First Game Impressions

[tedhebert]

So finally completed my first game tonight, Sovereign, standard size, normal speed, Isabella, Mississippi to Spain to Mexico.

As you might have read here before, my start to modern was a total slog through 5 war declaration in about 4 turns at around turn 20. Well it took me until at least turn 90 to get the game under control.
Thank god for gold, I don't how many units I hard bought in order to survive all the attacks, it was insane. Without a very healthy income I would have been solidly defeated, but I managed to survive this way.
From around turn 100 to the end it then was a smooth breeze, I was able to buy out all my rails, ports and factories.

I won world fair (cultural) victory but it was close because the meter was at 98% ! I also had placed a World Bank in 4 of the 7 other capitals, so was pretty close on that victory too. I had 3 AI CIVS that had 2 science milestone
and I was leading in the 3 other paths, but this was close to score victory... too close... will try to use the longer age duration param for next game see if it helps.

All in all a very interesting first game, extremely happy with the challenge level I faced so I think I'll stick to sovereign level for a while, seems like the right one for me to be challenged and not be totally destroyed.

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

I've been debating on buying Civ VII but I kind of had the same feeling as you. I haven't played Civ V in over 4 years, and it might be time to do that instead of buying the new game. It would be like a new game for me since I haven't played with Vox Populi Mod Pack.

Vox is an amazing experience for Civ 5, as someone who is guilty of 6230 hours of Civ V, more than half those hours are with Vox.

The first hours were the initial release Civ 5 with 2 spaces between cities -- we learned how to mod the game to have 3 spaces in between, and it really changes things (the first patch I think corrected this). Therefore, I don't want to hate on Civ 7, some of those things will be fixed in literal weeks.

I have loaded the Civ 3 CCM3 Epic Mod. Because I can, since it's on this site. The resources here are simply amazing.

So, if you love Civ 7, play it nonstop! If not, take some time, play one of the other amazing games, and wait for Civ 7 to get better/patched. I'm looking forward to that day.

Of course, I haven't even mentioned Fall From Heaven 2 for Civ 4. Whatever you do, don't load that mod if you don't want one more turn for months. Did I mention that is also on this site??

 

[StargazingDog]

You need to play the game more...when you slot resources they give specific bonuses. Not quite sure how you missed this as it it crucial to the economic track of the game...

Does the tutorial display while in multiplayer? Sounds like the dude played one multiplayer game. I can't imagine trying to learn this game at quick/online speed in a multiplayer setting.

 

[tedhebert]

No hall of fame is really a bummer for me though

 

[James_Champagne]

Tonight in the exploration era I had a volcano explode in 595 AD, 685 AD, 715 AD, 725 AD, and 735 AD (and that's not even getting into all the other volcanos I have to deal with). Finally, the volcano went dormant, and I could breathe a sigh of relief. Then a few turns later it become active again. Man, that's annoying. CIV VI had the same problem and I would have assumed they would have fixed it by this point, but I guess not.

For whatever reason I'm just not having fun in the exploration era. It seems to be going by much faster than the Antiquity era, to the extent that I'm almost 30% into it and I've just barely begun being able to start trying to get across the deep ocean tiles. I have the feeling by the time I finally reach the second continent, the era will be almost 50% over. The AI still seems curiously passive . . . I've been playing this campaign for almost 15 hours now and I've yet to have even one AI declare war against me. And for whatever reason the game has gotten very buggy in this second era, tonight alone it crashed on me 5 times.

I think I might just throw in the towel and wait a few weeks until they release a new patch or something, because I find I'm getting more and more annoyed the longer I play.

 

[StargazingDog]

I think I might just throw in the towel and wait a few weeks until they release a new patch or something

If it's your first game, I suggest just toughing it out as a learning game. You aren't going to understand everything the first time, and you will make mistakes. Also, the AI is very easy on default difficulty.

I was very intrigued, but not completely committed to the game during my first play. I felt like I was just going through the motions during some parts. I finished that game (won via score, although one turn from economic victory) then started another. This time, I turned up the difficulty a notch, really paid attention to district placement, diplomacy, and used everything I learned from the first game. Now, I think this may be the best Civ game in the series. It's certainly keeping me far more engaged.

The two patches they have released have already vastly improved the game. As for crashes, I had one on age transition. If you are getting them frequently during an age, I'd check for driver updates or overheating issues.

And yeah, you aren't going to be settling the distant lands immediately, especially if your science level sucks as much as mine did in my first game.

 

[James_Champagne]

If it's your first game, I suggest just toughing it out as a learning game. You aren't going to understand everything the first time, and you will make mistakes. Also, the AI is very easy on default difficulty.

I was very intrigued, but not completely committed to the game during my first play. I felt like I was just going through the motions during some parts. I finished that game (won via score, although one turn from economic victory) then started another. This time, I turned up the difficulty a notch, really paid attention to district placement, diplomacy, and used everything I learned from the first game. Now, I think this may be the best Civ game in the series. It's certainly keeping me far more engaged.

The two patches they have released have already vastly improved the game. As for crashes, I had one on age transition. If you are getting them frequently during an age, I'd check for driver updates or overheating issues.

And yeah, you aren't going to be settling the distant lands immediately, especially if your science level sucks as much as mine did in my first game.

Thing is, I'm not using default difficulty. I'm doing Viceroy, which I think is one notch above the default, if memory serves.

tbh 50% of my woes are due to that my computer simply cannot handle this game very well, even at the max lowest settings. It feels more like CIV SLIDESHOW ha ha . . . oh well

but as mentioned in some of my previous posts my issues with the game are less mechanics and more aesthetics I suppose. When you absolutely detest the primary feature the game is doubling down on (civ switching each era), it's no surprise I'm not exactly crazy about this piece of software.

 

[StargazingDog]

tbh 50% of my woes are due to that my computer simply cannot handle this game very well, even at the max lowest settings. It feels more like CIV SLIDESHOW ha ha . . . oh well

Minimum required GPU was released nine years ago. Minimum required CPU is 11 years old!! Yikes! You could buy a laptop from 2019 that would run this game at the recommended level 60fps. Godspeed, friend.

 

[James_Champagne]

Minimum required GPU was released nine years ago. Minimum required CPU is 11 years old!! Yikes! You could buy a laptop from 2019 that would run this game at the recommended level 60fps. Godspeed, friend.

Well, I've been playing it on my desktop PC, which I got back in . . . 2016, I think? It was around 10 years ago. The CPU is i5-6400 and the graphics card is Nividia GeForce GT 730.

 

[moysturfurmer]

Captured a Distant Lands settlement with a Wharf on a Lake and I keep having to delete some really high value treasure fleets. Real annoying. They really oughta spawn either a Land Unit that can Embark, a Land Unit that you have to pair with a Fleet Commander, or let you choose to spawn a Trade Convoy land unit that takes longer to produce. Something

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Bit OT but wasn't sure where else to put it and didn't want to make a new thread. I'm here simply to say that launch day for us Standard folk is here. At last! I have downloaded the game. My PS5 is primed and ready. My body is primed and ready. And yet I'm on my way into London for some pointless meetings. Life eh? Can't wait to get stuck in later, potentially with a slightly different take for you all since my first game will be multiplayer.

 

[aenima]

I started my first game last friday (on Linux) with leader/civ random, epic speed, standard size and viceroy level. So i started with persia and Ibn Battuta. Move to Normands in exploration age and France in Modern age (just started this age yesterday).
For the moment, the game is interesting but i have some griefs : first as many the UI is not good : not enough information, we don't see the last building done (in epic speed it's not always easy to follow each city buildings), not enough information about the other civs (mainly the military state and relationship between each other). After i don't really like how the transition between age is done, mainly on the military side (there are less units dispatched every where), for instance i had a wonder that will finish in 2 turns but the end of antiquity stops the production .... i really dislike this non continuous part of the transition even if i like a lot the separation between 3 ages (i would maybe add the ability of a random choice of civ too between possible civs from one age to another).
And on linux, i had some display bugs (unit display on a case but not present anymore, if you choose a building and go on the map but go back to the production choice to take an other one, the scrolling in the menu zoom/dezoom the map in the same time ...). The religion is weird too (i must say that i always liked the apostle fights in civ vi).
Let's try to win this first game!

 

[Melkus]

Will be interesting to see if Himiko doesn't just run away with the game at this point. Would be interested in you sharing an update later on.

I quit a game last night because Revolutionary Napoleon was just crushing it on Turn 1 of the Modern Age as Prussia. He had 800 culture and science per turn, and nobody else was even close, including me.

Happy to provide an Update for my still ongoing first game on Sovereign - despite accusations against the AI for being weak Himiko of Hawaii has won all scientific legacy points in Exploration again, excelled in the relic game too and stayed in the lead - the age ended pretty early due to her many points.
Must admit that I got a bit bored towards the end of Exploration (what is the deal with this trading "crisis", I didn't get it at all) and Modernity started very slowly as well, but the game picked up again and I'm fully invested.

I should mention that I didn't bother the AI militarily so far and just defended in some early wars - Himiko's position was probably vulnerable to a determined attack (had a lot of those Chola boats that shoot twice per turn), but I wanted to see how the game and different mechanics work and weakening the opponents would make for a boring endgame.

I've gone for the economic path now in Modern and heavily industrialized with Siam while collecting all the city states. Himiko however, now a French revolutionary, has been sciencing heavily again and completed the first space project after about 60 turns. (She has about twice the science, but my culture has been holding up better than it did in Exploration.)

I wonder if I'll continue this civil legacy race or upgrade my armies and muster up a serious attack in the endgame. Passively collecting factory points might get boring towards the end anyway. Of course, Civ6 AIs were perfectly capable of squandering such a lead without intervention.

I also dabbled in collecting artifacts, but the AIs are really going for them like sharks, building absurd amounts of Explorers. Don't think anyone will collect enough to win Culture in time (but may not know all late game mechanics here). This might have gone better if I beelined for the Hegemony civic, but I went into this without detailed knowledge how this works. I figured it all out as I played.

It's been a bit stagnant on the military front - there were some inconsequential wars, but now everyone seems to look inward.

 

[Disgustipated]

Finally can start this for real and not watch other people's plays. First impressions, long title logo when the game starts. Ding. I imagine the game is loading during that, so acceptable I suppose. And having to log in to 2k account, ugh. It displays friends on my social, I imagine that's from my Steam friend's list? Because I never played with my brother this type of game before. Not sure if to go for vulcan or direct x. I felt like Vulcan was better for BG3, but we'll see here.

The text on the setup screen looks blurry. Maybe I will go with Vulcan after all.

 

[Jkchart]

Having played three games now, Culture is WAY too easy. In addition to the issue of ridiculous AI explorer stacking, grabbing the 15 artifacts by hitting Hegemony is just too easy. I can reliably get 7-9 relics before that civic and then spread my explorers out to the different continents before hegemony to be in a prime position to grab the rest. To top it all off, you then only need to build World Fair, so it’s too easy to win fast.

Contrast this to Science where you need to not only research several required techs and complete three projects, domination where you need to conquer 6-12 cities and then complete two projects, or Economic where you have to research several technologies, set up a factory/rail/port network, slot resources, AND THEN send out the great banker…Culture feels far too simple for the modern victory and needs some sort of intermediate step.

Also, is it just me or are the science legacies the most difficult? I routinely find science to be the hardest yield to reliably stack and the specialist/yield stacking game fairly puzzling for the medieval objective. I have yet to finish any of the science paths but have completed the others or got them in a good position.

Anyway time for a fourth playthrough!

 

[Jeppetto]

Finally can start this for real and not watch other people's plays. First impressions, long title logo when the game starts. Ding. I imagine the game is loading during that, so acceptable I suppose. And having to log in to 2k account, ugh. It displays friends on my social, I imagine that's from my Steam friend's list? Because I never played with my brother this type of game before. Not sure if to go for vulcan or direct x. I felt like Vulcan was better for BG3, but we'll see here.

The text on the setup screen looks blurry. Maybe I will go with Vulcan after all.

You can disable the long title logo in the settings. For me the game after short bit of loading (almost no loading if it was already started and quit that day without computer turned off in the meantime, some cache thing perhaps, noticed this while testing mods) immediately goes to menu.

 

[Piranga]

After three games, my first impression is that Civ 7 reminds of of Total War Warhammer III on release.

TW:WH released with a story driven campaign and not the fan favorite "Immortal Empires" mode. (Which is basically everything faction the game has on a single map, and you can play sandbox style and accomplish, fight whatever you want). The game WH3 story campaign was fun but gimmicky, and very very quickly most fans grew tired of it and dropped the game until Immortal Empires mode was released.

This is what Civ 7 feels like to me. I've enjoyed 3 full games focusing on one gameplay style each time. I'm going to start the 4th (domination victory) style my next game. However I feel myself already very very bored of the era game mechanics. Era resets and era goals are like a forced story mode. Having specific victory conditions to do each round is already tiresome. What if I just want to make a crazy gold producing empire in the exploration age...but don't want to be forced to settle across the ocean and play the treasure fleet "mini game"? What if I'm enjoying a current war with an enemy and want to press on....oh no era change..forced peace and have both your armies reduced, changed, and thrown in random places. Knowing there is no such thing as a truly random map (which I always played in previous civ games) because there always has to be a "new world" area thrown in. Too structured, boring. Thats not what I've enjoyed the series for, for so many years.

I feel like for Civ 7 to stay interesting there needs to be a mode where era's are gone. No era changes, no era win conditions. My only hope is that some mod can just tie the tech/civic tree's together and then somehow get rid of all era gameplay mechanics.

 

[AriochIV]

Finally can start this for real and not watch other people's plays. First impressions, long title logo when the game starts. Ding. I imagine the game is loading during that, so acceptable I suppose. And having to log in to 2k account, ugh. It displays friends on my social, I imagine that's from my Steam friend's list? Because I never played with my brother this type of game before. Not sure if to go for vulcan or direct x. I felt like Vulcan was better for BG3, but we'll see here.

The text on the setup screen looks blurry. Maybe I will go with Vulcan after all.

It just shows you your Steam friends list. Most of the people on that list probably don't even own the game.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

First impressions: I have no idea what I'm doing and everyone hates me.

It feels complex. Perhaps that's just because it's new, but I really have no feel for what I should be doing. Probably doesn't help that I went for a totally random start which paired Napoleon with Khmer, I didn't notice too many obvious synergies.

Diplomacy feels like a huge upgrade.

Having fun!

 

[SammyKhalifa]

First impressions: I have no idea what I'm doing and everyone hates me.

It feels complex. Perhaps that's just because it's new, but I really have no feel for what I should be doing. Probably doesn't help that I went for a totally random start which paired Napoleon with Khmer, I didn't notice too many obvious synergies.

Diplomacy feels like a huge upgrade.

Having fun!

I am surely no expert (in fact some would say I stink) but it seems to me like a good way to get your settlements started is fishing boats and a fishing pier. They make good food and don't get in the way of other stuff you might want to make on the land.