Do AI leaders have actual personalities?

[M0LE]

Alpha Centauri gave you memorable creeps like Miriam Godwinson of whom one can claim she is a warmongering, religious psychopath - on every playthrough. The way her AI acts is befitting her character. It feels representative of who Miriam is and what kind of regime she strives to impose on the game world. Kicking her ass was just SO MUCH FUN.

Alpha Centauri - for the first and only time - made me feel like yea there is that guy and this gal and okay I know we gonna have so cruel run-ins further down the road, or we just gonna be allies cuz we really like that police state concept. That game was able to make sense of its AI leaders with just the limited means of waybackwhen...

Not so with this CIV installment (and others before it!). CIV 6 has repeatedly presented me with fascist regimes or overaggressive leaders no matter what. That said It seems natural for the likes of Ghandi or Roosevelt to just resort to facism cuz of the military bonuses. And if I don't push my army to a competitive level as early as possible, I will inevitably get raided by whoever is next to my civ. CIV 6 leaders feel arbitrary, empty and stupid.

Granted: Alpha Centauri could ♥♥♥♥ you up in a similar way. Military strength was a factor, too. But it didn't dominate the hell out of the way AI approached you.

Is that not wanted by the devs anymore? Is there some kind of gameplay mechanic or concept that does not allow for such "personalities" to work?

Your input is appreciated. Please refrain from comments like "git gut", "rtfm" or "OP is trolling" if you can find it in that brain of yours.

Thx.

[Aachen]

Each civilization has its unique agenda.

[jmb837]

The Ai in 6 makes no sense. They get mad at the drop of a hat. You can hardly build cities anywhere without someone getting mad. Or they make ridiculous demands and go to war if you don't give it to them.

[Kane Markoff]

I honestly had a better time with the AI in civ 5, granted it got super annoying in that game when everyone would go commie but whatevs lol. Civ 6 is irritating in a lot of ways and the best way around some of these issues is to simply play with a friend, same with all civ games

[Sticky Wicket]

Alpha Centauri still remains one of the best ever Civ games. The factions & leaders were superbly realised and their unique characteristics made sense in the game-play. (I too used to enjoy eliminating Miriam and her band of religious psychopaths)

No other Civ game has come close to the all-round level of complexity and thoughtfulness that went into AC. It's tragic that 20 years later nothing has surpassed it.

The leaders in Civ 6 do have different agendas but it feels quite artificial and shallow in most cases. There does not seem to be the interest from Devs to even attempt any kind of in-depth character dynamics; its all limited to making game mechanics with only a vague reference to real-life figures.

I agree with jmb837 the ai makes no sense in civ 6, the whole warmongering mechanic is badly implemented and way too simplistic.

[Purple Monkey]

Originally posted by jmb837:

The Ai in 6 makes no sense. They get mad at the drop of a hat. You can hardly build cities anywhere without someone getting mad. Or they make ridiculous demands and go to war if you don't give it to them.

Are you being hyperbolic? None of this is actually accurate.

[M0LE]

Originally posted by Empire of Lies:

Alpha Centauri still remains one of the best ever Civ games. The factions & leaders were superbly realised ....

With low res stills and a few lines of text...

[jonnin]

the personality here is, in pseudo code:
roll = random(1-100)
if(random < 25)
{
bunghole random popups to say at you, such as "your citys/currency earnings/something sucks, why don't you play like I want you to?!"
}
else
if(random < 50)
{
offer idiotic trade;
}
else
if(random > 85 && player does not have ginormous army)
{
declare "surprise" war
}
else
{
check the 4 agendas and complain about whichever one is not met, or if all are met, give pop up meaningless praise.
}

catch: if no pop up this turn, log error to mothership to determine what went wrong, this is a high priority bug.

Alpha C was the best in the series in my book. With a planet you know nothing of, random maps make sense. The AI tried to win, using its strengths. You could mod it with a text editor all you needed. The AI made war for real, not just playing at it. You could design your own units (yes there were exploits here). It has QOL stuff like "upgrade all my units of this type to that type". I still play it, the graphics are bad but the game quality is 10/10 in my book. I would pay 3x what this game cost for that game to have updated graphics and OS stuff etc and nothing else touched. The AI cheated there too, but nothing sid's team has done has ever had proper AI and difficulty that scaled by ability instead of cheats. Its how they do it.

[Sticky Wicket]

Originally posted by jonnin:

Alpha C was the best in the series in my book. With a planet you know nothing of, random maps make sense. The AI tried to win, using its strengths. You could mod it with a text editor all you needed. The AI made war for real, not just playing at it. You could design your own units (yes there were exploits here). It has QOL stuff like "upgrade all my units of this type to that type". I still play it, the graphics are bad but the game quality is 10/10 in my book. I would pay 3x what this game cost for that game to have updated graphics and OS stuff etc and nothing else touched. The AI cheated there too, but nothing sid's team has done has ever had proper AI and difficulty that scaled by ability instead of cheats. Its how they do it.

!00%

I too would pay handsomely for an updated AC as you suggest. Don't touch the brilliance of the game mechanics just a modernised graphics overhaul. I would still like the old original vids left in though.

[asnjas19]

"They dont make them like they used to."

The best of everything came out when you were 15. We get it. Ty drive through.

[GoldenTalon]

Not really - some are more aggressive in attacking especially if you've been deemed a "warmonger" which is one of the stupidest mechanic ever in a Civ game.

[Kazmund]

In every iteration of Civilization - SMAC included - the computer will always attack when it judges you to be weaker. You could have been the best of friends 10 turns ago, it doesn't matter now.
It's kind of annoying because the program is strictly looking at strength of numbers and never takes strategic ability into account. It can't. Programming that sophisticated would make you a lot money. And the player always has the advantage here. I don't know how many times I have won wars and gained territory in conflicts started by a computer Civ.

[evertebrate]

Many people in the community didn't like the computer player "roleplaying" and want a kind of simulated human player. Then, when they tried to go into that direction in Civ 5, people complained that the computer was too "opaque". So now we have this in-between solution.
If the developers had just done what they wanted instead of always trying to appease the people complaining, it might have been different.

[Ghadaro]

Originally posted by asnjas19:

"They dont make them like they used to."

The best of everything came out when you were 15. We get it. Ty drive through.

While many people do take a nostalgia stance to games Alpha Centauri is well regarded for good reason.
Take raising/lowering terrain for example, the ability to change terrain height in AC was tied into the climate mechanics, specifically rainfall patterns.
This meant there were multiple uses for that feature from military use to flood protection to creating a rain basin to provide more fertile land.

Mechanic changes designed to complement each other is something sorely lacking in 6 which feels like a bunch of ideas poorly implemented and randomly thrown together.
In other words AC was substance over style where 6 is style over substance.

[Sticky Wicket]

Originally posted by asnjas19:

"They dont make them like they used to."

The best of everything came out when you were 15. We get it. Ty drive through.

Ridiculous and oversimplistic comment.

If you never played SMAC I suggest you do, then maybe you will understand.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by asnjas19:

"They dont make them like they used to."

The best of everything came out when you were 15. We get it. Ty drive through.

at 15 I think that was 'zork'. We had to try to take the sword 1000 different ways uphill in the snow each time, and we liked it.