What's a part of the game you never use or interact with?

[vorlon_mi]

Banners and badges: Yes, I like to fiddle with the shiny objects. To see what I have unlocked after earning some achievement-ish points.

Each modern age, I'm debating between beelining Industrialization/Mass Production for Economic victory or Flight to try for the Science victory.
I think that I achieved the Science victory in my very first game, at a lower difficulty level. But more recent games, my production hasn't been strong enough to get the launch pads built in a timely manner. When I do beeline Flight, yes, I like to build airplanes. Especially since the costs for buildings have increased in the last patch; I have an incentive to build units. The Squadron Commanders are useful for moving planes closer to wherever the front is. In Civ6, one can host one plane in each city, but for more than one you need an airfield (worker improvement) or an Aerodrome district. In Civ7, the Squadron commander servers this purpose, with the benefit that it is *moveable*.

 

[McSpank01]

Yes, that's the problem with this kind of mechanics. Hindering others is not as visible as boosting yourself. Even if it's actually effective, it's hard to grasp.

The other problem is that it’s hard to understand what rules the AI is playing by. If I try to slow down the AI’s research does that actually slow them down? By now we know that the AI will get a series of buffs to counteract the human player, most of which feel under the hood. Taking more action under the hood makes it hard to know what effect it’s actually having.

Plus, in Civ 7, slowing down the AI feels pointless when there are ages and the benefits of tech and culture leads feel far less pronounced to the point where I barely care what the AI is doing.

Also, they just seem so unimpactful

 

[stealth_nsk]

The other problem is that it’s hard to understand what rules the AI is playing by. If I try to slow down the AI’s research does that actually slow them down?

Yes, all this comes from lack of visibility.

But from game design perspective this is fine, I think. Sanctions have clear role in MP games and for usage by AI against humans. Plus you could still use it against AI it's just not that clear.

 

[McSpank01]

Yes, all this comes from lack of visibility.

But from game design perspective this is fine, I think. Sanctions have clear role in MP games and for usage by AI against humans. Plus you could still use it against AI it's just not that clear.

It definitely feels like a feature for use in MP. I don’t think it would ever been that useful against the AI

 

[MutilationWave]

- Many of the IP bonuses don't make any sense, so I'm selecting the same few every time. They need to balance these better IMO.
- The plague crisis. Again, maybe it's me, but this is fun to somebody? I turn this off every single game.
- Later in the ages if I'm steamrolling, the Taj Mahal or anything that extends the celebration length.

Hard agree to everything. After my last game I'm turning plague off. Most games I try to play as close to how the designers intend, but plague is lame city.

I will never do anything to increase celebration length. You are correct, it gets you 50% less policy slots. This is why I have never played as Rizal.

 

[uppi]

There is a bit of usefulness of sanctions against the AI: If you want to declare a formal war, but relations are not bad enough for that, adding sanctions on top of a denouncement will get you there faster. If you are at 0, one denouncement will not be enough to get to hostile (when you consider decay), so you would need something on top, anyway.

 

[Krikkit1]

Hard agree to everything. After my last game I'm turning plague off. Most games I try to play as close to how the designers intend, but plague is lame city.

I will never do anything to increase celebration length. You are correct, it gets you 50% less policy slots. This is why I have never played as Rizal.

They need to allow you to trigger a celebration while you are currently in one (which would let you switch which benefit you are getting and adds X more turns to the current Length).

 

[stealth_nsk]

They need to allow you to trigger a celebration while you are currently in one (which would let you switch which benefit you are getting and adds X more turns to the current Length).

Good idea. It still would probably cap at 1 celebration per round, but that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Krikkit1]

Good idea. It still would probably cap at 1 celebration per round, but that shouldn't be a problem.

You mean 1 per turn?... yeah that shouldn't be a problem except with max chocolate.

 

[CivKirk64]

2 Things.
First is sanctions & espionage . Influence seems hard enough to come by and you need it for so many many things. Endeavors, war support, befriending IP I feel they could double the yields of influence and still have tough choices about how to spend it.

2nd is Religion, apart from using a few missionaries to get enough relics for the age, I do not care which of my own cities follows mine own religion, which neighbors follow it. It is difficult to see the benefits or at least take advantage of all the boons you get.
Once again it comes down to resource, I can spend my missionaries (Production) on getting relics or spreading for the sake of spreading and getting the feeble bonuses, but not both.
I really wish they would do away with missionaries all together, make it strictly passive spread, based on distance plus trade routes.

And please please get rid of the religion city flip floping. Just have a percentage that gets influenced over time, updates whenever the city gains population.
Have all the perks in tiers.

Founder: something the founder gets per population regardless of where the population lives.
Follower A: Some strong bonus a city gets when the religion is in 1st place in a city.
Follower B: A weaker bonus a city gets when religion is 2nd or 3rd place
Follower C: A trivial bonus a city gets just being present, carried over from your pantheon


Antiquity starts with Pantheon, ends with founding and naming your religion.

Have Founder belief unlock right away and have C the pantheon bonus, Then at 2nd tier in Exploration you unlock A,, then after a certain population you unlock B

 

[Yzman]

Only thing I do less than espionage is sanctions.

 

[Yzman]

As MP is already a prevalent answer here…

Unlocking the second and third religious beliefs. Because they are locked behind in-game events and are absolutely not worth the effort of spreading religion beyond completing the legacy path.

Bonus question: any of you have interacted with player profile/banner customization?

Yeah I update the banner and such even though i am only one who will see it. Because why not?

 

[tman2000]

I've never really used commander upgrades past the logistics, unloading and basic combat strength ones. I wasn't convinced the yield bonuses even work. Never really used the air commander at all.

Some of the upgrades do seem cool, like the cliff scaling ability. It just was always so complicated to have the right set of conditions to plan out using that. Plus I can't tell when the commander radius is etc. etc.

 

[tman2000]

Mementos

These would benefit if you could sort or organize them by type. Also, the whole point of it where I play Benjamin Franklin 10 times could not be less worth it.

 

[Berrern]

There's three things on my list:
- Multiplayer: Never tried it and have no interest - I enjoy spending a long time on turns, without being rushed.
- The attribute point that gives 50% longer Celebrations. Why would I want longer celebrations when it ends up meaning less policy slots?
- Sanctions (except for Denounce): They're more expensive than Denouncing, have less effect on the relationship, and I feel the penalty for the AI is near negligible.

Things I seldom use:
- Missionaries: I only buy enough of them to achieve the two Legacy paths.
- Espionage: I need to start using this more often, as it can be very beneficial, but I typically focus my Influence on other things.
- The bottom 4 Commander promotions on the Leadership tree. While they're not bad, there are many better promotions IMO.
- Incorporating City States.

I see multiple mentions of Levying units - this can be very useful to get Scouts from City States behind enemy lines!