Hey Civ V AI - EXPAND

[Doctor Phibes]

1806 now. I've a 12-ship navy, mainly ships of the line, could easily afford a bigger one but why bother, since (in my neck of the woods) I'm facing 4 triremes from various nations plus one US (of course) frigate. That last is a bit worrying to the RN considering how historically effective they were, so I have two men of war watching it

Seriously, this is a laugh but it's getting a bit silly. I'm looking forward to moving up a level, but I really think the only problem will be keeping everyone happy as my vast empire expands, it's an issue now...

 

[Bleser]

I'm looking forward to moving up a level, but I really think the only problem will be keeping everyone happy as my vast empire expands, it's an issue now...

Agreed, and this is what I fear the most. I just think at the higher difficulty they'll have more units they don't know how to use and I'll have more unhappiness.

 

[Doctor Phibes]

And even there it's not that dire. The only penalty for an unhappy empire is that it stops expanding, which actually just sets a limit until you fix the problem. There should be riots and people burning down buildings or refusing to work, like in other Civs and SMAC. I also like the idea of things getting so bad that your city declares independence (it's crying out for this, because it could become a city state) or maybe even joins another civ.

Guess it's a consequence of setting happiness as a Civ-wide thing, not for individual cities, but the game could pick a city - even more of them as the unhappiness increases.

Running out of money seems to be the ultimate thing to fret about, but I think that's more easily solved.

 

[Zenstrive]

Played pangaea on Prince. They expand and war a lot. In fact, Darius conquers the western part while i conquer the eastern part.

 

[Namaspamus]

I think devs tried to steer away from "grab as much land as you can and the guy with the most land will be the strongest" as it was in Civ4

Agree and it's a great thing if the AI can manage it wisely. Production was everything in Civ II, III and IV cause you had to cranck all the time and unit maintainance was ridiculously low. Now the size of your army depends a lot of your treasure.

But... I played only one game yet (prince, archipelago) and I really hope they'll scout and expand more in king level.

A lot of sometimes they get unstuck in medieval times which generally is to late. But I have seen a lot of growth around medieval times. So try to leave them alone and dont use it to your advantage.

As stated above its correct that the AI should not overbuild but only having 1 or 2 cities means certain death. Specially with huge happiness. The AI need production capacity and 1 city will not result in that.

In my game when some finally expanded they had not scouted enough before, and often missed the empty islands of abundance to settle in the toundra with nothing.

Maybe removal of tech trading took away a lot of the incentive for scouting, but if they plan to spread around 1200 they should at least build one early galley to choose the best spots on time (not talking about natural wonders, ruins, city-states gifts etc...) Strong early scouting should be better rewarded in some ways, even without founding lots of cities.

The only penalty for an unhappy empire is that it stops expanding, which actually just sets a limit until you fix the problem. There should be riots and people burning down buildings or refusing to work, like in other Civs and SMAC. I also like the idea of things getting so bad that your city declares independence (it's crying out for this, because it could become a city state) or maybe even joins another civ.

Guess it's a consequence of setting happiness as a Civ-wide thing, not for individual cities, but the game could pick a city - even more of them as the unhappiness increases.

Secessions are the most natural limit to expansion. They should not happen all of a sudden, an advisor would warn you several times that your cities are too many and distant. Some social policies could help to avoid them, allowing more cities before the risk appears.

And I miss the local riots so badly. Empire-wide happiness is very abstract (why founding colonies would make people unhappy?), fixing local problems felt much more real.

 

[Doctor Phibes]

Agree and it's a great thing if the AI can manage it wisely. Production was everything in Civ II, III and IV cause you had to cranck all the time and unit maintainance was ridiculously low. Now the size of your army depends a lot of your treasure.

But... I played only one game yet (prince, archipelago) and I really hope they'll scout and expand more in king level.


In my game when some finally expanded they had not scouted enough before, and often missed the empty islands of abundance to settle in the toundra with nothing.

Maybe removal of tech trading took away a lot of the incentive for scouting, but if they plan to spread around 1200 they should at least build one early galley to choose the best spots on time (not talking about natural wonders, ruins, city-states gifts etc...) Strong early scouting should be better rewarded in some ways, even without founding lots of cities.

Funny thing is that this is the downside to fixing something that people used to complain about all the time, that the AI knew without looking where all the resources were, even when they hadn't appeared yet, like Oil. But it's not a proper fix if they don't even look for them...

Secessions are the most natural limit to expansion. They should not happen all of a sudden, an advisor would warn you several times that your cities are too many and distant. Some social policies could help to avoid them, allowing more cities before the risk appears.

And I miss the local riots so badly. Empire-wide happiness is very abstract (why founding colonies would make people unhappy?), fixing local problems felt much more real.

Absolutely. And disintegrating empires just feels right - plenty of real world examples, Rome, China (several times in history) etc. Gives some satisfaction holding it all together, especially with huge empires.

 

[Palfouri]

I envy you. My last Siam game, Persia settled 4 cities in as many turns on my islands. Needless to say it meant some unnecessary razing when we went to war.

 

[Jellly]

In one of my games America expanded out very quickly and had 7 towns just before he got out of medieval :O