Firaxis Games' creative director, Ed Beach, urges even seasoned Civilization players to utilize the tutorial for their initial Civilization 7 campaign. His Steam post highlights the game's significant departures from previous iterations, particularly the new Ages system (Antiquity, Exploration, Modern), which introduces Age Transitions impacting civilization selection, legacy retention, and world evolution. This unprecedented system necessitates a learning curve.
Beach justifies the default "Small" map size, arguing that the manageable number of empires (three on the home continent, plus others discovered later) facilitates learning the intricacies of Civ 7, especially the new Diplomacy system and its influence management. He recommends "Continents Plus" map type for a smoother introduction to ocean exploration, a crucial aspect of the Exploration Age.
The tutorial, automatically enabled on the first launch, offers timely guidance on new mechanics. Beach strongly advises veteran players to engage with it, at least for their first full campaign, emphasizing that numerous systems have been overhauled. The game features four Advisors, each guiding players through specific game aspects; Beach suggests focusing on one at a time to avoid information overload.
Even after mastering the core mechanics, Beach recommends switching the tutorial setting to "Only Warnings," allowing Advisors to alert players to potential setbacks. He reveals that even the Firaxis development team utilizes this feature.
Firaxis also recently unveiled Civilization 7's post-launch content roadmap during a livestream event (note: Great Britain is DLC). Civilization 7 launches on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on February 11th, with Deluxe Edition access starting February 6th.
