AI Civs that show up in every game

[labellavienna]

Shaka shows up in EVERY single game that i play, why? I literally never get Wilhelma or Ghandi. But Saladin and Arabia shows up all the time, it's like in CIV5 where Russia is in every game. Which leaders show up a lot for you?

 

[WiserFanatic]

Maybe Shaka is the default one. Maybe you could choose "random" to have them show up random. I would be more fun to try out all of them.

 

[iammaxhailme]

Seems like Kongo shows up in basically every game and he's always on the other side of the world so he gets mad at me for not spreading religion

 

[7daysofwar]

Ironically, Wilhelmina shows up in every game for me, together with Jadwidga and I have to admit, I am still missing a game with Kupe in it.

 

[Jekkusormi]

Saladin gets into EVERY game I try to win Religious Victory. Had to start picking Civs manually when I attempt RV.

I also find Alexander and/or Amanitore in atleast every second game

 

[ezysquire]

It's entirely coincidental of course but for mine I see a lot of Alex, Peter and Qin.

 

[Arraz]

There's always Pachacuti and/or Aminatore in my game (the ugly guys....). :'(
Would much rather see Lautaro or Lautaro or even Lautaro !

 

[m_mus]

Since I mostly attempt CVs, the game somehow decides to either throw Kristina oder Peters Russia at me.
Though, referring to the OP's title and judging by the variety of replies, those "AI Civs that show up in every game" seem to differ for every player ;-)

 

[Victoria]

Victoria shows up in every game I play as England bar 1.

 

[nzcamel]

Maybe Shaka is the default one. Maybe you could choose "random" to have them show up random. I would be more fun to try out all of them.

Pretty sure the OP is talking about opposing Civs, not who they are playing as.

I used to always either get Gilgabro or Hojo as the first Civ I'd meet; though I seem to be getting more variety now. Monty, Peter, and Amanitore seem constant fellow travelers. I suspect the cast has got large enough though that it is less likely to have the same faces often; though there are a few that almost never appear...

 

[legalizefreedom]

So when do we get the built-in ability to exclude civs from random?

 

[Pietato]

Pedro. Always Pedro...

 

[Isengardtom]

Lately Teddy and Robert almost always show up
Jadwiga is also there quite often as well as Gilgamesh

I almost never see Ghandi or Victoria in my games

 

[nzcamel]

I almost never see Ghandi ... in my games

Well aren't you the lucky one

 

[Tarry]

It's random, as a programmer it's way easier to have it be random rather then use some secret of your computer such as the MAC address to generate a fairly constant few.

We humans love to find patterns amongst randomness.
if you flip a coin and it comes up heads 12 times in a row, there is still a 50/50 chance of it coming up heads on the next flip.

 

[Sostratus]

It's random, as a programmer it's way easier to have it be random rather then use some secret of your computer such as the MAC address to generate a fairly constant few.

We humans love to find patterns amongst randomness.
if you flip a coin and it comes up heads 12 times in a row, there is still a 50/50 chance of it coming up heads on the next flip.

Heresy! If I mash the A button, surely my poke ball will not fail!!

In all reality though, with a cast of several dozen civs, the number of games you’d have to play to start seeing the uniform distribution come out is quite large. Even random chance allows for some civs to be significantly more common than normal in a sample of a dozen or two games.
Tack on that if we see Shaka we recall we saw him last game; but our brain doesn’t recall that we didn’t see him the game before that, and you have a self fulfilling prophecy.

that said, it IS possible for certain civ combos to actually be more common to be your neighbor conditional on them being in the game. For example, because maps are laid out with a hot equator and cold poles, if you frequently play civs which would spawn in tundra adjacent climates then you’re much more likely to neighbor Russia or Canada (the only civs with tundra bias) when those civs are in the game. Mountains tend to be paired with hills and if you play only Inca you’ll probably see more Greek neighbors than normal.

 

[Karmah]

Heresy! If I mash the A button, surely my poke ball will not fail!!

In all reality though, with a cast of several dozen civs, the number of games you’d have to play to start seeing the uniform distribution come out is quite large. Even random chance allows for some civs to be significantly more common than normal in a sample of a dozen or two games.
Tack on that if we see Shaka we recall we saw him last game; but our brain doesn’t recall that we didn’t see him the game before that, and you have a self fulfilling prophecy.

that said, it IS possible for certain civ combos to actually be more common to be your neighbor conditional on them being in the game. For example, because maps are laid out with a hot equator and cold poles, if you frequently play civs which would spawn in tundra adjacent climates then you’re much more likely to neighbor Russia or Canada (the only civs with tundra bias) when those civs are in the game. Mountains tend to be paired with hills and if you play only Inca you’ll probably see more Greek neighbors than normal.

The part where you explain cognitive biais is just delicious.
Now the second part, I'mnot sure. I always assumed it was select N random AI then try to place them. Yet it could as well be as you described, generate the map and then see who you can fit. While the second version is quite complicated algorithm wise, it would also probably require a touch of hard-coded heuristic meaning appearance of civs would be not 'equally ra'ndom' but prioritized... Which means that the bias might be real. Also it's not like algorithm for version 1 is simple, maybe a little bit softer yet still complex. So your post leaves me pondering...

 

[Sostratus]

Now the second part, I'mnot sure. I always assumed it was select N random AI then try to place them.

It is this way. i didn't mean to suggest it wasn't.
That's why I used the wonderful weasel word 'conditional.' IF you're spawned in the mountains and there's another civ in the game that also has a bias for mountains, where do you think they're likely to end up? In the mountains. Possibly with you. But when such a civ isn't randomly chosen to be in the game, you won't remember it because of aforementioned cognitive bias. Every mechanic of choosing civs can be totally random, but because the map isn't totally random and starting biases exist, the correlation can still bleed in.

 

[Karmah]

It is this way. i didn't mean to suggest it wasn't.
That's why I used the wonderful weasel word 'conditional.' IF you're spawned in the mountains and there's another civ in the game that also has a bias for mountains, where do you think they're likely to end up? In the mountains. Possibly with you. But when such a civ isn't randomly chosen to be in the game, you won't remember it because of aforementioned cognitive bias. Every mechanic of choosing civs can be totally random, but because the map isn't totally random and starting biases exist, the correlation can still bleed in.

ok got carried away in my interpretation

 

[nzcamel]

I've played over 3000 hours of 6 now. That's a pretty good sample size to draw on. Or would be if I wasn't playing Marathon 99% of the time
So there realistically is only 50-60 odd games and in that I still have absolutely had more of some Civs than others. I would expect to see that gradually flatten out at two to three times the number; though the different length of time leaders have been in the game likely messes with my perception somewhat too.