Age changes shouldn't have a loading screen

[MagicCuboid]

Okay, usually this kind of issue is so baked into a game's engine that it's unsolvable, but hear me out:

The biggest reason I didn't like age changes in Civ 7 is because it just fades to black, cuts to a "new game" loading screen again, and starts over. It felt like I had accomplished nothing because the dawn of a new age visually looks the same as starting a new game.

Playing through the Endless Legend 2 demo, that game handles age changes how I expected Civ to do it: there's an in-game cut scene as the world changes and grows. There are animations of growing forests, shifting oceans, etc. Really cool! Imagine the camera sweeping over your empire as your cities evolve and change... it would be much more satisfying. Gwendolyn Christe's awesome narration could play over said animations.

As for the necessary tutorializing of new civ abilities, that could still be done in a popup.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Okay, usually this kind of issue is so baked into a game's engine that it's unsolvable, but hear me out:

The biggest reason I didn't like age changes in Civ 7 is because it just fades to black, cuts to a "new game" loading screen again, and starts over. It felt like I had accomplished nothing because the dawn of a new age visually looks the same as starting a new game.

Playing through the Endless Legend 2 demo, that game handles age changes how I expected Civ to do it: there's an in-game cut scene as the world changes and grows. There are animations of growing forests, shifting oceans, etc. Really cool! Imagine the camera sweeping over your empire as your cities evolve and change... it would be much more satisfying. Gwendolyn Christe's awesome narration could play over said animations.

As for the necessary tutorializing of new civ abilities, that could still be done in a popup.

The first problem I can see is that such screens and animations were never planned for in the game. Look at the chintzy 'victory' screens at the end of Modern Age, and you can tell that they didn't waste any resources even on those, so providing them for two sets of transition screens would require a major re-orientation of assets.

Second problem is that these Transition graphics would only solve part of the problem, in my opinion. The big problem is the apparent Black Box between Ages in which your previous Civ almost completely disappears and is replaced by something visually New and frequently extremely Different. The individual decisions you made in the previous Age that led to that, and the individual consequences of Crisis Events and your decisions that led to your Romans becoming Burgundians or Tibetans or whatever, should also be shown so that you can follow the steps instead of being presented with them as a Done Deal. That's going to make the transitions much more graphically complex and require much more in the way of individual steps to them.

Which doesn't mean it shouldn't be tried. The current 'system' is barely supportable and very negatively viewed by very many gamers. While, unlike many of those, I believe Civ Switching should be part of the game, I agree with them that it was done clumsily and in a way seemingly designed to remove player engagement from as much of the process as they could. That badly needs changing, and changing the graphic depiction of the changes would be a good start.

 

[moondog385]

Okay, usually this kind of issue is so baked into a game's engine that it's unsolvable, but hear me out:

The biggest reason I didn't like age changes in Civ 7 is because it just fades to black, cuts to a "new game" loading screen again, and starts over. It felt like I had accomplished nothing because the dawn of a new age visually looks the same as starting a new game.

Playing through the Endless Legend 2 demo, that game handles age changes how I expected Civ to do it: there's an in-game cut scene as the world changes and grows. There are animations of growing forests, shifting oceans, etc. Really cool! Imagine the camera sweeping over your empire as your cities evolve and change... it would be much more satisfying. Gwendolyn Christe's awesome narration could play over said animations.

As for the necessary tutorializing of new civ abilities, that could still be done in a popup.

I agree with you that that's a much better way to handle things. The cut to black and loading screen reinforces the perception that this is three separate mini-games forced together as one. It just doesn't really work. You lose the sense of continuity that this is the same civilization, especially when all of your buildings can change architectural styles from one Age to the next.

I think such changes should have been handled more gradually over the course of the game, with the identity of your people ebbing and flowing depending on how you handle crises or if you choose to remain isolationist or accept different cultures. In such a case, the Ages would have been more like markers similar to Civ VI (at which you can choose to transition or not depending on how you've played so far), not rigid stopgaps like VII where you have a set of goals you have to accomplish in each. But that would be a different game entirely at this point.