I've been playing the same game for the last few weeks and have reached the Medieval period, for the first time ever with c2c. Here are some problems I've noticed and a few suggestions for how I think they could be addressed.
1) Religion
I like the idea of making the religions individual techs and I think it can be a good step forward. However, I've noticed that it makes the AI reluctant to research the later religion techs, especially if they already have a religion of their own. This makes it very easy for the human player to acquire several religions and build their wonders, monasteries etc. and thus gain a big advantage. I would suggest that the AI should be tweaked to be more likely to research religion techs even when they already have a religion.
2) Diplomacy
I think that diplomacy is one of the areas in c2c that has the most potential for improvement. There are several things that can be frustrating for the player.
a) The lack of any diplomacy before writing. I know this is being worked on, but I thought it was worth mentioning again.
b)The fact that after writing civs who haven't fought you, because they are too far away, or they have other, closer enemies, won't accept peace, unless you give them something.
c) AIs declaring war and bringing in others who are extremely far away. These civs don't do anything in the war (maybe they are even on another continent and can't reach your civ), yet refuse peace unless you pay them something. It would be great to have something like the 'white peace' you see in Europa Universalis games. For example after 15 turns of no combat taking place, the AI civ will accept peace at no cost.
d) The problems in b & c seem to be caused by the fact that the AI seems to evaluate peace on the basis of your relative military strengths and the results of the current conflict. This is fine in certain situations, but too often it produces bizarre and frustrating results. It would be great if the AI could consider the potential benefits of continuing to fight a war, and if there are no benefits (or the costs outweigh them), to agree a reasonable peace deal.
3) Unconventional Warfare
The AI makes some limited use of rogues and thieves since the recent changes. Although not as much as they used to, a few versions ago.
One thing I have noticed is that the AI seems to build quite a lot of bandit footpads and then keeps them in its own territory. As these units cause crime problems, this seems rather suboptimal. I actually wonder whether this is related to the AI's overuse of town watchmen.
4) Health
The air and water pollution really have added something to the game. I'm having some serious problems with health at the moment. Which considering I am on an island mostly made out of marshes and jungles with several cities of around 500,000 people, is probably quite realistic! I have to think carefully about what I build and try to acquire health giving resources.
5) Happiness
I've not had any problems with happiness in this game, expect in large, newly conquered cities. Perhaps this is related to...
6) Crime
Is very easy to control in all eras up to now. Many of the anti-crime buildings also give other benefits (gold, culture etc.) which means that I rarely have to build the negative anti-crime buildings, like stocks or gallows. I think some more balancing here is needed.
7) War
I have fought several wars and have several observations about them. I know many of these problems have been mentioned before, so if the team is already aware of an issue, I would just like to add my voice.
a) The AI still has great difficulty defending its cities, especially ones that are on the border. This is even the case where the AI has a very large army, so it seems to be a problem of evaluating threats and distributing its forces.
b) The AI overbuilds certain units. Wardogs, Town Watchmen and War Wagons in particular. This leads to unbalanced armies which the human player can take advantage of, even when he is outnumbered. I often see (in the Medieval era) huge stacks of Wardogs invading my territory and then being slaughtered by my units with hunter promotions. I also often see many town watchmen in an offensive enemy stack, where they are almost useless and very costly for the AI.
c) The AI loves to attack piecemeal (this is the correct word in English?). Many times the AI will suicide units against much stronger ones. I could understand this if they were 'softening up' the defenders for other, stronger units to attack, but almost always there is no follow up. It's just a waste as far as I can see. One situation I remember, I had taken one, Mongol city, but wasn't strong enough to take the other two, so I left a defensive ring between those cities and the one I had taken, 3 squares from their cities. 5 tiles with two units each. Every turn, for about 30 turns, the Mongols would attack my ring with one unit, an Elephant rider and lost every time expect twice. They had quite large armies defending their cites and enough production to give them one elephant per turn. They could, with a little intelligent use of their forces, have broken my ring, but instead they attacked piecemeal every turn (I think with less than 5% victory chance each time) and wasted 30 turns of production, achieving nothing.
d) The AI declares war when it is not ready to attack. This has happened several times in my game. The AI declares war, out of the blue and I wait for the invading hordes to appear, hoping that my forces can hold out until reinforcements can arrive from my main island. Several turns pass, I build as many troops as I can, I wait nervously and...nothing. The AI doesn't attack, expect perhaps with a band of Wardogs and a couple of other units which happen to be in the area. Often I will have already taken two or three of their cities (see point a)) before a serious army appears near to my forces. It seems to me that when the AI declares war it should have some objectives in mind and have the means to achieve those objectives at hand. It's far too easy for the human player if the AI declares war and then takes 15 turns to get an army near to his territory.
8) Gold
The gold situation is ridiculous. I have over 200k at the moment. I think that the fact I started on an Island and so didn't need a large army to defend myself helped in the early game, but the real gold surplus came in the classical era. I was making 1.5k per turn for a quite a long time. It's now about 250 per turn, but with a larger army. I didn't use the slavery + patrician combination by the way. Maybe something could be done to nerf some of the gold bonuses in the classical (the forum is particularly outrageous in my opinion).
1) Religion
I like the idea of making the religions individual techs and I think it can be a good step forward. However, I've noticed that it makes the AI reluctant to research the later religion techs, especially if they already have a religion of their own. This makes it very easy for the human player to acquire several religions and build their wonders, monasteries etc. and thus gain a big advantage. I would suggest that the AI should be tweaked to be more likely to research religion techs even when they already have a religion.
2) Diplomacy
I think that diplomacy is one of the areas in c2c that has the most potential for improvement. There are several things that can be frustrating for the player.
a) The lack of any diplomacy before writing. I know this is being worked on, but I thought it was worth mentioning again.
b)The fact that after writing civs who haven't fought you, because they are too far away, or they have other, closer enemies, won't accept peace, unless you give them something.
c) AIs declaring war and bringing in others who are extremely far away. These civs don't do anything in the war (maybe they are even on another continent and can't reach your civ), yet refuse peace unless you pay them something. It would be great to have something like the 'white peace' you see in Europa Universalis games. For example after 15 turns of no combat taking place, the AI civ will accept peace at no cost.
d) The problems in b & c seem to be caused by the fact that the AI seems to evaluate peace on the basis of your relative military strengths and the results of the current conflict. This is fine in certain situations, but too often it produces bizarre and frustrating results. It would be great if the AI could consider the potential benefits of continuing to fight a war, and if there are no benefits (or the costs outweigh them), to agree a reasonable peace deal.
3) Unconventional Warfare
The AI makes some limited use of rogues and thieves since the recent changes. Although not as much as they used to, a few versions ago.
One thing I have noticed is that the AI seems to build quite a lot of bandit footpads and then keeps them in its own territory. As these units cause crime problems, this seems rather suboptimal. I actually wonder whether this is related to the AI's overuse of town watchmen.
4) Health
The air and water pollution really have added something to the game. I'm having some serious problems with health at the moment. Which considering I am on an island mostly made out of marshes and jungles with several cities of around 500,000 people, is probably quite realistic! I have to think carefully about what I build and try to acquire health giving resources.
5) Happiness
I've not had any problems with happiness in this game, expect in large, newly conquered cities. Perhaps this is related to...
6) Crime
Is very easy to control in all eras up to now. Many of the anti-crime buildings also give other benefits (gold, culture etc.) which means that I rarely have to build the negative anti-crime buildings, like stocks or gallows. I think some more balancing here is needed.
7) War
I have fought several wars and have several observations about them. I know many of these problems have been mentioned before, so if the team is already aware of an issue, I would just like to add my voice.
a) The AI still has great difficulty defending its cities, especially ones that are on the border. This is even the case where the AI has a very large army, so it seems to be a problem of evaluating threats and distributing its forces.
b) The AI overbuilds certain units. Wardogs, Town Watchmen and War Wagons in particular. This leads to unbalanced armies which the human player can take advantage of, even when he is outnumbered. I often see (in the Medieval era) huge stacks of Wardogs invading my territory and then being slaughtered by my units with hunter promotions. I also often see many town watchmen in an offensive enemy stack, where they are almost useless and very costly for the AI.
c) The AI loves to attack piecemeal (this is the correct word in English?). Many times the AI will suicide units against much stronger ones. I could understand this if they were 'softening up' the defenders for other, stronger units to attack, but almost always there is no follow up. It's just a waste as far as I can see. One situation I remember, I had taken one, Mongol city, but wasn't strong enough to take the other two, so I left a defensive ring between those cities and the one I had taken, 3 squares from their cities. 5 tiles with two units each. Every turn, for about 30 turns, the Mongols would attack my ring with one unit, an Elephant rider and lost every time expect twice. They had quite large armies defending their cites and enough production to give them one elephant per turn. They could, with a little intelligent use of their forces, have broken my ring, but instead they attacked piecemeal every turn (I think with less than 5% victory chance each time) and wasted 30 turns of production, achieving nothing.
d) The AI declares war when it is not ready to attack. This has happened several times in my game. The AI declares war, out of the blue and I wait for the invading hordes to appear, hoping that my forces can hold out until reinforcements can arrive from my main island. Several turns pass, I build as many troops as I can, I wait nervously and...nothing. The AI doesn't attack, expect perhaps with a band of Wardogs and a couple of other units which happen to be in the area. Often I will have already taken two or three of their cities (see point a)) before a serious army appears near to my forces. It seems to me that when the AI declares war it should have some objectives in mind and have the means to achieve those objectives at hand. It's far too easy for the human player if the AI declares war and then takes 15 turns to get an army near to his territory.
8) Gold
The gold situation is ridiculous. I have over 200k at the moment. I think that the fact I started on an Island and so didn't need a large army to defend myself helped in the early game, but the real gold surplus came in the classical era. I was making 1.5k per turn for a quite a long time. It's now about 250 per turn, but with a larger army. I didn't use the slavery + patrician combination by the way. Maybe something could be done to nerf some of the gold bonuses in the classical (the forum is particularly outrageous in my opinion).
