Looking for Advice

[ed_conn]

Hello,

Despite that fact that I have played Civ since version 1 and it is the only turn based game I really enjoy, I feel like a novice. I am hoping someone will confirm my assumptions and maybe give some guidance.

I enjoy long, slow games. Civ4 is the best at it in my opinion, but I still find some things lacking.

1 - The AI does not seem quite aggressive enough. There are very few wars. If I understand it correctly I can use the AI Aggressive switch in the custom game to make the AI More Aggressive without making it always at war. Is that correct?

2 - I also read that using larger maps with more civs may create more wars. Is this true? That sounds good, but..

3 - The early age goes by fairly well. It is slow enough that when wars do happen, you can have a good fight or two before the units become out of date. Unfortuantely that isn't the case as the ages pass. Later ages seem to go by too quick. It seems to me a larger map with more civs will make this problem worse. Larger maps = more towns = more research points = quicker discoveries. By the modern age I was discovering new techs every 3 or 4 turns. It was hard to use units before they were out of date. In most cases I could not upgrade or build units fast enough, before they needed to be updated again. This may be more real life, but detracts from my game play. Also more civs, more tech trading, quicker movement through the tech tree as the game proceeds. While the tech disocery scales to game speed, it does not scale seem to scale to world size. Is there a way to alter this?

4 - If it take longer to discover techs, then it seems I may need to extend the number game turns in order to enjoy each era before the turn limit ends. I read that turn off the time limit victory will prevent the turn limit from kicking in. Is this true? If not is there a way to extend the number turns before the game ends?

5 - If those changes were made, do you think that excessive gold would unbalance the game? Or would the AI spend the extra time between discoveries build military units and not just concenrtarting on using the cities to create extra gold and research? Or should everything take more time? I really just want to tweak the game not re-write it.

6 - It seems the AI does not upgrade their units. Can this be changed? I did have a war against a tech superior civ that still had mostly outdated units. They built new, but never seemed to upgrade the existing.

Thanks for any help.

Ed

[John-SJ]

I have not tried these options so I am only guessing, but it may be that a couple of your issues might be addressed by setting game speed to epic and disabling tech trading. Maybe?

[ed_conn]

I do play epic. I haven't disabled tech trading because I figured that grabbing a tech in exchange for peace should be part of the game.

[Aaron_Bevan]

1. Yes Toggle the more agressive AI for more wars. Increase the AI dificulty, their increased production should help to make up for their lack of ingenuity.

2. More civs in general as you will have more variety in religon and civics causing contention. Do you play nice with same religion ect or do you keep your borders closed going your own way and demanding things from other civs?

3. Epic game speed, no tech trading and simply fight more. You cant spend cash on tech if you have to spend it on units. I found Epic to be really slow and never got to the modern age but for you to be getting techs in 4 turns on epic must mean a lot of revenue into science and not much warmongering.

4. Yes turning off the time limit victory condition means it wont end in x number of turns

5. Your gold will be spent on either research or upkeep (cities and Warmongering) plus any gold in your treasury can be spent on upgrading your units.

6. Cant say I have watched for this as the AI is usualy in FoW but I have seen up to date units with 3 lvl advancements even though I have not yet fought that type of unit before. Could be the AI is short on cash and/or finds it more effiecent to create new units unless they have experiance.

Basicly it boils down to how you play the game, if you play nice wars are not likely but if you play the warmonger then yes you will find more wars. I have read in several places people expresing their wish for the AI to declare war on them but honestly why are you waiting for then to declare? The AI has some inteligence and will only declare when it thinks it has a chance.

[OzzyKP]

I agree about the tech. It was a problem in earlier civs too. At some point in the late middle ages or so, everyone starts inventing tech feverishly and its hard to really enjoy any one age, tech, or unit.

[ed_conn]

1. Ok Good

2. Yes I keep my borders closed, especially in the beginning. I use a combination of the coast line and my first few cities to stake out my claim. I will sign open borders after that if I want to travel through someone elses territory, but until I have settled the area I am trying to grab.

3. I play Epic speed. I do prefer the longer games. I do not usually start wars. Mostly because if someone starts them I can fight one on one or one on two. Everytime I start a war I end up fighting everyone, and I am just not that good. If I lower the difficulty too mush, I end out gunning everyone and the rest of the game is too easy. Does no tech trading, include AI to AI trades? I could do that, but longer discovery times seems a better answer.

4. Ok - Good

5. I am actually not worried about my gold. I spend everything on research. I am more worried that the AI will turn cities into adhoc gold mines if they have nothing to build. That only concerns me because of # 6.

6. I found this out because I use a lot spies. The AI civs were building some tanks and marines, but still relied heavily on archers to defend their cities. The stacked the good stuff in a few areas near the border. Get past the initial 3 or 4 tanks and the rest was ancient age units. It would be nice if the AI spent money on upgrading its units, or replaced them with modern units. As is, if you break the front line, it is over. I do not what happens at high difficulties, because I stink. The AI gets such an advantage I lose before the Ancvient age is over.

Why I generally do not declare war - Example the last game I played. After the Ancient Age I started to bully Russia, depand all their gold evry couple turns. Russia would respond I have no choice. So I declared war on Russia. 5 out 7 countries declared war on me in response. I could have taken on one or two more, but four more wiped me out. I know that is the game, and I think it is very close to a great game. I would just like the AI to stand up for itself a little more, and longer research times in later ages. Keeping the peace isn't all that realistic either. Unfortunately it just isn't human nature.

[ed_conn]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
I agree about the tech. It was a problem in earlier civs too. At some point in the late middle ages or so, everyone starts inventing tech feverishly and its hard to really enjoy any one age, tech, or unit.

I think longer research times and more turns could fix that. I did see a post that had an edit to increase the research time, but it did not say which file needed to be edited. Ultimately, it would nice if the game automatically increased research costs based on map size. I think is the where the problem lies. Small worlds do not seem have that problem as bad, but too few civs and cities for my tastes.