'I really tried to like this game, i really did but' thread

Last patch had significant AI improvements (at least compared to the state AI was in before). I've mentioned that several times right in this thread.

I'm just saying, if they change up the UI, then do you believe they'll make it part of something you have to pay for?

Because let's be real - all we've had to pay for so far was bonus content: Scenario's, civs, city states and natural wonders. All others things that have changed since release have been part of the (free) patches. From balance changes to AI improvements.

 

The only correct answer is "maybe". If it comes as part of a mechanical overhaul in DLC, then yes it might be an expansion/DLC exclusive. It might not be. asdff

 

I could accept the fact that Civ6 is broken and just not fun in so many ways right now, and that they'll eventually get to the point (like with Civ5) where the game is great IF Firaxis was responsive to their customers in any way. But they're so completely unresponsive that it comes across as completely disrespectful and not caring about the quality of the game at all. Why not fix some of these simpler bugs/issues that have already been mentioned in this thread or AT LEAST acknowledge that they're aware of them and working on it.

They're living in a bubble right now and I guess I can't blame them - they got their money already and Civ6 was "a critical success" due to reviewers glancing over all the flaws that become so obvious and game breaking (at least for me) after +15 hours of play. The game seems to be full with so much potential at first when you're learning that it's easy to dismiss the annoying and flawed aspects because you think you don't know the game fully yet. But once you do, the reality hits and sadly the reviewers can't get to that point because it requires more hours of gameplay than they have time for before writing their reviews.

I'm usually one of the last people to criticize a company for their customer service etc., I don't have a very high standard when it comes to that. But the total lack of any real communication about these issues by Firaxis coupled with the quite lackluster patches and DLCs that have come out so far have just really soured me on the whole company.

I hope Civ6 will be a great game one day, I'd like to revisit it in like a year and see that it's finally living up to its potential. But there's no excuse for Firaxis to handle "customer management" like this. Maybe I'm spoiled from getting used to Paradox and their transparent way of communicating with their customers on the forums and through regular updates about the game development. And no, I'm not their "fanboy" or anything like that (again, I don't really care enough), but it's hard to understand why some companies are so completely oblivious to how to manage their customers. But again, the sad truth is that they don't have to care because the game has been a huge financial success.

 

Is it? That's really exciting to hear. I haven't tried a new game since the patch, because I'd found the AI to easy at King/Emperor and the game not fun to play at higher settings.

But that sounds promising!

 

I'll just add my bit too and say personally I feel the game's ai is now comparable to CivV in difficulty with the latest patch from three games I have played....it is no longer a cake walk in higher difficulties with a caveat that you don't just rely on domination to achieve victory..if you play a reasonably peaceful game like I prefer, the ai's will give you a good run for your money... the UI on the other had is not good but there are a couple of excellent mods which fix that.

 

It wasn't my intention to insult people who didn't invest enough time yet to beat the game at highest difficulty.
I apologize if anyone was offended.
I was kinda triggered , and didn't put in the time to word it the right way. In my mind i was thinking about civ 4 deity, where even experts almost never played deity games because that's the way it was designed. I had read about this from the guy who worked on civ games, Sirian.
I am not elitist. I care for details. And sadly, i don't think i'm that intelligent, i still think it's the game not me.

 

Are you sure the AI is really THAT good now? My experience tells otherwise. In last game when my Roman troops DOW and surrounded Cleopatra's cities. She was still silly enough to send out an unescorted settler. Oh, thank you very much honey.

Yes, the AI has significantly improved, but from an IQ of 20 to 50.

 

I agree that the AI still produces workers and settlers while being sieged....bad

 

My experience, the AI doesn't even attempt to defend themselves.

 

To be fair, maybe it's just going to happen that only the game designers who communicate a lot will survive, as the players simply will not accept anything else anymore. I could see that being the case, and it'd just be the market at work. I just hope that Firaxis will be on-board though, as I don't want a life without civilization...

 

To me, Civ6 is a product of dishonest marketing that builds on servile hype articles on sites like IGN or Gamespot about how Civ6 is the best strategy game of all times. At the same time, dissenting voices of fair criticism are suppressed on affiliated message boards and discussion forums. When the hype dust settles, we find out that it's just another title with brain dead AI and broken core components like diplomacy, vomited and forgotten by the profit-driven corporate machine.

See you in a year with the same story.

 

If they do 2 or 3 more AI upgrades like last patch Deity is going to be quite a challenge.

That said, you are right concering the release state of the game (even though I still very much enjoyed districts (and still do)).

 

Civ 5 was weak on release. And while it became fun over time, some of the core issues (like artificial caps on expansion and the ludicrous happiness system) were never fixed.

Civ 6 gets a lot of things right in principle and is definitely a solid foundation. Not saying I'm happy with how it was released or irksome details like the frankly embarrassing civ descriptions / tech / wonder quotes, but the fundamental changes are steps in the right direction.

 

yes we do. if nobody put down how they feel about a game how do the devs know when they are getting it wrong? they wont and we will see them wind up making so many bad mistakes in all their games from zero feedback that to save the company they stop making the games that bomb - because they dont know how to fix them. one person saying i dont like xyz and then everyone slamming them and preventing any more threads is actually MORE harmful (what you are saying) than no feedback. with no feedback the devs might dump bad features AND good features because they arent sure why games arent selling. with only one feedback thread from one person then people SLAMMING them for making the threads, not only does the info get lost but the makers dont have a clue that a lot of people dont like certain additions. others cant respond like someone else did that they LIKE the additions of districts as in this thread. the devs might think only a few who dont like ANY change have issues and ignore the shouting down of the thread thinking it indicates most people are happy - and that might not be the case. it might lead them to make dangerous decisions which endanger the very existence not just of that game and its dev team but the whole company may take a gamble thinking they are getting it right and wind up amnother failed company, bought up by EA and dissolved to cherry pick the rights to anything good and cherry pick more staff.

dont get me wrong about districts; i like the concept. i DONT like the constant nagging to do things which sabotage your own city and the way the AI doesnt seem to have food issues when it does those things. either stop nagging every single turn about need to build xyx (particularly NEIGHBORHOODS) when it will cause you significantly more problems to do so by removing a campus or industrial zone OR THE FOOD. that is in no way having to make a choice. thats being forced into making the game hard for yourself to shut up a nagging mechanic with a flawed decision.

i maintain that city planning is NOT what civ was about. i had civ 1 and 2 i skipped 3 got 4 and 5 complete. i have no issue with bigger cities. i dont have an issue with placing districts per se i have an issue with them making it so you need all the districts but then not having the room to place all the ones you obviously have to - AND THEN NAGGING YOU OVER AND OVER EVERY SINGLE TURN. and the fact the ai doesnt seem to need to build neighborhoods or if they do it doesnt affect their cities food or have to go over any other district. so by that point in the game, if you havent already won somehow you HAVE to go to war. and you have to start it. or you are going to lose because you cant keep up with the AI production because either you arent having fun because nagged to build more neighborhoods, and your cities arent big enough to build what you need fast enough, or you dont have the science to keep up because you dumped a neighborhood on the campus to shut up the advisor notices, or not enough production to keep up militarily because same for industrial district...and the neighborhood you just built means your city STILL cant grow because it now doesnt have the ability to make the food now!

if i want to be nagged i will get married.

they can solve the neighborhood thing by letting us build them outside of the control zone of each city OR by letting the neighborhood EXTEND the control zone by one hex all around just like a citadel in civ 5 does to claim territory. but the city needs to be able to work the hex the neighborhood claims to produce the food the neighborhood has destroyed.

i also suggested a change to settlers giving them an ability to settle or found. found is to build a normal city. settle starts a farming village which when a trader connects to a city it supplies food. it has unique improvements. it can be converted to a proper city only with another settler, and the improvements stop at city walls. and it allows all the land around it to be farmed or pasture for animals. once a road is built it supplies food along it to the city it leads to. it works better once the road system begins to really work in history, so it really starts to work best as you approach industrial era. in fact you could also bring back rails and canals. im dubious about canals because although important for a long time, railways came along very shortly after, and iirc railways often in the uk went along the routes of canals or planned canal routes, and pretty much replaced them because of speed. with my towns addition, the railways would merely start to appear with a notification 'a railway is being built' when you get steam tech, and they build themselves from cities to towns not to other cities. they are the primary way food would move while still fresh until proper tarmac roads and trucks. then i can build those damn neighborhoods but the city will still be getting food via railways from the more distant farmland farmed by towns and villages.

 

Fair enough but I'm pretty sure you are in the minority when it comes to districts. That is one of the better more innovative features of civ6 IMO. In general I think the game is actually very innovative but they failed somewhat on the execution and balance side. I do think people need to calm down though - they have already released two patches and several DLCs so I don't think it's very fair to say they have been completely unresponsive. Did they rush the initial release? Yes, but the game is still quite fun and has enough potential to bee the best in the series with some future balance changes.

Yes this is true (I think I beat emperor once in Civ4 - the higher settings were out of my league) but I think it's mainly because of AI exploits. Once they shore up the AI problems then Deity will probably become very difficult again.

 

as i say im not against districts as such. i just think the hex scale is wrong and the nagging to build something that sabotages the city no matter what you do next is one of the things putting me off trying to play again. the espionage system is more interesting but we players need at least double the spy numbers to make it interesting. scaling with the numbers of cities is not enough even. we need to have enough to be doing the diplomatic roles in cities and the defense and the actual espionage missions - the AI clearly has no numbers of spies and just does whatever missions it wants where we have to chose between defending a city or sending our one spy (at first) on a mission. i like that they have an area of effect on the hex they are on plus those adjacent. i wouldnt mind being limited to one spy defending per city - with the way districts are spread out now that becomes a choice what to try and protect.

but the main thing deterring me is the magical ability of the AI even on settler to be able to do those spy missions while also defending their cities when i cant do both despite being ahead on eras and tech; how one civ can then suddenly accelerate from an era behind to being ahead in science victory in less than 10 turns; the city self abuse system which is ruin your city to shut up the nagging 'build a neighborhood' and thus wreck your chances of winning except by war, or put up with the annoying nagging and keep a functional but unable to grow city. except the nagging makes it no fun to play.

the city hex size when found for the centre, keep that size. thats the size the city should be when founded. but all the unsettled hexes should be half the size. (or settling a city occupies 7 hexes and the cities need to be settled 10 or 12 hexes apart from each other as now, and districts occupy only one hex. the area a city can work then extends out 5 hexes or even 6 from the edge of the city. this allows you to still have farmland for food and also you can then micromanage every citys spreading out as much as you enjoy by not being limited to founding ONE campus or industry zone, but you can build as many as you like and neighborhoods can still be built when nagged to and dont suddenly generate 'your city is starving' warnings as a result.