AI seems to know where the player is, before meeting the player.

I've observed that the AI seems to know exactly where you are before meeting you. This can't be a coincidence. Before I even met Catherine, she was settling cities towards me. Catherine had optics and could easily settle the other direction.

But I have almost no doubt the AI knows where you are before meeting you.

I'm afraid you've become confirmation bias'ed. You see one situation where the AI seems to cheat and think that's what must always happen.

This is not a part of the AI's programming/cheats, they mostly see exactly what a player sees, though they do "cheat" by having all strategics visible from the start. Maybe Cathy spotted a source of iron/horses that you hadn't revealed yet.

I have to agree with Japper! To be fair, it sometimes feels like they know where you are but they aren't programmed to know this. It's the same with Wonders - I once posted a rant on here thinking I was constantly being beat to Wonders with one turn to spare but the programmers on here convinced me that this is not the case.

I'm not sure what level you play at but on harder levels the AI starts with two settlers so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that they will forward settle you, especially on smaller maps

Both you and the AIs want the best sites for cities, so there will be some competition.

Haphaz said:

Both you and the AIs want the best sites for cities, so there will be some competition.

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Yes, its "competition".

I want land, so does AI. AI is programmed to grap land. In all directions. As there are many AIs, you can be pretty sure atleast 1 will go in your way by chance. No cheating, just that there is so many AIs.

But if AI does have contact with others it will prefere to block, forward settle others. Player is here not special. Hiawatha is just as willing to forward settle you as he is to forward settle Shaka.

Its why its hard to settle good land (7+ competitors) and lets say build World Wonders (what HughFran said). When I start build Great Library I can be sure 2-3 others AIs got the same idea. High chance that 1 has better land (hammers) then I have.

CivAddict2013 said:

I've observed that the AI seems to know exactly where you are before meeting you. This can't be a coincidence. Before I even met Catherine, she was settling cities towards me. Catherine had optics and could easily settle the other direction.

But I have almost no doubt the AI knows where you are before meeting you.

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Oh man, I've missed you so much.

Lets do a thought exercise.

Open Land ----- CivAddict ------- Open Land ------Catherine----Open Land.

Lets assume, for simplicity that this is the only open land around.

What are the odds that Catherine would settle in your direction without knowing you were there? What are the odds that you would settle in Catherine's direction without knowing she's there?

lol, why make it that simple? This is a hexagonal grid, there are only 6 directions to go

even if there was equivalent land in all directions you'd see it happen 1/6 times. My guess is catherine settled toward you #1: because there was good land that way (often the case), and #2: the other AI were building cities the other direction. The fact is a human player can't build early cities as fast as the AI on the high levels. This means the direction toward the player always looks open and juicy for settling early.

I'm not sure what Catherine having "optics" has to do with anything. If you mean she can embark settlers that's silly. Settling toward you takes way less turns and is more defensible then settling overseas. The AI always settles near themselves before searching across the water, same as you.

Chum said:

What are the odds that Catherine would settle in your direction without knowing you were there? What are the odds that you would settle in Catherine's direction without knowing she's there?

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50/50 and 50/50. So only one in four of neither.

danaphanous said:

lol, why make it that simple? This is a hexagonal grid, there are only 6 directions to go

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It is a hexagonal grid but still only two axis. And chum left off the AI above and below.

So only one in sixteen chance of not being forward settled?

That sounds about right!

danaphanous said:

......The AI always settles near themselves before searching across the water, same as you.

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No it doesn't. Try the Valentines day DCL and you'll see Boadicea march her second settler across the map every-time. OK this isn't across water but it most certainly isn't next to Edinburgh.

Maybe I misspoke. They go for the best spot they can see. If they don't like any spots occasionally they explore with them. However in the OPs case they would definitely settle toward good land they could see on the same continent then blindly explore with settlers across the ocean.

CivAddict2013 said:

I've observed that the AI seems to know exactly where you are before meeting you. This can't be a coincidence. Before I even met Catherine, she was settling cities towards me. Catherine had optics and could easily settle the other direction.

But I have almost no doubt the AI knows where you are before meeting you.

Click to expand...

I'm almost certain AI doesn't know your location or what is on your lands nor can they see into the fog. There may be baises towards settling on tiles that later yield resources, but It could be confirmation bias on my part as well. This is why they value open borders highly, to scout your lands. Never give the nearest big Civ open borders unless you want to be attacked.

I mean they may DoW on you anyways but you can surprise them with your range units and wipe out his forces.

BTW Civ Addict, you know how the AI's always come to you super early in the game asking if you'll go to war against the same opponent? When you're a new player, those requests seem stupid and your natural inclination is to turn them down (or at least it was for me).

But that is a missed opportunity. You really want the AI's to be fighting each other. If two AI's are at war it will stifle their expansion. Meanwhile, you will officially be at war as well but you can choose to simply ignore it and just continue expanding. This only works, obviously, if you are declaring war on a civ that is far away.

This is one trick you can use to grab more land in the early expansion phase. Get civs to go to war against each other.