[Update]: The Spring Update is now live!
Civilization 6 will soon be getting a Civilization and Scenario Pack containing two new nations: Macedon led by Alexander the Great, and Persia led by Cyrus the Great. While the release date was never announced its fairly safe to assume the pack will be coming in the near future as the developers have just revealed a sizable "Spring Update" slated for later this week.
The Spring Update will bring with it the usual slue of balance changes and bug fixes, but also some much needed AI improvements, as well as a reduction in Warmonger penalties. To put it simply, the AI will soon be more coordinated and much more reasonable to trade with, while the Warmonger penalties will be significantly lessened if you capture something from a player you previously denounced, or are already in war with.
If you're interested in all of the details you will the full patch notes over at Steam, but if you're just looking to find out more about these two changes here are the highlights:
AI IMPROVEMENTS
• Improved coordination for multiple attacking units.
• Ranged units better understand how to capture civilian units.
• AI should now generally accept embassies when neutral, and reject when unfriendly.
• When asking an AI to equalize a deal that has elements on both sides of the deal, it will consider a gold-only change before looking at other possibilities.
• Increased AI’s desire to repair pillaged Districts and Buildings.
• Minor civs will no longer go after policies that give them extra influence they can never use.
• Made it easier to meet the positive side of the environmentalist agenda
• AI will now build multiple Neighborhoods.
WARMONGER PENALTIES
• Adjusted Warmonger penalties for Diplomatic status:
* When applying a warmonger diplomatic penalty for EITHER declaring war or capturing a city, reduce that penalty if you are enemies with the target of that warmongering as follows:
-20% warmongering if this is against a player you have denounced
-40% warmongering if this is against a player you are at war with
NOTE: This is not used in situations where you are fighting a Joint War against the target power or when Sumeria joins as ally in war (in both those cases the penalty is still zero).
EXAMPLE: Macedon is at war with Persia. If India goes to war with Persia sometime in the middle of this Macedonian/Persian War and captures a Persian city, Macedon will reduce its warmonger penalty against India by 40%.
• Adjusted Warmonger penalties for City Population:
* When applying a warmonger diplomatic penalty for capturing a city, reduce that penalty if the city is smaller than the average city in the game as follows:
- If the city’s population after conquest is below the average population of all the cities in the game, reduce the warmonger penalty by the percentage that city’s population is below the average.
EXAMPLE: Persepolis is conquered and its population after conquest is 6. But the average size of a city in the game is 8. So this city is 2 / 8 = 25% below the size of the average city in the game. Therefore the warmonger penalty is reduced by 25%.
The Warmonger changes are a nice first step, but what Civilization 6 really needs right now is a way to avoid pointless wars with the AI. Far too often I find myself getting attacked by multiple AI players for completely stupid reasons, them surrendering after a couple of turns, and then having brand new wars declared against me because I'm clearly a warmongering maniac. But until that day comes I will gladly settle for reduced Warmonger penalties as that is bound to make the early turns much more pleasant.