Combat in details

[IcyAngel]

One has to wonder whether promotions are shared through the lowest or higher common denominator.

In the second case, combining say a ranged unit with Logistics and Range with a fresh unit solely for the 40% CS bonus would be better than keeping them separated; in the first case, only units with the same promotions will benefit from corps.

I assume health will be 50% of each's current HP too, to avoid hiding dying units in healthy ones. (The formula could be different for support/military combos.)

 

[stealth_nsk]

I believe we need to wait for actual info on HP it could be anything from 1-unit HP to a sum and generally based on balancing results.

 

[AriochIV]

It will all boil down to whether the AI can better handle the 1upt system. If not, it will have the same problems Civ V has.

Even if so, I still prefer 1upt to Civ IV stacks.

 

[stealth_nsk]

It will all boil down to whether the AI can better handle the 1upt system. If not, it will have the same problems Civ V has.

Even if so, I still prefer 1upt to Civ IV stacks.

Yeah. Dumbing the game to make it AI accessible is a wrong way. Better have smarter tactics and let AI throw the numbers in. Tactics vs numbers could be less fun than tactics vs tactics, but it's clearly better than numbers vs numbers.

I'm positive in 2 aspects:

1. The tactical basis is the same as in Civ5, so developers will be able to reuse significant part of the algorithms and add further improvements. So less stupid mistakes.

2. Corps/armies/support will allow AI to use masses more efficiently.

 

[AriochIV]

Support will make it much easier for the AI to protect workers/siege engines/etc., but that's about it.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Support will make it much easier for the AI to protect workers/siege engines/etc., but that's about it.

On higher difficulty levels I expect all AI units late-game to be armies equipped with AA or AT support. Not sure human players will be able to afford that many units.

 

[Gali]

About the AI I have several hopes. One is if Civ 6 is 64 bit allowing for more complex AI. My main hope is if they follow X-com 2 a and make much more powerful mod tools available at launch. A goodly part of Civ 4's AI was done by community members using its mod tools. Having actual mod tools available at launch could allow the community the time to improve the AI since the ROI is too low for a company to make a killer AI. Even paradox who has a very aggressive DLC model to fund continued development has bad AI. They have to turn off fort maintenance in EU IV for example just to prevent the AI going bankrupt.

My main hope for the AI in the new system is how it helps them project force. 1UPT did not allow the AI to concentrate force easily like stacks and made it waste its bonuses. An AI that can add support units and make corps and armies should be able to concentrate power. Having the 15 unit meander of CiV turn into 5-6 super powerful and threatening units should help the AI. If they can also protect their siege train by placing it in their units it could make the AI a bigger threat. Melee with siege support should help melee remain useful for more than blocking as well. hopefully its moddable so experienced players can give the AI an extra stack to help it out,

 

[AriochIV]

Aggregated units may help AI management of logjams, but it may expose poor combat AI even more than now. According to the article, a double unit only has 40% more power than a single unit, so it may be that forming Corps is an inefficient use of units. If so, having the AI lean on Corps and Armies may actually put them even deeper in the hole of being exploited by human players.

The AI needs to get better.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Aggregated units may help AI management of logjams, but it may expose poor combat AI even more than now. According to the article, a double unit only has 40% more power than a single unit, so it may be that forming Corps is an inefficient use of units. If so, having the AI lean on Corps and Armies may actually put them even deeper in the hole of being exploited by human players.

With AI bonuses to production and gold it will not be a problem for them to use corps/armies instead of regular units.

 

[jjkrause84]

Yeah. I think it's a shame though. These tweaks are a step in the right direction but I'm highly skeptical they will solve the two big issues of 1UPT--that the AI couldn't handle it, and that there was simply not enough space on the map for units to execute interesting tactical maneuvers.

1UPT will never work properly because the scale is all off. You don't have your archers 200 miles behind your spearmen. It is just silly.

Limited stacking and zones of control would work just fine. It would improve on the tactical gameplay (vis-a-vis Civ 4) and would alleviate many of the scale and traffic-jam issues of Civ 5.