NEWS
Civilization VII updates announced for April 22
Firaxis has released details of the upcoming update for Civilization VII. Update 1.2.0 is currently slated for April 22 (subject to change), is a mix of quality-of-life and UI improvements, mechanic updates, and more based on community suggestions and feedback.
Here are the details from Firaxis...
Updates to Resources
We've made some major updates to how Resources work in Civ VII, starting with ten new Resources coming to the game (a full list will be included in the Update Notes). These added Resources all come with their own new Narrative Events.
One of the biggest changes under the hood is how Resources now appear, with a newly added randomized Resource generation system. Every Age still guarantees certain key Resources, so you can still progress along civ unlocks and the Economic Legacy Path. Beyond those, the Resources on the map are now more variable! This should make exploration, trade, and strategy feel a lot more unique from Age to Age and game to game.
We've also added something we're calling "Hemisphere Identity". Certain resources – especially Treasure Resources – will now only appear on one continent or hemisphere. We hope this gives your maps a little bit more personality and motivation to explore.
Speaking of Treasure Resources, they now provide passive effects (like Empire Resources). We wanted to make sure Treasures feel valuable even outside of generating Treasure Fleets. Some older resources like Horses and Furs will now be considered Treasures too, alongside some of the aforementioned new Resources we're introducing with 1.2.0.
All these adjustments, and some balance changes to Resources, will be coming later this month. We also plan on doing more work for Resources in later updates, including improvements to the Resource management screen to make things more easily navigable and readable. Some of these changes will even lay the foundation for future features like expanding multiplayer player counts in the Antiquity Age and supporting Distant Lands starts across all Ages; we'll share more on those later.
Population Growth Improvements (Food Changes)
Something we've heard loud and clear from your feedback is that Food just didn't always feel worth it in the late game. Growth past 8 or 9 rural Population felt painfully slow, and players quickly learned that they were better off pivoting to Production, Science, or other Yields instead. In short: if you were investing heavily in Food, you were often playing at a disadvantage.
Because of this, we took a hard look at how City growth worked and made some changes. The old cubic growth formula has been replaced with a quadratic one, meaning no more growth wall. Population growth now scales much more smoothly across your campaign, even deep into later Ages. And, growing beyond 8 or 9 rural Population is now very achievable; doing so won't take hundreds of turns.
This is especially good news for Food-focused civs and leaders (cough, Pachacuti, cough), who will feel much stronger than they did at launch. If you've been holding back on Food-heavy strategies, we encourage you to give them another try!
And one more side benefit – AI opponents should now be much better at developing their empire. Maybe worth turning the difficulty down a notch? Let us know how it feels!
One More Turn
For all the players who like to keep the game rolling after you've finished, an endless play mode is on the way with 1.2.0. You'll be able to keep playing your campaign past the end of the Modern Age with a new "Just One More Turn..." option (just remember to take water breaks and stretch your legs now and again).
Since the victory has already been won at this point in the game, continuing won't unlock any new ways to win, and Age Progress will be locked at 100%. However, you can still complete the steps for other victories, get the cinematics, and experiment with your empire if you just want to see it play out. You'll even still be able to grab Legacy Path achievements if you haven't already.
In the future, we're looking at ways to expand this so that single-Age games will also support the One More Turn feature. We know many players want to keep going no matter the Age, so know that it's on our list of priorities!
Teams Multiplayer
With Update 1.2.0, we’re introducing a feature many of you remember from past Civ games – Teams Multiplayer – to Civ VII.
In Team games, you and your teammates will share:
● Map visibility
● Relationships, war status, and alliance status with other leaders
● And most importantly, victory – when one player wins, their whole team wins!
There are a couple other things worth noting. First, teammates can still engage in Diplomatic Actions with each other, with the exception of Espionage (sorry, no spying on your friends). Second, teammates won’t share Technologies, Civics, or Legacy Path progress. We wanted to make sure each leader and civilization still plays with its own distinct flavor, even when working as part of a team.
As always, follow Hooked Gamers on Instagram for news updates, reviews, competitions and more.