Civilization VII - Antiquity Age Developer Livestream (9/12) Discussion

[valerislysander]

Looking at this minimap on turn 65, what do you people think of the map scale? It feels like a typical continent that we might get in civ6 where there is room for 4 civs to expand to 3-4 cities each. I wonder if this is the standard map? Will civ7 have huge maps? I also wonder if this will be pretty typical for the Antiquity Age where you are always on the same continent with a few other civs? If so, that would be a welcome change from civ6 where sometimes you were placed on a continent all by yourself and you had no competition. Having a few neighbors will make the game more interesting.

View attachment 703241

These are the important questions The map!
I'm sure they will have the usual array of map sizes. I find it so interesting how you wont get sailing across oceans until the exploration age. It really feels like a civ developing in a vast world with other civs you wont be in touch with until that age. And then you get to find how they've developed. I guess its similar to continents map but the difference is all civs will have to wait until that moment of the age change.
Im also hopign the UN or World Congress will start in the modern age once all the civs have met each other. Unlike the terrible system in civ6 where you vote against people you've never met before.

 

[chaosprophet]

On the rewatch, it seems a little OP to have the scout be able to move 1 hex and still be able to use the search feature. Maybe that should need full movement points to use.

Which brings up my other point. The initial build decision is less impactful than Civ 6 imho. Who wouldn't go scout first given how powerful they are?

I guess it is just better to have the option, but chances are very likely people would want the scout the great majority of the time. In pretty much any civ they are extremely useful from the get-go, after all.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

The thing I can’t stop thinking about is the removal of Great People. What is everyone else’s thoughts on that (I know there is a unique equivalent for Civs but it still feels weird)

I like having unique great people for certain civs. I feel like adds historical immersion. Now when I play as Greece, I can produce actual famous ancient Greeks like Socrates instead of just getting some random GP like Sun Tsu or Marie Curie.

 

[Zoeff]

I hope the Next Turn button is an example of where the UI is going, because otherwise, the drab gray boxes with sharp corners look is like someone's high school programming project.

Agreed on the Next Turn button. That felt like an evolution from Civ 6 that had at most a couple of "side" buttons attached to it. Seeing a whole wheel of buttons will make deciding what to do when a lot more streamlined.

And yeah the rest of the GUI looks like programmer art haha

 

[chaosprophet]

I wonder if “factory” refers instead to like trade factories eg feitorias rather than like factory in the assembly sense. Probably makes more sense for the exploration age ? But like, not necessarily the clearest language choice if that’s the case

It seems like the show factory was there even on Antiquity, which means it doesn't need to be something that will exist on all ages, but just that they have some importance related with resources so on the resources screen the option exists there even if possibly just used on modern age.

Ah, yes.

So the others are granted an extra extension of the cap when transitioning?

Or are you losing the bonus in transition, i.e., in order to keep the advantage of Rome, one would have to spend either a respective legacy point or slot a tradition card (if there is one with +1 settlement cap, I don't remember).

Looking at the game guide, the settlement increase for Rome is a product of researching the unique civic, and not of the tradition. The traditions (=unique policy slot) you keep for the next age, but the civic effects itself probably not? In which case, chances are the base settlement limit of the next age is always bigger or at least equal to the largest amount any civ could get in the previous age so that no one ends up having a decreased settlement limit at age transition. So to get a bigger settlement cap than other civs in the new age, you would need to pick again a civ that has settlement increase bonuses. But chances are many have them? 5 of the 6 antiquity civs listed on the game guide so far have increased settlement cap. Albeit only one, Rome, has two.

 

[Ryansinbela]

I don't love this, and for the narrative vs. sandbox folks, this is giving heavy points in favor of narrative.

I like having unique great people for certain civs. I feel like adds historical immersion. Now when I play as Greece, I can produce actual famous ancient Greeks like Socrates instead of just getting some random GP like Sun Tsu or Marie Curie.

Interesting responses so far though I think SupremacyKing’s make more sense to me
My reason is actually a pretty weak one which is that I like learning about various historical characters. Maybe mods will do something about it when the game comes out

 

[Kwami]

As for the minimap itself, I hope they add borders back... I like to see how big my empire is.

Wasn't that an option in Civ 6? Maybe it's a toggle in 7, too.

 

[Atlas627]

First indication of AI empire management. Although, as we don't know the difficulty, this is not very informative.

Carl had (per turn): 137 Gold, 36 Influence, 36 Science, 69 Culture. 94 Happiness and 8/8 cities.

View attachment 703223

And here's the AI.
Ashoka had: 77 Gold, 24 Influence, 46 Science, 38 Culture. 85 Happiness and 5/8 cities.
Hatshepsut had: 65 Gold, 28 Influence, 51 Science, 47 Culture. 25 Happiness and 3/8 cities.
Amina had: 74 Gold, 22 Influence, 32 Science, 41 Culture. 42 Happiness and 5/8 cities.

View attachment 703225View attachment 703226View attachment 703227

Except for Science, Carl clearly outperformed all AI (we also saw that during the Age, when at least one AI had more progress in the scientific legacy path). 21 settlements on the 4 player continent at the end of Antiquity. That seems a good number. But it also means that the AI (at that level) is highly unlikely to reach the conquest golden age.

Edit: I thought Rome had a higher settlement cap through a unique civic, but here, everybody has 8?

This was after the Age transition, so I'm assuming the AI didn't all pick the Economic Golden Age; perhaps turning their Cities back into Towns lost them yields?

 

[Siptah]

This was after the Age transition, so I'm assuming the AI didn't all pick the Economic Golden Age; perhaps turning their Cities back into Towns lost them yields?

Yeah, right. Didn't think about this explanation when I posted that info. But then it's even more interesting how much behind in science Carl was.

 

[Nikolai II]

Yeah, right. Didn't think about this explanation when I posted that info. But then it's even more interesting how much behind in science Carl was.

He did say his focus was on culture.

 

[Ornen]

The mysticism quote- found myself looking up the author, going down the rabbit hole- that’s what’s awesome about Civ to me. Yes it’s a game but you are also learning about our world, it’s pretty incredible and unlike pretty much anything else on the market

100% agree but ALSO hope they add sources on the quotes

 

[Ornen]

I don't love this, and for the narrative vs. sandbox folks, this is giving heavy points in favor of narrative.

i'm pro- narrative but anti- making everything (government, great people, etc) civ-dependent, so not too happy here.

my preferred civ would be civs have a small but significant impact, while giving players room to define their civ via big choices like governments/civics. but they have been consistently been moving away from that in the past few games.

 

[Disgustipated]

I hope they have carthage in the game. I really wanna wipe them off with Rome

Dido shakes her fist at you.

I will miss the great people race as well. I always competed hard for the happiness ones (yeah I intentionally made my games go on that long), and I liked the wonder boosting ones as well. And who remembers how OP Adam Smith was at the beginning of Civ 6? I went for him every single time, though I didn't always succeed in getting him.

As for the game being bland, some of that is the UI which I hope they liven up. The game might be a touch too much on the serious side. I know people didn't like the humorous quotes in Civ 6, but I liked some of them. Just not the ones by unknowns and TV actresses. But I liked the Mark Twain ones. The Civ series is definitely going in the serious direction, you'll never see anything like Civ 2 again.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I will miss the great people race as well. I always competed hard for the happiness ones (yeah I intentionally made my games go on that long), and I liked the wonder boosting ones as well. And who remembers how OP Adam Smith was at the beginning of Civ 6? I went for him every single time, though I didn't always succeed in getting him.

Given the number of People in the Greek list, which I suspect was to give you a choice of a variety of effects from them, I suspect that it will be normally impossible to get all of them in a single game.

That leaves two options: they are simply going to be missing from the game, or they become available to other Civs somehow ("Socrates shows up in the Roman Forum harassing the people there with his ^%@*& questions. Who the Heck taught him Latin?")

No, I have no idea how that would work, or even if it is anything they've contemplated, but it would "swing" the needle back towards Sandbox a little.

 

[Andrew Johnson [FXS]]

100% agree but ALSO hope they add sources on the quotes

The sources have been added! A very early build that was used for demonstration at, I think, Gamescom did not have them; that was a UI update, not a lack of having them in general. I think sources are extremely important. Quote content + source + situation it's being used = the feeling we're trying to convey.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Given the number of People in the Greek list, which I suspect was to give you a choice of a variety of effects from them, I suspect that it will be normally impossible to get all of them in a single game.

That leaves two options: they are simply going to be missing from the game, or they become available to other Civs somehow ("Socrates shows up in the Roman Forum harassing the people there with his ^%@*& questions. Who the Heck taught him Latin?")

No, I have no idea how that would work, or even if it is anything they've contemplated, but it would "swing" the needle back towards Sandbox a little.

From what I gather only Socrates, and all the other unique scholars on that list, are only going to be available for Greece. And those are the only kind that Greece can get in their game. Same goes for Egypt and their unique Architects and Rome and thier unique commander.
Other civs like the Maya, Maurya, and Aksum won't get thier own unique great people, but they do get other kinds of unique civilians.

 

[Siddorm]

I have poor eye sight. It looks like I am going to need to wear reading glasses to play Civ VII.

 

[Ryansinbela]

Hold on is Legatus gonna get a name list as well

 

[Nikolai II]

I have poor eye sight. It looks like I am going to need to wear reading glasses to play Civ VII.

Hopefully there is UI scaling and text scaling.

 

[Ornen]

("Socrates shows up in the Roman Forum harassing the people there with his ^%@*& questions. Who the Heck taught him Latin?")

ok but independent characters walking around the map causing a ruckus would be spectacular

not happening in this Civ, but how cool would it be?