Tune in November 7 for an Exploration Age livestream!

[Siptah]

The Mongol UA gives them militaristic play with or without going to the Distant Lands. They will certainly be very competetive in that Legacy

Yes, I'm sure of that. I meant whether there is a ways for non-Mongol civs to make progress in the militaristic legacy without going to the distant lands by fighting in the homeland, but still taking settlements from the distant lands (instead of in the homeland, as the mongols will do).

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Yes, I'm sure of that. I meant whether there is a ways for non-Mongol civs to make progress in the militaristic legacy without going to the distant lands by fighting in the homeland, but still taking settlements from the distant lands (instead of in the homeland, as the mongols will do).

Yes, probably. Unless you could somehow receive a rival's Distant Lands cities in a peace settlement, or you somehow meet Distant Lands city-states and annex them with Influence without crossing yourself

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Remember that this is still "vanilla" Civ VII, many things like homeland-centered strategy will probably be more fleshed out in the future.

The potential is huge imo; some teething problems are to be expected, I guess it's up to us to identify them and hopefully for FXS to listen.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

The potential is huge imo; some teething problems are to be expected, I guess it's up to us to identify them and hopefully for FXS to listen.

And every age has a different ruleset, of course: besides the balance/etc. issues, I am expecting a steep learning curve compared to previous games.

 

[Uberfrog]

A day late, but I really enjoyed the livestream! I think the look at the exploration age gameplay is reassuring that continuing j to the next era will not feel like starting over. I also love the look of naval exploration and treasure ships.

Also the narrative choice after building over the altar is exactly the sort of reactive event I like to see!

 

[Disgustipated]

I believe they said near the beginning of the stream that there's at least another civ like Mongolia who isn't tied to exploring distant lands and can concentrate on the home lands. Let's hope that's the case with at least a few civs. I believe for the sake of showing off Isabella and Spain they concentrated mostly on distant lands mechanics.

 

[Siptah]

I believe they said near the beginning of the stream that there's at least another civ like Mongolia who isn't tied to exploring distant lands and can concentrate on the home lands. Let's hope that's the case with at least a few civs. I believe for the sake of showing off Isabella and Spain they concentrated mostly on distant lands mechanics.

Presumably that would be the Inca then, no?

 

[Zaarin]

Presumably that would be the Inca then, no?

Inca would make sense as a possibility. It is a nice idea to have a few civs in every era who play against the era's "theme."

 

[Sagax]

Presumably that would be the Inca then, no?

True. But also, technically, there is nothing about Normans that screams “distant exploration”. Same with Shawnee, actually.

 

[Siptah]

True. But also, technically, there is nothing about Normans that screams “distant exploration”. Same with Shawnee, actually.

Depends on how you define „distant“ but agreed. But we know their bonuses.

Of the unrevealed civs, Hawaii and Ming seem unlikely to have Homeland-related gameplay. I could see it for Inca and Songhai only. But I believe Songhai, being important for intercontinental trade, will have a trade and river focus of some sort, but keep the treasure ships. Inca, in contrast, were able to unite a larger part of their home continent (at least for a few years before the Spanish came). Hence, I could see the cities on distant lands legacy goal being changed for them.

 

[The_J]

A quick thanks to @Guandao @Rac @Eagle Pursuit and @Nikolai II for helping to organize stuff .

 

[Zaarin]

True. But also, technically, there is nothing about Normans that screams “distant exploration”. Same with Shawnee, actually.

I mean, the Shawnee roamed the entire eastern and central portions of the North American continent, and the Normans had colonies as far afield as the Mediterranean, the Levant, and the Canaries.

 

[Atlas627]

I really enjoyed the naval gameplay showed on the stream: with treasure fleets, piracy etc. However I feel like exploration age is decent at representing interactions with new world, but at the same time it abandons the continental aspect of medieval ages, especially due to the fact that legacy path literally forces you to explore terra incognito, and not your homeland. At least from what devs have shown to us.

For example such system would not cover the land spice trading which started within the Eurasia between India, Arabs and Europe, or medieval Silk Road across the Eurasia. And in this case I would like to see not only naval but also land treasure traders. Maybe they could be less efficient (To support naval expedition like Portugal did in this situation =D) but for sure beneficial in case you are not a naval empire. For the same reason I think that treasure resources spread should work similar way to civ 6, when you have a few contents on your homeland and each continent have it’s own set of unique resources, and you have to get ones far from you somehow. And same for distant lands. It would be symmetrical, so trading is equal for all players in all lands(would be especially important for MP, in case there are players that start on different lands), and it would allow to stay relevant in case you are land empire without huge naval power.

Same with military legacy path it again forces you to be a naval empire. Making mongol an exception isn’t the way, I think all civs should be able to progress this path through colonizing your own continent (example - Russian colonization of Siberia) or capturing the neighbors(same Mongols). For example all civs receive full points for distant land settlements and half on a homeland (except mongols for example that have full points for any towns or cities on their land).

Among other medieval aspects - Religion got simplified and I am not sure how I feel about it. It had a huge influence on medieval politics and culture. And each player having it’s own religion seems to be “just another set of bonuses for now”, and doesn’t contribute much to interactions between players, how it was in previous civs. Especially Civ IV for example: when civs with the same religion had better relationships, different religions affected trading, alliances and wars. Maybe stream didn’t show a full picture and it’s deeper, I don’t know.

Also culture highly relying on relics seems incomplete. Yes, the art was mostly religious, but it was more than some religious artifacts: paintings, sculptures, mosaics, architecture, texts - all of this is a big part of medieval culture on the humanity’s way to Renaissance . Probably it is now a part of civ-specific great people, than it is okay, I just didn’t see that from stream.

Overall I think that there are still plenty of work to do regarding this age, and I am sure it will be more complete on release or soon later, but for now it seems significantly less worked out than antiquity (which is already really good).

They hinted at the importance of the religious gameplay, but didn't show too much of it. I'm sure there's plenty to work with there. I definitely think you're jumping the gun with your concerns in that department.

It is possible that Civs can progress on the Military Legacy by conquering the Homeland and then trading the Settlements for Distant Lands ones in the peace deal. It is also possible that a perfectly valid strategic play is to do nothing for this legacy path, develop your Homeland, then progress to Modern Age with 1) a Civ that likes what you did instead and can push toward victory, 2) a Dark Age in Military that gives you a useful bonus, 3) full focus on the non-Distant Land Legacies, and 4) all the effort of Exploration spent working towards game-winning conditions that don't show up until Modern but can still be planned for and prepped.

 

[Krikkit1]

They hinted at the importance of the religious gameplay, but didn't show too much of it. I'm sure there's plenty to work with there. I definitely think you're jumping the gun with your concerns in that department.

It is possible that Civs can progress on the Military Legacy by conquering the Homeland and then trading the Settlements for Distant Lands ones in the peace deal. It is also possible that a perfectly valid strategic play is to do nothing for this legacy path, develop your Homeland, then progress to Modern Age with 1) a Civ that likes what you did instead and can push toward victory, 2) a Dark Age in Military that gives you a useful bonus, 3) full focus on the non-Distant Land Legacies, and 4) all the effort of Exploration spent working towards game-winning conditions that don't show up until Modern but can still be planned for and prepped.

Exactly…I think Mongolia is special because thematically it needs to go military but it needs to be home continent…so it gets modified victory mechanics

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Exactly…I think Mongolia is special because thematically it needs to go military but it needs to be home continent…so it gets modified victory mechanics

Incidentally, this demonstrates why the Khmer are hanging out in Antiquity. Their jam is growing populous cities, and that gives them several legacies they can work with in Antiquity, but it doesn't really help them much in Exploration beyond the obvious "5 tiles with 40 yields" thing.

 

[Krikkit1]

Incidentally, this demonstrates why the Khmer are hanging out in Antiquity. Their jam is growing populous cities, and that gives them several legacies they can work with in Antiquity, but it doesn't really help them much in Exploration beyond the obvious "5 tiles with 40 yields" thing.

Which appears to be the Abbasid goal as well
Them,Inca and Mongolia are the only nonNaval Exploration Age civs.
(Ming had some big fleets)

Abbasid pursuing Relics or Big cities makes thematic sense

Not sure for Inca

 

[Zaarin]

Not sure for Inca

Surely the perfect Terrace Farm will be worth 40 yields.

 

[Siptah]

The live stream might have revealed which resources become obsolete in the exploration age, and which don’t. Did anyone pay attention to this and made a list/post somewhere?

 

[Potworny]

The live stream might have revealed which resources become obsolete in the exploration age, and which don’t. Did anyone pay attention to this and made a list/post somewhere?

At a glance, the ones dissapearing are Wool, Dyes?, some blue one? and the ones staying Gold, Silk, Gypsum, Marble, Wine, Ivory, Kaolin, Iron, Silver, Horses, so most of them I guess. Here's an age transition before and after, but keep in mind that the trade routes probably have dissapeared.

Spoiler Before and after :

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

We can at least say for sure that Niter appeared at the Age transition and therefore is not available in Antiquity. Not that anyone is surprised by that.