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  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Civilization VII (PC/PlayStation/Xbox/Switch | 11 February 2025) update (12/12): "Rediscover Hope" opening cinematic and "Live Gloriously" main theme (Christopher Tin)
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CIVILIZATION.2K.COM

Get developer insights and additional details about the narrative systems of Sid Meier's Civilization VII!

 

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Hi everyone. I'm Cat Manning, the Narrative Director for Civilization VII, and I'm excited to talk about our brand-new Emergent Narrative system. In this Dev Diary, I'll talk about what the Emergent Narrative system is, how it works, why we decided to create it for Civilization VII, and its potential down the road for years to come. 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Civilization VII (PC/PlayStation/Xbox/Switch | 11 February 2025) update (12/17): "The Modern Age" developer livestream and Harriet Tubman/Benjamin Franklin first look videos
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CIVILIZATION.2K.COM

Get developer insights and additional details about combat systems and Commander units in Sid Meier's Civilization VII!

 

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Hello Civ community! My name is Brian Feldges. I have been working on the Civilization series in one form or another since I started at Firaxis back in 2006, but my first credit as a designer began when we started working on Civilization VI. I've always had an affinity for wargames so at the time I was more than excited to immerse myself in the military and combat gameplay systems for Civ VI. Today, I'm excited to share all of the changes, improvements, and new features coming to Civilization VII's combat, and also outline a bit of our general design philosophy. 

 

Military conflict has always been a central component of the Civilization series and has remained as one of the main victory types since the series' inception. Even if you don't plan to conquer the world with your military might, a good army and an understanding of combat basics are important as you still need to be able to defend your civilization from rival powers and ambitious Independent Powers.

 

 

  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Civilization VII (PC/PlayStation/Xbox/Switch | 11 February 2025) update (12/18): "Developer Diary #5: Combat"
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
CIVILIZATION.2K.COM

Get developer insights and additional details about the Diplomacy, Influence, and Trade systems in Sid Meier's Civilization VII!

 

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Hi everyone, my name is Bill Anderson. I am a relatively new game designer who just started on Civilization VII, but I have been playing Civilization, many other 4X games, and board games for as long as I can remember. Today, I'm really excited to share details about all of the upcoming changes to Diplomacy and Trade in Civilization VII and some of the goals of the new system.

 

Diplomacy and Trade have been a core part of the Civilization franchise for many years, whether it's establishing trade networks, managing your relationships with other civs, exchanging resources, or declaring war. The two systems have often been intertwined, but in Civilization VII, we're introducing some additions and adjustments that really shake up gameplay in cool new ways. So let's get into it! 

 

 

CIVILIZATION.2K.COM

Get developer insights and additional details about the Legends and Mementos systems in Sid Meier's Civilization VII!

 

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Heya folks! My name is Matt Owens, Senior Game Designer at Firaxis Games, and I'm super excited to talk to you about Legends and Mementos! Compared to a lot of our homegrown heroes at the studio, I'm a fresh face – so it's with some serious excitement that I get to introduce a pretty unique new addition to not just Civilization VII, but the franchise overall. 

 

The Legends System, which we refer to as Legends in the shorthand, is what we call a "meta progression" system. The "meta" part comes into play because unlike standard progression systems, which are usually tied to the immediate mechanics and goals of the game, meta progression systems are a means of tracking and rewarding progress across multiple playthroughs for the overall game.

 

Before we get too far into how this system works, let's first cover the history of these systems in Civ and talk about why we created Legends in the first place!

 

 

  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Civilization VII (PC/PlayStation/Xbox/Switch | 11 February 2025) update (01/16): new Developer Diaries and Leader videos
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Hands-on previews:

 

WWW.IGN.COM

Civilization 7 is a game that, after playing through the first of its three distinct eras, is shaping up to be very good, but the fact that it’s introducing a huge number of major tweaks and reinterpretations that—in both small ways and big—provide a brand-new way to play Civ means that it asks of its veteran players to enter with an open mind.

 

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Nobody should envy Firaxis. Once a decade or so, the legendary strategy game developer is asked to reinvent Civilization, a video game series that has been absent of any tangible weak points for quite some time. Nearly every entry has presented different flavors of that turn-based 4X recipe, but it's hard to say that any one is substantially superior to the others. So, that is the burden that Civilization 7 carries with it. Here is a game that, after playing through the first of its three distinct eras, is shaping up to be very good, but the fact that it’s introducing a huge number of major tweaks and reinterpretations that—in both small ways and big—provide a brand-new way to play Civ means that it asks of its veteran players to enter with an open mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted
WWW.PCGAMER.COM

Entering a new age feels like a soft reset of the game, which may be just what the series needed.

 

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I'm still acclimatising to the impact of the Ages system, because the impact on the game is huge, though my early feelings on it are positive. While I can't see the hapless AI on default difficulty catching up to me in this campaign, in multiplayer this kind of rubberbanding can address the age-old Civ problem of those who get off to a bad start finding themselves in an unwinnable situation well before the halfway point of the game.

 

Meanwhile, as someone who's winning my game, I feel like enough of my achievements from the previous era carry over into the current one for me to feel rewarded. My Wonders still stand, my scientific legacy from antiquity will echo through the centuries, and my empire remains intact, albeit in need of a refresh with new buildings, units, and so on. Confining the rollout of new techs and systems to specific ages lets everyone tackle them from the same starting point—even if some of you come to that starting point better equipped than others—while the wipeout and refresh of units keeps turns from becoming too stodgy.

 

Even in the midst of my Civ 7 review, I can say that the question of whether this is the best iteration yet will probably be redundant until all the expansions roll out and we see the full vision enacted. What I can say is that its biggest, boldest shake-up to the series formula gave me a frisson of excitement at a point in the game where things might have started stagnating in previous iterations. That, already, is a major milestone passed on Civ 7's legacy path.

 

Posted
WWW.VIDEOGAMESCHRONICLE.COM

Sid Meier’s armchair dictator simulator is back, with treats for new players and one-more-turn veterans…

 

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Civilization 7’s greatest moments are those that aren’t planned.

 

When starting our first campaign with the new game, we thought we’d find our feet by setting up a quick cultural victory as a Machiavelli-lead Rome. This would allow us to get to grips with the new units, the new leader upgrade system, and some of the new science and technology trees.

 

Civilization, or Civ between us friends, is a game that never takes revolutionary steps. Instead, it focuses on evolution and fixing things you didn’t think were broken.

 

As such, during our first game, it’s a hell of a lot of reading the descriptions of tech trees and planning our future victory once we leave the Exploration Age. Also crucial to our first play-through was coming to terms with the game’s new system for influencing other leaders in the game.

 

As you play through a match, you’ll acquire a currency just like gold or culture, which can be used when interacting with other civilizations. Essentially, this currently can be spent on opening borders between friendly or neutral states, exchanging cultural festivals, and other forced diplomacy.

 

While this does freshen up the sometimes stilted discussions between yourself and other leaders, we found that the amount of influence we were gaining felt slightly too much for the early game. This was also the case for every other leader, as it felt like we were constantly interrupted by other leaders negotiating with us.

 

 

WWW.THEGAMER.COM

Civilization 7 will be a divisive addition to the franchise, but at its core, it's still Civilization.

 

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Unfortunately, I’m unable to muster 12 settlement points. I came close, with ten, which will still grant me some rewards as I head into the Exploration Age, but I could’ve done better. As the age transitions, all conflicts are ended, my troops miraculously disappear or upgrade into different troops, and everything is reset. Sort of.

 

I’m still not 100 percent sure how I feel about this. The transition between ages feels disjointed. I also have to switch civilizations, but remain as Confucius - so now I am Roman Confucius. It doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t like this system in Humankind, and I’m not sure if I like it here either. Undoubtedly something I’ll chew on a bit more in my review.

 

It’s time to start exploring. The Exploration Age has some unique mechanics that I really enjoy, primarily trying to stock up a number of treasure fleets by settling cities in new lands. If you settle on ‘distant land’ resources, like tea or sugar, eventually a treasure fleet will spawn that you can send back to your capital for gold. This opens up combat on the sea for the next era, as well as the opportunity to meet civilizations from the other side of the world.

 

In defense of the ages system, this feels like a separate, standalone part of the game. I don’t mind the soft reset because it staggers progression in the game. Rather than just one long slog, you can approach this era with a completely different strategy. The exploration feels similar to when you first sent out your scout right at the beginning of the game. It’s clear Firaxis has tried to capture that ‘new game feeling’ with the Exploration Age. Tried and succeeded.

 

The Exploration Age is relatively peaceful for my empire. I am aiming for a scientific victory, after all, even though my goals got a little confused with so much military action during Antiquity. I build my treasure fleets and focus on building scientific buildings with the gold I procure. I’ve decided to play quite tall, which means my cities have plenty of specialists - each granting me bonus science. The strategy seems to be working, for now.

 

But this is Civilization. Anything can happen in the Modern Age.

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