Should have three types of monsters, and if we have them already, they should be more defined to follow a Lair, Roamer and City-Eater logic. Lair types actively defend nearby resources and their camps, but they don't stray far from it being very territorial. This way if an AI (or player) spams outposts trying to whore resources near you, it will force them to first bring an army to deal with the critters, like the player has to do, otherwise goodbye outpost. I think it would also be neat if these monsters grew in power or experience for every outpost they eat.

Every now and then, a roamer is spawned from the lair. This kinda happens now sometimes, but the territoral behavior is funked. I'd like to see them more protective of thier little areas. Roamers look for new resources to make a new nest camp, but will give chase to any that stray across their path. City-Eaters just actively look for yummy fat cities, but maybe tie it to a tech or something and these shouldn't spawn anywhere near capital cities.

Suggestion regarding the monster chasing AIs; overland map movement should consider initiative when dealing with AI vs AI, if it doesn't. A high init unit should be able to avoid a slower init unit, whereas slow init units will eventually get caught by higher init critters.

To make it worse, thats a horrible spot for a city. A 2/3 right next to a 4/3

I would agree with temporarily making razing not cause loss of fertility.  Then the AI can be attacked and if it has enough pioneers it just might survive... for a few turns at least.

I'm hoping that the Monster avoiding AIs think is a bug because it is totally ridiculous for the AI to plant a city right next to Medium or Strong monster lairs without fear.

I have seen monsters take out cities as well, but I think that it may actually be accidental.  I have my game crash a few times, so I was able to witness the same Drake cross AI territory several times.  Once, he attacked a city and wiped it out, once he bypassed the city and took out an outpost, once he walked right around the city and got stuck next to another AI city where he stayed for the rest of the game (or until I took the city.  He attacked me immediately after I took the city).  I think that people are seeing monsters wander over a city and say "See, he attacked it!" when the monster is actually just wandering around and happened to wander into a city square.  Given the lack of interest they typically show, it is either completely accidental or something in the monster AI gets bugged and they stop responding to AI players, especially non-units.

Considering the number of times I've had a River Skath come screaming across the two squares from an enemy city the turn I conquer it, I agree with the above.

Nah, I've seen the monster beeline for an AI city before, when there's nothing around and the monster just ride the road into the city and smoke it, it's pretty obvious. That isn't too say that there aren't times when the monsters just doesn't seem to notice the city being placed under them. Heck, I saw monsters sitting ON TOP of an AI city and it still didn't attack it (it attacked me as soon as I went close, of course).

Case in point: http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m297/KStar099/Fallen%20Enchantress/FallenEnchantress_1336463683.jpg

And it's not just the monster AI, Gilden, the faction in question was clearing wildlands at that point with their armies (had a massive one before I started killing them all), that stack right next to it should clear that bear easily, but they didn't. Perhaps it's because the monster AI and the AI players are on different threads and sometimes they just don't see one another?

I have seen the Ai get stomped by monster in both my game.. Includeing me LOL.

In all reality I think its monsters vs everyone else... Mostly human.

Seen them wander the map and take out not only my Tower Ive seen it march back up and do it to the AI... As long as were both in its wander zone.. Both lose things like crazy.

Seen the AI set off the stationary things like drakes and big scary monsters and have it beline to the nearest city.. Usually my own.

Really hard to get anywhere right now in the game with so many monsters around.. It really is pretty insane even on Moderate monsters.

Litterally Ive been sourounded by Drakes north south easet and west.  I just think to myself... Maybe just a little much huh devs?  And that was an easy game.. LOL.

And if they keep this monster system in.. Then for gods sake let us rebuild stuff... At this point by not even mid game.. No more places to build anything..

In my last game I saw an AI take a scout unit through a sea of monsters (bears, stalkers, etc) as I was following behind killing them all for xp. The AI collected a couple heroes on the way as well. Then it wandered next to a shrill lord and he stepped out and stomped on them (staying on his lair the for many, many turns). That Shrill Lord never moved one block from his lair at all at any point.

So something very weird is going on with monster AI in the way it treats Civ AIs. It is anything but fair or the same in how it regards players however.

BTW, I posted this in the feedback thread. It's still happening in .914. Oh, the Shrill Lord I think it's in the FOW, I would have died to it. But I had to kill a Shrill Army to move my Sov close enough to get this screen shot.

I am playing 0.914 and have not seen evidence of the AI cheating yet, but I am sure that it is.  

I am keeping a careful watch for any signs of the dirty, filthy, cheating AI, and will report my findings as and when.

I've already seen it. Queen Procipine walks right up to a Forest Drake and... nothing. If I did that, he would have instantly attacked me.

My most recent game had a Forest Drake that literally walked over AI Kraxis and proceeded to meander about until my sovereign came along. The walking over may be due to the movement oddities, but the drake certainly didn't seem very interested in the fellow despite him being in its path. While I have seen monsters attack the AI cities their decision doesn't have much rhyme or reason to it.

while steamrolling the AI monsters and monster lairs are everywhere throughout the territory of the AI, waiting, attacking the odd pioneer, ignoring cities and outposts - this makes late games frustrating, you understand why the AI was so far ahead of you

however, to slow down AI expansion "dense monsters" seems a good break during the first 100 turns, you have the time to improve you sovereign and monsters attack AI pioneers more often, it is still a game of who takes more territory fastest

can't put much time into the game, so i'm still on 913, but i'm really enjoying the game so far,

- the AI seems able to build armies with archers and mages - my unarmored archers didn't last long

- overpowered weapons are no longer available too early in the game

- initiative and dodge are very helpful, the FE's turn system allows some interesting tactics

- damn umberdroths !

my advice is go for a "dense monsters" game, stay away one tile from too powerful monsters, capture as many crystals as you can as soon as possible, because magic is the key

Aww now this is getting a bit stupid.  I am getting high level monster that were next to the AI outposts and towns coming miles to attack my towns and outposts.  I am allied with the AI so it's not like he is sending them.  Come on Stardock, fair play.

Yes, this needs to be fixed, ASAP.

No, no,no.  I have just done a test.  I had my men leave the their towns and stand on the edge of the borders and sure enough the game sent monsters in from God-knows-where that one-shot my towns that has taken 100+ turns to build.  It was a good job it was only a test and I had my save.

This is not fun nor is it challenging, it's just plain frustrating.

This will not do. 

Does the monsters and ruffians faction see the whole map?  And why do they prefer human targets, even when they're much further away?

I can confirm this problem too. In my current game there are two AI cities with Shrill Lords within its boarders and one with Drakes. In all 3 cases the lairs are generating wanderers (good!) but those wanderers ignore the nearby AI city and head towards mine. This has forced me to place troops in all my outposts (good!) but its gets annoying after a while and I really dont like it when I lose a developed city to a shrill army showing up, which is a huge setback compounded by the fact I cant rebuild that city because the land is razed. 

I have experienced this problem also. Funny we hear nothing from the devs about it. Maybe people should start submitting bug reports?

I have been messing about with my save and managed to see where one of the monsters was coming from.  It was a group of silt skaths that travelled 9 squares in one move.  

Narr, can't be, I must have pressed return twice or something.

My invasion of Gilden has had entertaining results. A Harridan who had been sitting next to one of their expansion cities the entire game suddenly - upon seeing my Sovereign's unit killing Markin's armies and other idling monsters - gathered her brood and ran along a road all the way to my capital city and attacked (whereupon the City Watch squished them). I pity the poor travelling merchants who had to dive out of the way of their furious skittering charge - truly, war is horrific.

But at least I did see Gilden fighting monsters at various points, even losing an outpost to them. The worst culprit was Magnar, whose second city had a Death Demon waiting outside it for me! Apparently I didn't learn anything from Magnar's evident pact with the Legions of Hell, as I tried to cast the demon world spell on the far side of Imperium (a sprawling metropolis which had swallowed up several outposts and was something like eight tiles wide all told). One demonic horde lurked around doing nothing, while another ran around the city, ignoring it and Magnar's troops, and attacked me. In the end I closed the hell portal and demanded Magnar's surrender instead - losing my chance at taking Imperium but gaining an embittered Quendar wizard who hasn't stopped sulking yet. Yay. Thanks to my sovereign's silver tongue ability, I actually gained units from my battles with Magnar's armies (and some Knights of Asok who were helping the Death Demon guard him until I subverted them), and my only losses were from my own misguided experiment with black magic...

To me it seems like the monsters are awaken by someone capturing a city, but not when originally founding the city. So you or the AI can plop a city next to a drake, but if its taken then the drake will come "alive" and attack.

Which obviously needs to be fixed - plopping a city down should be enough to get the monsters to attack.

You are missing the end of your sentence. Here, let me finish it for you.

Plopping a city down should be enough to get the monsters to attack the offending city and not the capital of a faction 15 turns distant.

There we go. Much better.