Civilization 7 making a major change to how you play the game by making it’s game-changing Age system optional

When Civilization 7 launched, its biggest competitors in the genre perhaps were Civ 6, Civ 5, and even Civ 4.

We have had other efforts from elsewhere, but if you want to play a game that’s better than Civ, you still need to play another Civ game. So when Civ 7 was announced, everybody got excited. A few eyebrows were raised that the new system deviated from the challenge of taking a single civilization all the way to greatness, and “forced” on you a system of three distinct Ages, where you were forced to change up your pick. In truth, it sounded like a good idea to make things different, but people like what they know and know what they like, so come release time, it was one of the reasons the game got pounded on more than perhaps Firaxis expected.

The lifespan of a Civ game, though, is long. We saw such huge changes introduced across both Civ 5 and Civ 4, so it is perhaps no major surprise that the devs have been striving for ways to make everybody happy.

According to the latest developer blog, “we’re internally playtesting ways to play as one civ continuously through the ages, allowing you to choose a civilization from any Age and guide them throughout your journey through history.”

The blog pads out more, but the key is definitely what’s above.

First, we’re testing some dramatic changes to the Legacy Paths and Victories in Civ VII. We want to open up the game and provide many new paths your empire can follow while achieving greatness and competing for victory.

Second – and this one’s been one of the most requested features from players – we’re internally playtesting ways to play as one civ continuously through the ages, allowing you to choose a civilization from any Age and guide them throughout your journey through history.

Sound exciting? Well, this is where we’re inviting you to help us shape what these mechanics ultimately look like for Civ VII. Over the next few months, we’re kicking off a new initiative: the Firaxis Feature Workshop. This is our way of opening the door earlier, inviting a small number of community members to go hands-on with features still in development and tell us what’s working, what’s not, and what’s missing so that we can deliver the best possible Civ VII experience. We’ll be coordinating this through our Discord, and we’ll share more details on how to apply soon, alongside the next update.

So while we have no real timeline as to when that feature will hit primetime, we are expecting the 1.3.0 patch in the first week of November alongside the free DLC, the Tides of Power.

If any of this is what has been keeping you away from Civ VII, it’s actually in the Epic Games Store’s Halloween sale right now at the biggest discount we have seen so far.