Best settings for creating a worthy Modern+ AI opponent?

[aimlessgun]

I like long, epic civ games. I want my games to go all the way to the information age. I want to be duking it out with Stealth Bombers and Modern Armor at some point.

The problem is, if you get into the late game with a fully functional civ, it seems like the AI can't pose a real challenge. The early game on Deity is certainly fraught with danger but you basically either win or lose far before you're airstriking people.

The AI can't prioritize and beeline victory conditions quickly at ALL, so dramatic races don't seem to happen. I'm in 1995 in my current Immortal game and none of the AIs are even close to any of the VCs. I think the best of the lot is Ghandi with 2 SS Boosters...pathetic (and it should be noted that I have not invaded the AIs at all).

And on the military side, the combat AI has improved since original release but its still much less potent than a human. From what I've seen they simply can't outnumber you hard enough to get past your obscene k/d ratios. Lack of stacking absolutely kills the AI here. Stacks of doom in Civ4 allowed the AI to really press their cheating-derived numbers advantage. My favorite and most memorable Civ4 game ever involved a huge Russian empire invading me with two stacks of 100+ units at the same time.

Anyways, anyone have suggestions on what kind of AIs to put in or what map settings to use so that I can get a challenging lategame fight on Diety/Immortal? Or maybe some good mods that improve victory condition AI or maybe even remove 1upt for them to help out their military? Thanks for any suggestions.

Oh, and self imposed limitations are welcome too. I've been trying playing as a pacifist, ie never capture cities and never declare war, This certainly helps that AI not lose, but it still fails to win even if I just leave it alone to do its thing. Problem is too many self limits can get wonky and artificial feeling though.

*Ideally I'd find other real people with the right schedules to play huge map epic/marathon multiplayer games, but that ain't gonna happen

 

[Vitruvius]

Turn off all victory conditions except time and play for points. So you cant cheat away with any victory and really has to grind the AIs down city by city. It also make for very interesting late game wars.

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[mclericp]

Put Alexander in the Game. Enuf said.

 

[Krajzen]

Put in game: Zulu, Germany, Russia, Poland, Korea, Ethiopia, Iroquis. At least one of those civs will become awful runaway

 

[aimlessgun]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Any ideas on map types? I've seen people talk about runaway AIs, but Ive only ever seen it happen once (on an Earth map).

 

[Vitruvius]

Do continents. Earth map doesnt have good resource distribution. Also if you play any map smaller than standard then its very hard for AI to runaway.

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[aimlessgun]

Well, putting all those guys into a Comunitas (basically continents) mapscript worked out well. Alexander turned into a monster, took over his whole continent and was first in every demographic and tourism and culture as well :/

He just won a diplomatic victory as I waited a couple turns too late to launch my offensive against his city states (initially tried to outspend/spy him but he crushed me). Reloading back a few turns so I can move up this city capture 1 turn haha.

The ruthlessness that he takes and keeps CS allies now really surprised me, back in original release his AI was nowhere near this good.

 

[joncnunn]

Without a mod; only way for an AI to still be competitive in the modern era is either for you to be new to the difficulty level you're playing or else to be on Deity. This is because as you go up in difficulty level, the AIs starting handicap gets larger.
This does run some risk of you suffering an early conquest defeat and not making it to modern era though.

On the community mod; last I heard the GEM mod was still in beta testing.

 

[Mr_jones]

Seems like the AI in every civ game sucks. Best bet is to find people who will play online at a set time and date once a week for like 4-5hours at a time.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

Without a mod; only way for an AI to still be competitive in the modern era is either for you to be new to the difficulty level you're playing or else to be on Deity. This is because as you go up in difficulty level, the AIs starting handicap gets larger.
This does run some risk of you suffering an early conquest defeat and not making it to modern era though.

On the community mod; last I heard the GEM mod was still in beta testing.

Which mods would you recommend? Thanks in advance

 

[aimlessgun]

Well after losing that game to Greece, I started a Venice game, again huge Communitas script with those recommended AIs. Also got a Rome this time. Alexander is once again a complete beast, but this game he's been totally eclipsed by Rome.

Caeser is seriously a terrifying opponent. Relentless expansionist and warmonger, he has 3 civs under his boot and over 50 cities. Also, he is a complete snake in the grass, can't trust him at all. Friendly relations and you just sold him a luxury for full price in up front cash? He DoWs 2 turns later, he bought that luxury to trick me. I had to reload :/ Learned my lesson: if neighboring Caesar, you must have him bribed into war 100% of the time with someone he can actually fight.

So second game in a row where I'm carrying a fully functioning civ into the endgame and things are totally undecided. Alex is certainly key to have because he prevents easy diplo victory. And I'm on a short clock for space now that Rome's 50+ cities are developed and letting him tech at insane speeds. Going to have to go to war to liberate enough CS to do a diplo vic...going to be tricky. Also quite awesome as there are 3 titans (Rome, Greece, Sioux), any of which could crush me if I mess up.