Well, what @mutait said is applicable, but I think I like more variety and that’s what the content delivers. Now, if you don’t care for the game up to this point, the new content is probably not going to do anything for you. For me, I like it just fine, and mainly because I play a peaceful, builder game where the AI flakiness doesn’t bother me.
Still nothing about the AI. I wonder why they refuse to fix it.
Randomized tech trees with blind research, finally. Better late than never!
Because it’s not a priority with their customer base.
(I mean…clearly it’s a priority here, but we’re in pretty …either stale or rarefied air here aren’t we.)
Seriously, I have no trouble losing games at deity level and I’ve been playing versions of this for 30+ years now.
I agree @dfs. It’s time to let go. Move on. You’re not a fan of the franchise, period. They’ve found an audience. Their audience gives them money with easy-dumb tactics and bad AI. That’s all they need to know, that’s all we need to know. People here with endless complaints are not the customer base.
I mean geez. I’ve stopped begrudging people or companies that found a way to make a buck, as long as its harmless.
Worst thread on QT3.
Because it isn’t possible, at least not within any conceivable budget for a company of that size.
The game design is what it is. Lots of systems cobbled together. All these different factions. It’s the poster child for a game that AI would struggle with.
In truth, they have done many things during updates to try to mitigate the problem. Barbarians are a lot more effective now. And they have played around with map generation with an eye to helping the AI compete. (In my view, this harmed gameplay, but I recognize that they were trying to address the complaint.)
There are also some things that players can do to try to mitigate the problem:
- Don’t create a map specifically to play to your faction’s strengths. (And of course do not use mods that do this, either.)
- Let the game start you in a sub-optimal location. Don’t restart until you begin in an ideal spot.
- Use the advanced settings to choose the AI opponents, and choose those that compete most effectively. The A list would include Alexander (Macedon), Amanitore (Nubia), and Qin Shi Huang (China). The B list would include Pedro (Brazil), Mvemba a Nzinga (Kongo), Peter (Russia), Seondeok (Korea), Frederick Barbarossa (Germany) and Cyrus (Persia). Don’t select opponents that are a poor fit for the type of map.
- Don’t save scum.
These things will help in the sense that games will be somewhat more competitive, but don’t expect too much, the AI will not really be going about its business effectively. Anyone who wants a decent AI really needs to look to games designed in a simpler, cleaner fashion, so that AI is practical.
Yep, the AI is fine as it can be in a game like this, I think.
You might be having problems with difficulty balance. Like higher difficulty supports only specific kind of gameplay due to the initial setup - as in all the AI has more tech and starting units than you, that kind of thing.
Thing is that most complaints like this are from people who are great fans of the franchise, up to at least Civ IV. Seeing the latest iteration of a much-loved game be so weak in an area that is so fundamental (in the view of a lot of people) is a huge disappointment. It does get a bit wearing though, especially now the fans of that side have Old World to play.
I suspect that if they ever get around to opening up modding, we will see a fan AI mod that manages to improve it from useless to sort of vaguely competent.
Anyway, I do agree that there’s no chance that Firaxis will ever fix it, so there’s little point discussing the AI any further until such a mod shows up.
The most recent (free) update has changed things a bit. For builder-type players, it may be of interest.
- You now have the option to shuffle the tech and civic trees. In which case you have very limited information as to how things are further on in the trees.
I am liking this a lot. Especially the civic tree, which was structured for maximum staleness. It’s surprising how much the shuffle leads to more interesting decisions.
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Amenities and citizen happiness has been tweaked. I saw a video explaining the details, but have not yet internalized it all. Bottom line, it’s tougher to keep them all happy, especially if you are going wide.
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I did not see this documented, but it seems to me that something has changed with barbarians. They seem more numerous, later into the game. And they also seem more varied. I have seen groups of them coordinate an attack, implying that their units waited until others were created to move on me. And some have been very aggressive, while others have passed on chances to attack – like they are individuals and not totally predictable.
This is not going to fix the game for those who have not been liking it. But for those of us who do, it freshens things up a bit.
Byzantium and Gaul coming in the next DLC.
The new leaders:
I am terribly disappointed that the leader of the Gauls is not Vitalstatistix.
The gall of Firaxis.
I’ve got to give this latest DLC a “meh.”
One of the civs and the new game mode are built upon things I consider weak foundations.
The dramatic mode makes everything either a dark age or a golden age, nothing in between. Which might be interesting if the ages weren’t such a subpar part of the game. It’s the rule, not the exception when a stretch where I am doing great… produces a dark age. Because the points are given for things that are just plain weird. And not out in the open to see, for strategic planning. The best thing about these ages is that they really do not matter all that much. So this new game mode makes sure they do matter, but having cities rebel in dark ages. Not my cup of tea at all.
And Byzantium has some very interesting mechanics, but they are all based on the religious part of the game. Which would be nice, if the religious part of the game did not involve putting up with tear-inducing tedium.
Gaul strikes me better, it has potential for providing some fun. It is a production and culture powerhouse, if played strategically. However, you will crash and burn if you do not manually control which tiles are worked in your cities, because the extra culture and production early on results in the auto-tile-assignment skimping on food, to the point your cities grow very slowly. I’m not crazy about the additional micro, but worse than that, it means that Gaul is likely to be a particularly weak AI opponent.
(Although it appears to me that a couple of the really weak AI opponents got tuneups a couple updates back, particularly Indonesia.)
I can’t argue with any of that. I really liked the secret society stuff and the randomized techs. This release seems a bit of a letdown. My impression is the Computer Players are a bit more aggressive in the early game, but that could just be my limited impression.
I think so too. I also think that the barbarians are better, at least sporadically.
I knew there was a mod that addresses your issue with the era score, the Real Era tracker - Steam Workshop::Real Era Tracker (UI)
I have been modding Civ VI via workshop and I think some of the gameplay changes are making it a little more inline with what I want in the game. I’ll comment more at a later date when I really thrash them out.
I’ve been having problems when I use more than 1 ui mod. What are some recommended sets that play well together?