Do you change MIN_CITY_RANGE?
I used to always set this to 3 instead of 2, without issues.
Lately I've been setting this to 5, but on a small-ish map this had the effect that about 15% of the civs suicide in the first ten rounds (even when there is a spot available).
The current game with 5 (on gigantic+20% map) passed 3000 turns and is still interesting. The AI seems to handle it well.
I used to always set this to 3 instead of 2, without issues.
Lately I've been setting this to 5, but on a small-ish map this had the effect that about 15% of the civs suicide in the first ten rounds (even when there is a spot available).
The current game with 5 (on gigantic+20% map) passed 3000 turns and is still interesting. The AI seems to handle it well.