The situation in my last game: I started on a middle-sized continent and defeated my neighbours early to be alone. On the second landmass, a very large one, the Persians were the dominating power, occupying 3/4 of its area. I tried not to provoke them and build peacefully toward a spaceship victory, but when I had half of the spaceship parts, I suddenly (and surprisingly) received a message claiming You have suffered a humiliating defeat!.
It did not take me long to figure out that the Persians had won either culturally or per domination. My point, however, is that the game does not provide us with the necessary numbers to predict when exactly an AI-Player will reach the 2/3 area resp. 100000 cp border (in case of the domination victory, even the human player himself has to guess when he hits the border). As for being permitted to vote in the UN, there is no reliable source for your or your enemies population, either. All one has is
a) Culture:
Your own total culture points in exact numbers, and the histograph to make a rough guess about the others.
b) Area:
The demographics state whether you are 1st, 2nd etc., but not how much is left for 2/3 of the world or which of the other civs is competing with you (except, of course, for a rough estimate on the mini-map).
c) Population:
Again, the rank in demographics, but nothing else (unless you intend to get everybodys world map, sum up all the city sizes and figure out how much you have, but that would be rather tedious).
So what I want to say is that we need exact numbers on these three issues, gathered by embassy/spy or more detailed demographics, in order to determine which AI civ poses a threat to our own victory plans. It is really annyoing if you see another civ rising and virtually have to dice about whether they will be able to overtake you in culture/area before you have won, and whether you should take actions to deny their aspirations.
If Firaxis adds just some statistics in a future patch / the expansion pack (not too much work, I think, since the figures are computed anyway and just have to be displayed somewhere), this will eliminate such irritating why-exactly-did-I-lose? experiences.
It did not take me long to figure out that the Persians had won either culturally or per domination. My point, however, is that the game does not provide us with the necessary numbers to predict when exactly an AI-Player will reach the 2/3 area resp. 100000 cp border (in case of the domination victory, even the human player himself has to guess when he hits the border). As for being permitted to vote in the UN, there is no reliable source for your or your enemies population, either. All one has is
a) Culture:
Your own total culture points in exact numbers, and the histograph to make a rough guess about the others.
b) Area:
The demographics state whether you are 1st, 2nd etc., but not how much is left for 2/3 of the world or which of the other civs is competing with you (except, of course, for a rough estimate on the mini-map).
c) Population:
Again, the rank in demographics, but nothing else (unless you intend to get everybodys world map, sum up all the city sizes and figure out how much you have, but that would be rather tedious).
So what I want to say is that we need exact numbers on these three issues, gathered by embassy/spy or more detailed demographics, in order to determine which AI civ poses a threat to our own victory plans. It is really annyoing if you see another civ rising and virtually have to dice about whether they will be able to overtake you in culture/area before you have won, and whether you should take actions to deny their aspirations.
If Firaxis adds just some statistics in a future patch / the expansion pack (not too much work, I think, since the figures are computed anyway and just have to be displayed somewhere), this will eliminate such irritating why-exactly-did-I-lose? experiences.
