More Civilization VI Information Surfaces, Excitement Building Accordingly
Civilization VI is shaping up to be a huge follow up to Civilization V, as more information surfaced about the upcoming title. Civilization V did wonders for the game’s military system, removing unit stacks and making combat more tactical as a result. Units could be arranged with whatever defenses and bonuses they acquire from terrain and leveling up, and conquests of your enemies became immensely more satisfying as a result. Other changes, such as trade routes and religion also came into play with expansions, but with what Civilization V did for War, Civilization VI is planning to overhaul how we approach city building.
For those who may have peeped our previous article, you got a bit of a briefing on how they plan to overhaul the landscape of your cities. Much like the various military units from Civilization IV to Civilization V becoming un-stacked and spread across the land, we see the same happening with cities. They are removing the “stack” of buildings and having them spread out across the land, added an extra layer of strategy, especially with the new district system coming into play. Beach and his team are focused on expanding the importance of geography. Starts were always a big factor in Civilization, and whether you started in a desert, a jungle, or even a tundra (shudder), it heavily dictated what you focused on to help get your civilization rolling. For the first time, Beach’s team wants to have this impact every single factor, from city specializations to research.
This connection could be huge, if it is implemented properly. Civilization V suffers from some play styles dominating others, and the goal in Civilization VI appears to be to shift away from that heavily, creating a more equal playing field. The overall focus on location is a very interesting proposition for the series, and Beach has mentioned that “In Civ VI, almost every node on the tech tree has a boost attached to it – kind of like a miniature quest that you can fulfill to speed up the tech. For example, the masonry boost requires stone blocks and quarries. You can research that tech by hand without access to stone, but if you can find a quarry site and get one up and going, you unlock the tech boost and that gives you half of the research points needed for masonry.” It may sound minor, but considering how much there is to consider as games go on, there are a lot of ways that this could help expand upon the gameplay and make this feel fresh.
This isn’t the only improvement however, and speaking of those, workers are now a finite use item. As they go about constructing improvements, they can only be used so many times, which will help reduce late game clutter, and ties in neatly with the ideas that Beach is proposing. How you build ways to improve your cities is changing drastically as well, and the lay of the land will affect your research, and the variety in the landscape is going to play a key role in harboring a variety of play styles, from the sounds of things. Previous changes/additions such as trade routes and religion are making a return as well, and should factor in quite well with this new district system.
That’s not all, however. Diplomacy was also noted to be getting some big changes to how it runs, as well. Firaxis hasn’t divulged much in terms of what is being done, but what they have shared sounds quite intriguing. The biggest detail that stands out is that it sounds like Diplomacy is going to be a flexible process. Leaders will have their own agendas, and as the eras progress and their civilizations prosper or flounder, their behaviour will change accordingly. They’ll act accordingly like their real-world counterparts, but only to a point. Agendas will still server to help leaders act unexpectedly, adding an exciting element to each game. There will also be minor tweaks to war, such as the ability to make units move in formation, but the largest shake ups appear to be on the infrastructure side of things. City building is going to become more important than ever, and if these changes are an indication of the final product’s quality, you have every reason to be as excited for Civilization VI as the rest of us.
Civilization VI is dropping October 21, but be sure to keep an eye on COGConnected for new information as it surfaces.
Source: Press Release