[GS] AI too passive in Civ VI?

[CivAddict2013]

I've noticed that the AI in Civ VI seems a little bit too passive. Remember in Civ V when you were near victory and the AIs would declare war on you? Not in Civ VI. I just played a game where I was playing Hojo, running away in culture and none of the AIs cared.

None of them declared war, none of them attempted to attack my Rock Bands; they were just completely passive.

This is on Prince btw. If I up the difficulty will the AI be more aggressive?

 

[Benevolent Dictator]

The AI rarely purposefully tries to thwart your victory condition.

Diplomatic Victory, while too easy, is probably the Victory condition that the AI defends the best as every AI Civ will nominate you to lose two points every WC passed a certain DV point threshold. It's essentially impossible to counter other than to cheese the system and vote for your to lose 2 points to at least salvage 1 point and try to guess correctly on the remaining two.

For Culture Victory, there are some built in AI safeguards. The AI will actively use the Music Censorship card quite actively if they have it, barring your Rock Bands from their lands. This is quite an effective hard counter.

The AI will also stop selling you any more Great Works if it determines that you are close enough to a Culture Victory.

The AI doesn't have any specific defenses against Domination Victory because they build too few units and manage the ones they manage to produce horribly.

I can't think of any specific counters the AI uses against Science Victory other than competing in the Space Race itself.

I don’t think I've ever had an AI Disrupt my Spaceport ever, even though I leave it undefended half the time.

I did lose a Deity Space Race game to Montezuma the other day because he actually built Lagrange Laser Stations immediately after launching his Exoplanet Expedition, which I was surprised to see.

I also don't think the AI has any specific strategies to counter Religious Victories either, though they do seem quite adept at getting their Religious Combat strength up to high levels via Diplomatic visibility and other government/policy options.

 

[Benevolent Dictator]

This is on Prince btw. If I up the difficulty will the AI be more aggressive?

The AI on higher difficulties is much more aggressive in terms of Declaring War in the early game due to bonus units and other Turn 1 advantages, but this disappears by the Medieval era or so.

It's extremely rare for the AI to declare war or even maintain a decent standing army after the early game even on Deity and longstanding bugs introduced by DLC and patches have made the issue even worse in the final version (AI focusing exclusively on Science, AI not building or rebuilding an army, AI not building Commercial hubs, going bankrupt and disbanding all their units, etc).

On higher levels, the AI is most likely to beat you via Science Victory due to them being so far ahead in Technology. However, it's relatively easy to thwart their efforts with Espionage.

 

[CivAddict2013]

The AI rarely purposefully tries to thwart your victory condition.

Diplomatic Victory, while too easy, is probably the Victory condition that the AI defends the best as every AI Civ will nominate you to lose two points every WC passed a certain DV point threshold. It's essentially impossible to counter other than to cheese the system and vote for your to lose 2 points to at least salvage 1 point and try to guess correctly on the remaining two.

For Culture Victory, there are some built in AI safeguards. The AI will actively use the Music Censorship card quite actively if they have it, barring your Rock Bands from their lands. This is quite an effective hard counter.

The AI will also stop selling you any more Great Works if it determines that you are close enough to a Culture Victory.

The AI doesn't have any specific defenses against Domination Victory because they build too few units and manage the ones they manage to produce horribly.

I can't think of any specific counters the AI uses against Science Victory other than competing in the Space Race itself.

I don’t think I've ever had an AI Disrupt my Spaceport ever, even though I leave it undefended half the time.

I did lose a Deity Space Race game to Montezuma the other day because he actually built Lagrange Laser Stations immediately after launching his Exoplanet Expedition, which I was surprised to see.

I also don't think the AI has any specific strategies to counter Religious Victories either, though they do seem quite adept at getting their Religious Combat strength up to high levels via Diplomatic visibility and other government/policy options.

Hmm, you're correct in that the AI does use the music censorship card. However, if I can get Rock Bands early enough the AI stands no chance.

Even if the AI stops giving me Great Works, if I'm getting so many great person points that doesn't really stop me.

So it definitely seems true that for the most part, the AI doesn't really try to challenge your victory.

 

[Tech Osen]

The AI will also stop selling you any more Great Works if it determines that you are close enough to a Culture Victory.

I rarely try to buy great works but I do notice the AI's en masse try to buy mine when I pull ahead.

I can't think of any specific counters the AI uses against Science Victory other than competing in the Space Race itself.

I don’t think I've ever had an AI Disrupt my Spaceport ever, even though I leave it undefended half the time.

That actually happened to me so often that I never, ever leave my spaceport unguarded. When I use the Royal Society I also always put a military unit on it. AI more than once just parked a unit on it indefinitely, blocking my builders.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Remember in Civ V when you were near victory and the AIs would declare war on you?

This was a terrible mechanic, glad to see the back of it. Immersion breaking, the AIs shouldn't know they are playing a game!

 

[AntSou]

I've noticed that the AI in Civ VI seems a little bit too passive. Remember in Civ V when you were near victory and the AIs would declare war on you? Not in Civ VI. I just played a game where I was playing Hojo, running away in culture and none of the AIs cared.

None of them declared war, none of them attempted to attack my Rock Bands; they were just completely passive.

This is on Prince btw. If I up the difficulty will the AI be more aggressive?

I remember a lot of players sharing the sentiment above from Noble Zarkon. It goes back to the discussion "should AI play more like a human player, "aware" of it being a game with win conditions, or in a more immersive style?"

I'd be more interested in actual improvements to the AI than aggressiveness that feels artificial.

 

[reddishrecue]

I agree with the title ai is too passive particularly gandhi..

 

[Chefofrats]

In my current game on emperor, Mapuche and Australia declared a joint war against me, and... Nothing. They did not move a single unit toward my lands. Funny thing is, as I was in a golden age, Mapuche could actually do some serious damage to me. But no. No follow-up to the declaration of war... Would you call that... Passive-aggressive?

 

[Linklite]

Passive aggressive would be like attacking your trade routes but refusing to acknowledge that there are any bad relations with you.

Aggressive-passive maybe?

 

[Equilin]

when you were near victory and the AIs would declare war on you?

People (including me) absolutely hate that. It was in Civ6 too but removed for the same reason. It makes diplomacy meaningless because everyone will turn on you anyway.

 

[LastSword]

Remember in Civ V when you were near victory and the AIs would declare war on you?

Nope. And I do not think anyone would bother to put such a cool AI logic in dll.

AI is indeed reduced to the role of decoration, do not expect much. 6 years passed.

What is more, this game may not even be properly designed for good AI (examples include combat system, religious and cultural victory).

 

[Mummiesforpeace]

Can you still wipe the board with three bombers? This is what turned me off Civ 6 long ago.

 

[canadamufc]

Is the AI declaring war more often with intent after the patch? What is the war experience after the patch for those who don't use ai altering mods?

 

[Finvola]

I had one of those joint wars recently too where they declared on me and did nothing but send apostles and rock bands to me. I was playing as Nader Shah. I had a continent to myself by this point as I had steamrolled all my neighbors. I was way ahead in tech and started my space race. Then Abe Lincoln and Simon Bolivar joint war declared me and never so much as sent a single unit onto my shores. However, I did take the party to their shores and steamrolled them too. I won a science victory but I kept going after the victory screen so I could launch some nukes on them. I know why they joint declared on me (yes, I was a total warmonger), but they never sent a single unit towards me on my own continent. Just rock bands and apostles.

 

[Linklite]

I've not been DoW'd yet. However, they're forming alliances now and when I DoW'd them, it dragged their allies into the war. Mostly, they raided my traders, but a couple of times their ships tried to raid my eastern seaboard (Earth TSL, I was Abe and the allies were Scotland and Portugal). Portugal had colonies in Africa alongside my, ah, takings, and they occasionally had soldiers march down to my territory to cause aggro.

As to whether those attacks were intentional or not, I couldn't tell one way or the other. The naval attacks on America seemed intentional, at least once they had two ships there, but on the other hand, they could all have just been wandering randomly and just happened to enter my territory during a time of war. When I was directly at war with Portugal (those "takings" were originally theirs), they did purposefully come back with an army - soldiers plus a catapult.

 

[reddishrecue]

Can you still wipe the board with three bombers? This is what turned me off Civ 6 long ago.

Depends on the difficulty. The better the difficulty, the better the score because the AI spawns so much more for you to conquer.

 

[Disgustipated]

Can you still wipe the board with three bombers? This is what turned me off Civ 6 long ago.

Now you can do it with 2 GDR's. Bombers are kind of weak sauce now days.

 

[Tuvok694]

I've noticed that the AI in Civ VI seems a little bit too passive.

Dude, that sentence almost gave me a heart attack. In my games it's completely different. I always get forward settled (even with BBS mod) and at least one AI always sends all the troops they have to destroy me as early as possible. And I only play on level immortal or emperor. And while they're attacking me they have three times as many cities as I have, five or six times the science and culture and units that are two upgrades higher than mine. In most of my games I do not even make it to the medieval era.

 

[Linklite]

That sounds like a very different experience of Civ6 than pretty much everyone else. I can't even remember the last time someone spontaneously declared war on me. I'm wondering if you have a different patch or something.