CIV 6 AI

[brock145]

I am considering getting Civ 6 in the near future now that it is on sale, but is the AI good enough to warrant purchasing the game. Or is the AI close to being as terrible as it was upon release?

 

[Stringer1313]

If you are a casual gamer / gamer that focuses more on role playing and immersion and not obsessed with min-maxing everything, definitely get this game. If you are a hardcore gamer focused on winning, especially winning by military conquest, and focus on winning, you will probably be disappointed by the AI. (If you are into multiplayer, then definitely get the game, but i assume you are asking about single player b/c you are asking about AI)

I am somewhere in between, which is why I have a love/hate relationship with the game.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

Honestly the ai's combat ability has come a long way since release. Ranged units can move and shoot in the same turn, they concentrate their attacks and they defend at least somewhat intelligently. The can and will clean your clock at higher levels if you aren't ready. There are still issues, like the fact that they are VERY slow at achieving victory. That means that if you're looking half-way decent by the time the Medieval Era rolls around you can auto-pilot your way through. Fortunately there is STEEP learning curve and a lot of fun things to see and do between buying the game and getting to that level. Without knowing you or what you like to play I'm happy to recommend the game. It's a quality experience.

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

The AI is definitely improved from release especially after the expansion and latest patch - maybe a 5/10 now. I'd give the overall game an 8/10 so would recommend purchase. I've definitely gotten much more than my money's worth at full price and if you enjoy the series then you will most likely get a lot of mileage out of it.

 

[brock145]

If you are a casual gamer / gamer that focuses more on role playing and immersion and not obsessed with min-maxing everything, definitely get this game. If you are a hardcore gamer focused on winning, especially winning by military conquest, and focus on winning, you will probably be disappointed by the AI. (If you are into multiplayer, then definitely get the game, but i assume you are asking about single player b/c you are asking about AI)

I am somewhere in between, which is why I have a love/hate relationship with the game.

Thank you! Although I love this series for its single player mode, I don't object to playing it multiplayer assuming I can play it with people over multiple days cause I unfortunately never have a full day to devote to a game of Civ.

Honestly the ai's combat ability has come a long way since release. Ranged units can move and shoot in the same turn, they concentrate their attacks and they defend at least somewhat intelligently. The can and will clean your clock at higher levels if you aren't ready. There are still issues, like the fact that they are VERY slow at achieving victory. That means that if you're looking half-way decent by the time the Medieval Era rolls around you can auto-pilot your way through. Fortunately there is STEEP learning curve and a lot of fun things to see and do between buying the game and getting to that level. Without knowing you or what you like to play I'm happy to recommend the game. It's a quality experience.

Thank you for your reccomendation! Glad to hear the AI has gotten a lot better than what it was at release!

 

[Archon_Wing]

The AI is now somewhat functional after it is able to take cities.

It still doesn't build planes though.

It is much better than it was a year ago. However do note a lot of people would complain abouy bad ai but only play on maps that favor them so there is some hyperbole in that area.

 

[brock145]

The AI is now somewhat functional after it is able to take cities.

It still doesn't build planes though.

It is much better than it was a year ago. However do note a lot of people would complain abouy bad ai but only play on maps that favor them so there is some hyperbole in that area.

When you say "play on maps that favor them" do you mean those people only play on maps that exploit the AI's short comings? Ex: playing on maps that you almost need planes to have a chance at winning?

 

[Eliminator_Sr]

When you say "play on maps that favor them" do you mean those people only play on maps that exploit the AI's short comings? Ex: playing on maps that you almost need planes to have a chance at winning?

You don't need to build planes at all in the game because you can easily beat the AI to SV or CV before they really become a factor - this is probably the main issue with AI now. They simply won't apply much pressure towards any particular victory condition before turn 300 (out of 500) and players can win easily by turn 250 with some experience under their belt. I think a more relevant example would probably be island maps because the AI rarely builds enough naval units or uses them well so it's very easy to own the seas. You can also keep restarting/reloading to get exceptionally good starting land which will of course skew the game heavily in your favor.

 

[Cedbird77]

The AI has improved about 35% imo. The game has been loads of fun before that. And much more fun since this improvement.

Buy it! You will have fun. By the time you catch on the AI will improve more I am sure.

I play on Emperor level for optimal realistic play. So I am an above average player.

 

[Archon_Wing]

When you say "play on maps that favor them" do you mean those people only play on maps that exploit the AI's short comings? Ex: playing on maps that you almost need planes to have a chance at winning?

Oh I mean like just selectively picking only the best starts (eg. 3 luxuries 5 CS's nearby with a weak neighbor)

 

[Kruos]

You don't need to build planes at all in the game because you can easily beat the AI to SV or CV before they really become a factor - this is probably the main issue with AI now. They simply won't apply much pressure towards any particular victory condition before turn 300 (out of 500) and players can win easily by turn 250 with some experience under their belt.

This.

Still, the game is very good, despite this.

 

[Art Morte]

The AI is still the biggest hinderance the game has, but if you can get the game on sale I'd say go for it, it can still be fun.

 

[acluewithout]

The AI is not bad tactically at combat, and if you play at higher difficulties it’s usually not a push over unless you play very efficiently and therefore have tonnes more firepower than the AI.

The big “problems” with the AI are this:

- Some people find the diplomacy / alliance / warmonger systems unintuitive or can’t make them work or don’t like the systems, and so feel the AI is “bad” at diplomacy. The AI is definitely not great at diplomacy, but if you actually play to the mechanics - and are okay with their premise (eg capturing cities is always bad, even defensively) - then this part of the game is better than some people make out.

- If you capture a few cities most Civs crumble, so it feels like tactical combat falls away. If you then start snowballing, the AI really can’t compete with you - but that’s maybe more to do with snowballing than the AI.

- The AI is not good strategically or with late game units. It can also feel inert later in the game, but that may also be a product of limited ways to interact with the AI - if you’re not warring with the AI, the only other things to do really are trade and rack up Alliance points, both of which are fairly passive.

- The AI is bad at some very specific things: religious conversion, air units, maybe navy sometimes.

 

[klail]

This mod can make the AI's military more of a threat:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1293939096

 

[Mr. Shadows]

For a while the fact that once you pull ahead the other Civs dislike you for it ruined diplomacy, but I've had encouraging results lately. I had a couple of games where it made sense to play relatively peacefully. I remember a game with Korea in which Poundmaker was friends with Cleo and someone else (don't remember) and Cleo was friendly. I gave Cleo a sweet-heart deal on a luxury and she gave me friendship the next turn. The other two quickly followed- as I hoped they due to Poundmaker's diplomatic agenda. A few nice deals later I had three alliances: cultural, economic and military. That ended up being both lucrative and fun. That was on King, and I admit I wasn't trying to over-achieve so it's maybe not the best example. I also had a game as Gorgo in which I only took one city (a CS) and only fought defensively otherwise. I don't remember as many details but I know had a couple friendships and at least one alliance in that game as well. That was on Deity and I was pushing for a CV pretty hard so I have more confidence in it. I wasn't trying particularly hard to meet their agendas, but if you do sometimes a little effort (crank out a boat or two for Harald) can go a long way. I think the issue isn't so much that diplomacy doesn't work as it is that the strongest strategy is to take out (at least) your nearest neighbors. Then you're a war-monger and the other civs won't want to deal with you. If you're always a war-monger you'll always be a pariah, but there are extremely viable strategies that don't play out that way.

 

[CPWimmer]

Thank you! Although I love this series for its single player mode, I don't object to playing it multiplayer assuming I can play it with people over multiple days cause I unfortunately never have a full day to devote to a game of Civ.

Thank you for your reccomendation! Glad to hear the AI has gotten a lot better than what it was at release!

I would highly recommend buying the Digital Deluxe Edition while it is currently on sale. This includes the vanilla version and all of the "original" DLC (so, excluding the Rise and Fall Expansion). With the current sale you would be getting $38 worth of extra DLC content (if purchased individually at full price) for just $6 over the sale price of the base game.

In general, I would recommend Rise and Fall as well, but there is certainly enough content in Vanilla plus DLC to last you until the next sale, and decide if you want to invest further. That of course depends a lot on how much $ you have available/want to spend on the game.