is there any benefit to exploring? natural wonders?

[Deadstarre]

in Civ V techs get cheaper the more civs you met which have them, so you want to get out there and meet everybody ASAP.

in Civ V finding natural wonders gave you +1 global happiness each, which was a HUGE benefit of uncovering every tile of the map until you had found them all, this really gave priority and incentive to exploring considering how hard happiness was to come by.

there was other bonus like being the first civ to meet everybody else defaulted you to be leader the world congress when it was founded

tribal villages are still out there (AI doesn't seem to get out there and grab these all, i guess they can't see them on the map either?), as well as finding new city states which might potentially be of some use to you (probly not as the AI will kill them anyway) but i'm wondering...

in Civ VI, other than finding a good place to plant your next city, what are the other benefits of exploring exactly?

 

[joncnunn]

1. The following Eurekas / Inspirations from exploring:
Discover a second continent.
Discover a natural wonder.
Discover another civilization

2. The benefits from popping goody huts, which include random inspirations / eurekas.

 

[killmeplease]

political philosophy eureka, free envoys for finding city states first, being able to send envoys to the best city states

 

[PlayAsPericles]

All sorts of eurekas ect plus of course goody huts...

 

[Deadstarre]

1. The following Eurekas / Inspirations from exploring:
Discover a second continent.
Discover a natural wonder.
Discover another civilization

These all come very, very early. a lot of the time you can just do a quick circle around your starting capitol and hit all of these. the polital philosophy one for meeting 3 city states also comes very quickly

so i guess what i meant is that once these "gimme's" are out of the way, whats the benefit in continuing to explore and uncover all of the rest of the map? in meeting every civ not just one? in uncovering every wonder, not just one?

 

[GeoModder]

After the "gimme's"? Use your scouts to harass weak roaming barbs for some extra XP. Could be handy by the time they upgrade to rangers.

 

[Ktulu]

Scouts also gain experience for uncovering new territory.
Finding city states also unlocks their quests, which can give you free envoys and in turn their bonuses, for doing stuff you're going to do anyway.

Why wouldn't you want to keep exploring?

 

[Deadstarre]

i've found scouting XP to come very slowly, uncovering huge swaths of land without promotions coming for long periods of time after the first one. doesn't feel rewarding

the city state quests is a somewhat valid reason to explore, as ive already mentioned it in my initial post. i was genuinely wondering what else is in civ vi.

it was my last game i found myself moving a scout over my entire landmass from top tundra to bottom tundra (standard size, low water level- lots of land) which was very tedious considering all of the 'skip turns' you do with movement points left and dodging barbs, when it occurred to me... why exactly am i continuing to explore? if i find a natural wonder i'll get nothing from it (nothing im aware of? so many hidden mechanics i dont even know). any city state i find at this point is already found by others, and will probably be conquered soon if it isnt already. meeting the rest of the civs i havnt met yet will give me a bonus of... nothing? so i let the scout die and quit trying to uncover every tile, i couldnt see the point in going through the chore of it. in Civ V when there were still wonders uncovered, every tile step was worth it and had a possible big payoff - dat happiness. and meeting every civ was super important to tech (which was king)

 

[Ryika]

Uncovering all City States is very beneficial in general. Especially those that are more hidden tend to have a low number of Envoys required to ally them. Not sure what's the reason for this (I guess either the AI finds them too late, has already started investing into other City States, and is not willing to switch, or some of them don't find them at all, meaning that with less competition AIs don't have to invest as often to stay their ally), but sometimes it allows you to get some of the really good bonuses really cheap.

 

[Woka]

More civs encountered = more luxuries to trade for

 

[UWHabs]

There's also the later inspirations for finding 3 city states, and yeah, being able to choose the best CS to send envoys to is big. Other important factors:
-When resources pop later, you can see where they are
-Know the area around your enemies, to know which have a lot of space to expand to and which are cramped
-AI seems to ignore tribal huts. I've popped some exploring right around the AI even 100 turns into the game or more.

Also, scouts are free, I think, so why not explore? Sure, if you need the 60 gold, then kill them, but otherwise it doesn't really hurt you to use them to scour the corners. You never know if the only source of Niter on your continent happens to be in a little corner by the coast, so that when you research that tech you can rush a settler out there if need be.

 

[bcaiko]

No, aside from early scouting and exploration, I agree there is no reason to keep exploring the map. The insane AI is more likely to randomly hate on you than trade with you. And god forbid you declare on an AI they don't even know - even with cause. Best not to meet the AIs until you need to start dominating them with your victory type.

More civs encountered = more luxuries to trade for

Except the diplomatic modifiers as written in the code are WAY more likely to get you an angry, irrational insaneo from across the seas than a trading partner.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Regarding natural wonders, I bought an apostle and one of the promotions was to gain three extra religious spreads as soon as it moved next to a natural wonder. I ran it straight to a natural wonder I had found earlier in the game and then spammed a nearby neighbor and its surrounding city states.

 

[dwarfling]

I think finding the rest of the City States (and Civs) is enough of a reason. The city states can give very nice bonuses and with civs that are far neighbors you can always trade for stuff.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

The OP has an excellent point. Exploring now feels like a chore. There are fewer rewards which takes a lot of the excitement away.

 

[isau]

Well the goody huts now potentially can roll a Relic, which offers a permanent, hilariously OP +4 Faith plus some other stuff. If you are Kongo you also get Food, Production, and Gold from it. After rolling a Relic, 30 turns later, you'll have +120 Faith you wouldn't have had otherwise.

 

[bbbt]

Past the ancient period, the main reason is to meet all the city states to see if there are good ones to fight for suzerain of.

If the culture/great person game was a bit more competitive, locating different antiquity/shipwreck sites would be a reason, but as is, there's more than enough.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

After you've explored your immediate surroundings for huts and future city sites, and after you've got those few exploration Eurekas (or researched those techs without getting them), there's no reason to explore. Sure you'll meet AIs, but what good is that? They'll probably hate you, and they'll definitely hate you if you don't spend money on giving them a delegation.

Moreover, there is actually a disincentive to explore, since some AIs may have the "Explorer" hidden agenda, which means they will hate you for uncovering the map! (This agenda should be reversed imo. What's the fun in not exploring?)

The main reason to explore I guess would be to find the particularly strong city-states, or the city-states of the right type for your victory. But if you started next to one or two good ones, and therefore have somewhere useful to send your envoys, there's no need to explore at all after the very early game.