Working method to give AI free armies while giving the player none, on random map

[MattPilot]

this is my observation regarding usage of AI armies:

At first, when i gave every civ free armies every X turn, but kept the Cost at 400, the AI tended to keep them in cities. But after i reduced the cost to 0, and made them freely available (buildable by every wonder/sm. wonder/palace), the AI started to use them offensive, even if it was their only army.

My theory is that the AI tries to protect their "high value" unit. If it isn't worth anything (no shield cost) however, the AI doesn't care about it and uses it just like any other unit.

Perhaps someone could varify this with independent tests?

[Theseus]

Yes, in the AU Mod the cost of an Army is 1g.

[Antrine]

Here is how it works !

1. Cheap/free armies for the AI best (lots of them is nice)
2. A plentiful amount of 'early offensive uniis' with good movement range. The vanilla game is lacking here. Available by same conditions cheap/free.
3. A plentiful amount of fast move defensive units, again the vanilla game does not have these at all. Available again cheap/free. These defensive units are used by the AI to 'escort', go figure?

And 'drum rolls please', The AI uses Armies provided the above conditions are met, with WAR. That's it! Just good ole fashioned war, whether initiated by the AI or the human. Check it out.

And these armies are full-up, plentiful and far ranging.
Oh, and every single one, every single time. (well I have only tested 50 times )

[Theseus]

Those conditions were certainly met in my game of AU 503.

[Antrine]

Never played AU 503, however it sounds very intriguing !!

[MattPilot]

antrine:

in my game, the AI loaded armies with 2 spearmen and attacked. Often i've also seen spearmen/archer combos very early on (2 man was max per army in my game).


the key, imo, is the AI needs to think the army is expendable - and you do this by giving it no(low) shield value.

[Antrine]

No doubt, however does your Mod meet 'all' the requirements stated above. I take no chances, each AI gets over 60 units at start-up. No chance not to work. Additionally, the palace as you know spits out armies with other various improvements that the AI's are sure to build early on are keyed to keep the conditions met all along the way with 'free' units every so many turns.

[Gray_Lensman]

Now there's a cool idea... Modding the palace to spit out armies. Since the AI uses them, I wonder what frequency to spit them out at. Wouldn't want to overdo it, it would tend to unbalance the game I would think.

[Antrine]

Every fifteen turns , Also remember to Mod on General tab the number of armies per city. Default is 4 cities to one army. I have 1 city to 1 army. However, this limit ONLY impacts city build not units coming by improvement such as the palace in this case.

Also the palace idea is not mine orginally, someone else around here nearby figured that one out. However, I took to it. Thanks whoever you are and am sorry I do not remember exactly.

[player1]

Originally posted by Antrine
Here is how it works !

1. Cheap/free armies for the AI best (lots of them is nice)
2. A plentiful amount of 'early offensive uniis' with good movement range. The vanilla game is lacking here. Available by same conditions cheap/free.
3. A plentiful amount of fast move defensive units, again the vanilla game does not have these at all. Available again cheap/free. These defensive units are used by the AI to 'escort', go figure?

And 'drum rolls please', The AI uses Armies provided the above conditions are met, with WAR. That's it! Just good ole fashioned war, whether initiated by the AI or the human. Check it out.

And these armies are full-up, plentiful and far ranging.
Oh, and every single one, every single time. (well I have only tested 50 times )

Hmm...
Could it be possibile that AI got messed up by giving armies ability to get +1movment? (hard-coded, can't be removed)
So when army get filled with one foot unit, it gets movment 2.
AI then looks to add unit with same movement as army.
AI doens't find any such unit.
Army becomes passive.


P.S.
Could you post your moded rules here.
I'll like to inspect rules changes myself.

[player1]

One thing for sure.
Loading armies definetly depends from mobile units.
Look at this save.
It uses lightly moded rules.
From importatnt things, it makes an army every 50 turns in palace.
Also, I put cost of army to 0, but I don't think it has any direct impact on these results.

One thing to notice is that AI's usualy put its first foot unit into the amry (maybe it has something to do with having no mobile units at that momebt available).
Later they only fill it with mobile units, otherwise it stays empty.
In this example, only civs with available mobile attackers did filled their armies.

I'm still not sure what happens in first unit put in army is mobile unit like Horsemen or Knight.
Will it load other 2-move units into it, or will wait for cavalry, since it had movement of 3?

[Antrine]

Your 'army debug.sav' is a save game?
I am having trouble figuring out how to save/export the rules?
I tried just to upload the scenario file, however it is the wrong type for the board's upload service. Can unzip RAR file?
And I have load of unique units and have not amended the Text files fully.

[Antrine]

Oh I think I might figure out something, I look into the file tree some more.

If I collect the text files and unit files and let's see, I'll look at how others do this.

[player1]

Another save, but with bad relusts.
Zero armies total.

Same rulset as before, but with following modifications.
All ancient and medieval units have movement rating of 2.
Sicnce every made army gets movement of 3, AI don't load any unit in it.


P.S.
But, I gess after AI gets Military Tradition, that situation will repair itself.

[Gray_Lensman]

For those who for some reason or other don't want to break the 1 army per 4 cities rule, all they have to do is make the palace produce Leaders instead. but that then depends on the AI having the intelligence to create an Army from the Leader instead of other uses. Has anyone checked out the AI to see if it makes Armies out of Leaders or does it just overwhelmingly prefer to speed up production with the Leaders it acquires?

Edit:

Actually, for that matter, what would the AI do if you just turned off the ability of a Leader to finish improvements, leaving it with only Army creation as a choice? I always thought that was kinda too much capability for one unit anyhow, and what is forced labor for? I'd leave the science age ability turned on, that way if for some reason it reached its 1 per 4 city limit, it could use it for science instead.