"steer the course of your story by choosing a new civilization to represent your empire" (civ switching)

[Dedrytus]

At one era I am fighting France that eliminated my friend China and peaceful Mongolia is on my borders. Next turn I am China fighting Mongolia that killed France? Seems confusing.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

It sounds like you can have an "Exploration only" game and the like, is what I think they are going for so you can jump in at one point for a faster online experience

I've always enjoyed starting in Ancient Era, so having to start a game in the Exploration era just to start as the civ I want too doesn't sound enjoyable to me.

 

[UWHabs]

I neither like nor dislike it. I think it could be great or it could be terrible. I am optimistic knowing there needs to be gameplay ties or regional ties to justify your choice, that removes a lot of my chief complaints about it in other games, but it's going to depend on the execution.

I'm definitely curious. I do sort of hope there is an option to force the strict order, so civs don't jump crazy all around. But one curious part is that it sounds like each age is basically a full game in itself (150-ish turns), so at some level you get a full game as one civ, and then sort of start a new game next age.

 

[Thenewwwguy]

But the thing is colonization is both historical and baked into the cake of any 4x game. Even claiming land is by nature exclusive, and every civ fought for what they thought was theirs. There were winners and losers, but usually civs won a lot in their day and then lost as they declined and fell. The truth is history is messy, and any game that reflects it better than Disney's Pocahontas can't avoid it.

yes, but this is a game that allowed you to occupy the fantasy that maybe the indigenous peoples of the world didn't have to fall to colonialism. Yes, it's a 4x, but the colonization you could play/see wasn't represented through real-world colonization.

The Aztecs capturing Rome from the Romans is fundamentally different colonialism than being forced to evolve the Maori into New Zealand because of the era system. One says colonization is part of history, but you can still truly play as the cultures we lost to it, the other forces us to deal with the fact that real-world colonial progression is going to be reflected in the game, whether we like it or not.

 

[Quintillus]

What if I don't want to switch to Songhai or Mongolia and stay as Egypt...

This screenshots suggests you may be able to do that:

I am not sure how it all fits together, playing as Aksum/Egypt/Amina but with a Choose Songhai option? Hopefully we will learn more soon.

 

[BuchiTaton]

Has any content creators or interview clarified how the system works?

I have some confusion on how many choices you have per Era.

The screen shows three choices, but the way the third one is worded, it looks like you can choose any.

View attachment 699890

Wow this looks terrible...
These limited options are neither historical or free.

 

[Jkchart]

I've always enjoyed starting in Ancient Era, so having to start a game in the Exploration era just to start as the civ I want too doesn't sound enjoyable to me.

And that's a fair take, so I wonder how they are reading the post-youtube discussion since we know they read these forums (hi devs! congrats on the trailer! looking forward to more!)

 

[Willie5000]

Really don't like this idea :-(

It was the best part of Humankind!

 

[Evie]

If there are any Modern era civilization (and I suspect there will be),I would think the Maori are among the strongest contenders for them, both for the fact that "their" colonial era is in the mid-to-late nineteenth century and for their continued impotance today.

 

[clapyourhands]

This screenshots suggests you may be able to do that:

View attachment 699900
I am not sure how it all fits together, playing as Aksum/Egypt/Amina but with a Choose Songhai option? Hopefully we will learn more soon.

I think that this shows the three ways you can qualify to choose Songhai as a civ in the Exploration era; if at least one box is checked you can do so. But I don't think it's the player selecting "Play as Egypt" to continue doing so, at least that's the impression I'm getting.

The top right says. "a new culture emerges" implying this is an era transition selection screen, and the player has clicked on "Songhai" bringing them to this menu page showing that they qualify to pick it because they have previously chosen Egypt.

 

[Thenewwwguy]

This screenshots suggests you may be able to do that:

View attachment 699900
I am not sure how it all fits together, playing as Aksum/Egypt/Amina but with a Choose Songhai option? Hopefully we will learn more soon.

this part of the trailer was very interesting to me. It seems like you can switch to playing as one of your opponents and then adopting the new culture--since Aksum was one of Egypt's neighbors in the trailer

Amina is presumably Amina of Zazzau? Who is maybe representing Songhai as its leader in this game? But she isn't Songhai, she was Hausa. So I don't know why she'd have been selected as the leader. In any case, it looks like you might be able to swtich leaders to the leader of your next era civ if you want.

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

If there are any Modern era civilization (and I suspect there will be),I would think the Maori are among the strongest contenders for them, both for the fact that "their" colonial era is in the mid-to-late nineteenth century and for their continued impotance today.

They may be important but they are still a conquered people

 

[Xandinho]

I mean OK, maybe Firaxis thought this out much better than Humankind devs and so one would need to play the game to see/feel it for himself.

Even if they do it better than HK, it's still a throwback to what it's like to stand the test of time playing with, say, Egypt, from the ancient era to the modern era. This exchange of cultures over time was always HK's initial proposal, so I was already prepared for that, but that was never Civ's proposal. It is an audacious and courageous change, which only time will tell if it was assertive.

 

[Thenewwwguy]

I think that this shows the three ways you can qualify to choose Songhai as a civ in the Exploration era; if at least one box is checked you can do so. But I don't think it's the player selecting "Play as Egypt" to continue doing so, at least that's the impression I'm getting.

The top right says. "a new culture emerges" implying this is an era transition selection screen, and the player has clicked on "Songhai" bringing them to this menu page showing that they qualify to pick it because they have previously chosen Egypt.

This would make a lot more sense than what i suggested, actually, lol.

 

[DeutschDachs]

At least Polandball will have some fun if Poland ends up being an Age of Exploration Civ

Since then they couldn't into space... honestly annoying that a vast majority of the Civs in this game won't be able to achieve space race victory.

 

[bitula]

I do want to say, Civ is still a series and game of "what ifs", and therefore you can ask the question "what if Songhai dominated beyond the Sahel" and like questions.

One may think "what if"-ness of civ series is its trademark. But no. Many games have this "what if" as their core feature. Certainly this is not the main reason why the series was so famous, but rather the history and the "stand of time".

 

[Evie]

They're still a distinct people with their own history, past conquest or not.

Real people don't "lose the game" because they get conquered. They go on existing. They remain a distinct people, with their own culture, that continues to be a living, breathing, changing culture. Conquests make you lose the game in civilization. In reality, there is a game to be won or lost, and so long as a culture still exists, it still matters.

The Chinese, too, were a conquered people once upon a time.

 

[Brutus2]

So I explore the map, meet civs, build relationships and then enter a new era and all of a sudden, every civ on the map just becomes a different civ? Now Athens is suddenly the capital of France?

How on Earth did these very smart and talented devs decide it would be brilliant to copy the most hated feature of a less popular game?

i know we haven’t seen much yet and I’m trying to stay optimistic but Ive been playing civ for over 20 years and I am so disappointed right now.

 

[bitula]

I neither like nor dislike it. I think it could be great or it could be terrible. I am optimistic knowing there needs to be gameplay ties or regional ties to justify your choice, that removes a lot of my chief complaints about it in other games, but it's going to depend on the execution.

Correct, well that is why I said: noone explicitly liked it. Or at least I so far didn't find a comment saying: "hey people, what a great idea".

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

If there are any Modern era civilization (and I suspect there will be),I would think the Maori are among the strongest contenders for them, both for the fact that "their" colonial era is in the mid-to-late nineteenth century and for their continued impotance today.

I would assume America is. So is Buganda, which is the Modern equivalent of Egypt apparently.