Why is the AI obsessed with settling every empty space?

[lummoxybez]

It seems like when I finally have a decently sized empire, the AI obsessively sends settler/spear combos tramping towards every empty square - mostly uninhabitable wasteland. These places are usually empty tundra or desert, but on they march towards them like they’re the promised land.

Is there any benefit to settling these places? They are more often tiny settlements that will never grow and are rife with corruption.

Added to that they are prone to flipping because they are snug next to my city that has, say, a temple.

“Hey guys! Forget building that awesome military unit. Beat your swords into ploughshares and follow me to the land of milk and honey, I mean, baking desert.”

 

[Kirejara]

The KI settles in a more or less fixed pattern, so that the expanded city spaces will never overlap. They check only if they can place a city into their pattern, but ignore the terrain next to it.

Also they know where future resources will appear long befor they have the required tech. So an ancient desert town could be really sitting on salpeter or oil.

Because of that they often missed some great spots or settle directly on cows and wheat (which negates the added food provided by these) or one field away from the coast.

Interesting Screenshots

For myself I have marked the "uninhabitable wasteland" (desert, tundra, marsh, mountains and jungle) as unsettleble in the editor to avoid these mostly useless desert towns.

 

[Civinator]

... and one condition for the domination victory is, that a civ covers at least 66% of the landmass (coastal terrain included). All the 'uninhabitable wasteland' counts to that landmass and therefore can be decisive for the domination victory.

 

[Theov]

Yeah, edit the desert and tundra as not settlable will help. They can still settle on tundra forests though.
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