Civilization VI

Thanks for the heads up on this mod/update. Honestly it makes Civ VI almost bearable now.

The units may look cartoonish but there aren’t more of them than the huge change to appearance from the terrain.

Installed the mod. It definitely solves the hill problem. The first thing I want from the map is clarity, and this provides it.

… except for the remaining problem that explored areas which are not currently within the view of your cities or units remain somewhat difficult to evaluate. Always an aggravation with 6, but never as big a deal as the damned hills.

For me, the cartoony look is not such a big deal. Not sure why. Some games have turned me off with cartoony looks, but here it does not really affect me.

Next, I want a mod to stop leaders from hectoring me about wanting to send gifts to my capital.

I can tolerate the cartoony look somewhat (but it isn’t my preferred style) - but the map becomes and absolute mess by the mid-game. Just completely jumbled and nearly impossible to discern what is what.

Been busy so haven’t had a chance to try the mod, but I’m glad that it helps in some ways at least.

June 2019 update

June update should be going live sometime today. Patch notes will be published today too.

I am a devoted Civ VI player, keep going back to it, so of course I am interested.

However, the more that I play, the more I feel that this game has become less rather than more enjoyable since its original release.

The problem, in my view, is that they are heeding the #1 criticism of the game, poor AI, in the only way they know how, probably the only possible way. They are manipulating the human player’s start, such that the player has general disadvantages, and, in particular, that the map is designed to disfavor whatever advantages accrue to that particular civ. Especially at higher difficulty levels.

(If you play as Poundmaker, for example, you want to see lots of bonus resources strewn around the map, because tiles adjacent to two of them gain +1 food and +1 production by building a mekewap even very early in the game. Quite a boon! Now, a Poundmaker game will replace the bonus resources with multiple copies of luxuries. Or the “in between” tile will be a flood plain, which, in an undocumented move, they have made ineligible for a mekewap… Similar too-clever-by-a-half solutions exist for various other civs, as well.)

The problem with this approach is not that the game is too difficult, but rather that it makes playthroughs more bland and repetitive. It takes the thrill out of exploring if the map features are always doled out according to some formula. No sense looking a few tiles further in case something fantastic waits there, if the algorithm has been set up to be sure that that is not the case.

I guess what I liked best about the game early on was that it was not very well balanced. One playthrough, the map would screw you over, the next time great opportunities abounded. So it was an adventure and fun. A lot of that has been lost, because it is game unbalancing to give the player opportunities to use the civ’s inherent advantages, when the AI civs are incapable of using theirs. For me, this is far more of a wet blanket than the fact that the AI cannot fight a war competently.

Is there a good mod like Vox Populi that makes the AI non-garbage yet?

(Okay, preferably one that makes the AI halfway decent at least?)

There is now a notification that appears when a new Barbarian Camp appears in the mid-fog near the player. Unique notification icon added.

Thank you, baby Jesus!

Patch notes

Regarding AI changes:

[AI]

  • Civs
    • Give Matthias additional alliance favoritism to support the Huszar unit
    • Correct issue in Eleanor’s alliance favoritism.
    • Allow Kupe to settle further from his own cities to stop him from getting island locked.
    • John Curtin now favors liberating cities.
  • World Congress
    • AI support added for new Resolutions.
    • AI Aid requests: AI now offers aid every 10 turns, at 3 times previous value. This won’t change existing saves/running emergencies.
    • Improve AI vote prioritization, looking at all resolutions available in a given World Congress.
    • Adjust AI so it doesn’t regularly overvalue some resolutions.
    • Don’t choose Great People for Patronage resolution if they’re no longer available (Great Prophet for example).
  • Combat and Operations
    • [ALL RULESETS ON PC] Korean Hwacha - Remove siege designations from unit so that AI uses them properly
    • [ALL RULESETS ON PC] Improvements to city defense tree when trying to get units into defensive positions.
    • Improve religious units understanding to retreat from stronger opposing religious units.
    • [ALL RULESETS ON PC] Fix bug in tactical (non-coordinated) ranged units with attacking unguarded combat districts.
    • Improvements to operational movements around mountains and other terrain.
    • [ALL RULESETS ON PC] Barbarians: Fix bug stopping raids from starting.
  • Trade
    • Use correct stockpile limits when deciding how much of a resource to trade. AI could have offered 0 if they were over their stockpile limit, even if the person they’re trading to was not.
    • When the AI does not have a good enough reserve of a strategic resource they want, they won’t trade it away rather than undervaluing it.
    • Trade for strategics up to double what is needed, then stop. Makes for consistent valuation.
    • [ALL RULESETS ON PC] Fix problem putting together peace deals where they want to return a city.
    • Don’t let AI try to trade resources that would take either side beyond their stockpile caps.
    • Don’t count both sides of the deal against the amount, this was causing deal amounts to go negative in some situations.
  • Misc
    • [ALL RULESETS ON PC] Inner ring and total yield scoring changed to use all yields (previously only production and food) - This makes the AI a bit more aggressive and expand more quickly.
    • [ALL RULESETS ON PC] Unit combat analyzers only check for hostile major powers. Makes oligarchy less favored when not at war with majors.
    • [ALL RULESETS ON PC] Don’t send non-combat Great People to scout the civilization they are at war with during gameplay (they’re gonna have a bad time).

I just do not understand why they’re not running banks of computers 24x7 of AI. vs. AI. with subtle AI changes to help evolve said AI. One of the biggest things that the AI can manipulate and prioritize itself is build order and expansion rate.

No, they still haven’t opened the game up for modding like they did previous with Civ4 and Civ5 (only after they stopped working on DLCs, unfortunately).

After playing for a bit, I’d have to say that the new Seven Seas map really does play quite differently. I’ve started three games on large maps, and the “cramped in” feel is gone, and whether by luck or design, the maps have all offered unusual mixes.

Lots of little changes to the game, but the production changes seem the most meaningful.

I have run into some bugginess, though, where the lens icon does not work at all, then I re-load the game and it is fine. No idea what is up with that.

I have also found the Small Continents map to be an enormous improvement. It is actually worthwhile to explore the oceans for worthwhile land. And the AI seems to do so, also.

I haven’t played in months, but I’m glad that there is yet another update coming to Civ VI.

Some nice buffs to certain Great Admirals (though I never care for them) alongside buffs to coastal cities. Lighthouses giving housing? Yes please! Fisheries giving housing? All the better.

What I really like is the announcement for a terra map script for Civ VI. My favourite script from Civ IV is coming.

Wow – I can’t believe this is Mixed on Steam. Looks like criticism of the AI has actually caught up to them.

Only if they do something about the AI. I have resolved myself to never buy another civ game unless I know the AI is at least decent. Civ 6 could have been the best civ in the world, if the AI wasn’t absolutely terrible.

The folks who started with Civ V started to learn how to play the game enough to get bored of the terrible AI.

They don’t do themselves any favors by continuously introducing new finnicky systems that make it impossible for an AI to complete in. The base game was already stacked against the AI when it came to generating tourism, but they decided to add the whole governor & golden age aspect in an expansion. That’s where I checked out. God knows how incapable it is of whatever new gamey crap they added with the global warming expansion.

All they have to do is remake Alpha Centauri with all the series advancements made up to Civ 4. Sometimes I get nostalgic for AC, but I find it completely unplayable now without borders, resources, or building wide penalties. Just remake it with those things and throw in a color palette that isn’t hideous!

Found the Morganite. Planet is beautiful just the way it is!

None of the Civilizations since IV has had a Terra map? Man, the latest Civs were even worse than I thought.

-Tom

You make it sound so simple. It really isn’t.

Whatever they do, they’ll get folks who’ll complain as loud as they can. “Oh, they made a 1-to-1 copy of Alpha Centauri, the slackers!” “Oh no, they didn’t make a 1-to-1 copy of Alpha Centauri, those pinheads!” “They removed religion!” “They kept religion!” “They added stupid mechanics that the AI can’t handle!” “Who cares about AI, I wanna role-play!” Etc.