Has FXS gone a little too far with the change to aggression ratio in Modern ?

[vorlon_mi]

If you spend all your influence on befriending city states the civs will all hate you, but once I stopped doing that and spreading the love around it was easy to keep a friend or two.

I've had that experience in my first two games. In my first game, Ibn loved me the whole game because I was revealing the map, just like him. In my current game, Himiko seems to permanently hate me because of the buildings I have built (including my unique quarter). I do pursue relics in Modern, so Kathy also seems to permanently hate me. I am befriending more CS, so I am seeing more grumpy feelings.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Delaying choosing an ideology: Yes, I have done that in every game. Admittedly, I'm not playing at a high difficulty level. I want to see what ideology my friends choose, or more importantly, my closest neighbor. I also have not seen many AI choose Democracy. I'm not sure why they value Communism so highly. I have seen several AI choose that one.

Getting the factories up and resources slotted has been straightforward, even without an ideology.

 

[ydejin]

Delaying choosing an ideology: Yes, I have done that in every game. Admittedly, I'm not playing at a high difficulty level. I want to see what ideology my friends choose, or more importantly, my closest neighbor. I also have not seen many AI choose Democracy. I'm not sure why they value Communism so highly. I have seen several AI choose that one.

I think that’s a good strategy if you’re looking to keep your alliances going.

I’ve completed three games (one on Governor, one on Viceroy, and one on Sovereign). In the Governor and Sovereign game, I wasn’t looking for a fight and didn’t pick an ideology and I did not have any wars at all in the Modern Age. In the Viceroy game though, everyone attacked me even before I had an ideology, and I spent the entire time fighting one opponent or another — it was a good time though and I got a Military Victory out of it. This was on the day-one patch.