Can one of the programmers comment on..

[Colwyn]

The algorithm that the AI uses when determining to raze a city or not.

Ok I have tried everything and still the AI razes too many cities to make many scenario's invalid.

Wonders, corruption etc in cities made little difference in my testing.

We really need the programers of the game to comment on how the AI calculates when to raze a city on capture.

ANyone have any clout to get this question answered?

[Dis]

raise or raze?

[Colwyn]

Ok I've edited my post to be specific ie Raze as in destroy the city.

[Jaybe]

Spelling quible: I was going to criticize someone on the "raising" spelling, but I looked it up -- it can be spelled either way (though I DO prefer "raze").

[Dis]

okay good. now all we need are the programmers to show up.

Did you try having resources in the city's radius as well?

[Colwyn]

No havern't tried resourses yet, but I'm pretty sure it won't do a lot as even 3 wonders in a city didn't stop them (in fact it made it worse!)

[Catt]

The "OCN" has a lot to do with it. "OCN" is optimal city number, and it represents sort of a boundary between productive cities and seriously corrupt cities (though it is not so clear cut). The AI doesn't like to expand significantly beyond the OCN -- when it controls a large number of cities, it will tend to raze most conquered cities rather than build an ever growing empire. The OCN for each map size is viewable in the editor.

Catt

[Dr. A. Cula]

Did you take into account culture flips? A freshly captured city with 3 wonders is likely to have lots of culture generated for the wrong empire and perhaps the AI doesn't want to take the risk. Also, if the enemy is likely to take the city back the next turn, all that culture will be restored and will contribute to a cultural victory.

[steven8r]

Originally posted by Dissident
Did you try having resources in the city's radius as well?

Resources don't seem to matter.

In my present game, I am following the massively huge (land area-wise) Korean military. I bring-in Settlers behind them because they seem to love razing those enemy cities on another contenent. They seem to be razing cities reguardless of whether it has a strategic resource or not. Of course, it's a resource that they already have.

I don't care if my new cities are corrupt or not, I'm using them to supplement my extremely poor resource problem. As long as I can get the resource, I can put-up with some massive corruption. (Just build a Temple and an Airport, then set the city to produce Wealth or something.)

[Colwyn]

I set that value

Originally posted by Catt
The "OCN" has a lot to do with it. "OCN" is optimal city number, and it represents sort of a boundary between productive cities and seriously corrupt cities (though it is not so clear cut). The AI doesn't like to expand significantly beyond the OCN -- when it controls a large number of cities, it will tend to raze most conquered cities rather than build an ever growing empire. The OCN for each map size is viewable in the editor.

Catt

I set the optimal values for the ai being its current cities + 10 (mine that it takes) and it still raze's them. I also sethappy citizens at 20 and no difference either.

I guess I could try reducing my cities culture but for bigger cities ie 13+ it needs 2/3 levels to feed them. I'll give that a go just to test the theory.