I had hoped that, as computing power increases and programming knowledge becomes more sophisticated, a game like Civ IV would come up with a better plan than the one used in Ghostbusters --- "Get her!"
The first problem is gold. I never have any until late game. By the time I place my second city, I'm running 3 or 4 gold in the red. I can stave off the inevitable bankruptcy for quite awhile finding goody huts, but once I accumulate 300 or 400 gold to offset the deficit, the other civs begin demanding ridiculous sums of money -- usually about 90% of my entire treasury. Naturally I have to decline if I have any hope of not having the computer sell off my entire empire at auction by 1000 AD. Naturally, the other civs get angry and declare war.
By some mysterious gift of clairaudience, the other civs always know right where I am. Even on a huge map, I'm bumping into their scouts a mere 30 turns into the game. I figure they're already plotting where to put cities to box me in and limit my expansion, so I feel compelled to expand quickly ... but I can't because I don't have the gold. By the time the entire world gangs up on me -- and it usually does -- I'm lucky if I have 5 cities, some of which are relatively new and poorly defended. Because I have only 5 or 6 cities, I have to forget about building city improvements ... often for the rest of the game ... or I'll never be able to muster enough units to fend off what I know is coming.
The last game I played was on a huge map with only 3 other civs. I enjoyed playing this way in Civ II and III because it allowed me the chance to expand and evolve before the inevitable threats, demands, and war started up. In Civ IV, however, as I said before, the other civs miraculously find me very early on.
While still in the medieval era, all 3 civs declared war on me back to back because I refused to give Rome 95% of my treasury. In the beginning, I could defend well enough and even managed to get some tech researched for better units. Plus I was gifted with iron, horses, and copper. It was impossible to go on the offense because 1) I didn't know where their cities were and 2) with only 5 cities of my own, I could barely produce enough units to keep up the defense. I was holding my own for quite awhile until several things seemed to happen all at once.
First, the unit maintanence cost was depleting my treasury rapidly, and nothing I did could offset that. I built towns, banks, etc. but my income held at a steady -13 throughout the war until eventually I had to shut off research completely just to be in the green. Second, the 3 civs allied against me began to coordinate their attacks ... a cheesy advantage the AI has over the player since, even as allies, the player has no control over when an allied civ attacks, where, and with what units. When I started being hit on multiple fronts at the same time, I knew defeat was inevitable ... but I kept going. Third, my citizens started to get angry, and this is one of the worst features of the game. With annihilation lurking just outside their walls, one would think my citizens would have more pressing concerns than a fun night at the colleseum. Real people don't behave this way in times of war, especially a war for their very survival ... yet I had to waste precious time building entertainment instead of soldiers to prevent my production from hitting rock bottom.
Finally, and most annoyingly, came the coup d'grass. When it became clear that the AI couldn't win with what it had, it began to cheat. I don't say that lightly, but considering the sheer numbers and the speed with which they were able to get their troops into my territory, cheating was the only explanation. The AI began to hit my well-defended cities with stacks of as many as 20 units, and even with those numbers, I was able to beat them off, yet at a high cost. Just when I thought I could take a breather, a second stack arrived ... with a third behind it, and a fourth ... extending all the way into the fog of war. Given the rules by which I must play, there was no way one civ could not only produce that many units that quickly, but also drag them halfway across a huge map one tile at a time and somehow always arrive just in time to finish the job their previous stack failed to accomplish.
Keep in mind, this is the medieval era ... before railroads, before factories, before mass production. For them to pull off what they were doing, these civs would need 10 cities producing a single unit type (at least 30 cities total), all producing at a rate of 1 unit per turn, and then have some magical means of teleportation to get all those stacks there in such a timely fashion.
With my research stagnated, there was no hope of inventing a war-winning "wonder weapon," and with some cities occupied building entertainment structures to placate citizens with no sense of self preservation, it was only a matter of time before the AI did what all AIs like to do ... beat you down with infinite numbers of units. Despite a kill ratio of approximately 10 to 1 in my favor, there was always an 11th unit there to walk into my cities. I'm convinced that if the ratio were 20 to 1, they would have 21 units ... whatever it took to ensure that defeat was just a question of dates.
In my observations, if the AI declares war, I may as well quit the game immediately. It seems war is only declared if the AI knows beforehand that victory is an inevitability. After 15 games, I've yet to play one past the classical era before I'm attritioned to death by infinite computer controlled units or, barring war, infinitely spawning barbarians, which is another major problem in the early game.
At the root of it all is the impossibly difficult finance management that goes on throughout the first half of the game. The constant deficit stifles expansion to a ridiculous degree while curtailing research to the point where I'm still using trebuches in the 1800s. I do my best to build a sizeable number of towns in gold-generating tiles, and I build income-generating buildings in all my cities, but running in the green just doesn't happen fast enough to afford war, barbarian defense, expansion (at least before the AI controls 95% of the map), and research.
Any help would be appreciated.
The first problem is gold. I never have any until late game. By the time I place my second city, I'm running 3 or 4 gold in the red. I can stave off the inevitable bankruptcy for quite awhile finding goody huts, but once I accumulate 300 or 400 gold to offset the deficit, the other civs begin demanding ridiculous sums of money -- usually about 90% of my entire treasury. Naturally I have to decline if I have any hope of not having the computer sell off my entire empire at auction by 1000 AD. Naturally, the other civs get angry and declare war.
By some mysterious gift of clairaudience, the other civs always know right where I am. Even on a huge map, I'm bumping into their scouts a mere 30 turns into the game. I figure they're already plotting where to put cities to box me in and limit my expansion, so I feel compelled to expand quickly ... but I can't because I don't have the gold. By the time the entire world gangs up on me -- and it usually does -- I'm lucky if I have 5 cities, some of which are relatively new and poorly defended. Because I have only 5 or 6 cities, I have to forget about building city improvements ... often for the rest of the game ... or I'll never be able to muster enough units to fend off what I know is coming.
The last game I played was on a huge map with only 3 other civs. I enjoyed playing this way in Civ II and III because it allowed me the chance to expand and evolve before the inevitable threats, demands, and war started up. In Civ IV, however, as I said before, the other civs miraculously find me very early on.
While still in the medieval era, all 3 civs declared war on me back to back because I refused to give Rome 95% of my treasury. In the beginning, I could defend well enough and even managed to get some tech researched for better units. Plus I was gifted with iron, horses, and copper. It was impossible to go on the offense because 1) I didn't know where their cities were and 2) with only 5 cities of my own, I could barely produce enough units to keep up the defense. I was holding my own for quite awhile until several things seemed to happen all at once.
First, the unit maintanence cost was depleting my treasury rapidly, and nothing I did could offset that. I built towns, banks, etc. but my income held at a steady -13 throughout the war until eventually I had to shut off research completely just to be in the green. Second, the 3 civs allied against me began to coordinate their attacks ... a cheesy advantage the AI has over the player since, even as allies, the player has no control over when an allied civ attacks, where, and with what units. When I started being hit on multiple fronts at the same time, I knew defeat was inevitable ... but I kept going. Third, my citizens started to get angry, and this is one of the worst features of the game. With annihilation lurking just outside their walls, one would think my citizens would have more pressing concerns than a fun night at the colleseum. Real people don't behave this way in times of war, especially a war for their very survival ... yet I had to waste precious time building entertainment instead of soldiers to prevent my production from hitting rock bottom.
Finally, and most annoyingly, came the coup d'grass. When it became clear that the AI couldn't win with what it had, it began to cheat. I don't say that lightly, but considering the sheer numbers and the speed with which they were able to get their troops into my territory, cheating was the only explanation. The AI began to hit my well-defended cities with stacks of as many as 20 units, and even with those numbers, I was able to beat them off, yet at a high cost. Just when I thought I could take a breather, a second stack arrived ... with a third behind it, and a fourth ... extending all the way into the fog of war. Given the rules by which I must play, there was no way one civ could not only produce that many units that quickly, but also drag them halfway across a huge map one tile at a time and somehow always arrive just in time to finish the job their previous stack failed to accomplish.
Keep in mind, this is the medieval era ... before railroads, before factories, before mass production. For them to pull off what they were doing, these civs would need 10 cities producing a single unit type (at least 30 cities total), all producing at a rate of 1 unit per turn, and then have some magical means of teleportation to get all those stacks there in such a timely fashion.
With my research stagnated, there was no hope of inventing a war-winning "wonder weapon," and with some cities occupied building entertainment structures to placate citizens with no sense of self preservation, it was only a matter of time before the AI did what all AIs like to do ... beat you down with infinite numbers of units. Despite a kill ratio of approximately 10 to 1 in my favor, there was always an 11th unit there to walk into my cities. I'm convinced that if the ratio were 20 to 1, they would have 21 units ... whatever it took to ensure that defeat was just a question of dates.
In my observations, if the AI declares war, I may as well quit the game immediately. It seems war is only declared if the AI knows beforehand that victory is an inevitability. After 15 games, I've yet to play one past the classical era before I'm attritioned to death by infinite computer controlled units or, barring war, infinitely spawning barbarians, which is another major problem in the early game.
At the root of it all is the impossibly difficult finance management that goes on throughout the first half of the game. The constant deficit stifles expansion to a ridiculous degree while curtailing research to the point where I'm still using trebuches in the 1800s. I do my best to build a sizeable number of towns in gold-generating tiles, and I build income-generating buildings in all my cities, but running in the green just doesn't happen fast enough to afford war, barbarian defense, expansion (at least before the AI controls 95% of the map), and research.
Any help would be appreciated.
