Making trade "fair"

[Ninot]

ok, so i finnaly decided to tweak the AI inter-trade rate in the editor to 100, or supposedly "completely fair"

but here's the problem...

The AI civ's are trading fairly, but that is giving me a huge advantage.

Because they arent trading techs like maniacs, there are two or three nations (im usually atleast one of them) who always stay neck and neck in the tech race, but then everyone else lags a bit behind, because for the most part, the high-tech civs trade between themselves, and those without a clue, will never get a clue...

What i'm saying is that now that trading is fair, the AI gets SOO independent, that half of the world is a living joke. And, for the most part, all of the big trading goes on between the player and the AI, because it gets to the point where the player is smart enough to make small concessions to get luxeries or techs from anyone... making friends, and getting almost fair trades everywhere... whereas the AI's are stubborn, won't trade as often, and generally lag behind because they are closing their doors.

So, what I'm asking is, does making trade fair make the game too easy, "realistically" fun (a few superpowers, many 3rd world countries), or is it something else?

[Jon Shafer]

This is the age old problem with the Civ series of games. There are 2 ways to make the game... 1) Completely fair, or 2) Give the AI an advantage.

While the player will see an opportunity to help himself in certain situations, the AI can't do that, so giving the AI a little nudge balances things out. If the AI could play like a human, than it would be better for everything to be equal. However, that's not how it is, so the only way to make the game fun and challenging is to give the AI advantages the human player doesn't have.

[notyoueither]

Yup. Trip is right. Unless and until your 2 rivals are capable of calculating that letting you push minor powers around is very much against their own interests, and actively support the minors against you (including going to war to defend them) then AI in TBS games will need crutches. It is the nature of the not-yet-intelligent beast.

[Coracle]

Originally posted by Trip
This is the age old problem with the Civ series of games. There are 2 ways to make the game... 1) Completely fair, or 2) Give the AI an advantage.

While the player will see an opportunity to help himself in certain situations, the AI can't do that, so giving the AI a little nudge balances things out. If the AI could play like a human, than it would be better for everything to be equal. However, that's not how it is, so the only way to make the game fun and challenging is to give the AI advantages the human player doesn't have.

When the AI makes outrageous demands for trades they do not help themselves out - they just GET NO DEAL.

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Coracle
When the AI makes outrageous demands for trades they do not help themselves out - they just GET NO DEAL.

Actually it does help them. They just trade for 1/2 the real value with another AI civ instead of you.