What is Settler Diahrera and Settler Constipation?

[ThaddeusAlexander]

Can anyone tell me what this Settler Diahreah and Constipation stuff is all about? I keep hearing about it but I have no idea what you people are talking about.

And just to save some people the time, don't bother posting "Why don't you just search the forums yourself" because I won't just search the forums. I have far less time on my hands than some of you.

I thank in advance whomever can help me out with this

Cheers!
~Thadalex

[miccofl]

If you have so little time why are you worried about it? Besides, my settlers have always been regular until I build the barracks.

[ThaddeusAlexander]

very funn, har har

I just have a history of asking a question and being bothered by people in the past. You hafta admit there are some pretty gooby people out there who devote their lives to civ3 and other comp games who automatically assume they're better than you at everything to do with the games.

Or maybe owning a comic/gaming store and being exposed to a flood of such people every day of my life for the past god-knows-how-many years now is starting to drain on me a bit *sigh*

oh well..

Cheers
~Thadalex

[Inverse Icarus]

settler diahrera = popping out settlers like mad, really quickly.

settler constipation = stopping settlers form being produced (or moving to sopts to build cities)

[vmxa1]

I don't know either and I have all day. I would guess it has to do with the AI cranking out settler and making cities in any spot it can find, even if it is in a dangerous location and bound to cause trouble.

[ThaddeusAlexander]

okay
so whats the good strategy in settler constipation? because i can't seem to fathom one off the top of my head ...
~Thadalex

[SpencerH]

What they're talking about with settler diarrhea is that the AI will crank out settlers as quickly as possible in order to grab as much space as possible (just as we do). Some people see this as a problem since the AI didnt do it in previous "civ"versions which gave a big advantage to the human player. It also refers to the annoying AI habit of plonking down cities all over the map on any available square even if it has little chance of growing/surviving. In order to do this the AI often had to transgress human borders which meant that you had to tell the AI to get out every turn (boring). This has been curbed somewhat with the patches but still exists.
I've never heard of settler constipation but at a guess I would say that it refers to the human counter-strategy to AI settler diarrhea of using ones own settlers to box-in the AI civs (who are now less likely to transgress our borders).

[Cidifer]

the only problem about asking them to get out of your land is that they will often declare war on you the 1st tiem you do it.

[SpencerH]

that depends on your relative army strengths

[bbaws]

War is the great cure all of the settler pooping question.

[ThaddeusAlexander]

War is the great cure all of the settler pooping question.

Well put
~Thadalex

[Cyclotron]

It doesn't seem as much a problem to me as an improvement. Now, the AI does what I do. I wish they would protect their settlers a bit more, but at least they don't stop expanding at some arbitrary point like they did in Civ2.

[Tuberski]

They are terms uttered mostly by Coracle.

[Jethro83]

Originally posted by Cidifer
the only problem about asking them to get out of your land is that they will often declare war on you the 1st tiem you do it.

Originally posted by SpencerH
that depends on your relative army strengths

Actually, I've had a much stronger army (in both numbers and power), and still had them declare war on me when this happened. Is it just me, or have the AI become more suicidally aggressive since the patch? They even demand tribute and declare war when I refuse even though they are too weak to back their words.

[SpencerH]

I think the civs and the barbs are more aggressive. I havent even had a relatively peaceful game since 1.29.