Txurce
Deity
BNW is a transformative leap over G&K, making balance more necessary than ever, and a Culture Victory the most interesting, rather than the least. But the AI in general still gives the player too much of a break, ignoring a tech or gold edge big enough to win a SV or DV. The game could be much more competitive even if the AI weren't smarter on higher levels - just more focused. Example: I just won a SV with Venice in t381... quite slow, after a very slow start. (I ignored the DV available throughout.) At the end Assyria had over 2400 bpt - twice as much as me - but only one SS part built.
It would also be great if a CV weren't so much harder to achieve than the other VC. After playing regularly since the BNW release on Immortal, I've noticed that the AI cannot win a CV even against weak competition. I purposely handicapped myself by building no cultural buildings in the capital besides a monument until the end game, and no Great Works whatsoever anywhere in the empire. In other words, culture couldn't have been worse... but it didn't matter, because other religions overtook mine, and I chose Order after determining it was the majority ideology. This allowed me to stay happy, even though I was swamped culturally. Ethiopia - the leading Cultural player in my game - despite ranking #2 for most of the game, had yet to get past 2 of 6 influences. This tells me that a runaway Assyria would have won a SV over an Ethiopian CV without any problem... and that no contender even considered a DV.
Addressing the VC (at least on the higher levels) should be easy to do - and would make the game much more competitive, But from a balance perspective, making a CV about as achievable for the AI as any other VC would be a great capper to BNW's interesting VC. Right now, cultural "defense" is so easy to achieve by the AI that it makes an AI CV win almost impossible against even a mediocre human effort.
It would also be great if a CV weren't so much harder to achieve than the other VC. After playing regularly since the BNW release on Immortal, I've noticed that the AI cannot win a CV even against weak competition. I purposely handicapped myself by building no cultural buildings in the capital besides a monument until the end game, and no Great Works whatsoever anywhere in the empire. In other words, culture couldn't have been worse... but it didn't matter, because other religions overtook mine, and I chose Order after determining it was the majority ideology. This allowed me to stay happy, even though I was swamped culturally. Ethiopia - the leading Cultural player in my game - despite ranking #2 for most of the game, had yet to get past 2 of 6 influences. This tells me that a runaway Assyria would have won a SV over an Ethiopian CV without any problem... and that no contender even considered a DV.
Addressing the VC (at least on the higher levels) should be easy to do - and would make the game much more competitive, But from a balance perspective, making a CV about as achievable for the AI as any other VC would be a great capper to BNW's interesting VC. Right now, cultural "defense" is so easy to achieve by the AI that it makes an AI CV win almost impossible against even a mediocre human effort.
