First OCC

[TimTheEnchanter]

I started my first OCC game last night but the AI hates me no matter what I give them. I can give them every tech I have and within two turns they are hostile again. I don't have much more to give them. I didn't have any caravans to build Newton, so I didn't want to give up Theory of Gravity and the bloody Brits declared war on me. Next turn I gave it to them and we made peace, but now they have EVERY tech I have researched.

Is this normal? I gave about 6-8 techs to the Spanish to make them all happy, then I asked for a gift from my "worshipful" spanish allies they called me greedy and they ended our "worthless" alliance. Where's all this cash I'm supposed to be getting?

Can anyone tell me if any or all of the following factors might cause this problem.

1) I am using MGE (Out of the box - no patches)
2) I started on an island and didn't send out a ship until I was sure I got Copernicus. My sheild rate in my city is low, so I was afraid I might miss out on it if I spent sheilds building a ship and dips. I realize that was probably a mistake, but it was quite late before I made ANY contact. Maybe if you don't catch them early, they are just predisposed to hate you?
3) The first two civs I met (spanish, zulu) were at war when I met them. I was able to get the spanish to worshipful, allied and get their maps when I first met them, but once I met the zulus they both kept asking me to declare war on the other. Now they are at peace but neither of them seem to like me.

Any thoughts?

 

[Sodak]

In MGE, the AI is much more aggressive. Sometimes they won't like you all game long, no matter what happens. It isn't all that infrequent, really.

Early contact is also a factor. That is when you can really gain from trading or gifting techs. Don't just give tech to everybody, give it to your key civ. (The white civ, I presume you are "pathetic" in the power ratings).

 

[duke o' york]

Is this on Deity?
I'm playing my OCC on King, as I'm fairly competent on Emperor but wanted to ease my way into the world of OCC. You simply have to build Shakespeare's Theatre by the way. Then you can forget about happiness and pile all your resources into tech. I found that the research was really slow until I had all 3 of the SSC wonders, and that other civs would have techs I didn't, but once I had all three and changed to a Democracy they went down to one every 4 turns. It's a little bit slow and frustrating in the middle, when other civs are racing ahead in tech, and grabbing wonders you are used to having, but you can catch up very easily. You don't need to bother researching Monotheism for example, as it's a dead end tech as far as OCC is concerned.
Good luck!

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

A couple civs have gotten wiped out, so I don't know who my key civ is . The last time i checked I was not pathetic. Rome is a Barb city. The Celts popped up and attacked the spanish, but I haven't found where they came from. The vikings are also out in the great unknown somewhere.

I am learning a lot from this. The way things are going, I doubt I can survive the end game. I don't have nearly enough shield production. Someone is just going to get mad at me and kill my chariot eventually. But next time will be better!

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Not that anyone really cares, but I WON!

Shortly after my last post, things kicked into overdrive.

I got Newton and finally delivered my caravans (having recently discovered the other civs. This gave a huge science production boost (and some nice operating cash). From that point on I started pulling away.

Shortly after the science boost, I got a production boost with a factory and power plant. (and later miniaturization and mftg. plant) I only had a few roaded trade squares (lots of ocean) so I did not make superhighways a priority...I did not realize they also gave a big boost to the value of trade routes. I should have gone for it sooner. But even with superhighways I never got better than 1 discovery every 3 turns. I stopped trying to gift or trade techs because everyone was so damn hostile and kept asking me to declare war on their sworn enemy-du-jour. It just wasn't worth it. Plus it turns out I was my own Key Civ for most of the game (I spent most of the later game as "Strong" and I was Cyan)

The other civs seemed locked in wars or ran out of space to grow because only the English seemed to progress much at all beyond the mid-game. By the end of the game they had some dangerous techs (could have built bombers, armor, cruise missiles or battleships, among others) but they never launched an attack against me. Nobody built Mahattan, so Nukes were luckily not in play, although I built SDI right after launch just in case!

I launched in 1927, landed in '42. Certainly nothing spectacular, but I'll take it for a first try.

Now if someone can just tell me how to get gifts from my Allies!

(d o'Y: Yes I used Paul's basic OCC guidelines - Deity, Raging Hordes, 7 Civs. It was on a normal map. In this type of game, Deity really doesn't matter much. Just means you need 3 garrison early (warriors or hut-NONE units), and a temple (or in my case one elvis since I was still working on the Colossus) when you hit size 5. Around that time you hit Republican growth, but you're so Trade-centric that you need just a few extra luxuries to get you through to the all-important Shakespeare's Theatre!)