Can the Deity AI play so well it can beat itself?

[Simplicity]

One thing I've noticed with Civ games is that the AI tends to expand until there's no more land... Maybe conquer one other player. Maybe not. And then... nothing. The AI just sits there hoping to tech into space or starts some futile one-on-one war that ends in little change.

Perhaps the problem is that the AI at difficulty X is playing against AIs at the same difficulty level? No advantage for either side leads to failure to conquer... Which leads to a failure to thrive for all of the civilizations other than the human player.

It would be nice if the "intelligence" of the AIs were randomized a bit so that some of these AI wars were successful and so that the AIs could grow. That way, it doesn't always devolve into one huge human player civ against 10 small civs by the end game. When's the last time you saw a game come down to one large human civ vs. one large AI civ on a large or huge map (from multiple starting civs)?

Hopefully the Vassal state mechanic will allow the AIs to set up some inequities that lead to conquest.

[Arrian]

I've seen AI civs get the drop on other AI civs before and just crush them. One on one, even. Obviously dogpiles work better.

But I agree that peace between AIs seems to be the norm, or at least inconclusive wars that just waste the AI's resources. I hear it's different if you use the "aggressive AI" option (maybe they're still generally inconclusive, but more warfare).

It's probably due to the fact that the AI has real trouble with siege warfare. It isn't any good at taking cities. The huge defense bonuses, especially once longbows show up, just can't be ignored.

-Arrian

[Simplicity]

I agree, I've seen it happen here and there.
On an Earth map, Montezuma pushed Roosevelt right into the Atlantic. But... It's just not the normal case that I've seen.

[Arrian]

Agreed, it tends to surprise me when it happens! It always seems that I'm friends with the civ that gets mauled.

-Arrian

[Prussia]

Try Random Personalities, it mixes things up a bit, and it's quite fun to watch Napoleon adopt Pacifism and Gandhi adopt Police State.

[Qwertqwert]

Originally posted by Simplicity
I agree, I've seen it happen here and there.
On an Earth map, Montezuma pushed Roosevelt right into the Atlantic. But... It's just not the normal case that I've seen.

On the only world map game I've played, Montezuma had completly abolished America before any country other than myself even met eigher of them. (I was England)

I remember playing a game where 3 civilizations were whiped out before I met any of them. I know because it says in the top left that they've been whiped out even if you havn't met them yet.

[Badtz Maru]

Originally posted by Qwertqwert


On the only world map game I've played, Montezuma had completly abolished America before any country other than myself even met eigher of them. (I was England)

I remember playing a game where 3 civilizations were whiped out before I met any of them. I know because it says in the top left that they've been whiped out even if you havn't met them yet.

Same thing happened in the last two Earth map games I played - by the time I get to the Americas, Huayna is just now starting to colonize outside of the west coast of S.A. and New York and Washington are Aztec cities.

[yin26]

Re: Can the Deity AI play so well it can beat itself?

Originally posted by Simplicity
Hopefully the Vassal state mechanic will allow the AIs to set up some inequities that lead to conquest.

[Blaupanzer]

War among the AIs seems more common the higher the level you go. They still tend to settle after one city has fallen unless they bring in allies. The AIs seem sensitive to the power graph and will pile on if another AI starts to go south. However, I seldom see them attack an AI they are even with. I often get demands to stop trading with a particular civ by several civs, but they don't get together and gang up on that civ. (Mansa Musa and the Aztec guy are especially unpopular in the games I play as is Tokugawa, if I let him stick around.)

[Wycoff]

Re: Can the Deity AI play so well it can beat itself?

Originally posted by Simplicity
When's the last time you saw a game come down to one large human civ vs. one large AI civ on a large or huge map (from multiple starting civs)?

That used to happen to me all the time in Civ 3.

[Autotropx Sox]

On the higher difficulties, that rarely happened as diplomacy became extremely important if you wanted to defeat the AI.

[Prussia]

Re: Re: Can the Deity AI play so well it can beat itself?

Originally posted by Wycoff


That used to happen to me all the time in Civ 3.

What happened was there would be, let's say, 5 civs, and two would clearly be the best. They would ally, conquer the rest, and then these two massive nations would battle it out to the death.

If it got to that position, it stopped being fun for me, so I usually dropped the game.

[diemex]

Later in the game I've seen the AI wipe out other civs. I find its resource dependant. If some civ gets stuck missing something like iron, coal or worse both... then the other AIs who have advanced units will steam roll over the melee's eventually.

[chuckdelicious]

Re: Re: Can the Deity AI play so well it can beat itself?

Originally posted by Wycoff


That used to happen to me all the time in Civ 3.

I remember one civ 3 game I played. (Continents, 16 civs, huge) By the time I got to the other continent, Persia had the whole thing except for 5 little Japanese cities.


Also, I've seen civs wipe out other civs in pretty much every era of the game. (In cIV, but I have yet to see a civ, other than mine, completely take a continent.) I think that the AI definitely has issues with overexpansion/large conquests.

[One_more_turn]

AIs like to pillage a lot, thus slowing down advances, diverting their forces, and make themselves prone to counter attacks.