Hello, Civ fans! I’m Kiera Boyle, Content Designer for Civilization VII. Today I’d like to introduce a new feature coming in the Test of Time update: Triumphs.

NEW WAYS TO WRITE HISTORY

Until now, we only offered four key paths to success in every Age via Legacy Paths. We loved the historic flavor each path gave, but found they had a couple of issues. With only four paths active in an Age, players weren’t able to explore everything that Age had to offer, especially deploying Diplomatic or Expansionist strategies. Legacy Paths also felt mandatory to complete in order to keep your momentum; I myself will admit to save-scumming to eke out that final Relic. From a technical perspective, these paths had to finish at the same time and had a bunch of unique code and a unique tutorial questline — phew! That’s not to say this system didn’t have strengths: its historical flavor, intermediary goals, and game-changing rewards all felt great. 

With that in mind, our design team has created Triumphs: a new system to provide Age-specific goals while highlighting different ways to play Civilization VII. This system replaces Legacy Paths, and while Workshoppers helped us improve the experience, this update certainly won’t be the end of our iteration on this new feature. 

TRIUMPHS: WHAT ARE THEY?

Triumphs are pretty straightforward: complete a challenge, get a reward. They’re decoupled from Victories, so while some Triumphs will reward you with Victory Points or new ways to win, engagement with the system is entirely optional. 

Triumphs come in two types: Major and Minor. Major Triumphs typically require long-term commitment to achieve, for example: “Build 7 Modern Wonders” or “Have a Commander with 8 Promotions." You’ll find the final tier of pre-Test of Time Legacy Paths represented in Major Triumphs alongside more ways to play: Espionage, Suzerainty, Trade Routes, Commander Promotions, and so much more are now directly rewarded in this feature. This also allows us as designers to expand viable, fun ways to succeed!

To commemorate your Major Triumph, you will receive a Dedication for the next Age, similar to Legacy Cards. You can only pick three Dedications to activate in the next Age, so go for the Major Triumphs you want without the pressure to achieve them all. Unlike Legacy Cards, which had unique point costs, Dedications are always equal in value.This will hopefully lighten the burden of Age Transitions, which can sometimes feel overwhelming and time consuming. 

Minor Triumphs are similar to Civilization VI’s Historic Moments, a favorite of the dev team. These are key achievements in your civilization that deserve some fanfare — especially if you do it first! They will give you an instant reward, such as a free unit, Population, or Production boost. Minor Triumphs include events like “First to Circumnavigate” or “Research all Techs and Masteries." Many Minor Triumphs also require you to be the first to do something, adding an extra layer of strategy: do you study Philosophy for the Minor Triumph, or your Unique Civic for a strategic Tradition? 

In the Modern Age, all Triumphs are Minor. We consider these Triumphs accelerants: things to achieve to close out victory, or keep pace with someone and prevent them from winning. Some also reward Victory Points (which have unique names like GDP or Dominion, depending on the Victory) to help diversify your Victory income during the Age. We hope Minor Triumphs add some flavor to your sessions!

Speaking of flavor, every Triumph has a unique name, primarily penned by one of our historians, Emily Bembeneck. Some personal favorites are “We Have Hapsburgs at Home," “Let’s Calicut a Deal," “What a Gaius," and “Beyond the Sword." I’m excited to see people investigate all the historical references buried in there. 

Finally, Triumphs can dynamically appear during Crises. Eagle-eyed players may have noticed there were secret Crisis Legacy Cards that could be unlocked in the previous system. Crisis Triumphs are very similar in spirit, but will be visible in the Triumphs Screen when a Crisis occurs! 

A TRIUMPH OF SETTINGS!

What is a Civilization feature without customization? This is where Triumph Sets come in. Triumph Sets control which Triumphs are active in your game in the Advanced Settings. Our default Triumph Set has 30 well-rounded Triumphs in every Age; however, we have other sets such as the Classic Set — which has only Triumphs that correlate to the original Legacy Paths — and the Conqueror Set, full of warmongering Triumphs. There’s also a setting to turn off Triumphs for those who want a zen-like, uninterrupted experience. I personally love the multiplayer-friendly Trailblazer Set, which only rewards the first player to achieve any Triumph! We’d love to hear what sets you’d like to see in the future. 

For the modding-inclined, Triumphs and Triumph Sets are also pretty simple under the hood to create. This has helped us iterate design quickly, and hopefully it will help bring your whackiest ideas to life!

REFINEMENT IN THE WORKSHOP

As you may know, Triumphs were a key feature during our Firaxis Feature Workshop rounds, and Workshoppers gave us great feedback. What started as a light catalog of Triumphs slowly grew, and our ideas for what makes a good Triumph has really been shaped by our Workshop players. 

They’ve done a fantastic job identifying overpowered Triumphs, Triumphs that could be more flavorful, or ones that are simply impossible to get. Workshoppers have also given us great long-term feedback on the feel of the system: what works, what doesn’t, and the types of gameplay they want to see featured; plenty of food for thought as we continue to grow this system. We hope the release of Triumphs in the Test of Time update gives you plenty to play with, but we’re continuing to keep our eyes peeled for your feedback. 

To those who participated, thank you!

THE FUTURE OF THE FEATURE

Over 100 Triumphs will drop with Test of Time, but like any good system, continued development will keep it fresh and fun. We got some amazing feedback from our Workshoppers that we’re already discussing in the design room. No promises, but here are some favorites we’re excited to explore: 

• Further development of the Classic Set to closely replicate the pre-Test of Time Civ VII experience. (For those of you that loved Legacy Paths!)
• More Triumph Sets for different playstyles.
• More Triumphs that allow you to pivot, similar to Dark Age Legacy Cards.
• Further work on the economy of Dedications; this was a big point in our Workshop rounds, and we’re investigating the best course of action. 

We’re looking forward to hearing what you think of Triumphs in the Test of Time update. This update is massive, so stay tuned for more Dev Diaries and news coming soon!