One of Civ2's great mysteries

[kobayashi]

Which is, when does the Ai decide to use nukes.

I'm currently playing JGB's Moon scenario and the Americans, Russians and British are plastering me with nukes left right and center even though there is no outright need to. Previously I thought AIs only used nukes if they were losing the space race but in this case there is no space race.

This bothers me to no end as I could never get the Cardassians to use their nukes in Dominion War no matter what I tried.

Is it related to how close everyone how many techs the AI has (i.e. you need a full tech tree researchable by veryone)?

Or perhaps the AI absolutely requires subs at sea before they can use their nukes.

I can't think of any other explanation but maybe you guys can come up with something else.

[techumseh]

Kobi, I'm not sure of the exact rules the AI follows, but I think these are generally correct based on my own experience.

The AI will more likely use nukes if it is aggressive. It is more likely to use nukes if it has them and you don't (deterrence). It will more likely use them if you already have. It will use them against cities that have 3 or more units in them, otherwise not.

The AI will only use nukes against a human player, UNLESS you use the cheat menu to change the human player during the game. Then all bets are off, the AI civs nuke it out, and God help you to stop global warming.

That's all I know. Again, this is based on my observations only, and is not scientific.

[curtsibling]

The AI will use nukes on high concentrations of your units, too.

And also if you are getting the better of them in war.

I have seen the AI use nukes on each other, but not often.

I reckon the AI uses the same kind of rules-style for nukes as it uses for dimplomatic choices.

[techumseh]

Sorry to disagree Curt, but I'm quite certain the AI only nukes cities and will not nuke another AI except in the case mentioned above.

[Harry Tuttle]

Curt, didn't you see the AI nuking eachother in Vendetta?

[kobayashi]

Our observations of nuke behavior is based on a plain vanilla game...somehow this behavior is modified along with the modifications made in a scenario.....if only i knew why the damn cardassians won't use their nukes.

p.s. the sub theory doesn't pan out.

[Tigey]

Koby: Try nuking the Cardies first, in Cheat Mode, whilst building up the scenario (you can then clean up/reverse the material damage). It's never been completely proven, but most people generally agree that the AI is more liberal when it comes to tossing Nukes about if you've nuked them first.

[Tigey]

I've also seen the Soviets/Americans nuke eachother in Soviet Steel... Cheat mode wasn't engaged...

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by Tigey
Koby: Try nuking the Cardies first, in Cheat Mode, whilst building up the scenario (you can then clean up/reverse the material damage). It's never been completely proven, but most people generally agree that the AI is more liberal when it comes to tossing Nukes about if you've nuked them first.

tried that already. Unfortunately, when you save as a scenario, the memory that you nuked them before is lost.

[Stefan Härtel]

Nobody ever noticed how the Soviets nuke Los Angeles virtually every time in the first turn when you play the Americans in the "WW79" scenario that comes with CiC?

[Tigey]

Well, after some of the crap inthe cnimena this year, I can certainly empathise with them...

[kobayashi]

say, were there any cases where negotiations were disabled and the Ai nuked first?

[jim panse]

As far as I could possibly tell from my vanilla games, the AI always tried to gain nukes too (most of the times though my civ was pretty advanced and I had no problem keeping my enemies down).

I also tried to construct SDI installations in every single city - with the success that the AI - if it somehow acquired the techs - nuked always those cities that weren't protectec yet.

In those vanilla games my superiority did not prevent the AI from constantly attacking me ... I refrained from using nukes most of the time though because I did not want to clean up the mess afterwards - even though the AI attacked and attacked, from time to time the AI also attacked stacks of units.

[fairline]

Originally posted by Tigey
Well, after some of the crap inthe cnimena this year, I can certainly empathise with them...

[curtsibling]

@Tech:

In the CiC World War 79 scenario, the AI does nuke each other.

I have also seen the zulus nuking romans in the vanilla game.

And for the record, yes it is cities that get nuked.