Civilization is turning 25 this year, and it is moving towards its sixth numbered main installment. Of course, the strategy franchise doesn’t leave Sid Meier out this time either.

Civilization 6 is being developed by Firaxis – they were behind XCOM: Enemy Unknown or XCOM2 for example in the past few years. The game’s mechanics will be different from previous installments. Instead of having one hexagonal tile, you will see your settlement divided into districts on multiple tiles. By dividing cities into different districts, you’ll make use of different terrains, more varied resources, and more overall land. This change will also affect the strategy: if you attack key segments of the enemy’s settlement, you will destroy its chain, cutting it off from resources. It can backfire, though, and you might see the same thing happening to your people!

Firaxis also points out active research as an important element. They also want to make Civilization 6 feel different each time you play the game. There will also be supporting units to buff our offensive in combat. The multiplayer is also aimed to be more varied, and self-contained. All these changes are having one target: to make Civilization less predictable than its previous installments.

We only have one question remaining: is Gandhi going to be extremely aggressive towards us in battles? We’ll have to wait and see: the game is going to be out on October 21 on PC. Unfortunately, the release date is shared with Battlefield 1, so Firaxis has a somewhat unfortunate timing.