Civilization 7 Mod Makers Are Already Tinkering With Its UI, Map Size, and More

Civilization 7 is out and developer Firaxis is already working to address its ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam. But modders are also on the case, adding what they can to expand and iterate on the base experience.

Hosted on the Civ Fanatics site, mods are already starting to pop up for Civilization 7. Many build on the base game or put extra modifiers on world effects. More Natural Wonders, for example, does exactly what it says, doubling the amount of Natural Wonders that spawn on each map size. Or, for those who don’t want to meet the requirements to unlock certain civilizations, the Unlock all Civs mod undoes that particular constraint. While not exactly in the spirit of balance, the mods are nice tools to have if you’re looking to tinker with the game.

The most popular mod, judging by downloads, is Sukritact’s Simple UI Adjustments, which makes “[quality of life] and aesthetic adjustments to the game’s UI.” The mod lets Diplomacy be initiated through the city banner, adjusts Plot Yield icons to be smaller on unimproved or unworked tiles, and adjusts the tooltips as well.

The official Patch 1.01 for Civilization 7 has already begun to address some of these issues, taking aim at the user interface, AI, map variety, and other community complaints. It’s the first in a “series of upcoming patches” from Firaxis, intent on addressing feedback from Civilization 7’s advanced access period.

Yet modders are still honing in on everything from AI to fonts and lenses, and even the pause menu. While early quality-of-life updates are prominent, some mods are looking to future possibilites, like one that adds massive map sizes. It’s still early days, but considering Civ’s long history of eager mod support, it’s likely we’ll see more and more outside adjustments pop up alongside Firaxis’ own efforts to fine-tune Civilization 7.

In a recent interview with IGN, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick acknowledged the negative reviews, but said the “legacy Civ audience” will come around.

“We think that as people play the game longer, the sentiment improves because with every launch of a new Civ, the team pushes the envelope a little bit and our legacy Civ audience is a little bit nervous about what they initially see and then they realize, wow, this is actually really incredible, and they dive in,” Zelnick said.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.