Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

There's nothing that would ship from Canada?

 

Quick question 'cos I can't be bothered to look it up:
If I'm running say 80% Sci 20% Lux, and both the numbers come up with x.5. I know normally the game would round both up, but obviously it can't in this case.

So which one (Sci or Lux) gets rounded up, and which gets rounded down?

 

I've never found a Cdn source. Amazon dot com has it but can't ship it. Amazon dot ca does not have it at all.

The difficulty is that I live in a small city and have no car to get to a bigger city that would likely have it on the shelf.

 

Science gets rounded up.

 

Looks like they have some in the Amazon Marketplace, where other Canadian sellers move merchandise through Amazon.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listi...olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1206108043&sr=8-1

Is that a possibility?

 

Thanks. Though it would appear that if you have >0% on the Lux slider it will always round 0.5 up to 1 to the detriment of Sci.

E.g. very early on if you have 5 commerce, Sci 90% Lux 10% will give you 4 beakers and one happy face. Whereas if it always favoured Sci you would expect to get 5 beakers and no happy faces.

 

Really? That's not the way I remember it. I could swear there were times when lowering the science slider without touching the luxury slider would increase happy faces. In your example, I thought Sci 90% and lux 10% would give 5 beakers, 0 happy; but Sci 80%, lux still at 10% would give 4 beakers, 1 happy.

Sorry about that ...

 

There are times when it does. A while back, I was horribly confused by this and started a thread on it here.

 

I've also bought games online from "Big Box" type electronics stores, most of whom have a web presence. I'm not sure what chains Canada has, but surely they would have online purchasing and distribution via mail or shipping company.

 

I find on amazon.ca http://www.amazon.ca/21838-Sid-Meiers-Civilization-Complete/dp/B00029QR7O

You could also try bestbuy and chapters.

 

Thank you. I have asked my son to check this out. I don't have a credit card so I can't order online but he can.

 

Granted, I like to play on small and tiny maps because I like to see the end of the game in my lifetime but I am wondering why I don't hear about more AI wars. Are they just not interested at this easy level (Warlord almost exclusively) or what happens with that?

I can get them into an alliance of course but that is not the same as them getting ticked with each other.

I just remembered something... I recently tried a huge map to play England and there were no wars among the AI then either. Again is it the easy play level that does this?

 

You probably already know this but you won't know about AI wars unless you have embassies (or see them attacking one another of course). I too though have noticed the AI doesn't like a lot of wars early on. Once you get to the third age though its practically non-stop.

 

yes, i know about the need for embassies. I have been known to forget them if I don't have cash early in the game. Maybe that is the problem. they happen while my brain is on vacation

 

The short answer is yes!

There are several reasons for this but it comes down to them having excess units more quickly and being more aggressive.

The AI attitude becomes more difficult to please as you go up the levels so they are more likely to be unhappy with each other as well as with you. That can lead to more frequent wars. Also once an AI has fought a war with someone they may well be even more unhappy with them if it has resulted in cities being razed/captured and improvements pillaged. This makes future wars between these rivals more likely.

They build and grow more quickly. A Deity AI needs half as much food to grow a pop point when compared to a Warlord one. Units (including settlers) cost 50% less also between these two levels and so the spare land is taken more quickly. This can lead to conflict.

They start with more units on the highest levels. Add the production bonus to this and it means that they can afford to send an offensive force out sooner without leaving the homeland unprotected.

The AI can be pretty poor at exploring on the lower levels, mainly due to having no spare units. If they don't explore/expand, then they'll have less contacts and so will be less likely to be able to declare on someone else.

I use alliances to get them 'ticked with each other'. You can set off a powder keg by declaring war on a distant civ and getting one of their neighbours to join you in the fight. When your 'friend' accepts a PT, get them back in the fight again straight away. This usually makes those two rivals life-long enemies. If you stay well clear, you can eventually become best buddies with both whilst they continue to knock each other to bits. If it works really well, they even start to bring the rest of the world in on their fight. Sometimes you just need to accept that a catalyst is needed.

 

The main problem with AI wars in lower levels is not so much that the AI are more friendly at lower levels, or that their logic is different, but rather an indirect, and maybe even unintended result of their penalties.

Exceptions aside, the AI will usually not declare war when it still has free room to expand. Also, it will more likely declare war if it has many many surplus units. Due to their penalties, the AI will expand slowly, and so almost for ever have enough room to expand peacefully.

 

so the fact that I expand voraciously is what gets them so angry?? I take as much land as I can get a city on whether by fair means or foul.

 

ACHTUNG!

I have a question of immesurable importance:


Is there a max unit cap?

 

Yes, there is. I believe it's 4096 in vanilla civ3, and 8192 with the Conquests expansion, if I'm not mistaken.

 

My viq*-o-meter says your question is of level 3 importance.


(*very important questions)

It doesn't make them angry. But if they have no more room to expand peacefully, they will stop building settlers and start building units, causing them to have a stronger military, and also a higher unit to city ratio.

Also, if they still have room to expand peacefully, why should they go to war?

I've noticed the nearby AI is more likely to fight you if you build cities very close to theirs (AICxC) but I don't have any hard information on this.