Conquests AI changes

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Dominae
Maybe I'm just bitter because my first game on Demigod was actually rather difficult (all Horses claimed before I had The Wheel, closest Iron source over 20 tiles away in the middle of Jungle and Mountains).

Hah! Sounds like the Monarch game I just started. Only source of iron is 22 tiles away from my capital on a mountain in the middle of tundra (which I flagged for no cities...). And there are no horses anywhere in site. Now I know how the Native Americans felt.

And my "over powered" curraghs in this game keep getting whacked by stacks of barbarian galleys, so I've only contacted four out of 19 other Civs.

On top of that, the AI actually beat my Philosophy beeline for the first time. I couldn't believe it when I picked my "free" tech and all that happened was I started researching it. This one looks challenging to me.

I like alexman's idea for the AI curraghs, if it works. Otherwise I think I'll do as Dominae suggests and give all the seafarings one to start, and no one gets to build them.

[Dominae]

Maybe one of these is in order:

List of things that make the game easier:

1. Free tech with Philosophy
2. Agricultural trait with Granaries
3. Seafaring trait and Curraghs
4. Curraghs in general
5. Double unit support costs for Republic
6. New Specialist citizens
7. New rules for bombardment of cities
8. Barb hunting with Javelin Throwers

Notice that these are all things the AI has trouble with. Number 5 I'm pretty sure hurts the AI more than the human player.


Dominae

[Panag]

Originally posted by alexman
I wonder if adding missile or aircraft transport capacity to the curragh would be enough to convince the AI to build it...

hi ,

still nothing , .....

have a nice day

[alexman]

Then we need one of these too:

List of things that makes the game harder:

1. More expensive upgrade cost
2. No Map trading in ancient age
3. No Contact trading in ancient age
4. Free tech with Philosophy
5. Double unit support costs for Republic

Granted, these are for higher difficulty levels where you can't keep up with the AI in research and production, and where the AI gets free unit support.

[Stuie]

6. Less frequent Great Wonder rushes.

[Arnelos]

Originally posted by Dominae
I still prefer the "only Seafaring civs get a Curragh" solution. It has nice symmetry with the Expansionist trait. It makes Seafaring civs unique by making only them able to explore coastlines before Map Making. It keeps the trait powerful while addressing the major problems (Curraghs are an unfairly good unit against the AI because of the suicide strategy, even in non-Seafaring hands).

You could just teach the AI to use suicide curragh/galley/caravel missions.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Originally posted by alexman
Then we need one of these too:

List of things that makes the game harder:

1. More expensive upgrade cost
2. No Map trading in ancient age
3. No Contact trading in ancient age
4. Free tech with Philosophy
5. Double unit support costs for Republic

Granted, these are for higher difficulty levels where you can't keep up with the AI in research and production, and where the AI gets free unit support.

You really think the prevention of contact trading makes the game harder? I rather thought the suicide curragh/tech whoring made things a good bit easier. (Map conditions allowing, obviously.)

[alva]

N6 depends on dificulty levels too (easier or harder)

[Arnelos]

Originally posted by Dominae
Maybe I'm just bitter because my first game on Demigod was actually rather difficult (all Horses claimed before I had The Wheel, closest Iron source over 20 tiles away in the middle of Jungle and Mountains).

Well, in my monarch game as the English my entire island/continent didn't have a source of iron, horses, OR A LUXURY! I still steamrolled the AI, but was because the game is easier, it was only Monarch level, and I was playing the English on an archipelago map.

[Dominae]

Do the things on the "harder" and "easier" lists balanced each other out?!

No World/Territory Maps trading benefits the AI for sure.

No Contacts trading is a mixed bag: on the one hand, it's harder to get all the Contacts speed up the tech race; on the other, it's easier to keep the AIs segregated and stay ahead in research. It's good because it slows down the tech pace; it's bad because suicide naval missions are more powerful now.

You could just teach the AI to use suicide curragh/galley/caravel missions.

More difficult that it sounds.


Dominae

[ZargonX]

One thing I feel that does make the game harder now is that the AI definatly seems to handle military action better. As has been pointed out elsewhere, they mass their forces for attack instead of dribbling units into your territory.

[Arrian]

Or perhaps you could simply make suicide missions really suicide: 100% galley (and curragh) sinking in ocean tiles until Astronomy.

-Arrian

[Stuie]

Or go back to the "wheeled" galleys/curraghs and no wheeled units in oceans idea...

[alexman]

It's not possible to give ships as starting units with the current editor, AFAIK.

I made the AI build a curragh without allowing transport of units! If you give the curragh the AI "Naval transport" flag (possible, even if it doesn't carry any units, if you give it the unload command), the AI builds them.

Edit: The problem is that the AI then builds these vessels too often, and keeps many of them in its cities waiting to load them (even if they can't be loaded).

Edit: After playing some more in debug mode, I now see that the AI does indeed build currahs, just not as urgently as it builds settlers and military units, which is actually a good thing, I think.

[dexters]

Originally posted by Arnelos


In PTW, I typically would play Monarch or Emperor. That said, even when using the Americans on a pangea map or an easy civ like the Persians or Egyptians, Monarch has still rarely been that easy.

Well, in my monarch game as the English my entire island/continent didn't have a source of iron, horses, OR A LUXURY! I still steamrolled the AI, but was because the game is easier, it was only Monarch level, and I was playing the English on an archipelago map.

Difficulty has a lot to do with starts and you seem to have set yourself up for an easy game. Try playing a civ that's not natural to the map. There are plenty of nice civs out there that aren't bad for archipelago maps, they just aren't seafaring. Sometimes, you get lucky and have a great start. I've played or at least attempted to play 5 or 6 monarch starts. I've completed 2. One was a space race victory the other was a defeat (island start, no iron, in a pangea game). My current one is looking good. That other 3 starts I quit, after falling behind (on pangea). Watch for those wild swings where the AI go from 3 techs behind you to 4 techs ahead of you. Those happen quite frequently now.

Certainly, the AI not using currah probably hurt it on the archipelago game. But that will probably be fixed in the next patch.

My current Monarch game had the Sumerian capital located next to a volcanoe, which went off, twice. Destroying the capital and slowed their expansion in my direction, allowing me to grab iron there. Had that not happened, it would have been a difficult struggle to get iron.

I've noticed, as you have, the resource distribution is vastly changed. Instead of getting one of each resource in a relatively short distance, resources tend to cluster. If you get lots of iron ,or horses, or saltpeter, you're sure to be low or have no sources of other resources.