Civ 7 Update 1.2.3: Auto-Explore and Age Transition Polish
The promised July update for Civilization VII dropped today with patch 1.2.3, bringing the much-requested auto-explore feature and several quality-of-life improvements. After the massive 1.2.2 update last month that added large and huge maps, this one's more focused on polish.
Auto-Explore Finally Arrives
The headline feature is auto-explore, working similarly to Civ VI. Hit the button and your scouts wander off into the fog of war like curious toddlers. Perfect for when you're micromanaging five cities and forget you have units sitting idle for 20 turns. The AI's actually decent at revealing the map efficiently, though it still occasionally gets distracted by shiny Natural Wonders.
Age Transition Improvements
The team's been tweaking Age transitions based on player feedback. The countdown timer now actually makes sense, showing exactly how many turns until everyone moves to the next Age. No more surprise transitions when you're one turn away from finishing that Wonder.
They've also smoothed out the jarring gameplay shifts between Ages. Units carry over more logically now, and you won't lose half your infrastructure just because humanity discovered gunpowder.
Balance Tweaks
Minor adjustments to Modern Age Specialists continue from 1.2.2. Free Speech civic got another small nerf (because apparently free speech is OP in video games), while Constitution received a slight buff to make Democracy builds more viable.
Bug Fixes
The usual suspects: multiplayer desyncs reduced, that annoying UI overlap in the trade screen fixed, and scouts no longer get permanently stuck between mountain tiles. Performance improvements for late-game turns on huge maps should help those marathon sessions.
What's Next
Firaxis hinted at a larger content update coming in August with new civs and possibly that Corporations system they've been teasing. For now, 1.2.3 delivers on its promises of making the game smoother rather than bigger.
Update 1.2.3 is live now on all platforms. Steam users get it automatically, while Epic and console players might need to manually check for updates.
