am i a born warrior - or a sucky researcher?
- Thread starter Astat
- Start date
BobCW
Warlord
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2005
- Messages
- 239
I've been having the same problem, where the computer flies away in research and I've only been able to win by defeating the weakest nations first, and then slowly chipping away at the more powerful opponents through a series of short wars. In order to find out why this happened, I set my current game as a permanent alliance, and observed my computer ally (Cyrus).
I believe that the computer is able to leap ahead in research because of how it improves terrain; at the expense of both food and production, the computer invariably fills its land with cottages, windmills, and mills. The result is that the AI is usually ahead of my empire, and has more advanced units, but my production is superior, and I'm forced to use that advantage to build a massive army.
The AI also often refuses to trade me technologies, even when the trade would benefit them more than myself. Since their reason is usually that "We fear you are becoming too advanced", I think that this is simply clever behaviour on their part. The computer can just trade with another AI if it really needs a tech, but if it trades with me I'll exploit any technology I receive more effectivley than another civ. The AI in Civ IV is very competent, and I've lost more games in a few weeks of play than I ever did in two years of Civ III. I also play on prince (or whatever the level above noble is), by the way.
I believe that the computer is able to leap ahead in research because of how it improves terrain; at the expense of both food and production, the computer invariably fills its land with cottages, windmills, and mills. The result is that the AI is usually ahead of my empire, and has more advanced units, but my production is superior, and I'm forced to use that advantage to build a massive army.
The AI also often refuses to trade me technologies, even when the trade would benefit them more than myself. Since their reason is usually that "We fear you are becoming too advanced", I think that this is simply clever behaviour on their part. The computer can just trade with another AI if it really needs a tech, but if it trades with me I'll exploit any technology I receive more effectivley than another civ. The AI in Civ IV is very competent, and I've lost more games in a few weeks of play than I ever did in two years of Civ III. I also play on prince (or whatever the level above noble is), by the way.
