Whenever I start a custom game and select for instance 2 opponents, e.g. Russians and Japanese, and close all other slots, I get totally different opponents in the game!
Maybe even the number of opponents is wrong.
This is a very stupid and annoying bug.

Keep posting em.

maybe u r doing something wrong?..

I hope this bug isn't true. If it is true it shows evidence of well... lots of other less obvious bugs.

It is true. I checked the settings very carefully. It happened every time I started a custom game (maybe 6 or 7 times). I even tried to check the box "random personalities" because I thought it was the other way around: unchecked: random
checked: not random
But it makes no difference, it is definitely a bug.
Another thing that annoys me is, that the customized human player settings like leader name etc are not remembered and you have to input them every single time you start a game.
Forthermore: I know they said the game was more streamlined so that beginners would have an easier time playing it. But I find it strange that within 10 minutes of playing on a huge map with only 2 AI opponents and 3 continents, they end up right next to me every time. I want to have some time to build my civilization before having to worry about war and stuff.

I can sadly say that not even the number of civilizations is right. It is always me + 7 others, no matter what I select in the config screen.
I hate spending money to get such an unfinished piece of ****!

:( This is a bad sign. I am thinking this bug in and of itself WILL get patched quickly, but the presence of such a blatant bug is terrifying when you think about what might be lurking deeper in the game.

This gets better and better...
In the city screen, one can no longer see what units are garrisoned in the city. No more armies. Actually less units than in Civ3Conquests.
Somehow I wonder if they interchanged features, adding new ones and removing old ones :(

Somehow I wonder if they interchanged features, adding new ones and removing old ones :(
Of course that is what they did.

We encountered the same problem with the advanced setup.

We selected the opponents we wished.

When we launched the game, an opponent not selected (Russia) soon appeared.

It would appear that no matter which opponent you choose, the program selectes opponents for you?

This needs to be addressed, as many will wish to select the opponents.

We agree with the post that in each game we have started, we almost immediately were adjacent to on or more opponents. In CIV III, there was usually an extended period of time prior to contact. It is important to get some development and preplanning accomplished before being hemmed in. Please address this issue!

But I find it strange that within 10 minutes of playing on a huge map with only 2 AI opponents and 3 continents, they end up right next to me every time. I want to have some time to build my civilization before having to worry about war and stuff.
Try lots of smaller landmasses on a larger map. Surely if you start on a different land mass you'll get at least SOME "build-up" time.

That'll be what I try next time. I started a game on a Balanced Large map and I'm pretty sure there's one, maybe two out of the seven civs that aren't right next to me already. I suspect this was intentional, to accelerate trades & bloc-formation.

Still, this atleast suggests the possibility an error in their algorithm for the placement of civs. It's always nice to have a some time get a few things developed before first contact. I'd be somewhat surprised (though not completely) if they decided they had to 'speed up the game' using such an inelegant technique as this. What's more of a concern is that if this is on purpose, I'm not entirely certain that we will have access to the layers of code necessary to change this until the SDK is released.

Are they any people here playing fairly normal game with the AI opponents evenly spread out? It shouldn't be that hard to check. Just start up a variety of games and reveal the map. Some feedback here would be really handy.

There is another possibility. Perhaps the AI does have its units evenly distributed, but the initial settlers are simply wandering right on into the area of the Human player. This may be happening consistently for a variety of reasons. Again it would be good to know.