pre-release info Gameplay Mechanic Discussion: Ages

[thecrazyscot]

This thread serves as an overview and discussion of the Ages mechanic, the single largest new gameplay feature in Civilization VII.

Ages represent a significant gameplay evolution for Civilization - one as big as when we moved from squares to hexes. Fundamentally, Ages divides a single game of Civilization into distinct playable chapters. Every Age is designed to capture the essence of a specific period of human advancement, achieved by filling the Age with historically-relevant elements. - Ed Beach

Overview
A "full" game of Civilization VII is divided into three ages:

1. Antiquity Age
2. Exploration Age
3. Modern Age

Each age can be played as its own "game" of approximately 150-200 turns, with unique civilizations, units, buildings, tech and civic trees, and implementations of core gameplay systems. Ages also have their own gameplay and narrative arcs. These consists of events triggered by accumulating Age Progress, culminating in a Crisis. A Crisis is a multi-stage challenge which steadily gets more difficult, impacting all players in the game.

If you play multiple ages sequentially, your choices and development from each age will carry over to the next via Age Transitions. During an Age Transition, you'll choose a new civilization to play as during the next age, and unlock Legacy bonuses to carry over into the new age, positioning yourself more advantageously for what is to come.

Antiquity Age​	Age Transition​	Exploration Age​	Age Transition​	Modern Age​	Game End​
Play as you would a normal game. Age Progress accumulates every turn, and fills faster based on actions taken by all players. The Crisis is unlocked once Age Progress reaches a certain threshold. Once the age ends an Age Transition begins.	Pick a new civilization to play in the next age. Spend Legacy Points to purchase Legacies to be active during the next age. Optionally, choose new Capital. The game world evolves, with game systems updating for the next age.	Play as you would a normal game. Age Progress accumulates every turn, and fills faster based on actions taken by all players. The Crisis is unlocked once Age Progress reaches a certain threshold. Once the age ends an Age Transition begins.	Pick a new civilization to play in the next age. Spend Legacy Points to purchase Legacies to be active during the next age. Optionally, choose new Capital. The game world evolves, with game systems updating for the next age.	Play as you would a normal game. Age Progress accumulates every turn, and fills faster based on actions taken by all players. The Crisis is unlocked once Age Progress reaches a certain threshold. The game ends once a player is victorious or the last turn is played.	Winner is determined via victory conditions: Cultural Economic Military Scientific Score Victory condition specifics are not confirmed yet.

Unique Ages
Each age is now self-contained, with multiple elements unique to that age:

• Civilizations: each civilization is now unique to a specific age, with all its unique attributes specific to its age and thus immediately relevant.
• Resources: some resources are exclusive to a single age, while others are available across multiple ages.
• Civics and Technologies: each age has unique and standalone Tech and Civic research trees.
• Buildings: most buildings are now age-specific, which has several downstream effects:
  • A building can only be built during a specific age.
  • Obsolete buildings from previous ages have reduced yields in later ages.
  • Obsolete buildings from previous ages can be "overbuilt" (or replaced) by buildings from later ages.
  • As always, there are exceptions. Ageless buildings are not age-specific and do not have the same restrictions on when they can be built or penalty to yields.
• Units: most military units (with the exception of Commanders) are age-specific and not buildable in later ages.
• Game Systems: certain game systems will change or unlock entirely when moving to a new age. Some known examples:
  • Pantheons are available in the Antiquity Age, while the full-blown Religion mechanic unlocks in the Exploration Age.
  • Trade Route mechanics change from era to era.
• Playable Map Area: as ages progress, the playable map area expands. Specifically, the Exploration Age unlocks the ability (via research) to traverse oceans, unlocking access to other continents populated with other players and Independent Powers.

Progressing through an Age
Each age has its own progression meter, which must be filled in order for the age to conclude. Progress is fundamentally added in a small increment every turn, but additional progress is added when other actions are taken (like eliminating another civ).

Once a certain threshold has been met, the Crisis begins. Each age has a set of unique crises, each of which presents a different challenge to the players. However, even if the specific challenges are unique, the general structure of the crises follow this pattern:

• Narrative events are triggered at certain progression thresholds. These narrative events unlock Crisis Policy Slots for the player.
• Crisis Policy Slots must be filled from a selection of negative Crisis Policies unique to that specific crisis.
• The crisis culminates in a significant scripted event. An example from the Antiquity Age would be a massive barbarian assault.

An example narrative event during a crisis:

An example of Crisis Policies a player must choose from for a specific crisis:

Legacy Paths
Each age has a specific set of Legacy Paths which can be intentionally pursued or passively progressed. There are four paths:

• Science
• Culture
• Military
• Economic

Each path measures a different concrete metric, like wonders built or cities in your empire, and the specifics of each path are unique to each age.

Gaining more of that metric progresses along the Legacy Path, and up to 3 milestones can be unlocked including a potential Golden Age.

Milestones add Age Progress and provide several bonuses, such as:

• Legacy Points
  • These are spent during an Age Transition to purchase Legacy Options
• Legacy Options
  • These are purchased during an Age Transition to provide a one-time or persistent benefit during the upcoming age
• Attribute Points
  • These are used to upgrade your Leader bonuses (see this thread for more discussion)
• An immediate gameplay benefit

Some examples:

Completing a path unlocks a Golden Age option for the next age:

If you fail to make any progress on a Legacy Path, you will unlock a Dark Age Legacy Option.

Age Transitions
When an age's progress meter is completely filled, the age concludes and an Age Transition occurs. This is an intermission of sorts which prepares the map and players for the next age, and is considered a climactic moment during a game. It also represents a time jump between ages.

What happens and what will you do?

You will pick new civilization to play in the next age.

• You will have multiple civilizations to choose from, each unlocked by:
  • ...your previous civilization choices. Each civilization unlocks a guaranteed historical or geographical path for later choices. For example, choosing Maurya India in the Antiquity Age guarantees the ability to choose Chola India in the Exploration Age.
  • ...your leader choice. Each leader also guarantees certain civilization choices. For example, if Napoleon is your leader you will always be able to choose the French Empire in the Modern Age.
  • ...your gameplay choices. Certain civilization choices can be unlocked by in-game decisions. For example, if you obtain enough Horse resources in the Antiquity Age, you will unlock the Mongols as an Exploration Age choice.

Note that the AI players will prioritize following one of the "historical" paths available to them via their leader or previous civilization choices.

Spend Legacy Points to purchase Legacy Options to be active during the next age. Optionally, choose new Capital.

• Legacy Points have a specific type, and can be used to purchase Legacy Options of the matching type.
• Wildcard Legacy Points can be used to purchase Legacy Options of any type, and some options require Wildcard Points.
• You may pick at most 1 Golden Age Legacy Option.

Some potential options for Military, Cultural, Economic, Scientific, and Wildcard Legacy Options.

You'll see a nice summary for what choices you've made:

If you choose to place a City, the city you place will be pre-populated with buildings and districts from the previous age. You can opt not to place Town and City Legacy Options to gain Settlers instead.

The game world evolves, with game systems updating for the next age.

• New Tech and Civic Trees unlock, with each player's progress on the trees reset.
• New Legacy Paths unlock, with each player's Legacy progress reset.
• Some new resources are spawned, while other resources might be removed.
• New discoverables are spawned.
• Obsolete building yields are reduced.
• Obsolete policy cards are removed.
• Some cities may be reduced to towns. Unconfirmed, but theorized based upon some seen gameplay effects.
• Units may be removed. Unconfirmed, but theorized based upon some seen gameplay effects.
• Certain game systems may no longer be available, or new/expanded game systems may become available.
  • Examples:
    • Pantheons are available in the Antiquity Age while Religion becomes available in the Exploration Age.
    • Naval warfare is greatly expanded upon in the Exploration Age.

However, there are some things which which are persistent across ages.

• Your leader is the same for all three ages, and their innate bonuses will be enhanced throughout the game as you unlock Attribute Points and progress along multiple Leader Attribute Trees.
• Ageless buildings, wonders and unique quarters are not impacted by Age Transitions.
• Commander units maintain their experience and promotions across Age Transitions.
• Traditions (unique policy cards) that you've unlocked via Civic Tree research are always available to fill social policy slots regardless of age.

Sources
Ages gameplay explained
Civilization VII Dev Diary #1: Ages

 

[thecrazyscot]

Note: there's already a thread to discuss thoughts on civilization switching in great detail - let's not take over this thread with that.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I have one and only one question/hope/demand for Civ VII: Does it address the late-game malaise? Nothing else is terribly important to me. This new "Ages" mechanic looks like they're trying to make the late game as vital as the early game, and just for that, I applaud them. Of course it's too soon to say how well they've done it, but I'm glad they didn't just try nipping & tucking around the edges. It was a problem that I thought called for a chainsaw & a sledgehammer, not a scalpel & tweezers, and it looks like they did too. I am cautiously optimistic.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I have one and only one question/hope/demand for Civ VII: Does it address the late-game malaise? Nothing else is terribly important to me. This new "Ages" mechanic looks like they're trying to make the late game as vital as the early game, and just for that, I applaud them. Of course it's too soon to say how well they've done it, but I'm glad they didn't just try nipping & tucking around the edges. It was a problem that I thought called for a chainsaw & a sledgehammer, not a scalpel & tweezers, and it looks like they did too. I am cautiously optimistic.

Yeah, if Civ can get me excited to play the second half of the game again they've already done everything they needed to do to get me back on the bandwagon.

 

[sohvan]

The age system seems by far the biggest change announced so far, and what I'm most interested in getting more information on.

1. If each age has it's separate tech tree, is tech progress reset for all civilizations at the start of each age so all civs can immediately start on the tech tree of that age? Can you still research and use techs from Antiquity once Exploration is triggered?
2. Apparently most buildings from the previous age disappear with the transition apart from some unique buildings and I assume Wonders. I like the city building aspect of past Civ games, and I fear this may make that aspect less satisfying. Why bother building a granary or library if it's soon going to disappear anyway in the next age? You would only want to dedicate resources to building your cities early in the age, but not when you're getting close to the transition.
3. Do units also disappear, do they automatically get upgraded to age appropriate units, or can you still use units that are outdated from the previous age?
4. From the articles it sounded like only the player civilization actions can trigger the next age, and the transition happens for the entire world and all AI civilizations simultaneously. Does that mean if you play poorly and take forever in Antiquity by not triggering the milestones required for the 200 points, the AI can never reach Exploration age by itself? Or does each AI also have it's separate 200 point counter, so they can trigger the next Age for the entire world by itself even if the player doesn't reach 200?

On one hand, the age mechanic might make late games more interesting. On the other, it might seem like your actions in the previous ages have less meaning if you start with a semi-clean slate at the start of an age. It almost sounds like each age will be it's own separate game, progress is largely reset in the age transition, and you get some bonuses for your next age "new game start" based on the things you did in the previous age like number of cities, Wonders you built etc.

 

[CGPanama]

A question I have is whether the ages are synchronized, like the ages in CivVI.

VI had the ages drive the mini game around dark and golden ages. While it affected each civilization’s gameplay, each continued on its growth track. And there were multiple across the course of the game.

But as the VII ages and civ changes are described, I am worried that if they are locked together it will nerf competition between civs with only two transitions between the ages.

Edit: Ditto Sohvan’s #4. Said it much better while I was typing mine.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

It has the potential to be transformative, if they can pull it off. I really do hate the end game in VI, I never bother.

 

[Binkov]

Those are all questions I'm super curious about myself. They could make or break the game.
Using what I've read and heard so far, I'd venture to answer them like this:

1. Yes. tech progress is reset for all civs, and a whole new tech tree appears for all civs at the start of next age. It seems the old tech tree disappears so its no longer researchable. This much seems like 99% sure to me.
However, it seems that there will be certain, unknown bonuses for players which did research more in previous age. For example, if they researched future techs of antiquity several times and you did not, they might get something at the start of next age. But whether that's a bonus, free tech from the new tree? Or half filled beakers on several techs? Or something else? That's unknown. What seems fairly assured to me is that Firaxis is not going for 1 to 1 compensation when it comes to techs. If I was 10 techs behind you at the end of one age, i will likely not start the next age 10 tech behind but more like just a few. But who knows precisely.

2. I am not sure if most buildings disappear, but certainly some buildings do seem as if they will disappear. Their bonuses might simply somehow get aggregated into city yields? Who knows. Why bother building some buildings late in the age? I guess that's gonna be part of the game. Deciding whether it's worth it. It might be situational. Maybe certain late age buildings that are set to disappear will be fairly cheap to build, to compensate for such issues. There's no info on that really.

3. No idea if units also disappear, no one talks about that. But it's hugely important. Certainly, a 20 unit army disappearing is hugely immersion breaking. Maybe some half solution might be implemented. I've no info here. I guess losing half the units would be better than losing all? It'd sort of level the field a bit without completely ruining the immersion?
Automatic upgrades do seem like a decent idea too. If I had 10 swordsmen and you had 10 warriors - and if the next age those all become musketmen - that might be acceptable for certain players. Still immersion breaking. And it'd be a bit weird if you had to pay to upgrade from warrior to swordsman but then the next upgrade doesn't exist, as it happens automatically? Again, the issue would be one of people not upgrading their armies close to end of age.

4. I don't know how the mechanics works but plausibly, it could be 200 shared points. so everyone contributes to next age threshold. But the game certainly does seem to be designed about giving you second chances even if you're doing very bad in first age.

 

[Infixo]

On the other, it might seem like your actions in the previous ages have less meaning if you start with a semi-clean slate at the start of an age. It almost sounds like each age will be it's own separate game, progress is largely reset in the age transition, and you get some bonuses for your next age "new game start" based on the things you did in the previous age like number of cities, Wonders you built etc.

Yes, they said something along these lines, that you can play each age separately, like instead of a game with 3 ages - 3 games with 1 age each.

 

[thecrazyscot]

The age system seems by far the biggest change announced so far, and what I'm most interested in getting more information on.

1. If each age has it's separate tech tree, is tech progress reset for all civilizations at the start of each age so all civs can immediately start on the tech tree of that age? Can you still research and use techs from Antiquity once Exploration is triggered?
2. Apparently most buildings from the previous age disappear with the transition apart from some unique buildings and I assume Wonders. I like the city building aspect of past Civ games, and I fear this may make that aspect less satisfying. Why bother building a granary or library if it's soon going to disappear anyway in the next age? You would only want to dedicate resources to building your cities early in the age, but not when you're getting close to the transition.
3. Do units also disappear, do they automatically get upgraded to age appropriate units, or can you still use units that are outdated from the previous age?
4. From the articles it sounded like only the player civilization actions can trigger the next age, and the transition happens for the entire world and all AI civilizations simultaneously. Does that mean if you play poorly and take forever in Antiquity by not triggering the milestones required for the 200 points, the AI can never reach Exploration age by itself? Or does each AI also have it's separate 200 point counter, so they can trigger the next Age for the entire world by itself even if the player doesn't reach 200?

On one hand, the age mechanic might make late games more interesting. On the other, it might seem like your actions in the previous ages have less meaning if you start with a semi-clean slate at the start of an age. It almost sounds like each age will be it's own separate game, progress is largely reset in the age transition, and you get some bonuses for your next age "new game start" based on the things you did in the previous age like number of cities, Wonders you built etc.

I've done a little more research and added some more stuff to the OP. Some might shed a little light on your questions.

1. This is just my inference, but with the description of each Age having a unique tech tree a logical result from that would be everyone starts off at the beginning of the new Age's tech tree and previous techs are no longer available. It's unclear whether you just get all the "stuff" from techs you haven't researched if you're pulled into the new age, but at the very least I'd wager you only get the benefit of those "Mastery" techs if you researched them. Additionally, doing well in the previous Age gives you a chance to get a headstart on the next Tech/Civic tree, if you'll notice some of the Legacy Bonus options are free techs/civics.

2. Looks like this is building-dependent, as certain buildings have the Persistent keyword, which implies they remain across ages. Additionally, if you manage to max out a Legacy Path, that seems to provide Golden Age bonus to particular buildings which keeps their yields/effects for the coming Age.

3. Great questions - no details yet!

4. Tooltips are ambiguous here, but there's mention of Age Progress for "all players". What does it mean??

 

[MACKA0ili]

If players are eliminated before the turn of the age, will they be brought back as new civs?

 

[Verdant]

4. Tooltips are ambiguous here, but there's mention of Age Progress for "all players". What does it mean??
View attachment 700216

Age progress is shared among all players, like a world construction project. (I think they said this during the 20m gameplay preview)

 

[thecrazyscot]

Age progress is shared among all players, like a world construction project. (I think they said this during the 20m gameplay preview)

Right, that's my assumption, but does the tooltip mean that 5*playercount Age Progress points are added to the global meter? It's wording is just ambiguous, because it could just as easily mean each player's meter gains 5 progress points.

 

[uppi]

It is interesting that certain game systems are locked to certain ages. We are used to seeing game systems unlock as the game progresses, but could we also see game systems expire and no longer be available in the Modern Age, for example?

I certainly hope so. Just piling on mechanics leads to late-game drag.

For example, I could see Religion being a big thing in the Exploration age and then being reduced to passive bonuses in the Modern age. If you did well in religion in the previous age, you would get more bonuses, but there would be no active mechanics related to it anymore.

 

[Veras]

I like the fact that they decided to get rid of the Medieval/Renaissance nonsense which barely fits Europe itself, let alone all the world. The less there are ages and the more vague and ample they get, the better most civs will fit on them.

 

[AffineConstant]

I do think the ending of each "age" with a crisis sounds narrow and predictable, I.E. not what I'd want out of Civ. But that's entirely an assumption. Otherwise this holds promise for fixing some of the problems with Civ I have (end game booooring, actually about halfway through a playthrough gets boring). And others have issue with length/lack of clean pause points.

Hopefully the "Crisis!" thing is better than I'm imagining.

 

[Razpor]

having new tech trees every age is just a useless addition,like WHY??

 

[Professor Phobo]

having new tech trees every age is just a useless addition,like WHY??

It seems like part of the design intent behind the three ages is to act as a "soft reset" for the game each time, allowing for the early game dynamism and avoiding the late game stasis that has plagued the franchise. Like they may or may not succeed, but it seems like that's the goal - you get a new start with some elements of what you've already done, but you're not standing on the shoulder of the giant that was your early game lead for the whole game.

 

[ombak]

It seems like part of the design intent behind the three ages is to act as a "soft reset" for the game each time, allowing for the early game dynamism and avoiding the late game stasis that has plagued the franchise. Like they may or may not succeed, but it seems like that's the goal - you get a new start with some elements of what you've already done, but you're not standing on the shoulder of the giant that was your early game lead for the whole game.

I would even go so far as to say each age is a new game, and the holdovers from previous eras (legacies, cities etc.) are like a save file. Play all 3 ages and you have played one grand campaign.

 

[Professor Phobo]

I would even go so far as to say each age is a new game, and the holdovers from previous eras (legacies, cities etc.) are like a save file. Play all 3 ages and you have played one grand campaign.

It may not be quite that dramatic, but maybe Firaxis got really into Legacy-style board games a while back?