Are advisors really helpful? (and other strategy questions)

Are CiV advisors really helpful?

  • Yes - they give great advice!

    Votes: 6 3.8%

  • No - do things your own way. They don't know what they're doing.

    Votes: 82 51.3%

  • Sometimes they're helpful, sometimes they aren't.

    Votes: 69 43.1%

  • Other (please post below)

    Votes: 3 1.9%
  • Total voters
    160
I think the reason for the AI's erratic behaviour is that it always follows the boneheaded advice of the military advisor. I'm trying really hard not to believe the theory, but every time I fire up a game something like this happens, which is probably caused by AI Civ Y's mil advisor:

"Hey, I don't think Civ Z have an army at all, any hostilities would be laughably one-sided!"
*Civ Y (125) has declared war on Civ Z (over 9000)*

"Hey, I don't think Civ M have an army at all, any hostilities would be laughably one-sided!"
*Civ Y (125) has declared war on Civ M (over 9000, friends with Civ Z)*

"OMG, Civ X has an army that can wipe us off the planet!"
*Civ Y and Civ X (Stone-age Warrior spam, bankrupt) are now friends!
 
One of the uses in the last Polycast that wasn't touched on was that the Foreign Advisor is pretty on the ball on keeping track on trades. Sometimes a lux item that was part of a deal between two of the AI has ended and now suddenly I can sell it to an AI myself. Sometimes they want a strategic resource really badly and I have no use for mine and I can sell it. It also beats clicking on each individual city-state to find out what their quest is.
 
Science Advisor is the WORST.. all he ever says is how efficient my nation is.

The Economic Advisor is also annoying, she constantly reminds me there's a unworked Fish that i can't access xD
 
drubell said:
One of the uses in the last Polycast that wasn't touched on was that the Foreign Advisor is pretty on the ball on keeping track on trades. Sometimes a lux item that was part of a deal between two of the AI has ended and now suddenly I can sell it to an AI myself. Sometimes they want a strategic resource really badly and I have no use for mine and I can sell it. It also beats clicking on each individual city-state to find out what their quest is.
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll grant this one. Mostly because any luxury the AI Civ doesn't have is one it 'really wants', so it's not sufficiently context-dependent to confuse the advisor. But while it's quicker than checking every civ's available resources etc in the diplomacy view, you can get that info easily elsewhere. I never think to use the foreign advisor.

TheKingOfBigOz said:
Science Advisor is the WORST.. all he ever says is how efficient my nation is.

The Economic Advisor is also annoying, she constantly reminds me there's a unworked Fish that i can't access xD
Click to expand...

I find he tends to tell me I'm making money when I have negative income...
 
I believe there is a thread in the stories section where someone decides to follow all the advice from the advisors. He doesn't lat long but it is very funny.

I suppose they're usefull if you've never played civ, but still not very usefull. Perhaps if you never played a videogame before :)
 
I think there is use for *one* advisor: the military one, and only because it can *see* the relative strength of my civ against my immediate neighbors. Based on that, we can have a hint on what other players are planning to do.

The others are really pretty useless... I don't let them popup on my interface, though. I prefer simply checking the military advisor when taking a decision.

I think that if the advisor showed some tables and graphs instead of those bs messages they could be more helpful. Hm... good mod suggestion ;)
 
advisors are really horribly executed. What civ really fails at the whole game is condensing information and presenting it to the player in a good fashion.

Does the military adviser really need to list every city with a barracks one by one?
Just make it a short list of the cities that currently have the most benefits to creating units.
That list is already very questionable in utility, I know where I built what. I don't need to be reminded of that constantly.

The science adviser only really has one "advice". how many bulbs I am currently making. So basically he reads the top left corner to me. Here's an idea: tell me what building would give me the highest increase in bulbs across my empire.

eco adviser, same thing as science adviser. Tell me where a new market would make me the most money. That is not complicated programming.
 
The only time I ever look at the advisory screen is to see, via the military advisor, who's ahead of me militarily, and even then the advisors aren't terribly useful. But just because of that one instance, I voted "sometimes".
 
I think the OP also wants to know if the what tech to research or what unit/building to build to be useful. I think the what building to build advice can sometimes remind you of what to make. Like they will remind you to make happiness buildings when happiness is running low, markets when there are alot of trade routes coming in, universities when you have a good science output in the city etc. The where to settle advice can sometimes also help you choose a site to settle, it gives you a general idea of which region is good even if you don't settle exactly at where it advices.
 
Pretty useless.

Economical one is unhelpful and whenever I used her, she told me to upgrade a tile which either didn't exist or was already upgraded (there's no iron near Thebes, but she insists I should definitely mine it) or just told me that I spend most gpt on buildings. She often did other useless stuff nobody should listen to.

Science one only ever says one thing "We generate XXX now THAT'S efficiency!", diplomatical one could sometimes help find out which civ lacks the Luxury Resource I had additional copies of, but she only ever does that when they don't have any money, military advisor is actually useful.

However, comparing military size like that is just wrong. There's so many factors, upgrades... But it's still helpful. The problem is he often doesn't tell you about civs you want to find it about the most for some weird reason.

He also loves to insist you should build more units no matter what the situation is. You have number 1 military? BUILD MORE UNITS, he says.

By usefulness, it's 1. Military 2. Nothing 3. Nothing 4. Nothing................ 50. Diplomatic 51. Nothing. 52 Nothing................. 98. Economical 99. Science Nerd. I often view military guy to see how my army is compared to other civs, but others I just never look at. Diplomatic one is almost useful, though.

About buildings, well. They usually want you to build stuff they're connected to. If it gives +science, the science guy will want it, and he's pretty much always right. Science buildings are the best buildings. If it's barracks/soldiers, military guy may want it. Foreign Advisor wants pretty random stuff though (and Monuments). Economical wants gold and production, which makes sense.
 
They're useful for getting a feel for where your opponents are compared to you, and also for alerting you to undeveloped resources within your borders (assuming your workers aren't automated). I consult them from time to time. It's just important to remember that you call the shots. Somebody's got to be "the decider"...
 
the foreign advisor is the only useful one IMO. At least it tells me what civ doesnt have what resources. Saves me time from clicking all 21 civs on my large map
 
I voted sometimes good/sometimes bad because the overall advice received is indeed mixed. Here are my thoughts on the advisors:

Military advisor. Possibly the most useful advisor of the lot. He somehow knows the relative strength of every single civ in the game. However, he also becomes captain obvious at times: ">insert city name here< has buildings that improve military production and offer XP. Recruit soldiers there." Well duuuuuh! He also mentions that barbarian encampments should be wiped out well into the later stages of the game, which is mostly pointless advice.

Economic advisor: a rather useful advisor who offers diverse advice on happiness as well as development. Her advice is often opinionated, such as advising cuts to military spending if you got a huge army but you're going for domination victory.

Foreign advisor: very useful when looking for trade opportunities with civs. Rather than waste time checking every civ as to whom to sell your spare resources to, she tells you straight away whom to trade to. Only problem is that that particular civ she mentions might not have much to offer instead. She also advises you which CS' need to be bribed to maintain support because it is lost.

Science advisor: the least talkative advisor, with some here like BigOz saying he's useless, but he does offer good advice from time to time to keep up the beakers. Science advisor should also offer advice not to expand too much, along with economic advisor.

New settlement advisor: This advice mostly tends to offer random advice, such as building a settlement when there are no luxury resources about. Sometimes, our thoughts on new settlement concur.
 
sendos said:
I voted sometimes good/sometimes bad because the overall advice received is indeed mixed. Here are my thoughts on the advisors:

Military advisor. Possibly the most useful advisor of the lot. He somehow knows the relative strength of every single civ in the game. However, he also becomes captain obvious at times: ">insert city name here< has buildings that improve military production and offer XP. Recruit soldiers there." Well duuuuuh! He also mentions that barbarian encampments should be wiped out well into the later stages of the game, which is mostly pointless advice.

Economic advisor: a rather useful advisor who offers diverse advice on happiness as well as development. Her advice is often opinionated, such as advising cuts to military spending if you got a huge army but you're going for domination victory.

Foreign advisor: very useful when looking for trade opportunities with civs. Rather than waste time checking every civ as to whom to sell your spare resources to, she tells you straight away whom to trade to. Only problem is that that particular civ she mentions might not have much to offer instead. She also advises you which CS' need to be bribed to maintain support because it is lost.

Science advisor: the least talkative advisor, with some here like BigOz saying he's useless, but he does offer good advice from time to time to keep up the beakers. Science advisor should also offer advice not to expand too much, along with economic advisor.

New settlement advisor: This advice mostly tends to offer random advice, such as building a settlement when there are no luxury resources about. Sometimes, our thoughts on new settlement concur.
Click to expand...

The military advisor is useless if you use infoaddict to check the military ranks. I used that to check which civ has more strength etc.

economic advisor, after X turns, becomes useless too. I already improved that fish in the ocean and she tells me that there are fish in the ocean need improving

Foreign: Most useful, but sometimes the civ that need my extra luxury stuff has -gold/-g per turn

Science guy: i know i m efficient, i own the oxford uni. Nekminit checks science graph on infoaddict: bottom 3

new settlement: just turn it off


Overall: dont rely on these guys
 
Alloran said:
I use the military advisor from time to time to find out how strong my opponent might be (after they DoW, before I see their nonsense). Past that, I hardly use 'em.
Click to expand...

This.
And of course, anytime I want to check that my military strategy is correct, I consult the advisor and then do the bloody opposite! ("They can wipe us off the planet - no wait, we can absolutely crush them").
Also the city governors should be taken out and shot (e.g. I didn't plant that scientist for the hell of it - work the godamm tile!)

But in fairness they were helpful when I didn't know my ass from my elbow...
 
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