Deity AI acting like Chiefton ones

[winterwatchers]

I picked up Civ again recently. I am not sure if something is up with the game or something but in Emperor/Deity level games, the AI does things slowly. It doesn't build that many cities, it builds alot very fast at first, but when they reach roughly 10 cities, their expansion seems to stop completely and no more city building at least until much later after the industrial tech.

Their science is also slow, there are a couple of games where they didn't even discover industrial tech until mid 1700s. I find myself giving them tech just so they can look less pathetic.

Also I rarely find AIs improving the land, specifically not building any roads. Now there are a couple of Civs like Egyptians who do improve their land but they also have few cities.

I went into cheat mode a few times to see what was going on and it seems like the AI is stuck in a horrible loop where they constantly build units even though their shield production is low while they should be concentrating on city improvements. When they do build city improvements, because their production is low they take forever and often times they quit midway to switch to building units. I rarely find cities above size 8!

They only seem to function well after they become Fundis, but when that happens I am already in the process of building spaceships. and I don't like Fundi because it is not good for my trade routes.

I have a few hunches. It might have something to do with the maps, since each starting continent can only fit 16 or so cities, but that still leave a lot of land unsettled by the AI and I usually build a couple of outpost cities on their home turf. I remember old games on large land mass where the AI is much better. Does anyone else experience this or am I just getting too good

 

[Prof. Garfield]

With possibly a few minor exceptions (such as, I think, city bribes), I don't think the AI actually gets "smarter" as levels increase; instead the production box gets smaller, allong with the food box, and human happiness issues increase, allong with science cost.

A large landmass would very likely improve AI chances, because they can trade techs more easily, because they will explore and contact one another.

 

[winterwatchers]

There are some civ that always seems to do well compared to others. For example the Japs are usually capable of overwhelming other AIs militarily without me putting them back in place. They are good enough that I alway make sure they are in play. The Carthaginians/Greeks are terrible most of the time, The Egyptians develop their cites and land, just to list a few.

I checked the landmass thing, and it seems that AI really build up if there is a huge blob of land to settle on especially if its just grassland and few hills. I think I will go with custom maps from now on. AI is simply not ocean friendly.