Will some AI Civs even be able to progress Exploration Age Economic Legacy Path?

[Brutus2]

In the exploration age the economic legacy path is entirely dependent on building settlements on the distant continent to generate treasure fleets and bring them back to your home continent. However, it was stated in the exploration livestream that any AI that starts on the distant continent (not the continent where the player starts), won't be able to gain treasure resources because resources on the player's continent can not be flagged as "treasure" for them. They did say this is something they hope to correct but as far as we know it is not possible now.

So roughly half the AI civs in the game could be completely unable to progress one legacy path which would likely also make it very difficult if not impossible for them to achieve the economic victory as well if they make no progress for one entire age. What happens to AI civs that decide to focus on the economic path in antiquity and then can't progress further in exploration age? It seems like a key game mechanic has been designed in a way that just doesn't work for some of the AI in any given game. I know this won't matter for AI on the player home continent but still, assuming we want all the AI to be competitive in trying to win, this seems like a big concern.

I'm hoping that maybe I misunderstood something or missed some clarification from the devs. Also, I understand they said they hope to address this and I'm not asking to speculate about if this could or will be fixed eventually. There are lots of things they "could" do in the future but I'm asking, based on what we know now, will this be an issue at launch?

 

[Nikolai II]

I'd wager they could progress one of the other victory conditions? I see no problem with that happening.

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

The distant lands civs seem to only become full “players” in the Modern Age, hence the player cap on starting an Exploration game being the same as an Antiquity one.

 

[Evolena]

So roughly half the AI civs in the game

It seems to be more like 1/3 (2 AI on Distant Lands for 4 on Home Lands).

And the AI on Distant Lands appear in none of the victory screens for Antiquity and Exploration Ages.

 

[Zennock]

I share your worries too my dude. Out of all the things I'm concerned about (besides the quality of the AI) this takes the cake.

Though on my end, it's still okay if the other Civs on the homeland can progress the victory line while those on the distant lands can't.

My big fear is that AI Civs won't pursue or rather don't have to engage in victory types. They just automatically gain points according to difficulty.

That would be a huge blow and I really hope that won't be the case. I guess we can only confirm this in due time when the game is officially released.