Sid Meier's Civilization VI News

Want 'hillier' hills in Civilization 6? There's a mod for that

You know I was telling my wife the other day that one thing I felt 4X game Civilization VI desperately needed was more defined gradients. I mean yeah, there are other things you could fix - civ balance, AI interactions, tile yields - but man, I need more definition for those hills.

Luckily, the Civ 6 mod scene has come to the rescue with 'Hillier Hills', a mod that changes the heightmap of hill tiles to make them stand out more. It doesn't do anything other than that, but why would you want anything else? Look at these hills!

There is more, as surprising at it may seem: Another mod by user Leugi - Colder Tundra - provides better textures for tundra tiles. Leugi and the creator of the thicc hills mod, Deliverator23, have teamed up to offer a combined mod that offers both visual improvements in a single package. They weren't compatible before, which was one the great tragedies of the modern age.

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Civ 2 at 25 - one of the most important 4X strategy games of all time

Can you remember the first time you played a Civilization game, and what it was that got you hooked? Was it the exploration? Empire management? Warfare? Without a doubt this 4X series is a cornerstone of the strategy gaming world, and while Civilization VI is the most recent iteration, the mighty house of Meier has some amazing past entries worthy of celebration decades later.

From a nuke happy Gandhi to 'just one more turn' syndrome, the legacy of past Civ games remains influential across many parts of modern gaming culture. Civilization II - which was first released in 1996 - marks its 25th anniversary today (technically it's on the 29th, but there's no leap day this year). But its legacy is often tucked away between the landmark that was the first game, and the massive successes of later releases. Surprisingly it was not directly worked on by Sid Meier himself, but Civilization II still saw the series branch out as it took on new ideas from lead developers Brian Reynolds, Douglas Caspian-Kaufman, and Jeff Briggs.

Civilization II introduced many of the key features that would continue to be part of the series for generations: the isometric map, river mechanics, new units, and generally it made lots of quality of life improvements to the core gameplay. But where Civ II really stood out was in the personality it fed into each game. Players were treated to wonderful, and corny, live action video advisors, fully animated leaders, a changing throne room, the ability to look at cities as they grew, and entertaining music.

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Civilization 6 gets Civ 5's maps thanks to this mod

Saying goodbye to an old game when the sequel comes out can be difficult, especially when the gaps between installments are long. A Civilization 6 player has decided to ease this pain for Civilization 5 fans by converting a bunch of the latter's maps to the new(er) game.

The Civilization 5 Scenario Map Pack on Steam Workshop is exactly what it says on the tin, offering most of the maps you play-though in the 4X game, updated for its more recent counter-part. Eight of Civ 5's 10 set maps are included, stretching across the globe and world history, all converted by modder Crumblus Crisp, using the Yet (not) Another Bit Map Converter from Zobtzler.

The maps are as follows: British Isles from 1066: Year of Viking Destiny, Eastern United States from American Civil War, Eurasia from Rise of the Mongols, Europe from Into the Renaissance, Fertile Crescent from Wonders of the Ancient World, Mediterranean from Fall of Rome, Northeast Asia from Samurai Invasion of Korea, and South Pacific from Paradise Found. As mentioned, it's not a complete set, you're missing Northeast Asia from Samurai Invasion of Korea and Africa from Scramble for Africa, but it's the bulk of them.

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Civilization 6's free Barbarians update is out now

The much-anticipated February free update has arrived for Civilization VI. As we've reported, this patch adds a host of new stuff for the legendary 4X game, including a new Barbarian Clans mode and the ability to ban particularly unpleasant leaders. Firaxis has published the patch notes along with the patch itself, so now we can dig in to see exactly what's new.

First of all, it's worth pointing out that this big patch is available to everyone who owns Civilization VI - you don't need the Frontier Pass or the expansions for the new content to work in your game. Just install the patch and fire up vanilla Civilization VI.

Barbarian Clans mode includes seven clan types, specifically the Flatland Clan, the Woodland Clan, the Hills Clan, the Rover Clan, the Chariot Clan, the Jungle Clan, and the Seafaring Clan. Each type uses its own set of preferred units and appears under distinct map conditions. Interestingly, the barbarian clans can also recruit unique units from civs that are not selected in the setup phase.

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Civilization VI - February 2021 Game Update Available Now

We’re excited to announce the February 2021 Game Update is now available to all Civilization VI players.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Included in this update is the new Barbarian Clans, the Leader Selection Pool and several balance adjustments and additional changes based on player feedback. Read on for the full list of what’s available in today’s free game update.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/289070/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_VI/

[NEW FEATURES]
Barbarian Clans Game Mode
A new game mode that adds diverse Barbarian groups and strategies. This game mode replaces standard Barbarian Tribes with Clans, with a variety of terrain and combat preferences. Additionally, the mode introduces new player actions for peaceful interactions with Barbarians that provide increased strategic options.

Every Clan can progress towards converting into a City-State. If the camp remains in play long enough and/or receives enough boosts from player actions, it will transform into a new City-State.

New Clans Types
This mode includes seven types of Barbarian Clans. Each clan type has its own preferred range of units to field and requires a different set of map conditions in order to appear. In addition to their normal units, clans also have the ability to field Unique Units from Civs that were not selected during game setup.
· Flatland Clan – Prefers to place their Outposts in open terrain away from woods and hills. They prefer a balance of melee units for attack and ranged units for defense.
· Woodland Clan – Prefers to place their Outposts in or adjacent to woods and rainforests. They prefer greater numbers of ranged units than melee units and use them for both attack and defense.
· Hills Clan – Prefers to place their Outposts on open terrain with hills. They strongly prefer melee units, even to the point of excluding ranged units completely.
· Rover Clan – Require a nearby Horse resource and prefer to place their Outposts in open terrain away from woods. They prefer as many mounted units as possible, using both light and heavy cavalry for attack and defense.
· Chariot Clan – Require a nearby Horse resource and prefer to place their Outposts in the desert. They prefer mounted vehicles and light cavalry in all roles, rarely using ranged units at all.
· Jungle Clan – Requires a nearby Ivory resource and prefer to place their Outposts inside rainforests. They prefer a mixture of light and heavy cavalry units supported by foot and ranged units.
· Seafaring Clan – Always place their Outposts on coastal plots. They defend their Outposts with land-based anti-cavalry units, but otherwise they exclusively use naval melee and naval ranged units for scouting and attacking.

New Unit Commands
Combat units that enter a Barbarian Outpost do not automatically destroy it. Instead, they can choose from two new unit commands to deal with the clan.
· Disperse Clan – Destroy the clan completely and earn experience points for the dispersing unit.
· Raid Clan – Player is rewarded with Gold and the clan’s progress towards City-State conversion is reduced, but the Outpost is not destroyed. Raided clans gain immunity to raids for a short duration and spawn a defender unit in reprisal the same turn.

New Player Commands
Players can take peaceful or diplomatic actions with Clans. To initiate one of these interactions, players will need to click on the map banner over the Outpost.
· Hire Clan – Spend Gold to permanently purchase the best military unit the clan can currently train. The clan will gain progress towards City-State conversion.
· Ransom Unit from Clan – Spend Gold to recover a civilian unit captured by the clan. Clans that ransom units lose progress towards City-State conversion.
· Bribe Clan – Spend Gold to expel units from your territory and prevent them from targeting your cities for a number of turns. The clan will gain progress towards City-State conversion.
· Incite Clan – Spend Gold to encourage the clan to raid and attack the cities of another civilization. The clan will lose progress towards City-State conversion.

Leader Selection Pool
· The Leader Selection Pool is a new advanced option that allows players to create 2 custom pools of leaders for their single and multiplayer games. What this does is allow players to create lists of leaders that can be chosen by others, or by the AI. For instance, you might want to have one group of leaders for your friends in an online game, and then restrict the AI to a different set of leaders. This still allows for some randomness - you could create a list of leaders that you haven't seen before, a list of non-aggressive leaders for a peaceful game, or all the warmongers for a real brawl.

[BALANCE/POLISH]
General updates
· [Maya and Gran Colombia Pack] Fixed an issue where the Basilikoi Paides Barracks replacement was not properly applying the combat strength increase for Lahore's Nihang unit.
· [Base game, Rise and Fall] The Llanero [Maya and Gran Colombia] and Oromo Cavalry [Ethiopia Pack] no longer require a strategic resource in order to train.
· [Gathering Storm] Earth Goddess now gives 1 Faith for Breathtaking tiles.
· Fixed an issue where the Coastal Raid unit action was not properly raiding coastal plots with support units on them.
· Fixed an issue where games with 20 civs and 24 City-States would start without a Free Cities player, making rebellions from loyalty impossible.

Natural Wonder updates
Cliffs of Dover gives 3 Gold, 3 Culture, 2 Food.
Crater Lake gives 5 faith instead of 4.
Lysefjord gives +1 Production to adjacent tiles.
Giant's Causeway provides +1 Culture to adjacent tiles.
The Campus now receives a major adjacency for the Great Barrier Reef.
[Maya and Gran Colombia Pack] Removed the Major Adjacency bonus for the Theater Square and Commercial Hub from Paititi.

Governments update
Autocracy Policy Slots - 1 Military, 1 Economic, 1 Diplomatic, 1 Wildcard
Oligarchy Policy Slots - 2 Military, 1 Economic, 0 Diplomatic, 1 Wildcard
Monarchy Policy Slots - 2 Military, 1 Economic, 1 Diplomatic, 2 Wildcard
Merchant Republic Policy Slots - 1 Military, 2 Economic, 2 Diplomatic, 1 Wildcard
[Gathering Storm] In addition to the housing Monarchy now gives +2 Favor from each Renaissance Walls.

Buildings update
Arena and Tlachtli buildings provide +2 Amenities.
[Rise and Fall, Gathering Storm] Ferris Wheel now provides +2 Amenities.
[Rise and Fall, Gathering Storm] Audience Chamber now provides +2 Amenities and +4 Housing.
[Rise and Fall, Gathering Storm] Add the Water Park building to Toronto (Rise and Fall) and Mexico City (Gathering Storm).

Red Death
· Removed non-functional map options such as resources, start positions, and temperature from Game Setup menu as they don’t apply to Red Death.

Ethiopia Pack
· Fixed an issue where extra Great Work slots on a building would disappear when a bank created by a Great Merchant would be replaced by the Gilded Vault during Secret Societies mode gameplay.

Byzantium and Gaul Pack
· Fixed an issue where the Culture Industry Golden Policy card would provide +25% Production to specialty districts when it should only apply to non-specialty districts.

Pirates
· Fixed an issue where players could spam tavern visits on the same turn.
· Fixed an issue where the City Banner tooltips would display incorrect text when viewing the “Sack City” and Visit Tavern” tooltips.

Vietnam and Kublai Khan Pack
· [Babylon Pack] Hero ability “Maui’s Inventions” will now only spawn a random resource that already exists in the world to prevent players from being granted a Monopoly on a single resource.
· Fixed an issue causing redundant failure messages for Corporation creation.
· Fixed an issue causing Kublai Khan’s agenda to not count negative modifiers towards military power.
· Fixed a crash that would occur when a player tried to steal a Corporation from another player.

[MP]
· "No and stop asking" responses are disabled when human opponents engage in diplomatic options with the player during Multiplayer gameplay.
· Improved matchmaking.

[AI]
· AI has bigger bias towards building air units.
· AI will use better formations for air units.
· AI will have more aircraft ready.
· AI will more efficiently use anti-air against aircraft.
· AI will place a larger value on trades that include strategic resources needed to build air units.
· AI is more likely to make a deal for strategic resources related to air units.
· Increase AI’s desire to engage in the Culture race.
· Strengthened bias against building too many spaceports.
· AI will not build units that require an ongoing resource they don’t have.
· Fixed an issue where the AI would offer more Gold per turn than intended for low value items.

[UI]
· Fixed an issue where a Civilization’s data would be erased from the CO2 Levels Global Contribution graph after they were removed from the game.
· Fixed an issue where “Sleep” icons were missing from the Unit List in the World Tracker.
· Various text updates

[CONSOLE]
[ALL]
· Fixed an issue where the Defeat screen buttons would not function if player was defeated before another player settles a city in multiplayer.
· Fixed a wooden border that was present in the Global Resource Report screen.
· Fixed an issue that would cause the Great People menu to be overlapped by the Notifications menu.
· Fixed an issue with an extra symbol being present in the Purchase with Gold tooltip.
· Fixed an icon for Taoism being displayed as the Mongolia icon for China in the Path to Nirvana Create game menu.
· Fixed a crash that could occur after a desync in multiplayer.
· Fixed a crash that could occur when progressing through gameplay during late game.
· Fixed an issue where a message prompt does not appear when setting the number of City-States in the Single Player Create Game menu.
· Fixed an issue where Great People tooltips display on the Heroes tab of the Heroes & Great People menu.
· Fixed a temporary hang that could occur when starting a game after launch.

[PS4 & XB1]
· Fixed a redundant banner that could appear during a Rise and Fall ruleset game.

[SWITCH & PS4]
· Fixed an overlapping issue in the Create Game menu with the Game Random Seed and Map Random Seed text.

[SWITCH]
· Fixed an issue that would cause the right tray expand button was not present when Joy-Cons are not attached.
· Fixed a City Recommendation tooltip that would not display when toggling tooltips.

[XB1]
· Fixed a crash that could occur when loading into a multiplayer game after joining a friend’s game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1308090/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_VI__New_Frontier_Pass/

Thank you all for your continued support and feedback across our social media channels, the Civilization subreddit, Steam forums and elsewhere. Join the conversation by using the hashtag #OneMoreTurn, and be sure to follow the Civilization franchise on social media to keep up to date with the latest news and information on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.