Help a newbie ;)

[deanx0r]

First of, I would like to say "HI" to this community, I just bought the game a week ago and some obscur reason didn't realize that I will be playing it until dawn.

I have a few questions that tickle me off :/

First, in the game, a window will pop up telling me that I have mastered techs that I wasn't searching. I was playing with the French, have the Great Library but already searched for the education which renders the Great Library obsolete, it happened quite a few times during the middle age and the industrial age. I've asked a few people on IRC and someone told me it is due to a bonus for being the first to complete a tree or find a specific tech, is this true or can it just be a bug or some feature I didn't know.

The other question regards the AI. Can the AI be cheating? I was always frustrated to see how fast the AI is actually spreading all over the map, last game I played, I started right beside the Germans, and started to build a settler after two warrior, which usually takes more than 12 turns (2 warriors + settler). Have just finish the second warrior and started to explore the map, the Germans already built 2 extra towns... WTH? is it just me (yes the newbie :/) or the AI is actually cheating?

[edit]
Oh yeah, do SAM sites and air interceptors work for you?, I've been massively bombarded in a game despite the bunch of interceptors made as well as SAM city improvements :/
[/edit]

Thx in advance

 

[cephyn]

For the tech thing, did you just build something like Theory of Evolution? Because that will give you a pair of free techs. Otherwise, Ive not encountered your problem -- and I play as French a lot. There must be something else going on there...The only bonuses i know of are for Scientific Civs -- they get a free tech upon reaching each age -- but French aren't scientific, so that can't be it either...

What difficulty are you playing on? I can outexpand the AI on chieftan and warlord, and am about even on Regent. It takes practice and a concerted effort to expand as rapidly as the AI, i agree. On monarch, emperor and deity the AI does get extra settlers. It is incredibly unlikely to ever out-expand the AI on those levels.

As for your SAM/fighter problem, sounds like you haven't patched your game. In the initial release, those features were bugged and didn't work. They've since been fixed.

IMO the patches are essential to the Civ experience.

 

[Mr Spice]

My first advice to you is to download the patch. This will fix your problems with air interception.

Civs with the science-trait get one free tech at the beginning of each new era.

AI cheating? Poor boy, did you just walk into a mine-field here or what? I hope this thread of yours does not turn into yet another flame war.

Yes, the AI get some bonuses at certain levels (above Prince), like more starting units and higher production and research rate. This is a handicap for the computer, to make the game harder.

 

[Mr Spice]

Damn, Cephyn beat me to it! It can´t have been by many seconds though.

 

[sealman]

AI could have picked up a few settlers from the Goody huts.

 

[Clubber]

A.I. Cheating ????
Just be glad you don't play poker with it !!!

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by sealman
AI could have picked up a few settlers from the Goody huts.

Possibly, but I remember the first few times I played the game. I was absolutely convinced that the AI had to cheat to expand that quickly. The AI built nothing but settlers and escorts early on, while the human would often pause to build temples and such. The AI does not expand as quickly since the first patch, and I think this is because the build priorities have changed, so that the AI will build city improvements early on, rather than only units and settlers.

 

[deanx0r]

Thx for the replies

Yes I was expecting the SAM/Air interception to be a bug (as well as having coastal cities building privateers for no reason), that why I am downloading the lastest patch now.

Regarding those free techs I received, no I didn't have the Theory of Evolution, it happened like that in a few games when I wasn't playing with a scientific civ, and it has been very bothering me since I didn't know the reason to reproduce it (but based on your comment, it was probably a glitch).

AI cheating? Poor boy, did you just walk into a mine-field here or what? I hope this thread of yours does not turn into yet another flame war.

So is he cheating?... I dont mind him being a Napoleon of stratege, but being unfair would be pretty lame :/
Sealman, you may be right, but in many occasion when I was sieging probably the last city of a civ, they somehow manage to build 3 or 4 ones of new one right in my back, on a zone I already razed left in the "fog of war". They mught be reproducing like rabbits, but it's been bothering me to see the AI making 5 settlers in a record time of a 1 or 2 turns with only 2 or 3 cities left and manage to spread them way away from the battle.:/ Just one of those things... I just want to make sure it is fair

 

[cephyn]

The AI only gets bonuses ABOVE (not at) the Prince/Regent level (its the same level AFAIK)

Ive known the AI to rush produce settlers (which allows them to produce faster than you, since its unlikely you rush as hardcore as them) AND later in the game the AI i've seen stockpile settlers. Ive taken to this strategy, especially when entering a war on my own continent -- stockpile 5 or so settlers, or whatever, and the raze cities i'd have trouble keeping if i conquered them, then *plop* throw my own settler down on the spot. Ive found it works quite well.

 

[BabylImmortal]

The only real sticking point that I have w/ the AI is how it cheats to survive when you have their last city cornered. I cannot tell you how many times early on in a game I have a civ surrounded, when I take the last city, only to have another city pop up way the hell on the other side of the globe, across an ocean, before anyone has researched mapmaking!!

I know I'm not the first to report this, but what did the AI do? Swim!??

 

[cephyn]

Originally posted by BabylImmortal
The only real sticking point that I have w/ the AI is how it cheats to survive when you have their last city cornered. I cannot tell you how many times early on in a game I have a civ surrounded, when I take the last city, only to have another city pop up way the hell on the other side of the globe, across an ocean, before anyone has researched mapmaking!!

I know I'm not the first to report this, but what did the AI do? Swim!??

its respawning, and IIRC, you can turn it off.