I just realized something about Civ 7

[Albertan Civfanatic]

...that this game has made an AMAZING improvement over previous iterations of Civ in the sense that, yes, you have to "achieve" more, ie win legacy points, but this means you don't have to maximize science as much as in previous games. In 5 and 6 I always hated that no matter what I did I HAD to have the edge over my opponents in science, but 7 actually rewards you for doing real things in the game. The move away from science has made 7 a more performance based game than merely having yields. I just realized this yesterday and now appreciate the game more.

 

[JNR13]

I feel like that has shifted to culture though. Arguably, that was already the case in Civ VI. But even the exploration science legacy now relies a lot on culture.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Yeah, I feel like Culture might be more important now. You have more civics to pick up. There's the civics for the culture legacies (and army commanders, flanking, and various diplomatic options), but also for +Settlement cap, Traditions, plus Theology and Ideologies.

 

[Melkus]

Generally there's a point where huge science/culture numbers simply don't matter anymore, because you can only get ahead so much before the tree runs out. (And the difference in unit tech never exceeds 10 strength)
And whatever advantage you get can get stolen by spies, too.

 

[UWHabs]

Yeah, I feel like Culture might be more important now. You have more civics to pick up. There's the civics for the culture legacies (and army commanders, flanking, and various diplomatic options), but also for +Settlement cap, Traditions, plus Theology and Ideologies.

Yeah, there's a lot of necessary bonuses to maximize your civs in the culture tree, you really have to fight for that. Science kind of ends up feeling like you just need to get through the science tree just to move along, but culture gives you real jumps in power when you unlock the pieces.

 

[JNR13]

Culture also has more urgency to secure wonders, all while offering a lot more choice about which order to unlock things in.

 

[aelf]

Yes, and the soft reset helps with this. Just be conscious that there are some things you can't do with low science, like getting good specialist-based yields (maybe until Modern Age). But you can still war if you can spam units like with Charlemagne and strong heavy cavs like Chevalers.

I've also realised that without a good culture output, you'll likely miss out on most if not all wonders on higher difficulties. There's a tradeoff, but you absolutely can still win the game.

 

[evonannoredars]

True, I definitely like that science is less important. The one area I'd like to see some changes still though is with the economic path, the exploration and modern paths both depend on science unlocks. Some way to directly use gold to get those techs faster would be nice, though I admit idk how that'd work

 

[chazzycat]

Yeah, I feel like Culture might be more important now.

Strong agree. Now that there's always relative parity of military units in a given age, science is simply not as critical for survival.

But then each civ also gets a unique civic tree with strong abilities and all their unique traditions, while nothing like this exists for science.

So culture gets:
- most of the settlement limit unlocks
- most of the wonder unlocks
- all social policies
- all of the fun unique/roleplay stuff

While science mostly just gets buildings, and more science. It's pretty clear that culture is king IMO.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Strong agree. Now that there's always relative parity of military units in a given age, science is simply not as critical for survival.

On Immortal and Deity it's not that easy. If you're behind in units on top of AI bonuses, survival is much more difficult.

 

[chazzycat]

Yeah I mean I'm not saying you should just ignore science. But it seems way less important than previous games. It's not a death sentence to fall behind some of the AI. I have a handful of immortal games under my belt now and it really hasn't been an issue. The AI is still not very good at fighting