u/MirandaScribes

Just not sure if I have the cheekbone / jaw structure to really be trying the cowboy stache

Don’t tease me with your little plastic handle that never successfully removes the whole film

Like many others, I was disappointed with VII when it first launched. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what my issue with it was, but it wasn’t as fun as previous entries, that I knew for sure.

I thought it was civ switching that I didn’t like. I thought I wanted to be France or England or America or China from ancient times to modern times and I thought civ switching was a bad design choice. I was wrong.

Playing through the game as one civ has taught me *why* civ switching is actually awesome and I hope they continue to develop it in future patches and new game iterations.

Firstly, having unique units, buildings and policies for each age is fantastic. I know the new patch allows you to “copy” some other civ uniques as a way to make playing a modern civ in ancient times more in line with their new design choices (or exploration civ), and I think that is a wonderful way to make the two design philosophies work together, but I always switch my civ at the turn of an age now that I understand it better.

I like that I can change my strategy dramatically and take my time reading the other civ abilities, and pick one that seems fun and interesting and topical for the age. It’s good design, not bad.

However, age transitions I think still need some work. I think the game is in a great spot at the moment to build off of what they’ve already made, get us some slick dlc’s with new or modified game modes, and generally take the game to the next level. I’d like to see them start with age transitions.

I wish there were more than three. I think that alone would resolve some of my issues with it. Reducing all of human history to 3 “ages” seems wrong to me. There were 5 ages in VI and I think there should be the same in VII. Changing from antiquity to exploration is mostly fine as the technology doesn’t jump quite as dramatically. My issue is mostly with the change to the modern age, but that’s simply because the issues are exasperated in the change, but those same issues exist in the antiquity to exploration change as well.

Upon the modern age transition, our crossbowmen turn into field cannons along with our other units getting a *huge* technological boost. We don’t need to research gunpowder or find Niter, or meet any other prerequisite to achieve modern technology and that feels wrong. I want to do everything for my civ, and that emphatically includes researching the techs that I want to bring to my civ. I don’t want the game to decide when I upgrade my units, I want to do it myself.

I think an easy solution is to simply add an extra age or two. I realize this is more complex than it sounds because we would need more civs to line up with the additional ages, but it seems like a relatively simple “fix” to me. More age transitions means smaller technology jumps with each age.

Anyway I’m curious what others think about the state of the game and how they are liking the new patch.