Civilization VI

Patch notes:

Of particular importance, deserving its own section in the notes:

[SCOUT CAT]

  • Alternate skin for Scout unit that replaces the Scout’s dog with three cats. Available to players who have linked their 2K Account.

I’m so glad Firaxis developer time has been spent on such a sorely needed improvement.

Cat AI is simpler than dog AI and running three cat AI’s in parallel gives better returns than a single synchronous dog AI. This could be groundbreaking and save the entire series. Not!

Seriously though that’s, what, 3-4 days of developer time? Split between modeller, animator and UI coder at least. I’m sure 2K reckon that’s well worth it from a business perspective if it gets people to link their account.

Odd, that was not my experience when I fired it up for a preview this morning. I wonder whether it was a glitch that they fixed promptly. I found that the game loaded with some new screens, and under Additional Content, that Rise and Fall was enabled, while most of my other mods were disabled. Which makes sense given that they would almost certainly cause a crash or serious problems.

Taking a quick look around, the new leaders appear interesting, especially for builder type players. Of particular note, a couple civs have a unique unit that can protect trade routes, and one has a unique governor. My guess is that this means that modders will be able to run with these two ideas, now.

Governors as they exist in-game are a bit of a bore, but in the hands of creative modders could be very interesting.

Played for 30 minutes with the new expansion …game looks better, runs smoother dx12…they did somethin…optimization/graphics, whatever, but it feels better

I didn’t want to stop playing…lets face it, thats what Civ has been all about for 28 years

Firaxis may have just pulled a ‘stick save’ on this one

This is because Cat AI is basically just random behavior, and they’ve had that coded into the game for decades.

My exact thoughts. I can’t believe I’m a person all the sudden that pre-orders a FPS (Metro) and didn’t even consider a Civ expansion. Like, it wasn’t even really on my radar.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I cave. Civ has always had a special place in my gaming history, starting with the first. I still remember how I felt looking at the Civ 1 box for the first time. I couldn’t believe a game would offer the things it mentioned. As much as I built it up in my head from looking at the box, it didn’t disappoint. GreenManGaming brings the price down to a more reasonable $32 - I was thinking I’d play somewhere in the $20-$30 range.

If people here start saying how wonderful it is, I’d probably have a hard time resisting. The press likes it, but i think the press has been more favorable about Civ VI then most of us here.

If I read that the Civ leader AI seems to behave in a more reasonable/rational way and you can end up in a late game with friends you’ve made over the course of the game, and bitter enemies, I’m all in. But what keeps driving me away are the random AI leaders with a net positive attitude towards me denouncing me for no reason, or declaring war when they are on another continent and never even send units over, stuff like that just killed it for me, with the last expansion. I don’t mind the combat AI not being great, I’m not great at the combat either so it works out pretty well.

As do I…as a matter of fact, I had it in my hand and the guy next to me said, thats an awesome game…REMEMBER, this was 1991 BEFORE the interweb when people actually talked to each other in person to see facial expressions, body language, tonal quality

I haven’t played Civ6 since release but I’ve really been jonesing for that kind of game so I fired it up last night. Had a super positive relationship one with Civ (China, I think?) for a long long time. They were Friendly with me, we had a bunch of trades and trade routes with each other… and then he just declared war. We weren’t crowding each other and I hadn’t had a chance to build much in the way of Wonders, so I couldn’t see any reason he’d choose to do it.

The war was quick because apparently the AI still sends it’s Great Generals unescorted in the vanguard when attacking? I don’t think it’d be very hard to code the AI to always keep a general attached to a troop. Sad to see such low hanging fruit still hanging there since Civ5.

Anyway, after I demolished his entire army with an archer he sued for peace and went right back to being super friendly with me. Haven’t had any wars with him since.

I did have an Alliance with Scotland that lasted, but they were on a different continent and completely useless. Still, at least when things get to an Alliance state it seemed to stick pretty well. That may not be the case if they were located near me, though.

The war AI deficiencies wouldn’t bother me nearly as much if your “friends” weren’t psychopaths that’d attack you (seemingly) depending on a dice roll. I’m playing with a self-imposed rule where I’m not allowed to declare war or take cities so I’d happily just mind my own business if they’d only let me.

Yeah, this stuff. I didn’t really mind it so much for years, going back to my early 4X games even, but after the last Civ VI expansion it’s become a bug bear for me in EVERY strategy game I play. Total War Warhammer 2 has spoiled me in that the AI, while not perfect, at least behaves somewhat believably like faction leaders they emulate given the situations they find themselves in. If Civ started to do this with diplomacy, I’d be very interested in jumping back in.

Can you adjust how much ice there is in a scenario? And thus how much flooding can happen if complete global warming happens? Also, can you raise the temperature of the planet so much that desertification happens?

Some more random impressions:

  1. I like the new map features, especially the named rivers and volcanoes and such. When I was looking for my first city site, I came across the River Klara, and I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know which civ that hinted at. Answer: Sweden. Pro tip: mountain and desert names are off by default, so turn them on! They add so much flavor. In my game, Mali is bordered by the Sahara Desert, which is BIG. Mali’s capital is intersected by the Niger River, the Senegal River, and the Sankarani River. The Atlas Mountains loom to the northwest. All this adds a ton of flavor.

  2. Beyond names, the map is generally more interesting (and pretty). Mountain ranges can be longer now, enough really to impede travel and to create a clearer contintental divide. There are new features, like geysers and volcanos and stuff. Also, there’s now an option to maximize the minimap, so you get a fullscreen view of the whole world – I use this all the time.

  3. At max event level (4), I’ve had 12 major weather events (floods, tornadoes, storms, volcano eruptions) in about 50 turns. I settled my capital dangerously close to a flood plain and may regret it. No change in global climate yet.

  4. I’ve almost circumnavigated the globe, at around 1700 BC, thanks to the Maori’s ocean-going prowess. That’s helped earn me a Golden Age. I should have done it faster but I’ve dawdled.

  5. Strategic resources are now stockpiled up to a limit, and they seem more important now. I like that. But the AI keeps asking me to trade away my horses, which will be annoying until I reach my horse cap, at which point I’ll be quite happy to trade them.

Too soon for me to report on this one way or the other. The new diplomatic favor system supposedly makes diplomacy more transparent and rational, but I’ve only just started to dabble in it. So far my diplomatic relations have been stable.

I have read reports that if you don’t send a delegation, you may get denounced early, but that you can buy off the denouncer cheaply with diplomatic favor. Hasn’t been an issue for me yet, even when I haven’t sent a delegation.

Hmm, was this with the new expansion? I’m not sure the patch alone includes the new diplomatic favor system.

You have my attention, sir, please update the thread as you get more time with the latest version of the game and experience with diplomacy (and other mechanics you want to discuss) under your belt.

I honestly had never heard of this, but I’m not following the expansion much. I’d love to know more, is there a video you can point me to, or if you prefer to sum it up yourself?

No sir, this is from yesterday, before the patch/expansion hit. I’ll look into the favor system you mention, is it along the lines of EU4’s?

That sounds fantastic. I’m waiting until the Steam winter sale at the earliest (I’ve yet to get the previous expansion), but I hope this becomes a standard feature for the series moving forward.

I like how the Maori sound, but I’m skeptical as to how well they ultimately fit in with Civ’s city-centric, permanent-settler view of human society. For instance, playing the Mongols in Civ never felt right to me. Some asymmetry in that regard would be cool to see, but I don’t have much faith in Firaxis’ ability to implement it.

Sorry, I guess this is just something weird that has happened to me with most of the DLC and expansions as I have yet to find anybody else with my issues. To be honest it would make no sense that what I ecperienced was the intentional way Firaxis intended and can only assume this is a result of my vast collection of mods. Perhaps I did something funky to a key .ini file or something.

Thanks for your insights. Is it possible to see if there’s answers to my question?

I have not played, but I suspect your question is a bit too granular. Can you adjust how much ice is in the game? I’m unsure, but I don’t know if the game uses the volume of ice in the game world to define how much flooding will happen. Instead, there is a Distaster Intensity setting you may be looking for.

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Watching a video of someone start a game, I don’t see any specific “ice” settings.

As for your question about creating a dessert planet in the late game, I see you can define temperature but I’m not sure how that translates into the “desertification” you are asking about.

I don’t remember what game it was, but there was a game years ago where global warming would change tiles. The desert would expand, coasts would flood, but basically you could drown most of the world while frying the interior.

I don’t remember if it was a Civ game, or something else. Have any idea what title it may have been?