Diety AI do not respect game speed

[x2Madda]

probably effects other game speeds as well, not sure, but on diety the AI can produce settlers and other units in 10 turns regardless of game speed; I was playing Marathon speed at the time I noticed the AI with 2 cities AND a settler in just 10 turns. Sadly I was too slow to snipe the settler.

This of course breaks slower speed settings since you will never ever keep pace with the AI's ability to build cities.

 

[Exodite]

I haven't played on Deity as of yet (I generally stay on Prince because the AI bonuses at higher difficulties tend to break the normal pace of of development) but I only play Marathon speed games and I've suspected this being an issue for a while.

During one of my first test runs I ran into an AI Civ close by and they had at least 1 Scout, 2 Warriors and a Settler with their capital at 2 population (ie. it was never bigger than 3 pop.). This was around turn ~30-35 and their surroundings were generally quite poor in production. Which means it's really impossible, since a Scout takes ~20-25 turns to build on Marathon with a 1 pop capital and reasonable production.

Again, this was on Prince difficulty.

I haven't explicitly looked to verify this but it would go at least some way towards explaining why the AI likes to keep a wall of units 2-3 layers deep around their cities. That should still bankrupt the AI in short order though so I have no idea what's going on.

Anyway, the game fails horribly at game speed scaling (I've kept physical notes) and I intend to put up a post about those (and a few other odds and ends) in the not too distant future.

 

[King Jason]

If this is the case, I wonder if the reverse is also true - I've been feeling like the online speed makes for an easier game than a single player normal game.

 

[Exodite]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's hardwired for Standard game pace, as many other things are (XP exploration boosts, Tribal Village rewards etc). In that case you're basically getting double what you should at Online speed.

 

[TheDisco]

probably effects other game speeds as well, not sure, but on diety the AI can produce settlers and other units in 10 turns regardless of game speed; I was playing Marathon speed at the time I noticed the AI with 2 cities AND a settler in just 10 turns. Sadly I was too slow to snipe the settler.

This of course breaks slower speed settings since you will never ever keep pace with the AI's ability to build cities.

Well on diety the AI begins the game with 3 settlers. So having 2 cities and 1 settler on turn 10 seems correct.