The recent Civilization VI Anthology announcement, which Firaxis producer Kevin Schultz called the “complete” and “final” Civ 6 experience, serves as yet another clue that the studio’s work on the popular 4X game could be winding down. While Firaxis is mum on what’s next for the series, it’s likely that Civilization 7 — or perhaps something bigger — is on the horizon.
Despite its success, Civ 6 still has room for improvement. One area in which the strategy game suffers is its artificial intelligence, or AI. Civ 6’s AI leaders don’t have the technological capability to make intelligent plays that mimic those a human player would make. Instead, Firaxis has opted to make the game more challenging at higher levels by giving AI leaders ever greater statistical advantages. For example, at deity-level difficulty, each AI gets a 32% bonus to its science, culture, and faith output, an 80% increase in gold output, +4 combat strength for all units, and three free settlers at the start of the game, among other bonuses.
This all certainly makes the game more difficult, but not necessarily better. An AI that’s challenging primarily because of its inflated stats lacks one major element that’s fundamental to the concept of AI: intelligence.
RELATED LINKS: The best 4X games on PC, The best strategy games on PCOriginal Article
