Civilization 7 is in development

[LKendter]

The ages system is my #1 turn off with 7. Putting a ton of time into improving my civ, just to wipe it out, seems totally against the 4X experience.

Personally, I'd rather spend time trying an old Civ4 RB sponsored game. My only active succession game is Civ3 with the monster CCM map with tons of civs and size. I still want to go back and fool with Alpha Centauri more.

The price point doesn't help at all. I went back and replayed fallout 1. Working on replaying fallout 2. I bought fallout 3, GOTY edition very cheap ($10?). That will provide a lot of entertainment for me. I'll get Galactic Civ4 when the price gets cheap enough.

[Erasmas]

I think people are hugely overreacting about the Age system. I have the feeling that the most loud ones even have not tried it at all. You will still have the same cities as you had before so it pays to grow them. You may have to invest some money, which is easily available, to let them become cities instead of towns. Nothing is "wiped out", you just lose the adjacency boni from the old buildings and now have to build the modern versions. Meanwhile you are building up boni for the end game.

I am more concerned about how limiting the game is. The settlement limit especially just prevents you from expanding, be it by settling new cities or conquering them. So just go play the boring mini games the game tells you to. One one the worst ICS control mechanisms ever.

Also the focus on Distant Lands does not work for me. I always found overseas invasion the most tedious part of the game. Let me expand in my own territory and punish my neighbour that settled in my backyard. Meanwhile the separate continents can compete against each other. But the game does not want me to do that so it pushes me to the way it thinks the game should be played. CMF hit the spot on that in his example game.

Since these mechanisms are completely in the core of the game I do not see how they can be fixed. For that reason, I am out.

[haphazard1]

I also dislike the settlement limit as a means of controlling ICS. At least it is a soft cap and you can push past it once you have some experience with the game. But why punish the player for being good at expanding and growing their empire? There are better ways of preventing ICS being the dominant strategy. Ideally the AI would actually expand effectively and seriously compete with the player for territory. Or the game could have economic mechanics to limit ICS.

The Distant Lands aspect of the game is also a problem, as it severely limits entire styles of game play. It makes pangaea or all land maps impossible, for one thing, restricting possible game options and making all maps feel very samey. Procedural map generation is supposed to give us more options, not make everything look the same.

Could old favorite game modes like One City Challenge or Always War even work in CIv7? Probably not. You are forced to play the game one way.

[Qgqqqqq]

LKend, I wouldn't mind doing a succession game of civ 4 (or modded), if others are keen. I started a small fractal game a while back and was surprised how enjoyable it was (though I've stalled in a lateish war).

[Japper007]

Beat Deity the other night and I feel like I've pretty much seen everything civ 7 has to offer until a big update/DLC drops. 

The AI just doesn't compete, I've seen them put up triple my stats but they just don't do victories (maybe they can't? They always turn their cities into huge sprawling slums, they might literally not have a tile to put the victory cons on). 
The revamped city defenses let's them push a city on the edge of your empire on occasion (particularly with their disgusting combat strength bonus) but it just doesn't ever get a big enough army that isn't spread all over as well.

I've heard rumours that Hotseat (and therefore PYDT) might be added in the patch that drops in a few days. So maybe the game holds up better against people actively pursuing the era goals? (I've seen a few MP streams and seems fun, but I don't have the time to sit in a lobby 5 hours in a row...) Anyone up for that?

[yuris125]

Hotseat is on the roadmap, but not due for the next patch, it is listed for "beyond April"

Roadmap in question

[sunrise089]

That April goal list looks like something I'd expect to be on a roadmap for a game set for a Fall 2025 release. Not, you know, the post-release patch log...

[Thoth]

So in other words, everyone who bought on release actually bought early access to an unfinished product.


Awesome.

[Qgqqqqq]

They released the game without "Wait, one more turn"? Lmao

[v8mark]

I've really appreciated this forum's reaction to Civ7, because I thought I was going insane lol. They've really messed this up - I can't fathom how so many game development and mechanics lessons that were learned 20 years ago have seemingly been completely forgotten.

Maybe this will be a good game in 3 years like Civ6 - but tbh, I doubt even that. Right now it's a horror show.

(Good to see some old faces too - hi sunrise!)