AI civs are jerks with resources!

[Steve Thompson]

QUESTION: Why does the AI (I play on Emperor usually) never want to trade luxury for luxury??? This pisses me off quite a bit!!!!!

For instance: The Finns have furs; I don't. I have Ivory; the Finns don't. But the Finns don't want to trade Furs for Ivory! They want to trade Furs for Ivory AND a lot of other things, like other resources or techs or gold that I am not going to give them. WHY!!!!???? Doesn't the AI recognize a good trade, a fair trade? I offered Ivory, 15 gpt, and a World Map which was very valuable to them, for their Furs, and the advisor screen said They will probably be insulted by this deal - WTF? They wanted like 2 other resources, in addition to the Ivory, and some gold, and a moderately-important technology!

Why can't the AI realize that my luxury is as good as their luxury, I mean, they do have the same effect, right? Why do they always seem to expect more from me for 1 of their resources? Because of this, I end up trading my luxuries and resources to AI civs, but not from AI civs, because it's outrageously expensive to import 1 single resource.

Idiots! They would rather not have Oil or Coal, than trade me 1 luxury for them!

Or, is the AI really asking a resonable price, and I'm being the jerk....

 

[sanabas]

Your empire is a fair bit bigger than the finn's empire, yeah? If so, your luxury provides less happiness help to them than their luxury provides to you, so the luxes aren't equal. If your empire is smaller, the AI will happily do lux for lux, and possibly throw in some cash as well.

 

[rysingsun]

also do not be so sure that the imported luxury is not worth the price. with a good sized empire that one more luxury might allow you to turn down the volume on your luxury slider by a full 10 percent and save you 150 gold. under such circumstances i would at least consider paying up in the neighborhood of 100gpt for a luxury if it were the only way i could get it.

now regarding trades with other ai's that are large like you. suppose you have coal which they would give you 100gpt for other than for the fact that they have no gpt to give, but they do have a luxury. and suppose you could give coal and 20gpt to get the luxury. suppose also that nobody else has any interest in buying your coal and you simply do not need this spare coal lying around. id make a trade like that any day of the week.

 

[Steve Thompson]

Yes, Finland is tiny, the Nazi empire is enormous (I like their weapons, shoot me). So, if you have more people, the AI knows you need it more than they do? Those sneaky, uh, animals! That explains it I guess...

But, I don't need the luxury that bad, to pay 100 gpt, because in almost every single I've every played I can more or less easily keep my people happy, because I either start off with luxuries around me, build lots of improvements, and/or take over other civ's luxuries by force (which is what happens a lot in the Industrial Age when my cities start to get really big and the AI is usually lagging in up-to-date military units) and I rarely use the luxury slider, I prefer specialists. Anyway, I still want to trade, because another luxury would be nice since Berlin is up to almost 40 population, but other than huge cities (and the South Africans I just conquered) my empire is fine and happy, and the Finns only have their Furs, so wouldn't they need my luxury more? I know Helsinki is over 12 pop. by now...

I am willing to trade Coal for 1 luxury and some gold, but they aren't! They don't want to give me luxuries unless it's for a whole lot, and I never need luxuries that bad, except on very rare occasions. But in the case of the Finns I gave them Rubber for 20 turns to get them into a war with me and to make sure they don't trade their extra Furs with other countries. I wanted Furs for Rubber, but they wouldn't cough it up, and after the 20 turn deal is up I'll discontinue it since they've outlived their usefulness - one thing Nazi Germany doesn't tolerate!

 

[gskyes]

The price also depends on how many happy citizens you have. When you have marketplaces, you are going to pay a lot for your 7th or 8th luxury. That's why it always seems that the AI does't do fair deals on luxuries. Play an OCC and see how cheap luxuries can get.

 

[Swiss Bezerker]

How can u play as Finland?please tell me this I love the finns

 

[vmxa]

The point being made is not that you need the lux, but the AI knows it has more value than you do. IOW if you have markets and can gain that 7 or 8th luxs it is worth a ton to your empire.

You have put an abritary price on it, based on what you thing furs are worth. That price may be correct if the civ was not as large as you and did not have markets and 6 other luxs.

The example given may be understated. That 7th lux could save you even more than they ask and as such if worth doing. The only reason not to do it, is if you plan to take it soon or the civ can make good use of the cash.

Since this is a small civ, I would be happy to pay them what ever they asked as they cannot turn that money into my down fall. If your gross income is 20k and you can turn the slider down 10%, you gain 200gpt. If you pay them 100gpt and maybe some tech, you pocket 100gpt. Seems fair to me and the AI is not clever, but they can add and subtract.

 

[Zardnaar]

Hence I just invade the AI for resources.

 

[Kuningas]

How can u play as Finland?please tell me this I love the finns

Here you go
A Finnish civilization

 

[Nobody]

if your huge and finlands small, why trade when you can take.

 

[vmxa]

if your huge and finlands small, why trade when you can take.

Maybe you have a ton of war weariness and do not want more war right now. Maybe you do not want to trigger a domination win right now and taking them down, may do it.

I am sure a few other reason could exist.

 

[Steve Thompson]

Well, I never thought that much about how it could save me some money, so I decided to trade with them a little while ago and it helped my score a bit, and I guess the Finns can't do anything threatening with my money since they're meager in size and pop anyway!

The reason I haven't destroyed them yet, although I'm almost done the game, is because other civs, especially the Soviets, were more of a problem. And now I got my own source of Furs after running-over Thailand's Vickers 6-ton tanks with StuGs and Panzer IVs