Civilization 7 1.2.1 update announced, patch notes

A new 1.2.1 update has been announced for Civilization 7, which will be on Nintendo Switch soon. It’s slated for early June to coincide with the new Nintendo Switch 2 version.

The update brings along the new Pangaea Plus Map Type, several balance passes to leaders and civs, an expanded human player limit in multiplayer, and addresses a number of player-reported issues. The team is also continuing to improve the UI, refine AI behavior to make opponents more competitive, and tighten up overall game polish.

Here’s the full rundown:

Civilization 7 version 1.2.1 update patch notes

New Features

• Pangaea Plus Map Type
  • Added a new map type: Pangaea Plus. This map type features a single large central landmass that all civs start on. Surrounding islands are Distant Lands to all players and are home to Treasure Resources in the Exploration Age.
• Increased Multiplayer Player Limit
  • Increased the maximum number of human players on all maps in Antiquity and Exploration. The max number of players in these ages now matches the number in Modern. Max human player numbers in Antiquity and Exploration are now (Tiny: 4; Small: 6; Standard: 8).*
    • Dev note: Players who would not fit on the Homelands are instead spawned in the Distant Lands and can make progress to the Legacy Paths in Antiquity and Exploration. Their progress is now tracked in the Legacy Path screen.

Leaders & Civs

• Leaders
  • Friedrich, Oblique
    • You now gain an Infantry Unit whenever you complete a Tech Mastery or construct a Science Building instead of just from construction.
      • Dev Note: Friedrich is one of our Leaders that rewards you for pursuing specific gameplay goals, and we wanted to make sure the reward was significant enough to feel worth it. Now your scientific focus can help field an army to defend your empire of scholars.
  • Friedrich, Baroque
    • You now gain an Infantry Unit whenever you complete a Civic Mastery or construct a Culture Building instead of just from construction.
    • Added +1 Culture per Age on displayed Great Works.
      • Dev Note: We continued to mirror the abilities on both Friedrichs, but without the boost to Commanders this Friedrich Persona was falling a little behind. We added a little Culture here to keep both versions even in power.
  • Hatshepsut
    • Added +1 Culture per Age for each unique Resource you have instead of +1 Culture for every imported Resource.
      • Dev Note: We saw Hatshepsut struggle to use her Unique Ability outside of the Antiquity Age, especially as the war-heavy gameplay of Modern made maintaining Trade Routes difficult. With these changes we hope to continue to incentivize Trade to acquire every kind of Resource, but leave multiple paths to taking advantage of the ability.
  • Himiko, High Shaman
    • Added +2 Happiness per Age on Happiness and Influence Buildings.
    • Added +50% Production towards constructing Happiness and Influence Buildings.
      • Dev Note: Himiko’s Happiness bonuses were powerful, but a little narrow. We felt expanding her kit to include bonuses on Influence buildings would be a good boost without losing her identity.
  • Jose Rizal
    • When gaining Rewards from a Narrative Event, you now gain an additional 20 Culture, 20 Gold, and 20 Influence per Age.
      • Dev Note: Influence is a powerful Yield, so we’re careful about how available it is. When looking for a buff to this Diplomatic Leader though, it was a good opportunity to grant it directly.
  • Pachacuti
    • Cities now gain a bonus to Production equal to 10% of that City’s Food.
      • Dev Note: Pachacuti is a good benchmark for what we want a powerful Food-focused leader to be. With the Food Curve changes and general balance tweaks we’ve made, he was falling behind. This adjustment is a big power boost, and we’ll be keeping an eye on Pachacuti in future updates for any tweaks needed.
  • Xerxes, Achaemenid
    • Added +10 Trade Range.
      • Dev Note: Xerxes’ focus on Trade works well, but weighing Settlement placement to ensure Trade connections versus good Yields was more often a chore than an interesting choice. The extra range gives Xerxes a little more flexibility to utilize his ‘Silk Road’ Unique Ability.
• Civs
  • [Crossroads of the World DLC] Bulgaria
    • The Tarkhan Commander now allows Units to pillage for 1 movement instead of no movement.
    • Swapped the effects of the Krum’s Dynasty Unique Ability that grants Food on pillaging with the ‘False Retreat’ Tradition that grants Production on pillaging. When Age Transitioning, you’ll now inherit the new ‘False Retreat’ Tradition that grants Food.
      • Dev Note: While it was fun to see strategic players pull off extremely fast wins with this Tradition in Modern, it was not intended behavior. This change lets Bulgaria shine in Exploration without trivializing Modern.
  • [Crossroads of the World DLC] Great Britain
    • Increased the Culture provided by Antiquarian Unique Explorer Unit from +5 to +20 for every tile in your Capital when you use the Excavate Artifact action.
    • Financial Centre now gives +2 Gold and +2 Science per connected Settlement instead of just Gold.
      • Dev Note: Great Britain focused very heavily on Production and Gold but fell behind in other Yields, so we injected a little Science and Culture as a treat.
  • Khmer
    • In addition to the passive immunity to Floods from the Mousong Civic, Settlements with a Baray Unique Building also gain immunity to flood damage. 
      • Dev Note: We made this change so that the immunity to river damage could remain after Age transition. Make sure to build your Barays! 
  • Majapahit
    • The Pura Unique Quarter now gives an empire-wide discount to upgrading Towns into Cities.
      • Dev Note: Majapahit’s Unique Quarter was one of the few that didn’t have a passive effect that you retained into the next Age. We added an effect to the Norman Donjon for the same reason.
  • Normans
    • The Donjon Unique Quarter now gives a +10% Production bonus towards training Cavalry Units in that City.
  • Inca
    • The Terrace Farm Unique Improvement has been redesigned. It now provides a base +4 Food and gives adjacent Buildings a +1 Gold adjacency bonus. It no longer requires a Mountain Tile, and can be built on any Rough terrain without a Feature or a River.
      • Dev Note: While requiring a Mountain nearby reflected a historical reality, it got in the way of gameplay more often than not. We considered buffing the Terrace Farm to be extremely powerful to make up for its placement restrictions, but elected to let you play with your civ’s unique options more often instead.
  • Russia
    • Prosveshchenie Unique Ability was changed to provide +1 Culture and +1 Science on Districts, doubled in Tundra.
      • Dev Note: We wanted to double down on rewarding players for prioritizing Tundra tiles when settling.
    • The Obshchina Unique Improvement now provides +2 Culture in Tundra, and +2 Food on all Farms in this Settlement.
      • Dev Note: This was a change made to help usability. Modern Settlements often have limited Rural space and trying to place an Improvement down while considering what Improvements were adjacent to it was sometimes frustrating.
    • Addressed a reported issue with the Obshchina Unique Improvement where the Culture benefit was stacking incorrectly when multiple were built in the same Settlement.
  • Songhai
    • The initial description you see of Songhai’s abilities now highlights that it can produce Treasure Fleets in the Homelands with the Kanta Civic. The value of these Treasure Fleets was increased from 1 point to 2 points.
    • The Tajiro Unique Unit is now cheaper to produce, with slower scaling on their costs.
    • New Unique Ability: Songhai gains +3 Gold for each Active Trade Route.
      • Dev Note: Songhai, like Mongolia, is one of our civs that has an alternate path to Legacy Path completion. We wanted to make sure that was as clear as it is for Mongolia. Additionally, Songhai’s Gold gameplay was powerful when it worked, but could flounder with a bad start. We buffed its Trade gameplay to raise the floor for this civ.

 

Gameplay

• AI
  • Addressed a reported issue where the AI was not using the Great Banker to achieve a Modern Economic Victory under some circumstances. 
  • AI is now more thoughtful when placing Unique Quarters.
  • AI now suffers less damage than the player on deep ocean tiles when playing a high difficulty game.
  • Addressed a reported issue that AI was ignoring enemy Units outside a Settlement when at war and launching an attack on an Enemy Settlement.
  • Improved AI’s Commander pathing to be more adaptable.
  • AI now only offers peace to human players on a team.
    • Dev note: If an AI is on a human team, the AI cannot offer peace to others, but can receive peace deals and accept peace for the human team.
  • AI Leaders will no longer fail to immediately attack targetable enemies when having a Ranged Unit on a Settlement’s City Center.

 

• Diplomacy
  • The Influence cost of the Levy Unit action now equals its Production cost.
  • Open Borders are now lost after an Alliance is accepted, rejected, or lost.
  • The player’s spent Influence is now properly applied to an AI ally’s War Support amount.
  • Multiplayer relationships are no longer reset from the previous Age when committing to an Age Transition while playing on a Team.
  • Fortified Districts are now properly damaged or destroyed when the “Open the Gates” Espionage Action is completed during Exploration gameplay.

 

• Environment
  • Addressed a reported issue that the previous Age Buildings were being removed when repairing a current Age building in the same District.
  • Volcanoes now spawn in Tundras and are less likely to spawn adjacent to each other.
  • On Standard Start Position maps, the spacing is now fixed so that there are 2 tiles of ocean on both the North and South Poles.

 

• Economy
  • The Missionary Unit now properly gains additional Production when trained in a City with the “Incense” Resource.
  • Fishing Boats on Reef or Resource Tiles will now properly receive the +1 Happiness bonus when playing as Hawaii.
  • Wine now properly gives a Happiness bonus to the Capital when the Resource is improved.

 

• Independent Powers
  • The Mensarii, Gbara, and Kolkhoz City-State bonus now grants Gold for only one Bridge in a Settlement.
  • Distant Land civs are no longer valid targets for Independents’ Incite Raid ability.
  • Independent Powers will no longer display negative Influence costs when attempting to befriend.
  • Dispersed Independents no longer retain white-dotted tiles in the UI when the Grow City/Grow Town Action is active.
  • Duplicate Independent Powers will no longer appear.

 

• Miscellaneous
• A tutorial has been added for Legend Unlock that can be found in the Attribute menu.
• The purchase menu will now display things that are unlocked but too expensive at the time.
• When spawning a Migrant Unit, there is now a tutorial and Civilopedia information.
• Prevented framerate dip occurring when moving cursor across a series of plots or hovering over cities.

 

• Military
  • Secondary Unit Combat Strength effects from all Resources have been removed.
    • Dev Note: Additional bonuses against particular Unit types ended up just making some Unit types like Infantry underpowered in most situations. We’re looking into other ways to differentiate Unit types so that they each have situations where they shine. 
  • Shì Dàfū Unit can now be trained when Cities other than your Capital reach 10 Population during the Antiquity Age.
  • Trade Caravans and Ships no longer receive damage from Plague when a Trade Caravan or Ship passes through a plagued Settlement.
  • Addressed a reported issue where Units failed to gain Combat Strength when the player was adjacent to the Enemy Combat Unit after unlocking Wartime Manufacturing.
  • Hexes surrounded by the target’s Commander are no longer revealed when the player activates Military Infiltration action.
  • Army Commander Units no longer gain double XP when using their abilities to attack.
  • Squadron Commander Units now respawn on an Aerodrome when defeated by an enemy Unit.
  • Several Units can no longer be used on opposing Civilization’s Commanders, including: Jacobin “Louis Antoine de Saint-Just” (French Empire); Shì Dàfū “Huo Qubing” (Han China); Uparat “Senanurak” (Siam); all Revolucionario Units (Mexico).
  • Razing penalty no longer grants free War Support against you and instead now just doubles the usual Influence penalty from conquest for the rest of the Age.
  • Naval Units now heal when resting on neutral Coastal tiles in the Modern Age.
  • Enemy Naval Units on a player’s Navigable River Urban District can now be attacked by Melee Units.
  • An embarked Ranged Unit’s Movement points will no longer be consumed when an Army Commander orders the Unit to Focus Fire on a hostile Unit.

 

• Religion
  • Changed Great Works behavior so that they only automatically unslot on a decrease in slots instead of on an increase.

 

UI

• Alignment & Spacing
  • City View’s next/previous arrows are now properly aligned instead of being pushed down when viewing a Settlement in Unrest.
  • The War Support bar no longer overlaps the UI when adding War Support over +28.
  • Removed Settlement District Health UI being present during Wonder Reveal cinematic.
  • The Resume and Restart buttons are now aligned when viewing in the Pause menu with 4K resolution.
  • Unit flags no longer cover up Town and Independent Power banners.
  • The growth meter on the Suzerain city banner now properly aligns with town and city UI banners.
  • Realigned the red ‘X’ button in the Mementos menu to be more visible. 
  • The button tips no longer fail to display side by side when the tutorial pops up in the Education to Enlightenment window.
  • The icon for Conquered City is now attached to the city name and doesn’t float in empty space.
  • Addressed a reported issue causing missing Yield numbers in the city resources UI.

 

• Civilopedia
  • Added Starvation entry to the Civilopedia.
  • Added Unrest mechanic entry to Civilopedia.
  • To and From sections for upgrading a Unique Unit now display the Unit’s Tier Level.
  • Added Shì Dàfū “Laozi” and “Ban Zhao” Units’ missing descriptions of Unique Ability in Civilopedia in the Antiquity Age.
  • The Civilopedia now includes the proper Civic Tree unlock for Reliquary.

• Controller-Specific
  • Addressed reported issues with misaligned or missing UI elements, including the AI Leader icon in the Ally War Support menu and various incorrect or non-functional buttons across menus.
  • Addressed a reported issue where tooltips were missing after canceling Urban District placement.
  • Addressed a reported issue where Technology and Civic icons would not display when researching a locked option during the Antiquity Age with tutorials enabled.
  • The scroll bar and cursor no longer lose functionality when searching for an entry that is currently displayed in Civilopedia.
  • Addressed a reported issue where the Government menu would auto-scroll after switching tabs.
  • Addressed a reported issue where vertical cursor movement was prevented in the Great Works menu.
  • The scroll bar in the Ranking tab of the Age Progress menu now works when opening via notifications.
  • Addressed a reported issue where the camera controls lost functionality when enabling the Continent Lens Filter.

• General
  • Relationship Status Icons on Leader Portraits in the Ribbon now open the Relationship Tab in the Diplomacy Menu.
  • Improved graphic fidelity of several UI elements in menus.
  • Updated the “Unit Has Moves” icon.
  • The Happiness Status icon is no longer missing when viewing an AI’s City banner.
  • When placing a Building, the Walls icon will no longer take a slot on the map.
  • In the Promotion menu, lines to locked Promotions will no longer appear highlighted.
  • Addressed a reported issue where the Unit panel of the Army Commander would linger on-screen when deselecting the Commander.
  • The Religion Icon under the Settlement Banner no longer remains red when a player fully converts a Settlement with a Religion during Exploration gameplay.
  • Added column names (e.g. “Actions,” “Primary Key,” “Secondary Key”) to the Keybind configure menu in Accessibility options.
  • Settlement Banners no longer disappear when the player places a Building down and quickly backs out of the Production List.
  • The Propose Peace button is now grayed out when the button is not functional.
  • “Age Progress Remaining” notification can no longer be triggered when playing in One-More-Turn mode.
  • Assemble Army and Deploy Army Commander actions now appear in the second row Commander-specific actions in the Unit panel.
  • “Narrate on hover” Accessibility option now narrates the 2K Account link status when hovering on the 2K Account icon in the Main menu.
  • Mawaskawe Skote Unique Improvement now properly displays when you view Ageless in the player unlocks menu while playing as Shawnee.
  • Adjacency arrows now appear consistently when constructing an Urban District during gameplay.
  • Turn Advancer now appears after the player skips turn with their first Unit during the Tutorial.
  • The consumed City/Town Legacy now gets properly removed from the count of City/Town Legacy cards in the Legacy select screen during Advanced Start.
  • The background color for Dark Age Legacy cards now displays properly as black when viewed in the Legacy planning screen.
  • Auto End Turn now pauses for unallocated Army Commander Promotion points when it’s the last action remaining.
  • Migrant Units’ Resettle ability can now only be used in empty available tiles to become rural tiles.
  • The diplomacy animation now properly plays when interacting with a Diplomacy Event.

• Multiplayer
  • Addressed a reported issue where a player’s Team Chat message appeared as if sent by a player on the Opposing Team.
  • Addressed a reported issue where the Production bonus towards Wonders appeared when viewing the tooltips of the Nepal civilization instead of the Unique Ability in the Multiplayer Lobby.
  • Added missing description for Unique Ability when viewing the tooltips of the Great Britain civilization in the Multiplayer Lobby.
  • For easier navigability, reordered all leaders and civs (base game and DLC) alphabetically when viewing the dropdowns in the Multiplayer Lobby Menu.

• Text Changes
  • Added unlock text for unlocking Shawnee in the Antiquity Age.
  • ‘Already built’ text now properly appears when constructing a Wonder and viewing it in the Tech and Civic Trees.
  • Addressed several reported instances of missing or misaligned localized text. 
  • Addressed a reported issue where gained Culture Yield always displayed as “+2 Culture” when completing a Technology Mastery as Ada Lovelace.
  • Addressed various text bugs and overlaps.

• Tooltips
  • Total Yields are now shown on plot tooltip.
  • Civilopedia and tooltips now show that Units can only gain up to +6 Combat Strength from Resources.
  • The Production Icon is no longer missing when viewing the tooltip for the Endeavor Diplomatic Action “Wonder Construction.”
  • ‘Move By Rail’ action description now remains on screen for the expected amount of time when viewing the tooltip in the Unit info panel.
  • The Medieval wall now has text to reflect that it can be purchased in Towns when viewing its tooltips in multiple menus.
  • Tooltip’s turn times now properly match the actual action’s turn time. 
  • The tooltips of tiles will no longer overlap with any window/pop-up that overlays the map.

Narrative

• Addressed a number of reported issues preventing Narrative Events from triggering.
• Clarified rewards for several Narrative Events.
• Improved the clarity and information presented in tooltips for Narrative Events. 
• A Symphony of Guns: Now grants more powerful rewards if the prerequisites are correctly met.
• Brother Against Brother: Rewards have been changed to more accurately match the narrative.
• Entitlement: Event now correctly completes when scoring 2 or more Treasure Fleet Points.
• Grace of the Highlands: Updated the second option reward to give Happiness Yield on Settlements.
• Legacy of the Ancients: Rewarded Gold Bangle Unit will now match the player’s unlocked tier.
• Stolen Stones: Now grants the correct rewards.
• The Forever Land: All Factory Resources, regardless of how they were obtained, will now count towards quest completion. Fish no longer count as a Factory Resource for the quest, and Tin now correctly counts as one. And finally, the quest description is now updated to say Factory Resource instead of Luxury Goods.
• The Man of Destiny: Added a progress tracker.

Audio

• Updated missing narrator VO across various events in the game.
• Added more UI sound effects polish.
• Added bespoke Tech and Civic select sounds.
• Updated sound effect when placing Wonders.
• Adjusted mix to make biomes, continuous combat, and resources more audible.
• Attributes have been updated to have bespoke sound effects.
• Updated dynamic tooltip settings for audio.
• Addressed various reported issues and applied several quality-of-life improvements to game audio.

Platform-Specific

• All Consoles
  • Addressed several reported issues with input flows and prompts for the UI.
  • Addressed several gameflow and stability issues.

https://civilization.2k.com/civ-vii/game-update-notes/