A Difference from Chieftain to Regent

[timerover51]

I have gone from playing at the Chieftain level to the Regent Level, at least officially. As I play on modded games, it is hard to say what level effectively I have been at, given my changes to the game difficulty levels. One thing I have noticed, besides much more intelligently handled Barbarians (mine are not the standard types by any means), is where the computer places the AI opponents. I play on Huge, 160 X 160. or larger maps, up to 360 X 180 and 400 X 200, either Continents or Archipelago. With Continents on those size of maps, you get some pretty large continents. There are always at least 24 starting locations. I say "at least", as I add starting locations for the civilizations that I will be playing, normally Seafaring ones. When I start the game, I typically set my number of opponents to between 3 and 7, so lots of extra starting locations.

At Chieftain, I normally could play for quite a while before running into any of the AI players, normally once I got Navigation and could really start exploring. The AI civilizations will be widely spread out.

In Regent, the AI civilizations will be bunched together to allow for very quick contact between them, and they will also have the closest starting positions possible to me. The AI must readily trade Technology with each other, as having the Great Library, set not to go obsolete, gets me all sorts of Advances. In one game, when I contacted my second AI civilization, I got three advances in one burst. It is quite interesting seeing the differences in the game. The main problem that I an having is that I am not big on fighting wars, and finding the AI essentially on top is me is not something that I particularly like, combined with my highly nasty Barbarians. I believe that the saying is "hoist by one's own petard."

 

[Spoonwood]

The main problem that I an having is that I am not big on fighting wars, and finding the AI essentially on top is me is not something that I particularly like, combined with my highly nasty Barbarians.

What is the AI's aggression level that you have it set at? Do you gift them gold, sign an RoP, or trade with them so that their attitude towards you is more likely to go to or remain at "Polite" or "Gracious".

 

[timerover51]

What is the AI's aggression level that you have it set at?

I have the AI aggression level set to normal, neither more or less aggressive.

Do you gift them gold, sign an RoP, or trade with them so that their attitude towards you is more likely to go to or remain at "Polite" or "Gracious".

I do trade Techs with them, being careful as to what to trade, and if they are badly behind in terms of Tech, I may gift some gold as well. I do not sign RoP agreements, but have accepted a military alliance a couple of time, when the target was essentially not reachable by me, being on another continent. I have never had an AI reach the point of "Gracious", at best it is polite. The main problem arrises when I am battling a horde or two or three of by nasty Barbarians, and therefore I am building military units and not settlers, and the AI civilizations start to seriously move into what I view as my area, to the point of establishing a city on the coast between two of mine. I do find that irritating. As for India, they always declare war, along with the Aztecs. Montezuma does tend to be quite demanding, and when given the "No Way" answer, tends to go ballistic. I guess that I could choose other opponents, but for some reason, one of them being how long is it before Gandhi becomes "Furious" with me is always interesting, I do not.

I guess I am not that great a fan of fighting long wars.