The problems of this game and some ideas to fix them (like the AI)

[bumpyglint]

Ok, Civ VI is a better game than vanilla CIV V, but there are still some serious problems that could be fixed for me to make it perfect:
1) First and most important, AI TOTALLY sucks, they declare random wars on you and then don't even send a unit (I play on 6/8 difficulty, I don't remember the name), they can't upgrade units, and (most important) they are even worse at move units than Civ V. I think the reason of this is because (ironically) they gave some tactics skills to the AI; explaining better, as we all know in Civ V the AI didn't have tactis, they just ran at you killing everything on their linesight, it wasn't a good strategy but with the production boost having 35982398 units running at you could still be a problem. In Civ VI instead they try strange things, they retreat, they divide, they aim to different city togheter, but instead of improving the game this makes the AI even worse, because she splits her force in stupid moves and still can't reach the human level. At least if AI would just run and destroy in the old Civ V (bad) tactic she could get something.
2) Warmonger penalty are INSANE. It's not possible that in 1600, one of the most violent period ever, I declare my FIRST EVER war (formal war, not surprise) in the history and I get -16 warmonger penalty WITH ALL THE WORLD. Seriously, wtf?? Probably that's why everybody hates everybody in my game, diplomacy is useless if everything gets fudged up at the first war. They should decrease it.
3) Amenity, Housing, Districts etc... can be good ideas, but they let us with TONS of micromanagement...it can be fun for someone, and probably it's hard for me because I still didn't totally get the system, but sometimes it feels like a problem (even if probably playing more I will understand the system and will have less problems).
4) As some suggested before the game came out, costal city are more useless than ever. They don't get any formal bonus, costal resource are not good and you still can have ships with a city 3 tiles away from coast. They could give more bonus at costal city in my opinion (expecially for trade).

What do you think about this?

 

[lamaros]

I saw CAPITALS FOR NO REASON.
And bad formatting.
I no read.

 

[Acken]

I don't really agree with 3 but the rest sure.

I would add more control and less spam fest. I personally have CivBE feelings when the current game rewards spamming commercial district + industrial districts and it bores me.

 

[redwings1340]

1) Change the unit upgrade tree to make things like iron upgrade lines, horse upgrade lines, niter upgrade lines, etc. Make it so that you can't get 'stuck' at a tech because you don't have a strategic resource. If the AI could upgrade their units, that would be a start. Basically, either dramatically increase the amount of strategic resources on the map, or structure the game so that you never 'need' a strategic resource to upgrade a unit. The actual combat AI programming is tougher to do, Acken's mod did pretty well at making the AI a threat in V from what I played of it, so its possible. I agree though, sometimes the computer just needs to throw stuff at enemy cities and attack.

2) Decrease warmonger penalties across the board. Make it half for declaring war. Reduce it more with CB. Add more CB earlier in the civics tree. I don't mind the general direction they were going with it, but it hasn't worked out that well.

3) I think ammenity/housing/districts work fine, I'll have to see where I am with that in a few months.

4) Yeah, I'd be good with a boost for costal hexes and especially costal resources. If sugar is now 5 food before its improved, we can get at least a 4 food, 1 gold unimproved fish tile without breaking the game. It's like they rebalanced the land hexes to deal with districts, then forgot about rebalancing sea hexes.

More thoughts:

If I were balancing the game, I'd slightly increase tech times and decrease district construction times. Maybe decrease the power of the workshop/factory/power plant to compensate. Industrial zones should be nice, but not required in every city. For minor things, I'd reduce the amount of gold disbanding units gives you (its an exploit now, apparently), reduce eureka bonuses to 40% (I don't think they're as op as everyone says they are, but they still could be reduced slightly), and modify a few of the civics policy cards (like, the +100% card to a +50% card).

 

[PhilBowles]

3) Amenity, Housing, Districts etc... can be good ideas, but they let us with TONS of micromanagement...it can be fun for someone, and probably it's hard for me because I still didn't totally get the system, but sometimes it feels like a problem (even if probably playing more I will understand the system and will have less problems).

Amenities aren't especially well-explained, but if you played Civ IV the housing system is straightforward: it's essentially identical to the Civ IV health mechanic minus the negative modifiers. I like the district idea in principle - in practice it can feel a bit too much like busywork, as a given district isn't really anything but a prerequisite for particular buildings, but even if the basic idea of a district isn't perfectly handled the idea that you have to place your buildings in the landscape and they compete with your improvements is a major advance.

4) As some suggested before the game came out, costal city are more useless than ever. They don't get any formal bonus, costal resource are not good and you still can have ships with a city 3 tiles away from coast. They could give more bonus at costal city in my opinion (expecially for trade).

I've seen this mentioned but don't really understand the complaint. Why is a coastal city more preferable in principle to a near-coastal city that can have a harbour? If anything it's quite a good solution to the intrinsic problem with every Civ game that settling on the coast deprives you of land tiles - making sea tiles absurdly overproductive as in Civ IV doesn't feel like a real solution, as it blurs the distinction between land tiles and water and is patently unrealistic (most large settlements are not supported principally from fisheries rather than terrestrial agriculture). There's already an intrinsic advantage for trade - you get access to harbours, which seem better than commercial districts (I think they're cheaper to build, and they allow you to produce military units and boost food production as well as gold - a resource that isn't actually all that useful since very few buildings can be constructed using gold).

 

[bumpyglint]

I don't really agree with 3 but the rest sure.

I would add more control and less spam fest. I personally have CivBE feelings when the current game rewards spamming commercial district + industrial districts and it bores me.

Yes, I've had some beyond earth feels too (and that game was terrible).

1) Change the unit upgrade tree to make things like iron upgrade lines, horse upgrade lines, niter upgrade lines, etc. Make it so that you can't get 'stuck' at a tech because you don't have a strategic resource. If the AI could upgrade their units, that would be a start. Basically, either dramatically increase the amount of strategic resources on the map, or structure the game so that you never 'need' a strategic resource to upgrade a unit. The actual combat AI programming is tougher to do, Acken's mod did pretty well at making the AI a threat in V from what I played of it, so its possible. I agree though, sometimes the computer just needs to throw stuff at enemy cities and attack.

2) Decrease warmonger penalties across the board. Make it half for declaring war. Reduce it more with CB. Add more CB earlier in the civics tree. I don't mind the general direction they were going with it, but it hasn't worked out that well.

3) I think ammenity/housing/districts work fine, I'll have to see where I am with that in a few months.

4) Yeah, I'd be good with a boost for costal hexes and especially costal resources. If sugar is now 5 food before its improved, we can get at least a 4 food, 1 gold unimproved fish tile without breaking the game. It's like they rebalanced the land hexes to deal with districts, then forgot about rebalancing sea hexes.

More thoughts:

If I were balancing the game, I'd slightly increase tech times and decrease district construction times. Maybe decrease the power of the workshop/factory/power plant to compensate. Industrial zones should be nice, but not required in every city. For minor things, I'd reduce the amount of gold disbanding units gives you (its an exploit now, apparently), reduce eureka bonuses to 40% (I don't think they're as op as everyone says they are, but they still could be reduced slightly), and modify a few of the civics policy cards (like, the +100% card to a +50% card).

I think the idea to make strategic source rare is really nice in CiV VI, you have to fight for them, but I agree that removing that could help AI. I hope they will just make the AI better at taking them. I agree with all the rest.

 

[Xaviarlol]

I don't really agree with 3 but the rest sure.

I would add more control and less spam fest. I personally have CivBE feelings when the current game rewards spamming commercial district + industrial districts and it bores me.

I think the policies and government system is a good place to start on the less spam but more control question. I'm brainstorming ways of achieving this via my mod.

 

[gberetfr]

I totally agree with points 1-2-4 of the OP and clearly fixing the AI must be the top priority as it clearly impacts very unpleasantly the game experience.
If no amelioration most of players won't play for long.
I have also, like everybody else, other ideas for improvement, but AI is top top priority and reading many other posts it seems everybody agrees.
Do you have any idea how we could try to put some emphasis/pressure on devs so that they at least give their action plan on the subject ?
I see nowhere news, devs communication or something similar, that I've seen on many other games.