What districts will the different AI build? And who pays what for lux?

Im trying to find the best AIs for a speedrun game where I intend to take pretty much all the AI cities. Does anyone know if there exists an overview of what districts different AIs will prioritize to build?

Also if anyone knows what AIs pay extra for luxuries, that would be helpful. I think Aztec and Scotland, but are there others? Kristina will pay more for DF, and I think Georgia also does some times.

 

Aside from prioritizing their unique districts, I'm not sure if a definitive list exists, but that's a great question. You can add Canada and sometimes Teddy to the DF list. I can keep track in my future games and pass along the info if you wish. Sometimes who'll pay big for luxes feels like rng, or perhaps it's based on their current amenity situation. But Scotland is a lock to make you rich off of them.

 

I would appreciate that!

 

Since now AI generally puts more emphasis on campuses and science in general (it will favor scientific over trade city-states, for example), I'd pick civs that have generic campus placement (i.e. mountains/reefs/jungle) rather than civ-specific (Austalia, Korea & Maya come to mind).

sidenote: this is why I love Netherlands science. There's a high chance AI will place campuses adjacent to a river, so that's an automatic +2 for me.

 

@ATEX Just finished my first game since this post - Deity domination as Rome w/SS and no other modes. Notably Georgia was in the game and a distant neighbor. While she didn't pay an unusual amount, 5g per 1 diplo, she would purchase the diplo immediately once meeting her in the ancient era. If "flipping" diplo around T60 is banned or just not your thing, Tamar is a good early meet to start banking off your early diplo.

Nothing out of the ordinary with selling luxuries. Korea offered me 11gpt for luxes consistently through the game until I betrayed and attacked them. I didn't get a chance to test Alex, as he declared on me sub T30 and my Legion counter push ended him so were never friends. I'm pretty sure there's nothing special about him valuing luxes or diplo from past experience. I met Gaul and Scythia super late since they were in remote locations on a peninsula and island respectively. But again, I'm pretty sure they're nothing special in trades either.

Spain was the other Civ in the game, who didn't seem too interested in diplo or luxes in my game. On an unrelated note, I was able to declare a protectorate war against him, triggering the inspiration for Nationalism. So mark me down for exactly 2 protectorate wars in almost 3000 hours.

Sorry the info is light, but I confirm Georgia pays early and a decent amount. Not the ~9 per you can get from Kristina but also not low balled either. I'll return to this thread in the future as I continue my quest.

 

My experience is that Sweden pays the most for DF, and that Georgia, Greece (at least Pericles) and Scotland seem to also pay well for DF.

In my current game I got 287g for one luxury from Portugal early on, seems like the cost they pay for luxuries is somewhat based on both friendship level and whether perhaps they need it for happiness. I assume the latter is a real effect because the value they offer often changes from turn to turn even if they do not move up or down in relations.

I keep updating my list for Speed Run. My considerations when trying to pick my "lucky 13":

Defensive bonuses: Vietnam, America, and Japan are all out since they are much harder to rush.

Early unique units: We have double incentive to avoid AIs with good ones. For example, not only do we not want to have to fight Eagle Warriors, leaving Aztecs out of the game makes Eagle Warriors one of the possible units we can buy from Barbarian Clans. For this reason I avoid Maya, Nubia, and Egypt. Sumeria is the big exception.

Wall bias: I can't tell if this is real or chance, but it seems to me some AIs prioritize walls. China really seems too (perhaps since they want Masonry for Great Wall) as does Georgia (makes sense with their bonus).

DF buyers: Sweden is the best here, not sure I have the full list.

District bias: Nowadays all the AIs prioritize Campus, but I feel like a few, especially Korea and Scotland, push them even harder. Mali is a favorite for me since they actually build Commercial Hubs. Dido seems to build Harbor much more reliably than England for whatever reason. I avoid Germany since they kill CS and Zulu since the Encampments just slow down conquest.

Faith bonuses: Originally I tried to avoid these to increase odds of getting Religious Settlements, but with 13AI this is probably a list cause. At least one AI always seems to find a Relic or take Voidsingers after building their capital Monument. Given this I would rather include Mali for their CH and mines that worry about RS. I swear it is so random - some games RS is still there at T30 and other games I start on Tobacco, meet a religious CS, and run God King and still whiff on T15.

Unique improvements: The AI often spams their unique improvements and the best of these is the Zigarat since it unlocks from the start and yields gold. The worst are the ones that yield healing instead of gold/faith like Mekewap.

General improvement preference: One big random factor in the early game especially is if the AIs near you build anything useful. I sure hate conquering 3 cities with nothing to pillage but farms and nothing in them except a Granary. Other games, your neighbor will have 3-4 mines and two Campus and you can really snowball. I don't have a good bead on AI improvement preferences but Mali certainly seems to like mines (makes sense with their ability). I feel like Greece maybe does too but this may be in part hill bias.

Arabia: Always avoid them because of their ability to steal the last prophet.
Kupe: I play Continents and Islands so I don't want them stealing all the island huts.

My current list is:
Sumeria: Guaranteed friend and later lots of gold from pillaging.
Mali: CH, mines,
England (Victoria): Vanilla (no negatives)
Phoenicia: Vanilla + Harbors
Greece (Pericles): Buys DF, Acropolis bias
Scotland: Buys DF, seems to also make more districts
Sweden: Buys DF
Kongo: Does not compete for religion and seems to often have mines
Khmer: Just added, hoping they will build more Holy Sites
Portugal: Just added, seems to have lots of gold from Trade Routes to buy stuff
Korea: Spams campus
Canada: Peaceful, buys DF
Poland: Buys DF

I recently got rid of Netherlands as they always seem to denounce me right away (so can't sell them stuff) and get walls pretty early. Portugal was first with walls in my current game, if I see that again I will ax them too. Right now none of them except Mali have a faith bonus, and Mali usually seems to take Desert Folklore so I reserve the chance to get Religious Settlements if I luck into a Relic. Since faith is so important to recalling heroes, I have been considering letting Russia and Saladin back in just to have more Holy Sites to pillage and just giving up on Religious Settlements and Religion in general...

 

Thanks for the info. I did not see your post before now. Lux trade will be an alternative to DF economy for domination games, so Korea might be a good target if they will pay that amount of gold often.

 

Does anyone know if you can influence the districts the ai builds by disabling victory conditions?

Also I found this piece of info at the wiki:In single player games, Gilgamesh, Gorgo, Pericles, Qin Shi Huang, Trajan, Teddy Roosevelt, Victoria, Alexander, and John Curtin specifically ignore Religion. They will only go for it if they get a major advantage towards it (e.g. starting next to a natural wonder).

For many fast SV war games I think we want as few holy sites as possible. Preferably campuses and commercial hubs.