Why Even Build?

[pokiehl]

I kept basically all my units. You need to make sure you have enough commanders to hold all the units you have.

 

[Melkus]

I lost all my units inside a generals stack.

You may have experienced a bug, that's not how the transition rules of the game work. It's 6 units plus everything that fits into your commanders.

And what buildings get "eviscerated"?

 

[pokiehl]

You may have experienced a bug, that's not how the transition rules of the game work. It's 6 units plus everything that fits into your commanders.

And what buildings get "eviscerated"?

Yes to the commanders, but I don’t think it’s 6. I think it’s how many settlements you have. I know there’s a screenshot that said 6 but I think the tooltip is dynamically generated. Might be wrong.

 

[Melkus]

That's completely possible, I saw that tooltip (in my game) and had six settlements at the time.

 

[Acken]

Civ 5 (and 6?) had a similar problem for a lot of mid to late game buildings not feeling impactful. Now the same problem happens but in 3 smaller parts.

 

[NowhereMan80]

I wonder how a lot of people who are "liking" this new system reacted whenever they heard someone in the past say that they only played Civ up until like 150 turns and then just started over. Because that's pretty much what this game is.

 

[StargazingDog]

I wonder how a lot of people who are "liking" this new system reacted whenever they heard someone in the past say that they only played Civ up until like 150 turns and then just started over. Because that's pretty much what this game is.

And it is fantastic. So many abandoned Civ 4/5/6 games because it became too tedious, too obvious I was going to win, or just had too much going on. Having this broken into ages means I will actually complete all of my games. They mark good stopping points, which means less burn-out. The ages also mean the AI stays on roughly the same level.

The difference between quitting halfway through old games and the Civ 7 ages system is that I now get to experience the entire game.

PS: Why did you put "liking" in quotes?

 

[Core Imposter]

Bit of a divide in the community between those who are just settling in after 150 turns and those who are fed up and ready to go by that point. Now the onus is on the developer to provide an experience that is worth playing on. I routinely play 5, 6, or 7 hundred turn Civ IV games but I have to use custom rules to keep the game in doubt.

So, with the ages players will end up with substantial meaningful play out of the box? Over three ages and none of this bailing out of won games all of the time?

 

[AriochIV]

It all feels so...forced....

It is very forced, that's true.

You won't lose most of your units if you build enough Commanders. You get to keep up to 6 for settlement garrison and as many more than your Commanders have space for.

And you don't "lose" your buildings, they just become less effective in later Ages. In some cases that's nonsensical (libraries no longer hold books?), but in other cases it makes more sense; older technologies become obsolete.

 

[Elhoim]

Also something to keep in mind that there are several policies that make overbuilding in later eras cheaper. And as said they become less effective (they lose adjacency bonuses), but still provide yields.

 

[wesplaysciv]

Also something to keep in mind that there are several policies that make overbuilding in later eras cheaper. And as said they become less effective (they lose adjacency bonuses), but still provide yields.

So that’s what it is. Base yield is same but adjacency goes away which means I guess specialists also are less useful.

 

[Siptah]

It is very forced, that's true.

You won't lose most of your units if you build enough Commanders. You get to keep up to 6 for settlement garrison and as many more than your Commanders have space for.

And you don't "lose" your buildings, they just become less effective in later Ages. In some cases that's nonsensical (libraries no longer hold books?), but in other cases it makes more sense; older technologies become obsolete.

Re buildings becoming less effective: it‘s actually the first time a civ game tries to include a test of time, before it was always just an empty phrase. Now, time (i.e., ages) actually has a negative impact on your empire.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Just finished my third full Antiquity Age play, and my second foray into Exploration Age for about 30 turns.

As others have said, crank out enough Commanders and you lose almost no units at all. In today's case that was very fortunate, because my Antiquity neighbor Xerxes the Achaemenid, who ended the Age hating my guts because we couldn't help encroaching on each other, went Mongols. I attacked him immediately with my 7 Army Commanders and their troops and wiped him off the map in less than 10 turns. Potential Problem Solved, as they say.

Will say that, again, my experience with the Crisis Period is that it is Lame. Of the 5 Civs visible when Antiquity ended, not one had Happiness below +10 and only one had lost any settlement at all during the Crisis period - and I suspect that one was part of a war-ending agreement, because it happened much too early in the Crisis period to be caused by any of the period effects.

 

[R3P0]

So after playing about 14-15 hours, I requested a refund. This game is not worth the 119 dollars for the full package. I went from 1 era to another and as the author said I lost every advantage I had worked for. Graphics wise no issues with it, but the game has ripped so much out of what made Sid Meiers Civilization special. I have not enjoyed a Civilization game since V with the Community Expansion Mod. The UI was horrible and the Civ swapping mechanic, painful happiness penalties, as well as the catastrophe tree was one of the worst things I had ever played.

 

[AriochIV]

Re buildings becoming less effective: it‘s actually the first time a civ game tries to include a test of time, before it was always just an empty phrase. Now, time (i.e., ages) actually has a negative impact on your empire.

Well, units and some structures and wonders have become obsolete with technology before, though not to this extent and not dependent on age rather than technology.

 

[ZeroSuitSenpai]

Right now when playing this game feels more war-centric than previous civs because of the age system imo. You get to keep the territory you conquered (though it gets downgraded) and can keep your units with commanders in between eras. So it feels like the most worthwhile thing to do at the end of the antiquity age at least is to go to war and gobble up as much territory as possible without worrying too much about infrastructure? Not sure yet.

 

[Brutus2]

Since you lose the bulk of your military units and buildings when you transition into a new era, why even build many of those buildings and units in the first place? Having lost most of my men and buildings, I had this huge feeling of deflation hit me when the Exploration Age began, like everything I had worked for in the previous age was for nothing.

I don't understand why people keep saying you loose everything. Almost everything carries over from the previous age. Most, if not all, of your units carry over and get automatically upgraded. All of your commanders with their hard earned promotions carry over. All of your settlements with every building, improvement and wonder remains. All of your warehouse and ageless buildings and improvements remain with full yields. The only thing that happens is some of the buildings produce less yields. Think of it as your buildings become obsolete and need to be upgraded in the same way units have always needed to be upgraded over time.

I also don't understand the argument that there is no "immersion" for civ switching. That's the whole point of the crisis which includes narrative events that explain why your civ is in decline and why the people want or need to create something new. It also has much more "historical flavor" than playing the same civ for all of time.

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

Will say that, again, my experience with the Crisis Period is that it is Lame. Of the 5 Civs visible when Antiquity ended, not one had Happiness below +10 and only one had lost any settlement at all during the Crisis period - and I suspect that one was part of a war-ending agreement, because it happened much too early in the Crisis period to be caused by any of the period effects.

I agree that the crisis feel forced. I would much rather be in an impossible situation where I'm literally trying to prevent my civ from falling apart just to make it to the end of the age. The crisis policies yielding a punishing amount of negative happiness would be one way of making it a challenge. I just might try making a mod of this and see how it plays out.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I agree that the crisis feel forced. I would much rather be in an impossible situation where I'm literally trying to prevent my civ from falling apart just to make it to the end of the age. The crisis policies yielding a punishing amount of negative happiness would be one way of making it a challenge. I just might try making a mod of this and see how it plays out.

The problem is that the Crisis Unhappiness is not that punishing. On average each Crisis Policy drops Happiness by about - 6 to -10. But there are Social Policies and Buildings and even Tiles with Improvements that increase Happiness by +2 to +4 each and unless you have gone 'way over Settlement Limit (at -5 Happiness for each settlement over) you start with a comfortable positive (I was never below +20 Happiness when the Crisis Policies started in any of 5 games so far)

It becomes a Nothingburger.

Furthermore, when you sail through this 'Crisis' Period and into the new Age, while sone if your cities become towns, I was able to Upgrade them back to cities within 20 turns, and I never lost any population from any of the cities during the so-called Crisis.

This was probably what shocked me the most. After all, IRL Rome went from over 500,000 people under the Empire to 30,000 after the collapse of the western part in the 5th and 6th centuries. In the game, my Roma didn't lose a point of population even when I moved the capital away from it. WTH?

I strongly suspect that one of the Balancing Acts they are going to have to do in a very early patch will be to the Crisis Periods. I will admit my experience is from a very small set of data (3 transitions to Exploration, haven't done the transition to Modern yet) but so far, it doesn't impress.

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

It's too bad the crisis aren't more natural. Something like having to fight off barbarians like a game of Space Invaders or a devastating volcanic eruption like Pompei