Happening this Thursday on 4/17: Firaxis Feature Feedback: Auto-Explore

[FXS_Sar]

Hey, Civfantics Wanted to shout out that thisThursday, we’ll be hosting our first Firaxis Feature Feedback event on our official Civilization Discord.

This is a chance to share your feedback directly with the Civ VII team about a specific feature that’s still in development. We’ll post a few design directions we’re exploring, and if you'd like to join in for the discussion, we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Our first topic: Auto-Explore: How should your Scouts behave when left to their own devices?

The discussion will run for ~24 hours, during which you'll be able to upvote options, leave comments, and ask questions - and we’ll follow up with a recap of what we learned and what’s next. (Also, Firaxian Ed Beach will be poking his head in from time to time to participate in the discussion, too!)

We’ll post more details in ⁠the Discord on Thursday at 10AM ET when the event goes live! Hope you come join!

https://discord.gg/X6ceebb8?event=1361748341502906378

 

[protocol7]

Why not the same as in other civ games? Grab huts, head into the fog of war otherwise.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Why not the same as in other civ games? Grab huts, head into the fog of war otherwise.

Because there are other options for them to do.

Now personally I almost never auto explore with them. I just manually move them around until I recklessly plow them right into the middle of a bunch of bad guys.

 

[protocol7]

What would an auto exploring scout in civ7 do in your estimation, apart from exploring the fog of war and grabbing huts?

For me at least if I set a scout to auto explore and it explored and grabbed huts I’d be pretty satisfied.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Well, for starters, when or if to use these:

Again, it doesn't matter that much to me, but it does to some.

 

[Siptah]

What would an auto exploring scout in civ7 do in your estimation, apart from exploring the fog of war and grabbing huts?

Whether the scout should focus on exploring the map by moving around, or whether it should also use the scout abilities to reveal far away the goody huts, for example. Then, the question is whether exploring is prioritized over the (multiple discovered) goody huts.

 

[protocol7]

The previous behaviour from 6 was fine with me, prioritising huts and then heading off into the wilderness. But I guess as long as people don’t pick something weird like disbanding IPs then whatever. The point is reducing micromanagement, it doesn’t need to be algorithmically perfect imho.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

The previous behaviour from 6 was fine with me, prioritising huts and then heading off into the wilderness. But I guess as long as people don’t pick something weird like disbanding IPs then whatever. The point is reducing micromanagement.

I get that. It's one of my favorite parts of the game though, so not something I personally want to delegate.

 

[protocol7]

Yeah, hopefully they don’t remove your ability to do it manually. Are they really proposing that? Hopefully not, but if so.. sheesh.

 

[queenpea]

Really nice to see Firaxis engaging directly with players for feedback. Love this idea!

Personally, manual exploration is one of my favorite parts of the game (at least in Antiquity), but I know that this is a much needed feature for many players.

 

[MutilationWave]

I get that. It's one of my favorite parts of the game though, so not something I personally want to delegate.

Right? I love the feeling of running away from danger with a scout or trying to sneak in behind barbarians to grab a goody hut. But this is coming from a guy who would love a game that starts with wooden clubs and never gets more advanced than crossbows or so.

One thing civ 7 has done is got me finishing games. I used to get to the point where I knew I had won or lost and start a new game. First 50 turns are the greatest.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Honestly, the things I need most with scouts are the same as with other units:

1. Correct basic pathfinding. Currently it ignores zones of control and units are often walk to enemy units and stop, while there's a legitimate way without triggering zones of control. Same with deep water before you discover shipbuilding.

2. Option for alerted healing. If I leave scout to heal, I don't want to check every turn if any barbarian came nearby.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Honestly, the things I need most with scouts are the same as with other units:

I agree, these would be much higher priority for me than auto-explore.

 

[protocol7]

It would be cool if we had an open discussion on how to improve crises, that feels more relevant and impactful than how to auto explore.

 

[RDomico]

I think that if you put it on Auto-Explore, it just does what it did in previous versions.

If you want to use these, View attachment 729169 then don't use Auto-Explore. That is the trade-off.

 

[evonannoredars]

Another reason why scouts can't just work like they used to in previous games is ages - the early exploration age I feel will need the most discussion, should they prioritise exploring bits of home continent you didn't explore in antiquity or strike out to the distant lands? And if they get to the islands, should they go up and down them along safe strips of coast, or wait to heal then immediately cross to the next continent? Should they turn back if they get close to half health with no land in sight, or carry on going anyway?

 

[Krikkit1]

Priority
1. Alert and stop auto explore if enemy nearby
2. move toward closest pathable Discovery
3. move toward closest pathable unrevealed tiles
Maybe??? 2.5...if 5 tiles or more from any place you Searched, and there are unrevealed tiles within 5 range, Search again

That's it

 

[evonannoredars]

Also I feel like scouts should be able to be exempt from open borders to make them more viable for exploration compared to missionaries/other units that can freely go anywhere. Maybe without the ability to search/lookout without open borders to keep open borders relevant for scouts?

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

With Scouts in Civ VII there are a lot more variables than in previous games, and some can vary with every game.

For examples:

When to set up your little watchtower and 'spy' ahead changes whether you've seen a Hostile IP scout coming from that direction. Or there are mutliple flaring volcanoes in that direction.

-Or whether you have the Memento Imago Mundi enabled, which makes the spy feature that much more efficent.

-Or whether you are playing Mayans with their Unique Scout, the only Scout that can initiate a combat action.

And with or without Imago, I like to move my scouts to peninsulas or other land areas pointing into the ocean and set up a watchtower to see if any coastal sea tiles or land are visible out there - that tells me where to try to set up a seaport to double-time into Distant Lands (or stepping stones to them) as soon as Exploration Age starts.

All of which leaves a lot of potential 'paths' for Scout Behavior which may make the Auto-Explore a lot less useful than I would like, but I'm willing to wait and see . . .

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Whether the scout should focus on exploring the map by moving around, or whether it should also use the scout abilities to reveal far away the goody huts, for example. Then, the question is whether exploring is prioritized over the (multiple discovered) goody huts.

Also ensuring that they avoid danger well, afaik, auto-explore in 5 and 6 was flawed, in 5 it would go through neutral City States territory causing them to get upset.