Maxie Zeus
14-04-2007, 10:59
Has anyone ever seen an AI player in their game just give up and withdraw from the island world, even though it was not at war and not blockaded? Is this a common occurrence?
Because Carmen just did that in the game I am currently playing. Hurray for an easy and easily exploitable victory, but it's a little weird ...
Background: This is my first game at the "Normal" setting. (I'm a newbie and have been testing out strategies and stuff at the "Easy" setting, though sometimes with "Hard" AI personalities as competitors.) The world is large, and the AI competitors are Eichendorff, Carmen, and von Schallert.
My strategy has been to hunker down on my large southern island, which is endowed with Grain, Sugarcane, and Tobacco, and build a large, self-sufficient Citizen community (current population: approx. 2500), then use this as a base from which to launch wars of aggression to eliminate rivals and capture islands so I can move up to further levels. My long-range goal was to eliminate von Schallert and Carmen and use their main islands (which are nearby, and which between them have almost all the additional resources I need for the Merchant and Aristocrat levels) as milch cows for the later stages of the game. Currently I am winning on points, even though the other three players had been able to advance to Merchant.
Early in the game Carmen got into a war with von Schallert. Just as I was starting to build small warships for my armada, she asked for an alliance (which I accepted) and then asked me to declare war on von Schallert. I wasn't quite ready, but she had a large navy already, so I went along with it. I was quickly able to build up my naval and land strength, and it didn't take long for me to seize von Schallert's main island. Naturally, he withdrew soon afterward.
And here's where it gets surprising. About 30 minutes after von Schallert withdrew, Carmen announced she was also giving up, even though she had an alliance with one of the surviving players (me), was not at war with the other, had advanced to the Merchant level, and had several small-island colonies.
Is it normal for Carmen to get into a blood quarrel with another AI and then to withdraw when that AI disappears? Because if it's not that, I'd have to conclude that the AI ran some numbers and decided that its long-range prospects were hopeless—which is surprising.
The state of play when Carmen withdrew? (Some of this info comes from reloading a pre-withdrawal saved game.) Carmen had advanced to the Merchant level and had lots of Merchant-level buildings (several Senates and Universities, for instance), but her island had regressed so that all the houses were Pioneer-level. (Impact of disrupted trade, I guess.) She had a population of 680, a 22-ship navy and an 8-unit army. This left her with a running deficit of 2821 and 20,000 in her bank account. (This is the number provided by my Spy, which I deployed in the saved game.) She had 8000 points. By contrast, Eichendorf and I each had approximately 48,000 points and populations of around 2500 (his at the Merchant level, mine at Citizen). I don't know the state of his treasury, but I had about 70,000 and (even with a 20-ship navy) a running surplus of about 1000.
Carmen's position, though difficult in the short-term, would not seem hopeless in the long-term; hence my surprise at her sudden exit, and my question: Has anyone else seen something like this happen?
(Not that I’m disappointed; like I said, she was next on my list of victims anyway. As it is, I just sailed north and grabbed her island before most of the houses burned down. I had ships on hand to haul in relief supplies and so was able to secure a primitive but mostly functioning community that was quite profitable after I tore out such unnecessary infrastructure as the Senates, cannon towers, multiple shipyards, and whatnot.)
Because Carmen just did that in the game I am currently playing. Hurray for an easy and easily exploitable victory, but it's a little weird ...
Background: This is my first game at the "Normal" setting. (I'm a newbie and have been testing out strategies and stuff at the "Easy" setting, though sometimes with "Hard" AI personalities as competitors.) The world is large, and the AI competitors are Eichendorff, Carmen, and von Schallert.
My strategy has been to hunker down on my large southern island, which is endowed with Grain, Sugarcane, and Tobacco, and build a large, self-sufficient Citizen community (current population: approx. 2500), then use this as a base from which to launch wars of aggression to eliminate rivals and capture islands so I can move up to further levels. My long-range goal was to eliminate von Schallert and Carmen and use their main islands (which are nearby, and which between them have almost all the additional resources I need for the Merchant and Aristocrat levels) as milch cows for the later stages of the game. Currently I am winning on points, even though the other three players had been able to advance to Merchant.
Early in the game Carmen got into a war with von Schallert. Just as I was starting to build small warships for my armada, she asked for an alliance (which I accepted) and then asked me to declare war on von Schallert. I wasn't quite ready, but she had a large navy already, so I went along with it. I was quickly able to build up my naval and land strength, and it didn't take long for me to seize von Schallert's main island. Naturally, he withdrew soon afterward.
And here's where it gets surprising. About 30 minutes after von Schallert withdrew, Carmen announced she was also giving up, even though she had an alliance with one of the surviving players (me), was not at war with the other, had advanced to the Merchant level, and had several small-island colonies.
Is it normal for Carmen to get into a blood quarrel with another AI and then to withdraw when that AI disappears? Because if it's not that, I'd have to conclude that the AI ran some numbers and decided that its long-range prospects were hopeless—which is surprising.
The state of play when Carmen withdrew? (Some of this info comes from reloading a pre-withdrawal saved game.) Carmen had advanced to the Merchant level and had lots of Merchant-level buildings (several Senates and Universities, for instance), but her island had regressed so that all the houses were Pioneer-level. (Impact of disrupted trade, I guess.) She had a population of 680, a 22-ship navy and an 8-unit army. This left her with a running deficit of 2821 and 20,000 in her bank account. (This is the number provided by my Spy, which I deployed in the saved game.) She had 8000 points. By contrast, Eichendorf and I each had approximately 48,000 points and populations of around 2500 (his at the Merchant level, mine at Citizen). I don't know the state of his treasury, but I had about 70,000 and (even with a 20-ship navy) a running surplus of about 1000.
Carmen's position, though difficult in the short-term, would not seem hopeless in the long-term; hence my surprise at her sudden exit, and my question: Has anyone else seen something like this happen?
(Not that I’m disappointed; like I said, she was next on my list of victims anyway. As it is, I just sailed north and grabbed her island before most of the houses burned down. I had ships on hand to haul in relief supplies and so was able to secure a primitive but mostly functioning community that was quite profitable after I tore out such unnecessary infrastructure as the Senates, cannon towers, multiple shipyards, and whatnot.)