Does the AI just suck on maps with more water on them?

[Swein Forkbeard]

I would really like to ask this question. I just now finished my first game of Civ4 since May, with a Diplomatic Victory in 1904. However, I was surprised by how easy it was. To give the assets:

Map Script: Fractal (turned out to be a map with four continents)
Civilization: Sumeria
Difficulty Level: Noble

All of my completed games have been on Noble aside from the one I finished back in May (which was on Prince), and yet somehow this felt way too easy, much easier than any of my previous games on Noble despite this being my first time back in a while. I'm honestly puzzled. Is the AI just weaker on continental maps?

On a side note: how do you view screenshots and upload a save without actually going into the game?

 

[Ataxerxes]

The AI is generally weaker on watery maps. Intercontinental invasions aren't the AI's strong point. Also, on Noble you can probably get to Optics first and meet AI's on other continents before your neighbors do. I don't think the AI prioritizes optics more on a water map but the human does.

 

[huh?]

Also, the AI tends to take the most direct route to the target. It is easy to set up sentry ships to watch for an invasion.

 

[Archon_Wing]

This is usually why I prefer Pangea/Terra, so AIs have a better chance of attacking me. The AI also sends transports unescorted; it wastes its time bombarding cities it has no intention of attacking, while its invasion force attacks some other random target and inevitably gets picked off, if the transports somehow survive. Its landing parties seem picked out of a hat. I have also never seen the AI build carriers; I did see an enemy privateer once though.

Well, there are exceptions as apparently the AI can and will use nukes...

In a recent game I played, I was screwing around on continents on Noble and founded 4 religions (libbed Divine Right lol) and the other continent had stupid Mansa (bastard) and Mehmed peacevassaling to Napoleon; with Zara alone. Naturally, my own tech and armies were a bit behind so I decide to build manhattan to surprise them but when I had a good amount of nukes built up I noticed they all had massive nuke stockpiles (they usually don't on Noble-- they went to war against Zara and started firing them all at each other!) I was actually scared to attack them until SDI. Mehmed renounces and I take the opportunity to cap him; despite the nuclear war that took place he still manages to fire a bunch of ICBMs at me even though he's just a former peace vassal lackey; if I didn't build SDI my cities would have been toast; if Nappy had DOW'd earlier, I would have probably been reeling. Global warming was awful especially when I fired back at Memhed.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

No one attacked me though! Something else must be to blame!

And...what about my side question?

BTW next game I'm playing will be a Pangaea OCC, since someone at GameFAQs suggested the idea.

I think this game is actually my second earliest victory, with my earliest being in 1896.

 

[Ataxerxes]

It's not surprising a Continents game would be more peaceful. First, you don't get any demerits for close borders unless someone is on your continent (in which case you might have a shared religion). Second, all AI's except Sitting Bull consider the distance from their opponent when deciding to go to war. None at all is a little surprising, but I'd expect fewer wars on Continents.

I normally don't start as many wars on a continents map myself. Clear the continent and rely primarily on my navy after that. It makes the game easier as long as you have enough room on your continent. Because for an intercontinental invasion you not only need a sufficient army to take over cities but enough of a navy to transport them and forces to protect the transports.

Not sure about the side question.

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Direct uploading is borked at the moment, so if you want to put something here open up an account at a site like Photobucket, or use dropbox, for pics and an account like MediaFire for saves, and post direct links.

To open a save you'll need to open the game, but if you just want to look at screenshots then the normal path (Vista or 7) is C:\Users\Brian\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\ScreenShots (substituting the name of your profile for mine naturally) they'll be saved as jpgs, so any photo viewing/editing software should open them.

And general consensus here is that water heavy maps are effectively 2 levels lower than as advertised, due to the reasons stated above, though privateers are fairly common (if not used even close to properly), and the fact that AIs city placement (as far as I can see) algorhithm is somewhat borked by the resource and hammer poor lands.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

This is usually why I prefer Pangea/Terra, so AIs have a better chance of attacking me. ...

...In a recent game I played, I was screwing around on continents on Noble and founded 4 religions (libbed Divine Right lol) ...

Founding 4 religions and libbing Divine Right?

IMO, continents and island maps are much harder than Pangaea since the cities are usually not as good and it's harder to expand without paying a lot of maintenance.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Founding 4 religions and libbing Divine Right?

Yes, for comedic reasons. But hey Versailles is a cool wonder.

 

[Ataxerxes]

IMO, continents and island maps are much harder than Pangaea since the cities are usually not as good and it's harder to expand without paying a lot of maintenance.

I agree with Brian, the continents and island maps are harder. However, your points are good and the tech rate will be much lower for everybody. I would say that your chances of losing are less on water maps but your victories will be later.

A human advantage is prioritizing the Great Lighthouse and going for Optics earlier. The human will be weaker than on a normal map at a given point in time, but the AI will be still further behind.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Yes, for comedic reasons. But hey Versailles is a cool wonder.

Versailles is useless if you go State Property.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

I agree with Brian, the continents and island maps are harder. However, your points are good and the tech rate will be much lower for everybody. I would say that your chances of losing are less on water maps but your victories will be later.

A human advantage is prioritizing the Great Lighthouse and going for Optics earlier. The human will be weaker than on a normal map at a given point in time, but the AI will be still further behind.

I don't know about that. My experience is that my relative tech rate w.r.t. to the A.I. is lower on island maps, since lower resource and higher maintenance conditions tend to favour A.I.'s more.

I am also not very confident about relying on wonders either. My experience is that some A.I.'s tend to get GLH quite quickly.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Versailles is useless if you go State Property.

Sure, but what does that have to do with anything? Many wonders can be useless in different situations.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

"Your victories will be later"

Clearly not for me! This is my second earliest victory, and the only earlier one was on a two-continent map!

 

[Danelius90]

Sure, but what does that have to do with anything? Many wonders can be useless in different situations.

GLH on a highlands map with no wrap (i think it was, there was a small patch of water in the bottom right, I was the only person who could build it )
state property is a good civic though, for + and if you're conquering on a water map good to keep maintenance down.
you may do what you wish but libbing DR is certainly less than ideal

 

[Archon_Wing]

I am well aware that it is a bad idea, that's why I refer to that game as "screwing around" I didn't even know you could go to lib through Theology.

It was so funny that the tech list was so messed up it was the best tech I could take. >.>

Incidentally, in the majority of games, I never even manage to build Versailles because Divine Right is so stupidly overpriced, not to mention the AI loves it too much. And by the time they are willing to trade it to me, the tech is completely useless.

And yes, I am well aware of the power of SP since I end up using it the majority of games.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Sure, but what does that have to do with anything? Many wonders can be useless in different situations.

It's useful if you are going FM + corporations, but SP's generally the better choice (IMO) since it instantly:
1. Removes a large chunk of your maintenance
2. Provides a large buff to watermills and workshop
3. Increases hammer by 10%

At the same time, Versailles comes very late. If an A.I. techs Divine Right first, it will very often get it before you. If you tech Divine Right first and build the wonder, chances are it's going to slow you substantially to the path to corporations or SP.

For corporations, I'd probably lib Nationalism, Steel, or Railroad, and get Taj Majal. For State Property, I'd lib Scientific Methods or Communism and get University of Sankore.

Edit:
I didn't notice you were screwing around. Forget what I said.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

"Your victories will be later"

Clearly not for me! This is my second earliest victory, and the only earlier one was on a two-continent map!

Law of large numbers

 

[Archon_Wing]

It's useful if you are going FM + corporations, but SP's generally the better choice (IMO) since it instantly:
1. Removes a large chunk of your maintenance
2. Provides a large buff to watermills and workshop
3. Increases hammer by 10%

Yep, The biggest strength of SP is that there's no effort required besides researching the appropriate tech. A lot of the time, it feels that corps come when you're already winning, besides maybe Mining Inc.

If you're conquering the other continents then there's no doubt SP is just far easier to deal with unless you feel like airlifting those executives over. Also, many a rival will use SP themselves, making corp spread even harder. Unless you can afford environmentalism-- then you can severely cripple people with the UN by forcing it on them and invading them with your corporations.

At the same time, Versailles comes very late. If an A.I. techs Divine Right first, it will very often get it before you. If you tech Divine Right first and build the wonder, chances are it's going to slow you substantially to the path to corporations or SP.

So most of the time, I'm probably only going to get it when I conquer it.