So after playing a couple of games with the new patch. The AI does build structures better for the most part. Common quarters are definitely fix and the AI uses them correctly. It doesn't feel as random anymore but I have some ideas on improving it.

Independent people

      So with them I noticed that they are building a loooot of science and market quarters. Since they are not a civilization it is pretty much useless for them and when I take over their cities I have no food or industry cause they made nothing but money and research and common quarters. I feel the independent ai should be dialed back in how often they produce these quarters. Also since they independent people get the ability to build any quarters they should also be allowed to create nature preserves. 

Research and market quarters

             For overall general AI I think one thing that would help with city development is have them focus on making research and market quarters around things that will give them a bonus. So if the AI wants to make a research quarter have them B line to a tile that offer's a research attachment bonus. Example would be a guyser or strategic resource. So when I take over a city the ai cities are more homogeneous with the environment. This should be the same with market quarters to focus on building them next to harbors and luxury resources. This way they will focus on food and industry in the more designated areas. Also have harbors be focused on a balance between market quarters spacing and food generated from the harbor areas. 

Special tiles

          Another thing is the ai tends to build over special tiles quite often. I feel they should only build over them if absolutely necessary and only with a building that can take advantage of the tile. This would leave more room for the ai to create nature reserve  in later eras and help with pollution mitigation. Now that I think about it, I don't think I ever seen a AI city with a nature reserve in it. Maybe have the AI avoid special tiles in general and build around them. (side note: also have the suggested building slot not cover special tiles)

I don't know how possible these changes are and maybe have the AI place down markers for future sites. Since they are not human they will not know to not build over special tiles as they will place buildings where the preferred slot at the time wants them to go. 

Overall good job on adjusting the AI in building more stable cities.

Hello Yutterh,

Thank you for your feedbacks, it's really interesting to have an external opinion regarding the AI cities.

Regarding the minor, I think you're right, the minor shouldn't be that motivated to improve their money and science. I've talked with the design team about that point, it will be discussed very soon. I think we'll still want to see them build all kind of districts (from an immersion stand-point) but they should indeed not focus on science and money all that much.

Regarding the city planning, even though your arguments make a lot of sense, that'd be difficult to implement. As it stands, the AI will build districts according to the city needs (eg. build a farmer district if the city lacks food, build industry district if the city can't build a district fast enough, etc.). Once that is decided, we pick the spot that would benefit us the most in the short run. Usually, it's good enough (eg. if we can build a market quarter next to a harbor, the AI will see the bonus and most likely place it there) but we can't really plan ahead (typically we can't b-line to a specific tile). We had this planification approach during the development but the algorithm became obsolete through the various game iterations and we couldn't get the time to update it properly. It was decided to switch for this opportunistic approach eventually. Now that the game is stable, we could consider trying that again. I'll keep it in mind but I can't promise anything.

Finally, you're completely right about Nature Reserve, that's a mistake that shouldn't be hard to fix. I'll try to improve that soon.

Again, thanks a lot for all these feedbacks,

Alex.