AI economy

[Gray]

Is it just me or can the AI operate with negative gold? One of the last games I played came down to the Zulu, the Aztecs, and me. I was kicking the Aztecs around and had pretty much put the Zulu out of their misery. All they had were swordsmen and impi’s versus my modern units. Anyway, I wanted to sell them some techs and Aztec cities, but every turn they had 0 gold. They had a boatload of units, which is probably where all the gold went, but they were producing new units as settlers and workers were popping up all over the place. They also produced military units (impi mostly) in the Aztec cities that I gave them…

What the heck is up with that? I wonder if the AI sells their city improvements or if they can just operate with a negative income. Any ideas, thoughts, answers???

 

[costanza]

I think they're probably selling city improvements to finance units. That's my best guess, because I remember you could do that in civ2.

But the AI has been known to do some pretty bastardly things, so who knows?

 

[damunzy]

I have operated a few turns withou gold before my improvements began to be sold off, so I would guess that it is possible for the A.I. to do that also.