What to do about AI Great Admiral Spam?

[King Phaedron]

Hey devs, couldn't you just make your game so that AI don't stupidly sacrifice their great people, instead of once again punishing the player for having a brain?

I've got a whole bunch of navy units on alert, on an islands map, I'm at war but playing defensive. I want to know when enemy ships are nearby, but the AI just keeps sending in 3 great admirals.

I try to capture them, but they just come back. I hate the way the AI uses these to harass you, and it's so stupid you can't just execute them.

Is there anything at all I can do about these annoying pests? Im forced to put all my navy units to sleep, and hope no one actually sends in any ships.

This my second game with Civ 6, it's only king level anyway, but it seems to me the AI has actually gotten worse. I was in a war with France 100+ turns ago, in which city states captured and razed two of their coastal cities.

They have a Settler chained with a Heavy Chariot that's nearly dead, it's just sitting on the coast not doing anything. Not healing, not going anywhere, their Settler is going completely to waste and their unit is not being healed.

Difficulty in Civ games is a toss between whether the first part of the game is too hard, or whether the second half is too easy. This game started out fun, playing Norway. Killed three other civilizations that started on a large island next to me.

These maps.... What can I say? Even the HUGE ones are TINY. The default of 12 Civilizations just doesn't work. Even with 9 on a huge islands map, they barely have any room.

Also, MOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE! Like seriously, I can barely find a spot to settle that doesn't give me at least 6 mountain tiles, usually 8. And This is with Old World Age checked on! I'd hate to see what a young world looks like, probably 50% of the land tiles are freakin mountains.

No matter what map I play or settings I use, there are ALWAYS like 7 mountains right on my capital.

But now the choice is: constantly skip turn for about 10 Caravals or put them all to sleep and wait to be slaughtered. All because the AI is so stupid, they have to remove the "Alert" feature by turning great people into an instrument for pestering, yeah they programmed that well enough.

But worst of all, I get a fun game going and they just sit there and don't even try. Why continue? I could wipe people out if I invested in it, but it's really just a few hundred turns of micromanaging. Again CIV is either beat the first 100 turns, and the rest of the game is easy, or else it's just playing catch up half the game and missing out on most of the wonders and great people, and I find it's very hard to find a game that doesn't go either way, and actually remains interesting. Either you become godly, or you Underdog a victory condition, despite everyone else being way better.

I can't imagine what the AI is thinking (well, it doesn't think) but there seems to come a point where it just gives up. Some of them do anyway.

 

[Arraz]

it's only king level anyway, but it seems to me the AI has actually gotten worse

Try out the Real Strategy (AI) mod (It really improves the overall AI gameplay) and also I would advise you to try the higher difficulties. At lower difficulties, the AI starts with only 1 settler & 1 warrior (just like you). At higher difficulties, it gets more and more settlers, effectively enabling them to deal with early game barbs (They have A LOT of troubles with those) & bad starts.

I try to capture them, but they just come back. I hate the way the AI uses these to harass you, and it's so stupid you can't just execute them.

It is actually a valid strategy to know about your position & army. You can complain about it being unrealistic. But the AI is by no mean dumb to use it that way.

They have a Settler chained with a Heavy Chariot that's nearly dead, it's just sitting on the coast not doing anything. Not healing, not going anywhere, their Settler is going completely to waste and their unit is not being healed.

Was it locked? (by land not belonging to the civ/seas?) It might be for that reason.

These maps.... What can I say? Even the HUGE ones are TINY. The default of 12 Civilizations just doesn't work. Even with 9 on a huge islands map, they barely have any room.

Try the Huge seven seas map. It is much bigger than most maps and has lots of land to settle upon. It is also far more balanced that the Islands map (on which the AI is notoriously bad)

Also, MOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE! Like seriously, I can barely find a spot to settle that doesn't give me at least 6 mountain tiles, usually 8. And This is with Old World Age checked on! I'd hate to see what a young world looks like, probably 50% of the land tiles are freakin mountains.

Use the Perfectworlds mod. (on seven seas old world map) This mod makes maps more realistic. Effectively, you will see many mountain ranges and much fewer isolated moutains.

Again CIV is either beat the first 100 turns, and the rest of the game is easy, or else it's just playing catch up half the game and missing out on most of the wonders and great people, and I find it's very hard to find a game that doesn't go either way, and actually remains interesting. Either you become godly, or you Underdog a victory condition, despite everyone else being way better.

Not the AI's fault, multiplayer games also end up that way.
The easiest solution is to go for higher difficulties.