Interested to see how they implement this. I’ve always thought that the first 150 turns of Civ are a ton of fun, but eventually it turns into a slog. I’ve always wished there were more automation options in the late game, and faster processing of enemy turns.
You can speed up the animations or deactivate them completely, which speeds up the gameplay immensely.
I’m primarily a Civ 5 player and my issue is not with quick movement or quick combat (both on, of course) but the actual time to process enemy turns. It’s a 14 year old game running on my absolute monster of a gaming PC, but it’s still sluggish, especially with larger maps with more opponents. I can’t imagine the Civ AI is that computationally intensive so I’ve never understood why it takes so long. I’d also like more customization options in cities so they auto-govern better in the late game, which is also a huge time suck especially when going dom.
It’s 2024… Please fix the AI…
Biggest weakness in every civ game is the shitty AI that requires massive cheating, and terrible diplomacy (constantly making ridiculous demands, then getting mad and denouncing you if you dont hand over the goods)
Seriously. I remember first getting into Deity and realizing it’s basically just exploiting intimate knowledge of how the AI works. The actual max difficulty is Prince, where the AI doesn’t get bonuses, and it’s so terrible at actually pursuing an agenda it’s not very challenging.
I am a bit hopeful that VII’s decoupling leaders and civs will force the AI to be a bit more generally good. At least make it so you don’t know exactly what sort of tactics to use from the first turn you meet it.
The gameplay stretching out in later rounds is also what makes the AI so hard to improve. There is just too much to do and the effects are too complex to understand for a classic game AI. If they simplify the gameplay with the player progression into later ages it will also make the development of a competent AI more likely.
But to be honest: I doubt anything like that is going to happen. Even when controlling a planet wide empire I will have to decide what every city is going to do next and what every unit is going to do in the next turn…
Well thats kind of the point of my statement about “it’s 2024”
I understand game AI is a complex problem. But it seems like we havent made any progress since civ3… And we’re right in the middle of an AI hype cycle… Can we not use AI for something useful like games? Instead of just making deepfakes, disinformation, and firing workers?
I’m pretty sure you could train an AI to play a game like Civ, but the problem stays the same. As everything progresses to get more complicated and you have to decide even more every turn it gets harder and harder to train. The results are kind of unpredictable and you might have to train your AI again with every patch. It will limit the systems your game can run on (even excluding some platforms) and heavily impact performance on the systems it can run on.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they made a version that just stays in one age indefinitely and lets you explore it in an open world sort of way?
Like take Minecraft. I played that for years without even knowing there is an end game, and it came as something of a shock when someone told me. You can finish Minecraft?!?
But then I was like meh, leave me alone. I’m trying to build Noah’s Ark with a functioning village on top and a crystal waterfall down to the animal sanctuary below. And I still haven’t completed the Mars colony. Wonder how the pandas are doing over there?
IDK what it was, but Civ 6 just didn’t do it for me. Going back to 5 I’ll still easily get through a 20 hour game, but something about 6 I can’t get past even mid game.
I have nearly 1500 hours played in Civ V. Never completed a single Civ VI game. Hoping they rediscover whatever it was that made 5 so great!
So it’s not just me. I had all Civs since Civ II and spent probably more hours in each than in any other game. Somehow I played a bit of Civ VI and gave up.
I did wonder if I just got tired of civ games.
I never play Civ with the intention of finishing, that’s a rare delight when all the stars and RNGs align… I play to see what a beautiful mess my imaginary world becomes before I run out of free time.
They shouldn’t take it personally
Yeah and there comes a point where you know you can win, but don’t want to go through all the turns to get there.
I think most chess games don’t end with a checkmate, many games end when a player concedes because everyone knows the outcome and it’s pointless to play it out.