Firaxis' Creative Director, Ed Beach, urges even veteran Civilization players to utilize the tutorial for their first Civilization 7 campaign. His Steam post highlights the game's significant departure from previous iterations, particularly its new Ages system (Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern). Each Age concludes with a simultaneous transition for all players, involving civilization selection, Legacy retention, and world evolution – a unique feature in the series.
Beach explains the rationale behind the default "Small" map size. While seasoned players often prefer larger maps, "Small" provides a smoother learning curve with fewer opponents, simplifying the new Diplomacy system and ocean exploration crucial to the Exploration Age. He recommends the "Continents Plus" map type for its helpful island placement.
The tutorial is automatically enabled for first-time players and strongly recommended for veterans. It offers timely guidance on new mechanics. The game features four Advisors, each providing quest-based tutorials; Beach suggests focusing on one at a time. Even after mastering core systems, he advises switching to the "Only Warnings" setting, which alerts players to potential setbacks – a practice even the Firaxis team employs.
Firaxis recently revealed Civilization 7's post-launch content roadmap during a livestream (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.