Civilization 6's promo art starring the statue of Atlas

If you ever thought your free time is safe now that Civilization V has a few years behind it and is no longer as gripping as it was the day it first released, I'm afraid I have some bad news as Civlization VI has just been announced.

In standard Civilization tradition, the announcement was done through an incredibly motivational cinematic trailer that showcases all of humanity's greatest achievements, and a hilarious attempt at censoring boobies that just results in drawing even more attention to them. Have a look, but not at the boobies, its not polite to stare after all:

 

Your cities will now be able to span further than ever before, and best of all, the terrain they're built on will influence your research, production, and what type of wonders you can build on it. For example, a civilization that's completely landlocked and lives within a desert will have a comparatively worse time trying to research naval technology, but will be able to build the Pyramid as a wonder, and so forth.

Research can now be influenced through exploration, so to develop your techonlogy as quickly as possible you will need to explore your environment, discover new cultures, and steal appropriate knowledge from them.

A screenshot from the upcoming Civilization VI

My personal favorite change out of them all is that diplomacy now takes into consideration the age and state of the world you're in. Cave men might be comfortable with war being a daily occurrence, but modern states that have been used to years of peace will respond harshly to any warmongers, and so forth. This combined with improved AI should result in some rather exciting matches, at least for my culture orientated empires.

The final change/addition I wanted to highlight is the option to embed support units with other units, so for example you can add an anti-tank support squad to your infantry, or a warrior to tag along with settlers. Its one of those minute features that are going to make a large impact both in terms of balance, and how much busywork you need to perform when doing anything.

If you're interested in learning more I'd recommend you head over to the official CIV 6 website, but if you're simply looking for the release date, its October 21st.

Early Civilization VI screenshot featuring the Japanese faction