Turn Off AI Cooperation?

[So_Confused]

Is it possible to turn off the AI's tendacy to cooperate between each other, or at least make them not focus the player? What I mean by this is every single game I play on Prince, no matter if I am first, last, or in the middle, one of the AI decides he is going to hate me. He declares war on me really early on then continuously sends a steady line of troops at me throughout the entire game. No matter what I offer he won't accept peace, then whenever I beat back a wave, he offers peace if I give him half my cities, all of my gold, and my luxury resources.

This wouldn't be so bad if the other AI's didn't work together to fight me. The barbs will just "happen" to spawn next to every single one of my cities and often times wait until the AI who hates me is attacking to decide to send forces in. Never once if the last 4 games I have tried to play have I seen these barbs attack the attacking AI, instead he will walk right past his troops to attack mine.

On top of all of this, the other AI will keep growing and soon be too far ahead for me to keep up because I have to spend every single turn making troops just to withstand this AI's attacks, but SOMEHOW he will still be building cities, buildings, and even more troops. I know the AI "cheats" but how can they afford to send a enough troops for me to kill 5 of them for everyone 1 I lose and still build their empire faster and bigger than me?

The whole point of this long thread is can I do anything somewhere in the options to make the AI's treat me exactly like the other AI's? To make sure I am not crazy, in the past games I had I saved periodically and loaded them after the fact to see if anyone else suffered the wrath of endless troop attacks, but not a single one in 4 games did. Sometimes they fought each other, but after a wave or two, they either decided to make peace or just stopped fighting for the time. Not so with me :-/

 

[muhtesem insan]

I don't believe there's such a concept. But if AI thinks you're weak when someone attacks you others will attack to get a slice of the pie.

 

[steave435]

Sounds more like you're doing something wrong, that doesn't match my experience at all. Hard to tell what though since you don't really give a lot of info about your situation. In my game (admittedly the first non-scenario one though, but a huge continents map so it has lasted quite a while) the AI is fighting each other quite a bit and fight until the end most of the time. Russia has wiped out the Americans and Songhai and has been in heavy fighting with the Mongols for about 10-20 turns now. Spain has killed Polynesia, and Rome took out the Iroquois and the Aztecs (although I did help with the Aztecs). I've only taken out the Incas and Spain on my own and the nations mentioned above are all that remains, so that's a total of 10, meaning an another 2 AI nations has been destroyed by other AI civs before I even found them.
During this entire time (I'm now at 300-400 turns or so), the Aztecs are the only ones to ever start a war with me. The Romans have been right next to me from the start and is the second largest nation after Russia, but I've still maintained them as friendly during the entire game up until when I decided to move on from the continent we were sharing (with my civ basically forming a giant U around theirs, with the ocean above) and invade Spain. Even then they didn't declare war despite my minimal defenses left behind and the open borders we had allowing them to see that fact, we remained at peace until they started attacking one of my city state allies after Spain was killed, at which point I started the war.

Basically, I think you simply got a bad start due to being inexperienced just like me, but you hadn't read up on the diplomatic game like I had so while I avoided war (the Aztecs had to pass trough a very narrow corridor between the Incas and Rome, which I kept friendly to me and at war with them, to get to me and I built defenses on the hilly forested terrain they'd arrive at if they did go trough there) and thus got a chance to learn and start catching back up, you got stuck. That's why my game has taken so long, I ended up getting far behind in the tech tree compared to other nations so I bunkered down and focused on science to catch up while playing the diplomatic game to avoid wars, and their head start was large enough that I pretty much had to fill the entire tree to get back to their level, which of course took a while.
Can you upload a save and we can have a look?

Regarding the barbs though, when they spawn they decide on a nearby target and go for that, so that's probably why it bypasses the AI. It's not because it's the AI, it's simply because they're not programmed to change target once they've decided on one.

 

[The_Quasar]

I'm wondering what level you're starting on? Perhaps it may be advisable to step down a level or two until you get a bit more of a grip on the game... this will reduce the number of units the AI sends to you, and it's overall aggressiveness.

Try, too, to get your first city really going before you begin building more... many people begin by building too many cities, too quickly, when they are not needed. Unless you're going for a domination victory, you really need no more than 4-6 in total.

Try also to get your science buildings in early, the Library (or the Great Library wonder) should be one of the very first buildings in almost every city, then try to get the National College built. Once you have that, on the lower levels, you should be able to stay ahead in science. Build Universities to stay ahead.

When the AI attacks, try to beat them back to their own cities, taking one should produce a good offer to you of most of their goodies. However, don't build too many units, or you'll get behind on other things, a few up to date units are always better than a host of lesser units (which will cost a fortune in maintenance).

Good luck, perseverance does pay off in this game!

 

[Naokaukodem]

the last 4 games I have tried

I was going to tell you that in this game you have try several games in order to have an accessible one... but 4 in a raw... now i'm just advising you to play lotery, maybe this time the luck will be on your side.

 

[joncnunn]

If your playing a map where you have multiple borders: All your neighbors hate you regardless of what the others are doing.

So if the formulation is such that your in between them, they'll like each other but hate you.

If on the other hand all three of you each share two borders, they'll also hate each other in addition to you.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

There's defeniately something wrong with how AI percieves battles. Id on't get why if I beat his 4 swordsman would he be entitled to 50% of my assets despite obviously losing.

Quite frankly i have rarely ever seen them give me anything in return for peace.

 

[headcase]

According to this table, they appear to cooperate:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ5/difficulties

On Prince or above, "attitude" is -1.
Since all AI are playing on Chieftain, they are getting an "attitude" of +1.

 

[bonafide11]

Sounds like you're just not building enough military. If you're weak, the AI will attack you. If you're strong, barbs are not really a problem since they can get you easy experience points (and culture if you're using honor).

 

[Tokira]

With certain tactics you can make the AI to turn against eachother insteads of you.

I would suggest you to:
- Not build cities straight next to their borders especially if they've asked you to stop building cities near them
- Bribe the AIs to DOW eachother if it can be done with a reasonable price
- Build a big military, on prince it isn't hard to beat AI military-wise
- Don't finish off civs in war. Leave them a few cities if you're warmongering. This way the AIs wont immediately hate you.
- Put a huge amount of AIs into the game. Personally I've tested having 22 AIs on a standard map and I can tell that it is much easier (though also time consuming) to play with 21 AIs who struggle to have space for 2-3 cities than with 7 civs that have plenty of room to expand.

There's defeniately something wrong with how AI percieves battles. Id on't get why if I beat his 4 swordsman would he be entitled to 50% of my assets despite obviously losing.

Quite frankly i have rarely ever seen them give me anything in return for peace.

I'm wondering about this as well.. I've been able to get the AIs to give me everything they have in a peace but sometimes they're so stubborn that even when they have only one city and no troops left, they wont give you even one gold for a peace.

 

[So_Confused]

I'm wondering what level you're starting on? Perhaps it may be advisable to step down a level or two until you get a bit more of a grip on the game... this will reduce the number of units the AI sends to you, and it's overall aggressiveness.

This is on Prince, the easier difficulties are reallyyyyy easy.

Try, too, to get your first city really going before you begin building more... many people begin by building too many cities, too quickly, when they are not needed. Unless you're going for a domination victory, you really need no more than 4-6 in total.

I did, I had 4 cities that were all pretty decent, I had most of the wonders in the game (spread out through these 4 cities). The AI on the other hand had at least over 10 cities, all heavily populated with a bunch that were really low population

Try also to get your science buildings in early, the Library (or the Great Library wonder) should be one of the very first buildings in almost every city, then try to get the National College built. Once you have that, on the lower levels, you should be able to stay ahead in science. Build Universities to stay ahead.

I do, but I can never stay ahead of them in science, no matter how many buildings I build or great scientists I get they somehow still keep ahead.

When the AI attacks, try to beat them back to their own cities, taking one should produce a good offer to you of most of their goodies. However, don't build too many units, or you'll get behind on other things, a few up to date units are always better than a host of lesser units (which will cost a fortune in maintenance).

Good luck, perseverance does pay off in this game!

This piece of advice doesn't make sense, how can I not build too many units and still take their cities? Especially when they have a literal line of troops from their cities to mine.

 

[Heerlo]

I've seen at least 2 games of mine where an AI would completely kill another AI.

I think that has happened in the game I have going now, and also in the game I have going now, not a single AI has declared war on me.

I am kinda isolated, though.

 

[apocalypse105]

IF you are weak AI will see that as a oppurtunity decleration of wars doesn't allways mean you will have bad relationships its only if you take cities of them.

So even if someone dows you early and fails and you become stronger they eventualy become friendly


Its a bad design basicly one soldier can make the difference between friendly or not

 

[Snoopaloop]

I did, I had 4 cities that were all pretty decent, I had most of the wonders in the game (spread out through these 4 cities). The AI on the other hand had at least over 10 cities, all heavily populated with a bunch that were really low population

Stop building so many Wonders. Especially if they are not an important part of your gameplan. Your city has only 1 stone...don't build the Masuoleum of Halicarnasus. Planning on playing a defensive game...skip the Statue of Zeus. Build a unit or two or your library/markets here instead.

As for the idea of AI co-operation, I feel its a very sensible/human thing for the AI to do. My example. In my last game Montezuma owns the west, Persia the center, and me the east of a continent. Monty declares war on Persia, and the moment I see a city fall, I declare war and rush the Persian capital.

I enjoy how the AI's will all target you if you are weak. Though I wish they would be a bit smarter about it. If they are on a different continent, I wish they would wait until there army is across the ocean before they do declare war.

 

[steave435]

I'm wondering about this as well.. I've been able to get the AIs to give me everything they have in a peace but sometimes they're so stubborn that even when they have only one city and no troops left, they wont give you even one gold for a peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7aRJE-oOY
Sid thinks that players don't want the AIs to come begging since it could make you feel bad for destroying them..........................

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7aRJE-oOY
Sid thinks that players don't want the AIs to come begging since it could make you feel bad for destroying them..........................

That's bit of a BS if you ask me... it depends on the person, if I wanna let them live, I'll let them live, I never even accept Peace Treaty if I wanna squash them.

 

[steave435]

That's bit of a BS if you ask me... it depends on the person, if I wanna let them live, I'll let them live, I never even accept Peace Treaty if I wanna squash them.

Agreed.