00:00Howdy howdy! I'm Temur Orteymor, Senior Game Designer at Firaxis.
00:11I work on a lot of the post-launch updates for Civilization VII,
00:14like new resources, natural wonders, balance changes, and lately, maps.
00:18I'm here to walk you through the highlights of what's coming with the next Civ VII update, 125.
00:23Let's dive into it.
00:25Starting off, let's chat about something near and dear to every Civ player's hearts.
00:29Maps.
00:30If you've been frustrated by blocky maps, straight coastlines, and too much predictability,
00:34you're going to like these changes.
00:36We're introducing Continent and Islands and Pangea and Islands,
00:39two new map types that are new takes on our classic Continent Plus and Pangea Plus map types.
00:46These new maps use an entirely new generation technique
00:49that creates more natural coastlines and landmass shapes,
00:52and removes predictable vertical island chains between continents.
00:57If you want to hear all the fun, nitty-gritty tech details, check out our latest From the Devs article.
01:03And for those of you that like our old map types, especially our multiplayer players,
01:07that rely on a more balanced experience, no worries.
01:10Those maps are still there for you to enjoy.
01:12We're starting with just these two new map types,
01:14but this new technique gives us a much stronger foundation for our maps moving forward,
01:18built with customization, expansion, and modding in mind.
01:21So, look forward to more maps in the future with more settings available to you.
01:26We've made some big UI UX improvements to some of Civ 7's most important decision points,
01:31starting with the Production menu.
01:33Instead of confusing predictive yields that often pushed you to just pick the biggest number,
01:37the menu now shows clearer, more reliable information,
01:40like base yields, warehouse impact, and highest available adjacencies.
01:45And to building tooltips, we've added icons, tags, clearer styling, and formatting,
01:50like bulleted lists and warehouse counts.
01:53Next, building placement.
01:57The goal here was to make the moment of deciding where to put a building clearer,
02:01with the UI showing exactly what's changing on a tile when you hover over it.
02:05You'll notice new arrows showing yield gains and yield losses,
02:09featured tiles with strong yield offerings, and a clearer building slot icon.
02:14The side panel now updates in real time, with settlement changes or overbuilding effects,
02:18and if you're the type who likes a full breakdown,
02:20there's an expanded view with all the before and after numbers.
02:24We won't tell you the best tile to pick, that's still up to you,
02:28but the UI should take a lot of the guesswork out.
02:31And finally, growth events.
02:33These now share the same look and feel as building placement,
02:36so things feel consistent.
02:38When your settlement grows, the panel clearly lays out your options,
02:41like adding an improvement or a specialist,
02:43and gives you the same kind of real-time previews and breakdowns.
02:47Specialists are also easier to track now,
02:49with clear indicators on how many you can place,
02:52so you know when you're underusing or maxed out.
02:55If you want to dive even deeper into the changes,
02:57check out our From the Devs article on UI.
03:00Civ has gone through a lot of rapid changes lately.
03:03New content, campaign options like continuity, bug fixes, and plenty of tweaks.
03:07With 125, we're kicking off step one of a broader game-wide balance pass.
03:12The goal here is to strengthen the foundation of Civ's core loop.
03:16We want your choices, your Civ, your leader, and your turn-to-turn decisions to matter more.
03:21And we want the map itself to have a bigger impact on the way you play.
03:25Here's what that looks like.
03:27Buildings now scale in cost.
03:295% for each other building in the same settlement,
03:32and 10% for each other city in your empire.
03:35At the same time, buildings have had their base yields increased.
03:38We want what you build to matter just as much as when you build it.
03:42You'll especially feel this on higher difficulties,
03:45where more intentional choices really pay off.
03:48We've also removed the generic stacking percentage bonuses that you can get in games
03:52from city-states, resources, and the attribute tree.
03:55Instead, you'll see more static values.
03:58That means bigger yields tied to specific tiles and buildings,
04:01but fewer runaway multipliers at the empire level.
04:04Players who are stacking these bonuses to blow past the AI in modern age
04:08may notice that the AI feels a lot more competitive now.
04:11Gold pacing has been solid in the early game,
04:13but was snowballing way too hard in later ages.
04:16To rein it in, unit maintenance costs now ramp up more in exploration in modern.
04:21Town-based gold has been slightly reduced,
04:23and gold and silver, the resources, have been redesigned.
04:26We've also updated all unit maintenance costs across all ages,
04:30which means that maintaining a larger army is now a conscious financial decision.
04:35Alongside these, we've also tuned leader attributes, town yields, resources,
04:40social policies across antiquity, exploration, and modern.
04:43This is only step one of a larger balance pass.
04:46We'll keep working on other yield economies and sieve and leader tuning in future updates,
04:50and your feedback will be key to shaping where we go next.
04:53So, let us know what you think.
04:55Speaking of sieve and leader tuning, your favorite French general and statesman Napoleon has gotten an overhaul.
05:01We revisited both Emperor and Revolutionary personas for Napoleon, and gave them a big boost.
05:07For Napoleon Emperor, we felt that his old Continental System sanction just didn't land the way we wanted.
05:12And so we've reworked him to give him more options and bigger rewards for playing with sanctions.
05:17If you liked using diplomacy as a weapon, Napoleon is going to feel a lot more impactful.
05:22For Napoleon Revolutionary, the core kit of fast armies and culture from combat is still there,
05:28but we've given him some extra punch.
05:30He now earns even more culture from battles, and gets a special boost the first time someone declares war on him each age.
05:36We're really excited to see how these changes shake up his playstyle.
05:41Full details will be in the update notes.
05:43If you don't have Napoleon yet, remember you can grab Napoleon Emperor for free just by making a 2k account.
05:49And if you've linked both Civ 6 and Civ 7, you'll also get Napoleon Revolutionary at no extra cost.
05:54Try them out!
05:56We've taken a fresh look at City States and added two new types across all ages.
06:01Expansionist and Diplomatic.
06:03Each comes with a full set of suzerain bonuses and a new unique improvement for each age.
06:08Expansionist City States focus on food and growth, with benefits for both tall and wide strategies.
06:13Meanwhile, Diplomatic City States emphasize happiness and our diplomatic gameplay.
06:18We've also reworked existing City State bonuses as part of that Balance Pass that I mentioned earlier.
06:23Previously, stacking multiple City States often meant chasing quantity over quality.
06:28But with 125, bonuses stacked by City State type, and most percentage-based and free tech and civic bonuses have been replaced with more meaningful, flat effects.
06:37And that's a wrap on the major highlights for Updates 125.
06:40But, as always, there's plenty more detail waiting in the update notes.
06:44Whether you've shared your thoughts on Reddit, Discord, Steam, or right here in the comment section, we want to thank you for all of your feedback.
06:51That's all for now, Civ fans.
06:53Have fun building your empires and conquering history.
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