The BEST and WORST of the Civ 7 "Exploration Age" Developer Gameplay

[@ichifish]

Yeah, I'm not feeling the love on the crises. I like the idea of them, but it looks like they're tacked on. (or maybe I just haven't seen enough) One thing I'd prefer is that "barbarians" are thematic. If you're the equivalent of medieval France and you're surrounded by other nations you don't have "barbarians," you have rebels, nobles contesting the throne, etc. I would also like different crises - one game every civ has some kind of rebellion, another game it's plagues, another game natural disasters like the little ice age, etc. Balanced, but not predictable.

[@estebanjvidal]

I think so far , they mentioned there are 3 different type of crisis, per age at least. So in antiquity besides the barbarian one, there is one that has some dark age / loyalty mechanics, and most likely one would have to be with plagues / or volcanoes. I would like that one. I guess the ice age is too early one and seems not plausible between antiquity and exploration or later since they are more historic oriented. Perhaps they could do something more in the latter part of modern age ? Maybe there is a crisis before a victory is made, depending which victory is incoming... it could help also make AI civs go into rush mode forcing them to take action instead of going unphased until player wins. I liked that Millenia had this different Ages routes that explored alternate history based on civs actions, and that was one thing I think many devs should explore more, as it can make room for more replayability.

[@roberttipple8937]

Without watching someone play the whole game, and everyone seeing it for the first time, I am curious to see how the distant lands work with the various map scripts. The whole distant lands concept seems very natural for a 4x game that spans human history. When you consider they are trying to address the late game "boredom" or people not finishing games, I think it's a brilliant idea and can't wait to actually watch it start to finish. The fact that some civs will have tenancies towards the homeland and that you switch civs for each era, I think it will add to the replayability over time. I'm not worried about the crises, they can get them fixed over time. I appreciate that they are trying to mimic the ups and downs throughout our timeline, like they did with Rise and Fall. Overall? Play the game, send feedback, and try the updates. It is a game, after all. 🤷🏻👍

[@matth8003]

Crises seem like a one dimension mechanic. But maybe not. Fertile ground for improvement in expansions! There are 4 victory paths. They want you to reward crossing oceans but also have mongols that can advance that tree a bit on the home continent. I hope there is a balance mechanic for overextending ocean play, like the AI that can’t builds a land force that forces you to mind the store at home. Valid concern for an easy to snowball effect. My biggest concern with this age is that crossing the ocean will always be what you should do. I think interacting or awakening to the world is fair game. But let’s take Germany for example, very influential - less colonies than competing powers, more land locked. For the sake of variety I hope that there are interesting alternatives if ocean access is limited.

[@radiofrequency5801]

Im not really too concerned about different civs having a huge advantage in terms of reaching distant lands. From what weve seen, all civs have the same requirements for getting there, without many bonuses affecting them. Its always: scout slowly across with ships->get cartography->send settlers. Obviously naval combat and bonuses to the settlements created on distant lands will be a factor, but that appears to happen after the big scouting and settling rush. Im more worried about how distant lands will restrict gameplay ideas. Obviously, antiquity age naval powers will not really be a big thing, and certain map types like pangaea will not be able to exist. But also, the way a new continent is discovered, and every civ rushes over to take over the new land, feels like it mostly resembles european history instead of other civilizations that approached this time period differently, and may overcentralize the way people have to play the era. I hope it is better balanced than im thinking, but we will see.

[@djordjesamuilovic5069]

Thats true. Chinese people watch this like "Are we a joke to u?"... they never had any colonies and still its a great civilization.

[@starflydavis1256]

I’m sure there will be differences between civs, I think what’s throwing people off is that civs and leaders are different now so we have no idea what civs like the Ming or Aztecs will play

[@fxlei1856]

About the crisis cards, maybe it would help if you chose which to counteract instead of which you accept. It would have the exact same effect and the system behind it is exactly the same, but the act is reversed.

[@ichifish]

The livestream was well-executed, but tbh if they want people to get hyped up they should just let you talk about it.

[@matthewcooke3327]

The barbarian crisis seems fitting for the first age , ideally the others are less military based , it forces players to plan their civ to at least partially mitigate a variety of issues and doesn’t let them tunnel vision to one victory type .

[@gregsimard-ol1hr]

there are things about this game Im very concerned about but I have to say their water graphics look amazing

[@stevencass8849]

I love the whole look of the map. The diorama look is fantastic. I’m still probably not going to preorder.

[@SimCityEA1989]

It would be interesting if units like Privateers come back and they can be used to steal Treasure Ships or attack other naval vessels without declaring war. They will do less damage but in return, you can indirectly fight the other Civ without declaring war directly. What do you think Van?

[@sup3rhyp3r56]

Personally love the love of Naval gameplay, I love building ships and having a navy but sometimes I feel like it is either discouraged or penalized

[@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.

[@artursruseckis4242]

I think I already saw this same comment somewhere else. Religious victory is not going anywhere, it will be back as DLC/Expansion, where they will revamp religion little bit and will add a victory condition for that.

[@jaredkrol3739]

I had the same feeling about all civs being forced to interact with the distant lands. It just strikes me as a bit weird especially if you aren’t a historically colonial power or naval power

[@johnnygreenface]

I think the idea is to reflect how historically the empires that were invasive and getting into new lands were much more successful in that time

[@Littledunc1]

Buildings becoming obsolete was a thing in Civ 4. It's not a new mechanic.

[@rdm3990]

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 recieve influence and culture bonus when interacting with themselves, and penalties when interacting with people from another faith.

[@Drago02129]

Jesus you said this on jumbo pixel’s channel too, it’s not going to happen

[@tw7998]

Looks great, but it pretty much confirmed TSL games and Pangea maps are dead, which is a shame.

[@ethanlee5638]

I’m really excited about the crises, especially as they’re a global thing

[@johncochrane1301]

Excellent summary, thank you

[@leekon000]

I'm really hyped for this game to come out. It's coming out on my birthday month😂🎉

[@ichifish]

Yeah, man, who are these people who fear the subscribe button?

[@djordjesamuilovic5069]

Well in real life Spain did just that. Took half of the wolrd like "Fuck everybody else". And britain took other half 😅 so.. maybe its not balanced but its realistic

[@rdm3990]

My only concern so far is how religion will work in this game. On the one hand I do agree that religion becoming a big deal in the exploration age is the right choice, but they should be founded in late Antiquity Age. Maurya was famous for promoting Buddhism, but you can only found Buddhismv when the Mauryas aren't around anymore? This feels off.

[@jacopogiannetti750]

The vibe just doesn’t feel right to me... everything seems overly scripted and repetitive. One of the best aspects of all Civilization games is the freedom to decide how to play and respond to unexpected events, making each playthrough feel like a unique story. You might choose to be expansionist, risking stability at home, or be more conservative, focusing on a strong, secure empire. Now, as others have mentioned, it feels like you’re forced into a "European-style" progression, moving through predetermined ages with specific steps. It’s as if the game says, “now you have to do this, then this,” limiting the freedom to shape your empire’s growth in a unique way. There’s only the “right” way, as the game suggests, leading to similar gameplay paths each time. When it comes to crises, they’re also predictable and lack the sense of unexpected challenge that could disrupt your plans and require creative solutions. Instead of feeling like something unique to your playthrough, crises seem tacked on. For example, even if your civilization is thriving with a vast army and connected cities, you know a crisis is coming at the end of each age-like a barbarian invasion that appears out of nowhere in the middle of your empire, rather than a more realistic threat from a distant region. From what I’m seeing, Civilization VI handled these aspects much better. Overall, I’m pretty disappointed so far.

[@letsiki]

@ 2:45 you meant to say nation not leader

[@MaxHardcore-p7t]

VanDaddy

[@VanBradley]

that’s my name

[@mossfree]

Yo

[@ethanlee5638]

I’m really excited about the crises, especially as they’re a global thing