Hi Civinator.
Before I forget, my game this time runs without issues at all (I had that bug with my game freezing if you remember). Currently I am approaching turn 400, and everything seems to be working fine
2 minor things that I have noticed:
a) Strangely, the AI ignores Arm's Race. They will build the X-Ray wonder, but not Arm's Race.
b) The AI seems to overemphasise planting forests. I have seen capitals stuck at size 14-15 because they had planted way too many forests.
a) Ray2, are you playing the public download version, where GWs are producing additional settlers?
b) As in normal Civ 3, on Sid Level in CCM, the additional starting settlers and workers are doubled compared to difficulty level deity.
I am playing the public download version.
In CCM the AI on Sid starts with 4 settlers, compared to the two for the human player, which is similar to the original game. However, in CCM, after 30 turns the human player will still have 2 cities less than the AI. In the original game he will have 1/4 of their cities, or even less. After 60 turns he will not have any land to settle because the AI will have filled everything.
And those SID-production additional cities for the AI, make a
huge difference to the difficulty of the game.
These are all features, that have no additional negative influence on the AI compared to normal Civ 3 as there is no wrong programming routine in these features (as it is with the spoiled Civ 3 landartillery routine). That HI generally handles gameplay better than the current AI is no special problem of CCM.
By AI I refer only to the computer-controlled civs. I am not talking about tactical/strategic behaviour.
CCM did not make the AI worse obviously. The new added features however (most of which I like), have made the game easier, in my opinion.
May be contact trading can be a help for the AI, but it was taken out in CCM, as it is really no fun in game (at least not for me). I like to explore the world with ships and not to build one (or two) ships and receive nearly the whole world as a present when they meet a civ on another continent. The part of actively discovering the world -instead of passively receiving the world by information trading without ever beeing there- in my eyes is one of the parts in CCM that I like the best. If you want that contact trading you can simply activate it by a click in the editor.
I understand your reasoning for the decision to take out contacts trading. But this is another change that made the game easier.
For example, no contacts trading means that civs in huge maps will never get to know each other and trade. Most of the times I catch-up in techs is after contacting first the other continent (the AI will not bother) and trading with the richest civs there. In the original game you would have one super rich civ (the tech leader) and no possibility to take advantage of the situation I described.
In AW, contacts trading can cost the game for the human player (imagine 10 new contacts, in your continent, sending their initial stacks to you at the same time
).
Ray2, have you seen, that the last LK sucession game was lost?
I have seen that. They decided to restart because they had lost one (?) city to enslavers, which is very frustrating. I am convinced that if they decide to continue that game they can win it eventually.
Obviously the AI can still win if you play an extreme variant, but that was not my point.
My point was that in the original game you can lose by culture, diplomacy, and spaceship, or even domination. In CCM obviously culture and diplomacy are out, a spaceship victory is impossible for the AI (even on Sid), and their only option is to 'win' is by victory points (?) or if the human player decides to abandon the game.
In CCM you will never see a power-house civ like the ones you can see in the original game. Auto-produced settlers and the lack of alliances keep all the civs balanced throughout the game. In the original, I have seen civs getting close to the Domination limit, something that can never happen in CCM.
Additionally to the facts discussed above (landartillery, armies) you have forgotten to list, that the HI favouring (and boring) ICS tactics in CCM isn´t possible and that CCM contains HN landunits that allow AI civs to capture cities of other civs without declaring war, what is not possible for HI civs. So, even when taking into account, that the HI handles supplyshipments better than the AI, I don´t agree to your statement, that CCM is much easier than the original Civ 3.
I agree. Those are features that can add to the difficulty, but overall, in my opinion CCM is much easier compared to the original game. I am not complaining though. There are always ways to make the game more difficult (e.g. playing variants). CCM is a great mod, and I am playing it because I like it.
