Ugh.... AI! BUILD CITIES!

[TorgoGrooves89]

Unfortunately I don't have the game yet (damn European release date) but if the AI does less pointless city spam i'll be pretty happy about that. Nothing annoyed me more than watching the AI in vanilla build cities in the most pointless of locations. So frustrating having to deal with that.

 

[Putmalk]

I haven't noticed any specific change in AI expansion strategy. Civilizations that favor expansion and war will expand as fast as they can, while others that favor tall and defense will do just that. "Pointless" cities will exist no matter what, as the AI cannot possibly choose an optimal location every time.

 

[Securion]

Turn off cultural victory ---> problem solved.

 

[TorgoGrooves89]

I haven't noticed any specific change in AI expansion strategy. Civilizations that favor expansion and war will expand as fast as they can, while others that favor tall and defense will do just that. "Pointless" cities will exist no matter what, as the AI cannot possibly choose an optimal location every time.

Yeah I guess. They can never be perfect of course. I suppose the main thing that annoys me is when the AI does not know when to stop. I'll normally always get to a point where I don't need any more cities for the victory condition i'm going for and so decide to concentrate on what i've got, rather than continue pumping out settlers. I'm really hoping the new AI can decide that as well sometimes, even if they are warmongering and expansionist.

 

[Baleur]

I'm guessing your AI's just had bad luck, getting all their settlers taken by barbarians etc (the barbarians get a huge bonus on Immortal, don't they?)

 

[Ajuga]

Could it be that the AI no longer receives a bonus to happiness?

 

[ahawk]

Just played a Standard-size, Pangea-plus map with the number of civs whittled down to 4, and the number of CS's to 8 (I like expansion games myself).

The civs in-game were
1) Russia (myself)
2) Ethiopia
3) Greece
4) Japan

By the time I'd won in the 1700's AD, I'd kept a tally of how many cities each had had before I DoW'ed them and taken their capital:

I'd had ~7 cities
Ethiopia had ~ 2 or 3 cities, which makes sense, given their UA
Japan had around 12 cities, one or two of which they'd taken from Greece
Greece, which I attacked the earliest, had ~6 cities

Ultimately, I didn't see much difference from vanilla (although 3 of 4 civs were vanilla civs to begin with).

My thought is that if AI cities seem less abundant, it could be because buying settlers/workers is now quite difficult and the economy is tougher in general due to Trading Posts being delayed further into the Tech tree, which, when coupled with a few extra buildings (mostly Shrines) taking up gold via maintenance, could leave the AI hurting for gold.

 

[El Caballerion]

Turn off cultural victory ---> problem solved.

Can anyone vouch for this? If I do this, could I expect a more expansionist AI that will actually BUILD cities in good locations (not just in snow/desert)?

 

[Ghonasiflaids]

Im glad they dont spam as many cities. Before they had the idea in their head that they should have as much cities as humanly possible, and to make them as ugly and unrealistically placed as possible.

 

[Drago Askani]

depends on what they are going for. I started a continents map with me (korea) vs all the new civs last night. And at least 5 of them are going for cultural victory. So they stayed with small number of cities.

 

[Atwork]

Epic speed, Large Continents, 22 civs, 25 CSs, Emperor difficulty, turn 187, early Renaissance era.


My continent:

Japan--6 cities (1 conquered)

France--5 cities (1 conquered)

Me (Persia)--4 cities (2 conquered)

America--4 cities (1 lost)

Germany--3 cities (1 lost)

Mongols--3 cities (1 lost)

Mayan--3 cities

Egypt--2 cities

Ottomans--2 cities

Aztecs--2 cities

Ethiopia--1 city (1 lost)


At this point, there isn't a lot of good land left for settlement. Most space is taken. And the land that is available isn't that great, or in other areas, mountain chains and very hilly terrain makes it difficult to get to otherwise good spots.

 

[Rishara]

I think it just depends on the civ. Another thing I've noticed (on emperor level) is if I park a couple warriors outside the first couple AI cities I find, they get paranoid and kind of avoid building settlers. If I'm not around, then they seem to spam.

The current game I'm playing, Hiawatha was spamming settlers left and right. He had filled up his 1/2 of the continent and kept trying to expand into my area. He provided me with many many free workers (and free gold after I had enough workers)...

 

[MaximusK]

On a recent game Alexander was sending settlers everywhere! Like a train, I was sniping em w/ composite bowman but more kept on coming, escorted by knights.

Theodora kept is tight at 3 but was converted all my ing cities with missionaries. I was allied w/ her against Alex so didn't DoW, at least, I haven't yet. I'm taking a break from that game because Monty conquered the other continent entirely (playing hemispheres). he is about to launch a massive flotilla to conquered the side of the world I"m sharing with Thea/Alex.

 

[nokmirt]

In my game many AI cities are in decent spots, but there has not been a huge amount of cities. The AI does ICS, but only when needed. However, I did find a nice island of the coast of my continent, which the AI civ Austria should have settled long ago, but didn't. She is instead, marrying all CSs she comes in contact with. Jerusalem, was her last take over, on the adjacent continent. I just located it with my frigate.

Perhaps, if Spain was on my continent where Austria is, maybe they would have settled the island. Not sure though. In any case I settled it myself.

Oh, and I killed a barb gatling gun, who came out of his crappy ancient barb camp. He must have an underground factory, or there is one hell of a black market around that island. Gatling guns look cool in the game. I wanted to see it fire and didn't get to, but will be soon enough.

 

[pspboy7]

One thing I notice is that the AI builds taller rather than wider empires... scary!

 

[gunnergoz]

Try this: Make two starts of the same game, with the only difference being barbarians turned off in one. I think you may see the game without barbarians will have the AI building many more cities, simply because their settlers survive to found them.

 

[Chronicles]

I´m playing my first G&K game and Monty, who in vanilla games used to build lots of cities, is sitting on one, as is Byzantium.

 

[RohirrimElf]

Ive checked the last 3 tabs on the forum but i cant find any other post about the ai not making any or just to few citys.

Ive been playing on a huge map, 18 civs, immortal, marathon, continents plus. Im at turn 400 now. Ive scouted all of the continent i`m on but there are just so few citys build and quite a lot of space inbetween civs. Austria and Alexander diddnt bother to expand. They are still playing with their capital only. William and Babylon got 3 citys but they have been beating quite heavely against me and Attilla. They have Lost a few citys but build some more (not getting past 3 citys). The byzantium empire, England and Attilla never got past 3 citys total. Well Attilla captured a city once but razed it immideately.

England and Byzantium got ahead of me score wise. Byzantium by quite a lot do to some wonder building. But still all the civs on my continent only have 3 citys total. Ive got 4 citys myself but i am in a rough spot with couple of civs on my borders, but still i could have build 2 citys more on good spots. I just diddnt do it because of my borders getting a bit indefencible.

Im not sure if this is a poor design by the makers of this expansion. In vanilla the AI spammed citys like crazy. I`m not sure what to think about this design. Because it does get scary sometimes if u build to many citys yourself and get attacked on multiple fronts. This made me lose my first game quick.

I would like to start a poll if i can do this. How many citys do your computer opponents have by turn 400 on marathon?

If u diddnt save ur game or played a different speed, maybe u can tell me if they ever get past 3 citys before the middle ages (which was roughly 400 turns on my game.

I hope to get some responce.

Rohirrimelf

 

[RohirrimElf]

strange. i made this post on the gods and kings page. ill put it there. Happened to me this week before.

 

[blackcatatonic]

I was getting owned sideways in my King game, so I took a break from it and started up a Prince game with the same settings (Continents, Standard, same Civs) to see whether it was easier.

It was ludicrously easy. Admittedly I had an advantage on my first game in that there were a few things I'd learned from mistakes I'd made, but the AI just isn't expanding. Dido hasn't got past Carthage, while the others have at most two or maybe three cities. It's bizarre and frankly, making for quite a dull game.