Bloody Hell, Civ 7's Ages Are Getting 'Harsher'?! Firaxis Is Still Tinkering With Reality (Again)
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
Firaxis is still grappling with Civilization 7's contentious Age transitions, rolling out a 'sticky settings' fix for player convenience, but also teasing a new, even 'harsher' 'Collapse' option that has my curious wizard brain buzzing with both excitement and gentle skepticism.
Right, so you know that feeling when you're casting a spell, and you *think* you've got it just right, but then it explodes a bit, not quite in your face, but definitely in the general vicinity of your perfectly crafted ritual circle? Yeah, that's been the vibe around Civilization 7's Age transitions since launch, and Firaxis is still trying to clean up the magical residue.
For those who haven't dived into Firaxis's latest historical map-painter, or perhaps wisely sidestepped the initial arcane experiments, let's get a quick lay of the land. When you move between Ages in Civ 7, it's not just a fancy graphic. Oh no, mate. It's more like a hard reset, a sudden shift in the fabric of reality. You're asked to pick a new Civilisation – gotta keep it 'historically appropriate,' apparently – and then, poof! Your hard-won units are shuffled, downgraded, or sometimes, just straight-up deleted like rabid dogs. And to top it all off, the game takes a giant digital broom to the geography, rearranging resources like a mischievous imp redecorating your spell-components shelf. It's supposed to be a pace-changer, a way to keep things fresh and stop you from steamrolling through the late game. And as a notorious early-game drop-out myself, I can absolutely see the logic behind wanting to avoid the endless grind of a tech tree that stretches further than a wizard's beard.
But fair dinkum, this feature has ruffled more feathers than a griffin convention during a thunderstorm. Plenty of old-school Civ players, those antique strategists who've been perfecting their world domination tactics since before the internet was a thing, have been royally cheesed off. Even after Firaxis has tried to tweak the system extensively post-launch, a quick peek at recent Steam reviews shows it’s still listed as a major downside. It’s like they keep trying to fix a leaky cauldron with increasingly complex spells, and it’s just not quite hitting the mark.
This week, they rolled out another patch, alongside detailing plans for a new approach to Age transitions that, get this, is actually *harsher* than the original. A bolder move than trying to summon a dragon in your living room, I reckon. It’s a bold (4X) strategy (game), Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them.
Quick rewind: Firaxis had already introduced an Age transition impact setting. You could choose between the original 'Regroup' design, which gathers up your units like lost sheep, or a new 'Continuity' option that lets them stay put on the map. Ed Beach, the creative director, explained that 'Continuity Mode is a nice way to allow players less disruption to their military campaigns if they like to be fighting continuously from one Age to the next.' He even admitted he enjoyed it recently while playing a full campaign as Genghis Khan. And honestly, I do love the concept of Genghis Khan’s relentless quest for world domination getting repeatedly soft-reset by a bunch of bureaucratic periodisation. Naughty rampaging warlords! We'll stop-start the WAAAGH right out of you!
Beach, however, felt Firaxis erred by making 'Continuity' the new default and stashing 'Regroup' away in the advanced settings. It made it far too easy to forget which flavour of reality-bending disruption you had enabled. So, the latest patch – hitting Steam and Epic Games Store – makes that setting 'sticky' between campaigns. Finally, some common sense! Like having your favourite spell settings actually *stick* between ritual circles. This quality-of-life win also applies to game speed and difficulty, which, frankly, should have been there from the get-go.
But just as they’re softening the practical workings, Firaxis is devising something else. Brace yourselves: an even 'harsher' version of Regroup. They’re tentatively calling it 'Collapse'. Bloody hell. While there are no concrete details on *why* it’s harsher, ‘Collapse’ certainly implies more unit loss, more degradation, perhaps even more dramatic geographic reshuffles. Could it be a kind of 'Dark Age' mechanic, where survival is the real victory, and you emerge from the rubble with just a rusty spoon and a vague memory of your former glory? My mind is already buzzing with the possibilities of truly chaotic, unpredictable shifts. Imagine a mid-game 'Collapse' that forces you to totally rethink your entire strategy, not just tweak it. It’s the kind of wild, experimental idea that gets my digital wizard brain tingling.
Beach mentioned, 'It’s still early in testing, and we’ll need time to see if it feels fun and fits well into the game.' And that’s the crucial bit, isn't it? 'Fun.' Because a harsh reset can be exhilarating in a roguelike, but in a sprawling 4X strategy, it can also feel like someone just tipped over your painstakingly built house of cards. The balance between challenging disruption and frustrating annihilation is a tightrope walk.
Beyond the Age discourse, the patch notes for Civilization 7 update 1.2.4 do mention a few bug fixes, but none of them quite capture the imagination like the ongoing saga of the Age transitions. It’s a fascinating look at how developers iterate on core mechanics, especially when they clash with long-held player expectations. It’s a testament to the power of player feedback, even if it sometimes feels like Firaxis is still trying to get their magic wand to cast 'stasis' instead of 'explode'.
Are you still playing Civ 7, mate? Have your feelings on these Age transitions shifted at all? Or are you just waiting for the 'Collapse' to see if it truly feels like a new beginning, or just another frustrating interdimensional hiccup?
Tags: Civilization 7, Strategy Games, Game Updates, Firaxis, 4X
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun