Why is there NOTHING TO EXPLORE??

[Moulton]

Went back and looked for save files for that game, but unfortunately they were wiped. It could be duplicated, probably, unless it is just random chance, -- which is possible. My first assumption was that it was chance... I have gotten galleys acrsoss stretches of ocean with 2 or 3 ocean stops, but it is rare. It can be done, however. But in this case, I parked a frigate in the middle of the ocean and watched them cross both ways, and not sink. On this map, (Marla's) you can explore pretty muchthe whold world by coasting... I did it (took a few years ) But I watched them cross.
My current game has been a warmongering game. I have stayed alive, but just barely. Found another unexplored promotory...1200 ad. Now England and Aztec are rushing to fill it up.
The thing that gets me is that they seem to have a drive to occupy land in other civ's territory (Not just mine) and let undeveloped land sit idle. Maybe it is a strategy of the AI to try to limit the opponents while growing their own area, and then take the open land later...

 

[WOPR]

I did once have *gasp!* a game where significant landmasses went uncolonized until after the discovery of Navigation.

Happily, my civilization was the first to discover it. My ships merrily sail through the oceans and discover 2 or 3 nice-sized land masses (large islands or bitty continents; your pick) that no civilization had yet claimed. I immediately switch to settler rush and manage to grab most of the 'new' land before my rivals do.

The game also featured two "major" continents. My civ was based on one; I 'discovered' four or more 'new' civs on the other. Since I had beaten the AI to the discovery of Navigation, I made a pretty penny in the process.

I believe this occurred on a Continents map, probably Large (maybe Huge) world size.

 

[Ironikinit]

Yeah, I've seen undiscovered islands occur, too. A good chance to see it happen is by playing continents on large or huge with small landmass.

Zouave, just because I saw a galley in the ocean doesn't mean that it didn't sink next turn, I don't know. I assumed that the AI had an advantage with galleys or something, but that assumption could easily be dead wrong. Feel free to do whatever you like to the editor, it's your game.

 

[Mr Spice]

In my games AI galleys don´t cross neither sea nor ocean until the discovery of navigation or magnetism. I have three pieces of evidence to support this:

1. I ususally build the Great Lighthouse and am thus able to explore more of the world than all my competitors are. Just about every game I get contact with all, or almost all, other civs quite early. To give myself the upper edge I never trade contacts, and (Surprise!) the other civs have contact only with the ones situated on the same continent plus those on continents separated only by coast tiles. This doesn´t change until at least one of them discovers astronomy, navigation or magnetism.

2. I use to try to get a hand of the other civ´s world maps without ever selling my own. When combined with the situation above, the result is that I have a pretty good idea of what the other civ´s know of the world. And, surprise again, the only uncovered spots of sea/ocean are where my ships once sailed. Until navigation/magnetism that is.

3. Until these technologies become availible I have never ever seen a galley in sea/ocean, except those belonging to the civ that owns the Lighthouse. But after navigation/magnetism I have seen plenty.

As far as I can understand the AI follows the rules, this time at least. But it seems as if navigation/magnetism allows all ships to cross sea/ocean, even galleys. (I must admit that I have never tried it with my own galleys though - I ususally upgrade them as soon as I can.)

Btw, I have a question to Cruiser about the german galley incident. Are you sure that you bought their world map and not just a territory map? The territory map reveals only settled land and would thus not reveal the path traveled by their galley...

 

[Soren Johnson]

Galleys are able to sail freely in ocean squares without risk of sinking once either Navigation or Magnetism is discovered. This applies both to the AI and the human player. Also, galleys can sail in sea squares once Astronomy is discovered. There are no special rules governing AI ships.

 

[johgn]

If I am on a continent (that later became apparent was many ocean squares from the other civs) I have never had the other civs make contact with me until navigation or I send galley after galley until I find other land. If they were cheating then they would find me fairly quickly.

 

[Zouave]

Originally posted by Soren Johnson
Galleys are able to sail freely in ocean squares without risk of sinking once either Navigation or Magnetism is discovered. This applies both to the AI and the human player. Also, galleys can sail in sea squares once Astronomy is discovered. There are no special rules governing AI ships.

Which does NOT explain two things:

1. Why SHOULD galleys AT ANY TIME safely sail in deep oceans?? I can just see a trireme/galley with oarsmen hadling the fifty foot waves of a Pacific storm!

2. I have spotted galleys a number of times not only in deep ocean BEFORE either Magnetism or Navigation was discovered by anyone.

Whatever the AI is doing there indeed is "nothing left to explore" by the time we reach caravels. And there must be a reason, and it has to be AI cheating. Not good.

 

[Moulton]

My current game is a pangea, and I saw almost no galleys until just recently. the world has been in a state of war most of the game, one or more civs, changing off from time to time. I build the lighthouse, and proceeded to exlore. I fould two large sub-continents unexplored (settled one, the aztecs and english the other) at 1450, Astronomy has just been discovered, and we have a race to Copernicus... there are still two large islands I discovered that no else has visited. I have to say, the AI galleys have not attempted to cross black water this game. I know short cuts I can make with my four moves, that they have not used. Or if they did, they were not successful.
It has been a looooong climb to second place from the bottom... but now I control most of the worlds saltpeter. Needless to say, I am very careful who I sell to...