Why aren't my AI foes expanding their territory?

[consentient]

I didn't know you can gift settlers to the AI. I'd heard of some people, like KB27787, building cities and giving/selling them to the AI for various reasons, but not actually the unit.

 

[Primacide]

I prefer to gift them the settler so that I don't bump up my penalty for number of cities, which means a lot in a 4 city tradition run. You don't get to pick where they plant the city of course, but I guarantee it will be forward-settled on someone.

 

[reddishrecue]

2 reasons why .. maybe?
You choose a really large map
You choose a really easy difficulty

 

[Kirin Rider]

Build and gift the AI a settler. They will plant it five turns later if there is good ground nearby. I do this when I want to dominate and the AI is too slow filling in the territory.

On immortal or above this is not a problem. The AI will fill in one tile ocean squares by the end.

I see them do this even on King.

Here's every AI (except India):

"One hex desert island with one fish, between two other cities that are just four hexes away? Perfect spot for a new Modern era city! I'm sure it will pay off in the long run!"

Tundra with no special resources is another AI favorite. For immersion purposes I always imagine that it is like the cities that the Soviets built in Siberia, or the Antarctic outpost built by Argentina under one of the military dictators - it is just about flying the flag and claiming territory for political purposes.

The funny thing is sometimes the AI leaves great sites alone and I get to grab them. I have seen Spain not bother to settle a spot with El Dorado, good food and production, a luxury, etc. I can understand when India only settles three cities, but when Indonesia does it, and only one of them is on a different land mass, that is just weird.

 

[Kirin Rider]

I didn't know you can gift settlers to the AI. I'd heard of some people, like KB27787, building cities and giving/selling them to the AI for various reasons, but not actually the unit.

If you found a new city it permanently increases your science and social policy costs, or so I am told. That is just not worth it. What can be worth it is sowing dissension among the AIs by giving them cities you get in other ways. If I get a crummy city by conquest, peace treaty, or ideological revolt, I burn it down only if it is in my way or infringing on territory I want for my self-built cities. Otherwise I trade it for something or just give it to someone. Sometimes I deliberately try to start border tension between the stronger AIs, other times I give the city to a hopeless laggard in order to maintain the balance of power.

 

[historix69]

If you found a new city it permanently increases your science and social policy costs, or so I am told.

The extra costs are defined in CIV5Worlds.xml. They depend on map size. While technology costs are higher on bigger maps to compensate the increased number of cities, the extra costs for tech and Social Policies per city are lower, e.g. on huge you only have +2,5% (or 2% rounded down?) additional tech costs and +5% additional Social Policy costs per city.

Spoiler :

<Row>
<Type>WORLDSIZE_SMALL</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_WORLD_SMALL</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_WORLD_SMALL_HELP</Help>
<DefaultPlayers>6</DefaultPlayers>
<DefaultMinorCivs>12</DefaultMinorCivs>
<GridWidth>66</GridWidth>
<GridHeight>42</GridHeight>
<MaxActiveReligions>4</MaxActiveReligions>
<FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>23</FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>
<NumNaturalWonders>3</NumNaturalWonders>
<UnitNameModifier>30</UnitNameModifier>
<TargetNumCities>5</TargetNumCities>
<NumFreeBuildingResources>3</NumFreeBuildingResources>
<BuildingClassPrereqModifier>25</BuildingClassPrereqModifier>
<MaxConscriptModifier>0</MaxConscriptModifier>
<TerrainGrainChange>0</TerrainGrainChange>
<FeatureGrainChange>0</FeatureGrainChange>
<ResearchPercent>100</ResearchPercent>
<NumCitiesUnhappinessPercent>100</NumCitiesUnhappinessPercent>
<NumCitiesPolicyCostMod>10</NumCitiesPolicyCostMod>
<NumCitiesTechCostMod>5</NumCitiesTechCostMod>
<AdvancedStartPointsMod>90</AdvancedStartPointsMod>
<EstimatedNumCities>39</EstimatedNumCities>
<IconAtlas>WORLDSIZE_ATLAS</IconAtlas>
<PortraitIndex>2</PortraitIndex>
</Row>

Spoiler :

<Row>
<Type>WORLDSIZE_HUGE</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_WORLD_HUGE</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_WORLD_HUGE_HELP</Help>
<DefaultPlayers>12</DefaultPlayers>
<DefaultMinorCivs>24</DefaultMinorCivs>
<GridWidth>128</GridWidth>
<GridHeight>80</GridHeight>
<MaxActiveReligions>7</MaxActiveReligions>
<FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>35</FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>
<NumNaturalWonders>7</NumNaturalWonders>
<UnitNameModifier>0</UnitNameModifier>
<TargetNumCities>6</TargetNumCities>
<NumFreeBuildingResources>7</NumFreeBuildingResources>
<BuildingClassPrereqModifier>100</BuildingClassPrereqModifier>
<MaxConscriptModifier>75</MaxConscriptModifier>
<TerrainGrainChange>1</TerrainGrainChange>
<FeatureGrainChange>1</FeatureGrainChange>
<ResearchPercent>130</ResearchPercent>
<NumCitiesUnhappinessPercent>60</NumCitiesUnhappinessPercent>
<NumCitiesPolicyCostMod>5</NumCitiesPolicyCostMod>
<NumCitiesTechCostMod>2.5</NumCitiesTechCostMod>
<AdvancedStartPointsMod>120</AdvancedStartPointsMod>
<EstimatedNumCities>132</EstimatedNumCities>
<IconAtlas>WORLDSIZE_ATLAS</IconAtlas>
<PortraitIndex>5</PortraitIndex>
</Row>

 

[reddishrecue]

The extra costs are defined in CIV5Worlds.xml. They depend on map size. While technology costs are higher on bigger maps to compensate the increased number of cities, the extra costs for tech and Social Policies per city are lower, e.g. on huge you only have +2,5% additional tech costs and +5% additional Social Policy costs per city.

Spoiler :

<Row>
<Type>WORLDSIZE_SMALL</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_WORLD_SMALL</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_WORLD_SMALL_HELP</Help>
<DefaultPlayers>6</DefaultPlayers>
<DefaultMinorCivs>12</DefaultMinorCivs>
<GridWidth>66</GridWidth>
<GridHeight>42</GridHeight>
<MaxActiveReligions>4</MaxActiveReligions>
<FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>23</FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>
<NumNaturalWonders>3</NumNaturalWonders>
<UnitNameModifier>30</UnitNameModifier>
<TargetNumCities>5</TargetNumCities>
<NumFreeBuildingResources>3</NumFreeBuildingResources>
<BuildingClassPrereqModifier>25</BuildingClassPrereqModifier>
<MaxConscriptModifier>0</MaxConscriptModifier>
<TerrainGrainChange>0</TerrainGrainChange>
<FeatureGrainChange>0</FeatureGrainChange>
<ResearchPercent>100</ResearchPercent>
<NumCitiesUnhappinessPercent>100</NumCitiesUnhappinessPercent>
<NumCitiesPolicyCostMod>10</NumCitiesPolicyCostMod>
<NumCitiesTechCostMod>5</NumCitiesTechCostMod>
<AdvancedStartPointsMod>90</AdvancedStartPointsMod>
<EstimatedNumCities>39</EstimatedNumCities>
<IconAtlas>WORLDSIZE_ATLAS</IconAtlas>
<PortraitIndex>2</PortraitIndex>
</Row>

Spoiler :

<Row>
<Type>WORLDSIZE_HUGE</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_WORLD_HUGE</Description>
<Help>TXT_KEY_WORLD_HUGE_HELP</Help>
<DefaultPlayers>12</DefaultPlayers>
<DefaultMinorCivs>24</DefaultMinorCivs>
<GridWidth>128</GridWidth>
<GridHeight>80</GridHeight>
<MaxActiveReligions>7</MaxActiveReligions>
<FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>35</FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>
<NumNaturalWonders>7</NumNaturalWonders>
<UnitNameModifier>0</UnitNameModifier>
<TargetNumCities>6</TargetNumCities>
<NumFreeBuildingResources>7</NumFreeBuildingResources>
<BuildingClassPrereqModifier>100</BuildingClassPrereqModifier>
<MaxConscriptModifier>75</MaxConscriptModifier>
<TerrainGrainChange>1</TerrainGrainChange>
<FeatureGrainChange>1</FeatureGrainChange>
<ResearchPercent>130</ResearchPercent>
<NumCitiesUnhappinessPercent>60</NumCitiesUnhappinessPercent>
<NumCitiesPolicyCostMod>5</NumCitiesPolicyCostMod>
<NumCitiesTechCostMod>2.5</NumCitiesTechCostMod>
<AdvancedStartPointsMod>120</AdvancedStartPointsMod>
<EstimatedNumCities>132</EstimatedNumCities>
<IconAtlas>WORLDSIZE_ATLAS</IconAtlas>
<PortraitIndex>5</PortraitIndex>
</Row>

Its hard to tell, even with the XMLs above.