Endless Legend 2's answer to the common 4X problem of "goldfish" AI is a cunning system of badges, from Pleasant to Bully
The least involving part of any 4X strategy is very often diplomacy with AI civilizations. Even Endless Legend 2, a game with a faction of coral people who can make other people like them by infesting their territory with spores, does settle into a formula. You make friends with other leaders forever or you define them as enemies and obliterate them. Maybe you grease the wheels by offering some minor nation a palmful of glowy rocks in return for passage through their lands. Developers Amplitud