Map Expansion over Eras

[Quintillus]

One of the most interesting things that was mentioned in the reveal was that the map will expand over eras, giving new neighbors to meet and areas to explore.

This is new in the Civ series... except maybe Call to Power? At any rate, new for the first time in a long time. And it sounds interesting. I've always wished for a game that stretched from leading a city-state to leading a regional power to having the whole world to explore to leading a spacefaring empire, with each stage giving you a wider scope of control and abstracting away the nuances of the earlier stages so it doesn't become overwhelming, and it sounds like Civ VII is moving in that direction.

Is anyone else excited to try this out? Firaxis also mentioned that each era would feel distinct and that you could play each era individually, so I'm cautiously optimistic that each of the three eras really will feel fairly unique.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I like this idea. It makes more sense to have the game becoming more "big picture" as the years progress. It'll make games playing in Mesopotamia or whatever make more sense.

 

[Aquila SPQR]

I have no idea how to intepret this. Are we talking about the physical expansion of the map? Making it bigger? How? By expanding the edges by adding new hexes? How can that be possible? Invisible walls/limits preventing early exploration?
At first I just thought it refers to new map features/bonuses appearing on the existing map like new resources for example.

 

[Quintillus]

I have no idea how to intepret this. Are we talking about the physical expansion of the map? Making it bigger?

Yes.

The game map literally expands.

Source:

 

[Infixo]

They wanted, as they said, Ages to be as unique as possible, so probably this is the root of this idea. With each Age you get "more map".
Atm I don't find it very attractive, because it marginally changes the gameplay. It is like buying new tiles in city builders - everyone eventually hates it because you will get the entire map / all tiles anyway.
The game did a pretty good job in the last 6 iterations in limiting access to the entire map from the start, organically.
Applying some sort of artificial limit is wonky and needless.

 

[Reckoner]

I have no idea how to intepret this. Are we talking about the physical expansion of the map? Making it bigger? How? By expanding the edges by adding new hexes? How can that be possible? Invisible walls/limits preventing early exploration?
At first I just thought it refers to new map features/bonuses appearing on the existing map like new resources for example.

Not invisible walls but natural barriers - cliffs, mountain ridges and UN-navigatable waters (for depth, currents and perhaps natural wonders)

 

[Ashbery76]

That ocean sort of did that,no?

 

[Aquila SPQR]

Yes.

So it seems it'll be a "new world" thing, uninhabited by any civ (except for independent peoples) since it's rather unlikely to technically make it happen otherwise. Something guaranteeing having true exploration of new lands in the "age of exploration". But it's strange, because it's something that can be achieved with proper map scripts (making reaching the "new world" impossible before the age of exploration) without making the map literally expand. I wonder what's the reasoning behind this design (making exploration/colonization available for everyone at the same time?).

 

[Aquila SPQR]

Not invisible walls but natural barriers - cliffs, mountain ridges and UN-navigatable waters (for depth, currents and perhaps natural wonders)

But that's something we already have in all civ games, without the need of creating an entirely new mechanic that sounds strange (the real world doesn't change the size literally, only means of crossing the obstacles are invented).

 

[Quintillus]

I wonder what's the reasoning behind this design (making exploration/colonization available for everyone at the same time?).

When I've thought about this possibility in terms of how I would do it, the reason that came to mind was, "because that way you don't have to slow down the turns by simulating everything for the areas that aren't discoverable yet." Since, as you mention, otherwise map expansion over eras can be figuratively achieved in existing iterations - if nothing else, by preventing travel across oceans until a certain technology is discovered.

But I'm curious what it will mean in practice, as well as how it may work with different map scripts. I could design a Pangaea map in Civ III that figuratively expanded by era by playing around with which units could travel on which sorts of terrain, but I couldn't have the game automatically generate one - and maybe that sort of possibility will exist with VII.

 

[Aquila SPQR]

When I've thought about this possibility in terms of how I would do it, the reason that came to mind was, "because that way you don't have to slow down the turns by simulating everything for the areas that aren't discoverable yet."

Yeah, that can be the cause too, but... I'm not sure it's really that important since usually there's not much going on in the completely unexplored areas after all. There has to be some gameplay idea behind it, possibly the one I mentioned - "it's not the age of exploration yet, so stick to your neighbourhood and wait for new age to widen your horizons (literally)". Enlarging the map (or hard prevention of reaching those "yet to be created" tiles early on if you look from the other perspective) is a rather drastic way of preventing people from exploring too much. But I don't really complain to be honest. I love exploration and this way we can have few continents early on for civs to live on and still space for new, unexplored continents in the age of exploration. In previous games we had either civs spread equally on the whole map or cramped together with new world empty and waiting for colonization.

I wonder how they will do it though. Will it expand in all directions? So no way to reach arctic early on (since it will be created in the second age)? Or maybe only by expanding the map on the east-west axis (simulating the discovery of Americas)? The latter is probably more likely.

Or maybe it's a new feature just for the sake of having a new feature, something to brag about.

 

[The_J]

Was it not said somewhere that in the ancient era you can only have 5 civs, and in the exploration era 8 or so?
Just wondering how that is managed.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

See, during live stream ( was working at the time so couldn't pay full attention) in my head the "expanding" also represented a change in scale, where each tile might represent a larger area as time went by. So the map might have the same number of tiles but represent a larger actual area.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

That ocean sort of did that,no?

My interpetation is Civ never actually allowed "New World" mechanic, this is what this means to me, there will be some sort of New World mechanic now, which is kinda icky in some way, where colonization is the name of the game.

In Civ, the "other continent" wherever it was, would usually always be cramped, and actual colonization was never really possible with the exception of tiny sometimes useful island chains that were generated.

Outside of Terra, where everyone would instead be cramped and fighting for space.

This alleviates that.

I am curious how it expands again in Modern Age though.

Was it not said somewhere that in the ancient era you can only have 5 civs, and in the exploration era 8 or so?
Just wondering how that is managed.

That was said in relation to the Multiplayer, no idea if it relates to the actual in-game. But worryingly, 18 player maps are fun to play on.

 

[bbbt]

But that's something we already have in all civ games, without the need of creating an entirely new mechanic that sounds strange (the real world doesn't change the size literally, only means of crossing the obstacles are invented).

I think it's a way of trying to prevent snowballing/gate keep progress to a degree.

 

[BrotherInJah]

Early exploration is most exciting thing in every civ game, mid and especially late game lacks these discovery moments so I guess they want to carry that to new eras. How they will encourage us settling in new places? Better tiles? Current tiles will degrade over time? Huge bonuses with new natural wonders?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Early exploration is most exciting thing in every civ game, mid and especially late game lacks these discovery moments so I guess they want to carry that to new eras. How they will encourage us settling in new places? Better tiles? Current tiles will degrade over time? Huge bonuses with new natural wonders?

I think they put focus on resources, we're getting a new system (the tooltips give this away), and it seems new resources will be exclusive to these new regions.

 

[BrotherInJah]

I think they put focus on resources, we're getting a new system (the tooltips give this away), and it seems new resources will be exclusive to these new regions.

In that case each resource should be more impactful not like bonus resources in civ6. Each should unlock unique feature, building, unit etc.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

In that case each resource should be more impactful not like bonus resources in civ6. Each should unlock unique feature, building, unit etc.

This also seems implied.

 

[bbbt]

Early exploration is most exciting thing in every civ game, mid and especially late game lacks these discovery moments so I guess they want to carry that to new eras. How they will encourage us settling in new places? Better tiles? Current tiles will degrade over time? Huge bonuses with new natural wonders?

From the screenshots, it looks like they are doing what Humankind/Old World do, and having an explicit cap on the number of cities/towns you can have, that you have to increase through game mechanics. So I'm guessing new eras will come with the ability to control more cities.