Civilization 7 lead says the new Ages system will be "the hardest thing" for fans to learn: "It changes the fundamental structure of the game"

gamesradar.com:

Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 is going to shake up the tried and true formula fans have come to know and love. It’s easy to get into a groove when playing a match, following your intended path, building up an army ready to siege, and issuing decrees to your (hopefully) loyal citizens. However, the team at Firaxis has a new plan for Civilization 7 that will fundamentally change the pacing of a match. 

In an interview with GGRecon, creative director Ed Beach says the new "Ages system gives us points where we reset the game a little bit, and players get a chance to get a little bit of calm and to breathe and to get that scale back down. So that helps a lot of things. It helps with pacing in single-player." 

It’s a big change from previous games, and one that may briefly stump players who have a set way of playing. Beach reckons "it's going to be probably the hardest thing for our fans to get adjusted to, but I would argue that there were always some wacky things in Civ." 

The Ages system is meant to keep players on their toes, knowing that even if they are pulling ahead now, others are never too far behind. This also means that when you move into a new Age, you'll have a soft reset point for your armies. 

Each match will begin at the Age of Antiquity, eventually moving into the Exploration Age and Modern Age as time progresses. At the end of each age a Crisis will occur, transitioning players into the next phase. This new system gives players the ability to catch up if they've started falling behind, but it also allows you to switch your Civilization, adding another wrinkle to the mix. This opens up some historically questionable role-playing, but the devs are fine with having a little fun there. 

"If the player wants to kind of invent in their head their own fantasy, like moving from Egypt to Mongolia because I was great at mastering all the grasslands where all the horses lived," Beach says of the shifting Ages, "yeah, that's fine with us." 

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