***Sid Meier's Civilization VII***

I'd got used to the relatively clean look of Civ6 so I'm not loving the interface at first play so far. Some of the mechanisms aren't obvious so far like healing units. It seems to include elements of Beyond Earth and Civ 5 with influence, happiness and city limits. Lets see how it feels a few 10's of hours in.
 
My biggest criticism so far isnt the UI, its the map sizes. In multiplayer games we like to have room (both as a buffer and to expand) before running into opposition civs, we tend not to like maps where you are literally tripping over other civs almost from the start and sadly these map sizes do exactly that, its like arena Civ or playing on short length Civ games where all the opposition are right on your doorstep because the game will be a short length one with a lot of conflict and action from the get go. Civ for the ADHD folks we liked to call it. Really hoping that they quickly provide some larger map options so that there is more space rather than it feeling so cramped.

TLDR : Keep your console gaming out of my superior PC gaming thanks
 
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Tombstone said:
My biggest criticism so far isnt the UI, its the map sizes. In multiplayer games we like to have room (both as a buffer and to expand) before running into opposition civs, we tend not to like maps where you are literally tripping over other civs almost from the start and sadly these map sizes do exactly that, its like arena Civ or playing on short length Civ games where all the opposition are right on your doorstep because the game will be a short length one with a lot of conflict and action from the get go. Civ for the ADHD folks we liked to call it. Really hoping that they quickly provide some larger map options so that there is more space rather than it feeling so cramped.
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Doesn't the map expand when you get to the exploration age? Have you got onto that yet?
 
Mr Jack said:
Doesn't the map expand when you get to the exploration age? Have you got onto that yet?
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It does expand yeah but its the fact that almost from the start you're tripping over other civs all over the place thats annoying, too cramped..like the maps are designed to be played on a mobile or tablet and for quick games rather than epic length marathon games where every civ has space and time to build up before running into each other. The map expanding with each age is something I like but I would prefer to have even the first age be a huge map rather than a small one. Currently there are only 3 map sizes (Tiny, Small and Standard), I would like to see Large, Extra Large and Huge/Giant added to those so that the gameworld can be very large to start with, something so that it feels like we are playing on something the size of Europe and Africa rather than playing on something the size of Britain - if that makes sense. I've got a chunky PC with a hefty smack of ram, give me the ability to use it, dont restrict my mapsizes to the scope of a tablet or mobile. Thankfully they did say in the dev QandA that they will be adding larger map options so with a bit of luck that will be sooner rather than later.

In terms of the game mechanics, I'm fine with them, its different so far from previous civs but I am actually quite liking the mechanics differences
 
Tombstone said:
It does expand yeah but its the fact that almost from the start you're tripping over other civs all over the place thats annoying, too cramped..like the maps are designed to be played on a mobile or tablet and for quick games rather than epic length marathon games where every civ has space and time to build up before running into each other. The map expanding with each age is something I like but I would prefer to have even the first age be a huge map rather than a small one. Currently there are only 3 map sizes (Tiny, Small and Standard), I would like to see Large, Extra Large and Huge/Giant added to those so that the gameworld can be very large to start with, something so that it feels like we are playing on something the size of Europe and Africa rather than playing on something the size of Britain - if that makes sense. I've got a chunky PC with a hefty smack of ram, give me the ability to use it, dont restrict my mapsizes to the scope of a tablet or mobile. Thankfully they did say in the dev QandA that they will be adding larger map options so with a bit of luck that will be sooner rather than later.

In terms of the game mechanics, I'm fine with them, its different so far from previous civs but I am actually quite liking the mechanics differences
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That's already a bit of a turn off for me. Like you, I like big expansive maps and being able to establish myself without tripping over other Civs within a few turns and then having them crowd me before I can even get a couple of cities down.
 
Conscript said:
That's already a bit of a turn off for me. Like you, I like big expansive maps and being able to establish myself without tripping over other Civs within a few turns and then having them crowd me before I can even get a couple of cities down.
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Setting the game mode to Marathon and Long ages seems to help a little bit but I'd still prefer some larger map options , something above Standard. They've confirmed its coming but I guess how quickly will be the question, if I was them I would focus on the UI at this point...its a pretty horrible UI, clearly designed for consoles/mobiles/tablets. Although its a horrid UI I can live with it but for many people its a gamebreaker
 
Reviews on Steam are pretty poor so far (40% positive). The thing is so many of the reviews are after less than 2 hours. I'm not sure that is enough time to form a fair assessment.

It really looks like this is probably going to need a few patches before I want to play it.
 
spudbynight said:
Reviews on Steam are pretty poor so far (40% positive). The thing is so many of the reviews are after less than 2 hours. I'm not sure that is enough time to form a fair assessment.
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It really seems like a lot of people are bouncing off the UI, and giving up and refunding. I guess the people who like it are pressing "next turn" rather than posting reviews :p
 
The UI definitely isnt good, doesnt feel like a PC UI at all but its not gamebreaking for me and its not really an issue for me but then a lot of steam reviews these days arent actually about how a game plays anyway (like the negative reviews for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 where they complain that you can do a quest line where a character turns out to be gay), its the steam way.

Theres definitely some issues, the lack of larger maps for one, the multiplayer limit of 8 civs (5 human players), the limited game customisation options, the ages moving too fast if you pick to play on Marathon length, some odd tech distributions - like slingers being a part of animal husbandry...but UI doesnt really feature on my list of issues. Its ugly but useable.

However from what I've played so far, the new mechanics work well, the leader-civilization changes arent as jarring as I thought they might be and the game itself still feels to me like a Civ game and still has the one more turn feel. Hopefully the issues I mentioned above will be fixed in good time
 
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I always take steam reviews with a pinch of salt, but then I also apply that across the board.

Way too many people are just too willing to regurgitate what their favourite YouTube personality say about something rather than forming their own opinion.
 
Tombstone said:
Theres definitely some issues, the lack of larger maps for one, the multiplayer limit of 8 civs (5 human players), the limited game customisation options, the ages moving too fast if you pick to play on Marathon length, some odd tech distributions - like slingers being a part of animal husbandry...but UI doesnt really feature on my list of issues. Its ugly but useable.
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Slings in Animal Husbandry makes sense I think, I seem to remember they were used by shepherds to defend their flocks from predators (biblical David, of Goliath killing fame, was a shepherd and probably one of the most famous sling users), apparently even known as a "Shepherds Sling" in some places.

I have the game downloaded so will be giving it a go after work, usually underwhelmed by new Civ releases, then get into them later, so will see how it goes, certainly mixed feelings based on some of the things I've heard, but definitely quite a few things that sound positive. Certainly previous versions could suffer from getting quite dull and repetitive later on and would often end up abandoning games and restarting just because the earlier period was more fun (though did manage all the Civ6 victory types at Deity) and it does sound like they've tried to address that, so will see if it works.
 
I’m going to reinstall civ4 cavemen to cosmos I think. By the time I complete one game in that I reckon most of the DLC, patches, expansions etc will have been released and I’ll be able to pickup the set on 75% steam sale :D
 
I've got the tutorial on but I'm not sure what I'm doing and I'm a vet all the way back to Civilisation. The lack of screens providing details is a real pain, much like in vanilla Civ6. Where are my units, what trade routes do I have what is going on, what are the consequences of my choices? I think there is a good game waiting to come out here but I'm struggling to find it. Also visually I preferred the striking and clear visuals of Civ6 this is a bit more Civ5 like and it's not as clear what is happening in the same way just by looking at the map.
 
Tavis75 said:
Slings in Animal Husbandry makes sense I think, I seem to remember they were used by shepherds to defend their flocks from predators (biblical David, of Goliath killing fame, was a shepherd and probably one of the most famous sling users), apparently even known as a "Shepherds Sling" in some places.
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Possibly yeah, I would just rather see Slingers be in a Hunting category rather than Animal Husbandry (admittedly a very minor quibble when compared to the map sizes one - which is my number one quibble :) )
 
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Tombstone said:
Possibly yeah, I would just rather see Slingers be in a Hunting category rather than Animal Husbandry
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I guess its a balance between getting a good balance between the options and making it historically correct. For me, so long as it makes some kind of sense I'm okay with it.
 
I think there have been some pretty major changes in this game which depart from what a lot of people expect in a Civ game. It is too early to tell if they work, I'm sceptical if they will, but they need to be at least given time.

I'm not really too interested in what people think of this until they have put in 20+ hours.
 
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