Do computer enemies have infinite ressources?

[Hawkin]

Hi there!

I'd like to know if the other civilizations in a single player game have the same chances as me at every level of difficulty.

I mean, is trade, food, etc the same? Do they only get the amount of money they could really get? Or do they have an unfair advantage to increase difficulty?

I know it from Empire Earth (1) where the computer enemies have infinite ressources :S

 

[Prof. Garfield]

The computer doesn't have infinite resources, but it does still "cheat." It gets different rules for a couple units (for example, AI triremes never sink, and it can launch missiles from any city or submarine it likes, regardless of where they are actually located) and receives some free gold and shields from time to time. These sorts of things serve as partial compensation for the fact that your opponents are computers and not people with brains.

While discussing special advantages, the human does get one by being warned about a wonder being "nearly complete" and thus getting a last chance to get the wonder before the computer.

Setting aside the "cheating" behavior, the comparison between the AI and the human depend on difficulty level. The AI doesn't get more skilled as levels increase (although I'm not sure that city bribing is as prevalent at lower levels), but instead the player will lose some advantages and the AI will gain some.

The most "even" level between the AI and the Human is King. On easier levels, the Human gets more default content citizens in his cities (and suffers less unhappiness for having large civilizations) while the AI must pay more shields for units and store more food for its cities to grow. At levels above King, the Human is penalized in happiness and the AI is given advantage in production and city growth. I'm pretty sure that technology cost also depends on playing level.

Additionally, on the lower levels, embassies are automatically created if negotiations go well and embassies tell you how many military units the nations have. Also, the number of turns in a game depends on playing level and on map size.

 

[Jokemaster]

Oh, and Barbarians attack at a lower strength on lower levels, while in Emperor and above they actually get an attack bonus. (defense is not affected)

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

I'm a beginner at Civ2 (but not to the series), Prof. Garfield explained AI advantages well, I have only some minor input.

The computer also knows where all civilizations, cities, units, resources etc is, but I'm not sure how much advantage this is for the computer. I don't think it takes advantage of this knowledge, maybe except in some situations.

In the case of nuclear war, I think the AI is often good at attacking cities without SDI defense, I think it's a bit too good to be just luck. A few times I've seen that the only city without SDI was nuked. But other times it's incredibly dumb and send several nukes to the same city which has SDI defense.

I'm not sure if it uses diplomats/spies to establish embassies, some civs in my game have embassies with all players, some civs have not established one embassy. I used the cheat mode and spawned AI diplomats near third party cities, but they never cared to establish embassy, they just moved the diplomat aimlessly around. For all I know it is possible that they make embassies without using diplomats. Two AI civs have made embassy with me, and I can't remember ever seen an AI diplomat or spy make contact.

In Civ1 the AI never built caravans and diplomats, it didn't have to build them. In Civ2 I have at least seen AI caravans.

 

[Hawkin]

I see I see that is what I thought, it's an old game after all. I am also not sure if the computer enemies really need a specific amount of shields to build and a specific amount of food to grow. It might just be "the wonder will be built in 30 rounds", no matter how many shield he has and so on.

At least now I know the reason why I couldn't destroy the russians in a long lasting game. Russia simply cheated getting more units each round than I could destroy (25 new vs 10 destroyed) AND like 1-2k more gold each round... But IIRC he at had at least the amount of cities for producing that 25 units.. else it would be even more crazy hax

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

I see I see that is what I thought, it's an old game after all. I am also not sure if the computer enemies really need a specific amount of shields to build and a specific amount of food to grow. It might just be "the wonder will be built in 30 rounds", no matter how many shield he has and so on.

AI cities do not grow randomly, they must have their food box filled. But how much food that is needed to fill the food box depend on the difficulty level. And I'm pretty sure that they do never receive free food. On easy difficulty, the AI food box need a lot more food to fill up than your box. On hard difficulty it is the opposite.

I don't believe that "the wonder will be built in X rounds". When it choses to build a wonder in a low production city, it takes too long time and the wonder is completed somewhere else.
I think that AI cities are occasionally given some shields, either for free or that civ has to pay gold for them. By spying on AI cities, I often find that the production increases more than the city's production. But I don't know if gold was paid for the extra shields or not. Maybe some shields are free and others not. The extra shields happen a bit too often for me to think that they are all free. I believe that the AI rush builds by paying gold at least sometimes. And it seems that it can rush a part of the build project without completing it. Some times it does a complete rush though.

I play on Prince difficulty, it's more or less neutral in regard to advantages.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

There is plenty of documentation that AI wonder production depends on the number of shields accumulated. Players have sabotaged Manhattan Project to prevent Nukes from being built since time immemorial; we would have found out long ago if production sabotage didn't work (which would be the case if the wonder were built in a fixed number of turns).

As for shield box, plenty of deity plus succession games have reported at least some wonders being built only a few turns after starting was announced. This is much rarer lower levels.

Also, I remember reading in some document that came with the game that one of the things they changed from Civ 1 was making wonders produced normally as opposed to being given away at random.

 

[Stroch]

I agree that the AI seems to know which cities have an SDI or not. To get around this I built "protectorate" cities within a few squares of my cities and the protectorates had SDI but the main cities did not. The AI, being AI, then dumps all his neuks at the large supposedly undefended city which continuously gets shot down by the SDI in the protectorate. Some protectorates can even cover 2 or 3 cities - extra good!

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

^ Good tip if it works. I'm gonna try that. I think SDI cover three squares in all directions.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

It does work. It's a well known trick usually called the "Nuke Trap." It is mentioned in the GOTM rules thread.