acluewithout
Deity
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2017
- Messages
- 3,495
Civ 6 was all about ‘playing the map’.
Playing the map means player should expect to decide and adjust strategy based on the actual terrain being played. Districts (particularly adjacency bonuses) were a big part of this, as was 1UPT. But builders / improvement, water / housing, tech / Eurekas, resources, disasters, governors, and other mechanics all reinforced this.
Playing the map was meant to drive another core idea - interesting decisions. Players had two tech trees to chase, different resources that worked in different ways (hammer, gold, & faith could all buy units, but in very different ways), policy cards they could swap in or out but limited by the type of government etc etc. These choices weren’t simply good or bad, or +2 this but -1 this, but were generally more ‘spikey’ meaning a choice could be good or bad or both depending on the exact situation. The idea was that all these choices would be driven by players having to adapt to their environment. No four city tall Civ 5 clicking click until rocket launch every game - instead, tough choices. Do I keep the governor here to keep leveraging adjacency yield, or move them to reduce disloyalty, or can I just handle disloyalty with more population or raising that encroaching city.
In Civ 7, District appear to be simplified. I don’t improve land, just allocate population, and no choice on improvements. Resources seem to be all the same. Governments appear simplified, each government can seeming slot any card. I’m getting bonuses by leveling up my Civ or leader, almost like Civ 5 policies / tenets, which comes with the risk that like Civ 5 that you just have one or a few always good optimal strategies.
And then on top of that, every Age every Civ seemingly gets levelled up to the next tech level and has to replace all their buildings etc - it’s not clear choices will have long term consequences or payoffs. Instead, it seems like you’re just in a loop of having to hustle / grind every Age.
I’m not saying Civ 7 has been dumbed down or anything. I’m just seeing it looks less ‘play the map’ at the moment, and more fundamentally less hard situational choices, and instead more just endless short term grind and or optimise + more ‘just pick how you want to win’ decisions rather than genuine hard choices and trade-offs.
I wasn’t worried until I listen to some YouTubers that had played the game. They were all super excited about all the QOL changes and getting rid of restrictions that let them leverage abilities and units. But I think part of the greater QOL and freedom they are enjoying is the flip side of not having to take trade-offs to pursue certain strategies.
I’m not panicking just yet. And I’m not calling out any particular mechanic as a deal breaker either. But at the moment, the overall feel is the game it’s going to be less ‘map’, less ‘puzzle’, less ‘hard, situational choices’, and more ‘every strategy is viable all the time’ and then just picking the right things to stack on top of each other again and again.
Early days. Not much information, and all very work in progress. But is anyone else getting the same vibe?
Playing the map means player should expect to decide and adjust strategy based on the actual terrain being played. Districts (particularly adjacency bonuses) were a big part of this, as was 1UPT. But builders / improvement, water / housing, tech / Eurekas, resources, disasters, governors, and other mechanics all reinforced this.
Playing the map was meant to drive another core idea - interesting decisions. Players had two tech trees to chase, different resources that worked in different ways (hammer, gold, & faith could all buy units, but in very different ways), policy cards they could swap in or out but limited by the type of government etc etc. These choices weren’t simply good or bad, or +2 this but -1 this, but were generally more ‘spikey’ meaning a choice could be good or bad or both depending on the exact situation. The idea was that all these choices would be driven by players having to adapt to their environment. No four city tall Civ 5 clicking click until rocket launch every game - instead, tough choices. Do I keep the governor here to keep leveraging adjacency yield, or move them to reduce disloyalty, or can I just handle disloyalty with more population or raising that encroaching city.
In Civ 7, District appear to be simplified. I don’t improve land, just allocate population, and no choice on improvements. Resources seem to be all the same. Governments appear simplified, each government can seeming slot any card. I’m getting bonuses by leveling up my Civ or leader, almost like Civ 5 policies / tenets, which comes with the risk that like Civ 5 that you just have one or a few always good optimal strategies.
And then on top of that, every Age every Civ seemingly gets levelled up to the next tech level and has to replace all their buildings etc - it’s not clear choices will have long term consequences or payoffs. Instead, it seems like you’re just in a loop of having to hustle / grind every Age.
I’m not saying Civ 7 has been dumbed down or anything. I’m just seeing it looks less ‘play the map’ at the moment, and more fundamentally less hard situational choices, and instead more just endless short term grind and or optimise + more ‘just pick how you want to win’ decisions rather than genuine hard choices and trade-offs.
I wasn’t worried until I listen to some YouTubers that had played the game. They were all super excited about all the QOL changes and getting rid of restrictions that let them leverage abilities and units. But I think part of the greater QOL and freedom they are enjoying is the flip side of not having to take trade-offs to pursue certain strategies.
I’m not panicking just yet. And I’m not calling out any particular mechanic as a deal breaker either. But at the moment, the overall feel is the game it’s going to be less ‘map’, less ‘puzzle’, less ‘hard, situational choices’, and more ‘every strategy is viable all the time’ and then just picking the right things to stack on top of each other again and again.
Early days. Not much information, and all very work in progress. But is anyone else getting the same vibe?