I am wondering if:

1) The Arboria map script which creates all forests hurt the AI because they do not chop as much.
Take the following screenshots for instance:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj197/DMOC_album/Civ4ScreenShot0037-2.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj197/DMOC_album/Civ4ScreenShot0038-2.jpg

Montezuma's land isn't eye-popping, but it's nice nonetheless -- yet he is researching Writing. On Immortal Difficulty

That brings me to

2) Should the AI be programmed to utilize chops more?

(note -- other AI's not listed but on the same continent that I hadn't met were Ragnar, Huayna, and 1 other AI maybe Boudica). Yeah good luck Mansa (SEVEN worst enemies I believe).

never noticed anything like that
It does hinder the player though (jungle!)

Only played arboria once in a SG. It was noticable that the AIs didn't chop much (while we did) making the early/mid game much easier than anticipated.

Edit: if AIs are set up to obtain maximum immediate benefit from tiles then grassland forest (2F1H) is as profitable in the short term as grassland farm (3F) or grassland cottage (2F1C).

I have noticed a lack of chopping by the AI on forest heavy map, later on though they do seem to clear it.

:lol: I love games when Mansa is surrounded by civs that hate him, looks like he won't run away with a lead this time. Judging from the screens, it looks like Monty needs to chop those forrests and build cottages, that is what is destroying his economy. We need to see if its just the Monty AI that is stupid, or if all of them do that.

Is there part of the AI code which shows how often they utilize chopping? I thought that they would do more on a heavily-forested map.

Yeah, this is Montezuma but still, I think someone like HIM should still be able to finish Writing BEFORE 275 BC on IMMORTAL difficulty with SUFFICIENT land.

I have a rule of thumb about AI performance in diferent settings:

AI will underperform in anything that it is not Continents or Pangea scripts in Normal speed and standart size with Temperate climate . Anything that deviates from this will cause the AI to underperform and it will underperform more as more you deviate from those conditions.

Unitil now it had served me well :D

:P. Seeing this I instantly checked if it is allowable in the HoF.

Nope :p.

Edit: I use automated workers a lot, so I'm familiar with their chopping patterns: no strategy at all (on of many reasons I wait before I start automating). Workers will chop forests if improving the tile underneath is a priority. Nothing more, nothing less from what I can tell. Inherently, even a player using automated workers will STILL outperform the AI if he uses the governor correctly, so this outcome isn't surprising. In fact, I doubt the AI will even make more workers in this scenario, further nerfing it.

Now, if only the AI were more serviceable so it didn't need such extreme bonuses......giving it governor specialization tendencies would be a huge step - it might make the game a difficulty level harder by itself.

Boreal is though, I haven't tried that.

Boreal is though, I haven't tried that.

I was under the impression that rather than having more trees, boreal just gave you more tundra landscape, though I could be mistaken.

Not that one would expect the AI to adjust particularly well to that either.

It has both , TMIT: more trees and more tundra. It also has the annoying tendency to put the best spots in the corners of the map, so your fate in the game is drastically diferent as you are more or less close of the corners of the map :(

And yes, the AI also underperforms in Boreal.....

Rainforest is allowed in the HoF and IMO is easier than Boreal as there's grassland underneath. Just have a massive pakc of workers to road and chop a tile in one turn and start clearing. Last one I played had AI cities still jungled in 1800AD

Problem with rainforest is it takes a lot of workers to clear the jungle. Once you have though, there's a ton of food for specialists and loads of cottageable grassland as well. Very good for a hybrid economy. But it is slow to get going.

I mistook arboria for rainforest...
never played arboria

its a long term strategy to leverage environnementalism.