Civ4 AI Survivor Season 5 Poll Question

[Sullla]

I'm in the planning stages of the next season for Civ4 AI Survivor. There's one major question that I wanted to ask the community before starting: should we include the Apostolic Palace in the next season? I posted a public poll for anyone who wants to cast their vote at this location:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MB22rXw...L_Atk/edit

The current plan is to let this poll run for a few days and make a formal announcement about AI Survivor next week, with a potential starting date at the end of May. If you care about the Apostolic Palace one way or the other, now's the time to cast your vote!

[Charriu]

Is it already this time of the year. If it comes down to "no AP" I can help you building a mod without it. Also if there are other things which need changes, I can help.

[superdeath]

Had to go against AP. Even with the trolling that it does, id rather see how AI fight.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

Voted no. The religious diplo factor is already too much.

[Fluffball]

Voted no for no other reason than switching it up. I dunno if removing more and more options from the default game (like vassals, tech trading, messing up their spy points via the great spies) actually proves which is the best AI, but let's do something new. It's supposed to be enjoyable to watch after all.

Also: hyyyyypeeee traiiiiin choo choo!!

[JR4]

I think the AP is fun and brings more drama and unexpected events to the game. I voted yes.

[Charriu]

I do love the AP for it's entertainment value, but still voted 'no'. I'm just curious how different this turns out.

[Brian Shanahan]

I voted no because it distorts games too much. All too often you'll see a leader lose his position simply because of the "return city" vote being used too often, and in cases where the AP leader doesn't like the civ getting cities back at the same time.

[Wyatan]

I voted yes, but I'll reiterate my suggestion to mod it.
https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...#pid706030

It's a trivial, and it works : I've tested it quite a few times on AI games, and I now use it all the time in my sinle-player games.

It also enables a third option : leave the AP in, but remove the most problematic options.
Removing the victory vote is a given.
I'd also be in favour of removing the return City Option : I suppose that the intent behind it was to facilitate cutural conquest. Push your culture into dominant position in a city, and use the AP to get the city instead of waiting for a flip. Unfortunately, in practice, it gets used to cancel military conquests, and we've seen that having a game breaking impact : an AI would pour ressources into a successful war, get a coupla core cities from its target and thus be in a strong position... only to have all those efforts erased through the AP and end up in a weak position.
The forced peace option could stay IMO : we've seen some hardcore trolling with it... but I don't recall a single instance where it had a game-changing impact. Gandhi in season 2, Saladin, Brennus and Boudica lest season : they all got eliminated nonetheless.
The Crusade and Embargo options I don't see as an issue.

But you could also remove ALL diplo options and simply leave the AP as a standard wonder for the super religious buildings.

[Charriu]

But you could also remove ALL diplo options and simply leave the AP as a standard wonder for the super religious buildings.

If we go with no AP, we should at least do that or remove the AP entirely, so that AIs don't waste hammers on it.