In the midst of a Humankind difficulty run, with three opposing empires, and man it's become frustratingly clear that rebels, or whatever system that governs how the AI handles them/stability is broken. 

I've been swarmed every 3-5 turns with other empire's rebels since the ancient era. They're not difficult to handle, they're not overly powerful, but they have dramatically slowed my ability to expand outwards, create new cities, and maintain a healthy economy, with most of my money going towards maintaining a military that can handle simultaneous attacks from multiple fronts. On the one hand, farming military stars has never been easier, but having to manually fight nearly every battle, and then having to send several stacks to clear rebel groups sitting in territories that go upwards of 40 units just to found a city is not ideal. It's made worse that the AI, even on Humankind difficulty, is utterly incompetent when dealing with the rebels, or is simply unable to both maintain stability, and a large enough army to clear the stacks. And why, why do the stacks routinely ignore the cities that they spawn, and instead take the long way to target not my cities, but my (exponentially expensive) territory extensions. 

This playthrough has been effectively ruined, not because I'm behind, or losing wars, but because it's too frustrating to have to deal with this many stacks and I'm unable to enjoy the simple act of civilization building. Even with the inflated difficulty of setting it to Humankind, a mechanic as basic as rebels should never be this annoying. 

Here's a screenshot of my kill count. Save for about 10 units, it's entirely opposing empires rebels. 

One last note, thanks to the sheer amount of rebel stacks I've found that in (mainly offensive) battles against rebel armies containing Spy units, those units can cause your game to freeze (enemy turn pending) by stacking onto the same tile. It appears to only happen to Spy units, and the only fix I've found is to either let the opposing army attack first or neutralize them at range. The bug doesn't appear if they attack you, only when reacting to an enemy unit discovering them via an adjacent tile. 

It does suck when some AI's implode. Another problem with rebels is that it takes population from their city, so they fall even farther behind with a bunch of 0 pop cities (and therefore limiting their ability to build units or anything). Once an AI succombs to rebels, it can never recover.

I also don't understand why it happens to often because AI cities seem to be filled with commons quarters and garrisons.

So I agree with a recommendation to tone down how often it happens - at least for AI. It may even require a toggle at the setup "no rebels." Similarly, I'd love to be able to turn off independent peoples and eliminate ruins tiles - but that's another topic.

It is very frustrating.

And why are they coming into an opposing Civ. In my current game, same thing, every 3-5 turns some rebels appear. I don't know how they are getting deep into my territory but there they are.

You think they'd stay in the Civ that they are rebelling against. They seem to be programmed to target the player. Ridiculous. So I run a good empire and keep my people happy but I still have to deal with rebels because the AI sucks. Really stupid.

Add this to the hundred other fixes the Devs have to handle to get this game where it needs to be.

I don‘t find the causality between a foreign empire collapsing and marauding hordes coming to your happy and wealthy empire absurd at all. But I agree that it can turn into too much of an annoyance in some cases. The  best solution is outright war, as it seems.

Hey folks,

My friends and I tried to give computers additional City caps and military spending discounts, but these were not allowed by the existing module production system. Maybe you can try it, although usually game companies refuse to adopt it after players give specific suggestions and look for some strange ways. But in short, I hope you can solve this problem after cooperation, so that everyone can have a better experience.

And then there are Soviets, who in all my games seem to be willing to tank their stability with their EQ, because their Rebels don't even stand a chance against their super-pumped militias so in addition to units that you have no answer for because of boosted CS, you also have an issue of flood of wandering Soviet rebels.

I don't really have anything against an Empire collapsing at times, but Soviets are breaking the game hard every time I don't immediately crush them the moment they're chosen by AI.

The endless rebels are just a frustrating event.

For one, why don't they stay in the Civ they're rebelling against. All of them seem to come my way. I could see some spillover but all of them? Ridiculous. It eliminates the immersion - it reminds me the game is always focusing on me as a target rather than just unfolding naturally from actions all the Civs take.

In addition, how can there be so many rebels? If each rebel takes a population point away, there should be no one left in any of the cities at the rate I've been destroying them.

Certainly, this is a gameplay element that needs some attention. I don't imagine it's going to be at the top of the list but hopefully, it gets addressed.

DNLH wrote:

And then there are Soviets, who in all my games seem to be willing to tank their stability with their EQ, because their Rebels don't even stand a chance against their super-pumped militias so in addition to units that you have no answer for because of boosted CS, you also have an issue of flood of wandering Soviet rebels.

I don't really have anything against an Empire collapsing at times, but Soviets are breaking the game hard every time I don't immediately crush them the moment they're chosen by AI.

As it stands, the AI shouldn't consider building Districts at all if the Stability is too low. As far as I know, it can't willfully tank its Stability due to overconfidence in its Militia units.

There is definitely an issue in the situation you're describing but I am quite sure it is not due to the AI abusing the balancing of the game. If you have a save file from that situation, I'd gladly look at it. Otherwise, things should get better on that front pretty soon.

Cheers,

Alex.