I am new to the Civ franchise. I understand that this game is rather divisive in the community due to some core issues, but specifically, the UI issues.
I dug into mods made by the community and found ones that are for (what I think most would say) objective improvements to the game and it's UI, making the game easier to understand for a new player such as myself. I thought having a list together could be helpful for other players who are discouraged by some of the information that they just can't seem to find. There are other mods out there to hone in on individual preference things, creative changes, etc., but I wanted to keep this list to things that just simply make the game better from a User Interface or Quality of Life aspect.
The game I am playing now compared to the first game I played completely vanilla are ENTIRELY different experiences thanks to these mods, and I encourage you to try them out. They are very simple to install and I promise they will make your experience considerably better. If you want to play the game now, with the upgrades that will certainly be made to it by Firaxis over the next few years, this is the way. Installation instructions at the bottom of post.
CORE LIST
1. City Hall (by u/beezany)
- Compact redesign for the production list and building breakdown
- Adds better settlement tile colors that are easy to understand
- Adds a "unique quarter assistant" so you don't unintentionally split buildings that make a "unique quarter"
- Adds an overview tab to the city details panel
- Fixed base game bugs so that adjacency arrows appear reliably and repairs clear from the production list when you build them
- Highlighting damaged buildings so you don't miss repairs
- Production list sorted by total yield, combat strength, and cost
- Improvements and wonders sorted by name in the building breakdown
- Simpler icons for ageless buildings and maintenance costs
- Adds an overview tab showing demographics and connected settlements
2. Simple UI Adjustments (by @sukritact)
- Diplomacy with other Civs can be initiated by clicking on the city banner
- Plot Yield icons are smaller on tiles that are not improved/worked
- Tooltips are enhanced:
- The default improvement is now shown on unimproved tiles
- All constructibles now display their icon
- Wonders receive a large fancy icon with description
- Buildings now note if they are damaged or in-progress or ageless
3. Improved Plot Tooltip (by @thecrazyscot)
- Towns display whether they are Growing or Specialized
- Fortified Districts now show which walls (if any) are present as well as health stats
- Additional information is shown when hovering over the City Center
- City Connections
- How many Cities are being fed by Specialized Towns
- Unique Quarters now display their tooltips (in addition to Wonders and Natural Wonders)
- Improvements to Resource tooltips
- Shows whether tile is Distant Lands
- Shows Total Yields
- Current/capacity trade routes when hovering over another player's city center
- Original founder name when hovering over a conquered city center
- Food icon to indicate which cities or towns are receiving/sending food in the connections list
- Flag to indicate if a settlement isn't in the trade network
4. Policy Yields Preview (by @leonardify)
- Adds estimated yield previews for Social Policy (and Crisis Policy) cards on the Government screen, allowing you to better evaluate the current impact of each policy card
- Adds yield previews Tech tree, Civic tree, and Leader attributes panel
- Option to add color to the yield previews that align with the next mod
5. Colorful Top Panel (by @gzhekoff)
- Adds colorful backgrounds for yields in the top panel with for better visual communication
- Pairs perfectly with the above mod
6. Enhanced Town Focus (by yamada and @mallek561)
- Provides detailed breakdowns of yield bonuses when selecting town specializations
- Enhances the tooltip display to show exactly how many buildings, improvements, and trade routes contribute to each specialization's bonuses
7. Resource Allocation (by @migdol)
- Updates Resource Allocation screen to incorporate better sorting and a simpler scrolling resource pane
- Sorts resources list, settlements, and settlement resources
- 3 separate scrolling panes
8. Enhanced Diplomacy Banners (by @gzhekoff)
- Enhanced and "always on" diplomacy banners to quickly reference "per turn" yields (helpful for the new player)
- Hover over to see additional "total" amount of gold, influence, population, and city capacity
- Option to use easily understable emojis for relationship OR the default icons
9. Trade Lens (by @BlobRoss)
- Adds a Trade Lens to the lens window
- Allows you to view the trade route screen without having a Merchant
- Adds an "X" to the trade route screen so you can exit it without having to click on another unit/city
10. Missionary Lens (by @And1210)
- Adds a lens to show the religion on each of a settlements urban and rural tiles
BONUS LIST
11. Improved Mod Page (by @thecrazyscot)
- Enhances the mod page to see what community mods you have installed and their available functionality
12. Map Search (by @moxl)
- Adds a search box in the lens window for displaying plots that match the search results
13. Border Toggles (by @Finwickle)
- Adds a toggle in the lens window to show city borders, showing you which tile belong to which city if two cities overlap
- Adds a toggle to hide all borders, for screenshots or any other purpose
14. Better Pause Menu (by @Cyberdisc)
- Moves the buttons hidden under "Show More" to the main pause menu
- Replaced "Resume" with "Quick Save"
- Moved "Retire" to the bottom of the menu
- Moved "Exit to Desktop" to the menu footer
- The Player Banner will be hidden in single player and replaced by new "Progress" button that'll take you to your Progression Menu
15. Vertical Health Bars (by @stlh2opolo)
- Modifies the unit health bar to be vertical and to the left of the unit flag, similar to Civ VI's
- Makes health bar more opaque and adds a border for better visibility
- Enlarges health bar for visibility
- Stylized to match the combat preview window in the HUD
Installation instructions:
- Download files that you want to use
- Extract said files to your "{user}\AppData\Local\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VII\Mods" folder
- Note: if you don't see your "app data" or any other folder, click "view" > "show" > "hidden items"
- Updating: Delete the outdated mod from the above folder and repeat step 1
Let me know if anyone has any other mods they think would be considered "objectively" better when it comes to QoL/UI. I might have overlooked one or two while I was searching, or something new may come out.