnable position of losing funding during a nighttime terror mission while half my dudes are getting mind controlled. If I had the option to transform one of rookies into badass sid meier and salvage my game without having to abuse saves, I imagine that would have made the game even better than it is. Also if they put in a bighead mode that would be pretty cool too.

This thread; holy fuck.

@Gaff said:

@Jace said:

@Gaff: Firaxis doesn't do "cheats." They haven't said Sid is a cheat. Please read, I implore you. Also, why would they put effort into making something that you can just break the game from the beginning with. What is the point of the game if you are given an option to play with zero difficulty.

It's the same reason you didn't have the option to start with all of the gear in Dark Souls. It defeats the purpose.

Jake Solomon changed the name of a normal character into "Sid Meier", which unlocked Sid Meier, bypassing the normal (if any) ways of recruiting Hero units. A dialogue box was already in place, warning the player that summoning Sid Meier (in this way, still unclear if that's the only method) would disable Achievements, much like in other games that have such "cheats"*. If something walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

*Which kind of leaves the impression that this a Microsoft enforced policy or something. Who knows.

I was going to say the same thing. Putting in Sid's name is the cheat. It makes no difference that it's done in a character's name field instead of a text console or a chat field. Why would this be an unlock thing? It's never intended to be used in a real campaign. It's 'non-canon', if you will.

@Gaff : You might as well ask what the point is in playing GTA or StarCraft. Both of those have cheats for invincibility. That argument doesn't hold water. You just don't use the cheats if you don't want to play that way.

I would have preferred if adding the name had changed the skin, but kept the stats. Ah well.

Wow, I'm actually getting a thread a day reinforcing how laughable my banning from these forums for "being a jerk" was.

Thanks Giant Bomb!

@Jace: I guess you didn't read this part:

@Dredlockz said:

It seemed obvious that changing the name and figuring out the hero characters that way was how you unlock them in the game, right?

I watched the video again, and they don't say anything about it being just a "dev hack" to show sid meier, they only said "I don't know if it works on this build", which could mean that it's an old build.

And being a game programmer myself, I think that creating the name feature and confirmation popup just for a temporary hack to show a character is a bit of overkill when you can just add some three-key combination to unlock something. I'm thinking that changing the name is how you unlock them, and thats why they say some people would probably figure them out in the first day.

Tell you what, I have a buddy working at Firaxis, lemme just ask him if those are indeed unlocked by changing their names, and I'll get back to you.

In any case, no need to be a total jerk about your opinions dude.

@Scrawnto

@Dredlockz:

http://n4g.com/news/1001953/sid-meier-playable-in-xcom-enemy-unknown

"Now, thanks to a sneaky reveal that 2K Games were good enough to show us, we will soon know him as videogame character. The videogame icon appears in the later portions of the upcoming XCOM: Enemy Unknown as the leader of the elite 'Reaper' Squad."

Peace.

@Jace: That story says its 128 days old.

@Dagbiker: It's based on the same information they gave at E3 this summer. Here's the direct link to that, saying the same thing.

http://videogamewriters.com/gameplay-impressions-xcom-enemy-unknown-47541

I hope this year's E3 is recent enough for you. Shit, is the font the wrong color this time?

@Jace: Yeah, you may be right.

It seems weird tho. If the hero units are acquired "properly" through the game, and this was just a publicity stunt, why go through all the trouble of adding that "hey you will have achievements and online rankings disabled" feature.

Anyway, I'll edit the original post as soon as I get official confirmation from the devs.

@Dredlockz: What happened during the Quicklook wasn't a stunt. Here's the deal:

Sid is part of an end-game unit called the reaper squad. In the final game, you probably unlock him by A) Making it to a certain point in the campaign or B) Typing his name in so he unlocks in the squad later on. Maybe a combination of that or some other progress-based method. In the Quicklook, they obviously weren't in a build that shows the end of the game, so they have a trick to pull Sid out instantly.

The concept that what they'd showed is exactly how to do it in the final product is absurd. It would be no different than if in Assassin's Creed 3, you could type "assault rifle" and mow down brits with a machine gun. Then why even bother?

Why go through the effort to make a Sid character if you just type his name in and void the validity of your own campaign(no achievements,score,etc.)

It only makes sense that he'd appear later on as a guy you can really use in a legitimate campaign. That's what they've said. He's the member of a squad, not an Easter egg.

I wonder if you can make multiple Sid Meiers and then customize them and rename them afterwards.

If so, I know what I'm doing

@Dredlockz: What happened during the Quicklook wasn't a stunt. Here's the deal:

Sid is part of an end-game unit called the reaper squad. In the final game, you probably unlock him by A) Making it to a certain point in the campaign or B) Typing his name in so he unlocks in the squad later on. Maybe a combination of that or some other progress-based method. In the Quicklook, they obviously weren't in a build that shows the end of the game, so they have a trick to pull Sid out instantly.

The concept that what they'd showed is exactly how to do it in the final product is absurd. It would be no different than if in Assassin's Creed 3, you could type "assault rifle" and mow down brits with a machine gun. Then why even bother?

Why go through the effort to make a Sid character if you just type his name in and void the validity of your own campaign(no achievements,score,etc.)

It only makes sense that he'd appear later on as a guy you can really use in a legitimate campaign. That's what they've said. He's the member of a squad, not an Easter egg.

@Jace: Yeah, That makes sense, and could be how it is handled.

I'm pretty confident that the name changing will play a role in it, because that would make the "are you sure?" popup make sense ( so that people don't bring them forward by mistake, and then lose the character they were renaming.) And as @Tim_the_Corsair pointed out, its an old-school tradition.

But we'll have to wait and see, hopefully my buddy will know exactly how it works, and will be allowed to tell me (those NDAs are pretty fierce, the fucker couldn't even tell me he was working in XCOM for the longest time).

You're way more convincing when not being a dick, btw :)