Civilization VI

[Woolen_Horde]

Patch is out. Obligatory notes:
https://civilization.com/news/entries#civilization-vi-australian-summer-2017-update-multiplayer-teams-mod-tools

[BALANCE CHANGES]

Start position and map generation has been tuned.
Updated ice generation to allow more for circumnavigation.
Commercial Hub and Harbor both provide +1 Trade Route capacity, but only the first one applies (used to stack for +2 capacity total).
Units that are embarked now use an era-based strength value instead of their base combat value.
Many of the techs that reveal strategic resources have been changed to reveal the resource before it is needed to build a resource-dependent unit.
Players can now build obsoleted units if they do not have access to the strategic resource required by the upgrade unit.
Tech Tree balance. Adding several prerequisites to address paths through the tree that were too quick and led to era transitions too early.
Horseback Riding now requires Archery. Archery is no longer a leaf tech.
Stirrups is now in the late Medieval era and costs 390 (was early Medieval and cost 300).
Industrialization now requires Square Rigging.
Scientific Theory now requires Banking.
Steel now requires Rifling.
Computers now requires Radio.
Updated the cost and strength of some Air units.
Change movement rules after disembarkation. Cannot land on shore with more movement than your Land Movement allowance.
Updated Vikings Scenario to 60 turns.

[AI TUNING]

Increased desire and ability to use nukes and aircraft, and maintain a standing military. General AI attack improvements.
Increased desire to declare friendship.
Reduced frequency of “your troops are on my border“ warning.
Updated settlement preferences.
Barbarians now rampage when their camp is destroyed.
Will now liberate minor civs and cities of current allies.
Tuned strategic and luxury resource trading.
Will now be more aware of gold income, and work to bring in more.
Support units will recognize that they are not under threat if they share a hex with a friendly unit.
Added a grace period of 2 turns after the end of open borders before the AI starts complaining you’re too close to their territory.
Barbarians may now pillage tiles to heal.
AI will now continue to research repeatable techs and civics.

[BUG FIXES]

Kongo relics no longer get multiplied Faith yields if more than one is in the same building
Fixed some bugs with Great People not interacting correctly with Vikings natural wonders.
Sumeria will no longer share joint war experience with a player when killing barbarians.
Corrected tourism calculation from National Parks to ensure correct awarding.
Fixed an issue where you could sometimes not offer Joint War.
Spies will not have the Steal Tech mission available when you have already completed all techs.
City States gain territory for influence even if they get the influence before founding their city.
When a player is destroyed, his captured spies die with him.
All of your active spy missions stop in a city that you or an ally has just captured.
Fixed problem in tactical combat that was preventing units from capturing builders
You are no longer allowed to declare war on declared friends (or in an enforced peace period) from the “troops near me” warning.
Increased Jet Fighter and Jet Bomber sight range (up from 2 to 5).
Additional bug fixes.

[LordGek]

So can more clever players than myself explain Kongo’s Converted ability? While I get the basic bit of him piggybacking on another player’s religion, doesn’t it just mean that any future conquests he makes he’s simply helping the founder of his adopted religion get 1 step closer to a Religious Victory?

[Granath]

Has the religious unit spam been fixed? If it has not then there is no use in playing it.

[Miramon]

With those tech dependency changes they might as well not even have a tech tree. Just let it give you all the advances in fixed order, since they’re all dependent on one another anyway. The point of a tree is to have a lot of leaves. Now they have, what, 2 or 3 total leaves before the end?

[Scotch_Lufkin]

Yeah, the problem with the tech trees was not the lack of requirements, it was the explosive and crazy boosts you can. They should have really figured out by now those boosts should be worth maybe 10% or maybe 20%, but not fucking FIFTY.

[Sareln]

From the patch notes:

ModBuddy will also receive additional updates in the future, as part of a modding SDK update later. These tools do not include DLL source for Civilization VI at this time.

The tools they’re releasing today look like we can change everything but (loosely speaking) the rules, eg. if a mechanic already exists, it can be tweaked, but a totally new one can’t be invented.

[KevinC]

Crap, yeah that’s what modders were worried about. I hope they get the SDK update out in a decent timeframe, not years later like it was for Civ5.

Thanks for the info on that, @Sareln.

[jpinard]

How on Earth could they not address Religious spam as @Granath mentioned? Do they live in an alternate reality from us?

[KevinC]

What was that, @jpinard? I couldn’t hear you over all the thunder bolt spam.

[jpinard]

What was that, @jpinard? I couldn’t hear you over all the thunder bolt spam.

I think it’s close enough to use this clip LOL

[KevinC]

Well there’s a use for ModBuddy. Someone should replace the sound of religious combat with that. :)

[Kahlil]

So can more clever players than myself explain Kongo’s Converted ability? While I get the basic bit of him piggybacking on another player’s religion, doesn’t it just mean that any future conquests he makes he’s simply helping the founder of his adopted religion get 1 step closer to a Religious Victory?

They get the “Belief” bonuses of the dominant religion.

[DeepT]

I am considering giving this a try again, but I have some questions.

1. Is there a mod that improves the AI?
2. Is there a mod that will make starting locations somewhat even and not cluster everyone together. IE: A large world with 4 players will result in each civ having a very large amount of space.
3. Are there any other mods people recommend?

[inactive_user]

Just play Pandora instead. That’s how I do.

[DeepT]

Pandora?

[JoshoB]

I guess this one? (Which if so, I wouldn’t really recommend. It’s interesting, but also unpolished.)

[KevinC]

1. Is there a mod that improves the AI?

2. Is there a mod that will make starting locations somewhat even and not cluster everyone together. IE: A large world with 4 players will result in each civ having a very large amount of space.

There’s mods that attempt to do both, but they’re not very successful, at least not when I tried them. The AI mods had very limited impact and the spacing mods had inconsistencies. There are variables that determine how far cities start apart, but the game often seemed to ignore them when I was experimenting modding them.

[Dan_Theman]

If you’re waiting for mods to make significant improvements, I’d suggest waiting until the full SDK is released.

I just hope Firaxis doesn’t drag their feet too much on this, but I worry they will.

[DeepT]

Oh, so they did say they are actually going to release a full SDK then? I wasn’t sure that would happen.

[KevinC]

No word on when access to the code is going to be given, which I think is going to be necessary for any significant AI improvements.

They are releasing their ModBuddy tool, but the more advanced modding stuff is still TBD. Hopefully it’s not like Civ5 where it’s 3 years after release… and I’m really hoping that decision wasn’t made on a belief that mods would cannibalize their DLC sales.