I guess the civ 4 AI DOES like to settle crappy unoccupied squares in human territory

[QuantumPion]

Well it turns out the AI in civ 4 does indeed like to settle crappy tundra, etc, 1 tile unoccupied lands in my territory. I was doing the beeline tech rush and so I didn't expand as fast as I wanted to. As soon as the AI's got galleons, they all bum-rushed my continent. How lame. It's even lamer when I declare war on one of them to flush them out, and as soon as I raise the city, on the next turn, I spot galleons with settlers in them from 3 different countries coming straight for the same spot...

[djpsychonaut]

It's true, and the AI will encourage you to do the same with those blue circles. It's not uncommon for it to recommend huge areas of desert to settle.

The AI still needs work in determining what sites are best for cities. A few times the blue circles have helped me to see a slightly better place to build a city, but usually the sites are worse than what I have in mind.

Another thing, what's up with the AI always building one tile away from water? That means that all those water tiles will never see their full potential because you can build a lighthouse or any other coastal buildings... not that I care while those cities are still owned by the AI... hehe

[Blake]

However in some cases those obnoxious trash cities have proven a huge thorn in my side when the AI sneak attacks me. Those spots also often have oil and other resources.

[Azuarc]

I sometimes wonder why the city governors are always urging me to build settlers when there's no developable land, too. It's as though they expect me to build a boat, discover some uncharted land, and find that one uncamped spot on that continent as well.

[djpsychonaut]

Azuarc, I completely agree with you on that! I usually find that it happens when I play an Expansionist civ... how bout you?

It's so annoying when it suggests the Settler, especially when you have the whole world map explored and know that there's no possibility of more land...

[TheZvi]

One other thing - has anyone else noticed that they've played on that exact same map? Several times. Always from that starting spot. If you get that whole continent to yourself it's an autowin, but I keep forgetting that the stuff to the left of the pass exists (or to get my wheels into gear and take it) plus you need to make contact with other civs to trade so my latest game I felt the need to beeline to Astronomy. But it's a very nice map to be on: You have the whole area pre-astronomy, and can coast from there, while you can use warrior patrols to prevent barbarians from spawning in the eastern area - you'll have to mop up one or two cities of theirs in the western area though. But I've done this at least three times. Wonder what it is about that map?

[djpsychonaut]

Hi TheZvi,
Are you loading a particular map? I always end up on a brand new map. Are you playing Archipelago? Sometimes I've had a continent with just myself and one other civ when playing Continents, or maybe even a nice big peninsula to myself.... never a whole island though...

[QuantumPion]

oh yeah and by the way, the ai's settled awdaghost and smolensk next to aryan, which was a size 9 barb city, until I captured it. The barbs constantly sent waves of (obsolete) units to attack my city, but they NEVER attacked the size 1, practically defenseless ai cities. This is the first game where I've had this happen.

[Kingof the Apes]

Originally posted by TheZvi
One other thing - has anyone else noticed that they've played on that exact same map? Several times. Always from that starting spot. If you get that whole continent to yourself it's an autowin, but I keep forgetting that the stuff to the left of the pass exists (or to get my wheels into gear and take it) plus you need to make contact with other civs to trade so my latest game I felt the need to beeline to Astronomy. But it's a very nice map to be on: You have the whole area pre-astronomy, and can coast from there, while you can use warrior patrols to prevent barbarians from spawning in the eastern area - you'll have to mop up one or two cities of theirs in the western area though. But I've done this at least three times. Wonder what it is about that map?

Yeah, I could swear I have gotten this map as well.

QuantamPion, are there mountains cutting of the narrow passage between the two sections of your continent?

[Drachasor]

Originally posted by Kingof the Apes


Yeah, I could swear I have gotten this map as well.

QuantamPion, are there mountains cutting of the narrow passage between the two sections of your continent?

With room for a city that would bridge that gap north-south for boats. Desert to the east of the starting location with incense. Silk in some forests there as well. No tundra, except on the part you can't walk to.

And both times I've had this map randomly generated a barbarian city was in the same location on the far end of the continent.

-Drachasor

[Aileron]

There's a bug where you keep getting the same map. Maybe this helps:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141553

Also, somebody mentioned installing 1.09 patch and starting the game while holding SHIFT down will fix this problem (holding SHIFT clears some cache, sorry don't know the exact details).

I wish there was a thread that just listed the known issues at the top of it, instead of the gigantic bug threads in the Help forum.

[TheZvi]

This map is continents, standard features otherwise. I'm not doing anything special. I didn't mind it last time but I wouldn't want to do it again since you basically just solo the game from that spot.

[QuantumPion]

Originally posted by Kingof the Apes


Yeah, I could swear I have gotten this map as well.

QuantamPion, are there mountains cutting of the narrow passage between the two sections of your continent?

you describe it to a T, even the rare resources are the same.

I thought civ created random maps, not use pre-generated ones. Pre-generated ones with the same starting locations and resources even.

[Bogdanovist]

Wow, yeah I'm playing a game with that exact map at the moment as well! (v1.00 haven't got the patch yet)

weird...

[djpsychonaut]

I've played quite few maps pre-patch and have never seen this. Hopefully this is something that will be addressed in the patch...

It was also my understanding that the game generates new maps on the fly and doesn't use pre-determined maps.

Try uploading one of your games. I'm curious to see if I've played a similar map.