Interview: Civilization 7 developers detail what’s new in the world of hexagons

I recently took a trip to Firaxis Games to get some hands-on time with the upcoming historical strategy title Sid Meier’s Civilization VII. After playing for about 40 minutes, I sat down with Executive Producer Dennis Shirk and Game Designer Carl Harrison to talk a bit about some of the bigger changes coming into the fabled franchise.

DESTRUCTOID: I noticed when you pick your civilization at the beginning of the game, at least all of the civilizations currently available seem to have two Legacy Path focuses, such as Militaristic, Culture, Economic, etc. Is this the case for all civilizations, and how realistic is it to actually succeed at both of those focuses as opposed to hyper-fixing on just one?

CARL: Yes, that’s the case for all civilizations. I think it is realistic to succeed at both focuses. Because of our Legacy Paths, you’re able to focus on two, sometimes even three of those, depending on how well you are doing, and get as far as possible into those Legacy Paths. Those have various stepping stones along the way, and you may not necessarily reach the very end of a Legacy Path and receive the top reward, but it is possible to at least hit maybe that first or second level in a couple of different spots. Those attributes are reflective of the kind of playstyle that civ has and the bonuses that they get, so those will help you a fair amount towards those two Legacy Path areas.

DENNIS: That’s a good example of the depth in Civilization 7. When I played the last couple of nights testing today’s preview build, I played a lot of Hatshepsut and Egypt, a builder and culture-focused combination, and you can go down either of those paths. I typically play a culture game, but by having the strong builder options as well, I can go in a different direction. I think it depends on what bonuses you want to go for. You’ve got many Legacy Paths you can choose from for those bonuses, and you can analyze what direction you want to go. Once I’ve played six or seven times and I’m an expert on that particular civ, I may decide to try two or three paths instead of the one, and see if I can earn some more before going to the next Age.

DESTRUCTOID: It seems like this change allows for a lot more build variety, especially with being able to choose Leader and Civilization separately, which is exciting. How easy is it to change your Legacy Path in future Ages, and does it hinder you to do so, or can you simply take the bonuses from previous Ages and use them to build regardless of Legacy Path?

CARL: Both. I think you can double down and stay in the same sort of direction and keep leveling on the bonuses you received in the previous Age. So if you are going with a science civ, and in the next Age double down on another science civ, that is definitely a strategy. But also, you can pivot. If you have the proper paths unlocked, you could have been a science civ in the Antiquity Age but once you reach the Exploration Age you could pick a non-science civ and pivot into a different area. The bonuses that those civs give you will help you do that, even if the rewards you got from the previous Legacy Path may not be aligned with that.

DENNIS: That’s really what I love about this new system. We have many player types here at Firaxis—hardcore players, and casual players—Carl for example is a deep math player. I’m a surface emotion player who goes off of feel for everything. This gives me a unique early marker. As a casual player or even a new player to Civilization, before when you played Civilization 6, when you start playing you may not know what sort of direction you are going and you just feel it out and see where you land but sometimes it may be too late to see where you are headed. But with this new system, Legacy Markers allow you to prepare yourself for say, a late culture push to victory. These Legacy Paths early on almost give me a roadmap to set myself up for that. But once I play more and become an expert on that civ, I can start branching out and there is a roadmap to pivot as well.

DESTRUCTOID: I definitely feel that as well. As a more casual player, from what I’ve played so far, I don’t feel like I’m ‘playing wrong’ or hurting myself based on what I’m choosing to do now since I can sort of progress towards whatever I end up doing in the regard. As someone who enjoys playing Civilization with friends, are you guys quite ready to talk about multiplayer just yet?

DENNIS: Not too much yet, but one thing I will say which is a really cool point for Civilization 7 is that because it’s broken up into Ages, we’re going to have the ability to have a much more focused multiplayer match. For example, you’ll be able to really focus on playing an Age. We aren’t going into too much detail beyond that just yet, but we’ve been playing multiplayer from the beginning and we’re finding it a lot of fun to have a bite-sized chunk that you can play without having to sit down for an 8-hour mega session.

CARL: That bite-sized chunk extends beyond just that, though. Even for yourself, if you’re streaming or making content that’s one thing, but if you’re playing by yourself it can be hard to sit down and devote an entire day to playing Civilization. But this Ages system does allow you to have a breather in between.

DESTRUCTOID: How many turns does each Age typically last?

DENNIS: It really varies.

CARL: Yeah, your game speed will affect that. I think you could count on it being around 150 turns, but it could go up to about 200 if things are progressing slowly.

DENNIS: There is a hard cap, so if everyone is just ignoring everything, there will be a cap when the Age transition crisis’ will spool up whether you’re ready or not.

DESTRUCTOID: On the flip side, is there an advantage for a player to sort of rush toward the next Age as opposed to someone who may take their time?

CARL: Yeah, I think so. Everyone is working towards the same Legacy Paths, but it’s not a competition. You are able to hit the third tier reward for Culture, Economy, Science, and Military, and so can every other player in the game and they will all have the same rewards. The faster you knock something out, so if you just push through had knock the Age out, the fewer Legacy Path rewards other players are likely to have, and therefore the fewer bonuses they will get going into the next Age. You can also sandbag and try to hit as many as possible as you can to set yourself up for the next Age, but every time any player advances a Legacy Path, you advance the Age progress, and when that hits 100% the Age will end. So that’s why the turns vary because it depends on how fast every player is pushing towards it.

DENNIS: What he’s talking about is actually a key point. All these choices you have the option of making, but at the same time as a first-time player, you can just play. All this stuff will be going on, and the new player can just go along for the ride unless they get wiped out, but the more and more you play you’re exposed to the added systems and options and you could decide “Ok, I’m going to choose to sandbag here and go for more rewards and push the Age early.” That’s what I really like about the breadth of choices available in Civilization 7. As a new player, it could seem scary, so you can just play, or you can engage fully and dabble into everything and really have this completely different experience.

DESTRUCTOID: How many total Leaders and Civilizations are there in Civilization 7?

DENNIS: Lots! We’re not saying how many just yet, but lots!

DESTRUCTOID: Do you guys have any favor non-historic Leader and Civilization combos?

DENNIS: That’s a good question, I’m a historic-pairing guy myself.

CARL: Yeah, me too. I’d say my favorite historical one is Augustus and Rome. I’m a classicist myself and I designed both of those and so I put a lot of love into them. I actually have a hard time breaking them up. One of the things we did do is perfectly designed gameplay synergies into Civs and Leaders so there are interesting combinations that aren’t historical. Obviously that’s there for the historical path as well, but there are things that are like “Hey if I take this and this and put them together, they will work together really well even if they don’t match historically.”

DESTRUCTOID: I’ve only been able to play for a little bit before this interview, but right beforehand I encountered a flood. How common are natural disasters throughout the Ages?

DENNIS: We’re still sort of balancing those things, but flooding along the flood plain, and you benefit from being next to navigable rivers, floods will happen about once every 20 turns. It can happen more frequently or slower, and you’ll see volcanoes going off and blizzards coming through, but it’s a really cool system with some neat trade-offs. You know settling next to a river you’re going to be repairing improvements from time to time, but you’ll get some bonuses from it too.

CARL: And just like in Civilization 6, these disasters will add yield to the tile. In a recent game I had a massive storm come through and devastate my city, but it added a ton of yield and so after I worked through the pain and got back on my feet, I had a bigger powerhouse city because of it.

DESTRUCTOID: I noticed the end-turn sequence is essentially instantaneous. I know late game will obviously slow down a bit, but compared to say Civilization 6, is end-turn sequence faster in the later game?

DENNIS: There is still a lot of work we are doing there. Right now your preview is on a small sized map, so on a bigger map with more players and later in the game when there is a lot more on the map, it will obviously get slower. But our goal is “It’s better than Civilization 6.” And really, that’s our goal across the board with Civilization 7, is that it’s better than Civilization 6.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VII releases on February 11, 2025 on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. To hear more about my hands-on time with Civ 7 where I go to play for three hours, check out our Hands-On preview.