Small Observations General Thread (things not worth separate threads)

[pokiehl]

There are so many civ-specific building graphics that it's going to be very difficult to identify things beyond Wonders without some kind of secondary confirmation.

I don’t think it’ll be hard; I acually think they've nailed it this time. Credit to @JNR13 for this analysis.

In Civ 6, buildings are distinguished primarily by their yield colors. The result is pretty cartoony, and everyone's buildings look the same. In Civ 7, buildings are distinguished by SHAPE. They're still distinctive at a glance, and now each civ gets distinctive cultural variations rather than cartoony colorful roofs.

Example: the library. Libraries have the "C" shape with a structure in the middle.

This is Egypt's library.

This is Maya's library. It's the same shape as Egypt's, but it's modified to match Mayan architecture.

Another clear example of this is, of course, monuments. Monuments are big tall obelisk-looking things for everyone, but each civ has their own version. You can see that above as well for both Maya and Egypt.

I honestly think this is a wonderful solution: They've made cities awesome, sprawling, and organic, while still affording immediate distinction to key structures. Bravo to the art team, seriously.

 

[Seek]

I'm not sure why there are two bangles, but the Songhai UU is Gold Bangles Infantry, which is probably what that symbol shows.

In the PotatoMcWhiskey and SpiffingBrit stream they said that each civ's UU will be upgraded throughout the tech tree to keep up with current units' strengths, so I'm guessing that's why there are multiple bangles here.

 

[TreVor_ish]

each civ's UU will be upgraded throughout the tech tree to keep up with current units' strengths

During one age, I might add. This is a nice solution really. Makes UU relevant for longer.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

[/URL]
A Swiss flag in an East Asian city. Hmmm

When I spotted this and posted about it in a different thread, I considered that it may be a hospital or other medical building creatively avoiding Geneva Convention-breaking misuse of the red cross symbol.

It would explain why it's among such non-Swiss architecture. Could be that whatever civ built all of this has since transformed into Switzerland, if not for the total absence of any more modern-looking buildings. Could also be that (visual) embassies from other in-game civs are a thing now - but would Switzerland be concurrent with whatever civ (Mongolia?) this is?

Switzerland could also be represented by a city-state. I think most likely it is some type of embassy building. The Diplo Quarter already had visual flags so individual embassies having the flags of city-states/civs that send ambassadors seems like a logical next step.

 

[AriochIV]

I don’t think it’ll be hard; I acually think they've nailed it this time. Credit to @JNR13 for this analysis.

I didn't mean in terms of gameplay, I meant in terms of our analysis now, not knowing what most of these things are.

This is also true of units: it's very hard to know at this point what's a flavor variant and what's a unique unit. For example, the tanks we see are Shermans and T-34's. Are these both just visually customized regular tanks, or is one or both of them a unique unit for America and/or Russia? There's no way to know.

It's fantastic that there's this much visual variety in the game. It just makes analyzing it right now somewhat difficult.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I didn't mean in terms of gameplay, I meant in terms of our analysis now, not knowing what most of these things are.

This is also true of units: it's very hard to know at this point what's a flavor variant and what's a unique unit. For example, the tanks we see are Shermans and T-34's. Are these both just visually customized regular tanks, or is one or both of them a unique unit for America and/or Russia? There's no way to know.

It's fantastic that there's this much visual variety in the game. It just makes analyzing it right now somewhat difficult.

I thought I had figured that out at one point. The T-34s have red stars on them in addition to their faction stripes, which seems especially USSR to me. But then I realized that two pictures of T-34s had different colored faction stripes. So, do civs have a variety of faction color sets like in Civ 6, or are the T-34s the generic tank that goes to every civ that doesn't have a Sherman?

 

[AriochIV]

I thought I had figured that out at one point. The T-34s have red stars on them in addition to their faction stripes, which seems especially USSR to me. But then I realized that two pictures of T-34s had different colored faction stripes. So, do civs have a variety of faction color sets like in Civ 6, or are the T-34s the generic tank that goes to every civ that doesn't have a Sherman?

Yeah, my guess is that the Sherman is the standard tank and the T-34 is a Russian unique unit... but there's no way to be sure. They might both be unique or they might both be just regional flavors.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Yeah, my guess is that the Sherman is the standard tank and the T-34 is a Russian unique unit... but there's no way to be sure. They might both be unique or they might both be just regional flavors.

Making the extremely rash assumption that Reality has any effect on the game design, the Sherman would be the standard 'Tank' unit simply because the USA gave them away by the thousands after 1945 so that it was used by more different countries than any other contemporary tank. The post-war T-54/T-55 series was produced in greater numbers and given away as freely, but the T-55 is considered to be one of the first generation Main Battle Tanks so really doesn't qualify as a standard 'tank' - it should be in the Modern Armor category.

One of the things I consider for my Perfect 4X Historical Game would be having different vehicle, tank/cannon models and post-Renaissance uniforms for all countries. The sheer variety that is potentially available for the last 400 years or so begs to be included in a game somehow. Civ VII is the first clue I've seen that they are at least leaning in that direction.

 

[AriochIV]

It would be really nice if the later eras saw more of the customization that they've been putting into the earlier eras.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I haven't seen this crisis screenshot before

It looks like a plague crisis

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I haven't seen this crisis screenshot beforeView attachment 700794
It looks like a plague crisis

Already posted, but only in part

One nation gets a Missionary replacement.

One of the Crisis Policy cards refers to "infected settlements"

 

[Pistol90]

I hate that crisis mechanics ... maybe worst thing in game, I dont understand any reasons why are they in-game ... whats purpose, except every game being predictable.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I hate that crisis mechanics ... maybe worst thing in game, I dont understand any reasons why are they in-game ... whats purpose, except every game being predictable.

To burn down the world. Nobody changes their identity because they are happy. The crises gives narrative to the culture swapping mechanic

 

[bbbt]

View attachment 700450

It's labeled expansionist, but it looks like Civ 7's "tall vs wide" options - ie more specialists, less settlements, or more settlements. And it looks like wide might be a few core cities but lots of specialized towns contributing to them.

Random events?
View attachment 700451
View attachment 700452

Oof, I hate these sort of random events in games with a fiery passion. Hate them in Humankind. Hate them in Old World. Never mind "play as one civ", I hope there's an option to disable these. They just feel like annoying pop-up spam when I'm trying to play game.

 

[Atlas627]

Oof, I hate these sort of random events in games with a fiery passion. Hate them in Humankind. Hate them in Old World. Never mind "play as one civ", I hope there's an option to disable these. They just feel like annoying pop-up spam when I'm trying to play game.

What makes you think it'll be events or pop-up spam? The crisis is random but there's only going to be 3 (or 2? I assume there'll be one as the game reaches its conclusion, and surviving it the best might be an additional victory condition), and it might not require an event system at all. The Plague infection could just be spread passively, Barbarian Invasion will be combat, etc. It'll be part of playing the game.

 

[bbbt]

What makes you think it'll be events or pop-up spam? The crisis is random but there's only going to be 3 (or 2? I assume there'll be one as the game reaches its conclusion, and surviving it the best might be an additional victory condition), and it might not require an event system at all. The Plague infection could just be spread passively, Barbarian Invasion will be combat, etc. It'll be part of playing the game.

I mean the screenshot I responded to look exactly like the "pick one of two options" random events that occur in other games, not the crises with their policy cards, and at least one streamer I believe has talked about events.

 

[Atlas627]

I mean the screenshot I responded to look exactly like the "pick one of two options" random events that occur in other games, not the crises with their policy cards, and at least one streamer I believe has talked about events.

I'm not sure if these are random events or not, but they certainly aren't the crises. But I now notice that you didn't explicitly complain about the crises: that was every poster immediately before you.

If there are events in, I imagine they are not "random" (though they rarely actually are random in these types of games). You probably see them when you complete Age Progress, or We Love the Leader, or whatever.

 

[bbbt]

I'm not sure if these are random events or not, but they certainly aren't the crises. But I now notice that you didn't explicitly complain about the crises: that was every poster immediately before you.

I'm mixed on the crises: I like the idea of them in theory, and enjoyed the emergencies of Civ 6 mostly, but the presentation of them as just a bunch of forced policy card choices isn't super promising. Id don't like the policy card system of Civ 6. I'm assuming there's more to it than that though.

If there are events in, I imagine they are not "random" (though they rarely actually are random in these types of games). You probably see them when you complete Age Progress, or We Love the Leader, or whatever.

Maybe. I strongly disliked the ones in Humankind, which felt pretty random and again like pop-up spam interrupting my game flow. Old World's made a bit more sense as they were mostly related to their leader/personality system, but I still wasn't a huge fan. Luckily, Old World had tons of config options.

From the look of it so far, they've removed the micro of things like builders, but possibly replaced it with a lot more of these generic "choose a bonus" micro: choose A or B when you step on a goody hut, choose A or B from random events. It's not promising to me for the direction they've gone with the game.

 

[AriochIV]

Don't know if this was mentioned before, but the clip with the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Tower of London appears to also have both an Ironclad and what looks like a pre-Dreadnought Battleship.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I haven't seen this crisis screenshot beforeView attachment 700794
It looks like a plague crisis

Those are interesting decisions though, at least at first look (and not really knowing the mechanics). Looks like the dark ages cards.