Flagrant Cheating by the AI

[C Chulainn]

I've noticed that the AI cheats. Quite a lot. The higher the difficulty, the more it cheats. Some of the cheats I've noticed are;
1. Wonders. In spite of what the manual said, the AIs don't have to build them at all; the city just gets assigned lots of shields (I started to notice how fast wonders were being built so I turned on Cheat and looked at the cities which had nearly completed them ... things were happening like tiny cities on islands completing wonders in a few turns - and the civ in question didn't even have Trade)
2. Civs ally with each other "to contain [your] aggression" yet when you try and pay them to attack each other they have (or say they have!) no contact with each other.
3. If you have Space Flight, a diplomat or spy which gets into one of your cities ALWAYS automatically steals Space Flight - irrespective of what other tech you have that they don't, and spies have no chance to stop them - this free theft of S.F. rule will also allow the AI to steal a 2nd tech from the same city.
4. I'm not certain about this, but... the AI always creates farmland as soon as they have Refridgeration, yet I can't remember ever capturing a city with a Supermarket in it, which leads me to believe AI cities get the benefit of farmland without one.
5. The AI always knows which of your cities has SDI Defence and will nuke only the ones that don't.

[Matthew]

Of course the AI cheats. If it didn't it would not possibly be able to present much of a challenge against half way decent players. Civ is not like chess, where a few simple heuristics combined with a lot of raw computer power, efficiently used, can carry the day even against Grand Masters. In civ there are just too many possible actions to be able to compute all possibilities even for a single round, and the AI just can't reason that well.

You did miss one. Ever notice that once the AI can start building a space ship part it can crank one out of any city, even size 1 or 2, in 1 turn, without spending money?

Another one you missed, the AI's in effect have the Light House. Ever see one of there triremes sink cause it left the coast?
And ever notice how rare it is for one of your non vet triremes to beat an AI trireme?

As far as the wonders go, when an AI abandons a wonder to build something else the excess shields are not lost. They seem to be accounted for, andf then given to the next wonder that that city, or perhaps any city of that civ, builds.

[Smash]

ai bombers don't have to land.

ai can bribe with any unit,not just spies and dips.Happens every once in awhile.I've lost units and cities to crusaders and partisans that bribed.

ai dips can steal techs from the same city repeatedly.In an OCC game I had 13 techs stolen in 1 turn by the same civ(French)

Occasionally,I run into a "super" unit.Such as a barb horse that beats a fortified vet pikeman.

Seems I can move settler around anywhere but when I take 1 step into the "black" there just happens to be a barb legion there.

on emp and deity the ai food and sheild boxes are smaller.

the ai is not subject to the same conditions with happiness as the human player

the ai gets new units the same turn it develops a new technology regardless of whether it has Leo's or not.

ai boats can carry more units than they are supposed to

the ai does not have to be adjacent to water to irrigate

[finbar]

And the AI's food boxes are about half the size of ours, thus they can grow cities to enormous sizes.

And the AI can have 3 (or more) times more units attached to a city than shields in the city.

The list is absolutely endless. I gave up worrying about it ages ago. Fact of life. The thing is, we still beat the AI regardless.

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finbar
Mono Rules!
#33984591

[geofelt]

The ai allocates all shields where it needs, not just to the city that generated them. Programming ease is the likely reason. The ai steals space flight to make a race of it. In occ, just surround your city with units. Otherwise, seal off chokepoints and watch unoccupied squares near your cities.
I also notice that the AI cheats in your favor; any defense in your only palace city will usually stop barbarians, even chariots.

[C Chulainn]

At King level (which is what I usually play at unless I'm after having some fun "bombing the primitives" like in Civ1) the shield boxes vary in size. I think this depends on how well you're doing - I've noticed if I have lots of wonders they shrink, whereas if the AIs are giving me a run for my money they stay the same size.

[Seeker]

Have you ever noticed the occasional AI fighter that doesn't need to land? Also, if you're #1 and especially if it's the 19th century, the AI's will ignore each other's "diplomacy rating" and share all technology within a turn or 2-3. Very annoying if your trying to cultivate a primitive civ.

[benedetti]

"And the AI can have 3 (or more) times more units attached to a city than shields in the city"

No, Finbar, you are wrong here. Actually this is probably the only thing in which the AI does not cheat. Do not forget that under despotism, monarchy and fundamentalism, you can build unsupported units.

[finbar]

I've seen the AI with a negative shield count under all forms of government, my friend.

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finbar
Mono Rules!
#33984591

[benedetti]

And, how did you see it?
[This message has been edited by benedetti (edited December 14, 1999).]

[Steve Clark]

I'm trying to not be sarcastic here, but what did you think AI is? As a software developer and former game designer, programming an AI is nothing more than defining a set of parameters and conditions. I'll give you an example using city productions. Everything you see in the AI city is cosmetic because a programmer doesn't have to program an opponent building a city like you and I (it's a waste of time and would needlessly slow the game down). Since you normally don't see their city production, all you have to do is to use flags like difficulty level and various levels of conditions (if, then, else, etc.) and program the AI so that, in so many turns or at a particular stage in the game, it will build X. How it does it is irrelevant.

Another example. It is programmed to say that in so many turns, it will have Y number of food, shields, arrows, units, etc. Y is one of the factors of difficulty levels (where it takes you 2x to add another citizen, the AI can do it 1.5x). All it matters that it builds X or Y, not how it does it and whether it can.

Additionally, do you think that the AI explores? Of course not, it knows the map. But the point is that it can easily be programmed so that it looks like it is exploring. You do this by 1) knowing the number of squares and impedences between AI cities A1, A2... and your cities B1, B2... and 2) timeframe of the game (whether there are slow or fast units) and it then calculates that it would typically take X number of turns before it comes in contact with you.

One of the most difficult thing to program is coordinated movements of units (like an attack force). It can only process a finite set of variables at one time (if X and Y is Z and A > B and C is not null, as an example). That is why the AI attacks in a piecemeal fashion.

As to the examples of units acting against the rules or that it steals/gets advances outside of the tree, these are all factors used to maintain a competitive level with you.

These simplistic examples are all factors of play balance. In most turn-based economic strategy games, one programs the AI to build units at a faster rate than you at the higher difficulty levels, whether the resources are there or not. That is why it's harder to play at those levels.

In thinking about AI, remember this, the AI can play a game against another AI WITHOUT any graphics. All that you see as the user interface in the game is just for your benefit.

[Comrade Dan]

If it takes you 100 shields to build something, it takes the AI 80 shields.

The AI needs no water to irrigate - just the town centre.

If you land on a coastal area a la D-Day, AI Bombers will attack you, REGARDLESS of if it has already explored the map.

The AI can take over a civ in a matter of turns, but then takes years to take over the last city.

The AI seperates itself into two parts when they ally themselves against you. I started four World Wars by having what I call the 'Triple Entente' vs. the 'Triple Alliance'.

[finbar]

Steve Clark - good points, well made. It's typical of us humans to want to personalise the oppo. Part of the fun, really, envisaging the Mongol leader sitting out there in the darkness scheming against you.

Benedetti - Unless I misunderstand your question, by taking an AI city and discovering the situation within the city.

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finbar
Mono Rules!
#33984591

[benedetti]

Finbar,

Yes, you understood my question, and I thank you for responding. You had made me doubt for a moment

Aside from the fact that conquered cities lose 1-point population (and as a result of that, probably shield power) I guess you have missed the importance of the government forms you and the AI had at the moment of the "catch".

Example: if the AI was in Fundamentalism and you took over the city as a Democarcy, YOU (not the AI) will now have lots of unsupported units from that city . Same if the AI was in Monarchy or Despotism.


If the AI was in Democracy, Republic, or Communism, you will not find even one unsupported unit from your conquered city.

Take a look at the city just BEFORE conquering it. You will see that there are no unsupported units (yet )


benedetti

[C Chulainn]

It's all well and good to make patronising remarks about the AI being only the tool of a programmer and so on, but the manual tends to lead one to believe that at King level, it is competing fairly against you; the prorammers foresight against you, if you will, when in actual fact the whole thing is fixed to "keep it challenging" until you discover some sort of gamebreaker ... but what if you *don't want* a challenge and just want to lord it over primitives, if only in your imagination. After all, the civs are called Celts, Zulus, Russians and so on, and the AI leaders are called Caesar, Henry VIII etc. - not just Leader 1 of Civilization 1 with their capital at A1.