4X style games like Civ have gotten no love from AI developers. As others have pointed out Starcraft has been worked on by serious AI researchers.

I suspect 4x style games will be among the hardest computer games for AI to tackle for several reasons. Just off the top of my head.

1. * Data sets to train on are smaller because individual games take much longer
2. * More complex rules sets
3. * More things to manage
   • * City/planet development
   • * Unit design (some games)
   • * Combat
   • * Exploration vs Exploitation
   • * Fog of war
4. *Multiple victory conditions

Some of those things RTS AI's already have to deal with, but I think 4x game are more complex overall.

I'd kill for a great Age of Wonders III AI.

One of the things about being god awful bad at something is you can improve a lot and still stink.

The DRM still only allows three total installs for the lifetime of the game (although you can call EA tech support and ask for more, no guarantee though). I have many games that have existed on more than three of my personal computers. Just glancing at my shelf I see 1830, Star Fleet Command, Transport Tycoon, Starcraft, Rome Total War and the list goes on. I don't want to have to beg tech support every time I upgrade my game machine, many of these companies don't even exist anymore.

The fact of the matter is that DRM that limits the total number of times you can install the game is unacceptable. They may have fixed other problems with the DRM, but this issue remains.