Civilization VII

[Tamas]

Thanks, I found the Reddit post just last night

[Syt]

I'm still trying to figure out what the best strategy for towns is. Most of the time I tend to expand tem as much as possible and switching them to cities. When I guess it's often more efficient to keep them as farming/mining towns to feed the cities where I don't want to worry about keeping rural tiles.

[Tamas]

I'm still trying to figure out what the best strategy for towns is. Most of the time I tend to expand tem as much as possible and switching them to cities. When I guess it's often more efficient to keep them as farming/mining towns to feed the cities where I don't want to worry about keeping rural tiles.

Yeah same, the realisation was just slowly dawning on me that it's probably not optimal to waste city tiles on food (production I have no other option for, I guess). Except for coastal/sea tiles, which can be nice. Navigable river hexes can be bonused up to high heavens but they do take the spot from a city tile.

[Syt]

I'm still trying to figure out what the best strategy for towns is. Most of the time I tend to expand tem as much as possible and switching them to cities. When I guess it's often more efficient to keep them as farming/mining towns to feed the cities where I don't want to worry about keeping rural tiles.

Yeah same, the realisation was just slowly dawning on me that it's probably not optimal to waste city tiles on food (production I have no other option for, I guess). Except for coastal/sea tiles, which can be nice. Navigable river hexes can be bonused up to high heavens but they do take the spot from a city tile.

Plus the ongoing repair costs from flooding. (BRING DAMS BACK!) But you can use them for harbors, bridges, wharves, shipyards ...

Re: age transitions, I wish there was a better preview of what happens, the unlocks screen is not quite as good. Or maybe a menu where you can "buy" units that carry over (assign a cost for each unit, give player a budget based on era performance). Some of the era transition perks let you up the amount of units you get beyond the ones you carry over, but better player control would go a long way, I think. Similar with retaining cities from previous age (though I guess technically that's in, with the 200g cost for the first few town-city switches at the start of a new age).

[Syt]

The system I like the least for now is religion in the Exploration Age. It seems a bit lackluster for now and suffers from an "everyone gets a religion" issue - not helped by a game of whack-a-mole trying to keep cities in your religion, and no defensive units to deploy for "religious combat" like in Civ6. That the game distinguishes between rural and urban population is in theory a nice touch (and the only part of the game where it seems to matter?) but in practice just adds busywork IMO. But you can't ignore it entirely because you want at least one legacy milestone to avoid a cultural dark age (though you can use tech to acquire the necessary relics, I guess). Mostly I try to keep some missionaries in my territory to re-convert some cities back to me while trying to spread my religion through trade, missionaries, or conversion diplo actions. Unless I ignore it completely.

However, Missionaries make great scouts in foreign territories, because they ignore borders (like Explorers in Modern Age).

[Solmyr]

Still enjoying it FWIW. I'm not on the level of Mr. "I beat Deity" Solmyr (saw your achievement in my feed )

It wasn't too hard. The AI is very defensive early on, so you are fairly safe from being conquered. On Deity you are usually very behind on tech and civics in the early ages, but it mostly won't matter because the game is won in the Modern Age. And right now culture victory is piss easy - you only need the first civic you can research and 15 great works. I used Friedrich, Baroque, as he gets great works from conquering settlements. Just collect all the artifacts you can and then conquer some easy towns for the rest.

[Solmyr]

I'm still trying to figure out what the best strategy for towns is. Most of the time I tend to expand tem as much as possible and switching them to cities. When I guess it's often more efficient to keep them as farming/mining towns to feed the cities where I don't want to worry about keeping rural tiles.

If the town has high production yields, I usually convert it to a city at some point. If high food but low production, then they stay as towns. It also depends on your civ and leader though. E.g. with Mughals you get +75% gold but -25% everything else, so having a couple of high-production towns can really explode your gold reserve and you can just buy anything you want.

[Solmyr]

The system I like the least for now is religion in the Exploration Age. It seems a bit lackluster for now and suffers from an "everyone gets a religion" issue - not helped by a game of whack-a-mole trying to keep cities in your religion, and no defensive units to deploy for "religious combat" like in Civ6.

There's actually no need to re-convert your settlements, unless you are running certain civics where that matters. Otherwise, once you've gotten the relics you can from converting, it doesn't affect anything anymore.

[viper37]

OpenCritic reviews for those who don't have it:
https://opencritic.com/game/17742/sid-meiers-civilization-vii

[Syt]

Roadmap:



4th March also sees release of the Crossroads to Power, with Ada Lovelace, Carthage (antiquity) and Great Britain (modern age), plus some natural wonders. The second March patch should add Simon Bolivar, Bulgaria (medieval) and Nepal (modern, I guess?).

Also, PotatoMcWhiskey has released a good video about settlement limits:

[Syt]

On the roadmap's "naval units can disperse coastal independents" - I only recently realized I can use the "loot" function to pick up coastal goodie huts with naval units. Or that you can capture coastal cities with navies.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

They do seem to be scraping the barrel a bit with their civilizations though.

[Syt]

Haven't tried out the new patch yet. Not many big changes from what I see, mostly small balancing stuff, except for a rework of the culture victory for the Modern Age (which, frankly, was a bit rubbish).

PC Gamer has an overview of stuff the game doesn't tell you but is good to know. Much of it you guys will know by now, but there might still be a thing or three that's new:

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/civilization-7-guide-to-unexplained-systems-faq/

[Syt]

Oh side note from my own learning experience - in Exploration Age, don't build your fishing quay in a Distant Lands settlement on a lake. Your Treasure Fleet for that settlement will spawn there and might not get out. (I think if you keep it, the next one will spawn on another tile since treasure fleets can't stack?)

[Syt]

New patch yesterday. Adds the DLC content for Nepal, Bulgaria and Simon Bolivar.

Only played a bit, but so glad they added quick move. There's also some other UI improvements, like improving the tool tip when hovering over resources, or actually giving you a "neutral" icons on leaders in the main screen so you actually hover and see where you stand (previously only worked if they had negative/positive opinions ... ).

Full path notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1295660/view/498316689831625075

Quick Move
Quick Move is here! This optional setting allows you to disable the movement animations for your Units, making gameplay faster. This is off by default, and can be toggled by selecting the option in game settings.

Map Generation
As we work to add some more flavor and variety to maps in Civ VII, we've added in a brand new start position option as the default, called Standard. This option is closer to what players will remember from Civilization VI – where continents have a bit more variety and are less predictable.

The existing start position method is now called Balanced, and can be selected again at any point in Advanced Options. Balanced will remain the default option in Multiplayer games. We have plenty more planned for map variety, generation, and new maps (including larger maps) so stay posted, and keep letting us know what you want to see!

Settlement and Commander Renaming
Your creativity has no bounds – and now the same applies to your Settlement and Commander Unit names! You can now choose to rename them by clicking the pen icon in the upper right hand corner of their menus. Whether you're roleplaying a historical empire, naming cities after your best friends, or for the utilitarians among us – naming things functionally based on their status and benefits – we hope you enjoy the freedom to choose!

UI Improvements
We're adding polish (no, not the Jadwiga kind – the UI kind)! With 1.1.1, we've made several UI changes as a part of an ongoing effort to improve the UI in-game. Here are a few highlights:

Improve Unit Flag and Health Bar Visibility
We've made even MORE health bar readability improvements – now visible in the Unit panel! We've also increased the weight on Settlement health bars to make them stand out more from the surrounding buildings.

Improved Plot Tooltips
We've improved the tooltip on plots to include how many Specialists are assigned, and are still possible to assign.

New "District Under Attack" notification
You're now alerted when your District's under attack with a notification – which we hope means less surprises when you go to check up on your Settlements.

New Trade Lens and Ability to Send Merchants from Lens
You can now see your available trade routes by triggering a new lens on/off via the Lens panel! You can also send Merchants directly to Cities from the panel in any Age, but remember, in those earlier Ages you still have to start the route when you get there.

Age Progress Now Shows Turns Remaining Until Crises
No more surprise Crises! New "pips" have been added to the Age Progress wheel in the HUD to show when Crisis will trigger/escalate.

Restart Button
Re-rollers rejoice! We've added a new restart button that can be used within the first few turns of a new game, to restart the map with your exact same game settings and civ/leader choices. Note that restart will not be available in certain situations – like when you've already undergone an Age transition or during a network multiplayer game.

These are just the highlights, so be sure to check out the full list of UI improvements in the update notes below. We've still got a lot more to come! Our upcoming updates and patches will continue to make UI a top priority, so we can improve the readability, accessibility, and general ease-of-use for all of Civ VII's features.

New Natural Wonder: Mount Everest
Last, but certainly not least, Mount Everest has joined the list of Natural Wonders in Civ VII. Called Sagarmatha in Nepali and Chomolungma in Tibetan, the mountain has long been held as sacred by local populations. Mount Everest provides a range of bonuses to any player lucky enough to settle nearby – +2 Happiness, +2 Influence, and +2 Culture – and reveals all Mountain tiles on your continent when discovered.

New Features
Modern Age Pacing and Balance
We've made a number of changes to help the Modern Age last a bit longer so that players have more space to enjoy all the unique gameplay in that Age.
Eliminating a player no longer adds Age Progress in Modern, and the amount of Age Progress added in Exploration has been halved so that Domination Victories are easier to achieve now.
Modern Techs and Civic costs have been increased by roughly 25% overall, more heavily weighted on nodes deeper in the trees.

We've made a number of changes around Railroad Tycoon gameplay:
Factory Cost increased from 600 to 1400.
Port Cost increased from 550 to 1200.
Rail Station Cost increased from 650 to 1200.
Coal Resource changed from 100% Production bonus towards Rail Stations to 10% Production bonus towards Rail Stations and Ports (the existing 100% bonus was not functioning as intended).
Oil Resource now also gives a 10% Production bonus towards Factories.

Your Military Advisor will now warn you if you don't have enough Commanders to retain all of your Units when an Age is ending.
Map Generation has been improved and players can now choose between two Start Position options (Standard and Balanced) in Advanced Setup.


Leaders & Civs

Leaders

Ashoka, World Conqueror:
Devaraja Unique Ability combat bonus changed from "+10 against Fortified Districts during Celebrations" to "+5 against Fortified Districts during Celebrations.

Confucius:
Playing as Confucius now correctly unlocks the Qing in the Modern Age.

Lafayette:
+1 Combat Strength per Tradition slotted is no longer doubled in Distant Lands.
Changed "+2 Culture and Happiness per Age in Settlements, doubled in Distant Lands" to "+1 Culture and Happiness per Age in Settlements, doubled in Distant Lands."

Civs

Buganda:
Buganda's Nyanza Civic now applies to full-hex buildings, e.g. Aerodrome.

[Crossroads of the World DLC*] Carthage:
The bonus Combat Strength for Carthage's Numidian Cavalry now only gains +1 per unique City resource slotted in the Capital.

Hawai'i:
Ahupua'a Tradition changed from "+4 Culture on Food Buildings" to "+4 Food on Culture Buildings."
Ho'okupu Tradition changed from "+2 Culture on Marine terrain" to "+1 Culture on Marine terrain."
He'e Nalu Civic Mastery changed from "+1 Culture on Marine terrain in Settlements following your Religion" to "+1 Happiness on Marine terrain in Towns following your Religion, doubled for Cities."

[Crossroads of the World DLC*] Great Britain:
No Eternal Allies Tradition changed from "+5% Gold in Towns, but -5% Gold in the Capital for every Alliance" to "+10% Food and Gold in Towns, but -5% Gold in the Capital for every Alliance."

Majapahit:
Subak Tradition changed from "+1 Culture and Production on Marine Terrain" to "+1 Culture and Production on Marine Terrain in Cities."
Gamelan Civic changed from "+4 Culture on Quarters" to "+2 Culture on Quarters."
Nusantara Civic changed from "Culture Buildings receive a +1 Culture adjacency with Coast" to "Culture Buildings receive a +1 Happiness adjacency with Coast."

Maya:
Uwaybil K'uh Quarter Production gained changed from 15% to 5% of the Technology researched.
K'uh Nah changed from +4 Science to +3 Science.
The Mundo Perdido Wonder now unlocks earlier in the Civics tree from Calendar Round.

Meiji Japan:
The Goishhin Unique Ability now correctly applies the Science bonus when overbuilding.
Kōkūtai Tradition now correctly applies to all Aircraft Units.

Mississippian:
The Mississippian Tradition, Shell-Tempered Pottery, now applies correctly outside of the Antiquity Age.

Mongolia:
Baghatur Tradition changed from "+5 Combat Strength for Cavalry Units" to "+3 Combat Strength for Cavalry Units."

Rome:
Legion Unit changed from "+2 Combat Strength for every Tradition in the Government" to "+1 Combat Strength for every Tradition in the Government."
Latinitas Tradition changed from "+10% Food, Gold and Culture in Towns with a Specialization" to "+5% Food, Gold and Culture in Towns without a Growing Town Focus."

Russia:
General Moroz Tradition changed from "+5 Combat Strength for Units in Tundra" to "+3 Combat Strength for Units in Tundra."

Songhai:
The Hi-Koi Civic no longer grants a bonus to Units that are not on a Navigable River.


Gameplay

AI
Improved AI scouting and Settlement behavior.
AI Commanders will now correctly gain bonus XP based on difficulty:
Scribe: -20%
Governor: 0%
Viceroy: 40%
Sovereign: 60%
Immortal: 80%
Deity: 100%
AI now makes better Commander promotion choices, prioritizing bonuses like increased Combat Strength.

Economy
Towns with a Trade Outpost Focus now grant the +5 Trade range to all of your other Settlements and not just from themselves. Developer Note: This change makes it easier to build roads to connect your Towns to your Cities with Merchants if you have a few Trade Outposts.
Sawmills now properly grant Production to Camps.
Grocers no longer grant Food bonuses on Mines and Woodcutters
Addressed a reported issue where Ironworks was not granting Production bonuses on Mines and Woodcutters. Added a +1 Production bonus on Mountains.
Repairs can no longer be purchased without having enough Gold.
Players now correctly receive discounted prices when purchasing Buildings that have been discounted.
Purchases can no longer be made in a Town with Unrest.
Resolved an issue where the Fish Resource was decreasing the amount of Food needed for a Settlement's next Growth Event to negative.
The Production queue properly updates when multiple Wonders are in the queue and another civilization completes a Wonder first.
Walls granted by the Byrsa Wonder are now properly granted on all eligible tiles.

Diplomacy
The Sabotage Space Program Espionage Action now completes as intended.

Crises
Revolutions Crisis now applies the correct amount of Unhappiness after players choose a new revolutionary Government.

Military
Scorched Earth Policy changed from "+5 Combat Strength for all Units when attacking" to "+3 Combat Strength for all Units when attacking."
Purabhettarah Units now correctly gain +5 Combat Strength vs. Fortified Districts.
Scout Units no longer stack the +1 Sight Range bonus after unpacking from a Commander with the Initiative promotion.

Natural Wonders
Torres del Paine changed from "Units that move adjacent to Torres Del Paine ignore Rough Terrain" to "+1 Food and Production on Tundra terrain in this Settlement."
Increased the spawn rate of the Valley of Flowers.

Independent Powers
Naval Units can no longer Disperse Independent Villages while a Unit is defending the Village.
Emporium and Monastery Unique Improvements now stack Yields correctly when multiple are built in the same City.

Civilopedia
Added and updated several entries.

Addressed Issues:
Resolved a reported issue that could occur when exiting to the main menu too quickly while creating a new game.


UI

Notifications
Added new "District Under Attack" notification.
Players are now correctly notified when a Packed Commander was attacked.
Notifications now properly play their animations at the start of a new turn.
Increased the speed at which notifications appear during gameplay.
Added additional Watch-out / Advisor notifications to help with making Treasure Fleets. New Watch-outs will appear for when you're missing shipbuilding tech or a Fishing Quay.

Text Changes
Resolved various reported text and formatting issues.
Several instances of missing text have been addressed.

Alignment & Spacing
Improved the alignment and ordering of tutorial pop-ups.
Improved the alignment for the Resume and Restart buttons in the Pause menu.
Commander Level text is now centered when reaching a double-digit Promotion level during gameplay.
Improved the spacing between the Unit icon and flag and the number representing a Commander's level.
The Quit button in the main menu no longer overlaps the images in the carousel.

Tooltips
Added Specialist info to plot tooltips.
Added Neutral Relationship icon and improved Relationship tooltip readability.
Resource type is now displayed with both icons and tooltips, both in map and in the Resource screen.

Controller-Specific
Espionage report pop-up now properly appears when attempting to open it via controller during gameplay.
Controllers now respond correctly after opening the Progress Menu in the 'Choose Civilization' Menu.
Trade lens will now change back to 'None' when the user closes the Trade lens during gameplay when using a controller.
Controller no longer loses focus on the City-State Bonus menu while a Unit is selected.
Players using a controller can now properly select Government choices when opening the "Choose a Government" screen via the Turn Advancer, even if a Unit is selected.


General
Settlements and Commander names can now be customized.
Added a Trade Lens that displays Trade Route information without requiring a Merchant Unit to be selected.
Now able to send Merchants to Settlements directly from the Trade Route panel.
The Unit Action tray is expanded by default to show all available Unit Actions.
Improved visibility on Unit and District health bars, and on Unit flags.
Added Crisis indicators to Age Progress UI to indicate activation/increase points.
Hide "turns until growth" UI when a Town has a focus (and thus will not be growing).
Pause menu is now expanded and reorganized to better show all options.
Addressed a reported issue where the Production panel would not refresh properly when purchasing in a Settlement.
Updated the description for the Change Capital Legacy card to more accurately reflect the functionality.
The Government selection screen now appears correctly on ultrawide monitors.
Unit portraits appear correctly after opening and closing the Diplomacy menu.
Settlement Yields now correctly update in the Building Placement menu instead of displaying the previously selected Settlement's Yields.
Army Commander's Progress Bar now updates properly in the Unit Panel when gaining experience.
The Wondrous banner now appears properly.
The Privacy Policy page now appears properly.
Economic Advisor Portrait now appears correctly in the Antiquity Age.
Learn More prompt now functions correctly when attempting to select it for unowned civs.
Addressed a reported issue where Buildings, Wonders, and Improvements did not display in the Production menu, preventing the player from placing anything other than Units in their Settlements.
The Town Unrest slider can no longer go negative.
Several fixes for UI and HUD elements not appearing as intended.
Added unique icons for various Great Works.
The War Weariness score will no longer be falsely attributed to a different leader during a First Meet.
Addressed a reported issue where the Unit panel would be missing when the player selects and closes the Unit panel multiple times.
Addressed a reported issue where the X button could lose functionality when transitioning to the next Age.
The Theology Civic now correctly appears in the Choose Civic list after the player founds a religion.
The Input Icon now appears correctly during the Legacy Progress tutorial.
Addressed a reported issue where the remaining turns displayed in the "Town is in Unrest" menu were not consistent with the actual number of turns remaining.
The Civiolopedia entry for Prussia's Unique Infrastructure "Staatseisenbahn" now displays correctly.
Xerxes banner art has been updated.
Applied more historically accurate icons to Han's Shi Dafu and Ming's Mandarin.
The Commander Promotion menu now displays correctly in windowed mode.


Narrative
The following events can now be triggered:
Legacy of the Ancients
Sickness in the Air
The Song of the Scholar
Central Autocracy
Training Day
Children of the Sky: Changed the completion requirement text to "schoolhouse" instead of "school."
Lessons of the Land: Event now starts correctly if Catherine played as Greece in the Antiquity Age.
Enduring Love: Reward tooltip now properly displays after hovering over the option button.
The Army's Soul: The first option of the event can now be completed when playing as Spain.
The Sting of Iron: Reward tooltips now properly display when hovering over the option buttons.
Besiege and Conquer: The first option reward tooltip now displays the correct reward information.
A Mass for the Masses: Removed redundant Happiness icon in the first option.
Opening Night: Chariots are now properly granted the Combat bonus after selecting the "Hold a staged battle" event option.
The Moving Lake: Event will now only trigger if a Unit dies in a storm on a desert tile.
Neither Friend Nor Foe: Event will now correctly trigger when Relationship with another civ rises to Neutral.
Military Report: Production bonus reward is now only granted to Howitzer Units instead of all Units.
The Bane of Tanks: AT Guns are now properly granted the Combat Strength bonus reward for the second option.
Nature of Nature: The event will now trigger correctly after building a Museum and an Opera House.
A Shared World: Event now rewards the correct amount of Yield.
I am Fond of Dogs / I am Fond of Pigs / I am Fond of Cows: Events can now no longer be triggered simultaneously.
Will of Ares: Event rewards will be granted correctly.
The Rains Come: Event rewards will be granted correctly.
Discovery Event Yield cost text now updated to state percentage of costs.
Corrected historical inaccuracies in the Hermitage entry of the Civilopedia.
Clarified the text for Steps 1 and 2 of the Enlightenment Legacy Path.


Miscellaneous
The Continue button now loads manual saves that are more recent than the last autosave.
Improved crane animations on Ports and Quarries.
Added more detail in Vegetated Tundra tiles.
Addressed a reported issue when the player moved the camera with both a controller and keyboard at the same time.
Fixes made to terrain seams on AMD GPUs.
Screen mode should now properly update when players change from Windowed to Fullscreen while using Alt+Enter or the F11 key.
Addressed a reported issue where players could join a multiplayer game mid-countdown when using a join code.
Addressed a reported issue where game settings were sometimes not saved, and Options did not revert, when selecting "Cancel Changes."


MacOS
Unit routes can now be placed quickly using right-click functions.
Linux, MacOS
Fixed cursor issues on MacOS and Linux.
Steam, Steam Deck
Fixed several input flows and prompts for the UI when using a controller.


Crossroads of the World Collection* – DLC 4-6

Leaders

[Crossroads of the World DLC*] Added new leader Simón Bolívar.
As the Napoleonic Wars weakened Spain's presence in the Americas, Simón Bolívar, "El Libertador," led forces to liberate the region. With tenacity and charisma, he led his armies to victory, and the people to independence. The instability of newfound freedom proved difficult to overcome. First president and then dictator of Gran Colombia, he failed to fully enact his ambitions. Yet Bolívar remains an enduring example of South American defiance.
Attributes: Expansionist, Militaristic
Unique Ability – El Libertador: Gain a free amount of Support on your wars. When you conquer a Settlement for the first time, it can purchase a Building for free. Can purchase items when in the Unrest status.
Agenda – Cornerstone of Freedom: Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount for having the least Unhappy Settlements. Decrease Relationship by a Small Amount for the leader with the most amount of Unhappy Settlements.


Civilizations

[Crossroads of the World DLC*] Added new Exploration Age civilization Bulgaria.
In the seventh century, the Bulgars crossed the Danube and made the Balkans their own. Their warriors used the mountains to their advantage, scattering larger armies through skill and stratagems. The First Bulgarian Empire ran on conquest, expansion, and the growth of trade. The Second Empire saw the rise of art, literature, and architecture alongside spirituality and monastic traditions. All came crashing down when the Ottomans invaded.
Attributes: Militaristic, Expansionist
Unique Ability – Krum's Dynasty: Receive Food in all Towns when pillaging Improvements equal to a percentage of the HP or yields gained.
Unique Civilian Unit: Tarkhan (Unique Commander Unit)
Unique Military Unit: Bolyar (Unique Cavalry Unit)
Associated Wonder: Rila Monastery


[Crossroads of the World DLC*] Added new Modern Age civilization Nepal.
Nestled high in the Himalayas, and incorporating both highland Buddhist and lowland Hindu populations, Nepal has clung to its sovereignty despite its precarious location. 19th century Nepal was governed by an autocratic group of families, and guarded by the fierce Gurkha warriors. Following an agreement with the British, they maintained a degree of independence at the crown of the world.
Attributes: Diplomatic, Cultural
Unique Ability – Roof of the World: All Warehouse Buildings apply to Mountain tiles, but they cost increased Food and Happiness Maintenance.
Unique Civilian Unit: Sherpa (Unique Scout Unit)
Unique Military Unit: Gurkha (Unique Infantry Unit)
Associated Wonder: Boudhanath

Sorry for sloppy formatting

One thing that is a bit meh about the age transitions is how it truncates the tech trees. It feels sometimes (depending on how the game goes, obviously) there's too few techs. And there's quite a few "mini trees" - like the nation specific ones, or the religion one in the exploration age. I guess I'm asking to make the trees wider, so that there can be more build variety and you have to make more choices.