Brutal AI

[Funak]

Maybe a bank could be too good for the AI science output (15% of gold investment to converts to science)

Okay, I'll bite, exactly what are you basing this on?

 

[DimCarcosa]

This is an excellent point, and worth stressing because it goes against the average Civ player's intuition. My last game is a good example.

Playing England on Emperor, I drew Austria, Brazil and (on the other side of the continent) Assyria as my neighbors. We all had DOF's, and I had two units and ZERO ships by the time cruisers were available. Yet I was right up there in the tech race, largely because I converted all my neighbors to my religion before they had one for themselves. (Sainthood in these conditions is amazing.)

I also controlled the WC. When the points leader Incans gave me a DOW for blocking their progress in the WC, I built up a fleet of four SOTL-upgraded cruisers and one ironclad, while killing the stray units the far-off Incans sent over. Then I sailed over the top and attacked his capital -- took it -- and got a peace treaty that very turn.

The Incans fell to third in the standings... but I began to lose control of the game to Austria. Despite one successful decolonization, Austria, which had expanded easily in the early and mid-game, became too rich to stop its CS alliances and marriages. I would have needed to compete directly for a Diplo victory, but had decided prior to starting that I was going for Science. (And competing for a diplo would have been tough, given my much smaller size.)

Not expanding in a second wave until it was too little and too late made me fall behind in the Wonder race, after having led it. Austria could probably have won a Science race eventually. But they easily beat me in the first UN vote for the win.

Looking back, fighting them in the WC wasn't going to be enough. (Maybe sanctions, but I doubt it.) What I need to do at some point is attack them the way I did the Incans. I didn't, because of the diplo consequences: we were allies, and both Freedom. But in retrospect, that was my only chance (playing a restricted game where I only had one, difficult VC).

That's why playing as militaristic civ is easier. I am currently fighting for continent domination as Mongolia and doing pretty well. Got only problem, The Celts who are owning their own continent and are an undisputable score leader (1k ahead of me). I play on Diety, maxed out civs, maxed out CSs so it is really challenging. Same option I set on a game I had week earlier. That time I played as Egypt and of course went for Wonder rush. Got almost all of them but so what when Persia and Mongolia crushed me with their never ending military force... So i rage quited Playing turtle and defending, only settling, no capturing cities is the hardest thing to do in this mod

 

[tu_79]

I think this is intended. Vox Populi players are encouraged to be good at every aspect of the game, so a fight or two might be mandatory.

 

[RedRover57]

I haven't played in a few builds. Trying a game on Emperor difficulty as Byzantium using the latest build of VP (8/2) and a 22 civ Not (Yet) Another Earth truestart map. Babylon reached Renaissance Era on turn 62 (standard speed)! An AI civ built Red Fort on turn 82, which means they are likely almost in Industrial Era! Never seen anything like that in Civ 5 before, not even on Deity in unmodded games. The best the AI can usually do on Deity in an unmodded game is Renaissance a bit before turn 100. Is this working as intended?

 

[Gamewizard]

I haven't played in a few builds. Trying a game on Emperor difficulty as Byzantium using the latest build of VP (8/2) and a 22 civ Not (Yet) Another Earth truestart map. Babylon reached Renaissance Era on turn 62 (standard speed)! An AI civ built Red Fort on turn 82, which means they are likely almost in Industrial Era! Never seen anything like that in Civ 5 before, not even on Deity in unmodded games. The best the AI can usually do on Deity in an unmodded game is Renaissance a bit before turn 100. Is this working as intended?

Doesn't sound like it. I would try a reinstall.

 

[RedRover57]

Doesn't sound like it. I would try a reinstall.

I used the VP installer. Are you suggesting I try a manual install? I am also going to try a game without the NYAE map to see if that is the issue.

Is it normal to get 4 spies at once? The AI got them before me (and Babylon was robbing me blind), but I got them all at once on around turn 65-70. On turn 82 I have stolen 4 techs (up to Education), but am still 18 techs behind the leader.

 

[Gamewizard]

Well, I play standard 8 player settings, continents, emperor, and no one is in the Renaissance era at turn 150. So either your settings drastically change the flow of the game or it is an error with your files.

 

[RedRover57]

Verifying files on Steam and re-installing the mod did seem to fix things, although now the AI seems a bit too timid on Emperor. They aren't expanding much at all particularly on the truestart map. Kind of went from one extreme to the other.