Best preview video i've watched. I loved how you used the 60 minutos gameplay video limit to explain concepts rather than show yourself playing with little time for us to engage on the specific gameplay. Great job and thanks for that! Learned a lot from you even though I watched every official stream and I'm up to date on dev diaries as well.
Why thank you! I took the approach of just trying to cover the bits that were most interesting to me when I played in the hopes that others would find them cool as well
It’s rad that you guys reach out to smaller (for now) creators like VB. I can only assume that Firaxis is a super chill place to work and that folks are proud to work on the games you put out.
Hey firaxis do you plan to do the usual thing with releasing a half baked game and then sell 8 dlcs to make it complete or is it gonna be different this time?
@ after watching more of the video fantastic work man! I had no idea about the changes to the civic tree. I’m a very new civ 6 player but I’ve had it for 2 months now and I’ve finished 5 games and have 120 hours lol
I was so surprised when they reached out to me with the opportunity! Chatting with some of the other creators that have the early access as well I'm really glad 2K and Firaxis took a broad approach to picking the content creators they wanted to participate. It seems like loads of different folks got the chance. Considering the Civ 6 content creation scene has EXPLODED since 2019 it's great to have so many people around to play the new game. It's also great for consumers to have multiple perspectives to digest before deciding to purchase the game!
The HP bars that indicate the wall defenses are a bit baffling for sure. I had a really difficult time reading them after my attacks went through. The ones for unites though I didn't have much trouble with.
There is a lot of influence from civ 4 in this new game. The AI offering cities for peace is one example. The scouts not being able to attack is another. It looks like they have made a good game.
It's not a bug that you can only get one golden age perk. It was stated in the Exploration livestream that you can only get one. You get the three legacy points for that pathway that you can spend otherwise, but you can only get a wonder from one of the pathways.
This was an excellent explanation! Easily the most in-depth analysis I’ve seen compared to other videos on Civ 7, and I’ve watched quite a few. Amazing work breaking everything down so clearly-keep it up!
I really like how tech/civic/unique trees work in Civ 7. In previous Civ games, eventually you get them all. In Civ 7, with the masteries, you have more freedom to make choices based on your playstyle.
You can only take one golden age ability. That is not a bug (as you figured) it is intentionally designed that way. However the map scrolling as you scroll through your legacy choices is unintentional (that will probably get fixed early on).
47:00 One of the crises seen in another video did a serious number on happiness, and negative enough city happiness for too long makes cities flip. This was a serious crisis, almost Dramatic Ages mode serious, but unlike that unpopular mode, you have the ability in 7 to limit the damage by making sure happiness is kept positive. Another consideration is that the crises are perhaps the same level of bad at all difficulty levels, but they bite harder the higher the difficulty levels, because you don't have the luxury of preparing for all of them that could arise.
41:21 What's going on with the border SE of Neapolis? The tile one space down is urban, but the next tile is outside the border. I thought buildings and improvements culture bombed out to range 3, so the building should have claimed the next tile, right? Was there a city to the south that got razed? If that permanently cuts off your border it's a real problem.
It seems like a good compromise between doom stacks and doom carpets. Moving them is easier, but you can still be restricted by the terrain when actually in battle.
Hey VB - Couple quick ones... In the tech/civic trees, it sounds like you're saying that you don't "complete" both of these trees before the age turns - is there a penalty to NOT get all the things? And if there is one could that be a potential reason to speed up the rollover of ages with future tech/civics if you are ahead to prevent other civs from gaining access? Lastly, in the Civic tree, where you have the two separate sets of civic (with one being civ-specific) do you progress both of the civic trees simutaneously or do you need to pick one or the other (and then bounce between them)? Thanks for reading. :)
Pushing the age transition as soon as possible is a good thing as you are preventing your opponents from reaching their legacy goals. Most of what you would unlock like policies, buildings or units are not carried over to the next era anyway so no need to stress about not researching everything. The only reason I can think of to slow things down would be if there is a wonder you really want to build (if previous era wonders are automatically unlocked in the next era then that would not matter either). Also civ specific traditions do carry over so you might want to finish them and your unique quarter before age transition.
41:56 What happened to the happiness? As you're about to explain, the yields on unclaimed tiles are estimates; this one says two production two happy. But in a few seconds, after you place the mine, it just says two production! Where'd the the happiness go?
I see a strategy forming for manipulating the ages. Based on what you said about balancing progress towards ending the age, the strategy is to crush the competing civs and then advance all four paths equally to get everything before ending the age. I am going to figure out the best leader and civ combinations to do that :).
You can definitely cheese the age in a strategic way! I could see a strategy around just blasting through the age as quickly as possible so you deprive the AI the chance to get a really good setup going.
They’re very dynamic in my experience so far! You can find success hyper focusing on one or trying to do a bit of each. Because you’re kind of working on all of them all the time I usually focused on one, finished it, and along the way picked up at least the first achievement in the others! There was one age where I managed to finish three paths before it ended. I don’t have an answer as a matter of strategy but in my experience so far it’s fairly dynamic in allowing you to hyper focus or spread yourself around each path
@@Plague_Doc22 The legacy paths in the modern age unlock a victory condition task for you! So when you complete any one of the four in the modern age it'll give you something to do to achieve that victory condition! I can't say more than what's already been revealed on the modern age livestream but that's how the mechanic works
You only need to be strong in one to win that type of victory condition at the end of the game so being focused in one is probably the most efficient way to win as quickly as possible but obviously achieving any milestones of the other paths have benefits.
With regards to the settlement limit, are you handicapping yourself if you do not fill up the settlement cap, or could you just play with a handful of cities/towns and still do fine?
I found it best to play at the settlement limit and then modulate the amount of cities and towns within that. Lots of strategy stuff will change over time. I wouldn’t say you’re specifically handicapping yourself but like most Civ games it’s much easier to settle the land than to take it later. Settlers are also really cheap in the build I’m playing so it’s no trouble to get to the settlement cap!
@@VanBradley My incentive is always to just build one city really tall until I reach a period where there's nothing to build, and then that is when I produce a settler. I don't know if that'll be a viable strategy in Civ 7. I know that tall makes a comeback in this game, but I was just wondering.
I have a question and a potential critique. For example if i want to play a culture game, and I pick Greece as my Antiquity Age option, but then an Age Transition occurs, and I have only choices that don't have any culture focuses like Bradley here in this video (Normans, Songhai and Spain all don't focus on culture as their play style), what do I do then? Like am I just forced to play a civilization, that isn't culture focused, and diminishes my game strategy? Or how does that work? Like I saw you can choose other civilizations, that do have a culture focus, for example the Abbasids. But what if their traits don't really match the focus I really want to go for. For example in CIV multiple Culture Leaders had different win conditions or build ups towards that same victory type. Like they have Abilities that I don't really need, what am I going to do then? Play an entire age without achieving anything for my win condition? If so, this would be a really terrible experience for myself. I don't really want to spend hours in an Age, that doesn't benefit my win condition at all, I don't really see the point. Also some Civs are not really interesting for me to play to start with, so my options are limited. I feel like the Age Transition for me is a negative change, because I enjoyed going towards my Win Condition, and knowing what to do at different stages of the game, planning ahead and what not. But. now I am just forced to switch my play style 3 times, which I don't really enjoy tbh.
While I haven't played enough to have a strong opinion I'll say two things! 1) I found the legacy paths achievable enough with any civilization that it isn't CRITICAL to be have a civ that specicially matches that type. 2) The legacy paths are dynamic and designed to be switched between to a certain degree. You're also working on all of them all of the time. So if you were going for a culture victory you might go through the culture path in Antiquity, get an awesome science Civ in Exploration so go down that route, and then swing back to Culture in the modern age. I haven't played modern yet and can't really talk about it anyways but as far as I'm aware from previews the victory conditions aren't dependent on the legacy paths from the first two ages. What will be helpful are the legacy path options you unlocked along the way!
@@VanBradleydo they not allow you to just keep your culture? That was my favorite part of civ: bringing cultures to ages they never flourished in (ie Iroquois into the Modern Era with Jet Fighters)
@ Not with the Civilization choices no. You will always need to play as three different civs. The leader selection stays with you for the whole game though!
My understanding is that there are "normal" civ sequences and leaders which unlock civs, but also in game things (have horse resources gets Mongolia, settle near rivers gets Songhai, etc.). I suspect - but don't know - that each civ can be unlocked by some in game action as well and so that might be a crucial part of the gameplay in an age when you're trying to lean hard into a certain style...get the civ you want unlocked, by whatever means necessary. And, I kind of like that....
What worries that i havent seen any real commentary on, is that the game looks very easy. Every playthrough i have seen looks like if you do well in the antiquity era, you're set for the rest of the game. How does the difficulty feel to you?
I turn music off in all games for recording as it makes the cuts jarring! The music, at least what I’m experience is as excellent as you’d expect! Civ themes are always great and I enjoyed what I got to experience before recording
Nice, good to hear. I'm hyped for this, graphics look good. I'm new to CIV just got ~67 hours in CIV VI.. I still have a lot to improve, your videos have helped me and they are Entertaining.
If you don't complete some techs or civics from a previous era, are those locked out for the rest of the game? say for some reason you don't complete shipbuilding, are you just stuck going 1 tile in deep water for the rest of the game?
Oh I didn't realize all your cities except the capital get kicked down to towns at the start of the new age. In that case I'll probably upgrade fewer towns since it's only a temporary boost. I assume then the focus for towns also gets reset?
I don't think you really need to stress about getting all the civics/techs before ending the era because the policies (not traditions), buildings, units, ect that you unlock won't be available in the next age anyway. Having said that, I can understand maybe wanting to unlock and build a wonder since they do carry over.
I have not heard anything no but can say for sure that it's not in the build I'm playing. I think it's intentional though. The mod is great but I think the game wants you to try and figure out what each card is going to give you.
In the build I played they are AMAZING! I played with the tutorials for my whole first game just to check them out and I was really impressed. They're not perfect but I think new players will have a far easier time hopping into Civ 7 than Civ 6
It's really rad! I had no idea it would be a thing but I've enjoyed it. I just started a new game last night with a leader and civ combo specifically so I could start leveling a certain leader.
Have you noticed any advantage to having a coastal city? I can imagine coastal towns with lots of fishing boats being useful for food, but what about actual cities? Less room for urban distracts?
My most overpowered cities so far have been coastal with a certain leader and civ combo! There are also a fair few coastal buildings to make up for the fact they you may not be building as many land based ones. The space of the cities is definitely part of the balancing though, your earlier and larger cities will have an easier time fitting in all the building you'd like whereas the smaller ones just simply don't have enough tiles for everything you'd like so you have to be strategic.
@@VanBradley Interesting! Thanks for the insight. There was basically no reason to settle a city right on the coast in civ 6 when you could just build a harbor, so I'm really hoping for some incentive to have cities in the water. They're so important in real history
@ you absolutely NEED cities in the exploration age that are on coasts or navigable rivers. There’s way more incentive for coastal cities, especially as you get to the treasure fleet portion of the game
@VanBradley Ohhhhhh I though fleets spawned from a wharf building that I thought you'd be able to place like a harbour! I didn't think the city needed to be right on the water, innnnteresting
Does experience gained in the Legends Report just unlock cosmetics? You mentioned badges, but wasn't sure if this was the only reward for doing so. Love the videos!
Cosmetics for the profiles yes! They also unlock mementos though, which I showed at the end of the video. You can select two mementos when you start each game and they have actual gameplay bonuses.
Probably fine? I mean I’ve only really been overtly critical of the way the Founders Edition contributes to what I believe are negative trends for consumers in the gaming space. At the end of the day things types of collaborations are about a mix of relationships, branding, and marketing! I’ve always made any criticisms in good faith and been very open to sharing them if presented the opportunity. They’ve also been exceptionally accommodating and helpful with the preview and early access period so far. At the end of the day no content creator is going to perfectly align with what you’re doing. Any opinions I have have been out there for weeks and they chose to reach out for the opportunity anyways. Like most things in life, as long as everybody is acting in good faith and not trying to take advantage of the other you can very frequently find a lot of common ground and mutually beneficial opportunities regardless of any differences in other areas!
Are you able to turn off victory conditions for a more customized game? Do you know anything about the console editions such as is mouse and keyboard supported?
I don’t know anything about the console additions as I’m on PC! There isn’t an option in the current build I’m playing on to disable victory conditions! It may change for release but that’s where it’s currently at
Nope! I think there is a limit of how many will survive the transition but in every game I've played the 2 or so commanders I transitioned with all kept the promos
I only played on standard difficulty so far! Playing my first deity game tomorrow to see the difference. The standard AI is a mixed bag. I had no trouble easily beating them, even in my first game. I will say though that more often than prince difficulty in Civ 6 does the standard AI seem to keep up and make good choices. Until I have some more time for comparison I can't be sure but so far I've noticed what I would say feel like modest improvements
@@VanBradley Thank you for your response. Quick follow up, does the Ai still leave it's settlers wonder around unprotected? Looking forward to future video's
@ They sure do, although I'm not sure if it's more or less than Civ 6. You can't steal them though, only kill them this time around. Also, at least in this build, settlers are MUCH cheaper and easy to aquire so the stakes are lower. You're limited more the the settlement limit than by actually finding the time/production/or gold to get the settlers
Certain amount of “era points”. Every turn a set amount counts toward this and as anyone reaches milestones across military culture economic etc progress it adds extra points toward thus total. Once that maximum era point total is reached (you can alter at game setup how long large this total is apparently) the era transition happens. As it can trigger when an ai hits a milestone, it can be a bit abrupt.
Can you build a civ that stands the test of...... a short time until you change to another civ each age. I didn't like this in Humankind, not convinced.
You can’t rename cities hahahaha nah I’m not buying the game. All the small things that are missing and annoying…just no quick animations is enough for me not to waste my time
How do you turn a town into a city? I hope it is not too tedious, if you have to do it multiple times per game with the same settlement Nevermind, he answered that question later in the video 😅 Still, seems weird to revert cities back to towns with the age transition 🤔
I thought it was weird at first but if you think about it, a city in the antiquity era would probably be a town by the standards of the exploration era, and then when it becomes a city in exploration, it’s probably a small town again by modern standards, that’s how I’m rationalising it in my head
So everyone picks a leader and starting civ to start with. However, when a Transision happens, whats stopping everyone to all choose the same civ to continue with?
Firstly everybody will have unlocked different civ choices. So not everybody will have the same options available. Second, the game lets you choose first and then assigns the AI. I’m sure in multiplayer they may do a slot order thing but I have no idea how that will woek
I really am worried about picking civs, not for immersion, but it seems like a pretty big decision, that if you get it wrong, is likely to be a rage-quit scenario. I'm also worried that the decision will be more of a no-brainer, so that if you pick a civ in the first age, you MUST pick 1 or 2 civs in the subsequent ages to have a chance, particularly on higher difficulty levels.
They said they did the most they could to balance everything out so all civs are equal. They also added sudden death moments in the modern age so if you fall behind or have to pivot strategies that you can still win
If it's done properly, it seems you can either double down on your existing bonuses, or adapt and become more well rounded. Given some of the oaths seem to be unlocked by your environment, you should be able to adapt if you find it supports another play style better.
@@jampine8268 Well it is more to do with aligning your leader, and your 3 Age Civs, with your victory conditions. If you are trying to "Win" then you would think that picking civs and a leader with a common attribute, and going for that victory type would give you the best chance of winning?
I don't understand why they didn't just have you change leaders when ages advance vs changing civilizations. I believe that would feel much more realistic and logical while maintaining a majority of the gameplay mechanics they implemented. I think it may have actually heightened interest in the new game vs what they did which is turning off a large portion of the fan base.
The "play as Isabella" unchecked box at the age transition was highlighting different ways you can unlock Spain (play as Greece, play as Rome, play as Isabella, etc.). To access a particular civ at an age transition you have to activate it by meeting at least one of the "pre-reqs" (leader, prior civ, in-game actions, etc.)
I care about the historical link between civ and leader, so the civ switching and mixing leaders bothers me a lot. However this was a good preview, thanks.
I completely understand and respect your feelings on this but at the same time, Civ has always been a game of "What if..." in an alternate reality of sorts, not a historical sim. If we are ok with saying, "I played as Egypt and built the Eiffel Tower next to the Grand Canyon," is it so much worse saying "I played as Egypt, led by Ben Franklin and built the Eiffel Tower next to the Grand Canyon."
@GamerSerg74 I get where you.are coming from and it's more about immersion than strict accuracy. I play a lot of earth maps, so yes playing victoria at 3000bc is 'unrealistic' but I get absorbed into rewriting the countries history (although as England I will build a huge navy and colonise so perhaps it isn't a good example) Either way, I will definitely be watching your future videos
“Catherine the great leader of the Roman civilization…” wtf?! All I’ve wanted from Civ since CIV2 was to bring back the advisors with their great acting. It’s gotten so ridiculous with now Catherine being a Roman leader and all this nonsense.
The mixing of one leader a series of different civs seems very jarring to me. And it makes me worry that they won't be able to make either leaders or Civs particularly unique or special. When leader and Civ are tied together, you can nerf one to buff the other and have very specialized playstyles. Not sure that will work here.
From my vantage, the leaders AND civilizations are absolutely unique and specialized. But, I'll have to be hands on to really get a feel for how this plays out. I think the transitions look really promising at this point.
Each civ literally has its own unique culture tree and each has a shot at getting a specific wonder earlier than anyone else. Then, these unlocked civ distinct policy cards roll forward to the future ages so you maintain this sense of history/tradition - seems so interesting to me.
@ A bonus for settling on a river or whatever isn't what I mean by unique. I mean like Civ 5 Venice, which could only build one city, or like the Incan (as it Incan?) in Civ 6 that could get massive food from mountains, etc. Or like Kupi starting in the middle of the ocean. That's harder to do when you can mix and match, since you can't nerf civ/leader to buff its partner. I hope I am wrong, but I fear Civ 7 will be very same same.
Is there any benefit for converting your own cities to your religion? It seems like all the benefits are for converting other civilizations and then you kind of ignore your own cities. Seems a little bizarre.
There definitely are! I couldn't remember off the top of my head but between some combination of policy cards and the last two of the 4 religious belief promotions you will definitely want to convert your own cities.
Yea age transition and switching from Catherine the great of Rome to Catherine the great of Spain then who know's what .. Feels like civ, aye , what ever, enjoy your night
As a massive Civ fan I desperately want to be excited for this game, but everything I've seen so far just makes me sad. Switching civs mid game is not it
Just an FYI that your overall volume is quite low. You might want to look at your settings. I verified by checking a few other UA-cam videos at my normal volume settings before posting this comment. The content is great though!!
Wait what! My volume is never too low. I usually only ever get complaints about how loud it is and I’m positive I was really careful with this video. I will investigate when I get home to see if I changed something accidentally! Many thanks for the heads up!
@@VanBradley To be clear, your mic volume seems low. The few times some widgets have popped up (like subscribe animations) those seem pretty loud. Also, it's not like you can't be heard; I'm just having to have my volume turned to max for it to sound decent. I don't mean to nitpick...just wanted to let you know.
4:43 "I don't care so much about the historicity" - people saying they do while simultaneously playing Geroge Washington of the USA in 4000BC are dreaming. If anything, having different civilisations in different ages is more realistic.
My guess is that quick movement and city re-naming weren't enabled for the preview builds as they won't be options in console games for cross play and because they likely want us to show off the animations and city names. I wouldn't be surprised if they were added at or shortly after launch for PC
Well it’s a dealbreaker for me I’m a PC gamer and I’m not wasting hours of my life watching animations. If they don’t include it this will be the first civ game I don’t buy.
@@DriveandThrive same thing mate. It will also cause soooo much trouble in multillayer. I mean, regular match in any civ game is already long enough. In public lobbies a lot of players quit just because it takes too much time. If they wont let us turn these animations off, I guess the only way to play civ7 to the end will be playing with friends. And even this may take save + load in other day.
its really sad to see the tourism wrestling match from civ 6 gone. The way culture victory as a win condition shifted in regards to other civs tourism was original and unique. Its like an arms race where one civs performance both adds to its victory AND detracts from its competitors. In five years people will be saying how genius civ 6s culture victory was and how bland civ 7s culture victory is. It seems like people always be sentimental about the past, rather than enjoy something good they have in the present. Even if they cant fully understand it
Just so I understand, having Catherine of Russia build the Statue of Liberty next to the Great Barrier Reef is not stupid but having Catherine of Rome build the Statue of Liberty next to the Great Barrier Reef is stupid?
Best preview video i've watched. I loved how you used the 60 minutos gameplay video limit to explain concepts rather than show yourself playing with little time for us to engage on the specific gameplay. Great job and thanks for that! Learned a lot from you even though I watched every official stream and I'm up to date on dev diaries as well.
Why thank you! I took the approach of just trying to cover the bits that were most interesting to me when I played in the hopes that others would find them cool as well
Can't wait to see what you think -- thanks for taking one more turn with us!
No thank YOU for giving me turns to take 💖
It’s rad that you guys reach out to smaller (for now) creators like VB. I can only assume that Firaxis is a super chill place to work and that folks are proud to work on the games you put out.
Civ vii is a massive joke and will flop and cause people to lose jobs
Hey firaxis do you plan to do the usual thing with releasing a half baked game and then sell 8 dlcs to make it complete or is it gonna be different this time?
@@VanBradley You are clearly sponsor-captured.
“I’ve played 30 hours” holy crap he played one full game!
Lmao, fair play! I think it’s important though for people to know the circumstances in which you played so they can have a more informed opinion
@ after watching more of the video fantastic work man! I had no idea about the changes to the civic tree. I’m a very new civ 6 player but I’ve had it for 2 months now and I’ve finished 5 games and have 120 hours lol
i hear this is where the civ 7 is
BOES
Awesome you got a review copy! Smaller channel but the only other civ youtuber I watch besides potato so very happy to see what you think of the game!
I was so surprised when they reached out to me with the opportunity! Chatting with some of the other creators that have the early access as well I'm really glad 2K and Firaxis took a broad approach to picking the content creators they wanted to participate. It seems like loads of different folks got the chance.
Considering the Civ 6 content creation scene has EXPLODED since 2019 it's great to have so many people around to play the new game. It's also great for consumers to have multiple perspectives to digest before deciding to purchase the game!
I’ve watched 4 Civ7 preview videos today, and this is the best one. Well explained, nice comments. Good job
On second thought, all of the HP bars look extremely scuffed (cities included)
The HP bars that indicate the wall defenses are a bit baffling for sure. I had a really difficult time reading them after my attacks went through. The ones for unites though I didn't have much trouble with.
There is a lot of influence from civ 4 in this new game. The AI offering cities for peace is one example. The scouts not being able to attack is another. It looks like they have made a good game.
If i remember correctly, renaming cities, was added later in civ 6 too, so wasnt possible at release, so i assume it might be a similar thing now
Congrats on getting preview access VB! You're hitting the big time!
I was so surprised when they reached out to me with the opportunity! I’m really appreciative and having a great time with it
It's not a bug that you can only get one golden age perk. It was stated in the Exploration livestream that you can only get one. You get the three legacy points for that pathway that you can spend otherwise, but you can only get a wonder from one of the pathways.
This was an excellent explanation! Easily the most in-depth analysis I’ve seen compared to other videos on Civ 7, and I’ve watched quite a few. Amazing work breaking everything down so clearly-keep it up!
a CRISIS = a TURNING POINT (Usually there's conflict but not always)
Great video, VB! All sorts of fun information and reveals in here and some great depth!
I'm so ready 🎉
I hope so ⚔️
"I did not care for the Godfather... It insists upon itself, Lois" - Peter Griffin
I really like how tech/civic/unique trees work in Civ 7. In previous Civ games, eventually you get them all. In Civ 7, with the masteries, you have more freedom to make choices based on your playstyle.
You can only take one golden age ability. That is not a bug (as you figured) it is intentionally designed that way. However the map scrolling as you scroll through your legacy choices is unintentional (that will probably get fixed early on).
47:00 One of the crises seen in another video did a serious number on happiness, and negative enough city happiness for too long makes cities flip. This was a serious crisis, almost Dramatic Ages mode serious, but unlike that unpopular mode, you have the ability in 7 to limit the damage by making sure happiness is kept positive. Another consideration is that the crises are perhaps the same level of bad at all difficulty levels, but they bite harder the higher the difficulty levels, because you don't have the luxury of preparing for all of them that could arise.
41:21 What's going on with the border SE of Neapolis? The tile one space down is urban, but the next tile is outside the border. I thought buildings and improvements culture bombed out to range 3, so the building should have claimed the next tile, right?
Was there a city to the south that got razed? If that permanently cuts off your border it's a real problem.
I've watched several Civ 7 videos and this one explained how things worked better than any I've seen so far. Thank you.
l like march with merging units. It saves a lot of time. In civ 6 , i abandon some games because i m too lazy to move units.
It seems like a good compromise between doom stacks and doom carpets.
Moving them is easier, but you can still be restricted by the terrain when actually in battle.
Great video! Loved the focus on the age transition and game play! Can’t wait for the game to come out!
Went to your channel as soon as I woke up! Excited to see actual players play the game!
Hey VB - Couple quick ones... In the tech/civic trees, it sounds like you're saying that you don't "complete" both of these trees before the age turns - is there a penalty to NOT get all the things? And if there is one could that be a potential reason to speed up the rollover of ages with future tech/civics if you are ahead to prevent other civs from gaining access? Lastly, in the Civic tree, where you have the two separate sets of civic (with one being civ-specific) do you progress both of the civic trees simutaneously or do you need to pick one or the other (and then bounce between them)?
Thanks for reading. :)
Just out of the house for a bit! Will reply when I’m home
Pushing the age transition as soon as possible is a good thing as you are preventing your opponents from reaching their legacy goals. Most of what you would unlock like policies, buildings or units are not carried over to the next era anyway so no need to stress about not researching everything. The only reason I can think of to slow things down would be if there is a wonder you really want to build (if previous era wonders are automatically unlocked in the next era then that would not matter either). Also civ specific traditions do carry over so you might want to finish them and your unique quarter before age transition.
41:56 What happened to the happiness? As you're about to explain, the yields on unclaimed tiles are estimates; this one says two production two happy. But in a few seconds, after you place the mine, it just says two production! Where'd the the happiness go?
I see a strategy forming for manipulating the ages. Based on what you said about balancing progress towards ending the age, the strategy is to crush the competing civs and then advance all four paths equally to get everything before ending the age. I am going to figure out the best leader and civ combinations to do that :).
You can definitely cheese the age in a strategic way! I could see a strategy around just blasting through the age as quickly as possible so you deprive the AI the chance to get a really good setup going.
Culture Victory in Civ 6: You're lifetime tourism has to be greater than the amount of culture each other Civ pumps out per turn. Does that help?
Question about age legacy paths...should one go after all of them? Or can you win the game just focusing on the one?
They’re very dynamic in my experience so far!
You can find success hyper focusing on one or trying to do a bit of each.
Because you’re kind of working on all of them all the time I usually focused on one, finished it, and along the way picked up at least the first achievement in the others!
There was one age where I managed to finish three paths before it ended.
I don’t have an answer as a matter of strategy but in my experience so far it’s fairly dynamic in allowing you to hyper focus or spread yourself around each path
@@VanBradley So how exactly does that affect you winning the game? Is it overall score after X amount of time?
@@Plague_Doc22 The legacy paths in the modern age unlock a victory condition task for you!
So when you complete any one of the four in the modern age it'll give you something to do to achieve that victory condition!
I can't say more than what's already been revealed on the modern age livestream but that's how the mechanic works
@@VanBradley I see, so the legacy points are what you really are working for until the modern age. To get a head start I guess.
Thanks for the info!
You only need to be strong in one to win that type of victory condition at the end of the game so being focused in one is probably the most efficient way to win as quickly as possible but obviously achieving any milestones of the other paths have benefits.
I quite like the new civ changes. Kind of solves the problem of late game becoming a chore in previous civ games
My only complaint from what i've seen is small and its not being able to see borders in your minimap.
Great video! It seems like the exploration age took some inspiration from Crusader Kings III
With regards to the settlement limit, are you handicapping yourself if you do not fill up the settlement cap, or could you just play with a handful of cities/towns and still do fine?
I found it best to play at the settlement limit and then modulate the amount of cities and towns within that.
Lots of strategy stuff will change over time. I wouldn’t say you’re specifically handicapping yourself but like most Civ games it’s much easier to settle the land than to take it later.
Settlers are also really cheap in the build I’m playing so it’s no trouble to get to the settlement cap!
@@VanBradley My incentive is always to just build one city really tall until I reach a period where there's nothing to build, and then that is when I produce a settler. I don't know if that'll be a viable strategy in Civ 7. I know that tall makes a comeback in this game, but I was just wondering.
Sooo late game does game just ends if somebody get to the end of that "path" or u can chose to play with domination victory?
The symbol is called a chevron. I'm not mad at all. Very informative video, thank you :)
24:00 Those are chevrons. And, no, I'm not mad.
Is there a slider for UI text size?
I have a question and a potential critique. For example if i want to play a culture game, and I pick Greece as my Antiquity Age option, but then an Age Transition occurs, and I have only choices that don't have any culture focuses like Bradley here in this video (Normans, Songhai and Spain all don't focus on culture as their play style), what do I do then? Like am I just forced to play a civilization, that isn't culture focused, and diminishes my game strategy? Or how does that work? Like I saw you can choose other civilizations, that do have a culture focus, for example the Abbasids. But what if their traits don't really match the focus I really want to go for. For example in CIV multiple Culture Leaders had different win conditions or build ups towards that same victory type. Like they have Abilities that I don't really need, what am I going to do then? Play an entire age without achieving anything for my win condition? If so, this would be a really terrible experience for myself. I don't really want to spend hours in an Age, that doesn't benefit my win condition at all, I don't really see the point. Also some Civs are not really interesting for me to play to start with, so my options are limited.
I feel like the Age Transition for me is a negative change, because I enjoyed going towards my Win Condition, and knowing what to do at different stages of the game, planning ahead and what not. But. now I am just forced to switch my play style 3 times, which I don't really enjoy tbh.
While I haven't played enough to have a strong opinion I'll say two things!
1) I found the legacy paths achievable enough with any civilization that it isn't CRITICAL to be have a civ that specicially matches that type.
2) The legacy paths are dynamic and designed to be switched between to a certain degree. You're also working on all of them all of the time. So if you were going for a culture victory you might go through the culture path in Antiquity, get an awesome science Civ in Exploration so go down that route, and then swing back to Culture in the modern age.
I haven't played modern yet and can't really talk about it anyways but as far as I'm aware from previews the victory conditions aren't dependent on the legacy paths from the first two ages. What will be helpful are the legacy path options you unlocked along the way!
@@VanBradleydo they not allow you to just keep your culture? That was my favorite part of civ: bringing cultures to ages they never flourished in (ie Iroquois into the Modern Era with Jet Fighters)
@ Not with the Civilization choices no. You will always need to play as three different civs.
The leader selection stays with you for the whole game though!
My understanding is that there are "normal" civ sequences and leaders which unlock civs, but also in game things (have horse resources gets Mongolia, settle near rivers gets Songhai, etc.). I suspect - but don't know - that each civ can be unlocked by some in game action as well and so that might be a crucial part of the gameplay in an age when you're trying to lean hard into a certain style...get the civ you want unlocked, by whatever means necessary. And, I kind of like that....
What worries that i havent seen any real commentary on, is that the game looks very easy. Every playthrough i have seen looks like if you do well in the antiquity era, you're set for the rest of the game. How does the difficulty feel to you?
I'm excited to play this, how's the music? I noticed it's absent in your video here.. copyright? It would be a shame if there's a lack of music.
I turn music off in all games for recording as it makes the cuts jarring! The music, at least what I’m experience is as excellent as you’d expect!
Civ themes are always great and I enjoyed what I got to experience before recording
Nice, good to hear. I'm hyped for this, graphics look good. I'm new to CIV just got ~67 hours in CIV VI.. I still have a lot to improve, your videos have helped me and they are Entertaining.
The minimap not showing tiles owned for each empire makes me sad 😢
Commanders are the godfather trilogy of civ
genuinely some of the most fun I've ever had playing civ was unpacking a commander and just destroying something
Cheese no? @VanBradley
If you don't complete some techs or civics from a previous era, are those locked out for the rest of the game? say for some reason you don't complete shipbuilding, are you just stuck going 1 tile in deep water for the rest of the game?
Oh I didn't realize all your cities except the capital get kicked down to towns at the start of the new age. In that case I'll probably upgrade fewer towns since it's only a temporary boost. I assume then the focus for towns also gets reset?
yes, specializing a town lasts a single age, next age you can change it
I don't think you really need to stress about getting all the civics/techs before ending the era because the policies (not traditions), buildings, units, ect that you unlock won't be available in the next age anyway. Having said that, I can understand maybe wanting to unlock and build a wonder since they do carry over.
Chevrons. They're called Chevrons. /signed ... a retired Master Sergeant
CHEVRONS….ahhhhh I knew it. I’m so sorry
Catherine the Great... of Rome? *puke*
It’s a bummer that it doesn’t look like they baked in the extended policy card mod from civ 6. Have you heard anything about that?
I have not heard anything no but can say for sure that it's not in the build I'm playing. I think it's intentional though. The mod is great but I think the game wants you to try and figure out what each card is going to give you.
Nice job, unique review
How extensive are the tutorials to adapt to the game?
In the build I played they are AMAZING! I played with the tutorials for my whole first game just to check them out and I was really impressed. They're not perfect but I think new players will have a far easier time hopping into Civ 7 than Civ 6
anyone know why the discord invite doesnt work and can anyone tell me the name so i could join it
WHAT I just updated to new link for this video so that wouldn’t happen
One moment
discord.gg/RdrfjKG8bT fixed now!
@@VanBradley thanks :)
Very cool that we get to level-up our leaders.
It's really rad! I had no idea it would be a thing but I've enjoyed it. I just started a new game last night with a leader and civ combo specifically so I could start leveling a certain leader.
Have you noticed any advantage to having a coastal city? I can imagine coastal towns with lots of fishing boats being useful for food, but what about actual cities? Less room for urban distracts?
My most overpowered cities so far have been coastal with a certain leader and civ combo! There are also a fair few coastal buildings to make up for the fact they you may not be building as many land based ones.
The space of the cities is definitely part of the balancing though, your earlier and larger cities will have an easier time fitting in all the building you'd like whereas the smaller ones just simply don't have enough tiles for everything you'd like so you have to be strategic.
@@VanBradley Interesting! Thanks for the insight. There was basically no reason to settle a city right on the coast in civ 6 when you could just build a harbor, so I'm really hoping for some incentive to have cities in the water. They're so important in real history
@ you absolutely NEED cities in the exploration age that are on coasts or navigable rivers. There’s way more incentive for coastal cities, especially as you get to the treasure fleet portion of the game
@VanBradley Ohhhhhh I though fleets spawned from a wharf building that I thought you'd be able to place like a harbour! I didn't think the city needed to be right on the water, innnnteresting
Between civ switching, map rests and even backwards tech/civic locking, ages are way to intrusive
Does experience gained in the Legends Report just unlock cosmetics? You mentioned badges, but wasn't sure if this was the only reward for doing so. Love the videos!
Cosmetics for the profiles yes! They also unlock mementos though, which I showed at the end of the video. You can select two mementos when you start each game and they have actual gameplay bonuses.
@@VanBradley according to Boes, mementos can be re-selected / switched at the age transitions!
are you allowed to show the modern age before the release
The review embargo is scheduled to be lifted on February 3rd. As far as I'm aware that'll be the first chance to show off and discuss the Modern Age!
I wonder how Fraxis feels about your crit of their business practices lol
Probably fine?
I mean I’ve only really been overtly critical of the way the Founders Edition contributes to what I believe are negative trends for consumers in the gaming space.
At the end of the day things types of collaborations are about a mix of relationships, branding, and marketing!
I’ve always made any criticisms in good faith and been very open to sharing them if presented the opportunity. They’ve also been exceptionally accommodating and helpful with the preview and early access period so far.
At the end of the day no content creator is going to perfectly align with what you’re doing. Any opinions I have have been out there for weeks and they chose to reach out for the opportunity anyways.
Like most things in life, as long as everybody is acting in good faith and not trying to take advantage of the other you can very frequently find a lot of common ground and mutually beneficial opportunities regardless of any differences in other areas!
Are you able to turn off victory conditions for a more customized game? Do you know anything about the console editions such as is mouse and keyboard supported?
I don’t know anything about the console additions as I’m on PC!
There isn’t an option in the current build I’m playing on to disable victory conditions! It may change for release but that’s where it’s currently at
Do commanders lose their promotions when killed and respawned?
Nope! I think there is a limit of how many will survive the transition but in every game I've played the 2 or so commanders I transitioned with all kept the promos
Ofcourse the big question: How is the Ai?
I only played on standard difficulty so far! Playing my first deity game tomorrow to see the difference.
The standard AI is a mixed bag. I had no trouble easily beating them, even in my first game. I will say though that more often than prince difficulty in Civ 6 does the standard AI seem to keep up and make good choices.
Until I have some more time for comparison I can't be sure but so far I've noticed what I would say feel like modest improvements
@@VanBradley Thank you for your response. Quick follow up, does the Ai still leave it's settlers wonder around unprotected? Looking forward to future video's
@ They sure do, although I'm not sure if it's more or less than Civ 6.
You can't steal them though, only kill them this time around.
Also, at least in this build, settlers are MUCH cheaper and easy to aquire so the stakes are lower.
You're limited more the the settlement limit than by actually finding the time/production/or gold to get the settlers
@@VanBradley That's great, thank you for sharing all these insights. Great video as well!
*Sid Meier's: Humankind*
What triggers a new era? I cannot find a good answer anywhere, a formula or specific thing.
Certain amount of “era points”. Every turn a set amount counts toward this and as anyone reaches milestones across military culture economic etc progress it adds extra points toward thus total. Once that maximum era point total is reached (you can alter at game setup how long large this total is apparently) the era transition happens. As it can trigger when an ai hits a milestone, it can be a bit abrupt.
@@LeeroyGaming I hope each era doesn't last 8 turns like in Civ VI, it's so absurd😂
@ it is adjustable, at standard level it seems pretty quick, but I haven’t heard creators complain
Can you build a civ that stands the test of...... a short time until you change to another civ each age.
I didn't like this in Humankind, not convinced.
You can’t rename cities hahahaha nah I’m not buying the game. All the small things that are missing and annoying…just no quick animations is enough for me not to waste my time
How do you turn a town into a city? I hope it is not too tedious, if you have to do it multiple times per game with the same settlement
Nevermind, he answered that question later in the video 😅
Still, seems weird to revert cities back to towns with the age transition 🤔
I thought it was weird at first but if you think about it, a city in the antiquity era would probably be a town by the standards of the exploration era, and then when it becomes a city in exploration, it’s probably a small town again by modern standards, that’s how I’m rationalising it in my head
Game is massive flawed
looking good
No quick animation option is crazy considering how important that was in civ 6 starting to get worried if I’ll even buy this
So everyone picks a leader and starting civ to start with. However, when a Transision happens, whats stopping everyone to all choose the same civ to continue with?
Firstly everybody will have unlocked different civ choices. So not everybody will have the same options available.
Second, the game lets you choose first and then assigns the AI.
I’m sure in multiplayer they may do a slot order thing but I have no idea how that will woek
So the AI will round robin the the remaining civs to itself. Hmm. Will be interresting to see how they handle multiplayer. Thanks Brad! Love the vids.
I really am worried about picking civs, not for immersion, but it seems like a pretty big decision, that if you get it wrong, is likely to be a rage-quit scenario. I'm also worried that the decision will be more of a no-brainer, so that if you pick a civ in the first age, you MUST pick 1 or 2 civs in the subsequent ages to have a chance, particularly on higher difficulty levels.
They said they did the most they could to balance everything out so all civs are equal. They also added sudden death moments in the modern age so if you fall behind or have to pivot strategies that you can still win
If it's done properly, it seems you can either double down on your existing bonuses, or adapt and become more well rounded.
Given some of the oaths seem to be unlocked by your environment, you should be able to adapt if you find it supports another play style better.
@@jampine8268 Well it is more to do with aligning your leader, and your 3 Age Civs, with your victory conditions.
If you are trying to "Win" then you would think that picking civs and a leader with a common attribute, and going for that victory type would give you the best chance of winning?
Can you test Civ 7 performance on a Macbook?
I don't have a Macbook to test on unfortunately :(
@@VanBradley No problem, thanks for answering!
No Eurekas anymore, uh?
A little Causade Kings 3 I see.......
Can’t ask on discord, at work, but can you pls tell us map sizes thank you
Three sizes. Tiny, Small, Standard 😊
@ thanks a lot! Great video
I don't understand why they didn't just have you change leaders when ages advance vs changing civilizations. I believe that would feel much more realistic and logical while maintaining a majority of the gameplay mechanics they implemented. I think it may have actually heightened interest in the new game vs what they did which is turning off a large portion of the fan base.
Every bloody civ youtuber right now:
"Play as Isabella"? What? You can change leader?
You can't change leader no, just Civilization!
The "play as Isabella" unchecked box at the age transition was highlighting different ways you can unlock Spain (play as Greece, play as Rome, play as Isabella, etc.). To access a particular civ at an age transition you have to activate it by meeting at least one of the "pre-reqs" (leader, prior civ, in-game actions, etc.)
@ Aaah that explains it thanks.
Taken
I care about the historical link between civ and leader, so the civ switching and mixing leaders bothers me a lot. However this was a good preview, thanks.
I completely understand and respect your feelings on this but at the same time, Civ has always been a game of "What if..." in an alternate reality of sorts, not a historical sim. If we are ok with saying, "I played as Egypt and built the Eiffel Tower next to the Grand Canyon," is it so much worse saying "I played as Egypt, led by Ben Franklin and built the Eiffel Tower next to the Grand Canyon."
@GamerSerg74 I get where you.are coming from and it's more about immersion than strict accuracy.
I play a lot of earth maps, so yes playing victoria at 3000bc is 'unrealistic' but I get absorbed into rewriting the countries history (although as England I will build a huge navy and colonise so perhaps it isn't a good example)
Either way, I will definitely be watching your future videos
“Catherine the great leader of the Roman civilization…” wtf?! All I’ve wanted from Civ since CIV2 was to bring back the advisors with their great acting. It’s gotten so ridiculous with now Catherine being a Roman leader and all this nonsense.
🎉
Is it just me or does the Unit bottom right HP bar look really scuffed/poorly designed
Whole thing looks pretty ugly unfortunately, bit disappointing.
The mixing of one leader a series of different civs seems very jarring to me. And it makes me worry that they won't be able to make either leaders or Civs particularly unique or special. When leader and Civ are tied together, you can nerf one to buff the other and have very specialized playstyles. Not sure that will work here.
From my vantage, the leaders AND civilizations are absolutely unique and specialized. But, I'll have to be hands on to really get a feel for how this plays out. I think the transitions look really promising at this point.
Each civ literally has its own unique culture tree and each has a shot at getting a specific wonder earlier than anyone else. Then, these unlocked civ distinct policy cards roll forward to the future ages so you maintain this sense of history/tradition - seems so interesting to me.
@ A bonus for settling on a river or whatever isn't what I mean by unique. I mean like Civ 5 Venice, which could only build one city, or like the Incan (as it Incan?) in Civ 6 that could get massive food from mountains, etc. Or like Kupi starting in the middle of the ocean. That's harder to do when you can mix and match, since you can't nerf civ/leader to buff its partner.
I hope I am wrong, but I fear Civ 7 will be very same same.
Humankind 2 looks good
Is there any benefit for converting your own cities to your religion? It seems like all the benefits are for converting other civilizations and then you kind of ignore your own cities. Seems a little bizarre.
There definitely are! I couldn't remember off the top of my head but between some combination of policy cards and the last two of the 4 religious belief promotions you will definitely want to convert your own cities.
My fear is that one age transition will be way better than the others so you always go to a specific one
I hate that fog of war. How did they go from cool fog, to a cool old map and eventually end up with this basicness.
I agree why not just make it…fog?!! Honestly the game is pissing me off because I really wanted to like it
@DriveandThrive True. I am definitely going to try the game. But this just makes it uglier in my opinion. Let's see how the game turns out.
Yea age transition and switching from Catherine the great of Rome to Catherine the great of Spain then who know's what .. Feels like civ, aye , what ever, enjoy your night
I'll stick to Civ 6 :)
Looks like this is heavily Stellaris inspired if not a clone
I would not go that far to say heavily. It seems to be inspired by a whole lot of games.
Where do you get that of all games from
As a massive Civ fan I desperately want to be excited for this game, but everything I've seen so far just makes me sad. Switching civs mid game is not it
Just an FYI that your overall volume is quite low. You might want to look at your settings. I verified by checking a few other UA-cam videos at my normal volume settings before posting this comment. The content is great though!!
Wait what! My volume is never too low. I usually only ever get complaints about how loud it is and I’m positive I was really careful with this video.
I will investigate when I get home to see if I changed something accidentally!
Many thanks for the heads up!
@@VanBradley To be clear, your mic volume seems low. The few times some widgets have popped up (like subscribe animations) those seem pretty loud. Also, it's not like you can't be heard; I'm just having to have my volume turned to max for it to sound decent. I don't mean to nitpick...just wanted to let you know.
It insists upon itself 😭 Peter Griffin quote
It's not a bug, only one Golden Age policy per age.
4:43 "I don't care so much about the historicity" - people saying they do while simultaneously playing Geroge Washington of the USA in 4000BC are dreaming. If anything, having different civilisations in different ages is more realistic.
I AM LOVE CIVILIZATION 7 I AM MUCH EXCITE PLAY
OMG I really hope they will give us a way to turn these animations off. Its so annoying, ffs.
My guess is that quick movement and city re-naming weren't enabled for the preview builds as they won't be options in console games for cross play and because they likely want us to show off the animations and city names. I wouldn't be surprised if they were added at or shortly after launch for PC
Well it’s a dealbreaker for me I’m a PC gamer and I’m not wasting hours of my life watching animations. If they don’t include it this will be the first civ game I don’t buy.
@@DriveandThrive same thing mate. It will also cause soooo much trouble in multillayer. I mean, regular match in any civ game is already long enough. In public lobbies a lot of players quit just because it takes too much time. If they wont let us turn these animations off, I guess the only way to play civ7 to the end will be playing with friends. And even this may take save + load in other day.
its really sad to see the tourism wrestling match from civ 6 gone. The way culture victory as a win condition shifted in regards to other civs tourism was original and unique. Its like an arms race where one civs performance both adds to its victory AND detracts from its competitors. In five years people will be saying how genius civ 6s culture victory was and how bland civ 7s culture victory is. It seems like people always be sentimental about the past, rather than enjoy something good they have in the present. Even if they cant fully understand it
coming back in DLC season pass 2 in 2027 shrugs
this video insists upon itself
Catherine the great - leader of roman civ.. blyak… nonsense. Its just stupid. Graphics are to much, hard to track units. Just, no for me.
Fair play. Happy you were able to use the previews to inform your decision though!
Just so I understand, having Catherine of Russia build the Statue of Liberty next to the Great Barrier Reef is not stupid but having Catherine of Rome build the Statue of Liberty next to the Great Barrier Reef is stupid?
By the time civ 8 comes out, i will understand all their is in civ 7. So many new tweaks and systems too learn.