Is there an era to play after Modern age? Hints from what we saw in the streams

[frodobaggins1983]

Hi All,
I am new to the Forum but I have been casually playing Civ since Civ II (causally means i win most of the games at CIV6 King Level) but i never won a single one above that difficulty level.

I feel Firaxis could be up to a big surprise since I suspect there could be a 4th age to play after the modern one (already at launch, in the base game).

If you rewatch the modern age official streaming, there is a moment where the guy hovers over the "Victory", and it says
"Gain 1 Economic Legacy Point. Spent for Bonuses in the next age".
The same icons apply to all the victory conditions, so all victory conditions give you "XXX Legacy Point. Spent for Bonuses in the next age".

Now, it could be a UI mistake that they solve before lunch, but if that is the case it means that after you complete the Modern Era legacy paths there is an extra age to play.
This is also consistent with the embargo they kept on streamers' gameplay videos (they can't stream modern age, apparently).

If this is the case, I think there could be a big surprise.

My theory?
You have to unlock the victory condition to be able to compete for that kind of victory in the following age, with the real objectives you have to fulfill to actually win the game being (for now) completely unknown and probably revealed at launch in a dev diary.

But come on, you can't win just after completing Project Ivy: you want to use those nukes, don't you?

Of course this is pure speculation and may be completely wrong, but at lease we keep our mind busy thinking about the game until the day we are actually able to play it.

 

[AriochIV]

Hidden in the base game? No. Zero chance.

Added in DLC after launch? Maybe. There are several threads on this subject already.

 

[ombak]

I don't see anything like this happening because, and I don't know how else to put it, these things don't work this way?

Would the extra age have new civs? If so, they just threw out tons of opportunities to market the game.

Your speculation that it could be a UI mistake is perfectly likely.

 

[frodobaggins1983]

all arguments against this hypothesis make 100% sense.
But then why should you get legacy points after activating the victory condition?

The 4th age (in my hypothesis) would just have a civic and a tech three do be developed while you achieve what you need (e.g. for military victory: nuke all the other capitals - which would sound a lot like the sudden death victory they are referring to).

Or it is an UI mistake.
We’ll know in just a little bit more that a week.

 

[ombak]

Embargo lifts on Monday and there's a dev stream tomorrow.

 

[Siptah]

all arguments against this hypothesis make 100% sense.
But then why should you get legacy points after activating the victory condition?

The 4th age (in my hypothesis) would just have a civic and a tech three do be developed while you achieve what you need (e.g. for military victory: nuke all the other capitals - which would sound a lot like the sudden death victory they are referring to).

Or it is an UI mistake.
We’ll know in just a little bit more that a week.

Every legacy point makes the victory project cheaper?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

While I do think they are planning an additional age, one needs to remember that the milestones are used to earn FXP points towards the meta-gaming, and could be the reason they are established, since they wanted some sort of reward and needed something, they went with a default "Legacy Point".

 

[Uberfrog]

What I don’t believe we have seen is how exactly these victories get enacted.

It is clear from the tooltip that accruing Economic legacy points gives the player a bonus towards completing the Economic Victory.

What we don’t know is how this plays out. Does the Modern Era end, and then every player must compete to achieve a victory before the other players? Can players who did not yet complete a track still outcompete their rivals and complete the victory first?

So no, I don’t think this indicates there is a whole new age (with all the units and civs such a thing would require). Rather, there may be an endgame period where you can lob nukes at eachother while someone desperately tries to build the World Bank.

 

[Nikolai II]

Base game? I find that highlt unlikely bordering on out of the question. For an XP of some sort? Definitely possible.

 

[Acken]

No developer do that kind of surprise huge feature reveal a week before release. Especially one that is already getting negative feedback for not having said feature (not warranted imo).

 

[Lorizael]

One thing I've wondered about the end of the modern age... is there a final crisis? Have seen any hint of that?

 

[Siptah]

One thing I've wondered about the end of the modern age... is there a final crisis? Have seen any hint of that?

There isn‘t as per the modern age live Stream.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

The projects to win the game are basically replacing that, right?

 

[Lord Yanaek]

I really love to see hints of a 4th age everywhere, including when it's just a generic tag every unique improvement receives, but i'd say that the chances of a 4th age being in the base game are close to 0 Kelvin (for those not versed in Physics, that's called "absolute zero" because it's physically impossible to go below that temperature )

I think it's extremely likely that there will be a 4th age in a big XP somewhere down the line, maybe 2 years from now, but definitely not in the base game.

 

[Lorizael]

There isn‘t as per the modern age live Stream.

Ah, I must have missed that.

 

[Lorizael]

I really love to see hints of a 4th age everywhere, including when it's just a generic tag every unique improvement receives, but i'd say that the chances of a 4th age being in the base game are close to 0 Kelvin (for those not versed in Physics, that's called "absolute zero" because it's physically impossible to go below that temperature )

Fun fact there are very intricate experimental setups where you can achieve a temperature below 0 kelvin when using the T = dU/dS definition of temperature.

 

[Ebon-Hawke-]

Ah, I must have missed that.

I have a feeling there will be an unofficial crisis of sorts when the victory milestone is reached that then requires a project to be built. Like some of the Beyond Earth victory types where you get to the final stage and suddenly world war breaks out in an attempt to stop you. And notably we have seen 0 footage so far of when victory is achieved

 

[Zaarin]

suddenly world war breaks out in an attempt to stop you.

I hate that kind of gamey diplomacy. So far Civ7 diplomacy looks good so I hope they haven't broken it with a metagaming AI.

 

[Taefin]

So far Civ7 diplomacy looks good so I hope they haven't broken it with a metagaming AI.

I hate to say it, but the military legacy filling to the “victory” icon triggering a “world war”between factions doesn’t feel outside the theme of VII (eg crises starting at 70% progress). The game is set up where most civs would be getting WWII units online by then and then they could represent war being ended by one side getting the hydrogen bomb. This feels similar to how oversees colonization is scripted where in VI it would have to occur in an emergent way.

So now, let’s try to read in to why the devs (in the vanbradley interview) said their favorite age is exploration and not modern…

 

[Zaarin]

I hate to say it, but the military legacy filling to the “victory” icon triggering a “world war”between factions doesn’t feel outside the theme of VII (eg crises starting at 70% progress). The game is set up where most civs would be getting WWII units online by then and then they could represent war being ended by one side getting the hydrogen bomb. This feels similar to how oversees colonization is scripted where in VI it would have to occur in an emergent way.

Yes, world war is triggered by players' attempts to win the Domination Legacy by conquering cities of opposing ideologies. That's not the same as "declaring war on you because you're winning."