I Played Civilization 7, We should talk about it... - Sid Meier's Civilization 7 Gameplay Experience

[@thespiffingbrit]

Hey all I have spent my entire morning coming up with some chapters for the video I hope you enjoy it and gain some knowledge on Civ 7 00:00:00 - Stream Opening And Setup 00:03:10 - Potato Joins Stream 00:06:00 - *Spiff Dislikes The Collectors Edition* 00:13:08 - Legal Disclaimer Of What We Experienced 00:15:47 - Travel Experiences (not civ chat) 00:18:40 - *Potatos First Impressions Of Civ 7 V1* 00:20:00 - Spiffs Thoughts on Character Design 00:21:50 - *First Impressions Of Civ 7 V2* 00:24:20 - The Civ 7 UI Issues 00:26:20 - The Spiffing Brits Medjay Exploit 00:29:38 - Civilization 7 Memory Leak 00:31:25 - *Major Changes To Combat In Civ 7* 00:39:49 - NO MORE BUILDERS 00:40:40 - *Everyone Hates Every Civilization* 00:44:36 - *Spiffs BIGGEST Concerns* 00:52:40 - We Talk About The Age System 01:00:00 - *The Leader Skill Tree* 01:03:00 - How We Feel About No Builders 01:05:54 - Religion Changes 01:08:30 - *LAUNCHING ON EVERYTHING??!?* 01:17:00 - Civ 7 Has Layers 01:19:30 - Talking About Diplomacy 01:25:20 - Talking About Independents / City States 01:31:10 - Government Slots And Policies 01:33:14 - *Crisis And End Of Age* 01:36:43 - Talking About Settlement Cap 01:40:30 - The Overpowered Specialists Exploit 01:43:00 - Balancing Start Locations 01:45:35 - *Trade Routes And Resources* 01:52:45 - *The AI Of Civ 7* 01:55:40 - Infinite Movement Exploit 01:58:20 - Elevation on The Map And Rivers 02:01:00 - Wonders In Civilization 7 And Governors 02:04:00 - Humankind 2.no

[@hccdgvvfccdgn993]

Surely you can afford someone on fiverr to do that.

[@lio1234234]

​@@hccdgvvfccdgn993But that wouldn't be a super duper exploit, would it? 😁

[@totoro6214]

i wonder if this is something you can ask AI to do

[@AlucardNoir]

Potato!? That's anti IRISH!

[@kjankj9370]

Y'all might want to reconsider opening this (101 lines in text editor). Anyway, here you go: Timestamps (with chapters): [-----Start-----] |0:00| Stream start. |3:00| Potato joins (talking about food) |6:30| About Collector's edition |13:20| Proper stream start, introduction, Firaxis HQ visit overview [Civ 7 and stories] |19:23| First Civ 7 impression, discussion on art style. |20:50| Queen Elizabeth I (worth timestamp, trust me), then again first impressions. |25:11| UI critique. |26:17| Spiff breaks the game (we're not surprised). |28:15| Shoutout to Bryan (Firaxis video producer (?)). |29:35| About bugs (mostly (as always) memory leak). |31:32| Promotion system, movement and unique units changes. |34:32| More of promotions, Army Commanders, potential strategy impact. |39:46| Builders are dead. |40:35| Cycle of life of civ fanbase, why hate on Civ 7 is pointless. |44:35| Eras/Pacing overhaul. |51:00| About civ switch throughout ages. |1:00:00| Other ages-related modifiers, new skill trees. |1:03:08| Back to builders. |1:05:54| Would you like to talk about our lord and savior? [Firaxis, where pigs may fly] |1:08:19| On multi-platform support (craziness intensifies). |1:13:31| Lawyers skip this section. |1:17:02| Civ 7 is Shrek, archeology expansion? [Detailed changes overview] |1:19:25| Diplomacy overhaul, we hate world congress. |1:22:47| Trading and trade routes overhaul. |1:25:07| City-states and barbarians (not anymore). |1:30:16| Smooth transition to End-of-age crisis. |1:31:08| Interruption for new government/happiness explanation. |1:33:12| Back to crisis part (and snowballing rebalance). |1:36:18| Settling mechanics (soft cap for cities), city management change. |1:41:18| Feelings on playtesting setup |1:41:55| On weather and catastrophes (and finally working tile view). |1:42:52| (Base) Tile yields rebalancing. |1:44:40| Spawn system impact, Potato facing his job security. |1:45:31| Physical resources and trade routes. |1:47:22| Camels might be slightly broken (and continuation of previous point). |1:49:28| Spiff breaks the game 2: Redemption |1:49:58| Back to trade and resources management. |1:51:20| Flashbacks from gamecons. |1:52:10| Caravans. *1:52:24 Crazy? I was crazy once. |1:52:40| Finally finishing with trade mechanics. |1:52:53| AI *seems* more competent than ever. Do androids dream of robotic sheep? |1:55:38| Spiff breaks the game 3: The Return of the Master |1:57:02| Feelings on Great Generals |1:58:08| Terrain, terrain. Pull up! (Land cliffs and navigable rivers.) |2:01:06| Wonders. [A couple of reflections and Events system potential] |2:02:53| Governors *might* be gone, limitations of the playtest. |2:03:52| *GANDHI* |2:04:35| Humankind, and a few things worth noting. |2:06:19| Spiff's expectations (of real story engine potential in Civ). *2:07:57 "Everyone laugh, and say potato is really smart, and like the stream thank you very much." |2:08:02| Events/Quests in Civ 7. |2:12:35| Potato regains memory. game/turn speed change, again, pacing. [Summaries and important points, watch just this section if you have little time] |2:14:34| Spiff and Potato on critique of Civ 7. Memes. Danger of surpression of genuine concerns. (recommended to watch) *2:21:16 Arguably most important point to remember from this stream. |2:21:41| Preorders... and other harmful marketing schemes. *2:30:53 Anyone knows what movie is it? I'd be grateful. |2:31:37| Summarized impressions, bye Potato! |2:33:01| Should you preorder? |2:35:16| Lawyers skip this section 2: Resurrection |2:36:07| Bye Potato! (This time really.) [Post Potato world.] |2:36:20| Just the two (thousand and more) of us. |2:37:00| A few reflections on both Civ and the playtest. |2:41:58| Civ 7 Q&A with community; civilizations, commanders and so on. |3:36:01| Stream wrap-up, Goodbye everyone! [-----End-----] I got lazy in the end but listing every question would be too much I think. It still would need to be heavily cut down to be functional. If there are inconsistiencies or errors in this index, I took four daily doses of melatonin in 2 hours, write a reply and I'll correct it tomorrow. Good timezone everyone! edit: fixing some timings and correcting wording; sad it didn't get to help :( edit2: Cut out some things and finished polishing up. Good luck to everyone reading this, thanks for appreciation at least :)

[@Scottmw14]

I know what their DLC policy is like so if they think I'm buying this game at any point before 2026, they've got another thing coming. Mark my words, it will be barebones on launch.

[@Xiuhtec]

No Civ since 4 has really been done before two expansions, so I'm absolutely waiting for the "Platinum Edition" as well. 2026 is probably optimistic, I'm expecting at least 2027.

[@quintencabo]

@@Scottmw14 also it will be like 12-20 euro in a couple years

[@funtclaps]

spot on. The blatancy of the milking this time round has fucked me right off

[@5Andysalive]

yeah i bought Civ 6 only recently as all in one in a big sale. same for 7. At least they do that. Paradox DLC remain ridiculously expensive forever.

[@F.S92]

Took the words right out of my mouth. This publisher needs to be ashamed. Civ 6 ended up having over 70% of its content behind a dlc. Making the base game (which is still pricey for what it has) feel like a damn demo!

[@-Gorby-]

2:34:31 This, exactly. Pre-ordering used to mean you were reserving/guaranteeing a physical copy of the game for yourself on release day because stores would probably sell out. For some reason some customers kept pre-ordering even when there's an unlimited/digital supply of the game... and those people are to blame.

[@kayvee256]

I've had to really force myself to stop pre-ordering things. It was weirdly hard for a while to break that habit. The thing about pre-ordering games is that the act of buying it feels good, because you're anticipating the game. Then later on when the game turns up in your library, that feels good too, because in that moment it _feels like_ you just got a game for free, because the cost is far enough in the past that it's sunk and no longer in mind. It only starts to feel bad once you play the game on release and discover it's a buggy mess. It's a bastard of a dopamine pump and breaking out if it is harder than it should be.

[@CRneu]

@@kayvee256 these are weird justifications. Pre-ordering is just asking to get scammed/screwed. Stop with the "it feels good" nonsense. This is consumer mentality that's self-perpetuating. We tell ourselves buying things feels good, so we buy things to feel good, while we should be getting our good feelings from real experiences. you can easily break this cycle by stop placing your happiness in consumer goods. Go do something outside or with another person like humans are made to do.

[@TheOnlyGhxst]

Because if you plan on buying the game regardless, why not get whatever pre-order bonus they offer? Certain games I will 100% buy regardless of how it's received by people on release. So I have 0 reason to NOT just go ahead and pre-order it for some bonus goodies.

[@-Gorby-]

@@TheOnlyGhxst That's the whole point they discussed in the video, it's a bit scummy to lure people into pre-ordering a game by offering something for the pre-order that you can't otherwise obtain. Especially if the pre-order "bonus" is something that offers different gameplay or, even worse, a gameplay advantage.

[@Liebestod0001]

@@-Gorby- good point. pre-order "bonus" for a game on steam is imo a form of gambling, since the buyer is betting on the game to be somewhat enjoyable after launch.

[@hippiedude2232]

Kept hoping that the little spiff avatar would fall in the tea.

[@Zarkyun]

I'm just picturing his little Avatar taking a bath in the tea cup. 😂

[@slwrabbits]

I've only just started the vid and it's so mesmerizing watching it bob up and down that I'm having a little trouble focusing on what he's saying.

[@slwrabbits]

omg now there is a bouncing potato on the screen, I'm doomed

[@Johnb2112]

Potato and Spiff collabs are always my favorite. Cannot wait for you two to play multiplayer Civ again. You two so obviously geek out together and enjoy hanging out, its a joy to listen to.

[@monkeytime9851]

The "collectors edition" not coming with the game is the funniest thing ever.

[@davidduckett6242]

Cant wait for civ 69, when devs finally throw up their hands over the graphics and just make it text based where each turn it just creates text file describing the world

[@alban.dano.93]

I can't believe the Spiffing Brit of all people mistook Queen Elisabeth for Queen Victoria

[@masondaniel8624]

His silence speaks volumes. I’d he even a Brit?

[@torgor_]

Spiff is a civ 3 enjoyer!? I should've known. The GOAT will never be dethroned

[@nordmannnorway4777]

@@torgor_ was it not civ 4 that was his favoritt

[@torgor_]

he enjoys all of them from his telling, as do I! I just love hearing my fave mentioned against all odds

[@Par-Crom]

@@nordmannnorway4777 4 yeah

[@ThugShiTzu]

Civ 4 is superior

[@annaairahala9462]

Never dethroned in how much it crashes at the most random things, not even VI could surpass that

[@IOSARBX]

The Spiffing Brit, your content has a special place in my heart

[@thespiffingbrit]

@@IOSARBX cheers

[@overlordoftemi7255]

Think it's a bot. Why would it spell out "The Spiffing Brit" like that? That combined with the nothing burger statement. ​@@thespiffingbrit

[@flovyn]

@@overlordoftemi7255 yes also roblox content farm/scam lol

[@pelvismen5510]

@@overlordoftemi7255 it most likely is since they are scamming kids anyway

[@Drakonus_]

​@@thespiffingbritBro, you just fell for the bot. 💀

[@glenndeason]

I've been waiting for this since the rest of the youtubers said you broke it on the test 😅

[@sarahrichards1281]

I do like the crisis aspect, especially since once you get a feel for most civ games it kinda just feels like your civilization is constantly growing and improving as the game goes on. So having an actual in-game event that creates extra struggle every age is super interesting.

[@AzureKaioshin]

God fukin damnit what is this vertical format. The spiff has entered the "wut, do you bruvs not 'ave phones era" the answer is i do but i cant hold my phone like that for 3+ hours.

[@thespiffingbrit]

Haha apologies I am trying to run some semi important algorithm tests which are interesting. Apologies you are a guinea pig but I would not expect this format to be repeated by me. I pathologically hate shorts so you are safe :)

[@DefensorMilitas]

@@thespiffingbrit Figured the format was some form of a test. lol

[@Thetechgeek2100]

@@thespiffingbrit This will certainly be the most interesting vertical video I've ever watched... FOR 3 AND A HALF HOURS

[@genegayda3042]

@@thespiffingbrit I am tossing out my tea and brewing a pot of coffee in protest! 😁

[@leomarin193]

@thespiffingbrit I bet it has something to do with thumbnails being twice the size in phone feed

[@Deep_Sorcery]

One of the new mechanics discussed in the video is that starting a new age "brings everyone up to that age". I like the way that works a lot because when I'm playing Civ VI on the higher difficulties, often one or two civs will "run away" and advance much faster than the rest of the group. Then you really can't do much to those civs till you all hit the tech caps.

[@littleloaky6370]

CAN EVERYONE PLEASE LIKE THIS POST TO BRING IT TO MORE PEOPLE'S ATTENTION!!! THE DESCRIPTION FOR THE CLOCK SAYS DECORATIVE ITEM BASED ON ARTWORK IN THE GAME!! IT IS NOT A FUNCTIONAL CLOCK

[@slwrabbits]

WAT

[@brodiemay8764]

?????????????????????????????????????

[@Dragongaga]

"Decorative item" doesn't mean that it is not a functional clock. In the real world items can be decorative and functional at the same time

[@SaltyNard]

Do you know it isn't functional though? You can have a decorative tea set for your daughter that's still perfectly usable for drinking tea, decorative =/= non-functional.

[@zel-nh9ot]

I think the civ 5 fanboys (and I count myself as one of them though not to the extreme mentioned in the video) are aware that they can can play 5 again anytime, but they know it's not a perfect game, there are plenty of problems with it despite how revered it is and in my opinion there probably could be a place for a civ 5 2.0 so to speak, a game that distils and refines what makes the original so good. Outside of that I want to thank you and Potato for giving me a sense of cautious optimism about the game when I was leaning more towards concern, I desperately want this civ to be amazing!

[@Nardog45]

i prefer civ 5 too. I think it represents a refining of what civ was always trying to be. Where civ 6 seems a new direction. And i think it was the wrong direction. And so far this video has been very frustrating. I don't want cards, i want my unit upgrades. I don't want my 4x game to be a freaking card based rogue like. Who did? It feels like a decision made to make the franchise more accessible. But its destroyed my interest in the franchise

[@-Gnarlemagne]

I enjoy civ 5 and civ 6, but I do find the argument of civ 6 being "more accessible" is a bit of an odd one. Civ 5 is a game with only a couple highly centralizing strategies, with most of the important decisions being made in the first 1/4 of the game Compared to civ 5, civ 6 felt totally overwhelming for a long time, and still feels to me like there is way more depth to it. I play civ 5 when I want to relax, and civ 6 when I want a challenge.

[@Nardog45]

@@-Gnarlemagne I hear where your coming from and i think to an extent your right. And ill admit my experience in civ 6 is very limited (i tried to play it, i really did). But i feel like spiff was on to something when he was talking about things feeling intuitive. Civ 5 feels intuitive for a 4x game. Where when i tried to play civ 6 i felt like i would have been better off never having seen a civ game before. Maybe if i was an expert at slay the spire i would've seen civ 5 as odd and civ 6 as sensible Basically i think the decisions are coming from a place of "Rouge-like deck builders are simpler and easier to get into but offer a fair level of complexity and challenge as decisions stack, and its close enough to a 4x game when we slap civ over top of it". Hence my opinion that its for accessibility and a wider audience. Plus rogue-like deck builders are hot right now so id bet they're letting what's popular influence their development Maybe im rambling and itll be a great game. I hope im wrong. But right now it seems like its the sequal to civ 6, when what i really want it a true sequel to civ 5 Also you're probably correct about the strategy element being stronger in civ 6. i never played civ for the challenge. I was an economy micromanager. I like seeing number go up. And way civ 6 made you sacrifice otherwise good yield tiles to make districts felt so perverse to the number go up part of my brain

[@alexlewis5365]

I find it amazing that I'm seeing a lot more love for civ 5. I remember when 5 first came, it just got consistently trashed by people online. I think that people are getting more used to it's identity. Civ 5 is not my favorite, that would either go to 6, 2, or maybe alpha centauri if you want to include that. But I did put in a LOT of hours into 5.

[@greywolf7577]

One annoying thing about Civ 5 is that if you have too large of a map and you build up a lot of cities, eventually your farms will stop showing. They will still be there, but you can't see them. It looks like there is no farm. I've searched for a solution to this and no one that I've found has ever seemed to solve it long term.

[@ChaosWolf3]

The other problem when it comes to Humankind and its faster ages and civilization changes was that some strats were entirely built around something you get in a particular age, meaning some ages you'd want to get through quickly then spend half the game as another one without changing until you've established what you needed from it before moving on since you lose access to building unique buildings once you move on.

[@nine3022]

Thanks Spiff, I enjoyed listening to the stream while I exercised, it was a fun thing to focus on! :)

[@Phenigma]

From everything I've seen and have experienced from the past with civ. I'm going to wait and watch these guys play for a while. The current state of gaming is at the point where you shouldn't pre-order any game ever. Corporations have gotten too greedy and push out half-baked games. Unfortunately, I have a feeling this game will be no exception.

[@ttsupra87]

Is spiff a vtuber now??

[@please-wake-up-now]

Man, I love how you broke down everything about Civ 7! It's wild to see how much it’s changing, especially the no builders part. 😱 But honestly, I'm kinda excited about the new era system - it feels like a fresh spin on things. Hopefully it won’t get too complicated tho! Can't wait for your multiplayer sessions with Potato, those are always a blast! 🥳

[@MOTasaurus]

It was an interesting look. I literally won't ever play it because I'm not updating my windows to do so. I will continue to play CIV-2 and you can't stop me.

[@stiless650]

Where are you able to get a playable copy of civ-2?

[@sporeon2110]

@@stiless650 he hasn't updated his windows for a long time

[@BrianFace182]

Memory leak is where the program loses addresses to chunks of data in memory and can no longer address that data. Means it can't free up the memory when the data done with. Battlefield 2 actually had one in release for a long time and used to start lagging after a couple of hours, was pretty grim.

[@chayashida]

Programmer here: It can also be where a program just never releases any memory that it doesn’t plan to use anymore. Since a quicksave/reload seemed to fix the issue, it’s possible that the memory was freed at that point (and finally garbage collected). Seems like a minor issue in the vertical slice they played at this point, as I’m sure they’ll have more testing when things are closer to release.

[@MacClay8]

"I've played every Civilization game, except for 2. The best one." Also, what about CivNet?

[@Zarkyun]

Civ 2 will always have a special place in my heart above all the others civ games. It was my first game in the series and I still go back to it even to this day. The user interface, the music and the silly little throne room improvement mechanic. All so memorable parts of my childhood. Seeing as spiff never played it now I want a video of him playing it or even a one-off stream.

[@thespiffingbrit]

@@MacClay8 what about civ revolution

[@YouTube-Grifter]

Civ 2 on the original playstation is my favourite!! 👌👌👌

[@MacClay8]

@@thespiffingbrit What about Civilization: Call to Power?

[@infuriatedjurijcorn1346]

@@MacClay8 Call to Power 2 was my entry into the series because my father played it. Loved this game so much!

[@freekstrano]

You're playing the game without audio? I just... I don't know how to respond to that to be hounest. The music and the immersion from that is an essential part of the game to me.

[@EiriUesugiKun]

This is not "Civilization", this is "CivilizationS". The main thing in Civ's for me has always been to guide a nation from stone age to space. There are things that sound really neat, but that civ-swapping just grinds me the wrong way so no pre-order, no wishlist. I need the game to get out so that I can watch couple of playthrougs to see if I can live with the "Egypt is now MONGOLIA! All hail horse violence!" mechanic.

[@BlackShardStudio]

"If you change the game so much it doesn't FEEL like the previous games, you might have gone somewhere wrong." *cough* changing Civs *cough*

[@Jarms48]

This doesn't look like Civilisation anymore. This looks like Humankind 2 mixed with Age of Wonders 4. I just wanted a new Civ game that took the best elements from Civ 4 - 6.

[@christopherpenner831]

Hey thanks for this video it really helped me understand a lot of the new changes and get a better feel for what civ 7 might look like at launch

[@GambitsEnd]

A lot of the changes to Civ 7 seem like they've made it more like Age of Wonders 4 and Endless Legend, which is a bit annoying since I've enjoyed Civ being a Civ game and the other 4x games being those 4x games.

[@markos50100]

My theory is based on all the reveals I've seen on how the new era changes will go. On a new era, we'll get a certain type of point related to the specific milestone you reached in the legacy track in the antiquity age and a permanent bonus per milestone. Then, with those points, you'll have a choice on a list of things we'll get, like a new city, a new settlement, free units in every settlement, etc. Then the map will expand and reveal new resources to use new tech, chose a new civ that fits the requirements for choosing it, and all buildings that aren't ageless will be destroyed or lose it's previous fuction and can be replaced with new stuff.

[@WATCHMYCLIPSZ]

My 2 favorite Strategist collaborating once again! 🖤🙌🏽

[@Apastorfield]

I love ya Spiff! This vertical format made me want to pull my own teeth out.

[@frogthespy9371]

01:05:54 Looking closer at the showcase you can see that the Piety civic is unlocked in the exploration age, so religion is likely a thing, just unlocked a little later.

[@guccilibrarian4728]

I feel like I CONSTANTLY saw complaints about the leader art in Civ 6, and they really didn't do much to fix it in Civ 7 - so far anyways

[@crediblesalamander8056]

The map looks gorgeous in civ 7 (although i might prefer 6's parchment reveal), but the leaders are so much better in 6. they're so expressive. the leaders in civ 7 look kinda lifeless so i'm hoping there's huge improvements before release.

[@guccilibrarian4728]

@@crediblesalamander8056 I'm guessing they are far from finished, but we will see. They're gonna catch a lot of flak if they don't improve

[@mcihay246]

@@guccilibrarian4728 Probably. I mean... look at what Teddy looked like before release.

[@ThaGamingMisfit]

If anything it's looking even worse. What a mismatch with the actual map and building art. Looks like they have put the intern on the leaders and UI.

[@bifflowman2948]

Civ 3 being a favorite of Spiff.. Now you're my favorite streamer! 😄

[@dsinsocal]

I wonder what it would be like if we could read anything that you were showing on the that wafer-thin screen.

[@deebea6364]

My favourite Civilization game is... Civ II : Test of Time... loved the extra game modes they had like sci fi, fantasy, and Midgard Scenario...

[@s_a_share]

Every time I hear about a civ release I listen for dragons... The fantasy game was so unique and amazing, I wish they would do something similar again. ❤ the underworld

[@organicsatanic]

this is perfect for when I want to watch something on my phone for 3 hours

[@Madiannereid]

“A copy of this eyeshadow” 😂🤣 “copy”. This is so wholesome.

[@fastmadcow]

Spiff breaking the game on first play test is so you man! You are both a developers nightmare and or a blessing.

[@JustanormalGuy007]

The side profile leaders engaging each other feels like it could just be one short step from a Mortal Combat esque mini game. If so, i'm all for it! I'd love to see Ben Franklin full Nelson Ghandi.

[@TheNoldaz]

What I like in civ is expand exponentially, colonize the whole world, build everything & every terrain improvement so every city is maxed. I guess I can forget civ 7

[@inditsnotdenon922]

Complete opposite gameplay style to ne, isn't that funny? More than 5 cities is such a drag

[@TheNoldaz]

@@inditsnotdenon922 Yeah funny, I think less than 10 city is boring

[@thespiffingbrit]

@@TheNoldaz and this is why I love civilization as a series. Both your opinions are a completely valid reason to prefer one game. Neither is wrong and ultimately I wish everyone could enjoy every game. Tis a foolish dream

[@tsunamie1015]

Well, the city caps apparently aren't hard caps, and there are most definitely going to be certain ways or civ/leader bonuses of mitigating the downside of going over your city cap, or simply get bonuses to your city cap. Just because there is now a city cap doesn't mean you won't get to play wide anymore. Maybe you won't get to pain the whole map through vanilla means, but i highly doubt it'll take more than a month for a mod to pop up that just removes city caps or bumps them up to 9999.

[@zr1L]

Not sure how you reached this conclusion. From what I gathered from this stream and others, you can get close to 10 cities even during the first age. So imagine what you should be able to do in the last age. As far as I understand, their intention is to make both wide and tall viable.

[@Yardiff]

Nice vod/stream spiff, played to the end for the YT algorithm.

[@EmmaNygård]

I have submitted feedback to 2K through their website. Thank you for pointing this out, and I hope many more do the same!

[@fedupN]

An hour in and I have to say: Defending the choice of "not picking a Civ" in a game called Civilization seems an odd stance. Yes, it is fair to say a critique based on historical accuracy is silly. However, like the aforementioned themeing, it is important to have that flavor that makes "sense." Describing the selection as a "rogue like/lite" is not something that appeals to me, personally. Not the kind of game I am looking for at a core element. Without going into all the other aspects of the game discussed here and in other videos, definitely gonna wait for the dozen or so DLCs that will round out this thing into a full game. Get a full picture of it and all that. Some parts seem very interesting and have potential, others much less so.

[@Ch1coR1co]

With the new layered dynamic complicating things, there is no way a medium sized studio will be able to play out enough combinations to properly balance the game. Expect an unbalanced game the first month while the millions of collective play-hours accumulate and exploits are discovered. Said rebalancing will lead to more issues and so on and so forth. It'll be right around the launch of the first DLC pack comes out where it'll all be sorted out, just in time for said DLC to start the issues anew.

[@f3192-o7u]

its guaranteed at this point, but it will take years, if ever, to balance or patch it out.

[@AvguardianGaming]

Don't sleep on Here I Stand - if you're up for complex, lengthy board games, it's really good! Only had a chance to play it one time, sadly.

[@jamoecw]

I have built farms on hills before. If I want a city in a specific place for a reason and I need food for some reason then a farm on a hill works. Most of the time you pick the default, and if that is all you are going to do then you can automate your builder for that city (introduced in SMAC). Cutting features is rarely the best decision, though it might not be a bad decision.

[@TNM001]

early game will be completely on rails now. how do ppl not see this? all the early decisions are gone. thats ok in a MP game with only a few rounds, but meehh....

[@jamoecw]

@@TNM001 I am old enough to remember Master of Orion and they implemented the AI builds the tiles feature, though you could tell it overall general strategy for building (so you could get the AI to build farms on hills, or the equivalent there of), and it killed the game. They later did some patch stuff, but it was balanced and built for this, so the game ended up being pretty shitty anyway. If they get the AI good enough then it will be a minor good, but if they get it wrong it will be a game killing bad. No one old enough to remember the early days of 4x would advise such a decision, especially for multiplayer where the last thing you want is AI versus AI while the players watch. The more I think about this decision the worse it feels to me.

[@Merguin]

For the dynamic events. I would love to have them, but on a random answer basis, meaning you get a choice between 3 options and each option offers you something different, positive, negative, positve+negative. You do not know what answer/option does what, as its random. Another way to approach this would be to force some of the dynamic events to be only negative without any choice, reoccuring on certain intervals/milestones. This way you would also have some pure positive events. Keeping the no choice here too, so you cannot select the "best" option. It will just roll a random option for you to choose from. The problem with dynamic events, is as they said, you either google them and select the best option or you must know the correct answer as you dont have the time to google. This results in a less fun game, as you are either forced to learn these or ripped out of your game to google the best answer. If the answers would be random (with some weights of course), it would remove the "need" to learn these and also the chance to google them, as there is no "correct" answer.

[@yoda9240]

I have almost 3,000 hours in Civ 5. It is my favorite game except maybe for CK3. Not once in my life have I automated my workers. I love determining what should be built where, and especially creating cool road networks between my cities. I was very sad that Civ 6 gave them limited uses and I do not think I will like Civ 7’s removal of them.

[@TNM001]

agreed. this removes an important strategic layer. all to reduce actions per round for MP purposes. if they continue like this civ8 will be a mobile game.

[@ADobbin1]

I hear they got rid of workers. What on earth am I going to do during the first half of a play through now if I don't have workers to boss around????

[@Demosthenes84]

Spiff is an awesome dude. Seems like a cool friend to chill with.

[@simonspoke]

I remember this from years back... "Sid Meier has a 33/33/33 rule of sequel design, 33% of the game should keep established systems, 33% should feature improved systems, 33% brand-new mechanics" This iteration of Civ appears to be breaking these percentages! I've played every iteration of Civilization since the first one, and I have enjoyed every change because it seemed to be a natural development that honed the game into a great well known congruent franchise. But this new mechanic of playing as a new civ each era is a step too far in changing the core identity of the franchise for me... It's called "Civilization" not "Civilizations"! I'm REALLY not liking this change, so much so, that this may be the first Civ game I don't buy unless they allow the option to stick to and play as one civ. But others are talking about you can only play certain civs in certain ages, so if that's the case, then I don't see that possibility being an option... So they may have lost a lifelong Civ fan in me. (Until Civ VIII) I'll reserve final judgement until the game is actually released, but as it stands now... It's a big no from me.

[@misham6547]

Apparently there is an option to stick with the original civ but my source is a couple of upvoted comments on Reddit

[@DarthLevicor]

I remember seeing in the gameplay preview that you can stay as the same Civ

[@gottenspider2057]

Same boat for me. A lot of the features look cool, don’t get me wrong, and I’d be otherwise super excited for them, but I just can’t get behind changing civs. Roleplaying as Rome or Sweden or whoever from the beginning of time to the space age was one of my favorite parts of the whole franchise. Maybe they’ll make some changes or reveal some extra details that change my mind on it by release or down the road, but right now I don’t like the direction they’ve gone.

[@pmbartoli919]

Well, the idea is that you still play one civilization, but one that is evolving through time... On the contrary to Humankind, it seems many of the civilizations will be in several times (Norman English then modern British, medieval then modern French) AND that historical paths will be the most likely. They just need to add an option to make them mandatory (and cancel the "I've got several horses so I now become Mongolian") in order to keep the game right for many people, while still keeping in the game the possibility of playing with their original vision.

[@skatman3278]

​This is my understanding, but it only works for the player. All the AI will be free to do as they wish, which I will find equally jarring and immersion breaking. I've also read that, becsuse some of the Civs are specific to eras, that means you can play a game with a maximum of 5 different Civs. 5. It's absolute madness. The best games I've had involved 15-20 Civs and max city states on the largest maps possible. To say I'm annoyed is an understatement.

[@Toubima]

But why not use thematic titles for the powers? Maybe instead of Hatsepsut of 'Mongolia', it could be 'Horselord' Hatsepsut or whatever, something like this. I can understand that, that's easily understandable. And then being Horselord Gengis Khan would be awesome, but also I could be Horselord Tomyris.

[@scehr]

I'd like to hear what Civ fans like in terms of pacing. I've always wanted to get stuck into Civ games but I'm personally after something of a forever/long save. I would love to spend a good amount of time in each age, understanding and really utilising the current culture I'm playing as before moving up an age.

[@TNM001]

Civ6 was balanced around MP/Quick speed already and it was super boring in epic/marathon because of low production. it meant 10's of rounds without any progress in cities or unit production. Civ7 will be even worse on that. if you like MP games, good for you. if you like epic games...not so much.

[@Reptar4President]

Can not believe this is how I learned that Urban Decay brought back the Naked palette.

[@kevinkerkhoff6670]

Good points about critic for the game especially about the sales strategy. As someone who always bought the newest civ at the end with all add-ons, these things just validate me in buying late

[@schuylerashton813]

This is the weirdest spiffing episode I've seen in a while. Totally into sticking this in my bedtime feed.

[@Nacho12396]

Thank you for giving a balanced reaction to the game that isn't just reactionary/sensationalist BS! After listening to this, I'm really excited to play Civ VII -- the rise and fall of ages seems like it will add a consistent focus to the mid and end game that I feel previous Civ's have struggled with!

[@Bruellhusten123]

They have 6! DLCs announced till 09/25! Check the FAQs to the packs included with founders edition.

[@councilofsams8510]

At around the 47-50min mark when you mention the type of player who plays on 2nd monitor while they work. Thats how I play RTS games, while im working, talking to customers, i have an RTS on my 2nd monitor, i found them the best type of game that allows me to game while working

[@MrGhosta5]

My concern with the loss of builders/workers is that we won't be able to choose what tile improvements we build. In the b roll it looks like you can only build lumber mills on forest tiles and the option to chop the forest for production and build a different tile improvement is gone.

[@TNM001]

yes. less choices. less strategy. this will hit early game hard. i don't get it. ppl liked to play early game. now they are doing away with all of this in the hope of having ppl like late game. good luck with that.

[@MrGhosta5]

@@TNM001 One of the best strategies in civ 6 is chopping for tempo. The early boost of production from chopping causes your cities to start ramping sooner.

[@TNM001]

@@MrGhosta5 the more i know about Civ7 the more i see artificial restrictions everywhere that limit choices. the closed off map in the ancient era is the cherry on top (it only expands on era change).

[@MrGhosta5]

@@TNM001 The closed off map is a weird choice. That either means everyone gets clumped in the center or a bunch of players have to wait until the second or third era begins before they can interact with each other. Like what happens if you're playing a true start of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and one guy picks Brasil.

[@MusketeerYanick]

I love the Civ timeline meme. This is exactly how everyone is reacting. When devs implement numerous new and creative ideas you can really see their passion for the game. Also I massively appreciate when devs upgrade graphics and strive for fidelity. Graphics don’t make gameplay, but i feel that we don’t appreciate this enough nowadays. Especially since every dev team has gotten lazy to this respect (look TW, but also BF, COD, AoE….). Look how Manor Lords (made by one developer) set the new industry standard.

[@BrianOxleyTexan]

Super kudos to devs for getting early user feedback. I'm paying attention to this team video for examples of early user feedback.

[@greywolf7577]

Early feedback saved the Sonic movie from disaster.

[@chayashida]

I really enjoyed this format: just hearing you two talk about the preview was a lot more fun than trying to listen to someone talk about the game. It was like talking to two friends about a game we all like. Would be great to hear more of these chats in the future if you get more preview builds you can talk about.

[@trufan1989]

How long can a youtube short be? Spiff: YES!

[@rustyshackelford3590]

We have gone through two new Civ games before we got a release date for elder scrolls 6

[@MuchuutheSensible]

I imagine a person (like Sheldon Cooper) who does not understand sarcasm, seeing Britian and its people as Stranger Things "The upside down" where everything is a twisted reality.

[@argovalentine2368]

great video as always

[@KeeperCode]

Watching this on my phone. The aspect ratio is perfect.

[@pmwestover]

The leader interaction is the civilization x Mortal Kombat crossover I didn't know I needed

[@I3wave]

Brienne of fucking Tarth!

[@Isvoor]

Sean of fucking Beans!

[@SilverAranda]

When I heard Firaxis invite a lot of Game influncers to play CIV VII: Oh nice I can't wait to hear what they think of the new stuff When I heard Firaxis invite Spiffy to play CIV VII: .... what did you break? .. no seriously how did it got BROKE!!!

[@SouthShayde]

I am very skeptical. I like the idea that you can adapt as the game goes on, but I worry that the game will get very samey, especially if multiple people can become the same civ, in that most people will just always aim to change into the same "best" civs for each age every game, and you won't really get a ton of play style diversity. Like I get what they're going for, but I don't think you're going to get many huge shifts in what objective people are shooting for. Hopefully the leader unique abilities are particularly significant, so that even if two people are the same civ, it's still significantly different enough.

[@shawnford2607]

Just before the 1 hour mark. So many "likes" from spiff. It hurt my ears, and my soul. lol. Thanks for the video. Had to give a bit of grief on the "likes".

[@RememberingStars023]

I can’t wait to play this game on Marathon speed.

[@DarthDre]

Can't wait for the no city cap mod 🤙🏽 (it should have been based off of the power/influence of the leader at the very minimum)

[@RoxxieRaeVA]

Tonight, Firaxis forgets how words work, Potato buys eye shadow, and Spif finds exploits right in front of the developers noses.

[@5Andysalive]

57:00 is the old weird argument against SF Civ. Beyond Earth was crap for certain reasons, but not because you didn't play Egypt or Mongolia (for the 6th game) or because that would over complicate things for the pleps. On the other hand Alpha Centauri had a few, clearly defined civilizations, not procedural generated nonsense like Stellaris. Once you knew them, the problem they discuss just went away. In away switching civs randomly through the ages introduces that very problem of losing track into CIV. It's Scifi Story vs a historical story. Both is ok.

[@kloklon]

this podcast style stream was awesome, thanks for all the info and discussion!!

[@pumped3305]

I guess by splitting leaders and civs they can sell me both separately now.

[@ExamplePrime]

My largest concern with the pacing is before, you used Workers to do things. Most of your turn was: Build Queue, Move Workers, Move Units. So you always had AN action. By removing workers I want a separate build queue for units because I'm going to need more to do if Builders are gone EDIT: There better not be objectives you have to meet to carry over % production bonuses because that'll be a disaster for balancing

[@johnfsenpai]

I know ages are mostly a historical excuse to make the gameplay more interesting, but some things feel a little wacky about it. Like, if the crisis at the end of the antiquity age is like the bronze age collapse, there is a lot of stuff that doesn't work chronologically. Imagine playing as Rome and your empire is destroyed by the Sea Peoples (even though the Bronze Age collapse happened long before the birth of Rome) and then you transition into the age of exploration

[@Prywin1978]

My first Civ was Civ 2 on the PS. No one of my friends had a PC at that time. The PS was so slow in endgame.

[@benjaminjohnson6476]

I think people wouldn't be as concerned with the michanic of changing from Egypt to another civ if it was you pick a nation and change the leader to fit current situation. It would be way easier to add multiple leader personalities than multiple nations

[@MASTERCRAFT938]

Civ7 i didn't know. Pog :D

[@darnchacha1632]

I'm also skeptical about the historical switching thing I'm willing to give it a chance though I didn't like it much of humankind, but in like a civilization game when I pick Poland it's cause I want to can Poland into space, I don't want to suddenly turn into Australia cause I have too many deserts or something

[@reallycute7603]

Technically when you became Poland in Humankind you could stay Poland to the end of the game. You didn't need to change civilizations. There even was a achievement for winning the game by one civilization.

[@BittaSweetJP]

Collector must collect every edition to play

[@bostycraiova]

You used it as an example, but the existence of Commander in Magic really did affect players who prefer other formats such as Standard, Modern, etc. Wizards of the Coast started focusing SO MUCH on Commander that the tournament scene for other formats is a shadow of its former self. There are no more Nationals, no more Grand Prix, those were replaced by MagicFests that are haevily skewed towards Commander and casual play.

[@michaelroland1887]

The crisis choice thing sounds a lot like the fall of Rome scenario from Civ V. Where over time you got social policies as Rome that weakened you

[@Real-cq1wj]

Yooo! Half million views, well done

[@caboosenom3rson]

I still feel like theres an entire Age missing. How can we go directly from Ancient Egypt in the thousands BCE to the Renaissance age of exploration? That's multiple thousands of years skipped over, that feels like too much.

[@Kolokommouna]

Antiquity doesn't just mean the Egypt of the pharaohs. Ptolemaic, Roman and Coptic Egypt are also included in that description

[@Candlemancer]

You don't. Age 1 spans from the Ancient to the late Classical, Age 2 spans from early Medieval to late Renaissance. You don't just jump from the start of one era to the end of the next in one turn, that process takes hundreds of turns.

[@BallisticDamages]

My favourite Civ game is Civ Revolution on the Xbox 360 😅

[@fyrestorme]

I think they should bring back FMVC advisors from Civ 2

[@merakimelodies8931]

There’s a CivShrek 7?! 😮 I didn’t know there was a part-1! 😂😊

[@Deep_Sorcery]

I dislike having a cap on the number of cities because I prefer to play wide instead of tall. But I can work within the system. Civ VI also had a soft cap on number of cities and the size of the population in that it took more and more ammenities to keep a larger civilization with more cities happy. Civ VII's system seems more strict, but most games like this have some kind of cap.

[@eaglepursuit]

I don't get the hate for builders and districts. That kind of micromanagement is right up my alley

[@mickethegoblin7167]

Well, I don't get the love for it

[@juicebx283]

That aspect ratio is perfect for my vertical display on my second monitor thank you even if this is only for a video

[@moscowcowboy_13]

Civ 7 needs to allow you to introduce anykind of resource you want to a tile, except something like a mineral which is deep in the ground, but I mean if you want to plant a certain crop you should be able to, or domesticate certain livestock.

[@MisterMick113]

Maybe not ANY tile, but have certain resources coupled to certain terrains so you could have goat or sheep farms in hills and rice only grows in floodplain. Something like that would still allow the addition of resources to simulate farms, but still keep terrain as an important factor

[@slwrabbits]

​@@MisterMick113ooooh, that sounds like it could be fun!