10 Biggest Changes Between Civilization 7 & Civilization 6

The next game in the Civilization franchise, Civilization 7, comes out in February next year, and its developers at Firaxis recently released some information on how it will differ from previous entries. The last game in the series, CIV 6, came out back in 2016, and games have advanced in great strides in the years since. Players are excited to see what changes the classic strategy game will introduce as developers strive to balance integrating new mechanics with existing parts of the series that fans love.

Much has been done, both aesthetically and mechanically, to improve the game for its player base. While some changes are small and aimed at ease of use, others make huge differences in the flow of the game and its objectives. These differences discussed by the developers seem to be the largest changes made to CIV 7 from other games in the franchise.

10

Altered Map Terrain Provides New Travel Opportunities And Obstacles

Navigable Rivers And Elevated Terrains

CIV 7‘s maps will be more dynamic in how their terrain and environments are shaped, as well as how they can be navigated. Rivers will now be navigable for player units and serve more of a purpose than just a source of fresh water. Mountains and cliffs can now cause larger changes in elevation, meaning maps won’t feel as flat as they once did.

Changes like this are partly aesthetic, making the game’s maps look more detailed and the worlds that players build on more varied. But they also create new opportunities for player strategy as placement could be more important when picking the starting point than in Civ 6. Players could arrange faster trading routes along riverside cities, or use elevated terrain as a strategic advantage during warfare.

9

Tech & Culture Trees Have Been Streamlined

A Simplification To Make Progression Easier And Faster

This change might be more controversial, as it could be seen as oversimplifying elements of the game. However, the goal of this change is to make each choice within the tech and culture trees more important, requiring more time and focus dedicated to each achievement. It also makes the progression of a civilization’s technology feel less stilted and chaotic.

This change goes along with several choices the developers made to streamline the process of advancing in the game since many players of CIV 6 never reached the later ages, instead starting new games around the midway point. With a less complicated ladder of upgrades required to “finish” a game of CIV 7, more players should actually see the full extent of the game.

8

A Return To Form In The Game’s Art Style

Updated Graphics For Bringing Back Realism

Many players were dissatisfied with CIV 6‘s art style, since it differed from previous entries in looking more cartoonish and less detailed. Firaxis has heard those complaints and has shifted the style for this new entry, once again going for a look closer to realism. Of course, with updated graphics and higher performance, CIV 7 will be able to pull off a more polished look than any of the previous games in the franchise.

The maps of the game are beautiful, with colorful and defined environments and busy, detailed cities that feel alive. The art for units and leaders has likewise been improved upon, and their animations have been given more detail. The new game’s appearance is not just a return to form but a great step forward for the series.

7

Inclusion Of Features Previously Only Available In Add-Ons

Natural Disasters & More In The Base Game

CIV 6 turned several mechanics and facets of other titles in the franchise into DLC or add-on content, but from the look of things with this new title, many of those features will be included in the base game. Included in those returned features are natural disasters. These events can provide great challenges for players and their civilizations, and even call for international cooperation.

Events that impact larger portions of the game’s world have been amped up for this new title, as the developer’s goal is to increase interaction between different players. Much like many players never saw later ages within CIV 6, many also tended to stay more isolationist. CIV 7 should provide more opportunities and necessities for cooperative gameplay.

6

Crisis Events Are A New Mechanic To Define Age Advancements

Preceding Age And Crisis Management Will Affect Your Advance

One new category of events CIV 7 will feature are “crises,” turning points that occur whenever a civilization advances to the next age. These events are based on the state of the world and one’s current civilization stats and are meant to define the course of that civ’s next age, for better or worse. Generally, these events involve something that requires direct intervention from the civilization leader and will have some sort of downside.

Crises can make or break one’s civ, depending on how well players do in the preceding age and how it pertains to the objectives they are going for. These crises also create another avenue for player-to-player interaction. If one’s ally is going through a crisis they are having a hard time managing, one could lend a hand, or take advantage of that weakness and get ahead.

5

CIV 7 Will Only Have Three Ages

Antiquity, Discovery & Modern Age

This change is the most likely to receive backlash, and is also integral to several of the other changes made to CIV 7. Firaxis has shared that, unlike previous entries in the series, CIV 7 will only have 3 ages for players to progress through: the age of antiquity, the age of discovery, and the modern age. These more broad categories do away with divisions like those that existed in CIV 6 between the ancient and classical eras.

The idea here is that each age will be more distinct and game-changing upon a transition, and that the game will be easier to play from start to finish. Some players may be upset about this simplification. But paired with the streamlined tech and culture trees and other changes made with this new entry, this system might feel better to play, as it would be less like a grind or slog.

Plus, there’s another change that comes with these transitions: the “changing” of civilizations based on era progression. A player might start out playing as a version of ancient Rome but change to France, Germany, or something else upon leaving the first age based on their civilization’s focus and goals. It is unclear so far how exactly this transition will occur, but the idea of a civilization warping into a new one over time does sound exciting.

4

Major Changes In How To Build Up Your Civilization

Choose When and Where To Expand & Improvements Will Follow

Gone is the era of creating builder units that make improvements and fortifications on the land within a player’s city. Now, the focus is less on building those improvements and more on how to shape one’s civilization in the first place. Players now choose when and where their cities expand to take up more ground, and improvements are built automatically upon doing so.

This change is more of a quality-of-life one, aimed at cutting down on the time and resources players have to spend doing things just to get the resources they already possess into a workable state. CIV 7 aims to focus less on that kind of slow amassing of resources through tedious construction and more on including choices that players must make to shape the direction of their civilization. For players who still wish to have a hand in building smaller parts of their cities, specific buildings and upgrades to them remain to be managed.

3

Commander Units Redefine The Game’s Combat

Less Focus On Small Individual Troops

Going to war and fighting against hostile forces in CIV 7 will revolve more around “commander” units, troops with specific names, roles, and buffs that they provide to surrounding forces. The kind of fight players can bring to the table varies wildly depending on what commander they have leading the charge, as each offers different strategic advantages. Commanders have their own upgrade trees and become very valuable assets to each civ in the game.

This does mean less focus is placed on small, individual units. Those small forces no longer gain experience or promotions and are more disposable in a war scenario. This is a big change from CIV 6, and while player opinions on how it works will differ, it will certainly offer a new kind of strategic process to the game’s combat system.

2

Players Can Now Build Towns As Predecessors To Cities

Exploration Helps You Know How To Better Use Your Environment

Instead of settler units immediately assembling a full city upon activation, they now start off with a small, sensible town. This changes the early game by limiting production and encouraging players to focus on exploration and specialization depending on their environment. Towns can’t do as much as cities until they grow, but they also require less resources and management.

Once a town grows to a certain point, it can either become a city or a specialized form of a town. This means that players could keep their larger population centers in safer, more lush locations while still claiming small scraps of land with towns that require less resource cost to maintain. With a structure like this, players can have a ton of cities and towns spread across their territory, making the population feel more dynamic in placement and specialty.

1

You Can Mix And Match Leaders And Civilizations

Turn Away From Historical Realism To Have More Fun

One of the most exciting changes coming with CIV 7 is that players can now customize what leader they have with any given civilization. In previous games, leaders could only be used with a civilization that matches their own history. Now, players could be Confucius leading Great Britain, or Augustus in charge of the USA, making the best Civs not necessarily tied to any one leader.

This, of course, takes a turn away from historical realism, but CIV was never meant to be a perfect representation of history, as that would not be fun to play. This historical fiction aspect of the game allows players to mix leader buffs with those from certain civilizations, and have fun creating outlandish pairings. It is a game, after all, and hopefully, all of these changes will make it more fun than any previous iteration in the series.

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