Civ Streams: The Exploration Age | Civilization VII Developer Livestream

[@ParadigmZwei]

Shoutout to Carl - whenever other people are talking and the gameplay isn't moving, I notice he always takes the time to just hover over things because he knows people will want to pause and read the tooltips.

[@MaxHardcore-p7t]

That's why he is DADDY CARL

[@cohortConnor]

That’s because Carl is actually a gamer so he understands the audience.

[@secretagentt3]

Request: Noticed from last stream too. When transitioning ages and spending points on legacies, the UI should give indication when you select a specific legacy twice. For example, when you clicked "Gain 1 scientific attribute point" twice, it deducts the legacy points 2 times, but doesn't actually SHOW on the UI you picked it twice anywhere. If I am going back and forth on what legacy points I have and what I have chosen, some indication of what you have selected multiple times would help.

[@theBSDude44]

"Ageless" and "Persistent" sound backwards to me. Feels like "Ageless" should mean "can be built in any age" and "Persistent" should mean "Doesn't go away in future ages." EDIT: looking at the UI, I think Ed just misspoke and mixed them up.

[@DarkOfLight42]

great point, super well-said! probably need a 3rd term entirely for the one that can be built in any age tbh. and then either Persistent or Ageless could mean that they never go away

[@theBSDude44]

​@@DarkOfLight42 Looking at the UI, I think Ed Beach just misspoke and mixed them up. I don't know what you mean by "3rd term." Normal buildings can be built in a single age; they have a yield and an adjacency in their own age, but in future ages, they lose the adjacency and can be overbuilt. Persistent buildings can be built in a single age; they have a yield and an adjacency in all ages, and they can't be overbuilt. Ageless buildings can be built in any age; they have a yield of 1 or 0 (I can't tell in the video) and no adjacency (afaict), instead boosting relevant improvements, with no changes through the ages.

[@mimismomismamente]

30:25 start, 35:20 gameplay

[@doshsemiw5010]

Preciate bro

[@michaelmayhem350]

The real hero

[@arvindhmani06]

More like 30:10 for the start, if you're into the whole intro thing

[@DrMetPhD]

37:49 Isabella the Cat cameo

[@thomasdavis8049]

Bless you

[@paulschuler7556]

Loving the new look, except for one minor thing: I think it would look much better, if borders and for example city walls would look more natural and not so edgy. Let them curve like in CiV V! :)

[@9898Hawk]

You're right, but I think it is an intentional choice on their end. Walls are built on a per edge basis now (with the exception of the city center?), so I assume in playtesting they realized that if they curved and looked more natural it was more difficult to tell which edges had walls and which ones did not. The problem is everything is so detailed and beautiful now that the straight walls look out of place with the overall aesthetic of the game. With tile based improvements, you can just hover and see a label describing what's in that tile, but there really isn't a good way to do that with tile edges. I think they made the right choice.

[@kentonwu4383]

@@9898Hawk I feel like the empire borders should still be smoothed though

[@Gerginaut]

Spain in Civ V was my favorite meme. It was always such a gamble for if you would start near natural wonders. So glad they brought that back!

[@Edax_Royeaux]

If you started near the Barrier Reef, you would become a rich, scientific, and religious super power in like 15 turns.

[@fuzzychewbacca]

Estáis locos?

[@ankhuri1353]

I was already getting the impression they were onto something with this Ages concept ... I had ideas about how this could play out in a cool way in the three ages ... now, I'm 100% convinced: This CIV is gonna be really, REALLY freaking cool! Good job guys! I can't wait to play both of these ages. I hope you've had some of the ideas for the Modern Age that I've been contemplating. You seem to have figured out how to make the Exploration Age feel the way it should.

[@aliensinnoh1]

I know, I'm so excited. But honestly I think they just messed up a little with how they did the revela. They could have saved themselves a lot of anger if they had started by showing off the transition as Egypt to the Abbasids, rather than Mongolia.

[@thegorb2653]

Yeah I'm feeling like antiquity might be little lacking detail after the exploration with all its unique and absolutely fantastic features.

[@ankhuri1353]

@@aliensinnoh1 I agree. I think they could have rolled their game out better.

[@tutkarz]

freaking cool? I wonder how many games had such hype before release and turned out to be not fun at the end.

[@JimmyMon666]

I think it will turn out well. But there are still some weird things that we'll just have to put up with in the name of gameplay. Like those Greek city names persisting. It would make more sense for your empire to morph into another if it's a cluster of cities on the far reaches of your empire and you lose your initial core cities. Of course that wouldn't be fun to lose those cities you worked hard for.

[@romulansenate]

I love their little discussions over which strategies are better

[@priscillaemerald987]

I watched the entire stream, and my hype can't get any higher!

[@christianringlstetter6814]

That was an awesome gameplay reveal. I am even more hyped (already pre-ordered) and really like the age transition and the way the 2nd age works. But I agree to many other comments here, that the UI needs some improvement. Hope this is still an "early build" thing...

[@davidhenson1316]

Enjoying everything so far. Im happy it feels so different than other civs. Ive put about 2k hours into civ 6 so im happy for a change. UI is cool and aesthetic. hopefully barbarians arent strictly limited to a crisis. Crisis system is a fun anti expansionist/ global event for everyone to play around.

[@Hungary_Ball253]

Barbs are replaced by independent powers(except for in a crisis) some independent powers are peaceful, some are hostile and some are peaceful unless you piss them off

[@megatjmega]

the gameplay and graphics are great! But, from my end, I think the UI is really an eye sore. Would love to mod that out or something

[@DeanWBarry]

The map models and all that stuff is gorgeous best of any civ game by miles. The Leaders are half genuinely hideous and half look like they were ported from civ 5, And the ui is pretty bland imo. What do you think about the ui and leaders.

[@JH24821]

I like the simplicity of the UI, but I'm sure they''ll continue to improve on it before release.

[@DeanWBarry]

@@JH24821 what do you think about the leaders. Tecumsah, Trung Trac, and Xerxes look good, but Isabella here looks like a ghoul and Augustus and Confucius look like they were modded in rather than official firaxis made leaders.

[@Phlegethon.]

​@@DeanWBarry Well that is your opinion. They look fine to me.

[@DeanWBarry]

@@Phlegethon. yeah for sure thats why i wanted to see what others thought

[@veigar6899]

I have played civ 1 2 3 4 5 and 6, hyped for 7

[@howtomakemoneyfromptcssite4385]

The same bro, can't get enough

[@jimsanderson4180]

@@veigar6899 Me too. First on a Commodore 64, then on Amiga 500. How things have changed!

[@jepres1069]

The artstyle looks amazing, can't stand the UI at this moment tho. If it is improved upon before launch it would be amazing.

[@willaz0000]

UI is a huge step backwards from their previous entries, totally amateurish, ugly and unintuitive

[@Mattlesss]

most likely an old build, they said in the stream that stuff are still WIP of course, they still have 3 months until release

[@therexbellator]

UI is always one of the last things developed for a game. Even if we get a semblance of this at launch I'm sure they will improve it over time. Personally I'm not bothered by the UI, there are aspects of it that I think look very clean but I won't know until I'm actually playing it.

[@Ruka-f7k]

@@Mattlesss 3 months is nothing

[@alexbishop5004]

I love that Firaxis listened to players by making "idle combat" a thing. It really adds a great depth of feel to a living map, and was ESSENTIAL to my last 3 or 4 playthroughs of Xcom. Another suggestion, which may or may not have been addressed already... R.E.D. Mods.... Allow us to change the avatar count per unit. Instead of 6 Units at 1/8" the size of a tile... can do up to 12 units, 1/16" of a tiles size, giving us a larger "army" feel. Similar to R.E.D.s mod, certain units would be exclusively 1 avatar model regardless, or 2, etc.

[@vakistania]

26:32 Mexico confirmed

[@mcgeedarion]

Yeah but what age if its exploration age fml

[@vakistania]

@@mcgeedarion Modern, it says that Spain unlocks it

[@vivone7671]

Are you Sure!?!

[@gumballking5479]

@@vivone7671 watch the video they literally say it themselves man

[@vakistania]

@@vivone7671 Updated the timestamp, check on the right side at 26:32

[@Sponch-r8y]

Mexico in Civ 7 🔥🔥🇲🇽

[@MaxHardcore-p7t]

You know it, daddy! Zapata!

[@Attoretto]

I knew that was el palacio de bellas artes in the trailer, can't wait to play as México

[@RosaliaEmerald]

awesome that transition is such an important part of Civ VII gameplay!

[@ichifish]

Guys, fix the UI. When the player needs to read or look at icons, they should be BIG. You have a lot of dead space (gray areas) in your UI, and your beautiful images are in the way of information transfer. People are complaining that it's too much gray, but that's not the problem. The problem is that the text is tiny. You can see this on the age transition screen where 2/3 of the space is taken up by a graphic I'll look at maybe twice and four dense paragraphs of text are squeezed into a 1/3 of the screen. I shouldn't have to squint and bend towards the monitor to read things.

[@willaz0000]

UI is a huge step backwards from their previous entries, totally amateurish, ugly and unintuitive

[@ichifish]

@@willaz0000 I don't think it looks bad, but as you said, it's amateurish. Look at 1:28:15. The whole screen is empty, and the text in the mouseover box is tiny. Same thing at 1:40:09.

[@KerupukKeju]

@@willaz0000 So dramatic, its wip

[@F1Krazy]

The UI size looks fine to me. It looks small if you're watching in the default video, but if you put the video in full-screen to simulate what the game would actually look like on your monitor then it's perfectly fine IMHO.

[@jediyoshi64]

That's a pretty standard text size for a 4K screen, which is what they're recording on. I imagine it'll be bigger on a 1080p display.

[@darkemperor418]

Game looks beautiful. Just have to sort out the UI make the yields more intuitive to read like in civ6 the yields look so clean compared to civ7.

[@TheGamerDadZA]

Pretty hyped for this. I was skeptical of the Civ change like Humankind, but if they can make it make sense, it'll be pretty cool. For now I'll play ARA until it Civ VII launches in Feb. Keep up the good work!

[@felixclemson9368]

What are your thoughts on Ara?

[@TheGamerDadZA]

@felixclemson9368 ARA seems much more complex than Civ VI. I am still learning as I go, but so far I'm not a huge fan of the Civs being forgotten at the end of each act. I'd prefer to see them make a comeback instead of being deleted. I still haven't reach the end game yet, but hopefully soon. The resource management seems a bit too much for me. Have you played ARA? If so, what do you think about it.

[@Gabriel-rn2jy]

Can't get over how perfect the art style is, they NAILED it

[@marekkos3513]

I know

[@Edax_Royeaux]

I have yet to see what units look like when on the wall tiles, like the Great Wall.

[@Skadi609]

It has all the good sides of Civ VI without the cartoonish style

[@pirate135246]

😬

[@ChewieFlakes]

There is literally no style... It looks like an alpha for an indie civ clone. Soulless husk wrapped in a denuvo shit wrapper.

[@thricefx]

"If there ever was a Lake civilization..." oh Carl... hmmm....

[@Fummy007]

Aztecs maybe?

[@Edaphosaurus]

@@Fummy007 with the Maya and Mexico confirmed surely this is the logical choice?

[@JimmyMon666]

I would say Mexico, but is there anything left of that lake anymore? I believe the entire thing has been drained and paved over. I've never been to Mexico City, so correct me if I'm wrong.

[@PetroBlownapart]

Minnesota!

[@editorjosh]

I am very excited for more naval gameplay mid game here, my favourite civs in previous games were ones like Phoenicia or England who got unique naval units and synergized with coastal/water gameplay -this looks like a great upgrade! (Phoenicia in civ 7 when tho?? )

[@brendantobin201]

It would be cool if before the age transition or thr requisite tech, you could still move into ocean tiles but the rough seas damage is set to like 80 or something

[@cmdrshprd]

This is some of the coolest pre-release content I’ve ever enjoyed. Thank you for doing these!

[@Admiral_Cant_Hackett]

Holy shit I’m excited for this game. Hoping some of the UI for policies and production gets touched up before launch, but other than that give me this game please.

[@LucaSabatini-j6j]

Not enough bonus more gold more trade, but made , events : as the treaty of tortisillas 1494 that divided the new world a spheres of influence!

[@olavfur]

I’m getting very excited for Civ VII now. Great job!!

[@azfaru4367]

i want to play this so bad. gonna take a week off work for civ vii release for sure

[@sgtprylo]

Great stuff, can't wait, but...the ensigns and pennants on your ships are blowing the wrong way. Winds typically come from the stern, so flags billow towards the bow of the ship. totally inconsequential thing, but as a Age of Sail guy, it jumped out at me.

[@DiegoHaro11]

Thank you for this job, it looks amazing!!

[@roninbadger7750]

rough seas . . Classic. glad this is back

[@Lightndavoid]

Each game is literally three smaller games if modern age comes at launch. All wars get reset, units get returned and auto upgraded... every player will have their own religion.. so many choices that feel like they are dumbing down the game

[@laorenshener]

完全正确，令人感到无语的选择数据是错误的方向，似乎在用数据展示文明，而不是文明本身。

[@danielkaszas2982]

Nice homage to Civ 5 Spain, I like it.

[@sushi_nara_piekan]

I've watched some of the videos so far, but I feel like the map size and number of tiles are small compared to the size of the city. (This may be because they use a small map because it's an introductory video.) I'd like to see a map that's even bigger than the previous game. The view of a continent filled with the cities of several countries is too ridiculous.

[@peedrocap]

The hype is real!!

[@icthiolavarunt5363]

Damn I wanna play this so badly rn

[@SimCityEA1989]

Can't wait to recreate The Battle of Trafalgar in this game!

[@marko93ns]

Exploration Age is pretty sweet. Can't wait to play the game

[@FacialFischl]

Looook at our guy Carl, this guy went from a Q&A guy then promoted to junior designer and now the LEAD DESIGNER for the lastest generation of a franchise game

[@I3wave]

Ed looks so pissed off at the very start 😭😭

[@prinzprenk466]

inside out 😂

[@tom4prez]

Someone on set is yapping on the phone in the background for the first minute. You can notice the hosts trying to cover it with their own voices. I'd be annoyed too!

[@UchihaClan-cu9ww]

​@@tom4prez i think its the hosts voice played by a TV in the back.. 😅 Whatever she says.. repeats😅

[@jaripak8166]

@@tom4prez It was the Isabella First Look video accidentally playing, you can see when the video was actually supposed to start it was already halfway

[@MaxHardcore-p7t]

He is old and cranky

[@adamjames0710]

My god Its glorious! As an English man I love a good navy.

[@rdm3990]

Religions should be founded in late antitiquity and becoming a big deal only in the Exploration Era. It's weird to have a Maurya civilization that can't found Buddhism, since Ashoka, when ruled it, was its main propagator.

[@Icyclean6969]

I’m loving the art style! they really went back to the original more realistic less arcade style and it looks gorgeous!

[@aussiecossie]

I am so psyched for this!

[@foswa6335]

Thank you for making her beautiful

[@whymiss3312]

Plz a well proportioned huge world map

[@rdm3990]

Since we do not have religious victory anymore, founding a religion should work differently. I think we should come back to Civ IV's idea that every religion was linked to a Technology or Civic. The first nation to discover it, found the said religion. And the same civilization could found a different one later. This mechanic would reflect what happened in India in real life, that founded Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and Sikhism.

[@Fseb-uj1ih]

Yo Firaxis! I like the idea That you Can grab bonuses from achieving something in another age(legacy bonuses) But I would love to see some kind of a comeback bonus, especially for multiplayer! Because that could potentially make it more competitive. Less snowbally

[@marekkos3513]

This looks so good.

[@valentinoaditya2458]

I have a mixed feeling with the transition. On one hand, it's nice to see the cultures blend very well; but on the other hand, the transition doesn't feel smooth... it resets military and just jumps a millennia without any closure of what happens with the crisis??

[@ash6899]

love teh distant land feature but not a fan how its on every map/game. wish there was some variety. like a dessert you have to cross or something

[@OceanMan-ff2lh]

great stream 👍

[@mayor4797]

Ah hell nah why'd they put Hatshepsut through the FaceApp smile filter 😭

[@Eze683]

How I wish the game could have multiple age reincarnations/evolutions even beyond the modern age, so that you can have sort of Dystopian, Utopian and Retro-Future Ages. The result being a refreshingly adventurous eternal game.

[@TheMarcHicks]

Please, please, please.....can you guys change the Tiers for the tech tree into Eras-so Medieval and Renaissance Eras for the Exploration Age tech tree. I feel like it would be a great way to further subdivide each Age. Anyway, just a suggestion 🙂.

[@felixdoring3926]

Hopefully when they reveal modern age gameplay it turns out there is a 3rd commander option. In Antiquity you get Army Commanders because land-based wars are the norm. With the advent of naval wars in Exploration you get Fleet Commanders. And in modern age with the introduction of Air Combat hopefully there are squadron commanders for air squadrons like the Red-Baron etc.

[@martinian8]

I believe this was shared previously, that each age unlocks new type of commander and the modern age unlocks one for air combat. :)

[@felixdoring3926]

@martinian8 nice thanks for the reply.

[@CowboysD257]

I cannot believe how good this looks. Visually and gameplay wise. so excited.

[@devettys]

Bot

[@benjudd8256]

I'm excited, This seems like a completely new game. Civ 6 was great, but it was the same game over and over it felt like at least how I played.

[@CCRRJJ]

The map is absolutely stunning. But I'm still struggling with the aesthetic of the UI visual design. It looks generic at best. It doesn't evoke the grandeur of Civilization. Those blue and gray event icons look so bland against that beautiful map. I wish they would improve on the visual design of the UI before the launch. I hate to compare, but the visuals and art on Humankind's UI and tech tree was so enjoyable that I expected Civ7 to surpass that.

[@Super.HeroeStar]

He talk about Madeira and Azores i think Portugal 🇵🇹 its going to been part of the game 😊

[@guillacyrano7855]

That navy battle was the worst I ever seen. 😂

[@TMansboardgamechannel]

this game looks so pretty, cant wait to get it!

[@danielacosta5081]

I wish a nice multiplayer cloud offline system was implemented, and to encourage players not to quit early game just to get them ingame stuff, like color patterns or hats and stuff.

[@maximus5668]

Isabella is very well made ! Hope they fix Augustus.

[@Paulovlyra]

46:26 I like the fact there's a downside to living opent spots inside de Empire

[@JohnSomerset]

I would have to save up for the computer I would want, to play VII. This really calls for a major GPU, I feel. Ultra everything, possibly.

[@Nothing-sn9nc]

The previously explored part of the map being dimmer again as opposed to that ugly map thing is the best thing that's ever happened to me

[@roninbadger7750]

treasure fleets! Civ4 is coming back

[@ApprenPlayer]

The Cog appears in the game. There is a mod in Steam for Civ VI that its the unit between Galley and Caravel.

[@frenchie_maple]

Having 1 crisis per continent would be really cool

[@JimmyMon666]

Congrats on the baby Carl.

[@SirJordanLore]

it looks like Civ 6 just with new mechanics. I do not care about graphics or how good it looks, what I care about is A.I. thats actually fun to play against and isnt straight up stupid about everything.

[@michibichi2212]

Game looks amazing!!!

[@thegorb2653]

Im interested to see how it goes for a china like civ here in the exploration, if you start on another continent i feel like goods from the spain continent should probably give treasure, as Ed said its WIP. Maybe resources should be tied to certain continents or terrain or something. I also love the idea that some civs have non-treasure based economic goals like Mongolia definitely a good addition.

[@UraStr]

Can we get some veteran promotion directly to specific units. Commanders look awesome, but I really like the gameplay and the "fantasy" of having elite forces...

[@Pankazey..88]

The ship with gold can be filled with the resources from the colonies themselves and calculate the cost in gold, and then in the metropolis it can be realized based on the capabilities of your trade infrastructure and demand. Crises of the end of the era, it is better to stretch them out in time, where they had different intensity and peak, . Crises were related to the world, the prerequisite was natural disasters, droughts, small ice ages and a shift of peoples to richer lands due to increased attacks of barbarians, poverty of war or crop failures. The invasion of strengthened barbarian clans according to the script on precisely calculated moves of the game is a boring solution today. But there are many scenarios where you can buy off the barbarians, and then they, having eaten the city of a neighbor, strengthened themselves even more, and fines went to your border cities from refugees (blocking or debuffs of tiles for processing, for example, through migrants) and chaos. Or maybe your neighbor paid tribute and you have to deal with hordes rebelling for gold, and now have even greater demands. Barbarians may not defeat the faction city in a direct clash, and the consequences are minimal for everyone. So the crisis gained momentum, for example, the Goths or the Huns, from whom the Romans bought off at the end of the ancient era.

[@rdm3990]

Shoutout to the devs - A religion shouldn't be linked to a single civ. World Religions are about coming together and thus, the game mechanic should reflect it. I think that the best way to tackle this issue is to have "Concil of the Faithful" in which the players who follow the same religion decide the tenets of the same religion, in a World Congress manner. People sharing the same faith, could receive influence and culture bonuses when interacting with themselves, and penalties when interacting with people from another faith.

[@rdm3990]

So, the civ the founded the religion would chose its first tenet and would have its holy city. It could grant some bonuses related to peregrination and influence to other civs that converted to the this religion. However, as the game unfolds, and the said religion spreads its influence across borders and new civics are discovered, you would have a "concil of the faithful", mirroring real life "concil of Nicea" and the like. In these concils, which would work similarly to world congress in civ 6, you could decide new religious tenets. Maybe it could have a religion leader mechanic, in which the faithful would choose its head for the time being, and this "pope" could launch a holy war and make other important religion decisions. In case of a holy war, every civ that follows this religion is expected to take part in it, receiving some bonuses or penalties depending on their participation. I think that, not tying a religion to a especific civ, we could enhance how we could interact differently with other players, allowing more stratigical depth to alliances and what not.

[@rdm3990]

Also, religions should be founded in late Antiquity.

[@felixclemson9368]

This is shaping up to be one of my favourite looking civs to date, I’m loving the new improvements. One question though, why do the roads form triangles like that? It kind of ruins the aesthetic, and it’s like that in most civs.

[@PiotrrrW]

"Oh my G O D - I got to get a religion quick!"

[@nunomauricio7043]

Countries that existed and were pioneers in the age of discovery, such as Portugal and Spain, still exist today. They should, and I hope they will continue to exist in the modern era

[@dineshsonaje6528]

Hope the Game maintains the limitations of kings as it maintain in "Civilization III" that version is awesome ,

[@evannewman8381]

I'm so used to Ursa Ryan pronouncing "tithe" as "teeth" that for a second I was like wait Ed is pronouncing it wrong 😂

[@JoeGraziosi]

@sid meier's civilization - Before you trimmed off the 20mins of "stream about to start", there was a BANGER piece of music going on at the 19:45 mark. Can you tell me who's Civ that was for? Definitely sounded Turkish or a civ somewhere in that neck of the woods. Excellent work, composer!

[@moisesalmonte8271]

The Unit are very BIG

[@kurtz6666]

I think the UI looks fine.

[@Paulovlyra]

I'll miss Rise and Fall's loyalty system

[@fernandocervantes7237]

It would have been cool, since you're experimenting with leaders, to put joint leaders. Like Ferdinand and Isabella. William and Mary or Roxelana and Suleiman

[@TuomasHirvonen-h4t]

I hope camera angles are also included in vanilla game

[@outset5009]

i noticed the year was for C.E. Will there be a toggle available for us to choose B.C. and A.D. for the year?

[@tutkarz]

this looks like puzzle game with that instant purchased buildings and claiming new land for city.

[@the_clawing_chaos]

It would be nice to have a Celtic or Germanic civ, to give us a non greco-roman path to the European civs, like spain and the normans.

[@Paulovlyra]

34:35 She does look great, but I think guys were too busy trying to fix the First Look video here 😅

[@diegomatamoros8614]

This exploration age stream, just completely convinced me of how much fun these new possibilities of gameplay are gonna be, can't wait!

[@hangijzer17]

Host: Ed, why did the team choose Isabella as the leader for Spain? Ed: (long story cut short) "My cats name is Isabella"... Wait, what? Seriously??

[@NecromancyWithExtraSteps]

Gameplay looks more and more solid, but the "shades of grey" UI needs some love. Have to say I'm still not thrilled with the art design for leaders. I really hope that changes in the future. That said, still looking like a great game!

[@TorrentialDowns]

I hope they have an option to disable all the transition screens and stuff

[@TorrentialDowns]

like I know they mightve worked hard on it but im impatient

[@TheTommyFrench]

Civ 7: the Exploration age…also known as Sid Meier’s Colonization 3.0 😂