The AI sux

[bearcat33]

I am trying to locate a Mod or something that will completely remove the
ability of the AI to cheat. I cannot play this game above the very-lowest
difficulty setting. I am playing Civ3 at the moment, because my Civ4 Direct2Drive download has been Fked by Gamefly. But this applies to both games:

Things in particular that I want to see go away forever:

Insane breeding and building....literally impossible breeding and building. I want them to have their culture bonuses, but not to automatically and magically breed and build at impossible speed.

Every single AI nation will refuse to make a fair trade. They ALWAYS insist on an uneven trade, no matter what. I want them to bargain hard, but not to be so insane and stubborn that they will NEVER accept a fair and equal trade.

Nations will remember petty things forever, and refuse to ever deal with you again, even if their lives depend upon it. Instead, I want the AI to weigh the choice more rationally.

Hyper mega paranoia about me trespassing, but they ALWAYS trespass on my territory. How about some rational sensitivity? Am I friendly, or a former enemy, for example.

Also.....I want a way to select ALL of a unit type with ONE CLICK for upgrading. Not to have to upgrade tediously one by one.....the game seems crammed with this sort of exhausting petty work. Like to see the designers slave in hell for eternity upgrading endless units over and over and over and over...........

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Shift u

 

[Lanzelot]

The AI "cheats" (as you call it) only at Monarch or above. At Regent it has the exact same cost factor for everything as the human player. At lower levels the human player gets a bonus (= "cheats"... ).

Below is the cost factor that is applied to the AI in terms of city growth (food) project builds (shields) and research (beakers):

                Chieftain  Warlord  Regent  Monarch  Emperor  Deity Demigod Sid
Cost factor (%):  200       120      100      90       80      60     70    40

So for example, for the human player building a market place costs 100 shields and growing a town from size 1 to size 2 requires 20 food. On Chieftain the AI needs 200 shields for the market and 40 food for growing. On Sid the AI gets the market already after collecting 40 shields, and the town grows after harvesting 8 food. (Which is why they "breed" like insane... )

So in short: you don't need a Mod. Just play at Regent level, and it's a fair game for you and the AI.

 

[bearcat33]

The AI "cheats" (as you call it) only at Monarch or above. At Regent it has the exact same cost factor for everything as the human player. At lower levels the human player gets a bonus (= "cheats"... ).

Below is the cost factor that is applied to the AI in terms of city growth (food) project builds (shields) and research (beakers):

                Chieftain  Warlord  Regent  Monarch  Emperor  Deity Demigod Sid
Cost factor (%):  200       120      100      90       80      60     70    40

So for example, for the human player building a market place costs 100 shields and growing a town from size 1 to size 2 requires 20 food. On Chieftain the AI needs 200 shields for the market and 40 food for growing. On Sid the AI gets the market already after collecting 40 shields, and the town grows after harvesting 8 food. (Which is why they "breed" like insane... )

So in short: you don't need a Mod. Just play at Regent level, and it's a fair game for you and the AI.

Wow, that's pretty funny. I'm doing everything right, but the AI beats me every time on any setting but Chieftan (easisest) and that is a lot of work.

 

[Aabraxan]

Bearcat33, I can think of a few things that might help:
1) Post a save and let some of the C3C players look at it. If the AI beats you on every level above Chieftain, there may be some question as to whether you're "doing everything right."

2) Head over to the War Academy and look up:

a) Cracker's Opening Plays;
b) Warmongering 101: A Practical Primer.
​

There are other really good WA articles, but these two should get you off to a good start.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Raliuven]

Another suggestion is to join a Succession Game (SG). That is a game were 4-6 players share a game. Let everyone know that you are a beginning player and want/need some help and pointers. There are lots of people on the forums that would be willing to help out. Most of the games are at Emperor or above, but if you post an interest in a Warlord or Regent game I'm sure you'll have some that are willing to play.

The benefit of a SG is that you have 4-6 pairs of eyes looking at the same game and collaborating. And because there are so many players involved it is rare that any one player can cause too much damage in one set of turns. Everyone discusses what happened and how to improve and move on. Everyone is there to learn and have fun. In a SG each team member plays through 10 turns and passes the save to the next player and it keeps rotating until the game is over.

Chances are that if you are struggling at Chieftain than there are some basic game mechanics that you can quickly pick up to improve your game. The civilopedia is not exactly brimming with the information you need (as you have probably already figured out).

To answer your OP - I've never heard of a mod that makes the game easier than Chieftain. You might be out of luck there.

 

[Cyc]

I am trying to locate a Mod or something that will completely remove the
ability of the AI to cheat. I cannot play this game above the very-lowest
difficulty setting. I am playing Civ3 at the moment, because my Civ4 Direct2Drive download has been Fked by Gamefly. But this applies to both games:

Things in particular that I want to see go away forever:

Insane breeding and building....literally impossible breeding and building. I want them to have their culture bonuses, but not to automatically and magically breed and build at impossible speed.

Every single AI nation will refuse to make a fair trade. They ALWAYS insist on an uneven trade, no matter what. I want them to bargain hard, but not to be so insane and stubborn that they will NEVER accept a fair and equal trade.

Nations will remember petty things forever, and refuse to ever deal with you again, even if their lives depend upon it. Instead, I want the AI to weigh the choice more rationally.

Hyper mega paranoia about me trespassing, but they ALWAYS trespass on my territory. How about some rational sensitivity? Am I friendly, or a former enemy, for example.

Also.....I want a way to select ALL of a unit type with ONE CLICK for upgrading. Not to have to upgrade tediously one by one.....the game seems crammed with this sort of exhausting petty work. Like to see the designers slave in hell for eternity upgrading endless units over and over and over and over...........

Here, bearcat33. I put together a .biq for you that addresses the concerns (pretty much) you're talking about. Give it a shot and tell me what you think. Here's what I did:

I took down the AI aggression a step or two for each tribe, except those that had low aggression to start with.

For the Maya and Inca, I took Workers off their "Build Often" lists.

Increased the Max Govt. Transition Time to 5 on the Monarch level (which is the level I suggest you play). Also on this level I knocked down the offensive starting units for the AI by 1. Plus lowered additional free support for the AI by 2. I put the AI Cost Factor (regulates growth, production, and research) at the Regent level. The AI to AI trade rate is at the Chieftan level. Again, the adjustments in this paragraph are only valid if you play your game at the Monarch difficulty.

The "Large" map has the number of civs reduced to eight, although on my first test there were more. My second test only had myself and 7 AI. The distance between the tribe starting positions has been raised to 20 on the large map. I recommend you play a large Continent or Pangaea.

I've changed the resource allocation levels for 6 resources and the luxuries. I've increased the appearance ratio on all of them and made Iron and Coal so they won't disappear.

I've increase the amount of free units while in a Republic government to 30.

I've given a 10% defensive bonus to all units when in a Town (size 6 or less).

Reduced the Game rules to Preserve Random Seed and Allow Cultural Convertions.

I suggest you play on Monarch. Use a Large Continents or Pangaea (60% water). Roaming Barbs, Wet, Temperate, 5 Billion Years. Allow the 5 (of 6) Victory Conditions. Normal Aggression for the AI. Choose your favorite tribe (the Celts and Egypt are great, although I tested with the Americans and did very well.) Please play a game and tell me what you think.

And yes, Shift + U will upgrade all the units that match the active unit, but they must be in a Barracks.

Had to upload as a .zip file. Hope you can unzip it. Oh yeah, unzip it to your \Conquests\Scenarios folder, with the rest of your .biq files. When you bring up the game, click on Civ Content, then click Learning.

 

[MysteryX]

Honestly, I think you might enjoy the game more if you tried to develop strategies to deal with the AI first before you look to modify it.

Usually the answer to the AI opponents out-building you is for you to use more workers to develop your land quicker. Of all advice I have ever seen given to anyone on these forums, "More workers" seems to is the one piece of advice often given that, when taken, turns hard games into easy ones.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I am trying to locate a Mod or something that will completely remove the
ability of the AI to cheat. I cannot play this game above the very-lowest
difficulty setting. Things in particular that I want to see go away forever:

Insane breeding and building....literally impossible breeding and building. I want them to have their culture bonuses, but not to automatically and magically breed and build at impossible speed.

A few thoughts ... the AI will always know the whole map; that's not possible to mod out. The AI loves to pick off straggler units, when you're fighting them; as much as possible, keep your military in one grouping. The famous (or infamous) stack of doom.

At warlord level, you still have a production bonus over the AI. That means it takes you fewer shields to build something, so you should be able to out-produce the AI. Yes, at the higher difficulty levels, you have a handicap in shield costs.

Civ3 is a different game from Civ4. It's very hard to win a game of Civ3 with only a few cities. Some experienced players have won the 5CC (Five City Challenge), but it takes focused efforts. These same players, though, recommend continuing to expand (by building settlers and new cities) throughout the first 3 ages when they're not playing a OCC or 5CC. If you improve the tiles around your cities, you will be the one who is breeding and building at an insane rate.

Last, and this is my personal Achilles heel, build enough offensive units. The AI will try to intimidate you, and demand things from you, if it feels you are weak militarily. I expand like crazy, and spread my military so thin that Montezuma thinks I look like lunch. I've been giving him what he wants, while I build up in response.

 

[bigFRANK]

Trades often seem unfair if your looking for Lux and are the bigger civ too as you have more to gain (more happy faces) than they do for a 1-1 trade.
Tech wise you have to consider the cost of the tech and if its likely to be available from other civs, that will ruin its value, if its a new exclusive tech that you have just researched the chances are you can sell it to the rest of the world for a Gold + GPT deal.
Keeping you rep clean however is a pain in the backside its tricky to recal when that 20 turn pact against your neighbours started, ending it a turn too soon can blow your chances of trading with that civ for the next thousand years.

 

[bearcat33]

A few thoughts ... the AI will always know the whole map; that's not possible to mod out. The AI loves to pick off straggler units, when you're fighting them; as much as possible, keep your military in one grouping. The famous (or infamous) stack of doom.

At warlord level, you still have a production bonus over the AI. That means it takes you fewer shields to build something, so you should be able to out-produce the AI. Yes, at the higher difficulty levels, you have a handicap in shield costs.

Civ3 is a different game from Civ4. It's very hard to win a game of Civ3 with only a few cities. Some experienced players have won the 5CC (Five City Challenge), but it takes focused efforts. These same players, though, recommend continuing to expand (by building settlers and new cities) throughout the first 3 ages when they're not playing a OCC or 5CC. If you improve the tiles around your cities, you will be the one who is breeding and building at an insane rate.

Last, and this is my personal Achilles heel, build enough offensive units. The AI will try to intimidate you, and demand things from you, if it feels you are weak militarily. I expand like crazy, and spread my military so thin that Montezuma thinks I look like lunch. I've been giving him what he wants, while I build up in response.

I would LOVE to play Civ FOUR again, but I can't remember where I bought
it. I have multiple accounts with all vendors, and a crappy memory, and lots
of expired email addresses.....so looking at my purchase list is not much of an option.

Civ Four pops up some weird "connect to the internet" dialog box, and no matter what I do, it says that there is no internet connection, and tells me to "connect manually to the internet" (What the FK???) So, Civ FOUR no longer launches.

So......I drag out the disk for Civ 3, install on Windows 7 64 bit, play for many many hours, and it crashes, and crashes and crashes. Close and re-launch, but now everything on the map is a TINY SPECK.
Changing the computer monitor screen resolution changes my desktop images, but has NO effect on the game. Running in Administrator does nothing. Running in Compatibility Mode does nothing.

This is WEIRD....the game SOMEtimes launches and runs fine, for many hours.....many, many hours of hard work. Then......CRAAAAASSSSSHHHH!
And....No Saved Game.

I've even tried rebooting the entire computer, tried reinstalling the game multiple times. What the FKKKKKK.