Sid Meier's Civilization is one of the most influential strategy game franchises of all time. The early games played a major role in formalizing many conventions of the 4X strategy subgenre. The series has evolved significantly since 1991, with each game adding its own twists to the core experience. With Civilization 7 on its way, players will be curious to see where Firaxis takes the series next.

Much of the speculation about Civilization 7 focuses on potential new leaders and countries. However, the new game has an opportunity to reconsider some odd design choices from Civilization 6. This includes changing Civ 7's Aircraft Carriers so players can level them up without using them in melee combat.

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How Civ 7 Should Change Aircraft Carriers

As with Civ 6's other military units, players can level up their Aircraft Carriers by using them in combat. However, most never do this, and some might not even realize it is possible. This is because most players want to use their Aircraft Carriers as carriers, which means launching planes to do the actual fighting. However, since planes are separate units, Aircraft Carriers don't gain XP when their planes engage in combat. Instead, players need to make the unintuitive decision to use their carriers in melee combat.

This is clearly a bizarre decision. The whole point of an Aircraft Carrier is to carry aircraft. It likely wouldn't even occur to many players that they should be using them at close range. In addition to being unintuitive, it's not even a good decision in terms of gameplay. The same Technology that unlocks Carriers also unlocks Destroyers, the actual naval melee unit for that era. Destroyers also cost the same while having better stats in every category.

Assuming units in Civ 7 still Promote like units in Civilization 6, the new game needs to find a better way for Carriers to gain XP. The most obvious option is to simply give the Aircraft Carrier a copy of whatever XP the planes get. When a plane lands on a carrier, Civ 7 could set a hidden flag that tracks which Carrier the aircraft is based at. If the plane attacks something while the flag is set, then the Carrier gets XP. If the plane lands at an Aerodrome or a different Aircraft Carrier, that becomes the new base.

However, this could create a problem. If an Aircraft Carrier's XP is based on planes, then stationing planes and Aerodromes means that potential XP is going to waste. Civilization 7 could try to mitigate this by splitting XP between the aircraft and the Carrier. This would mean planes level up slower if they are based in an Aircraft Carrier, encouraging players to still use Aerodromes. However, that solution would feel very artificial, and it doesn't make much logical sense.

The best option might be for Civ 7's Aircraft Carriers to have a separate upgrade system from regular units. In fact, if the Aircraft Carriers are essentially mobile Aerodromes, it might be best for Civilization 7 to treat them like mobile Districts. Aircraft Carrier's upgrades could thus work like District Buildings rather than typical unit Promotions.

Players could unlock new upgrades by researching more advanced technologies, the same as they do with Buildings. Civ 7 players could then take the Aircraft Carrier to a friendly Harbor or City Center and use the City's Production to upgrade the ship. Alternatively, players could simply buy the upgrade with gold, the same as upgrading an outdated unit to its modern counterpart. Either solution would give players of the upcoming Civilization 7 a better way to improve their Aircraft Carriers.

Civilization 7 is in development.

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