Is the AI better than a chicken with its head cut off yet?

[Peng Qi]

I pretty much only play Civ singleplayer, so when I tried Civ 6 and found the AI to basically be non-existent, I very quickly lost interest in the game. It was clear to me that the devs had added too much complexity to the game for the AI they launched with to handle, and so I moved on to other games.

So has the AI improved significantly? Have they figured out how wars work yet? Do they build enough units? Are they still hopeless at placing districts? IMO the launch AI was basically no better than playing on an empty map.

Side-note: If the AI is still trash, are there AI mods that actually make the game worth playing? AI+ seemed promising but not a real solution last I checked, but last I checked was a very long time ago.

 

[Chefofrats]

I haven't played much sinve the patch, but in one game I started on King, my capital was about to be captured by Sumerian warcarts and slingers within the first few dozen turns (I quit before the city actually fell, since I'm a sore loser). In another game, the campuses in the cities I captured from the AI were actually decently placed by mountains.

The sample size of my games is probably not big enough to make general conclusions though.

 

[Loderingo]

Yes it has improved. When the game first came out the AI was 3/10. I would now rate it 7/10. In my first patch game as Aztec I attacked China. I was expecting China to wall its unwalled city I was attacking but instead it sent wave after wave of units to defend and I couldn't get anywhere near to taking the city. I think that is the biggest change that the AI will now change to producing units when attacked.

 

[ChocolateShake]

The AI has improved a lot since release! I'm about to start a new game with the latest patch, but overall they've become a lot better at capturing cities, and they will pose a threat if you're not careful. I use AI+ too, but it was performing well before using with the previous patch, and I'll be playing a new game without it to see what else has improved. I'll report back once the game is done.

There's also another post here for the air units, going to look into that too. The AI does use its navy now, and can effectively coordinate a city attack now most of time, as opposed to on-release.

 

[gozpel]

I still think the chicken is better!

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34198390

 

[Old]

Ï was also impressed with AI after the patch, Montezuma totally surprise-attacked my second city with 8 ! Eagle Warriors around 1800 BC or so. I would have been decimated unless quickly chopped walls and chariot plus couple archers were close by hunting barbs, still the city was redlined only couple HP left before i managed to kill Aztec invaders.

Such thing has not happened to me against AI since Civ 4 :O And this was only King level test game, very promising development.

 

[Unconquered Sun]

I pretty much only play Civ singleplayer, so when I tried Civ 6 and found the AI to basically be non-existent, I very quickly lost interest in the game. It was clear to me that the devs had added too much complexity to the game for the AI they launched with to handle, and so I moved on to other games.

So has the AI improved significantly? Have they figured out how wars work yet? Do they build enough units? Are they still hopeless at placing districts? IMO the launch AI was basically no better than playing on an empty map.

I rolled a Deity game to see if there was any improvement. Pedro started close to me and a few warriors appeared on the border. I was like "he will probably attack, should I bring my units back to my capital? Naaah." He retreated, then came back, then finally invaded, but didn't attack my city which was sitting there with 13 Strength. He only attacked when I had another unit produced making defense much higher, the Ai warriors didn't accomplish anything, I ran them down, Pedro begged for peace offering me tons of gold.

3/10, minor improvement.

 

[Flaxton]

Playing as Macedonia on diety, at war with Nubia in later game, they are counter attacking with knights, even recapturing a city, because it's using Crusade successfully. Then I attack Rome, who is using Defender of the Faith well, forcing me to rapidly build Pike and Shot to counter his knights. Upshot, it's delayed my conquest victory somewhat. Nice and tough.

 

[Rosty K]

I hear the stories of them taking cities/defending them better. I haven't had the chance to see that yet cause I'm almost always friends with everyone. I've noticed though, that if you catch their army in the field, they're still quite helpless. And I still have to save my neighbors from barbarians a lot.

 

[Kinestic]

Tactically, the A.I is pretty good. Unfortunately, strategically, my cat could probably perfom just as well.

 

[Archon_Wing]

The AI has improved since last week.

True story.

 

[Unconquered Sun]

Playing as Macedonia on diety, at war with Nubia in later game, they are counter attacking with knights, even recapturing a city, because it's using Crusade successfully. Then I attack Rome, who is using Defender of the Faith well, forcing me to rapidly build Pike and Shot to counter his knights. Upshot, it's delayed my conquest victory somewhat. Nice and tough.

Wow. "Even recaptured a city once on Deity no less." Mighty.

 

[Zuizgond]

Tactically, the A.I is pretty good. Unfortunately, strategically, my cat could probably perfom just as well.

How is AI good tactically?

 

[Bitterman]

It is slightly better. In comparison to before the patch I could say:

-They seem to make more military units.
-They seem to switch to military production when they are at war.
-They seem to make more ranged units.
-They seem to make more siege units.
-They seem to hide those two behind melee units (or at least they try).
-They seem to build more navy (and also I noted they seem to beeline navy techs, maybe because I'm playing islands IDK).
-They seem to be able to rebuild an army they lost in a previous war.
-They seem to be more reliable partners, i.e. they won't be upset with you just because you invaded a some civs, you can coop-invade the world with a couple of civs as allies.
-They seem to declare more surprise wars, even if they don't have a big army advantage (I think it's based on how unprotected your closest city is from them).

On the other hand I have yet to see if there is some improvement with air units/combat.

 

[seankhan]

ive never seen the ai advance forward on any level.once you keep up with tech its almost impossible to loose a game.ai gets a deserved zero.Maybe if they remove walls it could be a challenge.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

AI is still terrible, but I think if you were to actually remove the head from a chicken and put it in front of your keyboard to play the game the AI would, after some struggle, find a way to achieve victory.

Or more likely the mess on your keyboard would make it challenging to continue to advance turns.

 

[DWilson]

Well, a quick game as the Cree that was supposed to be easy and relaxing saw the Aztecs completely wipe me out with an excellent set of units pushing against my under-defended lands. In a previous game, still on the new patch, I had Nubia attempt to invade. I destroyed their units, and was ready for an ease push to capture their undefended lands (based on the past, when the AI would only have one good punch). A second wave of units met me, forcing a standstill, and would've been able to push on me again if I hadn't negotiated peace.

So, much improved since a week ago. Is it still easy to totally wreck a strong AI when planned properly? Yes, probably. Especially if you use naval units (the AI still can't stop frigates).

 

[Morningcalm]

It seems slightly improved, but only slightly. I did notice AI like to use naval melee units to attack coastal cities more often, and they were more persistent this time by sea (attacking every turn). On land there are still times where they don't attack a completely encircled city with everything they have (simply sitting there until I counterattack). But, baby steps.

I played a game yesterday where Nubia had successfully taken two other AI capitals--but take that with a grain of salt, since the three civs in question were very close to each other (Archipelago Standard size).

 

[tab]

Can anyone else confirm the state of AI after the spring update.

 

[WillowBrook]

Improved from before the spring patch, difficult to say how much. I lost my capital on king in my first post-patch game (surprise war by Scotland before turn 50, a bunch of warriors came out of the fog, I didn't have enough nearby units, they effectively put city under siege and took it).

It seems they are better at taking cities (but they were pretty bad before).

Better than a chicken with its head cut off, yes, but that's a pretty low bar.

Try it for yourself.