Does the AI have a financial advantage

[Thalassicus]

It's true, the AI gets a free bonus cow level*erm* resource... that puts them ahead. They typically equip them with bazookas.

The GNP score graphs are the most reliable way of estimating your economic standing in the game.

 

[naf4ever]

The AI has no advantage. But it does get a free bonus cow resource which is what makes it difficult sometimes.

Ok, sorry, maybe a bit harsh there. I thought that you were actually joking a bit.

Start 10 games and open the world builder after starting each. Only a few AI opponents will have a starting cow resource, sometimes you will start with a cow resource. I can post a number of AI starting positions without a cow resource, if you wish.

Note that the quality of the starting positions is actually linked to the difficulty level at which you're playing. But that doesn't mean that the AI always gets a cow resource at deity level.

As Roland Johansen said, this is completely wrong. The quality of the starts does vary to some extent with difficulty level, but is still highly variable and no civ, AI or not, is ever guaranteed any particular resource.

I see my my joking sarcasm has again fallen victim to seriousness

 

[Sparta]

Speaking of the GNP score graph, could anyone please clue me in on how that is calculated differently than the GNP figure in the demographics screen? I've had times following rapid expansions where the former still looked good, but the latter had fallen to abysmal levels. Is the demographics figure somehow deducting upkeep or something?

 

[Thalassicus]

I see my my joking sarcasm has again fallen victim to seriousness

I surely hope my bazooka-weilding cow remark wasn't taken as seriousness. Otherwise, I might be concerned about our world's interpretation of armed combat

 

[MrCynical]

I see my my joking sarcasm has again fallen victim to seriousness

Could have used an appropriate smily or needed to be a lot more ludicrous. I've seen plenty of far more silly and inaccurate (but serious) comments about the AI on these forums. As it what there was little to indicate it was intended to be sarcastic (other than the fact it was wrong). Even if I'd realised in any case I'd still have pointed it out, in case other people assumed it was true.

Bazooka wielding cows are ludicrous enough that I can safely assume it's sarcasm,