Civilization VII Update 1.2.4 - August 19, 2025

[Pfeffersack]

(...) I tried playing a game without them, but had forgotten just how wretchedly, spastically, bad beyond all previous recorded levels of badness the game's provided UI is, and I just couldn't stand it.

This. I actually haven't made that experiment, but I know how it would end. The vague and weak memories of the situation on the resource screen before @beezany created Resource Re-Sorts are enough.

Don't get me wrong: I don't want to belittle and devalue the effors the devs make to work on the UI in each patch. And I'm extremly grateful for finally getting my edge-panning. However, most of those changes are fixes or minor adjustments. This value now dicplayed correct, a click saved here... Nice, useful and needed without a doubt. But if I compare it with how the armade of UI mods I use change the game, the official UI changes just pale. I understand that bugs are ironed out first, but my fear is that the devs shy away from taking the meaty UI mods as guiding line for bigger change. My prime example is the policy effects: We had a must-have mod for it in Civ6 and it quickly re-emerged for Civ7. However, what concerns me is that the info about policy effects never made it in the official Civ6 UI...and I ask myself "Why?". To little resources, other priorities? A lacking understanding how crucial this info is? Or (worst)...a deliberate design decision, because "guessing is part of the fun" or "we don't want to overwhelm players with information"? What also makes nervous is that on the UI front the approach "smaller changes paving the way for the bigger ones" might not work out that well...there is limited sense in finetuning something, if you completely redo it later. This makes me sceptical if we will see big official UI changes at all. Of course, I would love to be wrong here...

 

[UWHabs]

The default UI is not nearly as bad as it was at launch, it probably would be playable if we just weren't used to the nice things the mods were giving us. I basically did my age transition, got halfway through setting up again, but then had to stop because without seeing my town connections, that's really hard to plan for how I want to set up in the new era.

 

[Siptah]

I honestly wonder why some of the most popular UI mods are not just integrated, or at least their functionality.
I don't see any reason to for example hide the yields you gain from slotting a policy. If I have to decide whether +1 science on quarters is better for me than +1 science adjacency, I don't want to guess or count my toys. Similarly, with the benefits of specializing a town (but here, guessing is usually right, at least).

I'm sure someone at FXS went through the list of most popular UI mods and noted what people are using. Maybe the decision was "a mod exists for that, no need to spend valuable dev time", but these are things every player would benefit from, and not everyone is using mods – especially not on their first play through after buying the game.

 

[stealth_nsk]

The default UI is not nearly as bad as it was at launch, it probably would be playable if we just weren't used to the nice things the mods were giving us. I basically did my age transition, got halfway through setting up again, but then had to stop because without seeing my town connections, that's really hard to plan for how I want to set up in the new era.

That's one of the reasons why I play without mods.

I honestly wonder why some of the most popular UI mods are not just integrated, or at least their functionality.

There are two reasons, big and small.

Big reason is the American copyright law, where transmitting intellectual property ownership is a significant legal task and you need to be sure that the person you're signing docs with is actually the owner of the code. The latter is pretty hard to do reasonably. In addition, author's right are not transmittable (you could purchase intellectual property, but this doesn't make you an author), but that's the lesser part.

Small reason is that mods need some work to integrate properly. They break visual style of the game however they like, often don't care about translations, etc.

 

[UWHabs]

That's one of the reasons why I play without mods.


There are two reasons, big and small.

Big reason is the American copyright law, where transmitting intellectual property ownership is a significant legal task and you need to be sure that the person you're signing docs with is actually the owner of the code. The latter is pretty hard to do reasonably. In addition, author's right are not transmittable (you could purchase intellectual property, but this doesn't make you an author), but that's the lesser part.

Small reason is that mods need some work to integrate properly. They break visual style of the game however they like, often don't care about translations, etc.

Yeah, as much as it makes sense to just yoink the files, there can be IP concerns. I'm sure deep down somewhere there's lines that give them the right to steal anything, and probably a vast majority of modders might even be happy to donate their mod to FX to use directly, and would be ecstatic to just get their name listed somewhere deep in the bowels of the credits and not feel pressured to keep the mods updated with every patch.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Yeah, as much as it makes sense to just yoink the files, there can be IP concerns. I'm sure deep down somewhere there's lines that give them the right to steal anything, and probably a vast majority of modders might even be happy to donate their mod to FX to use directly, and would be ecstatic to just get their name listed somewhere deep in the bowels of the credits and not feel pressured to keep the mods updated with every patch.

The legal part is no joke. There's a term "work for hire", which gives code ownership to the employer, but strictly within the contract, so even if software developer uses his own code created during free time, this situation could be used by him to try claiming ownership on this part of the code. Mods don't fit into "work for hire" frame regardless of what's written in the agreement, so it's a big potential issue. And modders freely reusing each other code add hell a lot of complexity to this.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Yeah, as much as it makes sense to just yoink the files, there can be IP concerns. I'm sure deep down somewhere there's lines that give them the right to steal anything, and probably a vast majority of modders might even be happy to donate their mod to FX to use directly, and would be ecstatic to just get their name listed somewhere deep in the bowels of the credits and not feel pressured to keep the mods updated with every patch.

As a modder:

• I'd be thrilled if FXS used my mods for any sort of inspiration or wholesale incorporation. Anything they do implement from any mod would need to be implemented to FXS internal best practice standards and thus any straight copying of files is just...not going to happen.
• Modding on a single platform in a single language is 1000% easier than developing across platforms, across hardware configurations, across resolutions, across dozens of localizations. Every individual change to the plot tooltip, for example, would need to be tested extensively across all sorts of configurations to ensure it shows up properly, scales, properly, doesn't block too much of the screen, text breaks properly (a potential nightmare when dealing with localization), etc.
• I have no expectation that I own anything which modifies the source game files. Content additions (new civs, leaders, etc) is trickier because it doesn't modify existing code, but I'm sure there's legal clauses which cover that sort of thing. Honestly I have no expectation of ownership over that either.
• My underlying philosophy is that modding is a community collaboration. I'm happy for other modders to use my creations in part or in whole, for inspiration or incorporation. I have a low opinion of modders who are "precious" about their mods as it is both hypocritical (how dare you modify my work which modifies someone else's work...gasp!) and non-collaborative...i.e. goes against the spirit of the whole idea. We're all here to contribute to the game and try to make it better in whatever way that looks like for each modder.

 

[Kwami]

It'd be great if Sukritact or someone else made his Simple UI Adjustments mod work with the latest release. There are a few bits in there that still don't seem to be replicated in other mods.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

That's one of the reasons why I play without mods.

I never played with Mods for the first 3 - 4 years I played Civ VI, but after exhausting all the possibilities of the game as given started experimenting with additional Civs and 'peculiar' mechanics in the Mod collections.

I've started much earlier using Mods in Civ VII because the UI as produced was so completely lacking in basic information required to play the game at all well. Simple things like not being able to tell who was allied with whom before entering into an alliance or war, the sort of thing that was and should be available to any Civ engaging in diplomacy with the other Civs.

That said, I will not add any modded Civs or Leaders or 'extra' mechanics or changes to values until, as in Civ VI, I have exhausted all the possibilities of the game mechanics, Civs and Leaders as presented, and I'm a long, long way from that point.

This has been my philosophy and guideline in every game I play: in Anno 1800 I play with over 100 Mods, but they are all Decorative rather than mechanical so that the game I play remains the basic game as presented with the possibility of adding a bunch of decorative features to make better-looking settlements ("Beauty Building" - the aesthetic side of gaming I inherited from years in miniatures where a good-looking, well-painted unit was as important as a powerful one).

Of course, the ruptured Mods resulting from any official update is an unwelcome side effect, but I'll survive.

 

[beezany]

It'd be great if Sukritact or someone else made his Simple UI Adjustments mod work with the latest release. There are a few bits in there that still don't seem to be replicated in other mods.

almost everything in that mod has been incorporated into vanilla civ. the only exceptions that i know of are the extended city tooltips and the building yield calculator. for the city tooltips, you can use my Flag Corps mod or F1rstDan's Cool UI (or both! they're compatible). nobody else has done a building calculator. (i personally don't miss it, because i prefer planning my builds with Detailed Map Tacks.)

 

[beezany]

I understand that bugs are ironed out first, but my fear is that the devs shy away from taking the meaty UI mods as guiding line for bigger change. My prime example is the policy effects: We had a must-have mod for it in Civ6 and it quickly re-emerged for Civ7. However, what concerns me is that the info about policy effects never made it in the official Civ6 UI...and I ask myself "Why?". To little resources, other priorities? A lacking understanding how crucial this info is? Or (worst)...a deliberate design decision, because "guessing is part of the fun" or "we don't want to overwhelm players with information"?

i do think it's a deliberate omission. the yield calculators can turn the game into an exercise of arranging boxes in order of size. they also encourage snap decisions over strategic planning. it's why i prefer map tacks over Sukritact's building calculator, and it's why my City Hall mod shows you raw connection & warehouse information instead of assembling those things into "here's what you get from a Mining Town, and here's what you get from an Ironworks."

 

[KingLouisIV]

As a genuine top global expert in the intersection of global IP law, communities, and software: the intellectual property law problems are either non-existent (generally, the idea of “make a UI suck less” is not protectable) or very, very solvable (if they actually want to reuse specific code, there are a variety of ways to address it, all easily within reach of a large corporation with a friendly fandom).

That said: if the company needs an IP lawyer consultant with expertise in community software issues, LMK, would be extremely happy to add “consulted with Civ team” to the resume, and I’d do it for the low low price of “let me pick which mods to integrate first”

 

[beezany]

they have already incorporated a lot of features that first appeared in mods. sometimes they license code directly from modders (like my Map Tacks mod for civ6), and sometimes they implement their own version.

 

[Kwami]

almost everything in that mod has been incorporated into vanilla civ. the only exceptions that i know of are the extended city tooltips and the building yield calculator. for the city tooltips, you can use my Flag Corps mod or F1rstDan's Cool UI (or both! they're compatible). nobody else has done a building calculator. (i personally don't miss it, because i prefer planning my builds with Detailed Map Tacks.)

Unless it's changed in the latest patch, some of the icons in the tech and civics trees still aren't there. I like those icons!

And while the tacks are great for planning new stuff, the building calculator is great for understanding why the numbers are what they are and for overbuilding.

 

[beezany]

Unless it's changed in the latest patch, some of the icons in the tech and civics trees still aren't there. I like those icons!

And while the tacks are great for planning new stuff, the building calculator is great for understanding why the numbers are what they are and for overbuilding.

tbh i preferred the vanilla tooltip after switching back, because it lists all of the bonuses and where they come from. i find that much more important for understanding and making build decisions. i don't find the overbuilding data useful, because it's either an old building that you're eventually going to replace anyway, or it's an improvement that you'll just move to another tile. the marginal value is never enough to override my building plan, so it becomes a distraction that can only tempt me into worse decisions.

 

[Porry]

A really useful feature would be to be able to choose which building to upgrade if both can be upgraded. I'd also like to preview the upgrade's effects: how much revenue I'll lose and how much I'll gain.

 

[Siptah]

A really useful feature would be to be able to choose which building to upgrade if both can be upgraded. I'd also like to preview the upgrade's effects: how much revenue I'll lose and how much I'll gain.

Oh yes! I feel like in the majority of cases, it picks the one I want to overbuild, but sometimes it doesn‘t let me overbuild the science building with a science building but insists that I need to overbuild the happiness building…

 

[Giskler]

The bug where you sometimes have to click a button multiple times before it registers is driving me up a wall

 

[KingLouisIV]

sometimes they license code directly from modders (like my Map Tacks mod for civ6)

That’s extremely great to hear except that it crushes my dream of consulting with them

 

[Pfeffersack]

i do think it's a deliberate omission. the yield calculators can turn the game into an exercise of arranging boxes in order of size. they also encourage snap decisions over strategic planning. it's why i prefer map tacks over Sukritact's building calculator, and it's why my City Hall mod shows you raw connection & warehouse information instead of assembling those things into "here's what you get from a Mining Town, and here's what you get from an Ironworks."

Hmm, ok...as non-modder, I didn't thought of potential spacing concerns for displaying varying yields. Thanks for pointing that out (though the mod of leonardify seems to get round that cliff fairly elegantly). Regarding raw yields vs. total numbers...I understand your logic and agree on your decision for City Hall and tile or buildings yields. In the case of policy cards however I find raw "per X"-yields just not very helpful to make an informed decision without having todo excessive counting. It is one thing to calculate town effects, when the mattering instances are just in one settlement, but a different beast to keep in mind how many "X" are littered over my empire (especially with the huge map sizes and number of cities I tend to play)