Civilization VII Dev Diary #7: Legends & Mementos

[FXS_Sar]

With Civ VII's launch just weeks away, we've got another new dev diary for you! This time, we're introducing Legends and Mementos, a brand new system to Civ VII that adds a little extra to your Civ experience. If you caught our livestreams, you may have noticed a few teasers about this system. Now, Game Designer Matt Owens is here to pull back the curtain and share all the details.

Read it here, let me know your thoughts, and drop any questions!

 

[Nikolai II]

Cool! Reading mode engaged.

 

[moysturfurmer]

A leader between Co and Ha alphabetically is yet to be revealed. Freddy?


And one more between Ib and Is La. Cant think of any atm
Juicy diary, otherwise, will take time to digest

Mementos is kind of a big change. Not sure how I feel about them, but glad they can be disabled during multi. Probably fine in the long run, just a big change to swallow tbh.

Q for Sarah: can the AI make use of mementos when they're unlocked?

And they say you can use Charlemagne's sword as Ashoka. Is that represented graphically? Or is that flavor text and gameplay changes?



edit #5

okay so Mementos can be mix and matched between leaders. That's actually kind of sick. Wont feel hamstrung not playing the same leader over and over again in that case. kudos

 

[Nikolai II]

Read through it now. I like what I see! Seems like a fun way to vary my playthroughs, but optional and IMPORTANT can be disabled in MP. I guess it might be controversial for some, but I find it an interesting and intriguing addition. And oh so good that it is not microtransactions involved!

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

And one more between Ib and Is. Cant think of any atm

Isn't it between Is and La?

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

Something in me wants to dislike this, but I'm getting a good vibe nonetheless. My main concern is that fun strategies are now locked behind doors. Say there's a neat synergy you think of or see someone else play with, like Harriet Tubman's Lantern used to get extra growth events for Culture as Hawai'i. Now, you can't just try it out, you have to play the game a bunch as a leader you might not find fun to get the ability to do it. I think this might be discouraging to players who don't spend thousands of hours in the game.

 

[Zaarin]

They've hinted at this system before and it had me a little leery, but the actual system seems pretty well thought out.

 

[stealth_nsk]

For the first part of the text I genuinely hated what I'm reading, but with the last bit it got down to "strong dislike". With only 2 mementos you could use at the same time it's easy to unlock a couple of basic ones and forget about the system for good.

 

[moysturfurmer]

Isn't it between Is and La?

I havent had my coffee yet, thx

 

[RockTheCazbah87]

The spreadsheet-toting nerd in me appreciates the internal tracking in the game (and presumably, tracking across multiple platforms while linked to the same 2K account). For traditionalists worried about Mementos upending the play experience... it seems pretty simple to just not use them? They seem to be a small (deeply optional) bonus at most.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Just to clarify why I don't like it. I had my share of working on app gamification, where you encourage users to interact with your app by using some simple psychological tricks. You know, the things like the famous green owl (I'm happy I didn't work on that).

Now, what I see here is the gamification of a game. Civilization, the most addictive video game ever requires gamification tricks to pull players into playing it? Come on!

 

[Siptah]

Do I see this correctly that you don't need to level up both personas on a leader? There's only one Ashoka in the screen with the leader paths.

 

[Evie]

Isn't it between Is and La?

Well, seeing as we're lacking for French leaders (ie, there are non-french leaders in the game), Joan of Arc *does* fit in that range... *runs*

(As does Kublai Khan).

 

[Venceslau Pietro Pietra]

Isn't it between Is and La?

Thanks god! That means its not Gandhi!

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Does it have to be a leader associated with the Modern Age or could it be someone earlier?

 

[Siptah]

I really like the challenges. Provided its either something that you get along the way for most and then a few ones that you really need to earn with 2-3 games and play accordingly, this is the kind of thing that motivated me to play a heck of EU4: besides the obvious fun, having a goal to play towards that's not the same every other campaign (e.g., win a science victory) gets me going. It's not the mementos for me by the way. Those are nice to have, but not a reason to play again and again. Seeing 57/57 on a favorite leader, however...

 

[TheSpaceCowboy]

Honestly, I’d prefer if the cosmetic unlocks *were* a collection of funny hats for the leaders to wear

 

[Siptah]

Does it have to be a leader associated with the Modern Age or could it be someone earlier?

Himiko is the precedence that they might reveal an antiquity leader very late. But then again, this might be a special occasion, with the Switch 2 being announced this week, and Nintendo revealing her before.

 

[evonannoredars]

This sounds really fun, although could definitely be used to end up with some really powerful civ + leader + 2x memento synergies.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Well well. Undecided on this, to be honest. I always thought Civ could and should do a much better job of tracking your games and notable alt historical achievements, but not sure that I needed this to be tied to a reward system. That said, I can see potential for extra fun, and I know it's something that a few of my friends will love, so no doubt we will mess around with it quite a bit.