automated workers cause AI declare war

[Dr_Witz]

I have had this problem several times while playing on a continent with an AI player on it:

At the end of turn, when automated commands are being executed, I just see one of my automated workers in foreign territory being attacked by an AI unit (and losing, unfortunately ). After that, the AI player behaves like he had just declared war to me, although there wasn't a formal war declaration.

So I got 2 questions:
What is my worker looking for in enemy territory?
Why does the AI attack me because of this incident despite a right of passage agreement and even a mutual protection pact?

Of course, I can load the last autosave and un-automate all workers for this turn, but that'd be very annoying because the problem often occurs again a few turns later.

[zulu9812]

Automated workers will go into foreign territory in order to builds roads/railroads to their capital so that you can trade with them. Unfortunately there is no "Automate within own territory" command, although there is an "Automate (this city only)" command (Shift-I).

The AI might want to go to war with you, and thus attacked out of hand - but this is the first time I've heard of the AI breaking an mpp AND an rop. Was the leader in question Annoyed or Furious with you?

[Dr_Witz]

hi zulu

thanks for your reply, but actually both of your possible explanations for this strange behavior are not true in my case:

1) I already had a road to their capital (and no, there was no need to irrigate foreign territory in order to irrigate my territory)

2) AI player was gracious (!) before this incident

[zulu9812]

automated workers like to cover the map in roads and railroads. Thta's just the way they are.

Can't understand why the nation attacked out of hand, though.

[kmill25]

Something similar happened to me. My automated worker bumped into a foreign soldier within my borders lost the fight and put me into a war I did not want to be in.

[kring]

Just another reason I don't do a full automate of my workers. There is probably some kind of bug they still haven't worked out when it comes to workers being fully automated.
I stick with either partial automate to city or manual control; time consuming, but I know what I want them to do.

[Ethelred]

This could be related to the bug where your own units start firing on workers as they try to enter cities.

Try playing from a save from before that an see if happens again. If it doesn't and the worker does enter the same area its likely its the bug that caused it.

[kring]

The Strategy Guide does caution against automating Workers since they may go into foreign lands, and without a RoP, this could be considered a hostile incursion, p. 157 under Automated Workers.

[Ethelred]

The stategy guide? The Prima out of date written before the game was finished strategy guide?

The AI normaly contacts you and tells you to get out of their territory before declaring war. They rarely make a fuss over workers. Even when they do contact you over a worker they often don't bother to complain twice and its the second time that you get the get our or declare war warning. Thats twice in a row by the way.

You have to do the same with the AI units. Complaining twice in three turns doesn't do it. It has to be twice in a row. This is the reason the AI seems to ignore warnings. They have to be two turns in a row, not every now and then.

Workers can usually wander around in foreign territory as long as you don't send a military unit to support them.

[kring]

Originally posted by Ethelred
The stategy guide? The Prima out of date written before the game was finished strategy guide?

The AI normaly contacts you and tells you to get out of their territory before declaring war. They rarely make a fuss over workers. Even when they do contact you over a worker they often don't bother to complain twice and its the second time that you get the get our or declare war warning. Thats twice in a row by the way.

You have to do the same with the AI units. Complaining twice in three turns doesn't do it. It has to be twice in a row. This is the reason the AI seems to ignore warnings. They have to be two turns in a row, not every now and then.

Workers can usually wander around in foreign territory as long as you don't send a military unit to support them.

The strat guide has some good info in it. Even if some was outdated by various patches or the game when it came out. Since I got mine free, it was worth the price; as a member of a rewards program, I read email, they give me points. I used these to buy the book, as well as support a friend's Civ 3 website since I used his link. True, some of its advice is contradictory, or just stupid. I figured if I commented on it someone would rush to shoot it down. Would I pay $14-20 US for it, no I wouldn't.

I have had them complain about my Workers (no other military anywhere in or near their borders) on semi regular occasion; it depends on difficulty level, as well as their attitude towards you, your cultural level differences, what culture groups you both belong to. To the point where I had the choice of auto move out or declare war. I have also had it, as have others, where you tell them each and every turn for 3 or more turns, and they still don't leave. Sometimes, they would declare war if they felt stronger than me.

Whether they will or won't leave is highly variable, some of which were mentioned above.

Back on topic, I don't automate Workers, unless it is location specific, Build Road to ...; Irrigate to City, Clean Pollution. I find if I automate, they are busy doing things either I don't want them to or that I would have assigned a much lower priority to.

[W4r_Machine]

I have had this problem before too. I was playing the romans and I acquire a chinese worker from one of the trades. This chinese worker kept running into egyptians territory for some reason. The worker did this twice until egypt finally declared war to me.

[Willem]

Originally posted by kring


Whether they will or won't leave is highly variable, some of which were mentioned above.

Your military strength relative to theirs has a lot to do with it. In fact, I find if I'm much stronger than they are, they don't even send units into my territory. Which rather sucks if I'm looking for an excuse to declare war on them.

[kring]

The relative strengths/weaknesses of your total unit numbers influences a lot of things, including whether or not a civ will declare war on you. It is not a guarantee, though. I had India declare war on me one game, and my military numbers were way higher than theirs, better quality, too, but quality doesn't usually factor into such a decision with them.

Also, I usually have one of the bigger, if not the biggest militaries around, and I have no problem with them tromping through my lands. By that, I mean they do it all the time, as opposed to they never do it. I have set up (when I have the excess military available nearby) groups of units that are blockers. That is they block the paths of these freaks.

One thing about the military that can be said. If you ask them to leave, and your military numbers (which includes Workers, Scouts, Settlers, etc.) are smaller (regardless of whether your troops are better units (Tanks for you, Spearmen for them), what typically will happen is they will declare war on you most of the time.

[Willem]

Originally posted by kring

Also, I usually have one of the bigger, if not the biggest militaries around, and I have no problem with them tromping through my lands. By that, I mean they do it all the time, as opposed to they never do it.

It usually only happens to me when they're sending troops to attack an enemy on the other side of me. An unofficial RoP I guess. Mind you, I've added colorless units to my game so maybe they're sending out those instead.

[kring]

In my games, they are usually either exploring or sending out settler teams. By having teams of 3-5 units of my own, I can have them travelling around a long time, not getting anywhere. If you do it correctly, they will continue to do it for a long time. The advantage to doing it correctly is simple: if they are running around your lands, that team(s) is not building a city somewhere else. Even if you do incorrectly, they will waste several turns. One correct way (I am sure there are others) is to allow them to think they are getting towards their goal for a couple of turns, then do the blocking.