- Back to more realistic graphics
I see that as Boris Gudenuf and Zaarin. A Map with semi-realistic Appearance yet easy to capture/play is more likely.
- No more one unit per tile.
I actually think that the Devs might stick with 1UPT since they have more exprerience with it now, with CiV and Civ VI in the account. So they might as well want to expand on this systeme and experiment more with it (maybe also to not
copy Humankind's Unit Systeme, which is the optimal thing to do with Stacks).
If they DO go back to stacks, I don't think they will allow for "Stacks of Dooms". it's clear that they're not fans of it, since they switched directly to 1UPT with Civ5 and 6, but didn't try to just limit the stacks or make something similar to how Humankind have done it. I'm excited to see what they are planning (or have planned) for this.
I agree they might do a bit faster and streamlined combat, there was an 90s scifi strategy game "Spaceward ho!" where you gave some general order to your fleet and then an animated battle played out with the small ships and large capital spaceships duking it out.
I would Love that! Imagine if we could just set the Battle Strategy/Tactic (maybe predefined for each Armee, that you can just change and save) and let the AI
play the Battle and you see the outcome either after the end of the battle, or watch the actions of the battle while it takes place. It would be similar to how the X Manager Titles work (Like Football Manager). So that everything the Player has to be in charge of is building the Units, maybe grouping them with others, assigning a Task to them (Go to this Tile and make an Outpost, fortify, protect this Trader/Settler, participate in this Battle...etc) and set their Strategy. Great Generals/Admirals could be used as the (main) Strategist/Tacticians for each Group of Units (improving the effectiveness of the Units, and for higher chance of winning the Battles), that have predefined Attributes (Defense/Durability, Attack, Speed, Efficiency, Authority...etc), that affect The Group's Perfrmance, that can be improved with experience (best start with fighting Barbarians to gather enough Experience). Maybe each GG/GA could have it's unique Strategy/Tactic (and Military Cards could affect them as well). This way, the only micromanagement will be the GG/GA, who would also have a Promotion Tree (all the Units in a Group will get Promotions/Abilities with the GG/GA - less micro here). No more clicking each Unit individually and tell it what to do.
1 GG/GA to rule them'all!
I'm not sure. I think it's very likely that Rivers will take a big role with Trade Routes in Civ VII, but navigable with Units . . . the issue is that in 4X Games in the dimension of Civ and Humankind, the Rivers are very small and the Unit Models rather huge (Mods aside). So I think this will depend on how the Map Graphics are designed. If Rivers are wider than in Civ 6, the Models of Naval Units could change size when moving through Rivers. (SQL Artdefs in combination with PlotProperty Methode usable for most of the Assets would perhaps open the possibilty for a Mod that does this, if Firaxis wouldn't do it).
The things I think that will most likely be in Civ VII are:
- Administrators/Governors: most Players like Governors, and Secret Societies is, as how as I interpreted it, the most favored Game Mode by the Players (I'm more a Fan of another Mode that I'm still waiting for a Fix for it
). Firaxis might expand on this and go an extra step, perhaps with unlockable Governors, or even Unique Governors. (especially since Civ is taking the Lead on Great Person Types, ala Immortal Leaders and Great People). I think this will be included in Vanilla Civ VII.
- Stockable Strategic Resources: although this adds more to micro management, but not really much. it's actually simple, straitforward and requires the Player to just plan its settlements (or Conquest Target) and the Production of its Units, and it also encourages for more Diplomay with resource Deals (Connecting many aspects of the Game: Conquest/Domination, Diplomacy, Trade, Policies, Governors...etc). It's just that in Civ 6 most of the resource requiring Units have questionable resource requirements and Diplomacy, which should play the biggest role in acquiring strategic resources, is already one of the weak points of Civ 6.
- Barbarian Clans: I don't see why Firaxis wouldn't include this in the base game. Not doing this would feel like going a step backwards (even if they add it later with a DLC). They might perhaps expand this to Goody Hutts, with which you could Trade, and they could then turn into Trade CSs or Naval/Maritime if they are on Coast.
- Better Modding Capabilities than Civ6: even without access to the DLL Source Code of Civ6, Civ 6 is greatly moddable, especially Assets. The Database Modifiers are like direct access to DLL functions that can be customised with requirements and other options. And we actually only need a small set of lua Objects for each Game Systeme/Mechanic to be able to customize the Game as we wish (maybe even hardcoded AI behaviour, which would still be better than how it's currently).
So my bet is that Civ VII will be even more moddable than Civ 6, because the Devs have actually, actively, set quite the framework for a greatly moddable Civ 6 (they even made the Civ5 Skin Mod just to showcase what's possible with the Asset Tools), they, for whatever reason, just didn't finish what they've started. I think the initial Idea was to release the DLL (back in 2019(or early 2020?), Anton Strenger (I think) clarified that there is
currently no plans for releasing the DLL), but post GS the Plan may have changed. So if the Devs are of the impression that there is no chance of Firaxis releasing the DLL for Civ7 at some point, they will surely put their Efforts in making Civ VII more moddable that Civ 6, because, I think, they DO care about the moddability of the Game (they are CivFans like as, just with the privilege of working directy on the Game, including their own Ideas into the Game.. well, having some influence on the design of the Game. But leave it to them, they surely wouldn't hesitate to release the DLL).