Difference Humans and AI

[BigFurryMonster]

Allright... we're gonna face 4 human teams. They might be far or nearby - for example, we might share an island with one.

I wonder - what are the main differences between dealing with an AI player and a human (team) player? I think this is very important to consider in this game.

I'll start a list - please feel free to post additions.

Alliances
The AI can go to war for no reason, but also 'forgets' ancient wars after a certain time. Human players will have a much better memory for that.

Communications
Human players can communicate outside the game (we will at least email the save file). Trading should take place outside the game - otherwise it will take far too long.

General Strategy
The Human players will be far less predictable than the AI. Do not underestimate this!!

Maps
The AI trades maps a lot. Human players will be very cautious in giving away the location of their cities, even to an AI. We should be very careful to have foreign units walk around in our territory, or boats sailing by.
The AI seems to know parts of the world beforehand, though.

Military
The visibility of our units might scare human players: hordes of horsemen guarding the border city will have human players think twice before attacking.

Resources
Human players will recognize critical resources better than the AI. On the other hand, they do not know the location of resources that can only be discovered later yet. The AI seems to know this.

Science
We will be on Monarch level, meaning that the AI will get a Science bonus. The human players may fall behind.


I'll have a look at a thread in the PTW forum with possible 'cheat strategies' to come up with more ideas for this list.

EDIT: this is the link.

[WarriorPoet]

Science: I can still manage after around 1AD to be at least equal in science with the AI. The trick is early and often short wars with the AI for his tech, and trading early on for some tech as well. This always works for me.

Maps, yes, we'll have to guard those.

Humans won't trade tech too easily, may be more expensive than AI!!!

[Zero]

Originally posted by WarriorPoet
Science: I can still manage after around 1AD to be at least equal in science with the AI. The trick is early and often short wars with the AI for his tech, and trading early on for some tech as well. This always works for me.

Maps, yes, we'll have to guard those.

Humans won't trade tech too easily, may be more expensive than AI!!!

may be even cheaper than AI in some cases... AI doesnt often trade same value tech for tech. And also if I had construction and another team did as well, I would try to undercut him by being able to trade away the tech first so that a) I get compensated for having to research tech at full price b) so that I can weaken my opponent by destroying his opportunity to strenghten his asset.

Im expecting a huge discouragement of tech research in ancient era. Generally SP games are played that way in ancient era. But there will be no AI! Therefore we must take lead and monopolize in tech trade.

[Jon Shafer]

In my MP experience, people actually trade techs quite a lot.

Revealing information to human players is a baaaaad idea. The less the other teams know about us the better. We must restrict information regarding city, resource and unit locations as much as we possibly can. As long as a human player doesn't know about the 3 sources of iron hidden within our borders, that won't hurt us.

[punkbass2000]

Keeping up on tech should be no problem at Monarch. I think it's the AI who will be falling behind.

[CiverDan]

I said it before trip. Keep our map hidden (although eventually someone will steal it probably).

[statusperfect]

Originally posted by Calc II
Im expecting a huge discouragement of tech research in ancient era. Generally SP games are played that way in ancient era. But there will be no AI! Therefore we must take lead and monopolize in tech trade.

I totally agree with you Calc II. A tech lead is also the best way to get the most out of a cavalry UU.

Let's start the "Lux Invinca Tech Lobbyist Group (TM)"

[BigFurryMonster]

Edited for 'General Strategy'.

[BlackOut]

IF we are weak, we must put up a strong front, if we are strong, and we want someone to be drawn into a trap, we must seem like we are weak. So Maps are huge when this strat is utilized. Yea they can go look at the histograph, etc but they wont KNOW what we actually have.

[WarriorPoet]

Maps hidden: Y

Tech trade: Depends, although, I read a great economic argument for this from CalcII, which I would tend to fully support. Also, if Trip's experience holds true, then it only makes sense to trade tech or fall behind.

[Jon Shafer]

We should try to trade away anything that's not vital to us (wheel, iron working, etc.). Getting to wonders will require tech trading, no doubt. While you'd think that people would be stingy as far as it comes to trading, it really depends on the player, but usually they'll trade quite often.

[WarriorPoet]

If I had Alphabet and Masonry at start for instance, I would never trade these....So, if Legoland knows what they're doing, I'd expect them to be stingy. Us, on the other hand, may be able to trade more freely.