I thought I'd play on Blitz tonight to see how some later-era cultures behave in the new beta.  It only takes one food discovery to get the Growth Star and end the era, which means if you're lucky you'll you'll get your pick in the first round.  Turns out that in a large game, many AIs will be lucky, and they'll beat you to their favourite empires before your game even begins.  It makes Blitz/Fast on higher difficulties far less fun because I'm automatically locked out of some cultures without even getting a round of chance to rush for some food and pick them.


I'm sure I'm not the first person who's run into this because I've confirmed it's not limited to the beta; but I'm surprised I can't find a thread about it.  I'm sure it's out there, so please forgive the duplicate.


Proposed fix: On each turn, AI players wishing to select a culture from the next era should have the opportunity to do so only after all human players have ended their turns (whether they choose a culture or not).  The AI's culture choice is essentially the final act that happens on a turn.


For example, on turn 1:

  1. The game begins.  AI players probably all move before the human players move and then wait (those that can pick an Ancient Era culture this turn can "queue up" to choose).
  2. Human players naturally take their turns after this because of the horrible limitations of their physical bodies and input devices. ;P    If these players earn a star, they have the option to chose an Ancient Era culture during their turn.  Human players still compete with one another in real-time to choose an Ancient Era culture when they get sufficient stars, the way the game plays now, but they do not compete against AI players.
  3. All human players end their turns.
  4. All AI players who have stars necessary to advance to the Ancient Era and who queued up in Step 1 will now pick from the remaining cultures in the order they queued.
  5. Turn 1 actually ends, and the game moves on to turn 2.




My last four save files of playing on Empire Difficulty on Blitz and Fast, on Ibn Battuta beta preview and on the current "Bolivar"/Normal game patch.

Nomadic Tribe Turn 1 - Blitz Already Taken (Battuta).ctr

Nomadic Tribe Turn 1 - Fast Already Taken (Battuta).ctr

Nomadic Tribe Turn 1 - Blitz Already Taken (Normal).ctr

Nomadic Tribe Turn 1 - Blitz Already Taken (Normal 2).ctr