Max Peck wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 11:08 am
I'm starting to believe there was a lot more brain-drain from Firaxis over the last few years than I realized. The core gameplay loop in Civ 7 is solid and engaging, but the UIX is so lacking that in some respects it feels like a first effort from a studio with no experience. That apparent lack of experience calls into question the whole presumption that Firaxis will fix and polish everything, because I have to wonder to what extent Firaxis 2025 is the same Firaxis that has done so in the previous iterations of the franchise.
My theory is it’s the simultaneous console release that did them in, and I say that as someone that’s playing on Xbox and enjoying it quite a bit.
They admitted before launch that the simultaneous release was going to be a heavy lift for them. My theory is their UI team was stretched too thin to give everything the attention it needed. I presume they hired more people, but clearly not enough. So the UI is just undercooked and a bit buggy.
Unagi wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 10:50 am
Wow.
To Kraken's point.... Looking at that road map - it would look like they know full well that the game has trash UI and little polish. Every single stage of the roadmap has that listed as continued work..
I'd like to thank all of you beta testers for your service.
My theory is it’s the simultaneous console release that did them in, and I say that as someone that’s playing on Xbox and enjoying it quite a bit.
Totally agree. I think the PC version would be in a lot better shape if they hadn't been trying to hit 3 platforms at once, and design a UI that would work with both mouse and keyboard as well as a controller.
That's probably part of it, but since they've released ports of their previous games on consoles as well as PC, I'd expect there to be better institutional knowledge of how to design a UI that works on PC as well as console. I still think there's more going on than simply spreading themselves too thin and running out of time to design a fully-functional UI on all target platforms.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Max Peck wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 11:08 am
Correct, there is no option to continue playing past the modern age victory (I presume that is the one-more-turn thing in the roadmap). It just ends abruptly, without even any real end-of-game summary.
I'm starting to believe there was a lot more brain-drain from Firaxis over the last few years than I realized. The core gameplay loop in Civ 7 is solid and engaging, but the UIX is so lacking that in some respects it feels like a first effort from a studio with no experience. That apparent lack of experience calls into question the whole presumption that Firaxis will fix and polish everything, because I have to wonder to what extent Firaxis 2025 is the same Firaxis that has done so in the previous iterations of the franchise.
Yeah, this is exactly what I posted up thread: It’s like everyone at Firaxis who had worked on the UI of previous Civs got fired or left.
That’s what is so perplexing. It’s not like they needed to reinvent the wheel to come up with a decent Civ UI that would function on PC and console. They did it before. Civ 6 wasn’t perfect, but it was light years better than this dumpster fire.
(Caveat to include that this is coming from someone who absolutely loves this game. Still completely addicted.)
Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there -- Radiohead
Do you believe me? Do you trust me? Do you like me? 😳
Unagi wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 10:50 am
Wow.
To Kraken's point.... Looking at that road map - it would look like they know full well that the game has trash UI and little polish. Every single stage of the roadmap has that listed as continued work..
I'd like to thank all of you beta testers for your service.
I have not played it in 3 weeks now. Letting them patch it up, and I'm finishing Our Adventurer Guild in the mean time. Once that big updates hits, I start digging into it more. I probably shouldn't have played so many Civ VI games right before 7 was released. I wasn't in the mood to play and learn a new one at that point.
The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.
We were out of town the last several days, so I might pause and not pick the game back up until these first few patches hit console. That could let me finish up some of the other games I have in the backlog.
Unagi wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 10:50 am
Wow.
To Kraken's point.... Looking at that road map - it would look like they know full well that the game has trash UI and little polish. Every single stage of the roadmap has that listed as continued work..
I'd like to thank all of you beta testers for your service.
I have not played it in 3 weeks now. Letting them patch it up, and I'm finishing Our Adventurer Guild in the mean time. Once that big updates hits, I start digging into it more. I probably shouldn't have played so many Civ VI games right before 7 was released. I wasn't in the mood to play and learn a new one at that point.
Yeah, I played for a week or so - and put it down. Mainly because I have so many options right now and to let them put a little shine on it.
I also have no regrets - it's a solid game that will only improve, and I'm glad I got in on the pre-purchase cosmetics.
This is the only Civ I've not purchased on day of released. Mostly because I don't have time to play right now, but various things I've heard indicates it needs to be baked a little more anyway.
Unagi wrote:Yeah, I played for a week or so - and put it down. Mainly because I have so many options right now and to let them put a little shine on it. I also have no regrets - it's a solid game that will only improve, and I'm glad I got in on the pre-purchase cosmetics.
Same, mainly because I got sucked into Avowed. I'll pick it back up again after the first big improvement patch.
Just read through the notes for the patch today. So many basic, basic things they are fixing, but this one above all stood out to me:
Addressed a reported issue where the player could not navigate through the Civilopedia search results with a controller.
All I can say is, that's a relief.
It drove me nuts to go to the Civilopedia and not be able to look anything up. You could input something in the search bar, but there was no button to press to make it actually search.
Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there -- Radiohead
Do you believe me? Do you trust me? Do you like me? 😳
This patch is a mixed bag. There are some definite improvements, but they also broke some stuff, too. I copied this from a Reddit post, but this was driving me absolutely insane last night:
If the first city on the list has no free slots left, you cannot navigate beyond it anymore with a controller when trying to slot new resources. This is merely annoying. But when getting to modern and trying to slot factory resources, you need to fully empty the first city AND any city in between to be able to slot factory resources into a different city if you have any unconnected resources.
I'm amazed how they managed to break this in the first place and even more amazed how they managed to not notice this.
Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there -- Radiohead
Do you believe me? Do you trust me? Do you like me? 😳
Kurth wrote: Wed Mar 05, 2025 5:46 pm
This patch is a mixed bag. There are some definite improvements, but they also broke some stuff, too. I copied this from a Reddit post, but this was driving me absolutely insane last night:
If the first city on the list has no free slots left, you cannot navigate beyond it anymore with a controller when trying to slot new resources. This is merely annoying. But when getting to modern and trying to slot factory resources, you need to fully empty the first city AND any city in between to be able to slot factory resources into a different city if you have any unconnected resources.
I'm amazed how they managed to break this in the first place and even more amazed how they managed to not notice this.
Yep, ran into this myself. It’s a right painful mess, although I’m not sure it’s quite as bad as they allude to, but it is bad. I didn’t have to empty anything other than the capital. And sometimes I could get away with only removing one or two resources. I’m not entirely sure how the bug worked. Toward the end of the era it seemed to be working again, but I had already hit the 500 economic legacy points and had removed the factory resources in the capital (and filled it up with hammer type resources like Whales) so maybe that’s why it started working again.
Even when it’s “working” that resource allocation interface is a real pain on consoles.
