Checking in from the dev team: June update is almost here!

[FXS_Sar]

*A quick update on the release timing for Update 1.2.2: This is one of the largest updates to Civilization VII since we launched, and to ensure it meets your expectations and our own quality bar, we've decided to move the release date to next week. Thanks for hanging in with us, and we're excited to get Update 1.2.2 in your hands!

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We’ve got a new Civ VII update on the way, and this one’s hefty (). We’re currently targeting June 17* (subject to change if anything unexpected pops up), and we’ve put together a check-in that breaks down what’s in the update, some items still in progress, and where your feedback is helping guide what comes next.

Read it here!

Or for those that want a quicker read, here's a nicely bulleted list of what's coming next:

• Large and Huge map sizes
• New Advanced Game Options
• Steam Workshop support
• New Town Specializations
• New City-State Bonuses, Pantheons, and Beliefs
• Specialist Balance
• Treasure Fleet improvements
• A pettable Scout dog
• Bug fixes, UI updates, and quality-of-life improvements
• …plus more in the full patch notes, coming very soon

We’re also using this check-in to talk about a few of the recurring community topics that aren’t being addressed in 1.2.2 - but are firmly on the dev radar. Many of these are things we know matter to long-term depth and replayability. Some of that work's already underway behind the scenes, but it’ll take more than one update to get right.

With that being said, and as unbiased as a community manager can be for her own game, the devs have been working hard on this one there’s a lot packed into this update! We’re excited to see what you think once it’s out.

Please keep your feedback coming, we're reading it! Full patch notes will go live when the update rolls out. More soon.

 

[Nikolai II]

Huge maps! I want to play a huge Pangaea.

 

[user746383]

Congrats! Hopefully this can bring some players back. Looks like some great improvements, especially the configuration options that let people set up the game they want to play. Thanks for listening even to the complainers!!

 

[99-percent-sure]

Okay, now they're really getting down to business: letting us turn legacy paths on or off (and choosing which ones are active), crisis picker, obviously large and huge maps, customizing AI opponents, letting us bypass Civ unlocks if we want to play a particular Civ in a particular age, treasure fleets moving over land, starting to fix the awkward age transition process in July, beginning the process of improving the religion system (which will no doubt take a while to really fix).

This is what they needed to be doing. The game needs variety and options if it's going to remain interesting long-term, and that means large-scale improvements. The conversation around this update suggests that they're starting to think about that more seriously, and this is the first real step.

 

[queenpea]

• Crisis Picker - This lets you choose which crises are allowed to show up in your game. If there’s a particular crisis that doesn’t fit the kind of game you’re wanting to play, you can simply disable it.

Yay!

• Turn Legacy Paths on or off - You can now turn off Legacy Paths, either per Age, or for all of them at once. With this change, you can now play a Civ VII game without Legacy mechanics to enjoy a full sandbox-style game. Or, if you want to focus on just one or more Legacy Paths, you can turn specific ones on or off. This option also includes the ability to turn off Score Victories. We definitely want feedback on how this one in particular feels, so let us know in our official Discord!

Yay!

• Custom AI Difficulty - For all our players that want more or less of a challenge from the AI, you’ll appreciate this change! You’ll still have the six standard difficulties, but now you can go in and tweak individual systems like economy, combat, and expansion, customizing your AI opponents to your liking.

Yay!

• Bypass Civ unlocks - When you toggle this new option on, you’ll be able to pick ANY civ from the next Age during an Age transition, no matter what you’ve unlocked through your gameplay decisions. This is something we know many have asked for, especially those who want more freedom to experiment or roleplay!

Weird!

• Resort Town is a brand new Town Specialization aimed at players who like settling in naturally beautiful areas. It gives bonuses to Happiness and Gold on tiles with high Natural Appeal, and on top of that, Towns with this Specialization get a bonus to Yields on Natural Wonder tiles.

Hello Pompeii!

• Treasure Fleet Improvements: Treasure Fleets are growing legs! These will now be called Treasure Convoys, and you’ll be able to use them over land and not just the sea.

Big yay!

• Scout Dog is now Pettable: Okay, this one’s less gameplay-impacting. But it does impact our hearts and souls.

Biggest yay!

But we also want to acknowledge some of the bigger things players have been asking about. With Civ VII, we took some big swings with many features (Ages, Civ Switching, Commanders, Legacy Paths, Legends & Mementoes, Towns, and more!). Our goal: move beyond static empire-building and into something more dynamic, where your civilization evolves and reinvents itself over time.​

​

That being said, we also hear that some of these features haven’t landed quite as we'd hoped in their current implementation. Specifically, here are a few recurring themes we’ve seen in player feedback:​

• Age Transitions can feel abrupt
• Game replayability needs more depth
• There's room for improving the player's sense of empire identity and continuity throughout a multi-Age campaign

Somehow an even bigger biggest yay!

Thank you for all of the work you are doing on the game. I know I can be critical, and sometimes too critical, but I am this way because I do love the Civilization series. Updates like these make me feel like our feedback is valued and heard.

 

[Siptah]

This contains quite some surprises. Can‘t wait to play it.

 

[user746383]

I can’t wait to try a game without legacy paths.. should be quite an interesting vibe change.

 

[Mudkip1001]

Steam Workshop support

So unbelievably excited for this!!!

 

[marius_kaparius]

So if I understand correctly I can play a game with only the Science Legacy path and Victory in the modern age, the Plague Crisis in the Exploration Age and then the Hostile Independents in the Ancient Era? If so, then perfect!

 

[disjointaccount]

Sounds fantastic, thank you!

Personally very excited by treasure convoys - that was my biggest want that I figured would be coming sooner or later but I wasn't expecting it this quickly.

Also very intrigued by the implications of the new Urban Centre. Tall's biggest Achilles' heel imo was its lack of access to "tree yields" (more cities means more science/culture buildings; a handful of cities with many towns can't easily replicate that), and so pursuing science/culture in a tall game required specific strategies. Open season on sci/culture buildings for tall play is gonna be a big shake-up (and as a side effect, a soft nerf to Augustus lol)

 

[Suicidekills]

I love the changes to town specializations! I can buy more buildings in my urban center towns? Sick. And with these changes to City State Bonuses...I think it might be time to try out Tecumseh Oh and also, "And for those of you that have stronger criticisms to share, thank you too."

 

[Mudkip1001]

I love the changes to town specializations! I can buy more buildings in my urban center towns? Sick. And with these changes to City State Bonuses...I think it might be time to try out Tecumseh Oh and also, "And for those of you that have stronger criticisms to share, thank you too."

this to me is the most interesting, it will make picking this option way more worth it.

 

[CliffCo]

The crisis picker is one i requested in Feedback, i'm extremely happy that they are implementing it. Ill start using Crisis again now but with just the plague turned off.

 

[ehecatzin]

I really like the buffs and expanded options for towns, I hope it makes the town/city split better. specially like the changes to urban centers.

Really curious to try a game without legacies, see how it impacts the flow of the game.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Every single change listed here makes the game better.

 

[CliffCo]

I can’t wait to try a game without legacy paths.. should be quite an interesting vibe change.

I like the we'll be able to disable the score victory too, will be interesting to see how it works.

 

[Leucarum]

This sounds unambiguously good. I wonder how it will play with all legacy paths off. I didn't expect firaxis to just give us the option to delete them all!

 

[cbum]

Agree this is all good news.
I hope the feature of being able to toggle between "pretty" view and tactical view without all the visual clutter is under consideration.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

This sounds unambiguously good. I wonder how it will play with all legacy paths off. I didn't expect firaxis to just give us the option to delete them all!

I suspect that deleting Legacy Paths is a 'quick fix' until they can tackle the linear and boring Legacies completely. Right now, a major critique of the game is the boringly-similar Legacy Paths that are the same in every game and bend game-play into the same directions every single game. Deleting them allows us to ignore all those restrictions until they can work up real alternative Legacy Paths for enough of the legacies (ultimately, All of them) to keep every game interesting and not More Of The Same.

 

[Leucarum]

I suspect that deleting Legacy Paths is a 'quick fix' until they can tackle the linear and boring Legacies compltetely. Right now, a major critique of the game is the boringly-similar Legacy Paths that are the same in every game and bend game-play into the same directions every single game. Deleting them allows us to ignore all those restrictions until they can work up real alternative Legacy Paths for enough of the legacies (ultimately, All of them) to keep every game interesting and not More Of The Same.

I'm still surprised! I had thought maybe there would be alternative legacy paths rather than deleting them wholesale! I wonder what that means for culture - is there a point in religion/artifacts beyond a tiny amount of culture if you delete that path? Do civs with path related bonuses like Mongolia need adjustment?

I will say I like that their approach seems to be to add as many options as possible. They have a very fragmented audience to please. I don't see how they do it otherwise.