Civ7 is the most bizarre game in the franchise so far.

[Jeppetto]

I hope that it is possible to pin a legacy goal and your progress to the main view, not just the general age progress (e.g., 7 out of 10 masteries researched, 16 resources connected, instead of just age 83% completed). That would help a lot and would be goal oriented as well.

It would also make sense as now a Journal of Quests appears right underneath the Victory Button.

 

[gdr_willter]

In Civ 6 and 7, sprawling settlement is not a visual fancy feature but a gameplay feature. You have to design your city/town based on the surrounding terrains. Those are the tiles on the main map, so you can easily look around and plan your city. If you have to do it in the behind screen of each tile, planning the Settlement will be an endless boring micromanagement.

 

[UWHabs]

In Civ 6 and 7, sprawling settlement is not a visual fancy feature but a gameplay feature. You have to design your city/town based on the surrounding terrains. Those are the tiles on the main map, so you can easily look around and plan your city. If you have to do it in the behind screen of each tile, planning the Settlement will be an endless boring micromanagement.

Yeah, I mean, I get that the scale of the game is off - I'm sure both games would work better if you had a map that was 2x as tall and 2x as wide, with everything else scaling a bit more as well (4 tiles between cities, an extra movement point, etc...). But it's one of those things where you have some compromises needed.

Although I do definitely wish we could have a bit more space, and would let us keep a few more sections of the map as "natural" areas. Even just a few tiles here or there where we can keep a random forest around as a nature park sort of tile.

 

[uppi]

The next tech/civic selection screen in Civ6 is not really a separate screen anyway, but a sidebar too the main map. It helps to have your empire visible when deciding what to do next (Can I get enough iron to justify iron working?).

Only when you want to see the entire tree, you go to a different screen. I recently played Civ:BE again and one annoyance I noticed was that you had to select a tech without seeing the map.

 

[Kyriakos]

I like separate screens. Besides, the last few years virtually every new game has the same interface and same style. Games are supposed to be distinct, not be ready for you who never played anything in the series before to be aware of all in an instant so that you don't lose focus and move to the next.

 

[kaspergm]

I understand people with horrible allergy to CIv 6 art style.

I fail to understand how anyone can think that Civ 7 is ugly.

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Spoiler :

 

[NamiTidecaller]

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Spoiler :

View attachment 712508

This is the yield view here, what is the point here ? In almost every Civ game, this view looks crowded, especially when you zoom in, just like in this example. So what’s the argument that makes Civilization VII look ‘ugly’?
It seems clear that you have a strong dislike for the game, which is fine, but your comments and poll responses since the reveal seem to be driven more by bias than constructive critique. There’s no need to force a negative narrative with weak comparisons or exaggerated phrasing. If the game isn’t for you, that’s okay, but instead of repeatedly criticizing it without offering anything meaningful, why not just focus on the games you enjoy?

 

[ColtSeavers]

This is the yield view here, what is the point here ? In almost every Civ game, this view looks crowded, especially when you zoom in, just like in this example. So what’s the argument that makes Civilization VII look ‘ugly’?
It seems clear that you have a strong dislike for the game, which is fine, but your comments and poll responses since the reveal seem to be driven more by bias than constructive critique. There’s no need to force a negative narrative with weak comparisons or exaggerated phrasing. If the game isn’t for you, that’s okay, but instead of repeatedly criticizing it without offering anything meaningful, why not just focus on the games you enjoy?

The UI and the Yield Icons look like directly taken out of Civ 6, a game which is more than 8 years old! The rest is not really pretty, either.

 

[Zaarin]

The UI and the Yield Icons look like directly taken out of Civ 6, a game which is more than 8 years old! The rest is not really pretty, either.

I'm not sure how the age of the game is relevant to UI; UI doesn't evolve like graphics except in following trends--and unfortunately Civ7 has the rather bland, minimalist approach popular at the moment, not at all like Civ6's more baroque UI. Also, like @Vitruvian Guar, I'm a little confused how anyone could look at Civ7's map and not find it breathtaking. On the other hand, some people find Civ5's sinfully ugly map beautiful so YMMV.

 

[Sagax]

I'm not sure how the age of the game is relevant to UI; UI doesn't evolve like graphics except in following trends--and unfortunately Civ7 has the rather bland, minimalist approach popular at the moment, not at all like Civ6's more baroque UI. Also, like @Vitruvian Guar, I'm a little confused how anyone could look at Civ7's map and not find it breathtaking. On the other hand, some people find Civ5's sinfully ugly map beautiful so YMMV.

Impressions change over time, I guess. I initially found Civ 6’s map pretty… only to quickly enable the Civ 5 terrain mod once the hype has settled down and I’ve realized how much of mobile game vibes I was getting from it.

With Civ 7, I’ve liked every “curated” shot that they gave us in civ shorts and First Looks, but there is definitely some odd clutter seen in their stream footage. Can’t say for everyone, but in my case, most of that is attributed to two culprits:

1. Chaotic automated roads and pretty much non-existent urban planning. Of course, we’re not playing City Skylines, but when that aspect is not at all part of the consideration, we do miss out on aesthetically pleasing city layouts.

2. Walls - boy are they ugly in this game. Extremely angular and follow the hexagon shape to an absurd degree. I’d like them to be smoothed out or offered with a greater visual variety.

 

[Zaarin]

Impressions change over time, I guess. I initially found Civ 6’s map pretty… only to quickly enable the Civ 5 terrain mod once the hype has settled down and I’ve realized how much of mobile game vibes I was getting from it.

R&F's golden age saturation filter overdid it; I still like Civ6's normal age palette. But I'm not a fan of gritty; I find Civ5's terrain to be very bland and ugly (and thought the same of the Civ6 mod).

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

I don't particularly like the walls either, but on balance I still think the map largely looks great, and more alive than any previous Civ.

 

[playshogi]

The late game has never been much fun and Civ7 will be no exception to the pattern. Do they really think micromanaging factories by gathering resources is going to be fun? Do they really think packing commanders and moving that around the map is fun when it looks like you will have a gazillion commanders that have to be loaded and moved? Then when they reach the target, the AI has no or only token defense! Victory appears to be akin to score victory in all cases. I think they will find people playing the first two ages and then not really finishing the modern.

 

[j51]

The late game has never been much fun and Civ7 will be no exception to the pattern. Do they really think micromanaging factories by gathering resources is going to be fun? Do they really think packing commanders and moving that around the map is fun when it looks like you will have a gazillion commanders that have to be loaded and moved? Then when they reach the target, the AI has no or only token defense! Victory appears to be akin to score victory in all cases. I think they will find people playing the first two ages and then not really finishing the modern.

Looks that way to me too, but hopefully it’s better than all that.

 

[TreVor_ish]

The late game has never been much fun and Civ7 will be no exception to the pattern. Do they really think micromanaging factories by gathering resources is going to be fun? Do they really think packing commanders and moving that around the map is fun when it looks like you will have a gazillion commanders that have to be loaded and moved? Then when they reach the target, the AI has no or only token defense! Victory appears to be akin to score victory in all cases. I think they will find people playing the first two ages and then not really finishing the modern.

Yeah...
And with crises always happening at certain point more then once in the game, rubber banding after every change, gaps in years which introduce lack of historic continuity, cramped maps that feel claustrophobic with all the sprawl that isn't even consistent, this might feel even more repetitive after few games. And to add, only 10 choices of civs every game, at least until DLC's.

 

[kaspergm]

This is the yield view here, what is the point here ?

It's not just the yield view that's the problem here. There has been talk about whether city sprawl will be overly excessive or not. I think this screenshot speaks for itself. There has been talk about whether buildings are too large and the map will look overly messy. I think again this speaks for itself. And don't even get me started on those city walls!

 

[Siptah]

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Spoiler :

View attachment 712508

The most "beautiful" thing in this picture is the railroad "crossing" the navigable river with a ferry (?). They really need to have proper roads and railroads on/between the tiles and then have trains and carts running on these. Currently, in yesterday's livestream, that is really off-putting. And of course, more colorful standard buildings on the urban tiles are necessary. For America and Mexico, these are really ugly. Otherwise, I find walls to be the only really negative for me.

 

[Barbarian King]

There were sprawling cities and empires far before the modern era. And looking to see an empire is indeed the entire point I’m making: going back to 5 or 4 doesn’t feel like an empire. I see one tiny square or hex with some generic buildings surrounded by mines or farms. It feels like looking at a Settlers of Catan board, not looking at a massive empire.

I think it was Civ 3 that had the generic buildings, in Civ 4 and 5 you saw the buildings you built in your cities. I know this whole debate really boils down to aesthetic preferences, but for me 4 & 5 got the balance right of being able to watch your cities grow yet still have the map feel like it is a large empire. Large empires are mostly rural land, so that's the visual I like to see in history themed empire games. I like both city builders and 4X games, but Civ's aesthetic seems to be trending towards that which is more appropriate for city builders than 4X, and I hope they reverse this and reduce the city sprawl in future.

 

[TreVor_ish]

Civ's aesthetic seems to be trending towards that which is more appropriate for city builders than 4X, and I hope they reverse this and reduce the city sprawl in future.

Sprawl in itself is fine, but what I'm seeing in CIVII is map getting really cramped for those sizes and workable area of 3 tiles from the center.
Empires reduced to blobs of sprawl that doesn't even look that appealing late game IMHO.