Stop Early NPC Civ dying?

[caesarmd]

It is very frustrating to start a new game and have a couple of the computer civs die very early. I suspect this is because they leave their original city undefended to let the warrior go out scouting.

Is there any way to keep this from happening too early?

 

[ADHansa]

The computer really does defend his city well. First and formost hi priorotises building 3static defenders before anything else. Then he builds a worker if he has none and then he builds at least 2 more warriors that he sends ut to meet threats or wait as an escort for his settler that is next in the queue. So he does make a decent defence. But sometimes that isn't ebough, a lizardman with a few combatpromotions, some ghost upgraded to specters or worse from an unlucky lairexploration or Orthus can still bring a NPC down.

It is possible to rewrite the building prioroties to make even more warriors, it's more comlex to change how he uses them. But somewhere you have to draw the line where a AI gambles i little with rapid expansion to not fall to far behind. At higher difficulties he can usually build fast enough to protect himself, a rarely see as many NPC deaths as a did a few versions ago.

The only current feature/bug that still causes AI to die early is when he leaves the starting position with his settler to find a better spot, and it is already taken by an opponent. He then sometimes freezes and become easy pickings for barbarians and animals instead of finding a new spot. To change that is also complex.

Thats what i think anyway.

 

[Sephi]

I started a quick AI autoplay game, huge Map 10 AIs, not one died in the first 100 turns.

 

[Emptiness]

The AI does sometimes leave its starting city undefended, but this is uncommon. Usually, the AI will have one or more Warriors defending its capital from the start.

One way to prevent this problem is to play on a higher difficulty setting. At higher difficulties the AI will start with extra units, which greatly reduces the chance that it will leave its capital undefended for long.

Another way would be to play without lairs. Even an AI that leaves it capital undefended (initially) will be able to build a defender before barbarians start appearing normally, but lairs are a possible "early" source of barbarian units. Turning off lairs should virtually eliminate situations where the AI is killed before it can build a defender. (I say virtually, because it is still possible to spawn barbarians from a Tribal Village. To completely eliminate early barbarians you would also need to disable Tribal Villages.)

I have found that the current AI is eliminated in the early game much less frequently than with the previous AI (pre-H), because of the large numbers of units it produces. If AIs are being eliminated too frequently in your games, and the above suggestions are not to your liking, then you can always add an extra AI or two in your games to compensate.

 

[Azhral]

The civ that always seems to die early for me is the Ljos, because they start with 2 scouts and if they hit an early lizardman or something they are done.

 

[ExMachina]

For what it's worth, AI civs never seem to die early in my Fall Further games. I remember it being a big problem in base FfH, but I'm not sure what would be causing it.

 

[DerWille]

The computer really does defend his city well. First and formost hi priorotises building 3static defenders before anything else. Then he builds a worker if he has none and then he builds at least 2 more warriors that he sends ut to meet threats or wait as an escort for his settler that is next in the queue. So he does make a decent defence. But sometimes that isn't ebough, a lizardman with a few combat promotions, some ghost upgraded to specters or worse from an unlucky lair exploration or Orthus can still bring a NPC down.

+1 on being blind sided with a Lizardman. I've had that happen to me Turn 13 Lizardman spawned, turn 14 I was dead.

+1 to Emptiness's no lairs suggestion. I've found that barbarians spawn most frequently from them. I tend to spawn bust them like you would in vanilla Civ4 by putting a warrior right on top of them (Usually as quick as I can).

 

[JonathanStrange]

Remember when that goofy barbarian hero with the axe was a real menace and not just the "soon-to-be-dead-barbarian-hero-with-an-axe-we-can-take"? Man, he'd appear on the edge of your national borders and your worker would look up from his plow or pottery kiln just as the barbarian's blade separated head and body of said worker? Those were the days...

 

[Tiarilir]

Remember when that goofy barbarian hero with the axe was a real menace and not just the "soon-to-be-dead-barbarian-hero-with-an-axe-we-can-take"? Man, he'd appear on the edge of your national borders and your worker would look up from his plow or pottery kiln just as the barbarian's blade separated head and body of said worker? Those were the days...

Now he just sucks. :<

 

[Lone Wolf]

I usually open up the WB each time I play and buff up some AI's locations a bit.

 

[Annex]

I dont usually have any problems in base FfH, though it has happened to me a couple of times in the past and it was annoying. It seemed to happen to the Bannor for some reason. Anyway I dont really encounter it these days.

 

[Avahz Darkwood]

I dont usually have any problems in base FfH, though it has happened to me a couple of times in the past and it was annoying. It seemed to happen to the Bannor for some reason. Anyway I dont really encounter it these days.

In my games the Bannor die off pretty quick because they get to fanaticism too fast., go to war, and NEVER get out of Crusade. Mind you I dont never start a game in ancient starts. I start the next one up (classical?). They dont have as much time to build up their empire before the crusade civic is ready. I also WB all the civs some addition goodies to "help" them or I will dole out a few thousand for advanced starts.

 

[Tasunke]

The only current feature/bug that still causes AI to die early is when he leaves the starting position with his settler to find a better spot, and it is already taken by an opponent. He then sometimes freezes and become easy pickings for barbarians and animals instead of finding a new spot. To change that is also complex.

Thats what i think anyway.

this actually reminds me of a fairly recent game where the AI summoned Hyborem.

The lads summoned on some tundra right below my southernmost city, and just stood there ripe for the picking. The nation wasn't founded until maybe 60 turns layer, probably when that city's culture popped thus unfreezing them. However, the nation did not last much longer

 

[Jabie]

Orbis had a Palace Guard promotion. Gave units a mild bonus (10%?) if they were in the Capital City. If all *starting* units had this promotion it might just be enough to give them the staying power against early Barbarians and it would slow down rush tactics a little. It would also be pretty cool to keep promoting your two starting Palace guards throughout the game.

 

[Bootsiuv]

Orbis had a Palace Guard promotion. Gave units a mild bonus (10%?) if they were in the Capital City. If all *starting* units had this promotion it might just be enough to give them the staying power against early Barbarians and it would slow down rush tactics a little. It would also be pretty cool to keep promoting your two starting Palace guards throughout the game.

Actually, the Palace Guard promo makes units garrisoned in the capital a 3/4 , so it's more like a 33% bonus to defense.

Nevermind, was going to say something else, until I payed a little more attention to the thread title.

 

[bonedog]

The civ that always seems to die early for me is the Ljos, because they start with 2 scouts and if they hit an early lizardman or something they are done.

I once played a game where I started off nearby the Ljos. Normally I don't declare war early on, but a goblin had just entered their territory and I decided to pick him off for some cheap XP... and discovered no one protecting the Ljos capital at all! I think the theory at the time was that the AI had sent both scouts off to explore, rather than keeping at least one to defend the city.

 

[Azhral]

Yea, I've seen that before, but not for a long time.

In a recent game (Me as the Ljos funnily enough) I turned up a huge map with no extra players. 4 AI died before turn 200 just because of the massive amount of barbs spawned by the tracts of empty land. So if your AI is still dying, try putting more in, or reducing the map size.

 

[aimlessgun]

Whoa yeah I think all land maps are going to destroy the AI.

Just made a large Highlands game with 10 civs, 3 are dead by the time people are founding their second cities. Game is completely ruined QQ.

Really not sure how that happens though because this is immortal, and I've managed to defend myself...so...what kind of dumb stuff is the AI pulling?

 

[Emptiness]

If an AI is killed off in one of your games, and you want to know what killed it, load into worldbuilder after you receive their death notice and see what is in (and around) their former city (or the ruins thereof).