Civilization 7 is testing a "harsher" option for its divisive Age Transitions

The transitions between the three major ages of a Civilization 7 match have been a hot topic ever since release. Arguably the biggest shake-up to the 4X series' formula in the new entry, the decision to pick a new civ at the start of each era has been divisive. In order to give Civ 7 players more flexibility and appease those wanting a more classic experience, Firaxis recently introduced Age Transition Impact settings - Regroup is for those that enjoy the new approach, and Continuity for those that want to carry more over to each age and keep things more stable. Well, a third, "harsher" option is now being considered, and it's called Collapse.

A new Civilization 7 update, 1.2.4, has just arrived, and alongside the patch notes (which I'll address a little later) is a message from creative director Ed Beach. In this message, Beach reflects on the addition of Regroup and Continuity to let players decide what kind of Age Transitions they want, and how Firaxis has tinkered with the Continuity mode to get things in a balanced spot (more changes to "soften" this option have arrived in 1.2.4). However, in an attempt to keep building on the innovations the 4X game has made, another Age Transition variation is in the works.

"We want to let our community know that we do have ideas for a third Age Transition Impact setting, something on the other, harsher side of Regroup, a setting we are tentatively calling Collapse," Beach says. "It's still early in testing, and we'll need time to see if it feels fun and fits well into the game. If it does, we'll look into when it might make sense to include it in a future update. We'll have more to share once it's further along!"

No other details on Collapse are shared, but it sounds like it'll make for an even more severe transition between the three ages - as close to a clean slate as you can get before thinking 'well, I may as well just start a new game.' As Beach states in his message, this is in the early stages right now and may never see the light of day if Firaxis doesn't feel it adds something desirable to Civ 7. However, I'd doubt the studio would bother announcing the existence of such an idea if it wasn't fairly confident it'd be implemented in some form in the future.

Now let's turn attention to 1.2.4 itself, which is out now for PC players. Sticking with the theme of Age Transition options, Firaxis has acknowledged that burying it in the advanced settings has led to players unknowingly starting a match without the right option selected. It's now been moved to live alongside key settings like game speed and difficulty.

To ensure consistency in players' sessions and to stop these important settings from reverting to default, Age Transition, game speed, and difficulty are now all sticky - "the game will remember these settings between Create Game sessions after starting a game," the patch notes read.

Elsewhere in the patch notes, a frustrating issue that was causing mouse clicks to not be registered has been fixed alongside a few other smaller, situational bugs. It's a small update, but it's the tease of this radical Age Transition that's really going to get tongues wagging.

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