Firaxis has released the first major update for Civilization VI, which launched last month. As well as making some technical tweaks under the hood, the patch adds some brand new content for players to enjoy, including new maps and a new multiplayer scenario.
The update introduces support for DirectX 12, starting with AMD cards and Nvidia cards from the Maxwell series or later. Players are advised to check that their drivers are up-to-date to ensure compatibility. Support for Logitech ARX second-screen functionality has also been added.
The two new map types are titled Four-Leaf Clover and Six-Armed Snowflake, and are balanced for four and six players respectively. Both are designed to encourage conflict between rival civilizations, as players are forced to contest the desirable landmass in the center of each map.
A new multiplayer scenario, Cavalry and Cannonades, puts the focus on combat by reducing unit maintenance costs and removing their strategic resource requirements. Players start with a larger army than normal and additional technologies, with a goal of claiming the largest territory within 50 turns.
There’s also some minor, but impactful changes to gameplay. Running out of time on a turn can now result in a “time defeat,” there’s extra hotkey support for cycling through units and cities, and the user interface will show which tile a city is going to grow into next.
Perhaps most importantly, the update allows players to rename their city, a long-standing feature of the series that was missing from Civilization VI at launch.
The patch includes many more balance changes, artificial intelligence tuneups, bug fixes, edits to the game’s UI and visuals, and other edits. Full patch notes can be found in the blog post announcing the update on the official Civilization website.
