HELP: AI Tech Problem

[freestyler]

I know this has been talked about before, in the other forums but...Every time i play Civ3 i allways find myself way behind on technology.

I mean i aint that bad of a Civ player, but this happens ALL the time. I go to the diplomacy screen, check their current knowledge of tech, and there is a big list of 'em.

So i want to know, is there a way of tweaking something that will slow this down?

ps : I play

**Warlord
**English
**And lately 'checked' the civ-specific abilities to see if that would do something...i didnt

 

[MrBiggBoy]

stop playing english!! english are one of the WORST civs. personally, i choose persian, but you can choose.

P.S. I played Chieftain until I knew I could kill it EVERY game, no matter what, then moved to Warlord. Try it.

 

[hecose]

All the other civs always seem to be much more advanced than you are because they trade techs among themselves all the time. So you much do diplomacy very often to see when they have new techs. When you develop a new tech yourself, try to trade it for other techs. If you have the money, try to buy their techs.

I play on Regent (i.e. Normal level), and for the Ancient Age and the Middle Ages, I'm usually a little behind or about the same pace as the AI civs in terms of tech. Only in the early Industrial Age (or sometimes late Middle Ages) I pull ahead. (after having many cities and many libraries, universities etc, becoming a republic / democracy)

Try to be focused on a particular path when researching new techs, so that you can get the most advanced tech on that path. Then when you get it you can trade it with techs of other paths. You can leave behind some techs that you don't need urgently. Later when they become less expensive (i.e. when many others have it) you can trade/buy it cheaply from others, or research it quickly (4 turns).

 

[Alphidius]

freestyler:
You start with a scout, so try entering ALL and I mean ALL huts you can find. Churn out two more scouts to help you in your exploration.
Playing an Expansionist civ, the best way to gain techs is from huts and sometimes it's possible to trade your world map for a goody tech though you'll probably need to start on a huge Pangaea, in order to reap the benefits for exploration from your scouts. Hope this helps

 

[philippe]

or you can steal them with espionage

 

[freestyler]

Firstly, i allways play as the English, and lately i have 'checked' the "Civ-Specific abilities" so now i dont start with a Scout.

But that don't seem to be doing anything so il change it back, and i do trade techs with other civs but it seem that i have NO techs to trade, and little money (gold)

But i might as well give another Civ ago

So there is nothin that i could change to slow the AI discovery rate?

Nevermind Cheers anyway guys !

 

[sgrig]

My strategy is to set the science rate to 10% in the very beginning (because the research will take ages anyway), but save up quite a lot of cash. Then trade cash + techs from goody huts for more techs from your neighbours. Get the Great Library whatever the cost - this will make sure you at least keep up at the AI rate until mid-Middle Ages. Try to keep AI civs for as long as possible from knowing each other (ie don't sell contacts) so that you could be a tech broker - buy techs from one civs, sell it on to other civs, etc. This way a lot of money can be made especially by the end of Middle Ages and in the Industrial Age. This will enable you to set the the tax rate very low and the science rate very high, boosting your research and hence giving you more techs to trade - thus more money - higher research rate - even more techs.

When trading, keep in mind that a tech is worth more if fewer civs have it, so if you have a tech which no one else has, sell it first to the civ which offers the most for it.

If this strategy is followed then by mid-Industrial Age you should be far ahead of everyone in tech. Then you can earn extra money by 'releasing' a tech to everyone else at regular intervals (for example every 20 turns).

Another important aspect is to go Republic as soon as possible, because it boosts the amount of trade your cities generate and hence more science is produced.

This strategy worked very well for me upto Monarch level (in my current game I'm researching Stealth, while everyone else is still in Industrial Age!). I haven't played at Emperor or Deity yet...

 

[Matte979]

You can do a few things.

First youo can change the AI to AI ratio in the bic file lower it.
(its on the difficulty level) maybe not down to 100 but maybe
110.

You can also lower the amount of free units they get per city
that will slow them down as they have to pay for them.

Change the minmium time to discover a tech. to 6 or 8.

Decrease tech rate by raising the map tech factor.
(Will give you more time to catch up and trade for tech)

Gam etips.
Build librarys fast and marketplaces also get the cities up to
12 people as fast as possible. YOU MUST build Great library.
Do not spend any money on science until the great library is
obsolete spend the money on developing your civ.

I did these changes and the changes in my play was dramatic on
emperor.

Now all the computer civs do not have the same tech. I can keep up but still big civs can get ahead of me sometimes.

I only I could tweak so you can trade tech with a computer player without paying an arm and a leg for it. Or atleast have the same
cost for AI to AI trade 100% is still better than the humans 60% or something.

Good Luck
/Mathias

 

[freestyler]

My strategy is to set the science rate to 10% in the very beginning (because the research will take ages anyway), but save up quite a lot of cash. Then trade cash + techs from goody huts for more techs from your neighbours. Get the Great Library whatever the cost - this will make sure you at least keep up at the AI rate until mid-Middle Ages. Try to keep AI civs for as long as possible from knowing each other (ie don't sell contacts) so that you could be a tech broker - buy techs from one civs, sell it on to other civs, etc. This way a lot of money can be made especially by the end of Middle Ages and in the Industrial Age. This will enable you to set the the tax rate very low and the science rate very high, boosting your research and hence giving you more techs to trade - thus more money - higher research rate - even more techs.

This stratagy sounds kinda interesting....I'll try it

 

[Sullla]

Originally posted by Matte979
First youo can change the AI to AI ratio in the bic file lower it.
(its on the difficulty level) maybe not down to 100 but maybe
110.

You can also lower the amount of free units they get per city
that will slow them down as they have to pay for them.

Change the minmium time to discover a tech. to 6 or 8.

Decrease tech rate by raising the map tech factor.
(Will give you more time to catch up and trade for tech)

I did these changes and the changes in my play was dramatic on
emperor.

Hmm... with those changes, you are NOT playing on emperor anymore! Instead of modding the game, I would suggest trying to learn how to play more strategically; one important thing is to learn to do without the Great Library. It really isn't necessary at all, and except on tiny maps the time that you spend building it would be far better spent building settlers, workers, military units, improvements, etc.