September Patch Notes Discussion

[SammyKhalifa]

My neighbors were all walled up. And I was attacked by a Frigate armada.

 

[Larsen]

One unannounced "change" seems to be that the AI is now way more likely to pick the Religious Settlements pantheon, to the point where it's almost certainly gone if you didn't get the first or second pantheon. That's a shame. While that pantheon may be a little too universally good, it's not like it's really overpowered, and it rewarded getting early faith even if you're not going for a religion. Since it's now all but gone save for unusually good start locations or the select few civs that get a built-in faith boost, it kinda feels like we're back to the point where you might as well ignore it altogether if you're not going for a religious game. It was just really nice having a pantheon that you could usually get and was worth going for. Instead, faith is again nearly entirely bereft of value for the majority of playstyles.

 

[Kwami]

My neighbors were all walled up. And I was attacked by a Frigate armada.

That's much later, though. I do indeed see the AI build walls later. The problem is that they aren't building walls during the first few eras, which means that they're very easy to conquer.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

I've also noticed this in my post-patch game and in the streams that I've watched since the patch. The AI just isn't building walls until it's much too late.

Additionally, the AI seems to be settling a lot of bad cities that have no water and then not building aqueducts. I think that whatever is causing them to do this is also affecting the city location recommendations when you click on a Settler. This was better before.

I think the idiotic city placement is due to unrevealed, future strategic resources (uranium, aluminum). Then again, it could just be due to the AI's generally idiotic nature.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Could be, in my one and only game I were separated by an uncrossable mountain range so I didn't really pay much attenttion.

 

[bbbt]

That's much later, though. I do indeed see the AI build walls later. The problem is that they aren't building walls during the first few eras, which means that they're very easy to conquer.

I'll add that the pyramids have been very available in most games as well, so maybe something has changed in the tech pathing logic and they aren't getting masonry very early.

 

[Larsen]

The AI still routinely kills every city state it can get its hands on.

 

[Stilgar08]

One unannounced "change" seems to be that the AI is now way more likely to pick the Religious Settlements pantheon, to the point where it's almost certainly gone if you didn't get the first or second pantheon. That's a shame. While that pantheon may be a little too universally good, it's not like it's really overpowered, and it rewarded getting early faith even if you're not going for a religion. Since it's now all but gone save for unusually good start locations or the select few civs that get a built-in faith boost, it kinda feels like we're back to the point where you might as well ignore it altogether if you're not going for a religious game. It was just really nice having a pantheon that you could usually get and was worth going for. Instead, faith is again nearly entirely bereft of value for the majority of playstyles.

I disagree.
"religious settlement is so good now, I take it all the time"
"oh no, now the AI does take it too - that's bad - I wanted to have it."
Really? It's a smart decision to take it so it's gone early, simple. Take another one.

 

[Disgustipated]

The AI still routinely kills every city state it can get its hands on.

actually worse in King and Emperor level games since they don't have walls.

 

[MrRadar]

OK, one AI nuking (A bomb, via planes) the same city of another AI six (6) times in a row within four (4) turns does seem a bit excessive. I remember reports that AI used to bomb the same city again and again. Well, when they get their hands on nukes, their behaviour remains the same. Further tweaking is necessary. Devs, please teach AI to spread out their bombings and WMD strikes.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

OK, one AI nuking (A bomb, via planes) the same city of another AI six (6) times in a row within four (4) turns does seem a bit excessive. I remember reports that AI used to bomb the same city again and again. Well, when they get their hands on nukes, their behaviour remains the same. Further tweaking is necessary. Devs, please teach AI to spread out their bombings and WMD strikes.

The city wasn't quite back to the Stone Age yet . . .

 

[MrRadar]

The city wasn't quite back to the Stone Age yet . . .

Probably... So after a few turns Alex sent two more nukes on the same city again within a turn. So, 8 times now. I do agree that Pedro deserves some nuking, but if those were spread out, Alex could have taken Brazil over by now. But no. Maybe his target lock computer is stuck?

 

[Pietato]

Probably... So after a few turns Alex sent two more nukes on the same city again within a turn. So, 8 times now. I do agree that Pedro deserves some nuking, but if those were spread out, Alex could have taken Brazil over by now. But no. Maybe his target lock computer is stuck?

Oh, Pedro? Carry on, Alex.

 

[Tuvok694]

The AI still routinely kills every city state it can get its hands on.

You're right, and that is still very annoying. I can hardly ever finish a game with more than 3 or 4 city states alive (on standard map size).

 

[Junky89]

Probably... So after a few turns Alex sent two more nukes on the same city again within a turn. So, 8 times now. I do agree that Pedro deserves some nuking, but if those were spread out, Alex could have taken Brazil over by now. But no. Maybe his target lock computer is stuck?

I think this is a general problem. Ai does not recognize that a city has 0 HP left.
A human is seeing there is no health left I can conquer it with a non-ranged unit without a problem.
Ai doesn't know when it has to use a non-ranged unit, just that attacking is possible.
But with ranged attacks on 0 HP cities you cannot get XP also. It's better to heal and fortify a unit if there is no valuable target.
Conquer a city without a non-ranged unit still is a situation where I have to smile about.

Nuking a city many times in one turn depends on the same problem.

 

[MrRadar]

Ai does not recognize that a city has 0 HP left.

Yes, it looks like that. But this would be rather simple for the devs to correct, wouldn't it? Just add an additional check for the HP level of the selected bombing target, if it is a city and it has 0 or close to 0 hp, select another one according to some priority criteria. If AI is not programmed to do an all out conquest, at least it could spread out the damage, or save the ammunition and action time. It would be also nice to see AI use nukes tactically and hit concentrations of units, now they just blast cities. Or rather, one unfortunate city.

 

[leandrombraz]

I just realized you can't change temperature in the Tilted Axis map. I was looking forward to set it to cold and increase the tundra to play as Russia or Canada, which would be interesting since the Tundra shows up at the center and corners of the map, but you can't set temperature and the number of tundra tiles is quite low, with most of the corner tiles being on islands. I'm disappointed. Anyone cares to guess the reason they don't let us set the temperature? Technical issue?

 

[Rosty K]

Not this patch I believe, but I just found out that when there is more than one Aid Request ongoing, the Send Aid project counts for all

 

[WillowBrook]

I just realized you can't change temperature in the Tilted Axis map. I was looking forward to set it to cold and increase the tundra to play as Russia or Canada, which would be interesting since the Tundra shows up at the center and corners of the map, but you can't set temperature and the number of tundra tiles is quite low, with most of the corner tiles being on islands. I'm disappointed. Anyone cares to guess the reason they don't let us set the temperature? Technical issue?

I'm guessing that it would have to be coded differently from maps with the usual temperature distribution, and they didn't do the addition coding that would be required.

 

[Rajendran_P]

The WorldBuilder is fantastic. However, the true start or placing of civilisation on specific tile for starting does not seems to work. Although I know the advance feature is still on trial, does anyone know whether creating a mod to link the WorldBuilder map and place the civilisation on specific tile for game start