New Civilization VII Gameplay Livestream Reveals Exploration Age Gameplay

Developer Firaxis live streamed some new gameplay for Civilization VII, showcasing the second of the three new ages: the Exploration Age.

Civ VII makes a drastic change in the gameplay flow by breaking up a game of this 4X turn-based strategy game into three ages. In the Exploration Age, the game map will further be expanded compared to the Antiquity Age, with new frontiers free to be claimed by any civ. New civs will enter the stage as well.

The livestream revealed a new playable leader and civ, Isabela and Spain. Featured previously in Civilization V, her leader abilities in Civ VII are directly inspired by that particular iteration of the game, where she can get Gold bonuses just by discovering Natural Wonders.

There are plenty of fans of Isabela, including game director Ed Beach who named his pet cat after her, and worked on a board game based around her.

Here are some of the notable gameplay features, in particular new addition and changes when compared to past titles, in Civ VII Exploration Age:

• Timescale represented in the Exploration Age starts around the historical medieval age
• Unique Civics for a civ (Traditions) can be carried over to the next Age where you change civs
  • Social Policies reset during Age transitions
• End Of Age report similar to the recap when a game ends, showing who has earned legacy points
• “Legends” system that rewards playing the same leader across multiple playthroughs (more details to be revealed later)
• Leader/civ choice at the start of Exploration Age can also influence what civs are unlocked in the Modern Age
  • Mexico (new civ) confirmed for Modern Age, the first confirmed Modern Age civ
• Any ongoing war will end after age transition, but relationship with leaders still carry over
• Distinction between “homeland” and “distant land”. Homeland is the landmass you start on in Antiquity Age, distant lands are other landmasses, available starting Exploration Age
  • Homeland and distant land can be two different map generation types (homeland can be continental, distant lands can be archipelagos, for example)
  • Distant lands spawn treasure resources, used to progress the Economic legacy path and get legacy points
    • Involves the new Treasure Fleet. New unit that auto-spawns in settlements with treasure resource. Must be manually navigated back to homeland. Can be captured by other players, which instigates piracy and naval combat
    • Treasure Fleets spawn at the first naval building (fishing quay) of a settlement
• Exploration Age starts with spending legacy points earned from Antiquity Age
• City buildings can carry forward to Exploration Age, but loses adjacency bonus (still produce base yield)
  • “Overbuilding”: Build new Age building on top of old Age building to get adjacency bonus. Example: Build a Bazaar (gold yield Exploration Age building) on top of Market (gold yield Antiquity Age building)
    • Cannot overbuild over Ageless and Persistent buildings
      • Ageless and Persistent buildings functions the same across the ages. Ageless buildings (example: civ unique buildings) can only be built during a specific age, Persistent buildings the opposite (example: granaries)
• Science adjacency now comes from resource tiles instead of mountains
• New Religion system:
  • Every player can found a religion, no need to race to be one of the few civs allowed to found one
  • Not shown on stream, but you can still create a custom religion (forgo the use of symbols and names of real religions)
  • Enhancer Belief and Founder Belief similar to Civ VI’s system (only one religion can pick the Beliefs)
  • Instead of religious pressure where you see the exact number of population who practice a religion, it’s now separated into two icons representing rural districts and urban districts.
  • Missionary converts the whole settlements when converting for the first time. Next attempt requires two charges to convert the whole settlement
• Cities found next to Navigable Rivers can produce ship units, ships can navigate through Navigable Rivers
• Leader Attribute skill tree persists throughout the Ages
  • Points gained based on what leader and civ picked
  • Each leader and civ have two specific attributes (Cultural, Diplomatic, Economic, Expansionist, Militaristic, Scientific)
• New movement-ending terrain rules apply with ships. Ships can take damage when ending on deep ocean tiles
  • Ships can heal on any coastal tile, no need to go back to home borders
• Settlers still found settlements as towns, even in distant lands
• With the way Specialists, policies and adjacency bonuses work, a tile can have over 40 yields
• Other Exploration Age civs featured in the livestream:
  • Mongolia
  • Abassid
  • Chola
  • Ming
    • According to Beach, the Ming Dynasty was “an absolute, rock-solid, ‘we have to have them in'” civ as admiral Zhang He was known to set up Treasure Fleets hundreds of years before the Spanish did. Zhang He is known in Malaysian history textbooks as Admiral Cheng Ho, who made contact with the Malacca Sultanate, one of the many stops in his voyages that reached up to the Arabian Peninsula.

Civilization VII will include cross-play and cross-save across all platforms. Online multiplayer is capped at five players max during Antiquity and Exploration Ages, and up to eight during the Modern Age.

Civilization VII launches on February 12, 2025 for the PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X|S and Switch.