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jammies · 09-25-2010, 11:31 PM

It needs to be reiterated that the AI is hopeless. It still beelines for any unescorted workers it can see; I had an enemy archer leave the city it was in to recapture a worker I had just captured, and of course the archer got slaughtered by my adjacent swordsman and then the city fell shortly after. How many versions and expansion packs does it take for the programmers to LEARN TO HAVE THE AI IGNORE THE WORKERS ALREADY!

It sends unescorted troops across water (you don't need transports any more, they "embark" and go across water on their own, but have no defence if you attack them with a naval unit) right in front of your navy and gets them slaughtered. It keeps hopelessly obsolete troops in the line of battle, which in a game where there aren't that many units to begin with, is practically a game-breaker right there. It spreads its ranged fire out over multiple units instead of concentrating on one unit at a time. It attacks uphill across rivers against superior units.

I think this is probably the worst AI of any of the versions of Civ I've played, and I've played them all since I. I just played a war-mongering King-level game where I never lost a unit - not one - the entire time until I got bored and lost a bomber by continually sending it against cities to see how long it would take before it got shot down. I just can't see playing much against such a pitiful opponent, and from what I hear multi-player is unstable too (leaving aside the question of who has 10-15 hours straight to sit and play one game of Civ).

It's too bad because there is so much potential here for a really deep game. But when you get to the modern era and see dozens of military unit types, of which you need only 2 to conquer the world with (Rocket Artillery, Mechanized Infantry), you can tell the designers spent too much time thinking about cool concepts and not enough time actually implementing them properly.

I certainly hope the modding community is on the AI problem pretty quickly, as otherwise I can see this being a huge, long-term disappointment. I can't recommend anyone buying this game, you'd be far better off getting Civ IV Complete and playing that.

09-25-2010, 11:31 PM	#306
jammies Basement Chicken Choker Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants. Exp:	It needs to be reiterated that the AI is hopeless. It still beelines for any unescorted workers it can see; I had an enemy archer leave the city it was in to recapture a worker I had just captured, and of course the archer got slaughtered by my adjacent swordsman and then the city fell shortly after. How many versions and expansion packs does it take for the programmers to LEARN TO HAVE THE AI IGNORE THE WORKERS ALREADY! It sends unescorted troops across water (you don't need transports any more, they "embark" and go across water on their own, but have no defence if you attack them with a naval unit) right in front of your navy and gets them slaughtered. It keeps hopelessly obsolete troops in the line of battle, which in a game where there aren't that many units to begin with, is practically a game-breaker right there. It spreads its ranged fire out over multiple units instead of concentrating on one unit at a time. It attacks uphill across rivers against superior units. I think this is probably the worst AI of any of the versions of Civ I've played, and I've played them all since I. I just played a war-mongering King-level game where I never lost a unit - not one - the entire time until I got bored and lost a bomber by continually sending it against cities to see how long it would take before it got shot down. I just can't see playing much against such a pitiful opponent, and from what I hear multi-player is unstable too (leaving aside the question of who has 10-15 hours straight to sit and play one game of Civ). It's too bad because there is so much potential here for a really deep game. But when you get to the modern era and see dozens of military unit types, of which you need only 2 to conquer the world with (Rocket Artillery, Mechanized Infantry), you can tell the designers spent too much time thinking about cool concepts and not enough time actually implementing them properly. I certainly hope the modding community is on the AI problem pretty quickly, as otherwise I can see this being a huge, long-term disappointment. I can't recommend anyone buying this game, you'd be far better off getting Civ IV Complete and playing that. __________________ Better educated sadness than oblivious joy.