Is it me or is this game overly complex?

[RohirrimElf]

When you feel the game is to hard. Just be agressive and you can steamroll your neighbours. Look at the military strenght who you are wanting to attack. Often it is below 200. It only takes 30-40 on epic game speed turns to dominate them on military strenght. Abuse 3 range attack ranges. Wether it is on land, sea or air. (Planes, observing balloons/drones and ship of the lines are deadly to the AI).

on my current game as alexander i am playing on emperor difficulty and huge map. I’ve captured all the lands of 4 civs while being 120 turns before a science victory if i choose this path. 1700 score vs 1000 for nr 2.

 

[krokobone]

I don't think the game is too complex, especially compared to some of the paradox games out there, but maybe that's just because I played Civ5 which is quite similar. For a newcomer I would suggest to first try to just enjoy the game without trying to play optimally or even winning the game, you will get used to all the different aspects of the game after a couple of matches.

 

[RohirrimElf]

I don't think the game is too complex, especially compared to some of the paradox games out there, but maybe that's just because I played Civ5 which is quite similar. For a newcomer I would suggest to first try to just enjoy the game without trying to play optimally or even winning the game, you will get used to all the different aspects of the game after a couple of matches.

I think there are some aspects about the game that can be very challenging. Planning in general is hard enough. Say i want to build a wonder that requires to be next to a river and an economical district. I rarely plan ahead for min max or say wonder placement. Wether i can build it or not is often a matter of luck. Not thought. Even do i can win a game on deity comfortably with some leaders.

Planning inspirations and eureka’s for maximum results is tough when done non stop. Like getting the most value while doing multiple things at once across your empire. Or getting x number of swordsman/catapults ready in next 30 turns and place them on spot x in time for a timely attack. While managing the gold/resources just right not to screw up.

none of these things will kill you at emperor or below difficulty. But it often does feel like you misplayed when you did x instead of y. Having a half baked strategy is enough on civ 6. And it will matter less and less with each era passed as the AI cant keep up when being just as strong as a human player. It is civ 6 and not europa universalis 4 where the AI plays and thinks somewhat intelligently like a human without to much bonus.

 

[Mahi]

Also policy card management can seemingly be overwhelming until you remember the most important ones. The key is to play enough till you can remember what to prioritize, and remember the cards that can benefit you the most. It just makes it much easier for you to plan ahead. This of course means you also need to remember the civics that unlocks the cards you need and so on.

 

[Victoria]

Also policy card management can seemingly be overwhelming until

...
Until you discover eureka/inspiration planning, then it’s easy in comparison.
... then there is overflow management
That depth is a bit too crushing for me. Sometimes I wish I was 5 again.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

On the one hand the game's complexity is a big part of what draws me to it. On the other hand I've been playing ever since the Vanilla version released so I've been able to learn each update/expansion as they come out. Swallowing it all at once is going to be harder. The complexity makes the game rewarding but it takes some time to understand everything that's going on. The good news is that the AI offers little or no resistance at the lower levels so you're free to experiment with the mechanics and build wonders (frivolously if you want) at your own pace.

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

Also policy card management can seemingly be overwhelming until you remember the most important ones. The key is to play enough till you can remember what to prioritize, and remember the cards that can benefit you the most. It just makes it much easier for you to plan ahead. This of course means you also need to remember the civics that unlocks the cards you need and so on.

I play under optimized game most of the time just because I forget to change policy cards. I have upgraded most of my units or had a settler rush without remembering to use the proper cards. I like to play difficulties where I still can win (Emperor and lower) because I hate micromanagement of every detail.

The game should have notifications for these. Like "You are about to upgrade a unit for 400 gold but could change to a card to have it done for 200" and change back next turn when another civic pops.

 

[Mahi]

...
Until you discover eureka/inspiration planning, then it’s easy in comparison.
... then there is overflow management
That depth is a bit too crushing for me. Sometimes I wish I was 5 again.

I don't find eureka/inspiration planning that difficult but then again, I'm not playing on super optimizing mode either. Usually it's enough for me if I beeline a tech/civic 3 steps down the tree, I can usually get the eurekas/inspiration that I need within that timeframe. If I see that I need a few extra turns to get the inspiration/tech I can switch over to something else temporarily.
It's definitly the policy cards management that's my biggest pet peeve in the game. I'm not sure if I would like it to be dumbed down but I feel like the UI could change a bit.
What really would be cool is just better/detailed UI. For example it could be really nice to see the effect on the different modifiers, when replacing a policy card with another. You know, just like if you change gear in Skyrim (Online), you'll be able to see the effect of changing an item with another. What attributes goes up, and which goes down. Wish I had the time to do the modding myself.

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

I don't find eureka/inspiration planning that difficult but then again, I'm not playing on super optimizing mode either. Usually it's enough for me if I beeline a tech/civic 3 steps down the tree, I can usually get the eurekas/inspiration that I need within that timeframe. If I see that I need a few extra turns to get the inspiration/tech I can switch over to something else temporarily.
It's definitly the policy cards management that's my biggest pet peeve in the game. I'm not sure if I would like it to be dumbed down but I feel like the UI could change a bit.
What really would be cool is just better/detailed UI. For example it could be really nice to see the effect on the different modifiers, when replacing a policy card with another. You know, just like if you change gear in Skyrim (Online), you'll be able to see the effect of changing an item with another. What attributes goes up, and which goes down. Wish I had the time to do the modding myself.

Yes. I wish it told me how many more or less gold/culture/faith I would accumulate per turn and so on. If I have 12 trade routes, I have no idea what something related to other civ's luxuries, districts or even my trading posts actually means in numbers.

I also think I could do much more efficient governor management but can't be bothered. I only really use Amani to get early age score points and the educator for science, cultrure, gpp and space race boost. Reyna if playing Mali or making lots of gold otherwise. Other than that, I just pop a random one into newly captured city to boost morale. I always forget if I have someone with settler, builder or unit exp boost somewhere when building/buying units.

 

[AsH2]

The game is an illusion of choice bundled up with a bad UI. If I want to queue up 3 armies for production, then the UI closes every time I select what to build... it even closes the submenu for armies. Everything takes forever because you have to click a billion times. It’s tedious. Add that to multiple useless interuptions by the AI to state a silly fact - something you can only click OK to.

Sorry for the rant.... just played the game again after a long break. I’d rather play civ1...

I agree it's in many ways bad UI, as it's not that intuitive-friendly but forces players to work it out..
If you want to queue up 3 armies for production, you'd better click the Queue tab and then you may select what to build without any closing UI.

Yeah, I've been playing civ for every iteration for 25 years, so I've grown with the game. Someone jumping in now, it would be hard. There's so many things to worry about, and especially when you add in all the government bonuses, governors, envoys, etc... And now gathering storm you add in all these volcanoes and hurricanes and floods, and more stuff like dams and now aqueducts have 2 or 3 things, and campuses getting bonuses from geotherms, reefs, mountains, and jungles all in different ratios, and it's a whole mishmash of trying to optimize. Even as someone who's played a lot, it takes me like 5 minutes to place a campus sometimes "okay, this spot has 2 mountains, but that one has 2 jungles and a geothermal. But I'm probably going to plow one of those jungles later, so that will be one less. Although I can get 2, maybe 3 districts around it later, so maybe that's a better bonus. Although hmm, it's on a floodplain, so am I going to district the floodplain and need a dam, or should I hope that it floods and let that feed my empire?"

Yeah, I do enjoy planning and micromanaging, but here it's about irreversible actions when there are still a lot of things to come (eg new resources and artifacts to be revealed). That is my first and biggest issue in Civ6 - I'd like the Districts concept to be more organic instead of static.

..
The game should have notifications for these. Like "You are about to upgrade a unit for 400 gold but could change to a card to have it done for 200" and change back next turn when another civic pops.

Also AI could get some use of such mechanic.

Edit: Though there are notifications about starvation in cities where the default setting rather put specialists elsewhere than in Harbour..

 

[CPWimmer]

It's definitly the policy cards management that's my biggest pet peeve in the game. I'm not sure if I would like it to be dumbed down but I feel like the UI could change a bit.
What really would be cool is just better/detailed UI. For example it could be really nice to see the effect on the different modifiers, when replacing a policy card with another.

Do you all use the "Policy Report" from the Better Report Screen (UI) Mod? It's not inline with the policy screen itself, but I find it very useful to consult before I change policies.

 

[conorbebe]

I wouldn't say its necessarily too complex, but the game could definitely use some streamlining. Some features are implemented in a clunky fashion, and the UI doesn't help either.