[List] Civ 7 Mods that make the game and UI more understandable (especially for a new player)

[BrianKindly]

*Update: Mod management just became a lot easier with CivMods, created by @leonardify. You can simply CLICK HERE to install this curated UI & QoL package, and keep them all updated with one click! (Package Updated April 2nd)*

I dug into the mods available and found the ones that are objective improvements to the game's UI and QoL, making the game easier to understand. I thought having a list together could be helpful for other players who are discouraged by any lack of function or information. Importantly, these mods all work together seamlessly and do not change the any of the gameplay mechanics, it's just a much needed face lift.

The game I am playing now compared to the first game I played completely vanilla are ENTIRELY different experiences due to these mods. I encourage you to try them out as they will make your experience considerably better. If you want to play the game now, with the upgrades that will certainly be made to it by Firaxis over the next few years, this is the way. If you don't like any of the mods from the package, it only takes one click to remove that specific mod within CivMods



CORE LIST

1. City Hall (by @beezany)

• Compact redesign for the production list and building breakdown
• Adds better settlement tile colors that are easy to understand
• Adds a "unique quarter assistant" so you don't unintentionally split buildings that make a "unique quarter"
• Adds an overview tab to the city details panel
• Fixed base game bugs so that adjacency arrows appear reliably and repairs clear from the production list when you build them
• Highlighting damaged buildings so you don't miss repairs
• Production list sorted by total yield, combat strength, and cost
• Simpler icons for ageless buildings and maintenance costs
• Adds an overview tab showing demographics and connected settlements

2. Simple UI Adjustments (by @sukritact)

• Diplomacy with other Civs can be initiated by clicking on the city banner
• Plot Yield icons are smaller on tiles that are not improved/worked
• Tooltips are enhanced:
  • The default improvement is now shown on unimproved tiles
  • All constructibles now display their icon
  • Wonders receive a large fancy icon with description
  • Buildings now note if they are damaged or in-progress or ageless

3. Improved Plot Tooltip (by @thecrazyscot)

• Towns display whether they are Growing or Specialized
• Fortified Districts now show which walls (if any) are present as well as health stats
• Additional information is shown when hovering over the City Center
  • City Connections
  • How many Cities are being fed by Specialized Towns
  • Food icon to indicate which cities or towns are receiving/sending food in the connections list
• Unique Quarters now display their tooltips (in addition to Wonders and Natural Wonders)
• Shows whether tile is Distant Lands
• Shows Total Yields
• Current/capacity trade routes when hovering over another player's city center
• Original founder name when hovering over a conquered city center
• Flag to indicate if a settlement isn't in the trade network

4. Policy Yields Preview (by @leonardify)

• Adds estimated yield previews for Social Policy (and Crisis Policy) cards on the Government screen
• Adds yield previews Tech tree, Civic tree, and Leader attributes panel
• Option to add color to the yield previews that align with the next mod

5. Colorful Top Panel (by @gzhekoff)

• Adds colorful backgrounds for yields in the top panel with for better visual communication
• Pairs perfectly with the above mod

6. Enhanced Town Focus (by yamada and @mallek561)

• Provides detailed breakdowns of yield bonuses when selecting town specializations
• Enhances the tooltip display to show exactly how many buildings, improvements, and trade routes contribute to each specialization's bonuses

7. Resource Re-Sorts (by @beezany)

• Sorts settlements by name, with multiple grouping options
• Separate cities and towns
• Group factories and conditional bonuses (Rail Station, Distant Lands)
• Group by number of resource slots
• Groups resources by type and class (city, bonus, treasure, factory)

8. Enhanced Diplomacy Banners (by @gzhekoff)

• Enhanced and "always on" diplomacy banners to quickly reference "per turn" yields (helpful for the new player)
• Hover over to see additional "total" amount of gold, influence, population, and city capacity
• Option to use easily understable emojis for relationship OR the default icons

9. Missionary Lens (by @And1210)

• Adds a lens to show the religion on each of a settlements urban and rural tiles

BONUS LIST

10. Improved Mod Page (by @thecrazyscot)

• Enhances the mod page to see what community mods you have installed and their available functionality

11. Map Tacs (by @wltk)

• Ability to add map markers to your settlements, allowing you to plan ahead where your urban districts will go
• Makes it easy to plan you city one time and not forget your plans throughout the game

12. Claimed Wonders Notation (by @KayleeR)

• Civic & tech trees show red outline around already finished wonders to indicate they're unable to be built

13. Wonders Screen (by @KayleeR)

• Displays status information about all wonders including:
  • Who owns completed wonders
  • What cities/towns you could build wonders in and how long it would take
  • What unlocks are required

14. Discovery Lens (by @wltk)

• Highlight plots with discoveries (goodie huts)
• The lens is automatically enabled when a scout is selected and can also be toggled above mini-map

15. Map Search (by @moxl)

• Adds a search box in the lens window for displaying plots that match the search results

16. Border Toggles (by @Finwickle)

• Adds a toggle in the lens window to show city borders, showing you which tile belong to which city if two cities overlap

17. Non Sticky Selection (by @nasuellia)

• This mod allows to deselect units by clicking on any plot on the map

18. Better Main Menu (by @Cyberdisc)

• Hides the news/ad carousel, message of the day, profile header, and 2k icon
• Changed the background masks to reveal more of the background image
• Background image randomized among the 30 available Civilization backgrounds

19. Better Pause Menu (by @Cyberdisc)

• Buttons are now in a single column
• Moved Retire to the bottom of the menu
• Restart button hidden after Antiquity (can't use it)

Let me know if anyone has any other mods they think would be considered "objectively" better when it comes to QoL/UI. I might have overlooked one or two while I was searching, or something new may come out. Huge thanks to all the modders out improving the game!

 

[Isca Dumnoniorum]

Thanks for collating this - a useful list. Fingers crossed the devs incorporate the best ideas from these swiftly!

 

[ColPaladin]

This list will be a great help to new players (I have about half those mods too). But, ya, right, good luck with them implementing any of those, let alone "quickly". If you look at their road map, many easy and simple issues will not be implemented or fixed for MONTHS. I have 3 friends asking if they should get this game, and I told them to wait till after the late March update. If the game still looks like it's in a beta state after that, I am going to tell them to wait a couple years.

 

[Kwami]

This list will be a great help to new players (I have about half those mods too). But, ya, right, good luck with them implementing any of those, let alone "quickly". If you look at their road map, many easy and simple issues will not be implemented or fixed for MONTHS. I have 3 friends asking if they should get this game, and I told them to wait till after the late March update. If the game still looks like it's in a beta state after that, I am going to tell them to wait a couple years.

They already implemented some of the changes from @sukritact's Simple UI Adjustments mod.

Unfortunately, manually managing mods that regularly update is tedious. I wish that workshop support was coming soon.

 

[CliffCo]

I use several of the ones you listed. These are all the ones i currently use, you may want to take a look at some of them.

 

[BrianKindly]

They already implemented some of the changes from @sukritact's Simple UI Adjustments mod.

Unfortunately, manually managing mods that regularly update is tedious. I wish that workshop support was coming soon.

Workshop would be huge, and imo, should be priority. That way community can fix the issues quickly, as it surely takes a lot more time for the developers to do it due to multiple platforms, bureaucracy, etc.

Update: Civ Mods is out, and works great!

 

[marius_kaparius]

I'm not sure after reviewing this list that I should be happy or upset. Much of this could have made it into the Steam build if every one of these changes didn't need to be retested on so many platforms.

 

[Siptah]

Thanks for the list! There's some great stuff in there that everybody should be using (because it should be in the base game, really).

 

[stlh2opolo]

Thank you for the shoutout! I want to apologize to the few who have asked me about updates to the health bars. Unfortunately, some IRL stuff and the current pace of official firaxis/mod compatibility updates have kept me away (my own personal health bar is low, so to speak), so I probably won't be updating it any time soon. Anyone is welcome to use it in their mods or edit it as needed, though! I also know there's a few others out there that have popped up that modify the bars for better visibility.

 

[RDomico]

I really like this one. Makes the health bars easy to see and does some other cool things with the unit icon

Resource icon N

nasuellia-alt-unit-flags-and-bars

Mar 10, 2025

A complete redesign for unit-flags and health-bars

• nasuellia
• user interface
• Civ 7 - UI Mods

 

[CliffCo]

They already implemented some of the changes from @sukritact's Simple UI Adjustments mod.

Unfortunately, manually managing mods that regularly update is tedious. I wish that workshop support was coming soon.

I read where one of the modders said that the official modding tools weren't yet available to them. I assume these are what the devs were reffering to in the roadmap.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

I somehow missed the Enhanced Town Focus mod, very glad to see that someone made one for that. Thank you for the detailed list!

 

[Niallism]

I use a couple of those, but worry about the compatibility of all the others. How's the stability and performance of all these mods at the same time?

 

[Niallism]

I'm not sure after reviewing this list that I should be happy or upset. Much of this could have made it into the Steam build if every one of these changes didn't need to be retested on so many platforms.

Are you blaming Firaxis for not hiring more testing staff, or that PCMasterRace thing of blaming consoles for a company's issues?

 

[BrianKindly]

I use a couple of those, but worry about the compatibility of all the others. How's the stability and performance of all these mods at the same time?

All flawless, I only packaged up ones that work together seamlessly

 

[tedhebert]

I am using the number 2,3 and 4 on your list, but never installed Beezany's City Hall because I thought it was incompatible with TCS Tooltip. Will install that one and check it out, it seems awesome

 

[BrianKindly]

I am using the number 2,3 and 4 on your list, but never installed Beezany's City Hall because I thought it was incompatible with TCS Tooltip. Will install that one and check it out, it seems awesome

It's great, honestly, they're all worth trying out. Specifically mod #6(Town Focus) is very helpful for deciding what to do with your town specialization. And if you're using the colored yields from mod #4(Policy Yield Preview), then mod #5(Colorful Top Panel) pairs really well with it.

 

[Giskler]

I honestly can't imagine playing without @leonardify's policy preview mod anymore, the latest update makes the attribute trees so much easier to use.

 

[tedhebert]

It's great, honestly, they're all worth trying out. Specifically mod #6(Town Focus) is very helpful for deciding what to do with your town specialization. And if you're using the colored yields from mod #4(Policy Yield Preview), then mod #5(Colorful Top Panel) pairs really well with it.

IS there a reason you know about why enhanced town focus is not in the released mods portion of the forum ? I just can't find it, had to use your link to go and get it... maybe I'm blind ?

 

[BrianKindly]

IS there a reason you know about why enhanced town focus is not in the released mods portion of the forum ? I just can't find it, had to use your link to go and get it... maybe I'm blind ?

it's in there somewhere, that's how I found it. Sort by most downloaded, should be near the top