Can we Speculate a Potential 4th Age from Civ 6's Era system?

sTAPler27

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So more or less Civ 7 lumps the Ancient and Classical, Medieval and Rennaisance, and Industrial and Modern alongside the early Atomic, this means the rest of the Atomic, along with Information and Future eras require Mechanics, Technologies, Civics etc. This part of the game has always felt like a "win more stage" where most of what you gain don't feel like things you must make meaningful choices on but rather just go through the motions until victory.
Civ Contemporary Tech Tree.png


These 19 technologies excluding future tech make up more or less the period that would represent the Contemporary world. The first two ages have 14 unique unlockable techs with the modern having 10, with 8, 11 and 10 masteries respectively. That means all core mechanics should likely fit into 14 or so techs with 10 or so masteries that add upon those. I can see a new age cutting the mini space race portion out of the modern age and brining it into the new one just because it would feel more fitting so that gives us 14 techs to split between one hundred years of history.
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The image above can be interpreted two ways primarily because of that first third which appears to depict Greece's Hoplites and Rome's Legion. However maybe this was to demonstrate that ages are thematically broken into thirds. My guess is that the first third will be more Cold War focused, second will be more Contemporary rise of the "Global Village", while the third is Speculative Near Future. With each traditional Era habing 5 or so techs that means each tech is going to have to be substantial enough in its gameplay effects, no filler techs with 1 unit you might never use.

By comparison the entirety of Civ 6's last three Eras can be broken down o "Your Last Units","Reduced CO2 Energy Sources","Space Race", and "GDR Upgrades" when it comes to tech at least. The Civic tree fares better with late game as outside of Tourism centered infastructure the policy cards are often applicable to all victory types yet aren't very engaging. Infastructure upgrades essentially become non existent past the Atomic Era with very little to occupy those going for most victory types outside of moving units around mindlessly, strategy boils down to pressing next turn.

With each age being its own game with its own balance more or less alongside having its own begining middle and end I believe that creates a need to split features more evenly throughout. The last two Eras in 6 feel like they're biding time to the Win Condition which is something you can't do when those 2 Eras make up the majority of that final Age. The Future Era is more or less filled with bonuses to kill time but with the addition of the Mastery system these will likely get roped into those, making the Techs you do research all have more substantial effects that are applicable to more playstyles. All in all mastering this final age will be this game's victory lap for proving they have fixed the pacing issues plaguing the series.
 
Yes, the Ages in Civ7 are explicitly divided into three unit tiers each. I would speculate that the tiers for a hypothetical fourth Age might be something like:
  1. Cold War
  2. Information Age (present day)
  3. Near Future
The advantage of adding a fourth Age instead of extending the third Age is that it preserves the existing mechanics rather cleanly; the victory conditions in the current Modern Age can be seamlessly demoted into normal Legacy Paths. The disadvantage is that they would need to add a third more civilizations, structures and units, which is a big ask.
 
I don't think another age makes sense. In the future, no one will be so concerned with the post-WWII until early 21st century period so much to think that it's a properly defined historical period that a game must model. We are living through the start of whatever that hypothetical age will be, with its ending crisis a ways away in the future.

The three act structure as it stands also flows nicely, and prevents Firaxis from having to pick either modern civs or provide more uniques if civs don't change. And with how different each age in the game is, what is the gameplay-related shakeup of a contemporary age? What is the new commander, or new realm of warfare? How is the victory condition not just the modern age condition with more steps? I don't think it makes sense to include more of what most people think is the most boring part of a civ game either.
 
The three act structure as it stands also flows nicely, and prevents Firaxis from having to pick either modern civs or provide more uniques if civs don't change. And with how different each age in the game is, what is the gameplay-related shakeup of a contemporary age? What is the new commander, or new realm of warfare? How is the victory condition not just the modern age condition with more steps? I don't think it makes sense to include more of what most people think is the most boring part of a civ game either.
Strongly agree, adding a fourth age is a lot of extra work for something that undermines the point of the three-act structure. If they add 'fourth age' content I can only imagine it as being more content to the third, but even then I kinda like keeping civ stopping at relatively recent history.
 
I don't mind a fourth age but I don't want it to have new civs, I think having another civ change is a bit too much.
If it's a full additional Age they still need to add all the same new assets (units, structures, abilities) that they would for new civilizations, even if they kept the same names as the Modern civs. It's a distinction without a difference.
 
If it's a full additional Age they still need to add all the same new assets (units, structures, abilities) that they would for new civilizations, even if they kept the same names as the Modern civs. It's a distinction without a difference.
It should be compulsory evolutions with limited choices. either as One nation, or a union.
and instead of fixed UU. this time UU should be customizable.
 
Well, CIV tends to add quite a lot of mechanisms in each extension. And, yes, seeing the modern civs we have so far, they seems to be up to early 1900s, so there could be room for another age.

The difficulty would be to find enough "advance modern" age civs to have sufficient pannel, while not reducing the number of choices in the "modern age"...
 
So more or less Civ 7 lumps the Ancient and Classical, Medieval and Rennaisance, and Industrial and Modern alongside the early Atomic, this means the rest of the Atomic, along with Information and Future eras require Mechanics, Technologies, Civics etc. This part of the game has always felt like a "win more stage" where most of what you gain don't feel like things you must make meaningful choices on but rather just go through the motions until victory.View attachment 715212

These 19 technologies excluding future tech make up more or less the period that would represent the Contemporary world. The first two ages have 14 unique unlockable techs with the modern having 10, with 8, 11 and 10 masteries respectively. That means all core mechanics should likely fit into 14 or so techs with 10 or so masteries that add upon those. I can see a new age cutting the mini space race portion out of the modern age and brining it into the new one just because it would feel more fitting so that gives us 14 techs to split between one hundred years of history.
View attachment 715214
The image above can be interpreted two ways primarily because of that first third which appears to depict Greece's Hoplites and Rome's Legion. However maybe this was to demonstrate that ages are thematically broken into thirds. My guess is that the first third will be more Cold War focused, second will be more Contemporary rise of the "Global Village", while the third is Speculative Near Future. With each traditional Era habing 5 or so techs that means each tech is going to have to be substantial enough in its gameplay effects, no filler techs with 1 unit you might never use.

By comparison the entirety of Civ 6's last three Eras can be broken down o "Your Last Units","Reduced CO2 Energy Sources","Space Race", and "GDR Upgrades" when it comes to tech at least. The Civic tree fares better with late game as outside of Tourism centered infastructure the policy cards are often applicable to all victory types yet aren't very engaging. Infastructure upgrades essentially become non existent past the Atomic Era with very little to occupy those going for most victory types outside of moving units around mindlessly, strategy boils down to pressing next turn.

With each age being its own game with its own balance more or less alongside having its own begining middle and end I believe that creates a need to split features more evenly throughout. The last two Eras in 6 feel like they're biding time to the Win Condition which is something you can't do when those 2 Eras make up the majority of that final Age. The Future Era is more or less filled with bonuses to kill time but with the addition of the Mastery system these will likely get roped into those, making the Techs you do research all have more substantial effects that are applicable to more playstyles. All in all mastering this final age will be this game's victory lap for proving they have fixed the pacing issues plaguing the series.
And for French. another pic shows WW1 French Infantrymen. while French UU is Imperial Guard, this might be what it could looks like as Tier 2.
unless you say. French Imperial Guard does NOT replace Infantry lineage.
 
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I'm not very good at predictions, but i'm almost certain there will be a 4th age, and it will come after the existing 3 rather than before/between.
  • In the Industrial Age stream, Ed Beach said that there is a limit to how far you can move troops with rail in that particular age. An interesting way to tell that considering the Industrial Age is a the last one, and rail comes during Industrial.
  • In the same stream, he also said they already have ideas for content beyond the current end of the game, even thought he wasn't more specific than that and didn't talk specifically about another age.
  • Russia has an ageless unique improvement. Seems like ageless is standard for UI so probably not a strong clue, but still listing it.
  • France is present in the game as "French Empire", which is a very short and specific part of their history, and portraying France as only their imperial "era" doesn't make much sense unless they plan to add another version of France, which might come as the modern Republic (or the Kingdom of France as an exploration age in a DLC).
I'm sure i missed some other "hints" mentioned in various threads, neither of those are extremely convincing on their own but if you add them together, they seem to form a clear pattern indicating Firaxis at least keeps the option open to add a 4th age.

However, more than those, i think it's simply obvious from a development point of view that there will be a 4th age at some point. As far as i remember, Civilization always had a large expansion pack. Civ 6 even had 2 of those. Those packs have to justify their price and bring more than just a few extra civilizations (that's what DLCs are for), they have to bring new mechanisms. In previous titles those new mechanisms often didn't fit perfectly with the existing ones, and sometimes created a somewhat bloated final product. The ages system allows the addition of new mechanisms, while keeping them separate from existing ones, preserving balance and preventing an excess of mechanisms from diluting each other into an unrecognizable blob of features where you no longer know what's important. For the first time in Civ history, they have the perfect basis for adding large scale x-packs, it would be weird that they don't take advantage of that. The only reason i could imagine why we don't see a 4th age sometime in the coming years would be if Civ7 completely falls flat and 2k decides to cut on the losses and move-on, but given the power of the title, it would take a really bad base game for that.

Now, i think it would make more sense to add an additional age after the current industrial because adding an age "in between" existing ones might require moving some civilizations between ages, more work and less isolation of the mechanisms. As for adding another age before Classical, as far as some players would love a neolithic period, there simply isn't enough features for that "age" to be relevant, sure it would cover 1000s years of human history rather than 1 (or a couple if you go "future era") centuries but you'd likely be limited to a single settlement (if you can even settle), very few research, and the only interesting activity would be scouting for the perfect location of your first settlement to move into the classical era. It might be interesting as an "alternate start" but not a full age.
 
The main problem for contemporary Civs is political sensitivity, as has been mentioned by Firaxis with regard to Civ/leader choices in earlier games.

That said, the end of Age 3 does leave a lot of room to add content. The question is whether this would go into an extension of Age 3, or a full Age 4.

Also, the Age system provides a nice hook for a Beyond Earth Age IMO.
 
Now, i think it would make more sense to add an additional age after the current industrial because adding an age "in between" existing ones might require moving some civilizations between ages, more work and less isolation of the mechanisms. As for adding another age before Classical, as far as some players would love a neolithic period, there simply isn't enough features for that "age" to be relevant, sure it would cover 1000s years of human history rather than 1 (or a couple if you go "future era") centuries but you'd likely be limited to a single settlement (if you can even settle), very few research, and the only interesting activity would be scouting for the perfect location of your first settlement to move into the classical era. It might be interesting as an "alternate start" but not a full age.
Really nice analysis!

There is probably room for a 'Medieval' Age without too much shuffling of Civs. I mean, historically Antiquity ended around 500CE, and Exploration started in the 1400s. So the whole castles/knights/feudal period is kind of absent it seems.
 
The 4th could also be an alternative for ones of the other (using the same civs but with different bonuses applied). For example, a medieval age instead of exploration age with different focus and mechanics. Or a romantic age instead of the modern one that‘s less industrial that has different great works, and cancer cure as scientific goalpost.
 
I imagine a 4th Age would be a combination of same civs with different mechanics and music plus their respective 4th age evolutions and some new civs (albeit I’d only imagine Australia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Pakistan as realistic options for new civs in that era)
 
As for adding another age before Classical, as far as some players would love a neolithic period, there simply isn't enough features for that "age" to be relevant, sure it would cover 1000s years of human history rather than 1 (or a couple if you go "future era") centuries but you'd likely be limited to a single settlement (if you can even settle), very few research, and the only interesting activity would be scouting for the perfect location of your first settlement to move into the classical era. It might be interesting as an "alternate start" but not a full age.
Maybe I'm just an ancient history nerd, but I think there could be some really cool game systems built around everything historically that went into being able to build and create what we start out able to on turn 1, i.e. we can build a granary on turn 1, a farm on turn 2, etc.. In history, someone had to figure out that combining tin and copper made bronze or that certain plants were edible, etc.. Such a system might just diverge too much from the mechanics underlying the ages the base game is built around though. Either way, agree a pre-antiquity age isn't something I would expect here.

However, seems obvious there will be a 4th age expansion... and a way to avoid some of the pitfalls others have shared in the thread, I imagine it would be evolving your modern age civ into a new custom civ that you could name and pull abilities based on whatever you did historically. Not too different from their memento system. Having tokens available that were unlocked (unbeknownst to you) from your prior three ages that you can put together to define your 4th age civ. This avoids all the modern context issues that I agree could be disastrous from a PR perspective. The idea of rewriting the future with new civs from the end of modern age feels right. But tbh I really don't care much for the info/atomic age stuff, I prefer ancient history.
 
I've elsewhere floated my idea that the material from 1950 onward will form part of a third crisis rather than a fourth age. The crisis would involve (our real-world's crises through that time) MAD, cultural fragmentation, climate change. There would be a victory condition for this age that would be a sort of diplomatic victory: getting all of the nations to work together to overcome the crisis/crises.

 
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Really nice analysis!

There is probably room for a 'Medieval' Age without too much shuffling of Civs. I mean, historically Antiquity ended around 500CE, and Exploration started in the 1400s. So the whole castles/knights/feudal period is kind of absent it seems.
Civ 7 version of exploration starts much earlier with knight being researched as part of the tree and safe sailing quite late in the tree, so it's more like 800 to 1600.
 
Mechanics:
Multinational Corporations: they aren't your corporations, you can build their Manufacturing Plants/Servers for benefits in your civ and buy to spread their markets at home and abroad .. but if they have too few #markets for their # of Manufacturing Plants/Servers.. a member of that same Corp from another civ can pay to Outsource/shut down that server/Manufacturing plant (effectively destroying it)...(the socialists can still compete here they are just a lot better on the defense and really only expand to their puppets)

Pax Atomica/Cold War: nuclear weapons that are widespread to Civs (not IPs) and Very destructive (ie complete elimination of all pop/improvements/buildings from a settlement anywhere in the world... buy/build a Silo with a pack of 6) means that wars are all between civs and IPs or IPs and IPs... so Proxy Wars Covert Wars, etc. actually directly declaring War on a Civ (ie a Nuclear Power) results in massive penalties

Decolonization: cities conquered or on Distant Lands or on different continents and far from your capital... will count extra against the settlement limit (once your competitors get this civic)... Liberate them to be friendly IPs or deal with rebel activities... as they become unfriendly IPs (Civics in this age don't increase your Settlement Limit... they decrease your opponents)

Neocolonialism: IPs can be shifted back and forth ..no Suzerein is permanent (through Proxy Wars/Covert Wars or Influence) and you get new ways to get benefits from them [getting Military Bases in Foreign Settlements is the way to get the Military Legacy Path]

UN: allows Endeavors/Sanctions that are multilateral if enough civs pay influence to support it

Satellites: Increasing Tech allows you to get complete vision of the map and get combat and yield bonuses for satellites you put in the Orbital space

Demographic Transition: MASSIVE food bonuses early in the tech tree.... but Civics that you get start to decrease your growth rate (and/or the growth rate of your opponents)... but they give you benefits in other yields per excess food.... however if you have more than -100% growth you can actually start slowly losing specialist population [enough Future Civics stop the drop and let you grow more (if there is more specialist room)]

Pollution/Climate Change/Power: Fuel Resources come in packs of 4 or 10 since they are used to generate power in your cities and provide for transport in your cities... however Fossil Fuel resources generate Greenhouse Gases... later in the game you can do Geoengineering to remove them(Carbon Capture) or prevent the side effects.(Blocking)
[without power in a city none of the buildings have any effect.. but power has other options: Nuclear/Hydro/Renewable takes space and can only be 50% of city power until adv battery tech/Fusion]
There is also Local and Global pollution based on general production... mitigated by technology and Policies (local) or Treaties(Global)
Consequences of Climate Change includes increased weather disasters+ the base effects of pollution which is unhappiness and food penalties

No more Settlers: you can make outposts that capture a resource tile (and claim the ones next to it) or National Parks either near one of your settlements or borders as long as its not too close to anyone else's [later techs allow placing the Outposts on Deep Sea resources]

Ideological/Governmental Struggle: New Ideologies (Capitalism, Nationalism, Socialism) put pressures on each other, and Can be changed if you wish [expensive and you lose the bonuses from the civics in the old ideology]...if the Pressure is too much and you are forced to change your Ideology... you also may have to change your Government (One Party State, Free Democracy, Charismatic Leader) each Government type allows you to use the Social Policies from the Modern age Ideologies [OPS:Communism, FD: democracy, CL: Fascism)

Internet Propaganda/Cyberwarfare: Not only some of the corporations…but also a significant boost/new ways for espionage (including destabilizing your opponent)

Final Victories&Legacy Paths: The Final Victories for the ?Global? age would not just be the end of the Legacy Paths
Legacy Paths
Military: Foreign Military bases
Science: Space missions, final is Mission to Mars (get people there and back)
Economic: Markets for Corporations you have the HQ or Manufacturing Plants/Servers for (smaller of Mfg. Plant/Server*7 and number of Settlements that is a Market)
Cultural: establish Cultural Dominance over Foreign Settlements (using Multimedia Great Works and other tools)
.... But the Final Victories each require 2 Legacy paths to be Complete
Diplomatic Victory: World Civilization...Requires Culture and Military Legacy Paths to be able to start (Competitive as others move forward it can push you backwards)
Expansionist Victory: Interplanetary Civilization(Martian Colony)...Requires Science and Economic Legacy Paths

Years listed in Game: (200 turns) 1960-2160 however, since Age completion with often be early (say 130 turns) the tech/Civic Trees would probably be about half current (1960-2025)and half "extended" 2025-2090* mostly stuff that is here now/talked about but not fully realized.


Civs.... first of all they Absolutely need a system where you can keep your Civ name&City List&Graphics style That Way I could keep my name as France and Paris as my Capital and euro style building graphics and choose the India Civ for my uniques (or the Soviet civ or the EU civ or the US civ or the Brazil civ)
 
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I don't mind a fourth age but I don't want it to have new civs, I think having another civ change is a bit too much.
Specially with 3rd Age Civilizations that still exists in the present-day and that wouldn't need to change for a 4th Age of merely 50 historical years.
 
I don't mind a fourth age but I don't want it to have new civs, I think having another civ change is a bit too much.
I don't think "old civs" thing would work. Elephants and Cossacs used as a military unit in contemporary age? Doesn't seem right.

Yes, many contemporary civs would be the same as modern ones, but they could be possible to shuffle them with names. I.e. modern Germany will become Prussia with name "Germany" going to contemporary one. Many post-colonial countries could be introduced there, also some shuffling could be done too - if Latin America in modern is represented by Mexico, in contemporary it could be Brazil.
Specially with 3rd Age Civilizations that still exists in the present-day and that wouldn't need to change for a 4th Age of merely 50 historical years.
For some 3rd age civs the peak of their power could be somewhere around 19th century or even earlier. Buganda or Mughal India aren't great candidates for contemporary age. Having Nigeria and/or South Africa would be better sub-saharan representation and modern post-colonial India is likely to need quite different design.
 
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