Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Developers
	Firaxis Games
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Linux	Aspyr Media
Publishers
	2K Games
OS X, Linux	Aspyr Media
Release dates
Windows	October 21, 2016
macOS (OS X)	October 24, 2016
Linux	February 9, 2017
Reception
Metacritic	88
OpenCritic	89
IGDB	87
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack, DLC, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	4X, TBS
Themes	Historical
Series	Civilization

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view 4X and TBS game in the Civilization series.

The game received two major expansion packs: Rise and Fall in February 2018, and Gathering Storm in February 2019, both introducing new civilizations, units, mechanics and scenarios. It also received a number of minor DLC with a smaller number of civilizations and scenarios; despite their modular nature, all players need to own them in multiplayer in order to use their content.

From May 2020 to March 2021, the game received content that was part of the New Frontier Pass, which included several minor expansions that would include one or two new civilizations, but were bundled with new game modes as well. The final piece of new content, the Leader Pass from November 2022, gradually released alternate leaders for existing civilizations.

The game includes a benchmark option.

General information

Official 2K Games forum

Civilization Wiki - A detailed wiki for all Civilization games and their spin offs

Civilization Fanatics' Civilization VI section

Civilization Fanatics' Civilization VI Forums

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Only the base game was released at retail.
Publisher website		Digital Deluxe version also available.
Amazon.com		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
Amazon.co.uk		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
Epic Games Store		DRM-free when launched directly from executable. Aztec DLC also Included
GamersGate		Digital Deluxe, Platinum and Anthology Editions also available.
		Digital Deluxe, Platinum and Anthology Editions also available.
Green Man Gaming		Digital Deluxe, Platinum and Anthology Editions also available.
Humble Store		Digital Deluxe, Platinum and Anthology Editions also available for Steam.
Mac App Store
Microsoft Store		Platinum Edition and Anthology Edition also available.
Steam		Digital Deluxe, Platinum and Anthology Editions also available.

All Linux versions require Steam DRM.

Demo

A free demo is available via Steam (allow Steam popup): steam://install/537570.

Version differences

The Digital Deluxe version includes a 25th Anniversary Digital Soundtrack and access to four post-launch DLC packs.

The Platinum Edition bundle includes the base game and the DLC content that was not part of the New Frontier Pass.

The Anthology bundle includes the base game and all DLC, including the New Frontier Pass and Leader Pass content.

The Mac App Store version is single player only.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	Minor DLC includes one or two civilizations, as well as scenarios and secondary game modes.
Expansion pack	Expansion packs include multiple civilizations, mechanics, and secondary game modes.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Rise and Fall	Expansion
Gathering Storm	Expansion
Khmer and Indonesia Civilization & Scenario Pack
Nubia Civilization & Scenario Pack
Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack
Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack
Poland Civilization & Scenario Pack
Vikings Scenario Pack
Maya & Gran Colombia Pack	Part of the New Frontier Pass
Ethiopia Pack	Part of the New Frontier Pass
Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack	Part of the New Frontier Pass, can not be purchased separately
Byzantium & Gaul Pack	Part of the New Frontier Pass
Catherine de Medici Persona Pack	Part of the New Frontier Pass, can not be purchased separately
Babylon Pack	Part of the New Frontier Pass
Vietnam & Kublai Khan Pack	Part of the New Frontier Pass
Portugal Pack	Part of the New Frontier Pass
Leader Pass	Contains small leader DLCs to be released from November 21, 2022 to March 2023.

Essential improvements

Automatic unit cycling

Disable automatic unit cycling
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Edit UserOptions.txt. Change AutoUnitCycle 1 to AutoUnitCycle 0 Notes This will stop the game from automatically switching to the next unit after ending the turn of another unit. Since the first official patch, this is an ingame option as well.

Skip intro videos

Disable the intro Video at game startup
Replace logos.bk2 with the replacement .bk2 file. For the Gathering Storm expansion, replace LOGO_2KFiraxis.bk2 in Base\Platforms\Windows\Movies folder.

Edge scrolling

Fix top edge scrolling being triggered before the mouse reaches the edge of the screen

In the installation directory, open Base\Assets\UI\WorldInput.xml. Find the line Container ID="TopScreenEdge" Anchor="L,T" Size="Full,30" Offset="0,28". Change it to Container ID="TopScreenEdge" Anchor="L,T" Size="Full,2" Offset="0,0". Save the file. Notes This fix is neither needed nor applicable for game versions released after the Gathering Storm expansion. Actually with UI scaling in Gathering Storm fix is still required, but instead EdgeScroll.xml should be edited.

UI scaling

Apply UI scaling at any resolution
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open AppOptions.txt. Set the UIUpscale setting to the percentage of scaling desired. Save the file. Notes UI scaling is available as an in-game option at 4K resolutions and scales the interface by 2x. Example: a UIUpscale value of 0.25 will increase the UI size by 25%. At 1440p, values between 0.2 and 0.3 work well.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/
Mac App Store
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/aspyr-media/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\
Microsoft Store
Epic Games Launcher	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI (Epic)\Saves\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/Saves/
Mac App Store	$HOME/Library/Containers/Civilization VI/Data/Library/Application Support/Sid Meier’s Civilization VI/Saves
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/aspyr-media/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/Saves/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

A 2K Account (formerly my2K) can be used for save synchronization.

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Default: Exclusive fullscreen
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Always on, cannot be disabled
Anti-aliasing (AA)		MSAA 2X/4X/8X
Vertical sync (Vsync)		On by default
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Includes optional fps cap with 20, 30 and 60 fps settings Can go up to 144fps, possibly higher. (Currently bugged, defaults to 60fps)
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode		Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Some possible keybindings are missing, but for the most part everything that has a shortcut can be reconfigured.
Mouse acceleration		Uses windows hardware cursor, so follows the windows setting (Enhance pointer precision = on)
Mouse sensitivity		Windows hardware cursor, 1:1 movement if you run the game at your desktop resolution
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Steam Controller only.

Controller types

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, SFX, Ambient, Speech
Surround sound		5.1 Supported, follows windows speaker settings
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Can be toggled on/off
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Narrated by Sean Bean
Belarusian				Fan translation, Steam Workshop.
Simplified Chinese
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play		Hot seat
LAN play		Requires an active internet connection (presumably for games with the May 2023 update installed) . Can be abused to set up teams in Single Player
Online play
Asynchronous multiplayer		Known as 'Play by Cloud' under multiplayer

Uses Epic Online Services for Epic-Games Store Version of the game.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (DX11).

Issues fixed

Linux

Game crashes on launch

If your game crashes immediately after launching it you can try changing your launch options to: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/openssl-1.0 %command%

Should that not work, you can try this instead: LD_PRELOAD=$HOME/.steam/steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfontconfig.so.1 %command%

If you use Wayland, you might also need to set QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb for the launcher to work.

Windows

Game is shown as running in Steam or Epic Games Launcher even after quitting.
Open task Manager and end the process "QtWebEnginerProcess.exe" .

Game crashes when loading into game

Game crashes after purchasing New Frontier Pass / Installing new mods

Go to Additional Content → Mods Disable various mods (both official DLCs and community created mods) until the game no longer crashes upon loading into a game This is because Civ VI engine has a strict limit on how many assets it can load. Both official DLCs and community mods count towards this limit. Once this limit is passed, the game crashes. Notes Even contents that are not loaded into the specific game (such as Multiplayer scenario packs when playing single player) count towards this limit Lower end GPUs such as Intel HD Graphics seem to have lower asset limit

Other information

Disable narration

Disable narration of loading screen and researched technologies text

Go to the <path-to-game>\Base\Platforms\Windows\audio folder. Delete all language folders, while leaving the *.wav files untouched. For any expansion packs or DLCs installed, delete all the language folders under <path-to-game>\DLC\<dlc-folder>\platforms\windows\audio, where each DLC will be found in a separate <dlc-folder>. Notes It is not enough to delete the folder of the language your game is set to, e.g. English. This will make the game use the next-available language, e.g. Chinese. Non-voice game sounds, for example UI actions, unit movement and combat sounds, and so on, are not affected by this mod and will still be enabled.

Bypass launcher

Bypass the 2K launcher and open game directly from library (Steam Only)

In your Steam library list, right-click on Civilization VI From the pull down menu, select Properties About the middle of the opened properties window, click on Set Launch Options... Enter the following line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Binaries\Win64Steam\CivilizationVI.exe" %command% For Linux, set it to "(steam-install-location)/steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/Civ6Sub" %command% For Mac, set it to "/Users/(account_name)/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/Civ6.app/Contents/MacOS/Civ6_Exe_Child" %command% Notes Change path with the game install location. For the DX12 version, replace CivilizationVI.exe with CivilizationVI_DX12.exe.

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11, 12
OpenGL		OS X/Linux only
Metal support		Metal support since 5 April 2019

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok	Includes Fork Particle.
Audio	Wwise
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.995b

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3 2.5 GHz AMD Phenom II 2.6 GHz	Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	12 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GT 450 ATI Radeon HD 5570 1 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 AMD Radeon HD 7970 2 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.11.6	10.12
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5 2.7 GHz
System memory (RAM)	6 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	15 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 775M AMD Radeon HD 6790 Intel Iris Pro 1 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 16.04, SteamOS
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3-530 2.93 GHz AMD A8-3870K 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	6 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	15 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 1 GB of VRAM

AMD/Intel GPUs aren't officially supported.