Civilization VII Dev Diary #1: Ages

That's actually a great dev diary, much less repetitive than I would have thought.

I'm a bitt surprised that the Egypt civ route screenshot got changed - it now dropped Songhai and instead shows Abbasids as historic route. Yet, it still goes to Buganda, somehow.
And I'm surprised that FXS "enjoyed" the Egypt turning into Mongolia "memes"...

Looking forward to more of these. It was about time that FXS discusses their visions and thoughts in this type of form and not just repeating the same catchphrases again and again.
 
failing to complete even one milestone of a Legacy Path gives you an associated Dark Age Legacy.
I wonder if you could have an economic dark age and a cultural golden age legacy bonus at the same time
 
Het prog chart dev diary 1.PNG

They replaced Songhai with Abbasids on this chart, and show that Abbasids unlock Buganda.
 
This dev diary was definitely made to address some of the specific problems part of the fanbase had with the civ switching mechanic, hopefully it helps some of them change their view on it. But it still has a lot of interesting info on it, even for me who already was into the ages and civ switching and didn't needed to be convinced.
 
What exactly have the Abbasid to do with Buganda? Or am I missing something?

I mean that's the "historical" path, right?
I think that is the Regional path
Egypt ->Abbasids (Historical)
Egypt->Songhai (Regional)
Abassids->Buganda (Regional)

(although Songhai->Buganda is probably the Historical Path)
 
The write-up mostly summarizes what we've heard from him in previous videos, but good to have it all in one place.

I wish they told us more about the crises. Because how devastating and epic they are will determine how much I like the age transitions I think.
 
That is a nice overview, thanks! Interestingly, the Devs didn't specificy how excalty the AI picks its Civ after the transition. I could imagine, FXS is still not perfectly sure, how the AI choices do work there, after all.
 
That is a nice overview, thanks! Interestingly, the Devs didn't specificy how excalty the AI picks its Civ after the transition. I could imagine, FXS is still not perfectly sure, how the AI choices do work there, after all.

Firaxis has already revealed that the AI will always take a historical or regional pick if it is able to.

Personally, I hope that this is actually a toggleable option.
 
Firaxis has already revealed that the AI will always take a historical or regional pick if it is able to.

Personally, I hope that this is actually a toggleable option.
Yes, it was mentioned by Dennis Shirk during Pax West, that the AI will always choose the historical path. However, when Andrew talked about the AI during the last live stream's Q&A session, it sounded somewhat differently to me. I wonder, why they didn't elaborate the AI's choices in more detail in this diary, therefore I could imagine, this mechanism is not finally set up, yet. Toggleable options would also be fine with me, as long as I can deselect the non historical paths, I'm fine with this, too. :)
 
Yes, it was mentioned by Dennis Shirk during Pax West, that the AI will always choose the historical path. However, when Andrew talked about the AI during the last live stream's Q&A session, it sounded somewhat differently to me. I wonder, why they didn't elaborate the AI's choices in more detail in this diary, therefore I could imagine, this mechanism is not finally set up, yet. Toggleable options would also be fine with me, as long as I can deselect the non historical paths, I'm fine with this, too. :)

Imo, the best implementation is an option "AI picks historical choice when available" that is on by default.

If there is indeed a clear delineation between historical and regional (as opposed to a change in the terminology Firaxis is using in response to the initial reception), then you could perhaps make a distinction there too, whether you want to prefer historical over regional over gameplay unlock, or only <historical or regional> over gameplay unlock. Maybe also the ability to enable or disable leader-associated civ preference but it might become too complex at this point.

Honestly, in my own games, I expect I'll want the AI to go with the historical choice for the first few games I play, but after that I think I'll probably prefer it not prioritizing historical options (or perhaps having an elevated chance but not a guarantee, that'd be nice) to make it less predictable.
 
Imo, the best implementation is an option "AI picks historical choice when available" that is on by default.

If there is indeed a clear delineation between historical and regional (as opposed to a change in the terminology Firaxis is using in response to the initial reception), then you could perhaps make a distinction there too, whether you want to prefer historical over regional over gameplay unlock, or only <historical or regional> over gameplay unlock. Maybe also the ability to enable or disable leader-associated civ preference but it might become too complex at this point.

Honestly, in my own games, I expect I'll want the AI to go with the historical choice for the first few games I play, but after that I think I'll probably prefer it not prioritizing historical options (or perhaps having an elevated chance but not a guarantee, that'd be nice) to make it less predictable.
Why would there ever be NOT a historical/ regional (the difference between the two, is also not fully clear to me) choice available?
I do understand, that some players want the AI not to always to prioritize the historical/ regional path. So therefore a toggable option, what kind of paths (historical/ regional only, or also a gameplay option) are available for the AI makes the most sense to me, which should also satisfy most players.
 
I haven't seen whether it's true or not (I'm sure it's out there), but what will really mess me up is if the Leaders' colors change at the age change.
 
Why would there ever be NOT a historical/ regional (the difference between the two, is also not fully clear to me) choice available?

Because you can unlock non-historical/regional choices by unlocking certain gameplay features. Such as the one shown in the dev diary - if you have three horse resources, you unlock Mongolia.

EDIT: Wait, I misunderstood your question, you meant to ask why they'd have to pick a non-historical/regional option. This could be because the player has taken away their historical progression, or perhaps multiple civs have the same historical progression available, and another civ has already taken it (e.g. Rome -> Normals or Franks -> Normans).

Also, the difference between historical and regional is that historical implies direct cultural ties between the civs. A regional choice could even be something like Shawnee -> USA, while a historical tie couldn't be that. (note: we don't know whether this is possible in the game)

I haven't seen whether it's true or not (I'm sure it's out there), but what will really mess me up is if the Leaders' colors change at the age change.

In the gameplay livestream we saw that Rome -> Normans came with an icon change, but not a color change.
 
Because you can unlock non-historical/regional choices by unlocking certain gameplay features. Such as the one shown in the dev diary - if you have three horse resources, you unlock Mongolia.

EDIT: Wait, I misunderstood your question, you meant to ask why they'd have to pick a non-historical/regional option. This could be because the player has taken away their historical progression, or perhaps multiple civs have the same historical progression available, and another civ has already taken it (e.g. Rome -> Normals or Franks -> Normans).

Also, the difference between historical and regional is that historical implies direct cultural ties between the civs. A regional choice could even be something like Shawnee -> USA, while a historical tie couldn't be that. (note: we don't know whether this is possible in the game)
Understood, thanks for the clarification! ;)
 
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