Hey folks, as promised here's the sister video on Religion, Victory & Crisis in the Exploration Age: th-cam.com/video/vDERiFHyH6o/w-d-xo.html (the rest of the news and updates from the livestream, there!)
@@Sco10Well, the independent powers are pretty similar to how the barbarian clans mode worked in civ 6, I think that's the one everyone is referring to when they talked about game modes becoming features.
@@younesgeek1313 Makes sense. Can't remember the last time i played without it, and it was one of those features I always wanted so I forgot it was a gamemode haha.
@@Sco10The whole thing with the treasure fleets feels like it was sort of beta tested in 6 with the Pirates game mode. It seems like a lot of the extra modes and scenarios in 6 were testing grounds for 7. Which, honestly, was a pretty genius idea from the Devs.
I loved being a naval power in Civ V; the only problem was the AI never builds strong navies, so no sea battles. Still, that meant I could engage in my favourite activity - coastal bombardment - unhindered.
That's gonna be the make or break factor for the expolartion age in civ7. Is the AI smart enough to protect their treasure fleets and engage in naval warfare? Given that it was pretty much the same dev team who, in 8 years, couldn't program an AI to build ships and use them effectively in civ6, I'm remaining somewhat sceptical...
I LOVE going naval in these types of games but it is either hardly rewarded or in some cases detrimental, so I’m glad to see civ VII at least taking steps to make making naval fleets not a waste of gold and resources
I really do hope this works better than the new world option in Humankind. The biggest problem with that was whoever was closest just took the whole thing and usually got overpowered
Given the tech, gold and unit investment needed to get to the distant lands in Civ 7, it seems to me that it will be much more about who is playing the best game. If you are generating more science and gold to get the techs, fleets and settler required, you get there first and you become overpowered. Being closest does not seem to be the factor.
That used to annoy the shit out of me with humankind. I was pretty advanced. But the other civs would get there first by a weird chain of islands that connected them. They would be super OP’d by late game as a result.
@@Chemiker94 this is one of my questions about this system - I haven't seen anywhere where they indicated that half of the players would be on 'distant lands' and I had assumed it would just be a 'natives in the new world' situation with city-states on these landmasses. Because just putting half of the players on another half of the map has inherent issues, especially if the landmasses can be different... if I am playing multiplayer and I pick a Continents map, I could wind up in an island chain cut off from the rest of the world because I am in the 'distant lands', for example. EDIT: Also, what would the point be if those lands are already occupied? I can't settle that land unless I remove that player, why would I do that over removing the player next door instead? The promise of new lands and resources seems a bit shallow if it's just "oh look, a new civilization - guess that landmass is irrelevant to me"; the diplomacy and trade systems would have to be WILDLY more engaging in order for me to care about finding new civs, and nothing I have heard has indicated this to be the case.
Can we also acknowledge that whoever he was playing and how he laid out his cities he was generating 200+ gold a turn at the start of the second age which is crazy to me.
some of the new mechanics are going to require you to have more gold. With that in mind I think they've boosted what this looks like. It'll likely be closer to what you could acquire with Sci and Cul, I imagine. Time will tell though
Love eveything I'm seeing besides the comically large ships for the map. Mild frustration that they clip into eachother when in the naval commander fleet, especially qhen the rest of the game looks so so pretty
Still hopeful for distant lands that aren’t only separate by ocean, like a Pangea with an impassable mountain range where the glaciers recede or a wide desert/rainforest where the map turns you back with a message about navigation being too treacherous
@@JumboPixel Sad that the big old company learned from the other two, but it is better than the alternative (just ignoring and learn nothing). By growing and learning from their competitors, you get better products. Just that everyone likes a good underdog story. Still, probably very stoked for Civ7
@JumboPixel those games really only had a few good mechanics but their whole was lacking this looks more complete, learning from the others. Cant wait hope other games come along and build upon civ vii
I am wondering if they will implement a feature that will allow to transform naval units into privateers. So that a nation can capture treasure fleets or attack boats without declaring war at the cost of relations and even influence (another use to influence)
That would really complement the ‘piracy’ element of the treasure ships. I have a feeling that mechanic may end up being more of a Civ-specific thing, but I don’t know 🤷♂️ Hopefully privateers make a triumphant return.
There should also be a mechanic where the AI is blind to certain attacks as in, if you attack a merchant ship in the middle of the ocean and there is nobody there to see it happen and not be able to report back to base the AI should just assume that the ship was lost at sea. Of course this doesn't really work out for a civ type game where you are essentially god with an all seeing eye and ultimate control. I would love to have a Civ style game with a difficulty level of having to rely on reports from units that you send out which would also make the player blind to certain aspects of the game and would play out much differently than always having the ability of modern satellite surveillance even at the start of the game.
Some of these mechanics are pretty cool, the units are gorgeous and makes you want to play with them. None of this however amounts to a whole lot unless the AI is vaguely competent at using them. Something they always promise "improvement" on but they've yet to achieve in a very long time. I await more news there.
Just remember, the same team could not make the AI build and use ships in civ6 for 8 years. So, yes, it all sounds very interesting, but I'm sceptical.
Personally I've long been in favour of AI civilizations working on completely different mechanics than player civs. Making mechanics that are both interesting challenges for human brains and also vaguely usable by dumb machines is basically impossible. Every game that's ever been made in the genre has been subject to the same complaints. It's never been done well.
I like that deep sea is navigable but deals damage, wish they would extend that to extreme environments like deep desert and glacier/ice cap (but this can be offset with supply support units or certain veteran promotions)
I prefer continents map in civ 6 where there’s a big ocean between continents. Your ship would just sink in the attempt to cross. That map looks small with these islands in between. About the naval fight, it looks like they’re throwing arrows at each other. 😂 Still some works to do on that.😂
Totally agree, but the UI is often the last thing that is perfected. It even looks different from when they originally released gameplay so I’m hopeful of some changes by February
I’m glad to see more interesting navel gameplay. The earlier games never gave me a reason to invest other than a few to constantly explore or ships to sit off the coast and guard my cities. The one thing I would like is a pirate mechanic - a sort of barbarian to provide a challenge to exploration in this era.
The vibe just doesn’t feel right to me... everything seems overly scripted and repetitive. One of the best aspects of all Civilization games is the freedom to decide how to play and respond to unexpected events, making each playthrough feel like a unique story. You might choose to be expansionist, risking stability at home, or be more conservative, focusing on a strong, secure empire. Now, as others have mentioned, it feels like you’re forced into a "European-style" progression, moving through predetermined ages with specific steps. It’s as if the game says, “now you have to do this, then this,” limiting the freedom to shape your empire’s growth in a unique way. There’s only the “right” way, as the game suggests, leading to similar gameplay paths each time. When it comes to crises, they’re also predictable and lack the sense of unexpected challenge that could disrupt your plans and require creative solutions. Instead of feeling like something unique to your playthrough, crises seem tacked on. For example, even if your civilization is thriving with a vast army and connected cities, you know a crisis is coming at the end of each age-like a barbarian invasion that appears out of nowhere in the middle of your empire, rather than a more realistic threat from a distant region. From what I’m seeing, Civilization VI handled these aspects much better. Overall, I’m pretty disappointed so far.
I hadn't thought of it in the way of "scripted" but once you mentioned it that is indeed how it feels, very forced and limited. The "crisis" mechanic is so overly simplified to be almost comical, which again comes off as very scripted. While the idea can be interesting if done properly as in completely random or as a result of poor gamepley decisions that have consequences. Having random penalties generated at certain times that effects all players at once is an odd way to do it. It feels like they oversimplified the game to such an extent that they had to force a new mechanic into the game to not make it so boring. Also the city building aspect, while interesting, seems like an exercise of tedium just to have repetitive busy work for the player to think they are doing something until the next reset/ crisis. The game is more like a spin off rather than a true sequel and should have been called Civ Cities as well as their target demographic is console players which probably explains the look and scale of what has been shown so far.
I watched the developer stream until they said "Everybody gets to make a religion" and "you can't convert a holy city." It just feels soooo participation trophy and "we have to make sure everybody gets to feel special." It legitimately feels like there's no competition or confrontation any more.
Take this distant land thing. One of the horrors motivating me in Civ5 and 6 was the fear that another civ from another continent will discover me before I discover them. Are those antipodes more or less advanced than me? It's like fear of aliens today. Structuring the game so that civs can only explore in the second age removes that variability in tech growth which was possible in prior ages.
@@Beastinvader Which is a handicap to make the game easier. The technology research should dictate how fast a civ can advance and therefore a civ that advances in sea-fairing tech should not have an imposed penalty to make the game more "fair". If anything there should be difficulty options built into the game so that a player can choose unlimited and unconstrained tech advancing without the imposed setbacks due to how civs are reset once an arbitrary "age" is triggered. Civ's should be independent and free to do as they wish which in the first 2/3 of the game should be directly influenced by environmental constraints until technology advances enough to overcome most of those obstacles. As a side note, there should be imposed early game penalties for traversing hostile terrain such as deserts and jungles just as there are for ocean tiles. Some of those penalties can be mitigated with having access to proper resources such as citrus to avoid getting scurvy. There should also be environmental penalties related to weather in that over time there are times of famine where if not properly prepared a civ can lose population which generally means that settling cities near bodies of water will be more beneficial than others which reflects how most early civs were built up generally near the sea or by lakes and rivers mainly due to agriculture. Late game tech should eliminate the dependence and allow for city building almost anywhere.
Idk, when people are good a the game they are forced into most optimal decisions automatically, unless they handicap themselves. Noone denied you a right to do so at any scale
Would Strongly advise AGAINST it but hey your money your choice. The game doesn’t satisfy me enough. UI is ugly, leader models are ugly, and just overall aesthetics and music seems like a step backward compared to civ5 and civ6
@FacialFischl agree to disagree. The combat system is great, i like the leaders, more realistic, more wonders, and better graphics, but honestly, i like UI. The combat and variety of units and graphics was the moment of that's it for me.
I usually lose interest in a Civ game around the Exploration Age. These changes (especially the mini-game with generating treasure fleets) seem like they might keep my attention better. Another thing working in the favorite of Civ 7 will be the reduced micromanagement. This is the point in the game where I typically stop caring about building new cities because I don’t want more queues to track. The new settlement feature should help there considerably.
Treasure fleets just changed the whole dynamic of the sea in this game. There's major incentive to build up your navy now, to protect your fleets, and blockade rival nations to steal theirs.
Probably not gonna happen, but they seriously need to add an inflation mechanic. It literally ruined Spain financially in part due to their treasure fleets loaded with gold
Its interesting to me how the tech tree is split into two tiers per age. I wish they would consider renaming the tiers to eras instead. So Tier 1 & 2 could be the Ancient & Classical Eras, Tier 3 & 4 could be Medieval and Renaissance Eras instead.
@blam320 really? All I am talking about is the labels over the subdivisions of the tech tree. Right now they're just called generic tiers. All I am asking is that they rename the tiers after the eras they used in previous Civ Games. Heck, Carl even referred to Tier 3 as Medieval when he was discussing the tech tree, so they're already part way there IMHO. In Civ4 to Civ6, there has always been some overlap between where one era is believed to begin and another ends, so that is nothing new.
I remember a part where Ed Beach was talking about how some civs will have slightly different ways to progress through the age, and my guess is since I saw Machu Picchu and some Terrace Farms in a part of the trailer, that he is referring to an Incan civ considering the Incans didn't really build ships. 👀
I dont get why the top ui bar where resources are is not the same style as the bottom, like the next turn etc widget, that would make it come together way better as one
Instead of having one comically large boat, why not have several smaller ship models occupying a single tile to actually give the impression of a fleet? Like imagine if each land military unit was represented by a single giant dude and how terrible/silly that would look. That's how I always feel about naval vessels in civ. I was hoping they would improve on that here, but maybe modders can solve this.
If the Age of Exploration is set up to be colonization-focused, what is the Modern Age set up to be? Perhaps it will be Imperialization or economically focused, with resources to mass produce. Also, have you noticed you have "Age of Antiquity", "Age of Exploration", but no "Age of Modernity" but instead, "Modern Age"?
I am constantly torn between "this sounds like humankind 2 again" and "that was actually a good idea humankind did." Naval exploration was pretty good in humankind, I'm just worried about early expansion by not hardblocking the ocean
The more I see the less the game feels like a civilization game. Humankind had some nice features the have obviously influenced civ 7. It just feels very scripted imo, and I'm still on the fence
It's so gratifying to see that for three iterations Civ continues to reach for inspiration to _Endless Legend_, that it looks like it will be the Civ, and not EL, who will prove the title of the latter to be actually true.. 🤣🤣🤣 I remember how it stated humbly with the districts.
Wow, I honestly think that Civ VII wouldn't be even close to these mechanics if no competition came to the 4x civ genre. Don't get me wrong, Civ is Civ!!!, and it will always be the best, but you can clearly see how games like Humankind and Old World influenced these changes. And I love it!
Is it possible to choose to remain the civilization you chose when transitioning eras? Like what if i want to stay Spain and not Mexico when going from the exploration to modern era.
They seem to have copied a lot from Humankind. In that game, you can remain the same civ, but the game mechanics heavily influence you to change each age. Either by missing out on lots of bouneses and perks. I don't know if this will be a feature in civ 7 though. It would be nice, though. Maybe the mod community might make something
You do need to have separate civ to eac era. Like ancient china, exploration era china and modern era china to keep the ”same” civ. (Actually that also is 3 separate civs, just named similarly at different eras.)
I'm a bit disappointed with how they chose to do some of their civilization changing mechanics. Spain is still around today, and yet there's no Modern counterpart to it. I feel like that's quite a disappointment. The same can be said with Egypt - it's still around today and has been for a long time. I don't see why they don't get 3 counterparts like China and India do. Is it perhaps a relevance thing? They're not super relevant world powers like they used to be - I guess it wasn't worth giving them a lackluster refresh for each age?
It's seems like they've just copied a lot of features from Humankind tbh. And the ages and civ swapping I found very jarring in Humankind. I'm on the fence. I want to like it, but it feels very scripted and not like a sandbox imo
It is the relevanse! Spain was ”super” power of the age of exploration. Egypt was in ancient era. China was super power in ancient era… a little bit les in era of exploration. And now in modern era… still super power.
Ancient Egypt is not remotely the same civilization as modern Egypt. Additionally, Imperial Spain isn’t the same as modern Spain. And honestly the last time either was significant on the world stage was centuries ago, at least. Millennia in the case of Egypt.
I am unhappy with ocean tiles causing damage over time, especially if that persists beyond the Exploration Age. Wont be any fun to arrive across an ocean with your fleet only to be torn apart by city bombardment while the AI demands to know 'if your navy is just passing through'
I don't think I'll ever feel at home with the cartoony graphics that have become the norm in Civ. Still, I like the ambition they have to change a lot of the gameplay with new mechanics, it looks promising. I like the description of conquistadors, it seems they will be commanders that can only be activated in distant lands, which makes sense.
First of: I like what i see and I love naval gameplay - but in most games it sucks. But did I understand it correct, that the Navy Commander - and with it the navy gameplay, starts in exploration age? That would suck for the early naval civs like Greece
It’s more that Antiquity Age naval gameplay will largely be limited to coastal tiles. On a map with many islands there’ll be chains that’ll make it possible. Perhaps less so on others.
I didn’t see any of the new changes that exciting. Ships are slow in the ocean, they couldn’t show a proper battle and the inconsistency is flashing! “We want you to micromanage less! Also, please go micromanage this ship with gold”
Most important thing to me is how AI is going to be. Dumb as usual or actually challenging? I loved playing vs people but simultaneous turns kinda suck and turn based multiplayer is very slow.
@@evg3niusNeither. But all civ games, all grand strategy games AIs are desision tree based. It is just the method they have to use, because there are not anything else available. Aka if this and if that - do this. But when they did ansver the AI suestion before, they did say that some of the system changes help to make ”AI” You know that teaching AI to really play Civ would take years and the AI would then calculate days what to do each turn… it would not work!
Around the 14 min mark. You mentioned the Mongols could capture cities in their homelands. Other Civs can’t via military force during Exploration Age ???
![Civilization 7 - NEW GAMEPLAY & Honest Impressions! [4K]](/img/n.gif)
Hey folks, as promised here's the sister video on Religion, Victory & Crisis in the Exploration Age: th-cam.com/video/vDERiFHyH6o/w-d-xo.html
(the rest of the news and updates from the livestream, there!)
It is interesting to see the experimental mechanics from civ 6 game modes being included in civ 7. Pretty happy with the livestream overall
This also really reminded me of the Civ V Conquest of the New World Scenario - which features from 6 gamemodes are you referring to?
@@Sco10Well, the independent powers are pretty similar to how the barbarian clans mode worked in civ 6, I think that's the one everyone is referring to when they talked about game modes becoming features.
@@younesgeek1313 Makes sense. Can't remember the last time i played without it, and it was one of those features I always wanted so I forgot it was a gamemode haha.
@@Sco10The whole thing with the treasure fleets feels like it was sort of beta tested in 6 with the Pirates game mode. It seems like a lot of the extra modes and scenarios in 6 were testing grounds for 7. Which, honestly, was a pretty genius idea from the Devs.
@@Sco10 it was even earlier - in Civilization IV: Colonization, not sure about the onc from 90s though
I loved being a naval power in Civ V; the only problem was the AI never builds strong navies, so no sea battles. Still, that meant I could engage in my favourite activity - coastal bombardment - unhindered.
Speedrunning to frigates on an archipelago map as the Dutch
💯
That's gonna be the make or break factor for the expolartion age in civ7. Is the AI smart enough to protect their treasure fleets and engage in naval warfare? Given that it was pretty much the same dev team who, in 8 years, couldn't program an AI to build ships and use them effectively in civ6, I'm remaining somewhat sceptical...
right i did that in 4 and 5 huge amphinbious operations...
What difficulty level were you all playing at?
I LOVE going naval in these types of games but it is either hardly rewarded or in some cases detrimental, so I’m glad to see civ VII at least taking steps to make making naval fleets not a waste of gold and resources
I really do hope this works better than the new world option in Humankind. The biggest problem with that was whoever was closest just took the whole thing and usually got overpowered
Given the tech, gold and unit investment needed to get to the distant lands in Civ 7, it seems to me that it will be much more about who is playing the best game. If you are generating more science and gold to get the techs, fleets and settler required, you get there first and you become overpowered. Being closest does not seem to be the factor.
The new world is occupied already by the other half of the players
That used to annoy the shit out of me with humankind. I was pretty advanced. But the other civs would get there first by a weird chain of islands that connected them. They would be super OP’d by late game as a result.
@@Chemiker94 this is one of my questions about this system - I haven't seen anywhere where they indicated that half of the players would be on 'distant lands' and I had assumed it would just be a 'natives in the new world' situation with city-states on these landmasses. Because just putting half of the players on another half of the map has inherent issues, especially if the landmasses can be different... if I am playing multiplayer and I pick a Continents map, I could wind up in an island chain cut off from the rest of the world because I am in the 'distant lands', for example.
EDIT: Also, what would the point be if those lands are already occupied? I can't settle that land unless I remove that player, why would I do that over removing the player next door instead? The promise of new lands and resources seems a bit shallow if it's just "oh look, a new civilization - guess that landmass is irrelevant to me"; the diplomacy and trade systems would have to be WILDLY more engaging in order for me to care about finding new civs, and nothing I have heard has indicated this to be the case.
@@MadMage86 they said it in a previous stream.
Can we also acknowledge that whoever he was playing and how he laid out his cities he was generating 200+ gold a turn at the start of the second age which is crazy to me.
Depends on how much things are going to cost for upkeep. How fast is that 200 going to go away once I start building stuff?
@@cheutho you'll have to purchase many things, might as well have plenty of gold
some of the new mechanics are going to require you to have more gold. With that in mind I think they've boosted what this looks like. It'll likely be closer to what you could acquire with Sci and Cul, I imagine. Time will tell though
1:35 like in the civ 3! you had like 50/50 chance to lsot your ship in the ocean. what a great return
Love eveything I'm seeing besides the comically large ships for the map. Mild frustration that they clip into eachother when in the naval commander fleet, especially qhen the rest of the game looks so so pretty
Mods will fix everything. At least in Civilization 6, models were changed and fixed without any problems :)
Yeah, I imagine that will be a VERY early mod to appear
wouldn't be civ if it didn''t look stupid
I wonder how big the latter age ships like battleships and aircraft carriers will be
I mean, it's Civ. Soldiers are the size of tall buildings. Think of it as boardgame pieces
Im getting so hype at seeing the exploration age
now gimme the modern!
Did he inhale some helium at around 2:20?
The lower right corner shows it's being fast forwarded
Still hopeful for distant lands that aren’t only separate by ocean, like a Pangea with an impassable mountain range where the glaciers recede or a wide desert/rainforest where the map turns you back with a message about navigation being too treacherous
Before seeing any of this I bought this game for my fiancée and my best friend and myself today. We are going to enjoy this game so much!
What a good friend you are. Nice!
Now just how to bribe them to play it as well? =) For my wife, wine usually does the trick...
pretty cool to see that they take mechanics from old world and humankind Super cool
they'll probably continue to take heat for that, but I personally don't mind. Competition & cooperation will make better games for us in the long run.
@@JumboPixel Sad that the big old company learned from the other two, but it is better than the alternative (just ignoring and learn nothing). By growing and learning from their competitors, you get better products. Just that everyone likes a good underdog story.
Still, probably very stoked for Civ7
it’s like you’ve never played video games before, every franchise takes ideas from competitor franchises
You know damn well all game franchises do that, so stop being dense.
@JumboPixel those games really only had a few good mechanics but their whole was lacking this looks more complete, learning from the others. Cant wait hope other games come along and build upon civ vii
I am wondering if they will implement a feature that will allow to transform naval units into privateers. So that a nation can capture treasure fleets or attack boats without declaring war at the cost of relations and even influence (another use to influence)
That would really complement the ‘piracy’ element of the treasure ships. I have a feeling that mechanic may end up being more of a Civ-specific thing, but I don’t know 🤷♂️ Hopefully privateers make a triumphant return.
That's quite likely. Ed Beach hints that this mechanic is not in the game yet, but it's something they might add,
I love that
Considering… ”You should escort treasure fleets” this is practically confirmed!
There should also be a mechanic where the AI is blind to certain attacks as in, if you attack a merchant ship in the middle of the ocean and there is nobody there to see it happen and not be able to report back to base the AI should just assume that the ship was lost at sea. Of course this doesn't really work out for a civ type game where you are essentially god with an all seeing eye and ultimate control. I would love to have a Civ style game with a difficulty level of having to rely on reports from units that you send out which would also make the player blind to certain aspects of the game and would play out much differently than always having the ability of modern satellite surveillance even at the start of the game.
Some of these mechanics are pretty cool, the units are gorgeous and makes you want to play with them. None of this however amounts to a whole lot unless the AI is vaguely competent at using them. Something they always promise "improvement" on but they've yet to achieve in a very long time. I await more news there.
Just remember, the same team could not make the AI build and use ships in civ6 for 8 years. So, yes, it all sounds very interesting, but I'm sceptical.
Personally I've long been in favour of AI civilizations working on completely different mechanics than player civs. Making mechanics that are both interesting challenges for human brains and also vaguely usable by dumb machines is basically impossible. Every game that's ever been made in the genre has been subject to the same complaints. It's never been done well.
Not completely sold on all the changes but Civ has always delivered on games that keeps my attention so excited for Civ 7!!
Thanks for the Civ 7 reviews. Its been changing my mind on whether or not to purchase. Its looking much better than I had previously imagined.
2:18 ingests helium lol
yeah was wondering what is up with dudes voice lol
wtf is that even 😂
I like that deep sea is navigable but deals damage, wish they would extend that to extreme environments like deep desert and glacier/ice cap (but this can be offset with supply support units or certain veteran promotions)
Agree with you OP, Bruv does love to hear his voice a bit much there. Had to speed up too
I prefer continents map in civ 6 where there’s a big ocean between continents. Your ship would just sink in the attempt to cross.
That map looks small with these islands in between.
About the naval fight, it looks like they’re throwing arrows at each other. 😂 Still some works to do on that.😂
I'm definitely liking what i see and hear so far, but I'm hesitant. The UI could definitely be better.
Same. The art is cool. And the city changes look great. But the UI is meh, and it feels scripted imo. Not like a sandbox
Totally agree, but the UI is often the last thing that is perfected. It even looks different from when they originally released gameplay so I’m hopeful of some changes by February
Is it really a Civ game if the Ui isn’t trash?
It looks better than the last time I saw it so that's encouraging.
I’m glad to see more interesting navel gameplay. The earlier games never gave me a reason to invest other than a few to constantly explore or ships to sit off the coast and guard my cities.
The one thing I would like is a pirate mechanic - a sort of barbarian to provide a challenge to exploration in this era.
I'm sure they're gonna nerf the bombardment promotion a lot before launch, because that is absolutely bonkers.
The vibe just doesn’t feel right to me... everything seems overly scripted and repetitive. One of the best aspects of all Civilization games is the freedom to decide how to play and respond to unexpected events, making each playthrough feel like a unique story. You might choose to be expansionist, risking stability at home, or be more conservative, focusing on a strong, secure empire. Now, as others have mentioned, it feels like you’re forced into a "European-style" progression, moving through predetermined ages with specific steps. It’s as if the game says, “now you have to do this, then this,” limiting the freedom to shape your empire’s growth in a unique way. There’s only the “right” way, as the game suggests, leading to similar gameplay paths each time.
When it comes to crises, they’re also predictable and lack the sense of unexpected challenge that could disrupt your plans and require creative solutions. Instead of feeling like something unique to your playthrough, crises seem tacked on. For example, even if your civilization is thriving with a vast army and connected cities, you know a crisis is coming at the end of each age-like a barbarian invasion that appears out of nowhere in the middle of your empire, rather than a more realistic threat from a distant region.
From what I’m seeing, Civilization VI handled these aspects much better. Overall, I’m pretty disappointed so far.
I hadn't thought of it in the way of "scripted" but once you mentioned it that is indeed how it feels, very forced and limited. The "crisis" mechanic is so overly simplified to be almost comical, which again comes off as very scripted. While the idea can be interesting if done properly as in completely random or as a result of poor gamepley decisions that have consequences. Having random penalties generated at certain times that effects all players at once is an odd way to do it. It feels like they oversimplified the game to such an extent that they had to force a new mechanic into the game to not make it so boring. Also the city building aspect, while interesting, seems like an exercise of tedium just to have repetitive busy work for the player to think they are doing something until the next reset/ crisis. The game is more like a spin off rather than a true sequel and should have been called Civ Cities as well as their target demographic is console players which probably explains the look and scale of what has been shown so far.
I watched the developer stream until they said "Everybody gets to make a religion" and "you can't convert a holy city." It just feels soooo participation trophy and "we have to make sure everybody gets to feel special." It legitimately feels like there's no competition or confrontation any more.
Take this distant land thing. One of the horrors motivating me in Civ5 and 6 was the fear that another civ from another continent will discover me before I discover them.
Are those antipodes more or less advanced than me? It's like fear of aliens today.
Structuring the game so that civs can only explore in the second age removes that variability in tech growth which was possible in prior ages.
@@Beastinvader Which is a handicap to make the game easier. The technology research should dictate how fast a civ can advance and therefore a civ that advances in sea-fairing tech should not have an imposed penalty to make the game more "fair". If anything there should be difficulty options built into the game so that a player can choose unlimited and unconstrained tech advancing without the imposed setbacks due to how civs are reset once an arbitrary "age" is triggered.
Civ's should be independent and free to do as they wish which in the first 2/3 of the game should be directly influenced by environmental constraints until technology advances enough to overcome most of those obstacles.
As a side note, there should be imposed early game penalties for traversing hostile terrain such as deserts and jungles just as there are for ocean tiles. Some of those penalties can be mitigated with having access to proper resources such as citrus to avoid getting scurvy.
There should also be environmental penalties related to weather in that over time there are times of famine where if not properly prepared a civ can lose population which generally means that settling cities near bodies of water will be more beneficial than others which reflects how most early civs were built up generally near the sea or by lakes and rivers mainly due to agriculture. Late game tech should eliminate the dependence and allow for city building almost anywhere.
Idk, when people are good a the game they are forced into most optimal decisions automatically, unless they handicap themselves. Noone denied you a right to do so at any scale
Wow the age of exploration has blown me away!
Idc anymore i am pre ordering and civ take my money.
Better have deep pockets if you want that clock
Would Strongly advise AGAINST it but hey your money your choice.
The game doesn’t satisfy me enough. UI is ugly, leader models are ugly, and just overall aesthetics and music seems like a step backward compared to civ5 and civ6
Fr
@FacialFischl agree to disagree. The combat system is great, i like the leaders, more realistic, more wonders, and better graphics, but honestly, i like UI. The combat and variety of units and graphics was the moment of that's it for me.
@@Flowers4Fischlthe aesthetic is a flat upgrade compared to 6 imo
Gee, that Civilization "Seeven" does look good, with the "Tricia" Resources/Fleets
Civ 7 looks so great! Cant wait to get my hands on it🤩
looks like you can train missionaries with production, interesting.
I usually lose interest in a Civ game around the Exploration Age. These changes (especially the mini-game with generating treasure fleets) seem like they might keep my attention better.
Another thing working in the favorite of Civ 7 will be the reduced micromanagement. This is the point in the game where I typically stop caring about building new cities because I don’t want more queues to track. The new settlement feature should help there considerably.
That treasure fleet mechanic sounds exactly like what was shown in the Pirates game mode.
Treasure fleets just changed the whole dynamic of the sea in this game. There's major incentive to build up your navy now, to protect your fleets, and blockade rival nations to steal theirs.
so far i am a hopeful optimist on this game
Probably not gonna happen, but they seriously need to add an inflation mechanic. It literally ruined Spain financially in part due to their treasure fleets loaded with gold
Its interesting to me how the tech tree is split into two tiers per age. I wish they would consider renaming the tiers to eras instead. So Tier 1 & 2 could be the Ancient & Classical Eras, Tier 3 & 4 could be Medieval and Renaissance Eras instead.
It’s a little tricky to do that, since the Exploration Age clearly extends partway into what we would consider the “Industrial” age in Civ 6.
@blam320 really? All I am talking about is the labels over the subdivisions of the tech tree. Right now they're just called generic tiers. All I am asking is that they rename the tiers after the eras they used in previous Civ Games. Heck, Carl even referred to Tier 3 as Medieval when he was discussing the tech tree, so they're already part way there IMHO. In Civ4 to Civ6, there has always been some overlap between where one era is believed to begin and another ends, so that is nothing new.
@@blam320 just call it early modern and calll it a day
I remember a part where Ed Beach was talking about how some civs will have slightly different ways to progress through the age, and my guess is since I saw Machu Picchu and some Terrace Farms in a part of the trailer, that he is referring to an Incan civ considering the Incans didn't really build ships. 👀
After watching this video, I placed a pre-order. This is the first time I’ve pre-ordered a game.
I love that exploration is a lot more naval based
All though In heavily critical to a lot of the new changes in civ 7, the new take on exploring and the ocean is really cool
I don't regret preordering that Founders Edition now XD
What are they going to use as cut content?? Remember ppl never pre-order, never
I dont get why the top ui bar where resources are is not the same style as the bottom, like the next turn etc widget, that would make it come together way better as one
I like to play giant epic maps with a lot to explore. I'm hoping the largest map is even bigger than the largest map size in Cuv 6
The only downside i have is that everything really looks like hexagons, i loved the way they did the borders and lands in V
Man, I'm desperate to buy this.
Wonder if there will be pangea
Do you feel like the tech and civic tree are a lot smaller than in previous titles?
Instead of having one comically large boat, why not have several smaller ship models occupying a single tile to actually give the impression of a fleet? Like imagine if each land military unit was represented by a single giant dude and how terrible/silly that would look. That's how I always feel about naval vessels in civ. I was hoping they would improve on that here, but maybe modders can solve this.
If the Age of Exploration is set up to be colonization-focused, what is the Modern Age set up to be? Perhaps it will be Imperialization or economically focused, with resources to mass produce.
Also, have you noticed you have "Age of Antiquity", "Age of Exploration", but no "Age of Modernity" but instead, "Modern Age"?
2:39 they acknowledged Indonesia... Majapahit Exploration Age in base roster hopium perhaps?
Civ 7 is just gorgeous
I NEED a pirate leader that can steal treasure fleets without declaring war. ⛵
I am constantly torn between "this sounds like humankind 2 again" and "that was actually a good idea humankind did."
Naval exploration was pretty good in humankind, I'm just worried about early expansion by not hardblocking the ocean
You can’t cross the ocean until the exploration age and even then it’s risky.
The more I see the less the game feels like a civilization game. Humankind had some nice features the have obviously influenced civ 7. It just feels very scripted imo, and I'm still on the fence
@@joeyjoejoeshabadoo1411 Yeah, i think that in an attempt to make it less snowbolly they removed some of player freedom
Does this mean they have the tech to do a nice remake of SMP?!
yes i believe it was civ 2 that if you went into the ocean with early age ships you could sink
Civ7 is definitely the most beautiful game in the franchise
Really hoping we get a Thomas Cochrane naval commander
I really am hoping that civ 7 takes the cool ideas that were in Humankind and make them more streamlined and fun to play with.
So when you discover the new lands will there be civs on there or do you all start on same continent?
There will be other Civs there, as confirmed in the livestream.
@@blam320thanks for reply 👍
Has anyone seen, does Civ have the equivalent of the huge real world map like in Civ 6?
It's so gratifying to see that for three iterations Civ continues to reach for inspiration to _Endless Legend_, that it looks like it will be the Civ, and not EL, who will prove the title of the latter to be actually true.. 🤣🤣🤣
I remember how it stated humbly with the districts.
New 4x was just released on steam Zephon. Do you know anything about it? Looks fine
What's up with choice of fonts and text spacing? Something feels wrong about this UI.
what civs are available ?
Seems like a lot of aspects taken from Humankind.
Wow, I honestly think that Civ VII wouldn't be even close to these mechanics if no competition came to the 4x civ genre. Don't get me wrong, Civ is Civ!!!, and it will always be the best, but you can clearly see how games like Humankind and Old World influenced these changes. And I love it!
Combat and naval combat def is appealing, beautiful game, other things I'm meh on. Will play but no rush, can wait 3 years for all the dlc and a sale.
Is it possible to choose to remain the civilization you chose when transitioning eras? Like what if i want to stay Spain and not Mexico when going from the exploration to modern era.
They seem to have copied a lot from Humankind. In that game, you can remain the same civ, but the game mechanics heavily influence you to change each age. Either by missing out on lots of bouneses and perks. I don't know if this will be a feature in civ 7 though. It would be nice, though. Maybe the mod community might make something
No…
You do need to have separate civ to eac era. Like ancient china, exploration era china and modern era china to keep the ”same” civ. (Actually that also is 3 separate civs, just named similarly at different eras.)
I'm a bit disappointed with how they chose to do some of their civilization changing mechanics. Spain is still around today, and yet there's no Modern counterpart to it. I feel like that's quite a disappointment.
The same can be said with Egypt - it's still around today and has been for a long time. I don't see why they don't get 3 counterparts like China and India do.
Is it perhaps a relevance thing? They're not super relevant world powers like they used to be - I guess it wasn't worth giving them a lackluster refresh for each age?
It will probably be “Spanish Empire” in the modern era.
It's seems like they've just copied a lot of features from Humankind tbh. And the ages and civ swapping I found very jarring in Humankind. I'm on the fence. I want to like it, but it feels very scripted and not like a sandbox imo
It is the relevanse!
Spain was ”super” power of the age of exploration. Egypt was in ancient era.
China was super power in ancient era… a little bit les in era of exploration. And now in modern era… still super power.
Ancient Egypt is not remotely the same civilization as modern Egypt. Additionally, Imperial Spain isn’t the same as modern Spain. And honestly the last time either was significant on the world stage was centuries ago, at least. Millennia in the case of Egypt.
Sid Meier over here making a better naval side game than Skull and Bones 🏴☠️☠️
I am unhappy with ocean tiles causing damage over time, especially if that persists beyond the Exploration Age. Wont be any fun to arrive across an ocean with your fleet only to be torn apart by city bombardment while the AI demands to know 'if your navy is just passing through'
I don't think I'll ever feel at home with the cartoony graphics that have become the norm in Civ. Still, I like the ambition they have to change a lot of the gameplay with new mechanics, it looks promising. I like the description of conquistadors, it seems they will be commanders that can only be activated in distant lands, which makes sense.
I just took the founder pack on Steam.
didn't know sam hyde had a career change
I just hope someone makes a mod for smaller ships 😅
OMG Treasure Fleets!!!!
CAN I PLAY WITH SPAIN AAAAND MEXICO?!
Shut up and take my money
Man the tile piece are soo pretty
First of: I like what i see and I love naval gameplay - but in most games it sucks.
But did I understand it correct, that the Navy Commander - and with it the navy gameplay, starts in exploration age? That would suck for the early naval civs like Greece
It’s more that Antiquity Age naval gameplay will largely be limited to coastal tiles. On a map with many islands there’ll be chains that’ll make it possible. Perhaps less so on others.
"Your trireme has been lost"
Should be able to make artificial islands since we can make them and real life and we do it all the time
I didn't know Tony Hawk was a dev.
I love this. I've always wanted to play a naval empire but it was never that much fun mechanically.
Excited to see Sam Hyde working on Civ 7. Should be good.
Isabella have bunch 9f towns that make gold than but navy with it
I didn’t see any of the new changes that exciting. Ships are slow in the ocean, they couldn’t show a proper battle and the inconsistency is flashing!
“We want you to micromanage less! Also, please go micromanage this ship with gold”
Most important thing to me is how AI is going to be. Dumb as usual or actually challenging? I loved playing vs people but simultaneous turns kinda suck and turn based multiplayer is very slow.
It is a desision tree based AI so dump as a stone… but maybe new mechanics that makes the game simpler help AI a little bit?
@@haukionkannel Was that announced or is your reply based on prev versions
@@evg3niusNeither. But all civ games, all grand strategy games AIs are desision tree based. It is just the method they have to use, because there are not anything else available.
Aka if this and if that - do this.
But when they did ansver the AI suestion before, they did say that some of the system changes help to make ”AI”
You know that teaching AI to really play Civ would take years and the AI would then calculate days what to do each turn… it would not work!
looking good
Please give us pirates!
Add Kyivan Rus, please!
didnt play much of Civ6, didnt like the district mechanic. Still play Civ5 from time to time. Civ7 is looking amazing!
As of this post - 95 days to go until release.
Предсказываю. Эта часть провалится. В старой части невидимая часть карты была дымкой, а тут что-то ужасное!
Around the 14 min mark. You mentioned the Mongols could capture cities in their homelands.
Other Civs can’t via military force during Exploration Age ???
It’s about getting points for the Military milestone. The Mongols get points for local cities captured, not just those in foreign lands.
so is JFk, Stalin or Hitler ever gonna be put in the game?
They should remove denuvo
The only thing is, those ships look really big compared to small islands or mountains 😅😅
Will there be mouse and keyboard support on consoles?
Treasure fleets? What is this, Colonization?
A modern colonization game would be cool to see actually