The AI must have liked being next to that river better! 

I blame Toby for you blaming Derek.

I'd want my city there too.  Access to fresh fish, my kids could take a nice dip when its hot, I could wash my clothes and myself so I don't smell like raw sewage and offend my pretty wife, etc. etc.

But in seriousness, yes, distance from other cities should be a big factor in the AI's choice of next settlement for defensive purposes.

I am just happy the AI will not know the entire map from turn one. Something very annoying about AI knowing where every unit and every resource is.

Will the AI do quests?  I've been asking this question off and on over the last year, but I don't think I've heard an answer.   If so how do you determine the path it takes in quests (i.e. how does it answer questions in quests)?

"I don’t even know what this is, new today. Cool!"

An arena that allows all factions to participate in with one champion every 25 years (100 turns) with the winning faction getting a diplomacy bonus untill the next contest & a prized item being rewarded to the champion along with some 'champion of the turny trait'? Or maybe a turny for Both Kingdoms & Empires?  " General Krull of the Kraxis, champion of the turny, leads the invincible armies against us my lord"

champion of the turny trait: maybe adds a chance to cause fear in enemies and/or add moral to friendlies

Could also make it easier to recruit more champions

Okay, so maybe you'd have liked the scout to pick your spot - but is the spot the AI picked in the end particularly bad? Maybe it is worth it early on to build a 2nd city far-off; then consolidate by building a 3rd city later in-between. Is an effective strategy to deny more resources to enemies.

If the AI was supposed to be scouting for new town placement, it did a pretty poor job not checking out the northern area that is covered in fog in the screenshot. Should do a better sweep of nearby neighborhood if emphasis is on empire expansion.

I'm... not sure that is fog. Could be a swamp, or  a lake. I see a river leading to it.

What? Of course that's the fog of war. Don't be silly.

EDIT: On the other hand, in the new post Brad just made there's a rimilar looking area in the map:

http://content.screencast.com/users/draginol/folders/Jing/media/c14def07-e143-497e-8fe4-9683c9725a0c/2011-10-27_1453.png

.. maybe it's a chasm?

Definitely not fog of war, anyway. You can join me in the silly corner any time you want.

It is fallen lands. Probably home to the big bad. 

**Cough Cough** Handicapped parking **Cough Cough**

Thanks!

Possibly a placeholder texture, since it looks pretty ugly.

It's "Chasm" terrain, but don't read too much into Brad's AI maps...they tend to be designed to test specific things in a controlled environment.  On random maps those chasms are never a big circle, so it's cloth texture doesn't look as jarring