The AI is not exempt from the happiness system. You are helping them to hit more frequent golden ages.
or spam cities like this with no consequence
I can understand the argument against selling luxuries. I have seen a lot of the "good" players sell luxuries for a lump sum of gold and then DOW to take the luxury back effectively stealing gold from the AI. I have also seen a lot of write ups about how to game the research agreement game mechanic at higher levels. To me, handicapping the AI at higher levels is supposed to help the AI to succeed, not create a way for the player to exploit that handicap for their advantage. At Prince and below, you can't take advantage of trading luxuries for gold because the AI often doesn't have any spare gold to trade. The AI seems broken in that they have this surplus happiness and gold at higher difficulty settings, but don't seem to know what to do with it. Ideally, a Deity level AI would have about 0 gold, 0 happiness, several cities which have purchased every infrastructure upgrade, and an army which the player couldn't possibly imagine building up that quickly in the game because they have effectively used their handicap bonuses. Instead we have an AI which starts with extra units and gets free buildings when settling, but sits on a surplus gold which they are happy to give away to the player.
/rant
On higher levels, I always see the AI sitting on a huge pile of cash and not spending it (whether it be on buildings, unit upgrades, or more units). I'm not saying that the AI should not trade on higher levels, I'm saying that the game could be better if the AI effectively spent the extra cash they get and could evaluate whether buying an extra luxury (when they already have very high happiness) is better than upgrading 3 units and DOW the player to take the luxury instead! Progress should be more difficult for the player at higher levels, but I find that being able to game the extra gold away from the AI makes it easier than it probably should be.So...you want a Deity AI that will never buy anything important because it won't save gold at all?
This is already part of why you see the AI not upgrading units until well after they've researched the tech. City-states do so ASAP because they don't have anything else to do, but major civs will spend the gold on dumb stuff instead of upgrading their Muskets to Rifles or something. They don't know what to do with their gold, but not in the way you think.
On higher levels, I always see the AI sitting on a huge pile of cash and not spending it (whether it be on buildings, unit upgrades, or more units). I'm not saying that the AI should not trade on higher levels, I'm saying that the game could be better if the AI effectively spent the extra cash they get and could evaluate whether buying an extra luxury (when they already have very high happiness) is better than upgrading 3 units and DOW the player to take the luxury instead! Progress should be more difficult for the player at higher levels, but I find that being able to game the extra gold away from the AI makes it easier than it probably should be.
You're selling the luxury because you don't need it. Why is it reasonable that the AI, who almost certainly has more happiness than you already, will pay enough for a few points of happiness to halfway finance your next settler?
For human player, because extra happiness means you could settle additional cities but for some (not good) reason haven't. Since AI has no happiness limit, it expands anyways. GA or nor GA.The common wisdom I hear espoused here at Civfan time and again is that, optimally, players should strive to have happiness as close to 0 as possible. So apparently, the benefits of golden ages just don't compare to the benefits growing your civ as wide and/or tall as you can get away with.
It's not a secret that milking AI doesn't work on lower levels, unless you're constantly trading and DoWing. You get pennies every time but they add up eventually. However, this tactic, although seems like is gaining more popularity, is not that common. At least from the impression I get, there are more people that find it cheesy and try to avoid it than those who use it regularly. Those who do use it, mostly compete in GotM's/HoF trying to achieve the earliest finish possible. If you don't trade and DoW, you'll end up hard building almost everything before you get markets and trade routes online. 4 cities Tradition + 6 CB's on turn 60 at Prince - good luck with that.Or so I'm told by folks who look at Emperor as an easy setting, and tout Immortal and Deity as the only real challenges. Apparently, all the cheats in the world can't beat their sure-fire strategy for out-teching all the AI civ's. I just have to shrug and take their word for it. I would only describe myself as an intermediate-level player. playing civ more like an ant farm than a ruthless race to victory. Exploration and experimentation are the fun part of the game for me.
They buy more outdated units and then can't upgrade anything.They don't know what to do with their gold, but not in the way you think.
Lol. Yeah, thankfully, we've come a long way since then.The days of Vanilla where you got insane peace deals like this.
Yes. In fact, the times I settle on turn 0 is probably less than 10%. Usually it's turn 1, sometimes 2-3, and occasionally even 4 if there is absolutely amazing location I can't pass by. This map... well, I have nothing to say...A lot of you guys are speaking as if I should have settled my capital elsewhere. Is it regular practice for you guys to actually not settle on turn 1? Seems like every turn is precious at that stage.
This is a map you throw your computer away if you roll it. Apparently, it's shuffle. Now I know to keep the distance from it.Wow, this is a map where you do NOT settle in place. (I'd have rerolled in a hurry; why are there no luxs? Custom settings?)