Trading maps with the AI

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jurimax
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Jurimax

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If you really want to trade maps with the AI, just give them money and technologies until they are Worshipful. For me it always works.

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My way or the highway!!!
 
I never trade maps - too dangerous to let them see where all your cities are. They may also trade again with other civs and spread the info around. But then again, I don't think the game AI is sophisticated enough to use this against the player to the full.
Basically I think you shld only trade if you want to know where all their cities are and then send in armies to take them all out.... Otherwise there are other ways to get the info - like exploring etc.
 
posted July 01, 2001 07:02 AM
If you really want to trade maps with the AI, just give them money and technologies until they are Worshipful
Click to expand...

It is useful to trade maps in almost any game, but especially useful in an OCC game. You need to have Map Making to trade maps. Two reasons in particular make trading maps a good idea, with the "right" civs...

1. You need to get your caravans to the best foreign cities ASAP (esp. in OCC).

2. Giving tech, esp. to the right civ, will accelerate your rate of scientific discovery (see other threads of wise individuals' discoveries for details).

Note: I personally like to *get* gold from the AI, not cough it up. In essense, I trade science for gold, esp. in an OCC game where cash is king!

[This message has been edited by starlifter (edited July 01, 2001).]
 
To clarify : -

1) I hardly ever do external trade unless the foreign city is located really nearby. I usually use caravans to set up trade routes between my own cities only. Less hassle and faster to have full trade routes for all my cities.
2) I usually play the role of a 'tech merchant'. I.e. I will exchange any tech with anybody except when there's a critical tech which I am using to build a wonder critical to my gameplay style. As in exchange for tech A fr Civ A, then use tech A to exchange for tech B fr Civ B and then use tech B to exchange for another tech fr Civ A. My relations with them will become good (for the time being), giving me peace in the early days to expand aggressively and I'll be the most advanced civ.
 
There is every point in trading maps with the computer, because it is, after all, the computer and having made the map and processed all the moves of all the civs on it, will know exactly where all your cities are. It's very foolish to trade maps in Multi unless you know that you won't be attacked until you are ready, but with the AI you've got nothing to lose and the Civ has all its cities to lose!
biggrin.gif


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in vino veritas
 
You got a point there, duke. Never thought the computer can cheat like that. Of coz, this is only conjecture.
 

There is every point in trading maps with the computer, because it is, after all, the computer and having made the map and processed all the moves of all the civs on it, will know exactly where all your cities are. It's very foolish to trade maps in Multi unless you know that you won't be attacked until you are ready, but with the AI you've got nothing to lose and the Civ has all its cities to lose!
Click to expand...

Well you're absolutely right and these are also the kind of things that make me prefer MP to SP. What makes SP boring is that your opponent is always stupid!

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<IMG SRC="http://www.virtuallandmedia.com/img1/flags-4/europe/fra.gif" border=0> Az <IMG SRC="http://www.virtuallandmedia.com/img1/flags-4/europe/gre.gif" border=0>
 
MP may be great but Civ is a VERY long game. For those of us who have to work or are loaded with a thousand and one commitments and appointments, it's difficult even to have free time, much less find time to play MP.
frown.gif
Sad ppl like me can only play SP.
cry.gif
 
You know, I never NOT succeeded in trading map on Chieftain or Warlord level. The AI is just SO stupid.
smile.gif


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I know it seem hard sometimes, but uh...
remember one thing:
through every dark night,
there's a bright day after that,
so no matter how hard it get, stick ya chest out
keep ya head up and handle it.
 

by duke:

There is every point in trading maps with the computer, because it is, after all, the computer and having made the map and processed all the moves of all the civs on it, will know exactly where all your cities are.

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posted July 02, 2001 06:20 AM by SKM:

You got a point there, duke. Never thought the computer can cheat like that. Of coz, this is only conjecture.
Click to expand...

Some clarification... The AI civs do not 'know' about the location of your cities before finding them... except for specific funtions. The one function that allows all AI players to know of your city's location is nuking. Even in an area of the map that the AI has not yet explored, the AI will make instant use of the computer's master map. The AI will also know if the city has an SDI in it. The AI never knows if a city with no SDI is in the 3-square radius of another SDI, and will always behave as if a city with no SDI is unprotected, even sending 20 and 30 nukes against a 3-square radius protected city in one turn. So there are serious limits to the AI's "cheats".

So the AI "knows" the location, size, and SDI contents of all your cities at all times, for purposes of Nuking. And BTW, nukes do NOT fly to their targets... they magically "appear".

There is one more thing, on top of that, for nukes. On the turn an AI nuke is completed, it can instantly be launched from ANY of the AI cities, anywhere. Once it is produced and spends one turn in a city, however, it seems to stay.

I can also tell you this: the AI civs instantly "know" of your major surface ships when they come within 12 squares of any cruise missile they possess. Also, the cruise missile does not "fly" across the map to get there. It "appears" at the target and absolutely does not follow a path to get there.

Here is how extreme it gets. The AI does not even have to EVER have explored the locations around, say, your battleship that is 12 squares from, say, Paris (which has some CMs). And after your battleship is slammed with the CMs fro Paris, the ground track from Paris to your ship is STILL unexplored!!! But the 8 squares around the target (your battleship!) are explored. So, the AI just "magically" targets capital ships.

All this is not a big gripe with me personally, however, because it is actually not too significant... as long as you know how the AI works and what it can/cannot do.


BTW, I use Civ II 5.4.0f (patch 3, march 1999).

 
Aaaargh, it cheats! The computer cheats!
mad.gif


So that's how the AI uses nukes and CMs. Most of the time I am playing, it seems the AI just 'knows' which city of mine (that doesn't have an SDI) to nuke and just where my battleships and carriers are. Thanks for the explanation, starlifter.
 
It may help to trade maps early. Remember, unless you trade constantly, the computer wont have full info on you, nor will you have full info on it.

The world map you have is only as recent as you traded or when one of ur units was last in. So you can do it early in the game to let the comp know where you are and vice versa, but then build up secretly so to say and let them have it!

Although, with the comp cheating, who knows? Don't forget the cloak of secrecy that gets lifted when the Apollo programme is built.

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- Greenie

" Let us take by
cunning what we would
take by force"
 
Sometimes what happens is that even though you trade maps with the AI, if you go to cheat mode and view the specific AI's map it doesn't show your part. I don't know why this is so, and that's why i trade maps whenever i want or can, because i think the AI knows where everything is anyway.



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"The weak have one weapon: the errors of those who think they are strong."

- Georges Bidault
 

posted July 07, 2001 12:10 PM
Sometimes what happens is that even though you trade maps with the AI, if you go to cheat mode and view the specific AI's map it doesn't show your part. I don't know why this is so, and that's why i trade maps whenever i want or can, because i think the AI knows where everything is anyway.
Click to expand...

Just so you know, the AI civs do not have access to all the master info that the game itself maintains. However, specific functions have been modified (often called 'cheats') in order to "offset" the AI's rudimentary "intelligence". One of the functions is nukes. Another is CMs. Another is likely subs (I have not specifically verified subs yet, though). But for the majority of other functions, the AI does not have access to the "real time" truth that is maintained by the game itself. The AI will not be aware of your new cities (except for the nuke function), for instance. The AI will not know if you irrigate or build a road in it's own city radius, unless one of it's units "discovers" it the old-fashioned way. The AI does not track your ships, except in cases of specific functions (like CMs). The AI civs actually explore the world, much like humans.

When you trade maps, you usually don't see a difference in AI "strategy", since the AI "strategy" is quite rudimentary to begin with. A human is able to make complex plans and exploit map info; the AI is not. Hence, it is very rarely "bad" to trade maps with the AI civs.
 
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