09-05-2004 10:37									#31
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Originally posted by Aqualung71

"But that's like saying the AI charges exorbitant prices for techs because the tech is worth more to the human. It's not because the luxuries are worth more - it's because the programmed routines at higher difficulty levels tell the AI to offer extremely unfair deals."

One has nothing to do with the other. Happy faces is what luxs are about. A rational human will have markets in cities and metros, maybe even a few towns. Each lux you get is moved up the scale and making more happy faces. Once you get to 4 or more then a human and the AI will know any additional ones are much more useful to you than say the second one you get. This means the trader will want more. Once you get 6, then it will be awfully hard to make a deal.

The level is not important to the AI in this matter, but is to the human. By that I mean, You know that after monarch only the first born is content, so I will need lux sooner than at lower levels, but the number of happy faces made is not going to change regardless of the level. One lux makes one content pop happy at any level.

The authors claim the AI does not deal with each other differently than the human in this regard, only in commerce trades will it make allowances for the non human.

Research is about beakers, which is to say gold. As you move up the tree, each tech has a higher cost factor. This means it needs more beakers (gold) and that makes it more worth more. In addition, some techs carry a special value. That is, if it leads to a wonder or a combat unit, the AI wants more for it.

In many cases, players are ignoring their relative poositions in the game. If you are weak, you can be treat harsher. If you are quite strong, you are to be feared more. It is wise to demand more form weak players as they can do nothign about it.

It is also wise to be reluctant to trade with powerful rivals and hence ask more.

I quess what I am saying is the AI is not capricious and has a validation scheme to determine what to ask for.

"My point about the disorder was that unless you are aware of when your deal expires and can turn the slider down beforehand, you can be caught since you will have negative gpt when the popup comes and the AI will not renew (without other acceptable things to offer)...which can throw you into disorder before you have a chance to re-set your slider and do the deal."

So what you are saying is if you are careless or lazy (and I have been at times) you will pay for it. That seems fair to me. If you know (and you should) that crucial deal is up in the next turn, you may want to take action before hand.