Anyone else dislike the founder belief priority changes?

[BK*]

Now the ai prioritizes my two favorite picks. Choral Music and Feed the world. IDK if it's just me but this almost kills a few good strategies. This seems to add a lot of turns to a culture victory. Why are they making changes no one asked for?

 

[Francel]

My favorite is divine inspiration, and I have had more opportunities to select it. Personally I am glad. I hope the ai is making smarter (and dynamic) choices and not just picking in a different order tho. Haven’t played enough to say which yet though.

 

[Weraptor]

If the AI gets its hands on better beliefs than the monks, I'm not complaining.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

Sometimes it feels like the devs can't win. In my opinion, given how much the AI gets criticised, this can only be seen as a good thing.

The problem as I see it is that some of the founder beliefs are a bit useless.

 

[Archon_Wing]

The AI playing better will be better for the game long term.

It may require some of us to drop levels, but I don't think that's a bad thing either.

 

[Vizurok]

Well, everybody's been complaining about bad AI choices, so we kind of deserve to suffer the consequences. I mean, we all know that Choral Music and Feed the World are usually the best beliefs, so we can't fairly argue that the AI should not be aware of that. If you really want the beliefs, you have to put even more emphasis on rushing your religion, but barring very lucky starts, it seems that we can't realistically target Choral Music on Feity any more.

 

[leandrombraz]

I like that it's possible to get Warrior Monks now, if you feel inclined to do so. Firaxis need to figure a way to make the AI priority more inconsistent, so they don't always choose the same beliefs. Idk if it already works like that to some extent, but I imagine that a possible solution would be for each leader to have their own priority list, so it changes which ones get adopted first based on the leader. Leaders that are good at getting a religion should all prioritize different beliefs.

 

[AntSou]

Why are they making changes no one asked for?

Everyone has been asking that from day 1. Set difficulty lower if you want the AI to be useless.

 

[Victoria]

Give the AI the best choices, 100% right to me.

 

[BK*]

Guess it's just me then ok thx

 

[9167]

This makes going for a religion even worse right?

I get the change to improve the AI but the vast majority of founder beliefs aren’t worth going for religion. Really needs an overhaul of all the beliefs and more variance in how the AI chooses

 

[Tinkerture]

I could be off the mark, but I'm going to wager it's not really just you so much as most here are more relieved by the improvement this makes to the AI than they are frustrated that it makes the player choices less interesting. Like you, choral music is my preferred choice. For me, it's less because I think it's always the best and more because culture is my favorite aspect of the game so I find any way to lean into it that I can, even when not pursuing a culture victory. I'm all for the AI making more optimal choices to present a greater challenge. I just wish that didn't leave me with uninspiring choices myself.

But yes, I think this underscores the challenges that face devs when making games. Any choice they make is going to leave some players disappointed while leaving other players... less disappointed.

 

[Victoria]

choral music is my preferred choice

It becomes 2 districts in one to a degree, no need to worry about culture and you yet tonnes of faith. Hell the fast victory players use this path, or reliquary. Both are OP compared to the rest and they really should buff some others because if you removed them the uses for religion become so much less. But to stop the AI choosing them as a preference feels wrong because on deity and immortal they should be the hold grail you work for rather than a back door anyone can walk through

 

[berlin88]

My favorite religious beliefs are Work Ethic and Meeting House, because of the bonus production. If the AI wants to ignore these in favor of something else, I am ok with that.

Ever since they added Australia to the game, I have largely ignored the other civs, so my strategy is largely focused on maximizing production, which means getting the 1st or 2nd religion, so I can have a chance at the production related beliefs.

My focus is usually on fertility rites (faster growth rate), worth ethic (+1 production) and meeting house (+2 production). The only time I ignore these, is if I were playing as Russia, where the tundra related beliefs are more important.

 

[bengalryan9]

"I want the AI to be better! That said, they'd better not take the best beliefs! Those are mine!"

This is a good change - you shouldn't be able to found one of the last religions and still get the best belief. As a human player, you may not get to take advantage of Choral Music as much any more, but the AI needs the help more than we do IMO. Be thankful that the AI *still* seems to emphasize Warrior Monks too much or founding a late religion would be even worse.

 

[Isengardtom]

I agree this is a good change.
Besides I can get Divine inspiration now which is one I enjoy getting

 

[tedhebert]

If it's good for you, it should be good for the AI too. Any good decision made by the AI is 100% ok for me !

 

[UWHabs]

If it's good for you, it should be good for the AI too. Any good decision made by the AI is 100% ok for me !

Ideally, the beliefs should all be roughly equivalent so that the choice should depend more on your current situation than anything else, but absent that, the AI making "smarter" choices certainly makes sense to me.

I do think that the warrior monks could probably be upgraded ever so slightly to match Lahore's UU. Perhaps not to the same level, since surely Lahore's UU will be nerfed as well, but even if their base strength increased by 5 points per era or per level of barracks that would help keep them more relevant in the later eras. It's also interesting to see now that warrior monks are actually more obtainable for users whether there will be some new strategies in place that may use them or their promotion tree.

 

[kb27787]

I do miss having free reliquaries spread to me... (RIP... in all my several games it has never been picked, even when the AI apparently found an early relic from a hut).
I wish they could've done what BNW did--have the AI vary a bit in what they pick (sometimes they would pick something that doesn't help them, but hurts you instead).

Choral music is not always good if the AI decides to ignore the temple civic at the leaf on the bottom of the civics tree (seen that happen a few times); in the end all they get is culture from measly shrines. Feed the world is a mostly useless belief to begin with (and yet at least one AI always gets it early) as the AI doesn't really need the extra food--the deity bonuses cover that just fine--they are always housing-capped.
And I've seen Jesuit education picked where the AI has decided to build encampments and commercial hubs with nary a campus or theatre in sight...

Warrior monks are useless (as always) in the hands of the AI. They will never make it to the ultimate promotion.

 

[bengalryan9]

I do miss having free reliquaries spread to me... (RIP... in all my several games it has never been picked, even when the AI apparently found an early relic from a hut).
I wish they could've done what BNW did--have the AI vary a bit in what they pick (sometimes they would pick something that doesn't help them, but hurts you instead).

Choral music is not always good if the AI decides to ignore the temple civic at the leaf on the bottom of the civics tree (seen that happen a few times); in the end all they get is culture from measly shrines. Feed the world is a mostly useless belief to begin with (and yet at least one AI always gets it early) as the AI doesn't really need the extra food--the deity bonuses cover that just fine--they are always housing-capped.
And I've seen Jesuit education picked where the AI has decided to build encampments and commercial hubs with nary a campus or theatre in sight...

Warrior monks are useless (as always) in the hands of the AI. They will never make it to the ultimate promotion.

I think AI with tundra or desert starts can get use out of Feed the World. I actually think it's probably the best choice for Russia since they're locked in to building theater squares if they want to use all of their GWAMs anyways.