AI / Upcoming Patch Notes?

[Kaluk]

The game is currently on sale on Steam for 75% off, and I'm interested in picking it up but have read/heard numerous accounts that the AI is not particularly engaging (diplomacy and combat).

I'm wondering if any patch notes are available for the next patch - I'd like to see if, outside the upcoming expansion, the AI will be receiving any significant love.

[Pouakai]

Welcome to the forums! :D

I think the general consensus is that there will be a patch accompanying the upcoming expansion, which will improve AI among other things needed for the expansion, much like how we get patches with DLC. Nonetheless, my personal opinion is that the AI is good enough to have a fun game with, and the people you see complaining are the ones that will find something to complain about, just because this isn't a prettier Civ 4. So I would buy the game anyway, and make an opinion based on your own experiences rather than heresay. It's not that expensive either relatively.

[sirwill72]

I agree with Pouakai. It's a different game from Civ 4, which I still play often, but I enjoy V greatly (about to start a game now) and I've still lost or quit more games than I've won... besides you can always bump up the difficulty if needed! With that said, the upcoming expansion seems very promising and I cannot wait to play it.

Don't believe the haters! It's a great game and well worth it, especially for 75% off!

[Kaluk]

Hey guys and thanks for responding. I did end up getting the GOTY edition during the sale plus the $1.82 of DLC that was missing. I've only played one game so far (which took far too long because I messed up the map size) and while it was fun I really do hope the AI is improved in upcoming patches.

This is my first Civ game, and I was only just aware of the basics from Civ IV. My game settings were: standard sized Earth map, 7 AI civs (China, Rome, Persia, Egypt, Inca, Babylon, Aztec), chieftain difficultly, all standard settings while I played as Greece. I started in Western Europe largely alone. Inca got Africa, Aztec got Western Russia, China got China, Babylon got Eastern Russia, Egypt got Eastern Europe and Rome got all of North America to itself. Immediately I expanded over Europe, spawning three other cities as fast as I could and largely ignored military spending. Some other nations beat me to the classical era, but shortly after that, everyone was always at least 1 era behind me. I dominated the game not just financially and technologically but by force as well. Everyone was constantly denouncing me but little came of it. Two nations declared war on me, but never even bothered to attack. I wiped everyone out with ease - none of the AI ever bothered to make alliances. Since I was so rich, I held a number of city state alliances because it was simply faster to buy them than to conquer them. By the time there were just 3 of us left, my score was at least double the next highest. Rome was doing well compared to China since all of the Americas had little in the way of resistance, and China was trailing behind by a few hundred points. I nuked China, bombarded them with my fleets and took them out all while Rome just sat around. I then did the same to Rome and won the game.

So I'm wondering if this is just an anomaly, and that the AI is usually more capable, or is the game normally this easy?

[tejon]

"Chieftain" is tutorial mode. Turn up the difficulty, Prince is "normal."

[tfordp]

So I'm wondering if this is just an anomaly, and that the AI is usually more capable, or is the game normally this easy?

What tejon said. You played a warm-up game on the 'starter' level, which is good and right. Time to honk it up.

[Kaluk]

Wow that's embarrassing! I just rechecked the difficulty menu and apparently I had meant to select "King", I remember the tooltip reading as "slight bonuses for the AI". Not sure how the game was set to chieftain then. Thanks :)

[zephyrtr]

There is only one AI, so the difficulties only change the game so far as your starting amount of Happiness, as well as any bonuses enemy Civs are given (on Deity they start with 2 settlers, 2 warriors, a scout and all the Ancient Era techs I think).

The 75% off is a great deal since the Expansion will be out in April/May and that's looking to be a really great game. Slowly Civ 5 is getting to where Civ 4 was. People forget it takes a long while of tweaks and add-ons to get this sort of game truly where it ought to be.

[sirwill72]

Kaluk, let us know what you think after you bump up the difficulty. I'm just getting to the point where I can usually win on Prince. When I tried the level above a couple months back, I got stomped pretty quick!

[Kaluk]

Started new game as Japan on King difficulty. Proving to be much more of a challenge :D

Spawned near Mongols and shortly after telling them to stop settling near me, they declared war on me and invaded in force. I took some casualties but managed to beat them back. Now I'm just trying to lay siege to one of their cities which is proving to be a bit difficult since I've mostly just archers and no catapults. AI Made one stupid mistake: they tried to pull out two units from my territory, but did so over water instead of land. My two ships easily sunk their transports.

[MegaBearsFan]

Kaluk, if you enjoy grand strategy games, then Civ V is a worthwhile purchase. At 75% off, it's a great buy. I recently took advantage of the 75% off deals to get all the DLC civs and the wonder pack, and now it's almost like playing a whole new game. Should tide me over until the expansion comes out.

The AI is still pretty bad though. Mostly just because it's not intelligent enough to play competitively, and so has to cheat in order to seem competitive. AIs are also excessively hostile, selfish, and uncooperative. It doesn't know how to build a balanced army, and on the off chance that it does build a balanced army, it doesn't know how to use it. It throws units away; doesn't use ranged units properly; leaves settlers, workers, and generals undefended; embarks units without navies to protect them; and so on. Essentially, the only time the AI is ever actually "hard" in terms of military capability, it's because they have overwhelming numbers. You should expect a 5-to-1 or 10-to-1 kill ratio versus AI units (depending on the difficulty level).

Every now and then, the AI will pull off an intelligent military maneuver, but this (to me) seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

But keep in mind that everyone's experience with the game will vary. Some people are OK with the AI. Others are not. Some people don't mind that the AI is playing the game as if it's a "game". Other people wish the AIs would at least pretend they are actually running a real-world empire. It's all subjective.

[Kaluk]

Well I've just victoriously concluded my first game on King difficulty. My first attempt, I neglected my happiness and finances, crippling my empire allowing the Mongolians to invade.

This game was on a tiny continental map with 4 AI (Mongolia, Persia, Britain, Iroquois) all with standard settings. I played as Japan again. The opponents provided a pretty good challenge. In the late game (1940 and up) Iroquois was in first place and had over double my score. I was in second place. Both of us were the dominate forces on either continent. I was getting really worried that they were going for a cultural victory, so I pushed to atom bombs as fast as I could so that I could actually make some sort of an attempt to attack them.

I should mention that while I had 4 or 5 wonders, Iroquois had easily more than 10, and almost all of those were in one coastal city - their capital. I researched atom bombs, built 4 carriers filled with bombers, zeros and atom bombs. I Built 2 destroyers and 2 battleships and a horde of tanks, infantry and artillery and desperately made a massive coastal assault on the eastern coast where 3 of Iroquois' strongest cities sat. I nuked the two cities on either side of the capital, and invaded in force. I took a lot of losses but I managed to capture the cities to my surprise (I had a huge army, but Iroquois' army surpassed my own apparently). It's possible that I benefited from the fact that Iroquois was already at war with Persia when I invaded - Persia had settled the opposite coast that I launched my attack on. After much fighting I even managed to capture their capital and another nearby city. We then made peace and I attacked Persia's puny empire and won a military victory.

All in all it was a very fun game and the AI held up quite well. One thing that did bother me though was how AI empires would constantly attempt to negotiate peace, but demand a huge amount of resources from me. Why would I pay to end a war when I have the enemy so easily outgunned? Another annoying issue was despite Iroquois' current war with Persia, I shouldn't have been able to pull off my invasion at all - Iroquois was ridiculous rich. They had +50,000 in the bank. Why didn't they just purchase a huge number of units to counter my offensive?

[Snerk]

Another annoying issue was despite Iroquois' current war with Persia, I shouldn't have been able to pull off my invasion at all - Iroquois was ridiculous rich. They had +50,000 in the bank. Why didn't they just purchase a huge number of units to counter my offensive?
This is an issue I've encountered several times myself. Hopefully it will be addressed in the upcoming expansion. It shouldn't be too hard to program in. If an AI civ really needs units, and it has the money to purchase them, then they should do so immediately.

[MortVader]

Yes.
I'm hoping the best for the expansion.. or if that fails; Civ6 when that comes! :D