No AI Leaderheads in Multiplayer?

[turingmachine]

I'm not talking about leaderheads for other human players, but if you are playing with a mix of human and AI players I don't understand why the AI leaderheads are removed especially since (unlike unit animations that take up extra time) you are still forced to go into a diplomacy mode when talking to leaders. Plus, I thought the whole point of the hidden AI modifiers was that you had to watch the animations to see if they were angry, which you can't do without the leaderheads.

See, I play sort of a mix of single-player and multi-player. My friends and I like to play on a team against a bunch of AI. I play almost exclusively like this. I don't see why just because I play like this I shouldn't be able to experience basic features (the ability to save whenever I want) or any of the highly advertised new aesthetic features (leaderships + spoken native languages, unit animations).

I understand the desire to streamline multiplayer for the competitive gamer, but this option shouldn't be enforced. A lot of people play a lot of different forms of multiplayer, in a much more casual atmosphere, and there should be the option to re-enable the removed features. If they wanted to be so zealous they should have just forced strategic view in mutli-player.

 

[PTM]

Yes, a toggle for leaderheads would be great. Unit animations being forced off is an annoyance, but leaderheads being forced off actually detracts fairly significantly from game immersion. It's hard to identify with an AI, or to really think of an AI as anything other than one colored enemy out of the enemy rainbow, when you don't have that face to go with it.

Like unit animations, there should be two layers of toggles: first, the host can set leaderheads to either a) player toggled or b) disallowed. If player toggled is selected, then the settings of individual players are used to determine whether they see a leaderhead (and hear the SFX, etc. that accompany it).

 

[DavidicusH]

I agree. At first I thought it was a glitch when I didn't see the leader screens while playing MP, just the map underneath. After playing for a couple of hours it finally struck me that it was meant to be like that for the super-competitive multiplayers out there who usually only play with humans...but what about the rest of us who play hybrid games? We can only hope for a quick patch to fix the many issues with MP.

 

[DonaldKipper]

surely people who play Multiplayer against the AI are in the overwhelming minority

i see you point for this situation but its completely unusable for any kind of player vs player scenario to have an AI leader contact you mid combat and switch to the leaderhead view

i'd rather they spent their resources in the many other places they need spending than on stuff like this and unit animations

 

[PTM]

surely people who play Multiplayer against the AI are in the overwhelming minority

i see you point for this situation but its completely unusable for any kind of player vs player scenario to have an AI leader contact you mid combat and switch to the leaderhead view

i'd rather they spent their resources in the many other places they need spending than on stuff like this and unit animations

Would it be so hard to have a toggle governing AI behavior in multiplayer games? Toggling "placeholder AI" to on would give us the MP we have now - no leaderhead, no deal initiation with the human players, no snide remarks, no troop withdrawal requests, etc. - while leaving it off would allow us to play multiplayer with single player quality AI.

 

[turingmachine]

i see you point for this situation but its completely unusable for any kind of player vs player scenario to have an AI leader contact you mid combat and switch to the leaderhead view

You're ignoring the fact that the AI in multiplayer is broken in that the AI does not contact human players at all in multiplayer, period. This disruption you are so afraid of would occur whether the AI used leaderheads or the no leaderhead state they have now if the AI actually functioned like they (are supposed to). So basically what you see as the only solution is to remove the choice of using AI completely from multiplayer games as the current state of the AI makes them practically useless to use anyway and you don't want them to contact the player.

Besides, Civ IV multiplayer had simultaneous turns AND the AI was the same level as singleplayer with animated leaderheads. Know what Civ IV also had that completely solves the problem you listed above, an option that all city and leaderhead pop-ups/interaction occurred after you moved all your units so they occurred at the end of the simultaneous turn instead of the beginning where it would interfere with simultaneous combat.

Nor does it have to be an instantaneous switch. If another human player contacts you (during combat) it gives a notification that the player wants to talk to you, not an instant switch to diplomacy mode. The game could give you an AI diplomacy notification that had to be completed before your turn is up much like unit moves and production/research choices.

And this isn't just about people who play with a mix of humans and AI being in the minority. Fact is, sometimes it's hard to find enough human players to fill out a multiplayer map and you have to use an AI. When this happens The AI shouldn't be a broken with no contact or interaction, regardless of whether you play this way frequently or not.

 

[DavidicusH]

turingmachine hit this right on the head. At some point almost everyone deals with AI in MP games, even if it is infrequent for most. I think the idea of having a diplomacy notification that you can put off till the end of the turn would be the best solution. Hopefully Firaxis is watching.