AI suffers with low envoys because:

[Dearmad]

In mygame (prince) the AI didn't do much early exploration on our continent. Resulted in me getting first envoy contact on 9 out of 10 city states. This meant a huge boost to my civ in all sorts of resources for many many turns! And China even had a secret agenda of controlling city states! Well duh China, get out of the house then!

Killed the AI chances. On the other continent of course, where I wasn't, the AI splits that more evenly and the AI developed more evenly.

Seems like a game mechanic that is too exploitable right now given how the AI plays. Needs to be addressed, because I sure as heck won't slow down my own exploration! Even less so now that firsrt contact means huge and varied bonuses!

 

[KrikkitTwo]

In mygame (prince) the AI didn't do much early exploration on our continent. Resulted in me getting first envoy contact on 9 out of 10 city states. This meant a huge boost to my civ in all sorts of resources for many many turns! And China even had a secret agenda of controlling city states! Well duh China, get out of the house then!

Killed the AI chances. On the other continent of course, where I wasn't, the AI splits that more evenly and the AI developed more evenly.

Seems like a game mechanic that is too exploitable right now given how the AI plays. Needs to be addressed, because I sure as heck won't slow down my own exploration! Even less so now that firsrt contact means huge and varied bonuses!

They could change it so that you get an envoy with the first N city states you meet, regardless of whether or not you were the first to meet them.

 

[Ryika]

I'm pretty sure I did not get any "Met first"-bonuses the first game I played on Deity, aside from one lucky neighbor. I do however get lots of them now that I am playing around with other difficulties.

So I'd guess the AIs ability to scout depends on Difficulty. With tons of bonuses and potentially starting with extra scouts it shouldn't be that easy to grab all of them.

 

[redwings1340]

I didn't get any despite starting with two scouts on king. I think a lot of this is luck. The AI seemed to compete for envoys pretty well from what I saw, I was pretty even with them.

 

[Dearmad]

Deity? Can we keep the discussion reasonable?

 

[Ryika]

Deity? Can we keep the discussion reasonable?

Sure. Haven't tried it, but I assume it's similar on Immortal.