Civ Rev 2 is way too easy! Anyone agree?

jackdubl

Benevolent Dictator
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
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Been playing for about a week. Have only played Diety after the first two games. Have unlocked all leaders. Now I start games and am bored by about twenty moves in, when it becomes apparent that I will win. Worst case scenario in any game is I catch up and pass in the tech race around the beginning of industrial era. Then it's pretty much choose whichever victory type you want.

Problem is the AI never really attacks you. I leave the majority of my cities with zero units defending them. The cpu rarely attacks, even though they are always at war with you; when they do attack it is with minimal units; and they don't attack each other. So their civs never grow large and my civ will be twice as large as the next cpu civ, at least. Just build some cities quickly and it's game over.

Coming from the pc versions, which are near impossible to beat on Diety, I am very disappointed with this game. Hard to get myself to keep playing when there is no challenge.

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I'm not sure if you ever played it, but the original CivRev was actually a fair deal harder. I routinely win Diety in CivRev2, whereas I could only do it about half the time in the XBox360 version. About the only time I lose is when an isolated Civ spawns on an island somewhere and beelines a culture victory.

The big reason for this seems to be a few glitches and oversights in the AI programming that weren't in the original. (At least in the Android version; I can't vouch for the iOS version.) A few of the big issues:
  • First and foremost, there's a bug where the AI doesn't attack barbarians or collect goody huts. They'll stand outside like idiots the entire game until you take them yourself. Barbarian camps and goody huts are one of the biggest boons in the early game, and since the AI players don't properly take advantage of them, their growth is stunted; moreso because they waste their early units sitting outside these features on the map.
  • The AI doesn't seem to build nearly as many cities compared to the original, likely because of the above issue. I don't think I ever see them expand in the direction of the barbarian camps their units get stuck on.
  • In CivRev playing on Deity, the AI leaders start with a great person each. Often you would use your first spies to go kidnap them as soon as possible. But in CivRev2, when I go to kidnap them they don't seem to be there. (They might just be expending them instead of settling them, though.)
  • Another big oversight: in the original CivRev, to overcome the logistics of not being able to move through each others' territory, the AI had the ability to cheat by spawning units in the fog-of-war outside your borders. I've only seen this happen once in CivRev2, and it might have just been a unit that was already there exploring.
  • The AI could also park a ship next to your cities and magically spawn units. I don't think I've ever seen them do this in CivRev2.
  • Speaking of ships, the AI seems to build one or two and then calls it a day. Then they never seem to use them for anything but defense. The AI was quite a bit more aggressive with its fleets in the original.
I recall there being a few more issues, but I can't remember them at the moment. These are the big ones. Hopefully 2K China will address these in the next patch, along with other things such as the missing wonders (you can't build the Eiffel Tower in the Android version, for example) and broken live events.

The original CivRev iOS port got so many patches and updates that later version were unrecognizable from the first release. Hopefully this game gets as much dedication and attention from its developers.
 
Good observations. No, never played the first Civ Rev, but your description is spot on. I can build the eiffel tower on Android, but it isn't available to build until you reach industrial era. I have noticed everything else you mentioned, and also agree that the cpu's only chance is a cultural victory from its own Island. So you think they can fix some of this AI stuff, eh? I was worried that this was it.
 
Fireaxis seems incapable of making a decent AI. The bug in Civ Rev2 where they sit passively next to barb huts hopelessly gimps their expansion
 
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