[R&F] AI responding better to emergencies.

[nzcamel]

So I had just peaced out with Rome when the world council decided I needed to be punished for taking a city off them. I mean, I think anyone who takes a city off Rome in the classical era needs a medal, not punishment but I digress.

Pretty much everyone declared war on me; and I'm posting this mostly because I've been pretty happy to see some of them actually showing up. Not in the kind of coherent way that would have me in any danger sadly (Firaxis - I hope this is improved in Civ 7. I mean I'm playing on Emperor in this game!); but they are consistently tying me down with units, which I haven't experienced often before.

Below you can see a Spanish warrior monk and a Portuguese swordsman. Also a Roman General WAAAAY out of any useful position (Firaxis!?)

Spoiler :

And you can see that both have travelled some distance to get multiple units on my doorstep.

Spoiler :

So I see some improvements, which I hope will roll over into 7 assuming emergencies stay. Bouquets and brickbats...

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Also a Roman General WAAAAY out of any useful position

The AI will use them as scouts which is not that bad of an idea!

 

[nzcamel]

Sure, but even better giving HP and movement to units...

 

[nzcamel]

I should add I'm playing on huge, so they've come quite the distance. Though maybe there's more space for units to move through...?

 

[Haig]

Yeah they respond quite nicely to emergencies.

Today I was also surprised as I was 4 diplo points away from diplo victory, but some a.i. civs voted me to lose diplo points at world congress.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Yeah they respond quite nicely to emergencies.

Today I was also surprised as I was 4 diplo points away from diplo victory, but some a.i. civs voted me to lose diplo points at world congress.

This system looks good, until you realize that the best response to this then becomes to downvote yourself in order to win a victory point because you voted for the winning resolution (you losing two victory points).

It's a completely busted and terrible system.

 

[Planktonic]

So I had just peaced out with Rome when the world council decided I needed to be punished for taking a city off them. I mean, I think anyone who takes a city off Rome in the classical era needs a medal, not punishment but I digress.

Pretty much everyone declared war on me; and I'm posting this mostly because I've been pretty happy to see some of them actually showing up. Not in the kind of coherent way that would have me in any danger sadly (Firaxis - I hope this is improved in Civ 7. I mean I'm playing on Emperor in this game!); but they are consistently tying me down with units, which I haven't experienced often before.

Below you can see a Spanish warrior monk and a Portuguese swordsman. Also a Roman General WAAAAY out of any useful position (Firaxis!?)

...

And you can see that both have travelled some distance to get multiple units on my doorstep.

...

So I see some improvements, which I hope will roll over into 7 assuming emergencies stay. Bouquets and brickbats...

The Emergency system is good in theory- an act of conquest martials a collective punitive response. But in practice it is terrible, and is actually a *benefit* to the warmongering player.

Consider: the only powers that will act against you in an Emergency are 1. the civ you are already at war with, so no actual difference there; and 2. other nearby civs whose units will likely take some turns to reach you, giving you plenty of time to prepare. Then units dribble in piecemeal, allowing you to chip away at the military power of other civs that may well be your next targets in positions where they have the least support. Finally the Emergency will end and give you +4 free Era score that you wouldn't have earned otherwise.

Even better: when targeting a neighboring civ, I generally try to go for one of the bigger cities first or at least very soon, so that the population pressure can help with stabilizing loyalty. But often a countdown is on: you only have a certain number of turns before rebellion, so you are very much under pressure to conquer another nearby city soon for the population support. But an Emergency nullifies this mechanism, since it grants you +20 loyalty in your initial conquered city. Now you have an absolutely stable base of operations for 30 turns- you may not even need to leave a garrisoned unit in there for loyalty.

I wish I could summon an Emergency at will any time. It never accomplishes what it is supposed to do and in practice is usually a reward not a malus for the warmonger.

I've even once had an Emergency where the only participant was the civ with which I was already at war. How stupid is that? Just free loyalty and free Era score.

 

[nzcamel]

Even better: when targeting a neighboring civ, I generally try to go for one of the bigger cities first or at least very soon, so that the population pressure can help with stabilizing loyalty. But often a countdown is on: you only have a certain number of turns before rebellion, so you are very much under pressure to conquer another nearby city soon for the population support. But an Emergency nullifies this mechanism, since it grants you +20 loyalty in your initial conquered city. Now you have an absolutely stable base of operations for 30 turns- you may not even need to leave a garrisoned unit in there for loyalty.

The +20 loyalty kicks in after the emergency finishes when you succeed...?

 

[Planktonic]

The +20 loyalty kicks in after the emergency finishes when you succeed...?

No, it kicks in right when the Emergency is declared, so usually right when you need it most. Although it is also weird that Emergencies can sometimes be called long after the fact- in my current game I had an Emergency just called for taking over a city some 40 - 50 turns ago. Which is also stupid.

 

[nzcamel]

Yeah, both of those are not good at all.

 

[Ordnael]

Recently I've seen AI civs participating actively in natural disaster emergencies. It used to be easy diplomatic points for me, I would just gift 100 gold to the victim and forget about the emergency altogether. Fascinating!

 

[DWilson]

This system looks good, until you realize that the best response to this then becomes to downvote yourself in order to win a victory point because you voted for the winning resolution (you losing two victory points).

It's a completely busted and terrible system.

Is it? To me it's an attempt to assuage fears you plan to take control and save face, much akin to Caesar refusing a crown

 

[Disgustipated]

Funny enough I also had a strong ai response to an emergency when I took a Roman city. I call Rome privilege in this game. I had taken Jeruselim off of Rome (obviously they took that city state), after I peaced out with Rome after taking their capital, a military emergency against me with Rome and Cree participating. Cree sent a ton of units. Forcing me to divide my forces of defending Jerusalem and taking another Roman city I wanted. I managed to do both, and later the last Roman city flipped to me.

I also did this in Classical era on emperor. But I was playing marathon, so I managed to get this done before their main uu made an appearance. But I was playing with a few unit mods, and Rome did have a super strong special ranges unit that was one shotting my archers. I could only take it out when he put it in a lake. Lost 2 high ranked archers though.

In my defense, Rome started it. Starting next to him is a!most always a guaranteed DOW from him.

 

[Alaindor]

Recently I've seen AI civs participating actively in natural disaster emergencies. It used to be easy diplomatic points for me, I would just gift 100 gold to the victim and forget about the emergency altogether. Fascinating!

Still a joke to me. Contribute by donating 1 gold on the last turn the emergency ends, and that trumps the zero gold all AI's have been contributing for the last 60 turns (not to mention the absolute lack of aid projects) - that's on Marathon / Deity. If I have a lot of emergencies in a game, then I can easily win a diplo victory with absolutely no effort whatsoever (if I survive the initial rush). Well, the only real effort is not to forget to donate that one gold on the last turn!

 

[Chefofrats]

I've had many emergencies in my recent games - religious, military and aid ones - and the AI did not participate in any of them beyond voting for them. So whatever made the AI actually perform under an emergencies for the posters above, it does not always work.

 

[Ordnael]

I think its interesting to add that on the natural disaster scenario I mentioned where an AI - USA - helped another AI - Ethiopia - or rather tried to score diplomatic points for itself, Teddy was struggling on two different fronts: war - losing against the Cree - and dramatic dark age flipping their cities. So Teddy's attempt to score diplomatic points while his CIV was struggling that hard is stupid. I don't know if he gifted money or ran aid projects, but anyway it was a blatant case of stupid prioritising the needs of his CIV to survive and try and win the game. Fascinating!

 

[Virdrago]

I've been playing games on huge maps with 20 civs lately, with very few CS (Barb Clan mode). Unless the civ is going for a DV, it won't put anything into the emergency, and even then, it's not a guarantee. Even Canada will thank you for joining, before being one of the group of 11 that voted to save Scythia and contributed nada.