What each era covers

[Krikkit1]

In terms of “real world” time best estimates
Antiquity: 4000 BC-400 AD
Crisis: 400-800
Discovery:800-1750
Crisis:1750-1800
Modern:1800-1970?2000?

Each Era is 200 turns Maximum (if players accomplish things during the era it speeds up (but almost certainly not to less than 100 turns). I imagine the Crisis periods may have flexible dates:turn connections to help keep the pacing matching

 

[Thormodr]

they've shown rockets in promoting the game, and Beach has been explicit the game will include global warming. so you can expect it to extend into the very near future

crisis mechanics sound very appealing to me so I'd be interested in them developing them into their own mini-age. something like

• Antiquity 4000 BC - 400 AD
• Dark age 400 - 1000 AD
• Exploration 1000 - 1750 AD
• Revolutions 1750 - 1850
• Modern 1850 - 2050

Really disappointed to hear they will have globull warming.

 

[Tanel]

While Firaxis did indicate ages could be played as stand alone games, various players that got to play the game for a few hours and who finished the first age, did point out that there is NO traditional victory at the end of first age. My guess is there are some indicators as to who deals with the end age crisis the best and then the player who does best is the winner. Or perhaps there is a simple ladder when it comes to tech, military, culture and other achievements so you can look for yourself where you are on that ladder and decide if you did well or if you're the winner.
It's only in the last age that the traditional science/culture/domination victory comes into play.

So... I'd say that while you COULD technically play ages as stand alone games - most people won't, as they won't find it as a satisfying enough experience.

My understanding is that if you play for just one era the winner is whoever achieves one of the 4 golden age requirements first.

 

[Krikkit1]

I hope the breaks are not that big. Well, the date shown on the in-world clock doesn't matter much, but how much happens in the world between eras does. The whole point of Civilization is to play the whole of history. Only playing 3 windows of it with big shifts in-between might completely kill it for me. I don't want to play Imperator Rome followed by Crusader Kings followed by Hearts of Iron. I want to play 1 game with continuity of action and purpose, even if the tide comes in and out a few times to push me around.

There doesn’t appear to be actual breaks.
a crisis you play through, and then at some point in/after the crisis you move to the next age (obsolete buildings go away, you change civs, some cities go back to towns…possibly some pops drop….you get to start researching new techs…and get the “default” ones you didn’t research last era for free)

 

[Tanel]

Welcome to the forum! Not to be that guy, but do you have a source for that? I think you're probably right, but it would be good to have it verified.


That's certainly what I'm hoping for, but it doesn't seem to be confirmed yet?

There is no confirmation but that just seemed to be the way from the way they worded things and would also make sense mechanically as it's fairly easy to implement without changing a lot and that way you still have 4 different win conditions in each era following the same structure. Of course it might be me just reading into some things too much and misinterpreting things.

Your idea of the end of age crisis deciding the victor is also possible but that would railroad everyone in for the same win condition.

 

[Krikkit1]

Welcome to the forum! Not to be that guy, but do you have a source for that? I think you're probably right, but it would be good to have it verified.


That's certainly what I'm hoping for, but it doesn't seem to be confirmed yet?

Well There is a screenshot where you pick Crisis Policies and there is 4 points on a timeline
Age starts
|
l
l
Crisis starts
Crisis deepens
Crisis ?resolves/ends?
So it appears you do play through the Crisis

 

[Krikkit1]

You play through some of the crisis. But is there a jump (in time, in events, in game state) between the final decision you take in a crisis and the start of the next age?

For example, say that you take the decision "Pull troops out of distant provinces and focus on defending the heartland (-10 power defending cities more than 10 hex away from the capital)" Does the game to jump 100 years and all far away cities being razed off-screen? Or do you play with this malus for ~10 turns as a huge barbarian hordes appears and you attempt to fight them off? That's a key difference when it comes to continuity IMO.

Well the Policies were things like

-gold to all science buildings, but
+science to infected city science buildings
(A Plague crisis in this case)

Which implies that it takes a number of turns for the Policy to have an effect.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Well the Policies were things like

-gold to all science buildings, but
+science to infected city science buildings
(A Plague crisis in this case)

Which implies that it takes a number of turns for the Policy to have an effect.

Given that the 'Crisis' period is a Special Period between 'regular' Ages, I would not be surprised if the turns in that period were of a different duration than the Ages.
In other words, 'compressing' the time scale a bit during the crisis, which would also have the effect of giving you the feeling that things were happening too fast for you to handle them - which is not a bad definition of a Crisis Situation.

For example, say that you take the decision "Pull troops out of distant provinces and focus on defending the heartland (-10 power defending cities more than 10 hex away from the capital)" Does the game to jump 100 years and all far away cities being razed off-screen? Or do you play with this malus for ~10 turns as a huge barbarian hordes appears and you attempt to fight them off? That's a key difference when it comes to continuity IMO.

As it happens, was just reading up on the Post-Roman Britains, and their experience with just this situation is indicative:

410 CE: The 'Honorian Rescript' tells the Britons to handle their own defense (all regular Roman garrisons withdrawn to the continent in the previous 3 - 4 years)
429 CE: A Romano-Briton force is fighting Saxons
450 - 456 CE: Saxons seizing territory in Kent, Romano-British forces fall back from Kent to London

In other words, the slide to disaster after the Imperial 'Crisis' decision took just 40 - 45 years, or barely a turn or two in Civ-type time scales. Seems like the kind of thing best handled by changing the Time/Turn scale between the 200 - turn Ages and the Crisis Periods in between.

 

[Trengilly]

There is no confirmation but that just seemed to be the way from the way they worded things and would also make sense mechanically as it's fairly easy to implement without changing a lot and that way you still have 4 different win conditions in each era following the same structure. Of course it might be me just reading into some things too much and misinterpreting things.

Your idea of the end of age crisis deciding the victor is also possible but that would railroad everyone in for the same win condition.

Yes, the four victory conditions looked really solid for a single Antiquity Age game.

Culture - Have 7 wonders (of the ancient world!)
Conquest - Have 12 settlements (with captured ones counting as 2 . . . so either mass expansion or some actual conquest)
Science - Have 10 codices (completing 10 tech Masteries)
Economic - 25 resources (secured enough via expansion and trade)

But the game isn't likely to just auto end without a crisis. Advancing up the victory trees adds points to the crisis meter . . . it could be scaled so a crisis always starts when you are getting near to winning. Causing you to have to deal with the crisis effects while finishing your victory.

 

[CrackerJack45]

Yes, the four victory conditions looked really solid for a single Antiquity Age game.

Culture - Have 7 wonders (of the ancient world!)
Conquest - Have 12 settlements (with captured ones counting as 2 . . . so either mass expansion or some actual conquest)
Science - Have 10 codices (completing 10 tech Masteries)
Economic - 25 resources (secured enough via expansion and trade)

But the game isn't likely to just auto end without a crisis. Advancing up the victory trees adds points to the crisis meter . . . it could be scaled so a crisis always starts when you are getting near to winning. Causing you to have to deal with the crisis effects while finishing your victory.

Forgive me if someone has suggested this elsewhere but I had the thought that maybe more victory conditions will pop up as the ages progress, like in the exploration era we would get a religious victory tree and in the modern era a diplomatic victory tree. I have nothing to substantiate this but thought it might be neat.

 

[Tanel]

This article confirms that the 4 victory paths change every era and religion plays a big role for the culture path in Exploration age. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-civilization-7-rethinks-the-series-structure/1100-6525957/

 

[Krikkit1]

This article confirms that the 4 victory paths change every era and religion plays a big role for the culture path in Exploration age. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-civilization-7-rethinks-the-series-structure/1100-6525957/

So more like cultural victory in
Ancient->Wonders
Exploration->Religion
Modern->UN? (or would UN be the modern Economic victory)

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

What were you reading? I've come across so many contradictory timelines that I'm not sure what to believe (or, even, if anyone actually knows!)

Raffaele D'Amato's Post-Roman Kingdoms. Oxford: Osprey Pub. 2023. He starts out on Page 8 with a Chronology of the Kingdoms 5th to 8th centuries CE, with numerous bibliographical comments on questionable entries and their sources. There are also a number of entries given as a 'bracketts' (407 - 410 CE for 'Official end' of Roman rule in Britain, for instance, depending on whether it is dated from the Honorian Rescript telling the Britons to fend for themselves or the actual physical withdrawal of Legions from Britain)

It's not a bad Summary of major events, including the questionable, which are identified as such.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

So more like cultural victory in
Ancient->Wonders
Exploration->Religion
Modern->UN? (or would UN be the modern Economic victory)

Modern would have to be international tourism, right? Probably the same as Civ 5 and Civ 6.
I will say that this idea sounds like the most promising idea of the ages system. Tying religion to cultural victory was one of my wishlists for Civ 7.

 

[Ornen]

I don't think they'll try to shoehorn UN into econ or cultural victory. More likely they'll add diplo victory in an expansion down the road.

I'm kinda hoping they move away from tourism tbh, and more towards like, cultural dominance. American culture's hold on the world isn't defined by tourism. It's blue jeans and Hollywood and Michael Jackson and McDonald's.

 

[Binkov]

Cultural dominance is really about the media. Starting from the printing press and then really exploding once audiovisual media arrived. Of course, any sort of supremacy in other fields will also impact culture. One country is really good at science? many science papers will be written about it, in various languages. One country has a strong economy? Many theoretical science projects will be financed and become commercial - again the media will write about it and other people in other countries will copy them. And science here is an all encompassing term. For example, moving production line or just in time concepts from the factory floor or business management are not science but they advance the economy. Again, other people in other countries want to copy what's successful.
Basically, culture within civ world is influence. Desire to have. Desire to copy so it can be enjoyed home. Or if it can't be enjoyed home, it's a desire to leave your home and go to the country that influenced you.
How to best model that in a game? That's a hard question to answer.

 

[Krikkit1]

I don't think they'll try to shoehorn UN into econ or cultural victory. More likely they'll add diplo victory in an expansion down the road.

I'm kinda hoping they move away from tourism tbh, and more towards like, cultural dominance. American culture's hold on the world isn't defined by tourism. It's blue jeans and Hollywood and Michael Jackson and McDonald's.

Actually I could see UN being a modern Domination Victory.... after all who are the Permanent Security Council Members? The winners of THE WAR.

 

[moysturfurmer]

Modern Econ basically has to be Corporations right? The NFP was them testing out mechanics for VII no?

Given the emphasis on the rise and fall of empires, I have to imagine Modern Culture would incorporate a tweaked version of the Museum mechanic. Granted, things can get a bit muddled in a game where you start in Modern, but it strikes me as a sensible fit.

 

[Krikkit1]

I guess it is polite to tell the French they won WW2, which they did technically do, but it's rarely held up as a shining example of the shining military genius of the French. And the current China on the SC is not the China that was on the winning side of WW2 (that would be Taiwan).

Honestly, I don't think I want the UN to be a victory condition. It would, however, be a great thing to integrate with the "Diplomatic Influence" currency that we've heard a little about.

I actually could see it as a Military Victory Condition (the other one of course being Total annihilation of all Player civs...if that is practically possible). but there it would be establishing UN Rule with you as the primary member of the Security Council. But the UN would probably exist before that as something to use that Influence in.

 

[Paisley_Trees]

Hi all! Do we have an updated idea of the dates for the eras, given the new info from PAX and turn timer screen shots? Thanks!