Hopes/Focus Points of the Next Update?

[Hawke9]

With the june update being out now for a couple weeks, civ 7 is slowly but surely filling the notable gaps that were present on launch. One of the features about that update that makes me the most hopeful is the new "Dawn of Man" intro screen, I really hope they continue to overhaul the UI that way, there's still a LOT of love and polish needed. Still, I'm carefully optimistic by the progress we've seen so far!

Now I'm wondering, since we've reached the end of the roadmap, what do you think they devs will/should focus on next?

One of my biggest (and maybe a bit too ambitious) hopes is a complete overhaul of the religious system, right now it's just simply not fun, and I ignore religion completely in my games. I feel like they took all the fun aspects of religion from the previous games out and only left the tedious micromanagement. I'd love a system more like civ 6, or even better, civ 5. Especially the religious pressure system was always a favorite of mine, it created a realistic simulation of religions, and made you think twice about your trading partners. I also loved the different unique faith buildings each with unique bonuses, and the concept of faith as a resource. All that's left now is just the endless spamming of missionaries. I really can't wrap my head around these changes.

What features are you hoping for for the next update? When do you think we'll get another roadmap? And what features do you think need an update the most?

 

[evonannoredars]

I'm hoping we get the next couple DLC things soon, I'm itching for a new civ.

I don't think a religion overhaul is an unrealistic expectation considering they've said "We’ve got bigger and bolder changes on the horizon for Religion, too, so we’ll keep you updated on how it evolves!" (from the 1.2.2 patch notes) - although I expect that might be a few updates down the line.

Likewise it's definitely likely other elements of UI will receive the same overhauls according to this. Very excited to see what they change next - I think the era transition screen has a lot of potential for being something more visually exciting than just a bunch of rectangles.

As for other base game content I'd like to see, improving how connections work would be a big one. They also mentioned something once about how they're looking to improve era transitions and maintaining a sense of identity between the eras, so I'm looking forward to what they come up with there.

As for the next roadmap, I'm hoping we get one very soon! Imagine they'll want to take a summer holiday soon though, so hopefully we'll get smth decent this month n probably smth small next month.

 

[Siptah]

There are so many things they could do... but I think the next patch will be in August and not July. A week before that they'll announce the new roadmap until the end of the year. And the next patch will have the first civ of the new DLC already (all 4 civs and 2 leaders are due by September).

My big hope is that they'll introduce more crises and legacy paths! But I fear this is expansion material. More realistic are options for what can you keep from your previous civs/how hard the reset is. For example, options that units are kept, wonders and unique infrastructures can still be built, unique civic bonuses can be kept (even if many of these don't make sense outside their era), civs keep their names (or get an algamation of names).

 

[m_mus]

I hope for these things:

(1) continuous improvement of the UI. The loading-screen overhaul was really good. How about now about the re-introduction of map tacks, more lenses, map search and a proper interface to show my current traderoutes and their "yields"?
(2) overhaul + deepening of religion and the associated cultural legacy path in Exploration Age
(3) balancing the pacing between the different legacy paths from exploration age onwards. For example, I do like their latest work on treasure fleets, yet it is still too tedious to get them running. So by the time I would have finished that legacy path, I will have finished the other three as well already, simply because the economic legacy path takes that much more time.
(4) new DLC
(5) a new roadmap

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

There are so many things they could do... but I think the next patch will be in August and not July. A week before that they'll announce the new roadmap until the end of the year. And the next patch will have the first civ of the new DLC already (all 4 civs and 2 leaders are due by September).

My big hope is that they'll introduce more crises and legacy paths! But I fear this is expansion material. More realistic are options for what can you keep from your previous civs/how hard the reset is. For example, options that units are kept, wonders and unique infrastructures can still be built, unique civic bonuses can be kept (even if many of these don't make sense outside their era), civs keep their names (or get an algamation of names).

Sar on Official Discord confirmed they are hoping to get a July Update out, I expect it won't be much as a result, but there will be one.

 

[stealth_nsk]

We haven't reached the end of the roadmap:

1. One of the biggest things which is missed yet is the ability to set the game end in any age, which requires full set of victory conditions for antiquity and exploration.
2. Auto-explore was in the original roadmap, although without particular time
3. Hotseat was in the same list and also not there yet

After this, I really want to see:

1. Reiteration on the concept of distant land resources, currently it's too much a lottery and you see the results only in exploration.
2. Non-rectangular map zones
3. Revisiting ideology. Currently it's quite easy to avoid and live peacefully while AIs spend all their resources on wars with each other.

 

[UWHabs]

Along with a lot of the above, I wouldn't hate some changes to the pacing and general game balance.

We'll be nearing the frontier pass drop of civs (they have to be out before September according to the pre-order info). Taking a deep pass through the rest of the civs, adjusting their various traditions and strengths, unlock criteria, and everything around that, I think would be nice to get in. Balancing out the legacy paths, maybe giving some civs some alternate path bonuses/options, and just a general cleanup of the overall game flow, I think would all be appreciated.

 

[Leucarum]

Well they have definitely given some hints that improving the feeling of continuity between ages is one if their goals, and I hope that it is their focus.

 

[Xur]

Monthly updates will satisfy current players, but if they want to fix things, then they should ignore updates for a year, focus on giant changes to the core of the game.

Building on top of the current foundation is pointless.

If they had a patch that made changes to civ swapping, eras and denuvo, then it would be newsworthy. People would write about it and make videos. It would skirt around the terrible reviews and be a foundation for growth.

I suggest they do it in one single giant patch to make a statement, instead of watering down the changes.

 

[Leucarum]

Monthly updates will satisfy current players, but if they want to fix things, then they should ignore updates for a year, focus on giant changes to the core of the game.

Building on top of the current foundation is pointless.

If they had a patch that made changes to civ swapping, eras and denuvo, then it would be newsworthy. People would write about it and make videos. It would skirt around the terrible reviews and be a foundation for growth.

I suggest they do it in one single giant patch to make a statement, instead of watering down the changes.

I'd assume both things are happening. Smaller patches with an eye to one big kahuna down the line.

 

[Xur]

I'd assume both things are happening. Smaller patches with an eye to one big kahuna down the line.

Yea, that's how it is normally for most games with DLC/Expansions, but I don't think Firaxis are going to change much about the core gameplay sadly - other than smoothing some edges. Smoothing edges of hated systems wont make headlines or change reviews, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

 

[Leucarum]

Yea, that's how it is normally for most games with DLC/Expansions, but I don't think Firaxis are going to change much about the core gameplay sadly - other than smoothing some edges. Smoothing edges of hated systems wont make headlines or change reviews, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Hmm... So it'll take a while for any big changes - which I expect are coming. Even if hated feels a strong word, if Firaxis are going to win people back they need a grand gesture I think. And my guess is that it'll be easiest to put civ switching on the chopping block.

I don't see why Firaxis putting out smaller patches is a bad thing in the mean time though?

 

[CliffCo]

Not having units moved around on era transition. Naval units being moved to the opposite side of the map, and land units being shuffled between commanders is a pain, especially when you have a large military.

In my last game it took 20 turns to move 2 fleet commanders with 8 ships back to where they were at prior to the transition. An alternate route may have saved me 5 turns but an AI wouldn't agree to open borders and i didn't want to declare war on them. In the mean time my settlements had no naval protection.

Another issue i had was with a city i received in a peace deal where the AI had built a fishing quay in a lake which caused one of my fleet commander to respawn there, luckily it didn't have any ships packed into it.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Not having units moved around on era transition. Naval units being moved to the opposite side of the map, and land units being shuffled between commanders is a pain, especially when you have a large military.

In my last game it took 20 turns to move 2 fleet commanders with 8 ships back to where they were at prior to the transition. An alternate route may have saved me 5 turns but an AI wouldn't agree to open borders and i didn't want to declare war on them. In the mean time my settlements had no naval protection.

Another issue i had was with a city i received in a peace deal where the AI had built a fishing quay in a lake which caused one of my fleet commander to respawn there, luckily it didn't have any ships packed into it.

This ^^ Unlike others here, I don't find the era transitions to be "sudden." I find them very expected and think about whether to accelerate the end of the age or not. I understand that most of my units will be upgraded in the next era. I can even rationalize why a galley doesn't survive from Antiquity to Exploration. I can sort of rationalize why Antiquity siege units don't survive.

But I really, really don't understand why all of my surviving units are randomly reassigned to different commanders and why the commanders are randomly scattered on the map. It makes little sense, but more importantly, I can't see how it improves the FUN of the game.

My settlements carry over. The attitudes of my neighbors are strongly influenced by the attitude from the previous age.
Units that I need to protect my settlements and resources should be where I left them. It's not fun to spend turn 1 and turn 2 of the new age looking in every corner, hill, and valley of my empire to find out where my army (and navy) went.

 

[King Flevance]

My biggest desire is being able to have 2 cities "share" a tile in their radius until one of them actually claims it as rural or urban. I hate that I find myself avoiding upgrading a town or city's resource because if I do, I will rob a needed tile for another city. Its like my people refuse to let a neighboring city farm a grassland they aren't using because they "called dibs" by working the salt mine next door even though that city has no need to use that tile.

As also mentioned, I would actually like the ability to remove an ageless building from my city. Both for the purposes of restructuring my layout, or if the AI plops a granary down on a small island of 3 tiles and that city winds up in my hands.

I will also echo units not moving around on age transition.

 

[Liksomkatt]

I'm hoping we get hotseat soon, and a better implementation of it than we got for Civilization VI. (Especially allied hotseat, which was fairly badly implemented in VII.)

I am pleasantly surprised to see hotseat for Civ VII mentioned several times by Firaxis, as I thought us hotseat players were few and far between.

Allied hotseat with a friend is by far my favorite way of playing Civilization games. An evening of beers, talking, and fun.

And I would be really happy if I don't have to mess around with config files to make it work properly this time around

 

[evonannoredars]

Yea, that's how it is normally for most games with DLC/Expansions, but I don't think Firaxis are going to change much about the core gameplay sadly - other than smoothing some edges. Smoothing edges of hated systems wont make headlines or change reviews, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

They've said they intend to change some things in a big way, they've not explicitly said an overhaul iirc but religion is something they seem to be targeting for a big improvement in the future. Age transitions theyve also identified as a weak point they want to approach again.

 

[Yzman]

Monthly updates will satisfy current players, but if they want to fix things, then they should ignore updates for a year, focus on giant changes to the core of the game.

Building on top of the current foundation is pointless.

If they had a patch that made changes to civ swapping, eras and denuvo, then it would be newsworthy. People would write about it and make videos. It would skirt around the terrible reviews and be a foundation for growth.

I suggest they do it in one single giant patch to make a statement, instead of watering down the changes.

That isn't a patch. Can people stop saying this already?

"Hey can we have a free patch which completely changes the core gameplay?"

 

[stealth_nsk]

Oh, another quality of life improvement I remembered - swapping tiles between cities. Sure, it's hard to do the way it was possible in previous civ games, but something simple could be done:
- Rural district could be placed on empty tile belonging to another your city
- Urban district or wonder could be placed on empty tile or rural district belonging to another your city

 

[Pfeffersack]

I agree that teleportation and reassignment of units after age switch need to go...annoying and frustrating clickwork...and essentially the feeling of the game arbritarily messing up a players strategy and planning, telling me "I don't care where you the player place your units"

UI-wise, I still would like to get edge scrolling as an option.

For gameplay, a rework of religion.

Probably more DLC territory (unless maybe compensation for the missing post 1960 stuff): If they touch the 3rd age in some way, Dams and especially Canals should make a comeback. Really miss them, they are among the best additions Civ6 brought to the series.