Hey all! I'm Sarah (or Sar), your community manager for Sid Meier's Civilization VII, and I'm super excited to announce that we’ll be rolling out a series of developer blogs in the coming months! These blogs are written by members of the Firaxis dev team and are tailored specifically for our Civilization community. We’ll be diving deep into the details that make Civilization VII so special, so if you love getting into the nitty-gritty, these are for you! 

Today's blog will cover Ages - our biggest new feature in Civilization VII, written by creative director Ed Beach. As always, I’m here for any questions or feedback you’ve got. Happy reading!

Hello, Civ fans! My name is Ed Beach, Creative Director on Sid Meier's Civilization VII at Firaxis Games. I'm excited to kick off our series of developer blogs on a topic I know the community has been discussing about in great detail: Ages. My goal is to provide you with an overview of how Ages work, and share some of the thinking on why we decided to implement this system in the first place. I'll also be providing greater detail in areas the community has had some questions on, such as the mechanics of how we handle Age Transitions to ensure your journey through the Ages feels epic and fun. 

Introducing Ages

As we've talked about before, Ages represent a significant gameplay evolution for Civilization - one as big as when we moved from squares to hexes. Fundamentally, Ages divides a single game of Civilization into distinct playable chapters. Every Age is designed to capture the essence of a specific period of human advancement, achieved by filling the Age with historically-relevant elements. And as you go from one Age to the next, your empire evolves - you select a new civilization that comes equipped with a fresh set of bonuses, units, and buildings. This new civilization carries forward key elements of your past and by the end of a campaign, you'll have created a unique cultural lineage through history in your journey to build an empire to stand the test of time. 

This journey through the Ages is a new experience that we've never had before in Civilization; the idea of building a unique cultural lineage, as opposed to your empire being represented by a single civ across all of time. If you're interested in learning about the creative driving force behind Ages - the idea that "history is built in layers" - I encourage you to check out our dev panel discussion at PAX West. For this particular blog, I want to talk about Ages from more of a 'game mechanics and design' perspective.

Why Ages?

When my team of designers and I first sat down to brainstorm ideas for Civilization VII, we started by taking an honest look at Civilization VI. I tasked everyone to build a list of what they'd like to improve on, and come back together to compare notes.

At Firaxis, we've always said that we are our own harshest critics, but even I was surprised at how critical the designers were. No stone was left unturned, and as we looked through our feedback, one particular issue kept coming back over and over again: late-game Civilization is just not that fun to play.

In order to tackle that issue, we needed to break that thought down into a few specific root causes. Here are the main things we identified:

• Snowballing. Snowballing refers to when you start with something small, it gathers momentum, and then it becomes unstoppable. In Civ, this is expressed when your empire advances too fast for your opponents to catch up, or you've fallen behind so far that you can't catch up. In both scenarios, your choices and decisions have little effect on the ultimate outcome.
• Lots of micromanagement. Civilization, like many 4X games, can be mapped onto a simple linear graph - as time increases, the amount of actions you have to take increases. This is manageable in the first few hours - what many players feel is the most fun - where you have a few cities, some builders, and a small army. But the more you play, the bigger your empire gets, and suddenly you are making decisions for dozens of cities, moving dozens of units one by one, etc. This is both tedious to the player and makes every decision feel less important.
• Civ balancing. Civ designs draw inspiration from historical events and cultures, so their unique abilities, units, and buildings must be both relevant to their identity while also being balanced across a game that spans all of history. Because of this, every civ is strong at a particular point in the game, but can be generic during other points. What's interesting is that due to snowballing, competitive Civ players rarely pick late-game civs, because by the time those abilities and units come online, someone has built  up an insurmountable lead.

These are just a few of the things the team identified, and the ultimate kicker is how they express themselves in a single data point: more than half of the Civilization VI players have never finished a single campaign! 

Now, we have heard from some members of the community who wonder - is this actually an issue that needs solving? If players are having fun in Civ with the way it's currently built, what's the problem?

From our perspective, not finishing the game is a signal that players are hitting points where they're no longer having fun. We want everyone to have a great experience from start to finish. We know that players often feel the beginning hours of Civ are magical, and we want to make sure that every part of the game feels just as epic and exciting as that initial rush. 

So with this issue in mind, along with the insight that "history is built in layers" that we've previously outlined, we decided that the best way to tackle these challenges is to break the game up into historically-themed chapters. A useful analogy for thinking about this structure is a book series: each Age has a story of its own with a beginning, middle, and end. When the books are combined together, they tell the full, epic story of your empire.

Playing the Age

It might surprise you to know that from our playtests and feedback, the actual experience of playing an Age in Civilization VII feels very familiar to a traditional game of Civ. As many of our fans know, Sid Meier has a rule of thirds when designing a sequel: 33 percent brand new features, 33 percent improving previous features, and 33 percent staying roughly the same. We're continuing that tradition with Civilization VII, as it is critical for us that this game "still feels like Civ." 

Each Age is, in some sense, like playing a tighter, more focused campaign of Civ. Just like before, you'll build your capital, discover the lands around you, find resources, and cooperate (or compete) with your fellow civs. What's different this time around is that every Age has a set of key elements that are unique to that Age, which include:

• Civilizations: Civilizations are Age-exclusive, and come equipped with Unique Abilities, Units, Civics, and Buildings and/or Improvements. The unique parts of each civilization are always relevant in that Age, and thus make each Civ feel like they're competing at the height of their power.
• Resources: Each Age contains a set of obtainable Resources on the map that were available during that time period. Some Resources span multiple Ages, while others are exclusive to an individual Age. 
• Civics and Technologies: Ages determine which Civics and Technologies can be researched.
• Buildings and Units: Available types of Units, Buildings, and Wonders are determined by the Age.
• Independent Powers: Independent Powers are minor factions on the map that can be interacted with.
• Game Systems: Certain game systems are only available during each Age, ensuring every Age feels unique and exciting to engage with. 
• Playable Map Area: Ages determine the overall size and scope of the playable map, expanding as the player transitions into new Ages.

Age Progress determines how far along you are in that Age. Every turn contributes a small amount of Age Progress, while completing things like milestones along a Legacy Path will contribute larger amounts to the Age Progress meter. Generally speaking, you can expect an Age to last around 150 to 200 turns on standard speed, or roughly three to four hours of play.

Regarding the aforementioned Legacy Paths, these are a series of objectives for you to complete during an Age, categorized as Science, Military, Culture, and Economy objectives. Every Legacy Path contains several milestones, providing you with greater rewards as you progress further down a given path. Each new reward unlocks one or more bonuses that you can take advantage of during the transition into the next Age. 

Completing a Legacy Path in its entirety unlocks a Golden Age Legacy that you'll have access to in the next Age; failing to complete even one milestone of a Legacy Path gives you an associated Dark Age Legacy. Every path and its objectives are themed to the Age, further bringing out the essence of that time period. 

As you near the end of an Age, you'll be confronted with a Crisis. As the name suggests, Crises are something all civilizations in the game must face and navigate, and are themed to the Age. Every Crisis comes in stages and intensifies over time, making it more challenging to maintain your empire if you don't adapt. In addition to gameplay moments, you'll have to select which Crisis Policies you want to take on. In contrast to the beneficial social policies you slot in when completing Civics, Crisis Policies are negative ones that are slotted into their own separate set.

There's several reasons why we created the Crisis system. First, they add a jolt of variety and excitement to the end of the Age, making the late game of an Age feel climatic and epic. They provide an interesting challenge for the player to navigate - there's no "right" way to adapt, adding a ton more replay value. And finally, they reflect the narrative reality of many civilizations - creation, growth, crisis, and rebirth - that leads to a reshaping of the world… and the ushering of a new Age!

Age Transitions

A full campaign in Civilization VII is one that goes through all three Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. Once the Age is completed, all players (and any AI opponents) experience an Age Transition simultaneously. During an Age Transition, three things happen: you select a new civilization from the new Age to represent your empire, you choose which Legacies you want to retain in the new Age, and the game world evolves in ways both big and small. 

When it comes to selecting a new civilization in the new Age, you won't be able to choose just any new civ at random. There are three factors that determine your options. First, if there is a historical or geographical connection between the past civ and the future one, you'll have a choice that's more rooted in history. Some examples we've shared so far include Antiquity Egypt to Exploration Abbasid, as well as Maurya India to Chola India. 

Second, certain leaders will automatically unlock certain civs due to their particularly strong identities. Choosing Himiko, for example, means that you will always be able to play as Meiji Japan in the Modern Age.

Finally, gameplay actions that you take can unlock non-historical paths. This is something that we know the Civ community has discussed at length - we definitely enjoyed your reactions (and memes) to the idea of Egypt "turning into" Mongolia! With that said, we wanted to include this option for many reasons.

First, we think it's fun and that it reflects Civ's "What if?" spirit of experimentation. Second, we wanted to provide players the possibility of making dramatic strategy changes, especially if they aren't as focused on playing historically. If you do find yourself surrounded by horses, wouldn't it be interesting if rather than going across the great oceans during the Exploration Age - you used Mongolia's powerful cavalry to sweep the home continent? 

Finally, we think it reflects some of the core ideas behind "history is built in layers." The notion that our history is just one of many possible paths, that civilizations are ultimately shaped and determined by their people.

After selecting your new civilization, you'll then pick and choose which Legacies you want to carry forward in the new Age. Legacies can only be selected if you have earned enough Legacy Points to acquire them, the latter which are obtained primarily through completing those milestones in Legacy Paths. For example, completing a milestone in the Science path gives you a Science point, which can be used to grab a Science Legacy in the next Age. 

Legacies come in a variety of different costs and bonuses. Some Legacies are easily acquired - Leader Attributes only cost one point and can be grabbed in bulk. Others are more expensive and may require prerequisite accomplishments, like the Golden Age Legacies mentioned earlier. One Legacy that I like in particular is Change Capital - it's free, and is strategically useful for moving your inland capital to one of your settlements along a coast, as you prepare to take on the challenges and strategic opportunities of a new Age. 

Once you select your new civ and legacies and the new Age begins, your game world undergoes a series of changes across the board. All civilizations begin anew with an updated Civics and Technology Tree. New resources fill the map, and the world expands. From Antiquity to Exploration, you'll be able to research shipbuilding to cross great oceans and reach Distant Lands… which, it turns out, are already occupied with other undiscovered civilizations who may not welcome your presence! You'll be able to "overbuild" - construct new buildings on top of your old ones, which have reduced yields as they're less powerful in the new Age. New Legacy Paths present you with updated objectives and new game systems can come online; Religion, which plays a minor role in the Antiquity Age, becomes an essential driver of action during the Exploration Age. 

With a new civilization in hand and so much of the world changing, it naturally raises a question - how do we make sure you maintain a cohesive sense of identity for your empire? This is something that we've spent the most time tweaking and fine-tuning, and I'm sure we'll continue to make adjustments once players get their hands on the game. There are several things that help retain your sense of identity:

• Leaders remain the same across Ages. Leaders persist across all Ages, ensuring you always have a sense of who is part of your empire, and who are your rivals. Relationships that you develop persist, and Leaders continue to grow by leveling up their attributes. It also helps lend a sense of personal storytelling to each campaign, as you decide which of the other leaders deserve to be your cherished allies or bitter enemies across the Ages.
• Traditions are always available. Investing in a civ's exclusive Civics tree unlocks Traditions: social policies that can be used in any Age. In the Modern Age, it's entirely up to you whether you want to slot all your social policies with Traditions - and some leaders have bonuses for doing so!
• Ageless buildings. Some buildings are so essential that they cannot be replaced. Any Wonders you've built will always remain on the map, as well as any unique Quarters you've constructed.
• Commanders persist. Commanders are particularly powerful and impactful units, gaining levels as they survey the battlefield. Your investments in these units will pay off in the long run, as all Commander attributes and experience continue across Ages.

Age Transitions represent moments of possibility in a game of Civilization VII. If you find yourself falling too far behind, an Age Transition will offer you a way to get back into the game. You can double down on a preferred playstyle or pivot to a completely different civ if you find yourself outmatched in certain parts of the game. Snowballing into an unstoppable juggernaut is no longer as obvious an outcome, but we want to make sure that you're still rewarded for playing well through an abundance of Legacy Points, Golden Age options, and more. 

Future Potential

With Ages, we set out to create a system that not just solves some of the longstanding issues we've wanted to tackle, but also presents you with something new. Something that offers a fresh take on Civ - to make the game more dynamic, inviting and exciting. With Ages, we're able to reach new levels when it comes to historical immersion. We tailor the content specifically for that Age, and you compete with fellow empires all at the height of their powers. We can provide a deeper and richer experience, where your unique units and abilities are all more immediately available. And by design, Ages already come with plenty of features - there's less of a need to wait for an expansion like in the past. 

We can't wait for you to experience this new structure for yourself. Building Civilization VII with Ages as our core concept has completely shifted how we approach making a Civ game - we've had to greatly expand the total number of civs, making this the most civilizations in the base game at launch in franchise history! 

We're really excited for what's to come in Civilization VII, and what the future looks like for the game over the long term. Thanks for reading - if you have any questions, please continue to share them in forums, on Reddit, and across our social media channels!