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

[beezany]

btw City Hall has never had a crash bug. the worst it has done is to break the production list.

 

[BrianTurpin]

*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 May 1st)*

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. Flag Corps (by @beezany)

• Improves city banner design
  • Town banners show their current focus
  • City banners include a civilization icon
  • Better integration of health bars and timers
• Improves unit flag layout and design
  • Horizontal “parade” of unit flags for easier selection
  • Red borders for enemy civilizations and their city-state allies
• Fixes and customizes game features
  • City banners show changes from resource reallocation (like happiness)
  • Unit health bars adjusted to show damage more accurately
  • City leader portraits react to alliances, war, and unhappiness
  • Religion icons merged unless urban and rural religion differ

8. 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)

9. Enhanced Diplomacy Banners (by @gzhekoff)

• Enhanced and "always on" diplomacy banners to quickly reference "per turn" yields (helpful for the new player)
• Adds the ability to see additional "total" amount of gold, influence, population, city capacity, and military strength by hovering over the banners

10. Missionary Lens (by @And1210)

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

BONUS LIST

11. Improved Mod Page (by @thecrazyscot)

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

12. 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

13. Claimed Wonders Notation (by @KayleeR)

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Map Search (by @moxl)

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

17. 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

18. Non Sticky Selection (by @nasuellia)

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

19. 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

20. 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!

Thank you. We appreciate the effort.
Brian

 

[Duncan9999]

Anyone know of a mod that makes the current selected units tile more visible? I use most of the recommended but something that slightly highlights the tile would be great.

 

[RaidandTrade]

Does anyone know of a mod that shows you all the independent powers and city states in a single panel like we had in Civ VI so you can more easily bounce between them rather than scroll the entire map?

 

[beezany]

Does anyone know of a mod that shows you all the independent powers and city states in a single panel like we had in Civ VI so you can more easily bounce between them rather than scroll the entire map?

there's a list in the leader info panel. you can open their diplomacy screens by clicking on the list items. it's a bit quirky, and it doesn't show your current relationship until you click through.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Does anyone know of a mod that shows you all the independent powers and city states in a single panel like we had in Civ VI so you can more easily bounce between them rather than scroll the entire map?

I like the idea and sadly don't know a mod...however, the base game at least offers a tiny help with the part "in one place":



You can click on a CS in that menu and bring up the diplo menu with it. However, convenience stops soon: There is no way to jump to the CS position on the map and once you have close the contact screen with the Cs you picked, you are thrown back on the map and have to repeat on case you want to visit a 2nd one.

EDIT: @beezany was quicker

 

[RaidandTrade]

How is it that I'm hundreds of hours into the game and haven't found this?!? Thanks @beezany and @Pfeffersack!

 

[protocol7]

There are a couple mods I’m on the hunt for, maybe someone knows of some? First, I’d like at some point to set a governor to select rural tiles and buildings, or even just be able to have it stop asking me and leave them unallocated (on a city by city basis). If you conquer much you can spend an ungodly amount of time clicking on tiles that won’t matter for your victory at that point.

Second, the game prompts me with an unskippable button to look at my resource allocations every few turns. 99% of the time it does this I don’t change anything. I’d prefer resources could just be reallocated any time, but if not, I’d also like to be able to have to stop forcing me to open the screen over and over.

Thanks in advance if you’ve heard of anything that could help! These would be huge QoL improvements for me.

 

[beezany]

There are a couple mods I’m on the hunt for, maybe someone knows of some? First, I’d like at some point to set a governor to select rural tiles and buildings, or even just be able to have it stop asking me and leave them unallocated (on a city by city basis). If you conquer much you can spend an ungodly amount of time clicking on tiles that won’t matter for your victory at that point.

Second, the game prompts me with an unskippable button to look at my resource allocations every few turns. 99% of the time it does this I don’t change anything. I’d prefer resources could just be reallocated any time, but if not, I’d also like to be able to have to stop forcing me to open the screen over and over.

Thanks in advance if you’ve heard of anything that could help! These would be huge QoL improvements for me.

resource allocation rules are enforced by the game engine. the user interface just reports the lock status. hypothetically you could break the lock by faking one of the unlock events – adding and removing a resource slot, perhaps – but workarounds like that tend to have unintended consequences.

automatic tile selection is possible, but it's much much easier for Firaxis to implement "advisor" features on the game engine side, because they can take advantage of AI internals in ways that modders can't. you can skip allocation by using Force Next Turn, although that just postpones most things, and there are timing exploits that make the whole idea very controversial.