I seem to be the only one here who loves this expansion, and I see more than “minimal” AI improvements. I’m having more fun than I’ve had since Civ 4 (my series favorite) was fully modded. Many aspects of R&F I prefer to Civ 4. (The thing I miss most about Civ 4 is Leonard Nimoy!)
If you hated vanilla Civ 6, the AI fixes and new features in R&F probably won’t sway you, and if you hated Civ 5, you shouldn’t buy Civ 6. I liked vanilla Civ 6 but tired of it after 40 hours or so. I’ve now got 100-plus hours in the expansion and I’m still itching to play more. Some specific comments:
Not even bothering with the low-hanging fruit of AI issues. They just put zero care or effort into what I consider a fundamental aspect of a strategy game. I don’t expect anywhere near perfection, just a minimal effort to improve.
Respectfully, I think they have made more than a “minimal effort to improve.” The February vanilla patch notes, released before R&F, include some important fixes that have made noticeable improvements in my games. My annotations in brackets.
AI
Fixed an issue that was causing the AI to send multiple spies on the same mission. [Hard for me to assess this one.]
AI will look at graphic change on spaceports, and can target their spies to spaceports that are performing their science victory projects. [The AI is certainly diligent about this now, but then it was before, as I recall.]
Improved opportunity cost considerations for district placement. [I’ve seen the AI purchase land near mountains for campuses, and I see less of it building districts in dumb places. Not perfect, but much better behavior. I know Korea is overpowered, but I find it hard to keep up with Korea on science even on Prince. If there are a lot of civs in the game, there will be at least a couple that outpace me in everything. If there are fewer civs, I will eventually prevail, but not until the later ages.]
Improve ability to place / use aqueducts. [Haven’t tracked this, but AI cities are plenty big.]
AI knows to move builders back into their territory if they get caught outside. [I haven’t seen an unescorted builder once. In fact, I’ve hardly seen any enemy builders at all.]
AI will not complain about stealth units it can’t see being too close to its border. [True. I’ve got submarines buzzing China now.]
AI is much less likely to trade its cities away as part of a peace deal. [True.]
Improved resource trading, AI considers luxury resources it is currently importing. [True. I have not gotten one lopsided or crazy deal. The AI does seem anxious to ransom back its spies, but I’m never quite sure what to do; they’ll typically offer 100 gold and a luxury for 30 turns, and I usually say no.]
Improved new city placement, also fixed issues where the settler would try to travel through hostile territory to get an escort. [I have seen only one unescorted settler, during peace, and it was joined a turn later by a melee unit. During one war, I did encounter an enemy settler escorted by a crossbowman rather than a melee unit, but I do that too. Reportedly the AI still does use unescorted settlers outside the view or range of the player, to help the AI expand.]
AI prefers garrisoning ranged units over melee. [True.]
If the AI can capture, or significantly damage, a target city, it may ignore hostile units nearby to do that. [Definitely true. The AI often beelines to cities now. It can take walled cities now. It brings catapults, battering rams, and modern versions of these things. It couldn’t do that a year ago. Admittedly, it often does get distracted, e.g. to pick off one of my units. I don’t deny that it still does dumb stuff. I’m just asserting that the devs have made more than “minimal” effort to improve it.]
Fixed coordinating ranged attacks. [True. Also, the AI now upgrades its units. In my current game, my infantry are facing enemy infantry. My naval units are outclassed.]
Their refusal to release full modding tools until they’re done making DLC
I’m as eager for them to do this as you, because even though AI matters less to me (being a builder and not a warmonger), I recognize its importance. With a Vox Populi AI mod (and an R&F version of CQUI), CIv 6 will be awesome. But I assume Firaxis’s position reflects concern about security of their code, which doesn’t strike me as so unreasonable. It’s consistent with how they handled Civ 5. I agree with you that the game will be better once they make the source code available. In the meantime, I’m going to try the new version of AI+.
But I couldn’t buy it unless the diplo AI was fixed. I keep hoping to hear one day is is…
Please don’t buy it, because I don’t want anyone blaming me! But I’ll just tell you my experience. If you make an alliance with an AI now, it actually seems to mean something. My alliances are stable, both sides benefit, and the alliances “level up” – albeit way too slowly. (Only to level 2 so far in my games.) In my games, my allies don’t DOW me (although I did just read a guy on Civfanatics complaining that his ally backstabbed him).
Yes, the game now openly displays the numbers indicating why the civ likes or dislikes you. It’s not hidden; you click on the portrait of the person, then click the “Heart” icon, and there they are. (I wish the game had the "circle of relationships that Civ 3 or 4 had, but even that iteration had to use two pages’ worth of circles. Maybe Endless Space’s UI would work.)
The choice of alliance is interesting now. I avoid science alliances with my science rivals, I avoid culture alliances with my culture rivals, etc. I’ve had “formal declarations of war,” always by two or more states, against me, and occasionally a friendly state will abruptly DOW me. But things are less arbitrary than they used to be. The AI has never made a stupid trade with me in 100-plus hours. These things all seem like significant improvements over vanilla. I’m not saying it’s fabulous, but I find it better than any Civ’s diplo AI, ever. But please don’t buy it!
On loyalty: someone earlier said they thought the system was too weak. I think I agree with this. It’s a great idea – it just needs to be beefed up. They need to make loyalty tougher to get in all ages, dark through heroic. Still, I think loyalty has helped the AI by making its behavior more rational and state-like: it doesn’t forward-settle like a maniac now.
Personally, I think the AI has improved much more than the UI. The UI is still a hot mess! Just one little example: the list of cities is not sortable in any way, and it’s cluttered. I could multiply that example by 50. At least autohotkeys helps me with my biggest complaint (e.g., by enabling WASD). I can’t wait for the R&F version of CQUI to release, though.