Civilization 7 announced

[Coffee Warlord]

Oh yeah, I guarantee that's the plan.

[Passacaglia]

I don't understand this ages system fully (obviously) but I wonder if an expansion will create more ages. Three doesn't seem like enough.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

I don't understand this ages system fully (obviously) but I wonder if an expansion will create more ages. Three doesn't seem like enough.

An article I read said he thought 3 ages wasn't enough and that 4 may work.

I'll give it a chance. The problem with Civ 6 is that you played 1 leader, 1 Civ and after a while (for me it was Modern Age) it got boring/mechanical (and this is why majority of Civ players don't complete a game). The ages forces a soft restart of stuff and theoretically, keeps it new & interesting.

[Passacaglia]

Same here. I've bought every civ and played them a good amount, so why stop now. Plus this is the first new one since my kids started playing, and it'll be fun to get into it with them. There's something about every new version I don't like, so to me, no reason to be skeptical since it's kind of part of the deal.

[Ben E Lou]

I feel like Civ2 was the last version that was "one more turn" at the time of release. I bought 3-6 pretty much at release time. Holding off for this one.

[Edward64]

The only one I did not play a lot of was the one with "stacks of doom". Enjoyed all the other releases.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I feel like Civ2 was the last version that was "one more turn" at the time of release. I bought 3-6 pretty much at release time. Holding off for this one.

When I think back to my favorite runs of Civ, I tend to go remember some of my Civ 2 games

[Thomkal]

Looks like the Embargo is over for Civ 7 coverage-so you should be able to get a good look at the game now on Twitch or You Tube

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Looks like the Embargo is over for Civ 7 coverage-so you should be able to get a good look at the game now on Twitch or You Tube

So Potato McWhiskey has two reviews up for it -- one calling it a mess, and another calling it a masterpiece. WTF?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

So Potato McWhiskey has two reviews up for it -- one calling it a mess, and another calling it a masterpiece. WTF?

Heeeeeey Spuddies ...

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

So Potato McWhiskey has two reviews up for it -- one calling it a mess, and another calling it a masterpiece. WTF?

Well that's not helping. I'm still buying because it's Civilization and I'll get my money's worth regardless.

[Passacaglia]

A lot of complaints about the UI. That sounds familiar...

[bhlloy]

Sigh.. his positive review just made me buy the Deluxe edition. I'm a sucker. I can live with learning the UI and waiting until there's a mod or they improve it in a DLC.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

A lot of complaints about the UI. That sounds familiar...

There always is and there is always a mod to fix it down the road. That is the least of my worries.

[GrantDawg]

If you got early access, people are saying the game is active on Steam.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[henry296]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Just pre-ordered founders edition for $93.23 on InstantGaming. Hopefully that works.

Ordered from there and got new PC today. Hoping that maybe the code comes in before midnight.

[SirFozzie]

CIV's out.

[Coffee Warlord]

Getting trashed on steam reviews.

[Edward64]

Uh oh, hate to hear that

[bhlloy]

I've been playing for most of the evening. Just happened to be online around 7ET and noticed I could install it.

First impressions, UI is definitely very bad and a huge step backwards. There are things that don't really make much sense and are not well explained (for example I could attack an independent at the start of the game to make them friendly, then suddenly I couldn't attack any more but they were still sending hostiles my way and had to use influence to make them friendly at that point - no idea the different mechanic at play there). Another example - building certain things on the same tile is a huge game mechanic especially for some civs, but when you are building the second one there's no way to figure out what the first one is other than a tiny icon you just have to know - you have to click out and hover over the tile to realize what the first was. Very frustrating and such a huge step back from the last few iterations.

I just did my first era transition from ancient to exploration and for such a huge new critical part of gameplay it's really not explained what will happen or is happening at all. A plague just popped out of nowhere with new civic slots and I guess that was the timer countdown for the era transition, but the game didn't actually tell me that I don't think. And default difficulty seems to be way too easy at least for the first age - I'm miles ahead of the CPU on legacies which I was not expecting for a game with so many new mechanics where I don't really know what I'm doing or a run where I didn't really put too much thought into how I wanted to play other than build what seemed to make sense.

With that being said, definitely feels like it has more potential than any Civ game ever at launch. It's not polished and it definitely needs way more content which we'll all pay through the nose for, but a lot of the mechanics are different in a good way and I think eventually will lead to far more varied and nuanced gameplay. And it's still Civ, no way it's a mostly negative game but I suspect many people have been waiting to give it that review ever since they learned some of the mechanics (as I figured I would before watching some of the YouTube's the last couple of days).

[Schmidty]

After reading all of this, I'm going to hold off and just play Civ 6, CK3, and try Stellaris again. Maybe in a year Civ 7 will be playable and I can get it on sale.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Getting trashed on steam reviews.

Cuz it's bad? Or cuz of review bombing for one reason another?

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

... and try Stellaris again.

Was a huge Stellaris fan. There's been so many DLCs and changes that I'm intimidated about re-learning it all over again.

Let me know how difficult it was for you to restart.

[GrantDawg]

I watch some videos and some of the changes do seem interesting. I think it will be a wait for a huge sale for me, but I will eventually get it. The problem I see is that I think at even 50% off it might be to expensive for what I would get out of it.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Cuz it's bad? Or cuz of review bombing for one reason another?

Not getting review bombed, from the looks of it. People are trashing:

- Overwhelmingly, the UI
- The lack of customization (map sizes, no changing victory conditions, etc).
- The nation switching mechanics, which is what I thought would be hammered, is mentioned, but not to the extent I expected.

[Ben E Lou]

Yeah at this point the issue for me isn't so much money as it is the amount of time invested. Once I buy it, there's no doubt that even if I play just one game on the biggest map my PC can take and hate it, it'll be on a per-hour basis wayyyyyy cheaper than any other non-gaming form of entertainment in which I indulge. The question is if those hours spent will be actually be entertaining, or just a frustrating waste. The reviews have definitely solidified my decision to wait.

[cuervo72]

Yeah, Schmidty is probably right. Redacted.

[bhlloy]

My take on the switching Civ's things is it could be a cool idea once there are more Civs/Leaders and maybe some more mechanics., but for now it's a bit underbaked and honestly from what I can see overhyped.

I mean if I choose a leader with obvious synergies, and then I'm given a choice of 2 Civs to continue playing (plus some random unlocks that probably don't make a ton of sense and are a bit random whether I can even reach them) and one of them aligns perfect with my gameplay and the way I've played the first act, it's hardly gamebreaking what I'm going to do. Now if there are 10 options and there are 4 that are all good choices with subtle differences, it's a whole different ballgame.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Was a huge Stellaris fan. There's been so many DLCs and changes that I'm intimidated about re-learning it all over again.

Let me know how difficult it was for you to restart.

I just bought the season pass last week because I didn't want to pay for all of the DLC at once. My first impression is that I'm completely overwhelmed. I'm used to CK, so I thought I'd pick it up pretty quickly, but I don't really even know where to start. I remember playing CK2 years ago and starting in Ireland to ease my way in, but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent in Stellaris. I think I need to go look at the Stellaris thread here on FOFC. Hopefully I'll get an idea on what to do there.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Give it to that whizbang coder of Musk's. He could recode it in a weekend, make it great!

For the love of all that is good and holy, please no politics in fun, interesting threads. You guys always have those trash Trump threads bumped. Keep the political garbage there. Damn.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I just bought the season pass last week because I didn't want to pay for all of the DLC at once. My first impression is that I'm completely overwhelmed. I'm used to CK, so I thought I'd pick it up pretty quickly, but I don't really even know where to start. I remember playing CK2 years ago and starting in Ireland to ease my way in, but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent in Stellaris. I think I need to go look at the Stellaris thread here on FOFC. Hopefully I'll get an idea on what to do there.

I did some posting in that thread but it’s been a while. Better to find some recent YT tutorials

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I just bought the season pass last week because I didn't want to pay for all of the DLC at once. My first impression is that I'm completely overwhelmed. I'm used to CK, so I thought I'd pick it up pretty quickly, but I don't really even know where to start. I remember playing CK2 years ago and starting in Ireland to ease my way in, but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent in Stellaris. I think I need to go look at the Stellaris thread here on FOFC. Hopefully I'll get an idea on what to do there.

I actually got back into it recently, found ratcheting down the number of other civs for the map size fit what I wanted. Let me focus on the exploration part and internal development of my civ before hitting the part where diplomacy matters much more. On the crowded maps I always felt it was a mad rush to claim as many habitable planets as you could before empire borders are locked in, and then a lot of what you have to do is dependent on the type of neighbors you drew.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by henry296

Ordered from there and got new PC today. Hoping that maybe the code comes in before midnight.

Nice! Mine wasn't there on instant gaming at 10PM Central when I went to bed, but was there this morning. Birthday coming in 18 days, will probably get a new laptop then, unless somehow my old laptop doesn't take forever between turns.

I've usually been a "wait until it's cheap" buyer for Civ, but since I got the kids into Civ 6, it seemed more exciting to get it at release with them. I downloaded it this morning, and they all wanted to play right away, but we're going to wait until their school is done. Okay, I made them wait, but we spent some time looking at this guide https://civbuilds.replit.app/ and planning out the first game we'd play together.

I work from home, and I'm going to hold off playing until they get back, which works out, since I'm pretty busy today anyway. But it's tough knowing it's sitting there installed and unplayed.

[Edward64]

Been reading more reviews and watched some YT stuff. I can see how the UI and lack of readily available info will be a turnoff for me. For you guys that have it already, let us know how much it bugs you.

Got mine ordered, so I'll play it some. I am interested to see how well it plays on my laptop 780m and (old) desktop 1650.

[Passacaglia]

It's funny -- I read stuff on reddit that was mostly slamming it all day, and when I finally got to play it for an hour with the kids, they were jumping up and down and excited by every little thing that seemed different. We (mostly they) decided to play as Ibn Battuta, leading Rome, and to go for a cultural victory -- they didn't even read anything to be sure a cultural victory still exists. It took them a while to figure out how to build a settler, but after a while they were talking about where to put their second city, so I guess they figured it out. In about 30 turns, they had met 3 other civs, and an "independent village" who they said was hostile to them. It seemed a little more RP focused the way things happen to you rather than you playing the game, which I think got them more immersed.

[Edward64]

Great to see you spending time gaming with them, how old are they?

One of my best memories in gaming was playing Sid Meier's Pirates with my son. Started off with him looking over my shoulder as I played it. Eventually, he was old enough to play it himself but he would ask me to help with the "dancing". And then, he played it solo it until was no longer challenging.

[Passacaglia]

14, 12, and 12, all boys. I got them playing Civ 6 back in 2020, and I think that's probably what has made into history so much, though I guess it's a chicken and egg thing. Never got them into FOF though, since they don't like football even a little.

[SirFozzie]

The view I'm getting on other boards is the game is addicting, but the UI will hold it back until fixed.

(ie, you'll keep playing but complain the whole time about the UI)

[Edward64]

Don't know about their beta process but you'd think Firaxis got the UI feedback from playtesting? Shouldn't they have known this would not sit well with their veteran players?

From Firaxis. Looks like they got the UI message loud & clear. I have no doubt they'll get it fixed, kudos for their quick response.

A Message from Firaxis Games | Civilization VII

In response to your feedback, we’ve identified three key areas that we’re prioritizing work against as quickly as possible. We will share a development roadmap as soon as we can, but our focus is on the following:

1) Prioritizing UI Improvements: Our top priority is improving the UI. We need some time to digest all of your feedback, but some areas that we're already looking into include making UI interactions more intuitive, improving map readability, fixing areas of polish like formatting, and more. We're committed to getting this right, and will share more details as soon as we can.

2) Implementing Community-Requested Features: Several key features that we've seen you ask for will be included in upcoming patches as free updates

3) Rolling Out Quality-of-Life Updates in Patch 1.1.0 (Deploying in March):

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

14, 12, and 12, all boys. I got them playing Civ 6 back in 2020, and I think that's probably what has made into history so much, though I guess it's a chicken and egg thing. Never got them into FOF though, since they don't like football even a little.

Nice, you guys are building up some memories that they'll remember for the rest of their lives.

Unfortunately, son never got into Civ or 4x games. After Pirates, he went on to RPG games like Fallout, CoD, Assassins series.

Take it FWIW. Son lives in a different state for work. One big regret is not playing multi-player with him so we can continue playing together, like on Fallout 76. So, if you get a chance, start doing that now so in the future you 4 will be able to connect even if you are spread out.

[Ksyrup]

I've done just enough to download and install the game late last night. Might try to fire it up this weekend. If not, perhaps on vacation next week.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Don't know about their beta process but you'd think Firaxis got the UI feedback from playtesting? Shouldn't they have known this would not sit well with their veteran players?

I've done some beta testing for OOTP. Beta testing is an interesting process that, I've found, is a lot more difficult than you'd think. How much do you complain about features that you know aren't done yet? Once Edward64 makes a post about "The UI stinks", is it enough to +1 that? Should I make another post next week or something? The coders will say that they're working on it and they are, but do they grok the scale of changes I'm talking about? Can those changes be done at this point? Are the other testers in agreement? Peanutbutter over all that the fact that I've been playing the game with this way for a while now and you naturally get used to how it works because you're looking at a million other issues as well.

I wonder if it would help to request a periodic "fake Yelp review" from your testers. Give us your 1-5 ratings on gameplay, UI, immersion, etc. It would probably still be tough to get a fresh eyes viewpoint.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I've done just enough to download and install the game late last night. Might try to fire it up this weekend. If not, perhaps on vacation next week.

I find myself doing things like that more often the older I get. Just 10 years ago, I never had that kind of restraint. I've just seen so many games released at this point in life, I don't get quite as excited anymore. I think after the insane hype of TCY coming out like 23 years ago, everything has gone downhill in that department.

[Ksyrup]

Yep. Priorities have definitely changed. And I also find myself generally not able to devote as much time and concentration to these types of games as I once did.

I've lost a bit of patience for the deep-dives I used to give games, especially since I don't have the time to keep going daily. It's hard to devote a ton of time for a couple of days, then put the game down for a week or two, and get back into where I left off with the same level of immersion I used to have when I was playing day after day.

[GrantDawg]

That's definitely been a problem with me. I can generally only put real time into a game on the weekends, and that is not a guarantee every weekend. Add that to the fact that I have a much harder time immediately recalling information that used to come easy in my youth, games just don't grab me the same way. BG3 was that last one that I played through and would steal time whenever I could to play. Since I have finished that, there has been nothing that has kept my interest for long. College Football 25 should have, but I only ended up playing that for a couple of weeks.

[SirFozzie]

Just a headsup, if you use stuff to enhance singleplayer games (like WeMod or CheatEngine), Civ will instantly crash and take you to a "fair play" screen on 2K sports site if it detects it.

It's happened to me on other 2K games (NBA), and I know one person who returned the game not knowing about this because they used WeMod for other games.

[HerRealName]

After a decent round of golf, I'm free the rest of the weekend and getting an itchy 'Add to Cart' finger.

[Thomkal]

Scratch that itch!

[HerRealName]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Scratch that itch!

You're such a bad influence

My first impressions are more positive than I expected. There are new mechanics to learn but I think I'll be playing more than VI.

[Edward64]

I've been wanting to get into AR/VR and this is good news for that.

It says Spring 2025. I'd hate it if this distracted from stabilizing the core game and getting the patches done.

IGN Error 403 - Unavailable (IFW-U02)

Firaxis has announced a virtual reality version of the recently released Civilization 7.

Sid Meier's Civilization 7 - VR is the long-running strategy franchise’s first foray into VR, and launches spring 2025 exclusively on Meta Quest 3 and 3S.

Publisher 2K Games said Sid Meier's Civilization 7 - VR is developed by PlaySide Studios, which worked on VR games The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and Meta Horizon Worlds.

In addition to single-player, Civilization 7 - VR can compete to rule the world in online multiplayer matches with up to three other Meta Quest 3 and 3S players.