[NFP] Noticeable AI Improvement

[LobstaBoy]

Lost my first game ( other than to early warrior rush ) in a long time. I was hell bent on achieving a culture victory as Ethiopia and would not adapt, underestimating the AI.
Game was Large map, Continents, 2 less major Civs +1 City state, Deity. I lost on turn 267 to Germany. They were a science/culture/production MONSTER. Attacking them was NEVER an option for me.
Germany never attacked me exactly, but they did sweep the City states, my favorite was their helicopter rush on turn 190 to take my remaining 2 scientific city states. I still thought i could win a culture victory.
Wrong They froze out my rock bands (policy card) and boarded that wooden spaceship. I think Freddy gave me the finger during liftoff...

 

[bbbt]

Edit: My ability to declare friendships with 90% of civs has not been hampered by different Secret Societies. I know people have suggested that I just stop declaring friendships with everyone to make the game harder, but that feels awfully not fun. An easier fix is to just prevent the player from being able to declare friendship with every single one.

I think if two of your friends (and definitely two of your allies) declare war on each other, it should force you to either successfully broker peace or chose one to keep the friendship/alliance with. Same with ally and a CS you are suzerain of.

 

[Timothy001]

Sorry. King. Standard size. Mainly Continents, but sometimes I randomize it.

 

[PhilBowles]

Just been playing an Ethiopia game (Deity) - tried a few times before but kept getting distracted by other things, and a common issue I have when leaving Civ games partway through is that I lose track of where I was and prefer to start again.

Just came out of a bruising war with Kongo - they won, and I sued for peace rather than lose my Eye of the Sahara city to an attack from my former vassal Valletta; Kongo had taken them from me two turns earlier, and its allied city states have been aggressive. Kumasi was fairly actively coordinating with Kongo's own military, although this was one weakness the AI displayed - it sent units back in ones and twos to defend Kumasi against my crossbow force, only for them to get massacred.

The war started with an attack on Mekele, a fairly new city that was never going to hold, since it was between my empire and now-hostile city states. What I did not expect was that some turns later the AI would cross the strait on a course for Adwa - I had to redirect the force attacking Kumasi to defend it, and only just got there in time. All that saved me was that the Kongolese melee units were weak and hadn't been upgraded; the AI was doing a lot better at coordinating catapult and melee units in its invasions.

 

[GIO888]

I play on King - since the latest upgrade, I was shocked playing as Frederick when Tamar used her UU to target my 3 Catapults as I approached her city. No CIV has ever targeted the Siege units before like that. I lost all 3 before I could get them out of there and had to wait 300 years to go back with as many Musketmen as Bombards!

the AI seems to use the terrain better in combat too degrading your units faster where it can. Naval combat is more interesting as well, especially with Dido or Wilhelmina (so far!).

 

[AntSou]

I can't tell if there have been any actual changes or if the improvements come from the boost in yields provided by the Secret Societies.

 

[PhilBowles]

This was meant to be attached to my last to put the geography we're fighting over into context.

Spoiler :

As an update, I launched a reconquest war (after taking Kumasi as soon as the 10-turn peace limit expired, and regaining suzerainty of Valletta). It did not go well - the AI made pretty clever use of cavalry (though poor use of target priority to deal with my bombard) and as soon as the city was in danger of being captured and I'd attacked with my Oromo Cavalry, they sent Cavalry to deal with it. I retreated my surviving units to Kumasi, losing crossbowmen on the way, and eventually decided that I wasn't gaining anything strategically from a war over a minor food city so made peace - this time with no conditions.

I can't tell if there have been any actual changes or if the improvements come from the boost in yields provided by the Secret Societies.

Worth noting with that in mind that my game hasn't been using any of the game modes - my settings are Ethiopia, Deity, Standard, Continents and Islands, Huge.

I'll no doubt do the game modes eventually just for the achievements, but they don't interest me at all.

 

[Ferocitus]

In my games (marathon, archipelago, huge, 12 civs, 18 CS) the improvement is noticeable.
However, there are quite a few instances where there is a 5 to 15 second delay between moves on a 16Gb, i7, with a 6Gb graphic card.
They become more frequent towards the end, but not annoyingly so.

 

[tzu]

or if the improvements [to AI performance] come from the boost in yields provided by the Secret Societies.

So the human player who may, after having lots of fun by trolling (of course the strongest player by far gains much more from huge bonuses than the others) the AI players with Voidist & Vampire clans, want return to a normal game perhaps shouldn't just turn Secret Societies from 'On' to 'Off' - - but instead let the Societies active for the AI players in 'Societies inverse mode' ?

 

[Pfeffersack]

So the human player who may, after having lots of fun by trolling (of course the strongest player by far gains much more from huge bonuses than the others) the AI players with Voidist & Vampire clans, want return to a normal game perhaps shouldn't just turn Secret Societies from 'On' to 'Off' - - but instead let the Societies active for the AI players in 'Societies inverse mode' ?

No one stops you from just joining no secret society at all and don't using the free governor titles. That should pretty much achieve making this an AI-only benefit.

 

[ggalindo001]

My first experience since the Ethiopia update, non SS. King difficulty, normal speed. Huge map, 15 AI civs.

AI is definitely making "smarter" decisions, although there are still some that are head scratchers. Competitive game throughout including AI taking other AI walled cities, and some behaviors that I am not used to seeing:

1. Use of bombers to attack cities (and encampments) -- tho the AI is still not as optimal at following up on bombing runs with land units to take cities.
2. Use of anti-air. For the first time ever in Civ 6, I lost planes due to anti-air. This is refreshing. Not every AI were using anti-air.
3. Use of nukes. For the first time ever in my experience in Civ 6, AI used nukes multiple times against an enemy. Not on me, thank goodness.
4. Not renewing Alliances -- I had 2 occasions where the AI would not renew friendship on Alliance expiration. I would really like to see more of this.

Trade AI is still not great, and AI still not improving all resources, including strategic resources, in their territories.

The good news from my latest game is that the AI is making improvements -- there is still a long way to go, but moving in the right direction.

I'm going to start a game with SS where I do not join at all (per Pfeffersack's suggestion).

 

[MrRadar]

3. Use of nukes. For the first time ever in my experience in Civ 6, AI used nukes multiple times against an enemy. Not on me, thank goodness.

Did the AI nuke the same city multiple times (as before), or did it (hoped against hope, that would really be something new) spread the nuking on multiple targets?

 

[PhilBowles]

Did the AI nuke the same city multiple times (as before), or did it (hoped against hope, that would really be something new) spread the nuking on multiple targets?

As before? I've never yet seen the AI use nukes at all, and that's on Deity.

As for bombers, I hope the behaviour of continually attacking cities far from any units that can take them, and continuing to do so even when they're at 0 health, is at least reduced.

 

[MrRadar]

As before? I've never yet seen the AI use nukes at all, and that's on Deity.

Yes, as before. If AI bombed, it bombed the same city reduced to 0 hp multiple times. If it nuked, it nuked the same city reduced to 0 hp multiple times. I’ve seen it before. Has this changed?

 

[PhilBowles]

Yes, as before. If AI bombed, it bombed the same city reduced to 0 hp multiple times. If it nuked, it nuked the same city reduced to 0 hp multiple times. I’ve seen it before. Has this changed?

That's the behaviour I've seen the AI use with bombers, and there's no reason to expect it would use nukes any differently since those are deployed from bombers, but I have never seen a Civ VI AI use a nuke - or, until now, even seen anyone report that Civ VI AIs use nukes, as far as I can recall.

 

[Revanchist]

I didn't think the poll would get nearly 100 votes

SS definitely gives the AI a boost in terms of base yields, but after having played a few games I noticed that enemy civilizations were a lot more aggressive and did not hesitate to forward settle for a good location. I think they have gotten a lot better at city placement in regards to loyalty and yields. Thankfully they don't buy out tiles, or then I would be in for a headache

Also, the thought of Gandhi making nukes a reality does not sound fun

 

[tzu]

No one stops you from just joining no secret society at all and don't using the free governor titles. That should pretty much achieve making this an AI-only benefit.

Yes, a house rule is a quick & easy way to implement that. But I wouldn't mind as well, if Firaxis would give more options to differentiate rules for the human and AI players. In this case an explicit choice for 'AI_ONLY'. I mean, some see unequal rules as cheating - what it hardly is, if you select it in the menu.

Another aspect could be to deny the weakest Society to the AI players in order to protect them ... Pietato pointed out the Hermetic Order being quite slack and so I am toying around the idea making their Level 1 - Reveal Ley Lines & give standard adjacency to all specialty districts - exclusive to the player and the other 3 (full) Societies exclusive to the AIs.

4. Not renewing Alliances -- I had 2 occasions where the AI would not renew friendship on Alliance expiration. I would really like to see more of this.

For that being in another SS is probably a stronger catalyst than not joining at all.

 

[sonicmyst]

Finally an AI made a properly placed Huey in my game.

 

[PhilBowles]

I didn't think the poll would get nearly 100 votes

SS definitely gives the AI a boost in terms of base yields, but after having played a few games I noticed that enemy civilizations were a lot more aggressive and did not hesitate to forward settle for a good location. I think they have gotten a lot better at city placement in regards to loyalty and yields. Thankfully they don't buy out tiles, or then I would be in for a headache

Also, the thought of Gandhi making nukes a reality does not sound fun

AI's been fairly good with city placement for a while - it's one of the few areas where I'd have said without reservations that it's better than Civ V's AI. In my current game I'd earmarked a city site to the east of Mekele as my final expansion in that direction, and pinned the point I was going to settle. Shortly before I was ready to faith-buy the settler (I was in a Golden Age) Kongo settled that exact spot.

The AI does still have its blind spot for natural wonders, as far as I can tell, though - fortunately for me Kupe settled just far enough from the Eye of the Sahara for me to settle the site I wanted to. Then again, it may genuinely have been less useful for the AI - it's not going to forward-plan a late Petra city however advanced it gets.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Started a new game. Legit didn't notice I had forgotten to set the difficulty to King until I reached the medieval era and opened the main menu to save.

Yeah, the AI seems better, even for those who don't yet own NFP.