How much does the AI cheat?

[Kramsib]

I wonder how many cheats the AI does.

As far as I know, in some levels, it starts with 2 settlers, its production is increased, it knows the entire map and consequently where the resources are, where your cities are and even where to attack (because it knows where your units are too).

Cheats, cheats and more cheats, which ones do you know?

[Cruddy]

Bottlenecks. It always knows if it can get through a bottleneck or not.

Personally I exploit this - let a civ move a big stack of units across my terrioty (no Right of Passage). When peace is declared (or it wins) he has to move them all back again - 1 turn per move, costing him 1 gold per unit.

It's nice to watch the AI bleed - but it's not a strategy for the faint hearted.

If you close the bottleneck behind him, all his units fortify (usually on the spot their on). Even more fun - deplete its treasury until you open the bottleneck again.

As for starting units, you can adjust that. But think of the things the AI doesn't cheat on - you can sell Great Library owners tech they'll get for free, it NEVER makes suicide runs across seas or oceas (so the human is more likely to get first contact).

Finally, the AI is totally stupid on worker instructions, making terrain improvements that are useless due to corruption.

If it didn't have those extra starting units or faster builds the harder levels would be cakewalks.

[Hurricane]

And let's not forget the two most powerful human player strategies: prebuilding and mass-upgrading.

[Kramsib]

Mmm, everything you have said is ok, but I was asking for AI cheats that you know,

[Cruddy]

I've noticed in tech trading that the AI will accept a trade tech, but refuse the same trade on the same turn if you have traded the tech to another Civ in the meantime. It's my turn, so they shouldn't know what techs have been traded that turn... but they do.

Barvs. The enemy units always know where the barbs are, and head towards them from 3 or more tiles away, when they couldn't even see that they were there.

Air interception - if I've put up massive amounts of fighters on air superiority, the AI won't dare launch any air missions because it knows it has 50% chance of being toast. How does it know???

That's enough from me - any other AI slight of hand???

[Manya]

They can build spears in 1 turn if they ran out and you're to close

[Kuciwalker]

That's called "drafting"

[Cruddy]

No, you can't draft before Nationalism - I'm sure you know that skywalker. OK, pop rushing spearman has a very similar effect (but it does cause more unhappiness).

Of course, if the AI is not in a despotic ancient regime this doesn't happen.

[Manya]

Originally posted by skywalker
That's called "drafting"

In the ancient age, i don't think so



And this happens even in Republic or Despotism, since the pop doesn't go down

[Jamski]

You can do this too - right click on the city - hurry production... sheesh.

-Jam

[Manya]

Two turns in a row, int he acient age, i don't think so, especially since it was broke

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Cruddy
I've noticed in tech trading that the AI will accept a trade tech, but refuse the same trade on the same turn if you have traded the tech to another Civ in the meantime. It's my turn, so they shouldn't know what techs have been traded that turn... but they do.

Not a cheat.

The tech system is dynamic, the more civs that have a tech, the less it is relatively worth. They know that, you should know that. Look at the research time after a tech has spread to other civs. It lowers the research time.


A Cheat:

AI know where the resources are, will plant cities in odd places, thousands of years later, will be a resource there

[Manya]

It knows the defenders in all your cities

[Jaybe]

Kramsib, the difficulty level advantages the AI gets are not cheats. They are the only advantages they get for the higher levels, and if you win, you get higher scores in return (if that means anything to you).

As you stated, they know where your units are, they know the map and where resources are (though not WHAT they are).

They trade with other AI's, valuing & paying for tech according to the "AI to AI Trade" in the Editor: Difficulty Levels tab.

That's it, no ifandorbuts. OTOH, YOU have a brain and can think; the AI cannot.

[Harovan]

The only known and confirmed true cheat is, that the AI knows the entire map, including all resources and the location of all units on it, regardless if in cities or not. Knowing this, one can explain a lot of derived phenomena, like the mentioned "bottleneck" and others.

A lot of the mentioned other "cheats" are bonuses, that the AIs get in higher difficulty levels, or are available for the human as well, like Cruddys mentioned "trade cheat". Mind you that the human can (and often will) also accept a bad trade deal, just to make money when he needs it, or to take it away from the other AIs.