Three of the leaders in Civilization VI

First Civilization VI Update Tunes AI, Adds Requested Features

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Published: November 17, 2016 11:39 PM

Less than a month after its release, Sid Meier's Civilization VI is getting its first update, titled the Fall Update.

It appears that the folks at Firaxis have been listening to the community's complaints and suggestions to improve the game, as many of the additions and changes match what players have been requesting or complaining about.

Two of the most commonly requested features for the game have been the ability to rename your cities, and for the game to tell you what tile your city is going to culturally acquire next. These have both been added to the game, along with additional hotkey support for things people felt were missing.

An aerial view of a civilization in Civilization VI

The warmonger penalty was also something many players felt was over the top, and it is being reduced in most circumstances, which should make aggressive play more viable.

One other welcome change is a closing of a loophole around deleting units. You no longer get gold for deleting a unit, meaning that you can't fight your unit to near death and then sell it for a lot of money no matter where it is.

In fact, you can't delete damaged units at all, so you can't remove the change of that opponent getting experience for killing your guy. Additionally, units can no longer remove features from tiles that are not owned by that player.

One of the biggest complaints since Civilization VI's launch has been the AI, as happens with almost every Civilization game. Thus, with this patch, Firaxis has begun further tuning the AI to get it where it should be to provide an optimal play experience. From the patch notes, here are the AI changes:

  • Adjusted AI victory condition focus to increase their competitiveness in Science and Tourism.
  • Adjusted AI understanding of declared friendship.
  • Adjusted the AI approach to beginning and ending a war based on potential gain and loss.
  • Increased AI competitiveness in building a more advanced military.
  • Increased AI usage of Inquisitors. Especially Phillip.
  • Increased AI value of upgrading units.
  • Increased AI use of Settler escorts.
  • Tuned AI usage of units that cannot move and shoot, like Catapults.
  • Tuned AI city and unit build planning.
  • Improved the ability of city-states to maintain a strong military.

Aerial views of cities with outlines in Civilization VI

In addition to those changes, and various bug fixes and other tweaks, Firaxis has added a few things. Balanced maps for 4 and 6 players have been added, meaning you can play those and have everyone in a balanced starting position now with that player count.

DirectX 12 support was added for players on Windows 10, and Logitech ARX support has been completed as well. Finally, Firaxis has added a new scenario called "Cavalry and Cannonades", which is focused on combat.

In Cavalry and Cannonades, there are reduced costs to maintaining your army, no strategic resource requirements for units, and a larger starting army. It's your job to occupy the largest territory inside 50 turns.

You can read the full patch notes over here, which include a lot of notes and minor changes that can influence how the game plays out. If you want to read our thoughts on Civilization VI, you can check out our impressions of the game

Finally, if you've been thinking about picking it up, Civilization VI is currently 20% off on Green Man Gaming (affiliate), making it a reasonable time to consider doing so.

What do you think of the fall patch for Sid Meier's Civilization VI? Do you think the changes to AI are enough? Did Firaxis close enough loopholes? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Don Parsons
| Senior Writer

A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don

More Info About This Game
Learn More About Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Developer
Firaxis Games
Publisher
2K Games
Platforms
PC
Release Date
October 21, 2016 (Calendar)
Genre
Strategy, 4X
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