why only 3 cities??

[Agent Orange]

Hi.

I've got a question for all you hardcore Civ fans. I been playing Civilization 1 and 2 for a couple of years, and I recently purchased Civ 3. A great game btw. But I'm a little disappointed in one aspect of the AI. I play on Monarch but the other nations only build 3-4 cities max! Why aren't they expanding? or more importantly, can I fix this?

 

[Globetrotter]

Hi AO, and welcome to CFC.

Just a couple of questions:
- what size of map are you playing?
- What type of map did you choose?

Both can affect the AI's development as AI might be squeezed by each others or by lack of space.

Check that they are not isolated on an island, or all of them on a single continent where they do not have anymore space to expand, and check if they are surrounded by lots of mountains or not. Especially if you are on a small map.

In one game, i had a civ fortified on an island with 6 cities, while another almost dominated a full continent (around 40+ cities), most of which it has built & not conquered, so building more cities should not be a problem for the AI.

 

[Shabbaman]

What a bizarre user name you've picked.
It depends on the map size I suppose. On a small or tiny map, you won't see very much cities, because the optimal number of cities (corruption associated) is low.
It could be a bug though. Did you install the patch?

 

[Agent Orange]

I always play huge map, sometimes world, sometimes a custom map. they have lots of space but won't develop any citites! I remember when I played the game on my old computer the other civs expanded well, but now.....could it be something i altered in the civ3mod file?

btw: my username is a Tori Amos song.

 

[Agent Orange]

I have just downloaded the patch so I'll see if it makes things better! thanks for the help anyways....

 

[Agent Orange]

hmmmm......after I installed the patch, the game won't start.....this just keeps getting better and better!

 

[SanPellegrino]

guess your username is more a poison to defoliate forests used by the US in Vietnam...

 

[farting bob]

Originally posted by Shabbaman
What a bizarre user name you've picked.

not as strange as mine.
i like to play with 16 on a small or tiny world using te editor. it's a grat achievment if you build more than 2 on tiny. with PTW youcan have 31 civs. i saw someones screenshot of 31 on tiny and it's really funny. all there are is capital cities about 4 squares from capital cities on the whole map.

 

[satchel]

Originally posted by Agent Orange

btw: my username is a Tori Amos song.

... among other things.

I am puzzled by your observation that the AIs don't expand. When I first played Civ III I was shocked by the rate at which the AIs expand. That was my first "this is not Civ II" moment. In my experience the AIs expand like mad, and after they fill up their own territory they start tromping settlers through my territory.

Are you sure we are playing the same game?

 

[Ancient Pike]

Yeah, my AI's expand so fast. I played a Civ II game just for fun the other day and saw a huge clump of unsettled, good land right next to them! Glad the AI expands like hell in Civ III.

 

[n1ck31]

If you were messing with any files that determine rules, reset them to the defaults or, at the worst, reinstall civ3. That should fix the problem.

 

[zagnut]

I would try the suggestion of N1ck31 (speaking of strange names!!). I have never experienced the AI limiting its build of cities. I don't think it is a program problem or there would be lots of other posts complaining about it. One of the main goals of the AI on any level is to expand. Therefore, stopping at 3 or 4 cities just makes no sense. Keep fiddling with it, you'll find the key.

 

[n1ck31]

The 1 is supposed to look like an I. I just try to keep consistency with my AIM and hotmail names, which of course could not be nick or even n1ck.

 

[Anglophile]

I guess it is kind of refreshing to hear a complaint about the AI not expanding fast enough - a year ago it was all about 'settler diarrhea'. My first game on PTW I played a 320x320 map, 40% land with 24 civs (because I could). I was reminded of one thing and discovered another (by the way I was playing the DyP mod). First, I was reminded that there is a 512 city limit which was hit in 1625 BC !! - no AI reluctance to expand here! What I discovered is that there is also an absolute limit on the number of bonus tiles which will appear. You get the luxuries and strategics at whatever rate you have in your bic file and then the bonus resource tiles are allocated. In this game, there was literally not a fish (or whale, shellfish or pearl) in all the water tiles I had explored or map traded for. And only a couple of cows in the fields. I am still trying to tune both the number of land squares for the biggest practical map plus the resource appearance rates to get fairly plentiful bonus resources plus enough strategic and luxury resources to make it playable (you try to win a very big map with 12 civs on Deity with one or two luxuries and no iron/ horses/whatever). I am also trying to work out how to slow down the expansion rate because on a 270x250 map, 30% land, everything except the mountains and jungle is occupied by 1000 BC. The AI civs all have 20-40 cities by 1000BC so I am just not sure why Agent Orange has noticed this phenomenon in his games.

 

[Rammstein]

Agent Orange is also a Depeche Mode song.

 

[Minmaster]

huh i always run into annyoing rapidly expanding AIs that steal all my land! lets trade AIs!