The reason the AI sucks is because you're using the mouse. Don't use the mouse unless you have like 100 gold and want someone to build a sawmill without you having to manage them, so you can keep mining more gold.
Chances are the AI won't be able to get out of your mines. Then again, I build huge underground strip mines that can only be exited using haggle and grapple, until I can get a lorry and an elevator. Even then, I still use the strip mine technique so I extract every ounce of every element sitting around underground. But it goes faster since I have an elevator and a lorry.
Doesn't seem really efficient though, maybe I'll try a buying an elevator right in the beginning and only mining the deposits instead of the whole map.
I finished recreating my "Build a Castle" scenerio where you start out with 80 construction kits and can buy more free from your tent. Now I'm working on a variant of the underwater scenario where you start out with 3 glass domes and can only build normal buildings, not underwater buildings. Although I'm going to have to mod the foundry so you can make metals and glass out of coral. I'll probably also have to make wood mine-able from petrified wood deposits or something.
Oh, also working on a nuclear power plant mod. You shove a piece of uranium in it and powers a few things for the rest of the game, having it blown up or burned down is a bad idea though. I got tired of having to put coal in my power plants.
