Checking in from the dev team: next update coming later this month!

[Kwami]

I wonder if the growth curve adjustment will end up helping the AI. A huge part of the AI falling behind is that their cities are terrible because they work too many food tiles.

And they don't know how to build unique quarters. And the don't repair pillaged tiles and buildings.

 

[Pfeffersack]

And they don't know how to build unique quarters. And the don't repair pillaged tiles and buildings.

The question with the latter is...what is the reason? Is the "repair behaviour" directly broken - or do they lack the gold to do so (respectively are coded to priorize gold repairs, before doing something else)? Some recent reports in the thread of the AI mod indicate that sometimes they are just bankrupt. Too bad that the game is hiding their exact treasury counts, so it hard to observe that while playing.

 

[Daigotsu Max]

One thing I'm hoping devs take into account is Civ related resource unlocks. Hopefully the added resource diversity doesn't make it harder to unlock these.

 

[Morgawr]

The question with the latter is...what is the reason? Is the "repair behaviour" directly broken - or do they lack the gold to do so (respectively are coded to priorize gold repairs, before doing something else)? Some recent reports in the thread of the AI mod indicate that sometimes they are just bankrupt. Too bad that the game is hiding their exact treasury counts, so it hard to observe that while playing.

I have done a lot of pillaging lately so can say for sure the AI does repair when it has the money.

If it gets to the point where they have been fully invaded and pillaged with negative income for turns, they cannot repair because they are bankrupt. Their units get disbanded too right after they build them. They’ve economically lost that age but not technically as their cities aren’t taken to avoid going over cap, just left to

 

[MutilationWave]

I have done a lot of pillaging lately so can say for sure the AI does repair when it has the money.

If it gets to the point where they have been fully invaded and pillaged with negative income for turns, they cannot repair because they are bankrupt. Their units get disbanded too right after they build them. They’ve economically lost that age but not technically as their cities aren’t taken to avoid going over cap, just left to

Get on the pillage train! After this game I'm going to do the full 300% pillage run. Have you played Mississippians? Burning Arrows are insane. 1 movement to pillage up to two tiles away. They can still move or attack after.

I've noticed they strategize the disbanding, or at least it seems like it. They will disband a low health unit to bring out a full health replacement. Burning Arrows are pretty squishy against this tactic with chariots or especially horsemen. That's why you build 40 of them.

 

[Kwami]

I have done a lot of pillaging lately so can say for sure the AI does repair when it has the money.

If it gets to the point where they have been fully invaded and pillaged with negative income for turns, they cannot repair because they are bankrupt. Their units get disbanded too right after they build them. They’ve economically lost that age but not technically as their cities aren’t taken to avoid going over cap, just left to

I don't think it's so simple. I've seen otherwise prosperous AI players leave improvements and buildings pillages for the rest of an age. They just don't prioritize repairs.

 

[Leucarum]

One thing I'm hoping devs take into account is Civ related resource unlocks. Hopefully the added resource diversity doesn't make it harder to unlock these.

I think they said in the diary that resources which unlock civs are going to be always available. I presume that means on both continents.

Though I wish they'd get rid of the resource based unlocks altogether. At best they're random at worst they feel like lazy stereotypes.

 

[bbbt]

I don't think it's so simple. I've seen otherwise prosperous AI players leave improvements and buildings pillages for the rest of an age. They just don't prioritize repairs.

Having just played a Bulgaria game, Harriet kept fixing her sawmill/gristmill combo when it was pillaged, and nothing else. Maybe they prioritize repairing production? Maybe they only repair with production and not gold so it goes slowly?

I will say - I've seen them occasionally fix a pillaged tile. I've never seen them pillage. They definitely haven't pillage me at least.

 

[Morgawr]

Having just played a Bulgaria game, Harriet kept fixing her sawmill/gristmill combo when it was pillaged, and nothing else. Maybe they prioritize repairing production? Maybe they only repair with production and not gold so it goes slowly?

I will say - I've seen them occasionally fix a pillaged tile. I've never seen them pillage. They definitely haven't pillage me at least.

The AI pillages extremely rarely - 300+ hours and I still can’t recall a single instance myself , but others have said it does.

A modder who looked into behavior trees etc said pillaging IS built into AI code no issue there. But it is prioritized VERY LOW so a unit almost always ends up taking another action instead. Even when it’s downright dumb like they are wounded on a rural tile and instead of pillaging and healing they retreat and heal.

Bad news = Only something devs can change in short term

Good news = Once devs fix this pillaging behavior to the threat level it posed in previous civ games, the game will be a lot tougher and fun IMO. I am waiting

 

[Niallism]

I think the core issue, for me, is the lack of apology or contrition from the devs for this terrible launch. I actually love the core game, but I can't even watch PR releases that tell us to be happy for a basic feature. And a video coming up that will delve into auto-explore? What's to talk about?

If they actually admitted the launch has not been good, I'd be much more interested in their PR. But right now it's honestly insulting. There are many games I own that have launched with bugs or missing features, but the ones where I could accept that were the ones who owned their mistakes and fixed them without expecting gratitude or kudos for that.

 

[99-percent-sure]

I think the core issue, for me, is the lack of apology or contrition from the devs for this terrible launch. I actually love the core game, but I can't even watch PR releases that tell us to be happy for a basic feature. And a video coming up that will delve into auto-explore? What's to talk about?

If they actually admitted the launch has not been good, I'd be much more interested in their PR. But right now it's honestly insulting. There are many games I own that have launched with bugs or missing features, but the ones where I could accept that were the ones who owned their mistakes and fixed them without expecting gratitude or kudos for that.

Not to mention them expecting us to jump through extra hoops documenting the bugs we find and report to them by sending along video clips, screenshots, etc. even if the description we provide is perfectly clear. It's a lot of extra work, and I don't always want to do all that as the price of letting them know that something is amiss.

It seems as if they see us as a team of unpaid bug testers, when we're the ones who bought the game and who are now being inconvenienced by numerous glitches. I've found a bunch of things that I don't even want to bother reporting now, because they're probably going to ask me to go back and replicate the error while recording the whole thing. Fine, leave the bug in the game. It's not me who will lose income, it's them. They should be finding these things themselves, not asking us to run around in circles like yapping puppies.

 

[evonannoredars]

I think a lot of people are developing pretty uncharitable interpretations of the devs' attitude.

 

[Calcifer]

Not to mention them expecting us to jump through extra hoops documenting the bugs we find and report to them by sending along video clips, screenshots, etc. even if the description we provide is perfectly clear. It's a lot of extra work, and I don't always want to do all that as the price of letting them know that something is amiss.

It seems as if they see us as a team of unpaid bug testers, when we're the ones who bought the game and who are now being inconvenienced by numerous glitches. I've found a bunch of things that I don't even want to bother reporting now, because they're probably going to ask me to go back and replicate the error while recording the whole thing. Fine, leave the bug in the game. It's not me who will lose income, it's them. They should be finding these things themselves, not asking us to run around in circles like yapping puppies.

I noticed this too. I sent a couple of tickets, got an automated reply asking a video both times. I thought that if they couldn’t bother checking the bug themselves there was no reason for me to do their work for them.

 

[sixty4half]

I think a lot of people are developing pretty uncharitable interpretations of the devs' attitude.

Do you think there is good reason for that or do you think those people are being unfair; in terms of the devs' attitude?

 

[evonannoredars]

Do you think there is good reason for that or do you think those people are being unfair; in terms of the devs' attitude?

I think people are being unfair. I don't necessarily blame them for it though - if you're disappointed with the state of the game, ofc you'll be more predisposed to interpreting their attitude in a negative way.

Personally, I think the cheerful, 'look what we've got coming up!' attitude in PR content (except for that one post-launch livestream where Ed Beach seemed pretty defeated) is that way because they need to do stuff that way to encourage a positive attitude around the game. Livestreams wouldn't make a very fun two hours if they were just lamenting about the issues the whole time!

More speculative here, but imo it's pretty clear the game was pushed to release before it was ready. If that was the case, they probably aren't completely free to address why things like auto-explore aren't in already.

So while they haven't directly acknowledged the launch didn't go great, I don't think they've been ignoring it at all either - see the emphasis on communicating future plans and delaying low-priority content such as monthly challenges. You've sometimes gotta read between the lines of the friendly, corporate PR face they have to present and imo some people are unfairly assuming the worst.

 

[bbbt]

I think a lot of people are developing pretty uncharitable interpretations of the devs' attitude.

I mean this was also true after Civ 6 launch iirc, and probably 5.

It's true in gaming communities in general IMHO, and much worse in some. It's why a lot of developers limit their interactions.

 

[Menocchio]

I think the core issue, for me, is the lack of apology or contrition from the devs for this terrible launch. I actually love the core game, but I can't even watch PR releases that tell us to be happy for a basic feature. And a video coming up that will delve into auto-explore? What's to talk about?

If they actually admitted the launch has not been good, I'd be much more interested in their PR. But right now it's honestly insulting. There are many games I own that have launched with bugs or missing features, but the ones where I could accept that were the ones who owned their mistakes and fixed them without expecting gratitude or kudos for that.

Message received. The entire developer team (and no publishers or executives) will appear on a stream next week offering a full proskynesis to their beleaguered customers for their barely-forgivable sin.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Not to mention them expecting us to jump through extra hoops documenting the bugs we find and report to them by sending along video clips, screenshots, etc. even if the description we provide is perfectly clear. It's a lot of extra work, and I don't always want to do all that as the price of letting them know that something is amiss.

It seems as if they see us as a team of unpaid bug testers, when we're the ones who bought the game and who are now being inconvenienced by numerous glitches. I've found a bunch of things that I don't even want to bother reporting now, because they're probably going to ask me to go back and replicate the error while recording the whole thing. Fine, leave the bug in the game. It's not me who will lose income, it's them. They should be finding these things themselves, not asking us to run around in circles like yapping puppies.

I noticed this too. I sent a couple of tickets, got an automated reply asking a video both times. I thought that if they couldn’t bother checking the bug themselves there was no reason for me to do their work for them.

Asking for a video of a bug ?! I get the need for a save to reproduce from...but requesting videos instead of a description almost sounds like a measure to actively deter as many reports as possible for me.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

requesting videos instead of a description almost sounds like a measure to actively deter as many reports as possible for me

It's much easier to record a bug than to write an accurate description, especially if English isn't your first language.

 

[UWHabs]

It's much easier to record a bug than to write an accurate description, especially if English isn't your first language.

Yeah, I mean saved games are often the best, but it's really hard to get people to fully find their save game file and not mess something up in the process (missing some file). Never mind if the user has mods involved that can get trickier. Seeing a video recording sometimes can be way clearer in seeing what the user is seeing.