Small Observations General Thread (things not worth separate threads)

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

not Crossbows and Catapults?

You need barbarians for that. Although still not having Ballista in the game seems like a missed opportunity. I guess in game terms it would duplicate functionality of a catapult.

+1 for "Strategic" resources doesn't seem very... relivant? Like they wanted to have it in the game but thought civ 6 was too restrictive. It might have been better to have the be a "local" resource which give a production boost to units requiring the resource.

 

[BackseatTyrant]

Maybe this needs to warrant its own thread, but connecting colours to the leader rather than the civilization rubs me the wrong way, and I can't put my finger on as to why

 

[Evolena]

+1 for "Strategic" resources doesn't seem very... relivant? Like they wanted to have it in the game but thought civ 6 was too restrictive. It might have been better to have the be a "local" resource which give a production boost to units requiring the resource.

It's cumulative for each copy you own though.

 

[Krajzen]

Random thought

Given known and predicted roster of civs it seems Firaxis handled civ transitions surprisingly well, we have quite a few immersive "evolutionary lines" for historical purists like me.

The one I am least satisfied with is Subsaharan Africa which coincidentally was the first line shown to us by marketing, worsening initial morale regarding the historicity of transitions. My question is: why didn't devs focused on one region of Africa and gave it three civs instead of throwing three completely disconnected cultures? You take Sahel and introduce ancient Ghana -> Mali/Songhai -> Sokoto, done. Or from the forest region: Nok -> Benin -> Ashanti, again, done. Or, from more far fetched idea, Bantu -> Zimbabwe -> Zulu, it still kinda feels alright. You get somewhat immersive regional connections and some claims of real continuity (especially in the Sahelian case). Instead we got three random civs connected by absolutely nothing at all beyond the fact they are black Africans.

It is worth noting for the ever politically sensitive Firaxis marketing department that this even comes off as slightly offensive, as if all black Africans had fundamentally similar cultures and you could just throw them all together after carefully splitting Asian (and probably American) regions instead of throwing Egypt, Majapahit and Mughals together as one evolutionary line. Maybe if Firaxis gets scared of Twitter social justice warriors that'd motivate them to split African regions properly

 

[Krajzen]

One further thought: as much as I like Buganda, as a completely unexpected black horse representation of Great Lakes region, in the same time it is not the best civ for this game because it creates great issues once you try to establish its sensible, well documented historical predecessors... The best (simplest) idea I have so far is simply going for Axum -> Swahilli -> Buganda, to have a general East African "cluster", but it's quite imperfect and admittedly Axum should lead towards modern Ethiopia, not Uganda.

 

[Krikkit1]

Random thought

Given known and predicted roster of civs it seems Firaxis handled civ transitions surprisingly well, we have quite a few immersive "evolutionary lines" for historical purists like me.

The one I am least satisfied with is Subsaharan Africa which coincidentally was the first line shown to us by marketing, worsening initial morale regarding the historicity of transitions. My question is: why didn't devs focused on one region of Africa and gave it three civs instead of throwing three completely disconnected cultures? You take Sahel and introduce ancient Ghana -> Mali/Songhai -> Sokoto, done. Or from the forest region: Nok -> Benin -> Ashanti, again, done. Or, from more far fetched idea, Bantu -> Zimbabwe -> Zulu, it still kinda feels alright. You get somewhat immersive regional connections and some claims of real continuity (especially in the Sahelian case). Instead we got three random civs connected by absolutely nothing at all beyond the fact they are black Africans.

It is worth noting for the ever politically sensitive Firaxis marketing department that this even comes off as slightly offensive, as if all black Africans had fundamentally similar cultures and you could just throw them all together after carefully splitting Asian (and probably American) regions instead of throwing Egypt, Majapahit and Mughals together as one evolutionary line. Maybe if Firaxis gets scared of Twitter social justice warriors that'd motivate them to split African regions properly

It preps for DLC…those other African civs can be introduced one at a time, and they will have some base game african civ to connect to fairly well.

Also, this allows them to explore several different mechanics in Africa in the base game.

(so far it seems like, coast, river, and lake bonuses…two traders and a militarist)

 

[thecrazyscot]

One further thought: as much as I like Buganda, as a completely unexpected black horse representation of Great Lakes region, in the same time it is not the best civ for this game because it creates great issues once you try to establish its sensible, well documented historical predecessors...

I think it's a mistake to assume that it is (or should be) a prereq for exploration or modern civs in Civ7 to have direct historical predecessors. It ends up artificially limiting your possible civ pool and reduces diversity as you'll be inevitably steered towards picks that have always been in Civ anyways.

 

[Lord Lakely]

One further thought: as much as I like Buganda, as a completely unexpected black horse representation of Great Lakes region, in the same time it is not the best civ for this game because it creates great issues once you try to establish its sensible, well documented historical predecessors... The best (simplest) idea I have so far is simply going for Axum -> Swahilli -> Buganda, to have a general East African "cluster", but it's quite imperfect and admittedly Axum should lead towards modern Ethiopia, not Uganda.

Buganda makes more sense as an end point for Nubia, rather than Ethiopia. If only because they were both empires on the Nile.

(then again maybe that was the logic to have it as an end point for Egypt which... ho boy.)

 

[Siptah]

Nilotic is a term to describe cultures and ethnicities though. Yet, I haven‘t seen it applied to the Great Lakes region. Usually it encompasses Egypt and Nubia, sometimes also Ethiopia.

 

[AriochIV]

I think it's a mistake to assume that it is (or should be) a prereq for exploration or modern civs in Civ7 to have direct historical predecessors. It ends up artificially limiting your possible civ pool and reduces diversity as you'll be inevitably steered towards picks that have always been in Civ anyways.

Having a "historical" predecessor civilization is one of three possibilities. The other two are to have a "historically" associated leader, or to have unlocked a gameplay achievement for that civilization (such as Horses for Mongolia).

 

[thecrazyscot]

Having a "historical" predecessor civilization is one of three possibilities. The other two are to have a "historically" associated leader, or to have unlocked a gameplay achievement for that civilization (such as Horses for Mongolia).

Uh, yes...?

 

[Krikkit1]

Having a "historical" predecessor civilization is one of three possibilities. The other two are to have a "historically" associated leader, or to have unlocked a gameplay achievement for that civilization (such as Horses for Mongolia).

The point is even the “predecessor civ” unlocks don’t have to be historical Egypt/Aksum-Songhai?
possible Maya-Inca-Mexico
These are Not actual historical predecessors the way Rome-Norman or Greece-Spain are (and people even complain about those)

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

They might call them "historical connections", but it's really more like "the least worst regional connections when they need them". They serve a pragmatic purpose, but don't usually have much role-playing significance.

 

[tedhebert]

Have we succeeded in determining if the game will be playable offline, like on a plane ?

I'll be taking a 7 weeks trip in the UK in april, and want to keep playing on my laptop !

I know the topic came up a few time in the denuvo thread, but I just don't want to awaken that beast again

 

[Elhoim]

Does anyone know how unique improvements like the great wall are placed? Are they a "building" you select on the city list? Or are they an option when expanding via pop?

 

[Zaarin]

Does anyone know how unique improvements like the great wall are placed? Are they a "building" you select on the city list? Or are they an option when expanding via pop?

They have to be built on top of an existing rural district, but they don't replace the rural district's yields (so if you build them on top of a farm or lumber mill, you will still get the yields from the farm or lumber mill).

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Does anyone know how unique improvements like the great wall are placed? Are they a "building" you select on the city list? Or are they an option when expanding via pop?

Expanding on Zaarin's response:

They are built in the settlement's interface. Typically, you must have a population point to place an improvement (alternately, place a specialist), but I'm not sure that's the case with unique improvements. Also, you can purchase unique improvements in towns with Gold.

 

[AriochIV]

Expanding on Zaarin's response:

They are built in the settlement's interface. Typically, you must have a population point to place an improvement (alternately, place a specialist), but I'm not sure that's the case with unique improvements. Also, you can purchase unique improvements in towns with Gold.

Supposedly unique improvements must go on existing rural districts, so it's not clear exactly how this interface works. I don't think we've actually seen it done in any of the gameplay videos.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Supposedly unique improvements must go on existing rural districts, so it's not clear exactly how this interface works. I don't think we've actually seen it done in any of the gameplay videos.

We are going to learn so much when we can actually watch someone play the game instead of show off features.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Finally a look at the Expansionist attribute tree.