Quick Answers / 'Newbie' Questions

[r_rolo1]

The only way of setting the AI dificulty is to play a scenario, unfortunately.

 

[shuttle]

Hi, I have a few questions.
First: when i go to the foreign advisor screen and click on resources under exports and will trade there are many resources but when i go to those leaders to make the trade the resources are not there...?
second: when i click on a leader to make trade proposals sometimes resources are in red or simply arent shown, and its the same for converting people to my religion, sometimes its in red and sometimes its not even there whats the meaning?
third: i had good relations with a leader over the course of the game, a bunch of pluses and he declared war on me, why is that.
fourth: How do i get people to vote for me to win a united nations victory? many often abstain.

well if a seasoned civ fanatic can answer these questions for me ill be happy?...and a better player!

 

[nbcman]

@ shuttle

1st-It may be that the resources are available for trade but you don't have anything to trade the target civ. Or maybe they are unwilling to trade with you. Or maybe the target civ doesn't have multiples of that resource. It is hard to say without a save game to see what exactly may be going on.

2nd-Maybe your diplomatic relations are not high enough to have them take the trade or that the target leader simply does not have the religion present in one of their cities.

3rd-He may have been bribed by another AI to declare war on you or he may be a backstabber. Check dj_anions reference guide for more details on what diplomatic relations an AI leader may declare war on.

4th-You will have to have a better diplomatic relationship with the other AI leaders than the other candidate. If you have a specific leader that you need to have vote for you, try changing to that leader's religion, adopting their favorite civic, or bribing them with techs or cities.

You may want to check out some of the articles in the War Academy or any number of the RPC games that are being played in the Strategy and Tips forum for additional information and to see how other players play the game.

Welcome to CFC

 

[ori]

just to add to the 4th point - you also need to have atleast +8 in your relations - any less the AI will abstain

Welcome to the forums

 

[shuttle]

thanks, ill get those answers in mind and refer to this page for help!

 

[qwertas]

The only way of setting the AI dificulty is to play a scenario, unfortunately.

Thanks for the reply.
Hm, I just tried that. Unfortunately, it is the same thing: AI difficulty is greyed out also when starting multiplayer scenario.
Any other idea?

 

[r_rolo1]

I should had been more clearer :/

The way you can change the AI dificulty requires text editor change of the WB files ( that are used as scenarios ). Follow the links in this thread opening post by the great modmaker known as Dale. It is a quite easy task indeed.... not more than copy paste.... and pretty straigth forward for anyone that knows english.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Hey everybody, so here comes my newbie question of the day:

Me & my friend like to play in co-op mode against the AI. We are both no experienced players, but even we are able to beat the AI without any problems, while in single player mode, I don't have a chance on higher levels.
There doesnt seem to be an option in the multiplayer game setup to switch the difficulty level of the AI, it is simply greyed out.
Now, I tried the forum search and I have checked several forums and it seems indeed that it is simply not possible to set the AI difficulty. I simpy don't get it. I mean, all I want concerning the AI is to have everything like in single player, with the exception of another human player joining the game. Does anybody have any solution to this?

I should had been more clearer :/

The way you can change the AI dificulty requires text editor change of the WB files ( that are used as scenarios ). Follow the links in this thread opening post by the great modmaker known as Dale. It is a quite easy task indeed.... not more than copy paste.... and pretty straigth forward for anyone that knows english.

Note that the difficulty level of the game is mainly determined by the difficulty level that you set for the human player(s), not by the difficulty level that you set for the AI. The AI normally (single and multiplayer) plays on noble level. So there is no difference between the single player and multiplayer game at this point. The AI gets bonuses (research, production, upkeep) dependent on the difficulty level of the human players. I don't know exactly what happens if two human players pick different difficulty levels. I don't know if the AI gets a bonus dependent on the level of the highest level human player, the lowest level human player or the average level human player.

I don't know why you want to change the difficulty level of the AI, it's not something that you want to do in single player.

Hey everybody, so here comes my newbie question of the day:

Me & my friend like to play in co-op mode against the AI. We are both no experienced players, but even we are able to beat the AI without any problems, while in single player mode, I don't have a chance on higher levels.
There doesnt seem to be an option in the multiplayer game setup to switch the difficulty level of the AI, it is simply greyed out.
Now, I tried the forum search and I have checked several forums and it seems indeed that it is simply not possible to set the AI difficulty. I simpy don't get it. I mean, all I want concerning the AI is to have everything like in single player, with the exception of another human player joining the game. Does anybody have any solution to this?

Hi, I have a few questions.
First: when i go to the foreign advisor screen and click on resources under exports and will trade there are many resources but when i go to those leaders to make the trade the resources are not there...?
second: when i click on a leader to make trade proposals sometimes resources are in red or simply arent shown, and its the same for converting people to my religion, sometimes its in red and sometimes its not even there whats the meaning?
third: i had good relations with a leader over the course of the game, a bunch of pluses and he declared war on me, why is that.
fourth: How do i get people to vote for me to win a united nations victory? many often abstain.

well if a seasoned civ fanatic can answer these questions for me ill be happy?...and a better player!

1) If you and the AI already have the resources, then they can't be traded. Could you show a screenshot?
2) Redded out options are usually not available because relations are too bad. You can see the reason for a redded out option by holding your mouse above the option. A pop up shows you the reason why the AI refuses to even consider a deal.
3) Good relations aren't necessarily enough for peace. Some leaders are more bloodthirsthy than others. Some leaders can declare war while they are pleased with you. A war declaration is dependent on 3 variables:
- Relations (furious, annoyed, cautious, pleased, friendly), not the numerical value
- Relative military strength as shown in the power graph (F9), not the scoreboard
- The personality of the leader of the civilisation, some are more aggressive than others
4) Good relations as explained by others.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Note that the difficulty level of the game is mainly determined by the difficulty level that you set for the human player(s), not by the difficulty level that you set for the AI. The AI normally (single and multiplayer) plays on noble level. So there is no difference between the single player and multiplayer game at this point. The AI gets bonuses (research, production, upkeep) dependent on the difficulty level of the human players. I don't know exactly what happens if two human players pick different difficulty levels. I don't know if the AI gets a bonus dependent on the level of the highest level human player, the lowest level human player or the average level human player.

I don't know why you want to change the difficulty level of the AI, it's not something that you want to do in single player.

Roland is right: to make the AI more difficult to play against in multiplayer, you should set the difficulty of the HUMAN players higher. It's just like in single player, where you set YOUR difficulty level (not the AI's difficulty level). The only difference is that you have to set the difficulty of TWO human players to affect how the AI plays. Slightly counter-intuitive, yes, but it's consistent with how you set difficulty levels in single player.

As for what happens to the AI when two human players have different difficulty levels in multiplayer, I don't know either. However, it'd be easy enough to test: just set one player to Settler difficulty and the other to Deity. If the AI's are all settling second cities in the first few turns and have a lot of Archers roaming around, that means the difficulty is Deity (so the AI takes the highest difficulty). If the AI's play fairly much as usual on the average Noble-Prince level, then they you can deduce that the AI's take an average of the human players' difficulties. If the AI's build things incredibly slowly and are weak and pathetic for the whole game, the difficulty is probably Settler (so the AI takes the lowest difficulty).

Hope that helps.

 

[r_rolo1]

Ok, let me enter in fray ....

Setting the AI dificulty will mostly only change the effect of things that only affect that AI ( like goody hut chances ) and the base values of maintenance, war weariness.....

If you want to have a good idea of how things work regarding having AI in diferent dificulties, try the Earth 1000 AD scenario ( the BtS one is better IMHO, but if you don't have BtS the vanilla one is OK ), where the AI dificulties were skewed to create a ilusion of historical recreation ( in BtS one the american civs are set on noble, while most of the Eurasian are set on Chieftain )

 

[Lord Parkin]

Ok, let me enter in fray ....

Setting the AI dificulty will mostly only change the effect of things that only affect that AI ( like goody hut chances ) and the base values of maintenance, war weariness.....

If you want to have a good idea of how things work regarding having AI in diferent dificulties, try the Earth 1000 AD scenario ( the BtS one is better IMHO, but if you don't have BtS the vanilla one is OK ), where the AI dificulties were skewed to create a ilusion of historical recreation ( in BtS one the american civs are set on noble, while most of the Eurasian are set on Chieftain )

Hmm, I would have thought the reverse would be more sensible for gameplay purposes (ie Americans on a lower difficulty level and Eurasians on a higher level)? The Eurasian civs will advance more quickly due to trading amongst themselves anyway. Why disadvantage the American civs even further?

Or am I missing something here?

 

[Roland Johansen]

Hmm, I would have thought the reverse would be more sensible for gameplay purposes (ie Americans on a lower difficulty level and Eurasians on a higher level)? The Eurasian civs will advance more quickly due to trading amongst themselves anyway. Why disadvantage the American civs even further?

Or am I missing something here?

On the normal world map, the Americans have a lot (A LOT) more room to expand than the Europeans. In civ, land is power. This effect has been lessened a bit due to trading technologies, foreign trade routes and city upkeep, but is generally still true. Thus the Americans would naturally grow to become a powerhouse if they weren't given some disadvantage.

 

[r_rolo1]

Indeed you are missing something in here, Lord Parkin ( and Roland too, by the looks of it )

There are 2 kinds of handicaps in game regarding the levels:
-Penalties/Bonuses applied to yourself
-Penalties/Bonuses applied to others

When the oponents are not automatically all in Noble level, only the first ones apply. So, if a AI is playing in chieftain, it has chieftain hut luck, chieftain maintenance...... Same for if the AI is playing deity.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Indeed you are missing something in here, Lord Parkin ( and Roland too, by the looks of it )

There are 2 kinds of handicaps in game regarding the levels:
-Penalties/Bonuses applied to yourself
-Penalties/Bonuses applied to others

When the oponents are not automatically all in Noble level, only the first ones apply. So, if a AI is playing in chieftain, it has chieftain hut luck, chieftain maintenance...... Same for if the AI is playing deity.

So by setting the Euroasian civilisations at chieftain and the American one at noble, the game becomes relatively easier for the Euroasian civilisations, correct? I just commented that this is to compensate for the large amount of land that is available to the American civilisation.

 

[r_rolo1]

So by setting the Euroasian civilisations at chieftain and the American one at noble, the game becomes relatively easier for the Euroasian civilisations, correct? I just commented that this is to compensate for the large amount of land that is available to the American civilisation.

Exactly. probably to make stomp'em scenarios with conquistadores smashing Jaguar warriors and quechuas Remember that in the specific scenario we are talking there is no attempt of making things balanced, just sort of "historical". Given the lenght of the scenario ( 300 turns on locked normal speed ), it makes the scenario quite hard to win for the Americans ( even I had a rough time trying to win as the Inca in Noble, even after ocuppying all the south america )

 

[Roland Johansen]

Exactly. probably to make stomp'em scenarios with conquistadores smashing Jaguar warriors and quechuas Remember that in the specific scenario we are talking there is no attempt of making things balanced, just sort of "historical". Given the lenght of the scenario ( 300 turns on locked normal speed ), it makes the scenario quite hard to win for the Americans ( even I had a rough time trying to win as the Inca in Noble, even after ocuppying all the south america )

So they made it so that even the AI controlled European civilisations would be tempted to crush the American civilisations even though the AI is notoriously bad at intercontinental warfare.

Doesn't the scenario also change the starting technologies between the various civilisations? I must admit that I've never played it.

 

[r_rolo1]

It starts at 1000 AD, so it assumes that even nomad peoples in the opening ( like the Aztec, Inca or mali ) know a lot of techs. I don't know all of memory, but I recall that HRE starts with Engineering and almost all the classical techs ( Feudalism too IIRC )

 

[Lord Parkin]

In civ, land is power. This effect has been lessened a bit due to trading technologies, foreign trade routes and city upkeep, but is generally still true. Thus the Americans would naturally grow to become a powerhouse if they weren't given some disadvantage.

Hmm, I tend to find that the ability to trade technologies with a large number of civs is far more valuable than having a large amount of land to settle. But then again, that's probably just me speaking from familiarity with multiplayer. I guess the AI isn't as wiley as human players, so perhaps the ability to trade technologies doesn't give it as much of an advantage.

In multiplayer amongst seasoned players, if you put 15 nations on one land mass and 3 nations on another land mass of a similar size, with tech trading on, the civs on the former land mass would win out over the civs on the latter land mass almost every time.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Hmm, I tend to find that the ability to trade technologies with a large number of civs is far more valuable than having a large amount of land to settle. But then again, that's probably just me speaking from familiarity with multiplayer. I guess the AI isn't as wiley as human players, so perhaps the ability to trade technologies doesn't give it as much of an advantage.

In multiplayer amongst seasoned players, if you put 15 nations on one land mass and 3 nations on another land mass of a similar size, with tech trading on, the civs on the former land mass would win out over the civs on the latter land mass almost every time.

Really? Do you mean that the two continents are in competition with one another or a free for all. Because in a free for all, I would expect that the time that it takes to conquer the crowded continent is somewhat higher. Therefore, some of the resources that could have been invested in research are going to be invested in war. In a competition between two continents, the crowded continent starts with 5 times as many cities and less city upkeep in the long run. Not really a competition there, the crowded one has a big advantage. Although 15 civilisations cannot perfectly cooperate in research as there are not 15 parallel tech paths. (I'm assuming no teams here.) So even with perfect cooperation, it might be hard for the crowded continent.

I also guess that all of this depends a bit on the room for expansion. If the 15 civilisations can expand decently, then the 3 will have too much room which cannot be used in the early game. This is likely to be true in the America vs Euroasia example, so therefore the American continent will have a slower start.

Of course what I meant with Land = Power is that eventually the size of your land largely determines the amount of research points and hammers that your civilisation generates. That hammers and research points aren't all that is important is however also true.

 

[IAM]

Hmm, I tend to find that the ability to trade technologies with a large number of civs is far more valuable than having a large amount of land to settle. But then again, that's probably just me speaking from familiarity with multiplayer. I guess the AI isn't as wiley as human players, so perhaps the ability to trade technologies doesn't give it as much of an advantage.

In multiplayer amongst seasoned players, if you put 15 nations on one land mass and 3 nations on another land mass of a similar size, with tech trading on, the civs on the former land mass would win out over the civs on the latter land mass almost every time.

I have had similar experiences as Lord Parkin in single player. On huge maps with 18 civs a crowded continent will weed out a few weak AIs but more AI = more different paths researched and more opportunities for trade. Whether it's me or a couple of AIs stuck on a continent with just a few other players they tech very slow. My typical game plan is to get to optics and tech trade with the larger group of players even then caravels will somtimes show up before I can tech to optics.

When I have found 2 AIs on a land mass for instance they are too backwards to be a problem. Their longbowmen don't hold up well to my riflemen That's pretty typical with few exceptions.