[SPOILERS] Yossarian blames Caledorn

[Commodore]

You can say that diplo games are an "undiscovered frontier" as much as (actually less than) Starcraft games are an undiscovered frontier. Or Counterstrike games. Or any other game in existence. I'm here to play Civ4, not play something not-Civ4.

I think Starcraft and Counterstrike are about as discovered as a game can be. BTS with AI-diplo is getting close.

The evidence I have for how close Civ 4 with diplo is to being discovered and played out is from the few diplo games played lately.

Wait what? How on earth can multiplayer Civ4 be "discovered" in either diplo or non-diplo manifestations? I guess if we were a bunch of purely rational actors but ain't nobody here is. Starcraft at the highest levels might be solved but in the trenches of anywhere nonprofessional there is a ton of variation. Likewise RB's variant-seeking spirit is still seen in the suboptimal choices some of us make in every new game setup, to play with some set of self-imposed restrictions and see how it goes. The randomness-unto-optimization paths are manifold, but even in AI-diplo or AW settings with mirrored starts and mirrored leaders/civs, the people playing will make their series of interesting choices all very differently. The human factor is completely, 100%, there in AI diplo.

Clearly, there is a robotic subset that will try to relentlessly pick Pacal of Inca every game and follow a rigid decision tree like a bright AI. But those are decidedly a minority here. And most people are still good reporters, although I wish that awesome Arabia guy in PB11 would do a bit more.