Marathon Mode in Civ 7

[Australopithecine]

I am the rare unicorn that loves marathon games.

I like being able to make use of everything that the tech / civic trees unlock and don't mind playing for a week on a single game.

I see from some of the screen grabs that it is possible to adjust the game speed, so I am hoping that we still have a 'marathon' or slow game speed with a slower tech rate.

I don't think Civ 6 did this very well, and I needed to use mods to get the pace what I preferred.

Do you believe that there will still be a marathon speed, and will it be more viable than 6, taking into account the extra complications of an age system and other new features?

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I should think so, Ed Beach said that you can play each Age on its own, or all three in a grand campaign, which implies that each Age will be as long as an entire game, or at least there would be a mode for it

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I am also a marathon player. I don't know if the 1/3 speed Marathon will return, but I fully expect a slower game speed.

I do think that the Age system is going to help keep the pacing on track because it rubberbands the players twice with limitations to how much you can snowball before an age transition and finite benefits from snowballing.

 

[Uberfrog]

I think the Age system will also make units more relevant for a whole era, rather than late-stage Civ 6 with your unique units being upgraded out of relevance in the blink of an eye.

 

[Disgustipated]

Marathon players unite. I love marathon. That said, I may not play it in Civ 7. Without builders, turns may get a little boring. I'll probably play my first game on epic speed or the equivalent.

 

[Jimdigriz]

Marathon only here! And yes I'm hoping for more of the same. And a bigger world too - Civ 6 felt too small.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

And a bigger world too - Civ 6 felt too small.

In what sense do you mean? In terms of map size, Civ6 was much bigger than Civ5

 

[Zaarin]

For my part, I'd like a speed in between Epic and Marathon. Marathon is too slow for me, but Epic is a little too fast.

 

[Leyrann]

For my part, I'd like a speed in between Epic and Marathon. Marathon is too slow for me, but Epic is a little too fast.

So 2x instead of (in addition to) 1.5x and 3x.

 

[AntSou]

In what sense do you mean? In terms of map size, Civ6 was much bigger than Civ5

This sounded weird, so I checked:

Civ 6: 106×66
Civ 5: 128×80

Is this wrong?

 

[pokiehl]

This sounded weird, so I checked:

Civ 6: 106×66
Civ 5: 128×80

Is this wrong?

You are right. Civ 6 Large and Huge are a little smaller than in Civ 5. Standard and below are a little larger than in Civ 5.

I agree, though, that despite the similar sizes, Civ 6 “feels” smaller than Civ 5. This is for three reasons:

1. Unstacked cities taking up far more space on the map
2. The wide meta encouraging far more city spam than in 5
3. The lack of visual differences between continents. Civ 5’s unique continent textures made the world feel bigger because landmasses were more distinct.

 

[Leyrann]

This sounded weird, so I checked:

Civ 6: 106×66
Civ 5: 128×80

Is this wrong?

Honestly, it's ridiculous that these are the max sizes when I'm currently playing a game of Civ 2 on 125x80.

Since then, we've had:
-Cities covering 37 tiles (center tile included) instead of 21 tiles (center tile included).
-Desert tiles becoming (more) useless, no yields instead of 1 production.
-Mountain tiles becoming useless.
-Cities being unstacked (and thus taking up more space).
-Base unit movement going from 1 to 2.
-Max civilizations going from 7 to 12, plus that 12 can be increased further in game setup.

All of which make maps feel smaller.

In order to play a game of Civ 6 that feels the same size as Civ 2 with max tiles, you'd probably need to play on something along the lines of 160x125 at the very least.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I agree, though, that despite the similar sizes, Civ 6 “feels” smaller than Civ 5. This is for three reasons:

4. Base movement upgraded to 2.