Firaxis’ game continues to improve, but it hasn’t won over the audience yet.
This week, Civilization 7 received a major update as Firaxis continues to work on the latest and most controversial entry in its historic 4X series. Update 1.2.5 introduces numerous refinements and adjustments, rearranging maps, improving the user interface, and expanding strategic possibilities around city-states. The primary focus of this update is map generation, responding to complaints that the game’s geographical layouts were too predictable and dull. To address this, Firaxis claims to have started from scratch, creating a brand-new base algorithm for generating Civ maps and introducing two new map types. The new default single-player map, Continents and Islands, mixes large and small landmasses, while the new Pangea and Islands map places most of the action on one massive landmass surrounded by diverse terrain.
The user interface improvements focus primarily on settlement development. These changes provide more detailed previews in the production menu, clearer yield indicators for building placement, and improved visualization of growth events, making it easier to decide between upgrades and specialists. Tooltips for buildable items have also been completely overhauled. According to Firaxis, these improvements will help players decide what to build, where to place it, and how to expand their empire. Update 1.2.5 also adds two new types of city-states (diplomatic and expansionist), whose sovereignty offers players new strategic options. Additionally, Firaxis has rebalanced the strategic layer by replacing most percentage-based stacking bonuses with numerical ones to prevent runaway growth, adding a cost-progression system to buildings, and adjusting the gold economy to make financial management slightly more challenging.
There’s also the Napoleon Overhaul. The French general hadn’t lived up to his legendary status among Civ fans, so Firaxis has enhanced both his revolutionary and imperial personas. The former now grants extra rewards for encouraging other leaders to attack, while the latter provides bonuses for sanctioning them. While this seems like a significant update, it hasn’t done much to improve the game’s reception. Recent Steam reviews show a lower positive rating (43%) than the overall score (49%). This appears unrelated to the update itself — the main complaint remains the era-shift mechanic, which forces players to switch factions at the end of each era.
It remains unclear what impact this will have on Civilization 7’s long-term future…
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