Don't really know how else to word it. Title is more of a joking way to put it... For a game who's name is Humankind, that focuses on real civilizations.. This game really does not take the essence of humankind at all...

I feel like the AI in this game is there to interact with, not there to win. Not there to emmulate, or feel like real civilizations rising and falling, and certainly not there to give me a real run for my money. This is a problem with any modern game tbh, but it's glaringly obvious with this game.

If you go play old school games like Civilization 2, or Civilization 3, etc. those AI are there to win. They are there to beat the player. They will exploit the game and use tricks etc, or rile things up.

I've had the AI in Civilization 3 give me feints during wars. Show a small army on my border, I move to intercept, and 3 turns later a massive army appears from the fog of war on the opposite side of my empire. (They would of had to travel up and around to make that happen, and would of had to move before the war even started to make their army appear there when they did).

You don't see stuff like that in games anymore. You don't see the AI making new friends, because those new friends are now more profitable than the old ones, or can provide better defense, or support. Nope you've been friends for 100 years, so yo have +50 in relationship, so NOTHING is going to sway them. (I do agree it should be like that to an extent, but.. in the end, not always).

Using Civilization 3 for an example again, you HAVE to build up your empire equally. You can lean in one way, a little more military at the cost of something, or a little more trade at the cost of something else, etc. but if you focus on just building up, or just military, or just diplomacy, the AI will notice that, will exploit that to your disadvantage to the most extreme it can.
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This game kind of has ALL of the problems though.. It's far too simple to make friends. It's always AI vs AI that's breaking up alliances, or having issues, for nonsensical reasons other than "I just want to hate you cuz reasons". There is no reason or logic behind it. It's far too simple to throw money at the problem...

You can hard focus on just building up buildings, and completely do away with military if you want, and the AI will never exploit that, because you can just pass around friendship tokens and alliances like your Oprah and they're going out of fashion.

Friends will almost always be friends, unless they just decide for nonsensical reasons that they now just don't like you.

That's an AI that's there to interact with, not there to win, or there to play the game. It's an AI that's flipping switches for you to react to, nothing more. Nothing less, and that makes for a shallow experience, because you can't interact with it, or fix it.

What I mean by that, is again using Civilization 3 as an example, if I could see that an AI is being aggressive over an area of land, or being aggressive with me. I could look at what they have. Oh look, Coffee resource is nearby that I own. They have almost no luxury resources, and I'm not trading with them. I could open up trade because of it, or even give them that piece of land. sometimes that would work. Or would appease them enough.

In this game, none of that matters. Buying out trade routes is too easy for both AI and player. Everyone has everything 24/7. Everyone has every alliance and friendship token 24/7. Religious unrest doesn't matter, cultural differences doesn't matter.

This game is for care bears that only want to hug and be friends. It doesn't take the essence of Humankind at all, and I feel like it could easily.

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Suggestions:

Because I don't want to just complain. I do have a few idea's to help make it feel even more like civilizations and ages rising and falling.

1) Era's should have way more of an impact than just flashy graphics and stars. (This isn't pre school. I don't need gold stars to tell me I'm doing something well).

I'd almost go so far as to say each era should have it's own influental governing AI sets that influence the base AI.

Early Era's should be far less friendly, and far more cynical. They are weak, and defensive. As are you. They want to grow, just like you do. Placing (or having more) civilizations in the game should be a thing. Some should start nearer each other, or to fix this, have more be able to be chosen at the start. Right now 10 max is just spreading them so far apart that it takes till the middle of the game before border friction starts.

2) Stronger AI logic for each type of civilization, and allow that AI to switch goals aggressively with what culture they choose.

If a civilization chose a war civilization, I want to see them actually making aggressive plays with it. If they chose trade I want to see them aggressively attempt to take advantage of it..

If my warmongering neighbor suddenly switches to a trade focused empire, I want to see them pull back on the aggression, and start opening trade, and attempting to rebuild bridges so to speak.

That's how civilizations were dynamic throughout the ages of building up in real life. There were dynamic real shifts in the mentality and culture of nations through ages.

* It would make choosing a new culture actually impactful to your success.

* It would be an indication to the new focus of your neighbors, and something the player can actually consider in terms of strategy.

3) More aggressive "We are here to win" logic from AI.

If you take a territory with resources on the border of an AI, they should care about that, ESPECIALLY if they were targeting it as something they wanted. This should cause real problems for you in the short term, and potentially even long term if you don't focus on rectifying or appeasing them.

Right now I can yeet every high profit, high yield territory right from the borders of AI, and they don't care at all. They just bend over and let me do whatever I want to them with a big smile. It's quite frankly stupid, immersion breaking, and makes the game shallow.

The AI need to care about what their goals are to win, what civilization they are playing as, and what their goals need to shift too.

I disagree with this. Had a interesting game last time I played. So at the beginning of the game I was building up slowly. There was two other nations on the continent with me. One was very aggressive. We had a war going and I didn't have much units, but I was holding my own for the most part. When the other nation wiped them out and forced them into a corner as their vassal. This nation was much bigger then me and took pity on me. They considered me a weaker nation that should be protected. Well so I just kind of built up a military thinking we were allies. Was going to help them in their war. But then they realized I was becoming too powerful and decided to put me in my place. Well luckily most of their armies we're across the way fighting another nation. So I swooped in and entered a long war with them. I eventually won out and took the continent forcing them to be my vassal. The other nation they were at war with was a warlike nation. They made a lot of enemies on their continent but they were more powerful then the others.  By this time, I owned a continent, the second continent was split between two nations one war like, one heavy influencer and a couple of stragglers conqoured and vassalized by the earlier nation. The third continent was a three way but two made an alliance and split the third territories forcing them to one city and the stronger of the two (heavy religious nation) vassalized them. At this point basically everyone was in an alliance except the warlike nation. Everyone hated them, so when I finally went over and beat them into submission no one cared. There was a long piece. But the influencer nations well influence was starting to take over. I didn't mind just built garrisons for stability and kept the piece. But eventually both nations started slowly breaking up the alliance. So I knew what was coming. The religious nation I didn't trust, as the original aggressive nation I faced had a city on their continent and I was afraid they get attacked. So I built up grievances slowly resolved the alliance and went to war with them. Well every nation and I men's every nation did not like that, even my vassals. But my vassals stayed in line and we went into a world war which lasted tell the end of the game and with me as the victor. That religious nation.....well I got them down to four cities and to prove my dominance I nuked them into oblivion. My vassals on the main continent didn't like this and that nation that took pity on me revolted. I bombed and nuked their cities into oblivion right before the game ended. With me in complete control. 

This was a comeback victory for me as this was also the game where I stayed as the Babylonians the entire game. So I was behind in a lot of things. But through alliances and setting up wars, I was able to win. And trust me that influencer nation as ahead of me throughout the entire game tell we went to war. Oh and the difficulty was nation.

Edit: forgot to mention something. During the giant world war as I would slowly take their territories, any territories I had undefended they were completely ransack or at least try. The third continent I took the statue of liberty from them. Oncr tensions started to rise again they decided it be a good idea to burn it down (one of the reasons I nuked the religious nation to oblivion). The influencer nation, I had a territory at there tail end that I took. While my forced were fighting the religious nation, they decided to burn it to the ground. They moved through the entire territory burning every single building. In the war for my continent again the bigger nation. I add a huge army wiped out because I went through a mountain pass to attack what I thought was a lone army. Nope they had three other armies waiting near by outside of my line of site. I was surrounded and annihilated. I save scummer that and see if I could get a different outcome and waited like 5 turns. They didn't move their armies at all. They were waiting for the ambush. The AI seems to be doing just fine to me personally.