New AI: Anybody winning on Emperor?

[pigswill]

Be nice if this thread didn't burst into flames, not that I have anything to add to playing at emperor level. I'm still struggling at monarch.

 

[acidsatyr]

i have to say everything is as before, in fact, now ai seems to make some rather strange choices when settling a new city, like on a resource, even though its clearly better to settle next to it. Emperor is still ridiculously easy, immortal more or less same story. didn’t tried deity yet with new patch

 

[Jorunkun]

i have to say everything is as before, in fact, now ai seems to make some rather strange choices when settling a new city, like on a resource, even though its clearly better to settle next to it. Emperor is still ridiculously easy, immortal more or less same story. didn’t tried deity yet with new patch

Do you really mean to say that you notice no difference in AI performance and difficulty between pre and post patch versions? If so, the only explanation I can come up with is that I am playing vanilla civ with CivDude's "unofficial patch" - although he wrote that it incorporates the same AI modifications from Blake as the official Warlords one.

I am 100% sure that the AI grows its cities faster, techs faster and keeps bigger armies than on the pre-patch version, and I am struggling to understand why this would not make the game harder to play.

The one hypothesis I have is that the critical point for the further course of game is the pre-LB rush. In my game today I managed one successfully and for the first time pulled even with the AIs. So, possibly, for those who routinely rush and warmonger, the game is not that different because their neighbours never get to outgrow them. Also, I believe a specialist economy is now much stronger than a cottage one in the early game, when lightbuilbing tech such as philosophy is pretty much your only shot at getting into the tech-trading game. Again, for those who always play philosophical leaders and spec economy, the differences may not be so pronounced.

 

[JLH Fans]

i have to say everything is as before, in fact, now ai seems to make some rather strange choices when settling a new city, like on a resource, even though its clearly better to settle next to it. Emperor is still ridiculously easy, immortal more or less same story. didn’t tried deity yet with new patch

I am agree with U that emperor is still very easy but an immortal?!
Ouch...
I tried 2 times and lost.
I canno win the tech race,I think I would have been a chance only with Philo leaders and Monty+Augustus Ceasar.

 

[acidsatyr]

well its not like i get anything for making this up...
yeah AI builds bigger cities, all nice and well. In reality, its still the same old style of play...
and yeah i do believe nothing beats philosophical trait, especially on immortal.

 

[Cadran]

Think you nailed it with that description, Jorunkun. Playing philosophical and launching a few early wars, emperor is still reasonably straightforward. As Aelf and others have mentioned in other threads around Blake's improvements, the only reasonable advantage you as a player have against the AI at this point is the ability to intelligently fight those wars.

You can look at it in terms of the AI's bonuses at emperor/immortal--from a builder perspective, the AI has significant bonuses on research time, build time, and so on, and now has the intelligence to at least be reasonably competent as a builder. In combat, while the AI is gradually getting better at wars, it doesn't have a free 40% win chance to slant the field in its favor.

 

[aelf]

You can look at it in terms of the AI's bonuses at emperor/immortal--from a builder perspective, the AI has significant bonuses on research time, build time, and so on, and now has the intelligence to at least be reasonably competent as a builder. In combat, while the AI is gradually getting better at wars, it doesn't have a free 40% win chance to slant the field in its favor.

This is an excellent point. However, as of v.208, the AI is still not as competent at war as it is at economic management, skewing the balance even further in favour of warmongering.

 

[druidravi]

Hmm my experiences so far with emperor suggests the ai likes getting big big cities even if those cities are unhappy ,unhealthy...good for conquering and whipping...the tech rate once u reach middle age is too fast...you have to get something like 30% or so extra value for trade...I cannot find even trades...You have to research the costliest tech possible and trade it to 2 ,3 leaders for medium techs...but too many times I start researching a tech to find an ai already researched it .

But however one big big advantage I have seen in keeping up with techs is vassals. When the ai vassals someone , the leader who is vassaled is very backward in tech, the ai gifts all techs possible that turn...Since the tech tree is not linear it means the vassal is given a monopoly tech while lacking other techs...Use this oppurtunity to get good techs. I am loving vassals these games.

Another thing the ai is starting to play like human in beginning wafer-thin army and concentrate on building, solution try a rush and take out atleast one ai pre-long bow another ai pre- gunpowder.try to get ur 26 exp unit in this war. After education the tech pace is so furious you try to war you will get held back up while other ai's speed up through the tech tree. This is mainly in continents.And the war too is tough as longbows get upgraded to rifles mg's infantry all in a quick succesion due to cheap upgrade cost while the human cant upgrade. Once gunpowder comes I stop warring till I get tanks then with heroic epic+west point + pentagon (rushed) + gg's joined you can get 17 xp tanks with us, free speech,emancipation and free relegion , ie..good tech pace and military.. usually by this time due to ai's crappy national wonder combos and investing huge amount of shields in spaceship etc you can afford to go on offensive while your cultural slider , mt rushmore , jails help you not fall behind in tech due to war weariness...however good luck destroying some idiot in another continent who builds spaceship..only possibility to counter...huge amount of micro in a massive inter-continental invasion or try space or culture yourself once you have your continent to yourself...

By the way another tip once you get us ..get oxford and wall street asp by pausing tech and then later rush all good wonders like statue of liberty , dam, kremlin etc... The patch basically has extended the game to modern era...usually games are over before modern era...now modern era uu's and ub's are very useful now...

 

[Paeanblack]

Self-esteem boost ?
I just wrote that I could win on emperor at least 8time from 10.
Of course,sometimes when my GG die with more than 80% chance,I use a lodagame,and I attack (and lose)with another unit.

The original poster is probably more curious to hear ideas that don't revolve around reloading games when bad things happen.

If you want a real challenge, try playing a game with an AI patch that lets the computer opponents reload a save at any time.

 

[godotnut]

I don't have time right now for a long post, but I just read through this thread, and I am dumbfounded that someone could claim that the AI is not improved now. There is no doubt whatsoever that the AI is much better. Don't trust anyone who says otherwise. This is simply objectively a fact, as anyone who checks out the XML code or looks into Blake's actual improvements can find out for themselves.

Oh and thanks to Jorunkun for the excellent post earlier. Good tips.