Dang Ai Cheats Argh!!!

[Furry Spatula]

ok I'm at war with the babylonians. Them , Gemans, Indians, and Me the Egyptians are all on the same continent. Well i start pounding them and i realize that they dont have horses or iron yet they keep building knights and pikemen, saw one on a culture flip, but i didn't loose any troops, kept em outa the city.

But this is a warlord game. I go to the foreign minister screen and they dont have a land route with the Germans or Indians. Yet they can trade with everyone on the other continent, and were grrrr. So i take a look around and i dont see a single harbor on their cities, except for on in a land locked lake. I took that city and they still had their trades. I finaly got most of the ppl trading with them to make an alliance with me against them, or sign an MPP.

Now 1 of three things happened.

1) very unlikely - The AI doesn't need harbours to trade with other AI civs.

2) Who knows - could be a bug displaying harbor icons, kinda like the diplomacy bug that was around before.

3) Most likely - The AI ignores the cannot pass a waring civs boarders to connect roads and it was mostlikly using my harbor.

----*tip* you can use other civs harbors, i did this in another game to get a quick grab of saltpeter on a diff continent. Before my second city got its harbor up i already had aceses to my salt peter from an american harbor. ----

This kinda annoyed me. SOrry but i dont have a saved game or a screen shot as i dind't think of it at the time. BUt it seems that there is a display bug, or the AI cheats. Or there is an unwritten rule. You can smuggle contraband . So if The Americans are at war with the Brits, and the Brits have them surrounded, i can trade with the americans through a brit harbor but the americans cant trade with me. Just a thought, haven't tried it out, and i dont have anything to back that claim up .

Well thanks for help if you have any.

 

[hamster]

thats sucks. but yeah i noticed the same thing.
i was at war with the persians. before going attacking their capital, i did a "investigate city" espionage mission and noticed that they had furs, which were only supplied by the germans worldwide. needless to say, i tried cutting off land routes and harbors at surrounding cities, but to no avail. i think its just a bug.

 

[Selous]

tsk tsk ... everyone is always so fast to say it is a bug .... if a civ is trading with someone u are at war with and u are not at war with them, why shouldnt they be able to trade with them through your ports? u could always make a trade embargo against them? it is what they are in the game for... or if u are really pissed off u could goto war with the germans .... one mans bug is another mans feature

 

[DrJambo]

YEp, noticed the exact same thing... The trading system in civ3 is completley borked! Naval blockade doesn't work either, i have tried this many times...

I have been able to trade with a civ which had no harbor, nor any roads linking its capital to mine.. the only thing it could have been was its capital was located on the coast (albeit without a harbor). On the same continent as taht civ, another civ had a harbor and roads linking it to its capital and yet i couldn't establish a trade route at all!!! Bleurgh, totally random or totally fooked..

 

[DrJambo]

Here's the saved game to highlight what a shambles trading networks are...

Can someone explain why i am able to trade with the Romans and Germans but not the English?

Bet ya can't

 

[Shaitan]

Get new maps from the AI civs. Remember that anything covered by the Fog of War won't be updated on your world view. They could very easily have harbors and new road construction that you don't know about because your 'outdated' maps don't show it.

 

[Psychlone]

Furry, I can totally relate. I ran into a similar situation recently, discussed it in this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13590 .

The conclusion I have come to is that the AI doesn't need harbors to receive good by sea.

 

[zebomba]

Blockades and the like are very hard to perform, you need extensive knowledge and planning to use it.
Once airports are available, there's no easy way to blockade anyone.
They could be using roads and harbours of their neighbours, too hard to tell. Yup, that harbour on the other side of the continent.

About that savegame, the Romans have a coast route to your harbour, but not the English.
Since you modified the game rules, and mapmaking is giving you explorers, who knows if it doesn't screwed up the route to Germany? Got no money to buy all world maps, too.

 

[Moulton]

When I got steam power, I did the Ctl-Shift-M to scan for coal. Was relieved to find two sources. Then I scanned the maps I had just received from France and russia. No coal in France, 2 in Russia. Luxuries: only dyes in France, Only Furs in Russia.
Now I know why they are so eager t buy. I sell 2 to russia and 4 to france. But: they both have 8???? Investigated a city in Russia and France, to check Worder build status. Russia has 2 coals available. Ok. But when I arrive on her coast, one of the ones I saw has not been developed????
What's wrong with this picture?

 

[DrJambo]

Originally posted by zebomba
Blockades and the like are very hard to perform, you need extensive knowledge and planning to use it.
Once airports are available, there's no easy way to blockade anyone.
They could be using roads and harbours of their neighbours, too hard to tell. Yup, that harbour on the other side of the continent.

About that savegame, the Romans have a coast route to your harbour, but not the English.
Since you modified the game rules, and mapmaking is giving you explorers, who knows if it doesn't screwed up the route to Germany? Got no money to buy all world maps, too.

I have never manged to execute a blockade and believe you me, i have tried many many times!

I got Germany's territory map soon afterwards and hey presto...NO harbor. The Roman's on the other hand had indeed improved their road network to their ports and that explains their ability to trade with me. The Germans remain a mystery as to how they can trade with me, although they do have the Great Lighthouse (enables safe travel and therefore trade across sea squares), so that might explain it... they may well be using the English port as they don't have their own?! God knows!?

Would love to be able to perform a naval blockade...

 

[Furry Spatula]

ok i did a sucsessful blockade. or atleast i thought so. When i came by every town to destroy it i saw non with harbours. They couldn't trade with Germany or India, the only 2 other civs on my continent, as they didn't have an active trade or a potential on the foreign advisor screen

ALso, I cannot use another civs harbor if it crosses through my enemies territory, and i was the only person on the continent with a harbor boardering the ocean. So ... I have come to the conclusion there is a bug, such as not displaying harbors, or the AI cheats. it is hard to tell. Just another Civ 3 mistery that will remain unknown.

 

[Troyens]

OF COURSE THE AI CHEATS!!

There was a thread up yesterday about German GALLEYS sailing around in unexplored oceans. A frigate ran into one.
AI galleys are ocean-going.

There are all sorts of examples.

I could cover every water tile between the harbors of trading partners with privateers or subs and it would make NO DIFFERENCE for trade! At least in Civ II we had to deliver a caravan by ship to a foreign port.

The whole point of privateers and subs is to attack TRADE - a point obviously lost to Sid.


So many more examples of AI cheating.


Time for everyone to contact Firaxis about this and demand a REAL patch.

 

[zebomba]

Heh, why didn't you say it before. The Germans must be using a sea route bc of the modified map making...
If they had a road to the English, it enables them to use English ports, even if the harbours' owner can't.
The Romans had a coast route to your harbour.

Blockading is so hard that I simply invade them.
Privateers and subs should affect trade, but since it's a beta version ... Now I don't know how they would fix it.

Let the AI cheat. It still loses.

 

[damunzy]

Originally posted by Psychlone
Furry, I can totally relate. I ran into a similar situation recently, discussed it in this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13590 .

The conclusion I have come to is that the AI doesn't need harbors to receive good by sea.

I have been in a game before where the AI couldn't trade with me b/c they didn't have harbors so that statement isn't entirely true. Maybe the statement should be that the AI can't trade with the human player without Harbors but can with other AIs. Of course this is just speculation.

Please fix this game Firaxis. I have gone to play Star Trek : Birth of the Federation because it if more fun dealing with the problems in that game than this one.