The Settler Map Economy

[floydmcw]

I've been playing around with Settler/Epic for fastest space victory, and noticed that I could sell AIs maps for decent cash (double digits) repeatedly.

At first I thought this had something to do with knowing Satellites, but seeing the poles wouldn't explain why they would pay for the same map over and over.

I think the mechanic might be this: Player maps are valuable to the AI because the player knows the location of late game revealed resources (Uranium, Coal, Oil, Aluminum).

But lacking the required techs, the AI can't see those resources, so they don't gain information and will pay the same amount for the map again and again.

Does this make sense?

 

[AcaMetis]

AIs paying far more money for detailed information about the polar ice caps than is reasonable is well known, but being able to repeatedly sell your map after you've got Satellites...I'unno. I think what's happening is that you're seeing changes in cultural borders as wars (cultural or otherwise) are fought, and AIs are willing to pay money to update that information? News to me if that's something that AIs are willing to buy maps for, but IIRC buying maps does give you that information, not just the land itself, so...

 

[jnebbe]

AIs paying far more money for detailed information about the polar ice caps than is reasonable is well known, but being able to repeatedly sell your map after you've got Satellites...I'unno. I think what's happening is that you're seeing changes in cultural borders as wars (cultural or otherwise) are fought, and AIs are willing to pay money to update that information? News to me if that's something that AIs are willing to buy maps for, but IIRC buying maps does give you that information, not just the land itself, so...

Is getting satellites a 1-time effect or do you actually see border changes in fog of war?

 

[floydmcw]

AIs paying far more money for detailed information about the polar ice caps than is reasonable is well known, but being able to repeatedly sell your map after you've got Satellites...I'unno. I think what's happening is that you're seeing changes in cultural borders as wars (cultural or otherwise) are fought, and AIs are willing to pay money to update that information?

On Settler the AIs are totally incapable of fighting wars. I had Monty in my last game. You could tell he was ready to throw down ... but it's hard to declare war when you have 1 or 2 non-garrison units.

Settler AI cultural changes probably resemble the movement of a glacier.

 

[AcaMetis]

IIRC Satellites only reveals the geographical world map, not cultural borders, and also IIRC it is a one-time thing, since the only changes in terrain are desert fairy magic due to Global Warming, and that's shown through the fog. Though obviously it's been a long time since any game of mine has reached Satellites, so maybe don't quote me on that without testing it first.