Initial thoughts

Guys on Reddit are saying huge improvement in the AI. Quill got run over in his live stream I heard. Started a second game and had to be cautious. Not saying it's perfect but anecdotal evidence is they improved it a lot. I may start on prince difficulty tonight.

 

This last hour is being the slowest ever

 

Yeah I'm readjusting my thoughts on initial difficulty level based on early reports too. I want to just explore and get my bearings first time out.

 

Only an hour? I still have 5!

 

You need to move closer to the centre of the universe

 

I've read contradicting reports. Seems the AI is quite capable to knock you out if you're careless, but it can be confused in the presence of sustained ranged fire, and if you break its army's back, it's done for.

That reminds me of Civ5, in which the AI could build an impressive army and take it to your borders, but once you defeated the bulk of it, the enemy couldn't mount further defensive actions and it became a relaxing drive to Paris. So to speak.

 

That would mean 2 things (which I base on how civ5 ai works) :
-A problem with range vs melee balance. Similar to civ5 where the AI just gets mawed down by focus fire.
-A problem with weigths in city production when on the defensive or after finishing an army.

 

Sounds like me tomorrow. lol

 

It's half past midnight here, I've only played the first 30 turns and will continue tomorrow. So far:

-huge number of barbarians
-it can be really hard to see units/yields/resources as they blend in with the map
-no way to change map scrolling to WASD
-no way to toggle yields on/off (there's a menu like there was in V)

EDIT: sent a ranged unit to clear a barb camp, a barb unit poped out as soon as I was in range and went after me denying me the opportunity to safely clear them. Might be just a coincidence as my capital was really near so he might have ''planned'' to head that way and my unit accidentally got in his path.

 

Though it unlocked 00:01 Swedish time, realised its brittish time...

 

Yes... it unlocks at 01.00 "Gothenburg" Mean Time

 

On the second matter, it's probably resource-intensive, but it would be nice if the AI could simultaneously build forces for three different purposes:

• An offensive army to attack enemy territory.
• A different army to remain behind and defend friendly lands. During peace and leading up to war, the would-be invading army would grow out of this one.
• Small (1-3 depending on number of cities) forces dedicated to defending their home cities.

As such, if the AI could distribute its forces more evenly, giving the enemy more obstacles to surmount, war would feel better regardless of the AI's maneuvering and tactical ability. It's probably not easy, however, given resources and maintenance costs are a harsh limitation on large armies, and having a lot of "traffic" at home may impede the travel of AI armies.

 

Civ5 AI is somewhat built this way. Not properly but the idea is there.

 

Got up at a horrid time to give this a whirl before work. Played as Aztec for around 100 turns and have the following feedback.

UI: really don't like the UI of the cities, I prefer the CiV interface where you click on a city and can undertake all the functions rather than having to cycle through different actions (need to click on city and them click move worked button).

Bugs: the AI valuing great works as worthless is still in the game (bought a great works from England for 1gc - 4c +8t/pt).

The eureka moments seem to be a lot harder then what I saw in the streams. Maybe I just suck, but my start was without hills, mountains and rice and most of the game I struggled to optimize my research, had to research quite a few techs without eurekas.

The AI didn't really do much of anything so far in my game, saw France loose a horrific amount of troops trying to take a city state.

I know the above sound negative, but first feeling of the game is actually positive. I love the builder change, and imo I really felt like having so many options to choose from (builders, traders, settlers, districts). Having genuine choices is a sign of a good game.

Seems like earlg war against city states might also be a powerful strategy.

 

My initial thoughts are these:

Couldnt release 5 minutes earlier???? 3????

christ...

 

unlocked now

 

Nothing here

 

unpacking now

 

squeeeee!!! here we go!

 

4 minutes to go it states...