What are your pros/cons/questions after watching the previews?

[Sagax]

One of the YouTubers (VanBradley) commented that the UI looks and feels like it was designed for ease of use with controllers, so Steam Decks and consoles.

That explains why it's so dull and blocky, I guess.

I’d like console users to chime in and share if they really have to deal with dull UIs in all of their games, or it’s rather inexperience with good cross-platform UIs on part of Firaxis.

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

I've been following the game closely, so I'll just put down my thoughts about things that are mostly new information.

Pros:

• Flavor text seems on point. The crises are cool ideas and I'm excited for the narratives they will help me create
• I've already adjusted to leaders leading weird Civs. Something about it just has a good, very Civ vibe to me. I am likely in the minority here
• OH SAY CAN YOU SEEEEEE (Britain out for Civs I find more interesting)
• Good variety of peaceful leaders! It feels like they were messing with me, revealing all the warmongers first...
• Specialists seem powerful, which matches the playstyle I've been most interested in
• UI has grown on me
• Lot of little visual things, I like IPs matching their Suzerain.

Mixed:

• Tile yields get pretty high. It's kind of necessary in order to let low city count builds work (which is very important to me,) but I hope it's not too easy.

Cons:

• Settling quickly seems too easy, and I worry that filling or even passing your Settlement Limit will be too important. If this is the case, the only real option for a bounce back from an Age transition (something I really want to be possible) is to switch to a war civ and rush the closest Civ. I'd like there to be other options, at least.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I’d like console users to chime in and share if they really have to deal with dull UIs in all of their games, or it’s rather inexperience with good cross-platform UIs on part of Firaxis.

Honestly the UI is kind of a relief on my eyes since the map is so vibrant and busy. Having the UI be restrained is a nice contrast.

 

[Sagax]

Honestly the UI is kind of a relief on my eyes since the map is so vibrant and busy. Having the UI be restrained is a nice contrast.

Would you consider Civ 5 UI as restrained? So far to me that still feels like where they peaked with it, and it’s been kind of downhill since then.

My only solace is that UI is one of the things that gets improved very fast with mods.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Would you consider Civ 5 UI as restrained? So far to me that still feels like where they peaked with it, and it’s been kind of downhill since then.

My only solace is that UI is one of the things that gets improved very fast with mods.

I would say the Civ 5 UI was very nicely restrained, yeah - I'm not saying the Civ 7 UI is perfect, I just hope they don't busy it up too much. The neutral palette and clean lines work well even if improvement could definitely be made in spacing, sizing, etc.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Some additional items:

Pros:

• Can't believe I forgot to mention navigable rivers!

Questions:

• Base tile yields don't quite make sense to me ... is it noticeably better to settle on Grassland vs Tundra? It should be, but I can't get a read on it.

Cons:

• Governments feel underbaked with the only impact being a celebration choice.
• No fast movement option in game settings.

 

[Ebon-Hawke-]

Some additional items:

Pros:

• Can't believe I forgot to mention navigable rivers!

Questions:

• Base tile yields don't quite make sense to me ... is it noticeably better to settle on Grassland vs Tundra? It should be, but I can't get a read on it.

Cons:

• Governments feel underbaked with the only impact being a celebration choice.
• No fast movement option in game settings.

I watched someone start as Catherine on tundra and the yields were pretty abysmal even if there was at least an even number of yields. I believe it was happiness and culture for tundra, no food or production so at the very least worse for starting off.

 

[playshogi]

I wonder if Firaxis made the whole game "not much fun to play". Halfway through Antiquity won't players start doing gamey things in anticipation of the Great Reset? Ditto again halfway through Exploration and even Modern age. I'll go out on a limb and predict this game by December will have fewer hours played on Steam than Civ FIVE.

 

[queenpea]

Questions:

• Base tile yields don't quite make sense to me ... is it noticeably better to settle on Grassland vs Tundra? It should be, but I can't get a read on it.

Settling is different now. There is no "base tile yield" on the city center, at least for the capital. In the capital, the base yield is only the Palace, which I believe is 5 food, 5 production, and 5 happiness.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Settling is different now. There is no "base tile yield" on the city center, at least for the capital. In the capital, the base yield is only the Palace, which I believe is 5 food, 5 production, and 5 happiness.

Huh...are the base tile yields completely replaced in all urban districts? I guess so...don't know how I feel about that.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I wonder if Firaxis made the whole game "not much fun to play". Halfway through Antiquity won't players start doing gamey things in anticipation of the Great Reset? Ditto again halfway through Exploration and even Modern age. I'll go out on a limb and predict this game by December will have fewer hours played on Steam than Civ FIVE.

I don't think that would be smart because progressing in the legacy paths in one Age greatly influences the next Age. You want those legacy points to get nice bonuses in the next Age. And remember, an Age transition is not a complete reset. There is plenty that carries over. So if you mess around half way through an Age and fail to complete any legacy paths, you will be at a disadvantage in the next Age and will fall behind to win the game in the Modern Age.

 

[queenpea]

Huh...are the base tile yields completely replaced in all urban districts? I guess so...don't know how I feel about that.

I'm not sure to be honest...

 

[AriochIV]

I get the feeling of contradictory goals in the game design. On the one hand the excellent graphics and unprecedented civilization-specific level of detail wants to increase your immersion in a consistent world, but then on the other hand the very gamey and artificial mechanics like the Age resets and bizarre civ-leader combos work directly against that immersion.

The mismatched leader-civ combos are jarring to me. Even just watching games I have difficulty remembering that the various leaders do NOT represent the obvious civilizations, which both hurts immersion and leads to confusion. It's possible to pre-determine the starting AI leaders and civs, but that's not much fun.

I don't mind the idea of civilization switching, but the way the game state almost completely resets at the end of each Age is discouraging. City-states disappear, cities revert to towns, wars end, your units reposition and convert, resources change yields... it barely even feels like the same playthrough.

The games seem to go rather fast... the testers are usually running up against the end of the first Age within 100 turns, and not 200 as suggested by the devs. Each Age is a self-contained game, and that game is over very quickly. I know there are options to extend Ages, but these settings usually come with their own problems.

Map variation is nonexistent; you have several different flavors of Terra maps, and only small and medium sizes. I suppose it's possible that they might have omitted larger sizes from the test builds, but I'm betting not.

The AI forward-settles like a maniac, early and often. I've seen it put its second city on THE OTHER SIDE of the player's empire. Given the penalties for going to war, that's just toxic.

 

[Leucarum]

Pros:
Micromanagement genuinely looks reduced.

Leader mixing/matching looks very fun

The game looks very intuitive, it's still definitely Civ, and it looks like it'll be a breeze to play.

It looks gorgeous.

Cons:
The unlock system looks way worse than I expected. I was already down on what they had revealed before the previews streans, so for it to look worse was a shock... A lot of the unlocks seem like they are detached from how a civ plays. I guess most of them were chosen for flavour, but even then a lot of them are dubious. I really hope this is modabble.

Crises look like they are worse for the AI than the human. So they probably won't help with snowballing... And might make it worse. Overall it doesn't look like their anti-snowballing features have done much..

 

[canadamufc]

No fast movement option in game settings.

This is something that will be present at launch, almost guaranteed. I’d say maybe 80% of the playerbase plays with this on, no way it gets cut.

 

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

My main impression of Civ 7 from the previews is: Yep, it's a civ game. You do most if not all the same things as older civ versions.

Cons:
When selecting policies it doesn't show you what the changes to your yields are. Yes I get +1 food on xzy, but how much total food will I gain?
Seems like there are more pop-ups. Not sure if this will be a con or not in the end.

Pros:
Like I said it's a civ game.

Khans:
None I've seen.

 

[Black Gate]

I would say the Civ 5 UI was very nicely restrained, yeah - I'm not saying the Civ 7 UI is perfect, I just hope they don't busy it up too much. The neutral palette and clean lines work well even if improvement could definitely be made in spacing, sizing, etc.

I think the basic UI visual design is fine, but there's an alarmingly high number of places where it looks outright unfinished. I can only hope that the reviewers and youtubers got an older build from December or so and the internal build Firaxis is working on has a few more things finished.

 

[Brutus2]

Buganda? Did we know this already?

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

View attachment 715534

Buganda? Did we know this already?

If you mean the fact that it's in the game, it was revealed during the very first presentation on the game, I want to say August?

 

[Trengilly]

The more I see of the 3 Age system . . . the less I like it.

• The reset at each age is pretty hard, with city states going away (and new ones created), wars ending and diplomacy resetting, etc.
• It really feels like three separate loosely connected games.
• I still haven't seen anything about the Modern Age that makes me want to play it.
• The ages seem too short. Ancient age looks like it gets wrapped up too quickly.
• AI looks capable of working toward legacy paths/victory conditions . . . but seems as inept as usual at actually contesting with a human player.
• Maps seem too small and cities too packed together. I'd really like there to be more room to spread out. Many games are going to end up with just a massive urban sprawl.
• Map design seems poor . . part of the too small issue. All the old world continents we've seen so far are very boxy with highly predictable island chains.