Sid Meier's Civilization VII Update 1.5.1 adds Liberation, new map tools, Randomized Earth and Donut maps

Liberation changes diplomacy

Liberation adds a third way to handle a conquered Settlement or one obtained through a Peace Deal. If its original founder is another major civilization, provided that civilization is not the one the player is currently at war with, the player can return it to that owner and receive a diplomatic boost. A Settlement originally founded by a City-State can instead be restored as a City-State with the player remaining its Suzerain, if the player was once its Suzerain.

Suzerain bonuses follow the City-State: losing it removes that bonus whether it is conquered, incorporated or otherwise lost. Immediate benefits such as free Units or Techs are not removed, and they do not retrigger when the City-State is liberated.

Unit List and Map Search

Both new management panels are positioned above the minimap. The Unit List gives players a consolidated view of empire Units, including health, remaining movement, Unit Tier, reinforcement time and Commander respawn time. Players can search or sort the list and directly issue Sleep, Alert and Upgrade commands, or select a Unit on the map for its complete set of actions. Controller players can open the Unit List through the Radial Menu.

Map Search covers the currently visible map and can highlight tiles, Units, Buildings and other items. A second search bar excludes selected categories to narrow results, while a helper interface organizes searchable objects by type. The developers describe this as the first version and say further improvements are planned.

Randomized Earth and Donut maps

Randomized Earth retains an Earth-like layout but randomizes Resources, Rivers, Wonders and other features. Players may begin at their civilization's True Start Location or use standard rules for a random start. The update also makes random starts available on TSL Earth.

Donut is a Pangaea-style landmass on a square map, taller and narrower than standard maps. Its internal and external oceans normally remain disconnected, although rivers, lakes and Settlement placements can occasionally form water bridges. Map types in game creation are now grouped into collapsible categories to reduce long scrolling lists.

Other map-generation changes include updated Voronoi generation and rendering across the world wrap, varied continental shapes with natural bays and isthmuses, geographically accurate volcano names on TSL Earth, and Hides restricted to the Antiquity Age. A fix also makes added player slots appear immediately when creating a game on a huge map.

Great People now unlock through play

Great People previously competed with ordinary Units for a place in city Production queues and often ended up low on players' priorities, causing them to miss associated Narrative Events and midgame effects. Update 1.5.1 removes Great People from Production entirely. Each civilization now has unique unlock conditions, and meeting one automatically grants an available Great Person.

For the Abbasid, placing a Specialist in an Abbasid Unique Quarter rewards the Alim. Great People descriptions now show their conditions on the game setup screen, loading screen and in-game details panel. Players also receive notifications when acquiring Great People or completing a specific type.

The broader Great People changes include free purchases of Menagerie, Hospital or Observatory when the relevant Abbasidian Great People activate, and revised requirements for the Siamese Chakrabongse: it must now be expended on a foreign Capital or Palace and grants 500 Influence. The baseline number of activated Great People narrative stories rises from 1 to 3, while Heian's Shijin remains at 3.

Before installing or continuing a save

The update performs a reset that disables all active mods. Firaxis recommends waiting for mod authors to update their work, then manually re-enabling stable mods through Add-ons in the Main Menu.

Existing saves may not display every new ability or effect even though backwards compatibility is a goal; starting a new game is recommended for the best experience. Steam players who want to finish a save under the previous version can select the legacy option in the game's Properties, then Betas tab.

Firaxis also recommends updating graphics drivers and checking the Minimum System Requirements.

Notable fixes and interface changes

Multiplayer games with turn timers can now be paused through the hotkey or game menu. WMD Strike notifications identify the War type that will begin when nuclear strikes target multiple players, and the blast-radius preview expands after Operation Ivy is completed.

The update adds a Discovery filter that can enable the Scout Lens and highlight Discoveries without the Scout. Yield Previews also stop double-deducting natural production yields for certain Building placements, while Wonders remain in a Settlement's Production Queue when construction begins on an adjacent Wonder tile.

A new Toggle Details hotkey for mouse and keyboard is bound to Tab by default, separate from Skip Turn. Other fixes address missing and incorrect sound effects, animation and text problems for Ashoka and Ibn Battuta, First Meet cinematic skipping, narrative storylets that failed to trigger or triggered incorrectly, and Hotseat storylet trackers resetting after changing active players.