Random Opponents not so random

[Allacalander]

When I set up the initial game, the default for a Huge map is 7 rival civs and the PC lists them all as "Random." However in most if not all of the games that I have played, I always see the SAME 5 civs every time: Iroquois, Aztecs, Incas, Mayans and Americans. The other two are usually truly random.

Does anyone know if this is intentional? It's rather frustrating because the first four have the agricultural trait which makes for a truly difficult game. Not to mention they are all in the same cultural group, so they get along with each other well (and not me!)

I'd like for my random civs to be truly random; it makes the game far more interesting.

Although I will mention that rarely do I see one of those civs actually win the game, but they slow me down enough in the beginning that the other two are able to leap ahead.

 

[CKS]

You have "culturally linked start positions" turned on. It doesn't work as advertised.

If you turn it off, you'll get random opponents.

 

[Nor'easter]

What CKS said.

Also, I just checked the Civ3 editor and the default for a Huge map is 16 Civs (i.e., 15 rivals), not 8, so you must have changed some setting. Seven rivals would be on a Standard map.

 

[Allacalander]

Ah, I'll have to make that change and see what I get.

I think the reason I ended up with 7 opponents was that the game starts at Standard Map and when I changed it to Huge, it must not have changed the number of opponents to match.

I did notice that once and set up all 15 of them to be random, but I ran into war in the first few turns so thought maybe I better get better first.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Allacalander]

Well I tried the fix and it seems to have worked! I also switched it to 15 AI civs for the Huge map.

Let me say though: If you want a challenge, try doing the Huge map with 7 AI opponents. It may sound easy, but the problem is that by the time you meet most civs, they've had enough time to easily outgrow you: land area, population, science, etc... A simple conquest of anyone is usually not possible.

It's even tougher on a pangaea map because you don't have nice ocean barriers and, for some reason, you seem to have anti-magnetism because I NEVER have iron nearby.

And I tried it at Monarch level. I'm afraid to go higher!