Civ V AI City Placement

[ston]

Hi all, it's been a while (it's also been a while since I played any Civ).

Overall I'm really enjoying Civ V but it is unfortunately let down by poor combat AI and...well, perhaps the Arabian nation just like the desert a lot? Maybe there's a secret stash of camels there? Who needs deers, cows, silk and riverside grass when you can build sandcastles instead? That was Arabia's second city by the way.

 

[CommanderZ]

Maybe the six tiles around the city are all coal, oil and uranium! I don't know how it works in Civ V, but city placement AI seemed to know about undiscovered resources in Civ IV.

 

[ston]

Maybe the six tiles around the city are all coal, oil and uranium! I don't know how it works in Civ V, but city placement AI seemed to know about undiscovered resources in Civ IV.

Ah yeah, playing the long game perhaps

Something tells me that they might not stick around long enough to reap the benefits...

Really enjoying the current game though, have made good allies with three City States which I've discovered is a much better thing to do than try to wipe them off the map. They're providing the food surplus which allows me to concentrate on gold and research.

Somethings haven't changed since Civ IV though; Monty was still the first AI Civ I met, went to war with, yadda yadda. He was also the first Civ I met in the current game, went to war with...well, you know the story.

 

[Sasha000]

They're role-playing, don't hate on them

 

[ston]

They're role-playing, don't hate on them

lol!

It's just that I'd rather play against a cunningly devised strategic AI rather than ... er ...?

 

[dannythefool]

Does the AI still pick city spots based on invisible resources? Maybe that desert is full of oil.

 

[MaXimillionZero]

AI loves luxuries and will settle cities halfway across the map to get them, so that city was probably built to get the incense.

 

[ston]

Well, a little later into the game, Aztec and Arabia have been cleared from the continent, leaving me and four allied City States three of which are Maritime so I've got food coming out of my ears.

I start to annex some of the puppet cities off then notice this:



Hmm, rather good yield from those two desert hexes

A few turns later, I've got rifling and am bringing in over 250 in both gold and research a turn. I was considering whether to continue or not (the game being effectively won already) when all of a sudden, the game reports that every single one of my cities has lost its trade route with the capital. Strange, considering that I was the only non City State player left on that landmass with intact roads from each of my cities to the capital.

Enough is enough, Civ V has been put away to gather dust.

I don't want to repeat the numerous issues with Civ V which are covered in other threads, although having spent thirty quid on it I feel entitled to. In time I expect they'll be addressed. Nor do I want to moan about it not being like Civ IV. The real issues I have with Civ V are in fact that it suffers from exactly the same problems as Civ IV, which were never sorted out and they never will be in Civ V either.

 

[Gorey]

Where is that food on the desert coming from?

Thats insane.

 

[Tomice]

Yes, I have experienced very strange AI city placement as well. Hidden ressources could indeed be a reason for this.

The 11 food desert is weird. I wonder if this has something to do with the AI city placement? If it "knew" somehow that a tile will yield 11 food one day this could explain a lot...


Overall, i fully agree with you. Incapable AI that never feels like a threat or a worthy competitor plus loads of bugs really make the game less appealing for me than I hoped.
This has nothing to do with BtS comparison, I love most changes. I just don't feel challenged when I'm playing against bugs rather than against the AI.

 

[Dishonor]

Post it in bug forum with a save please (desert food). So they can fix all the bugs and game would be playable.

 

[ston]

Post it in bug forum with a save please (desert food). So they can fix all the bugs and game would be playable.

My apologies, I completely uninstalled the game shortly after this

I did reinstall Civ IV however and played through a Prince level game over the weekend.

Although my hardware has been significantly upgraded since the last time I played, the game still gets rather clunky in the modern era, e.g. opening a city screen takes much longer than earlier in the game. Shame really, as late-game performance is my only real gripe against Civ IV. I did thoroughly enjoy it though, I was cruising to a Space Race victory so I decided to DOW everybody and go a bit 'nuke crazy'

 

[CivBeaver]

Was a city razed in the 11 food desert tile? I've had similar graphic bugs when a city, fed by lots of maritime states, was razed. Also the "Trade route has been broken" thing pops up alot for me. But it seems it's only a display error, the cities still show the trade network icon.

 

[ston]

No, there was only Monty's TEXCOCO city there, the last of his cities which I took IIRC. I'd first turned it into a puppet and then had annexed it.

It might just be a graphical issue; the middle desert square displaying the same yield as the horses, the other displaying the same yield as the city (?)

 

[Clammo]

Can anyone explain this? We all know about the AI's lunatic tendencies to charge halfway round the world for luxuries. However in my current game, Catherine, with whom I have good relations (up until now!), has charged all the way to the other side of the continent we're on, settled a city right next to mine, and seemingly just to get a fish!

What makes it worse is that in the vicinity of her major land area are unclaimed dye, silver, whale, horses, iron, etc, you get the picture. Most of the continent is undeveloped (say around 2/3, maybe even 3/4), so why? Even if there is a luxury item out of my sight that she's seen, it doesn't explain why she's ignoring all those near her, when she only has silver currently.

Now this is obviously going to sour what was previously a good relationship, as I can't have her settle so near me in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to provoke, when up to press we'd got along fine.

Grrr! Whilst I'm partly amused and bemused, it does make me question either how well tested this game was, or, whether they found the majority of bugs and flaws but just went ahead and released anyway.

 

[ston]

Maybe because there's no distance-from-capital penalty in Civ V (I think), so the AI is likely to settle anywhere?

I'd quite like to see the AI's city placement algorithm

 

[drachasor]

Does the AI still pick city spots based on invisible resources? Maybe that desert is full of oil.

Pretty sure it doesn't. When you have conquered an AI civ and new stuff comes up, it seems to be out of the AI's civs cities just as often as it is just outside of your own.

The AI is just really stupid. How many times does it build a city just 1 off from the coast for NO reason? Lots.

 

[drachasor]

Maybe because there's no distance-from-capital penalty in Civ V (I think), so the AI is likely to settle anywhere?

I'd quite like to see the AI's city placement algorithm

Hmm, after seeing this and looking at my games, I think it DOES like lone hills like that. Penalty for all attacking units might be its thinking. Sadly, that should be WAY down the priority list, especially since hills provide those precious hammers.