AI Cheating?

[Switch]

And also allowing Civ to be workable on a higher number of machines. Make the AI better, it needs more processing power, and this would alienate those with just a high enough CPU as it is to play the game. Not to mention, most improvements on the AI beyond what it currently is would likely take a much larger amount of time to produce, so they had to compromise between AI and releasing the game before most lost interest (excepting those of us on these forums...which do NOT represent the vast majority of the players).

[Krasny]

sounds like lazyness and cost cutting to me

shame on firaxis

[DrSpike]

The main constraint to AI is not computer power though, but human input. Soren could make a better AI this week if he wanted, by tweaking and testing results. He could carry on doing that until it was good, way before processor consideration became a relevant factor. He could, he just isn't going to.

[Krasny]

why not?

[Arrian]

Time is money, that's why.

Maybe if we convinced Infrogrames we would all buy CivIV for $200 per unit, they might give Soren more time and manpower to create a better AI.

Personally, I'd pay the $200. But I doubt many others would.

Anyway, yes, the AI "cheats" a bit by "seeing" the map.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

It's OK... time, and new releases, will take care of the AI quality problem.

Re AI cheating, ah, what-everrrr... the game plays how it plays, and either one understands it and still enjoys it, or one does not.

Can it be tweaked to fix minor wrongs? Can Berserk+Marine Armies ever be amphibious? Who knows... but it is good enough for me, and those tweaks only make it better. But to each his own; Sir Ralph, for instance, is on a semi-boycott due to the one-step-forward / two-steps-back he perceives in C3C.

To each his own... but the AI ain't cheating, that is just the way the game works.

[Krasny]

the AI IS CHEATING and that is the way the game works

well i think it stinks

[Patashu]

Would you rather have an impossibly easy game where the AI does no cheating, or a game with a cheating AI that provides a challenge?

[MrWhereItsAt]

It will be impossible to code an AI that is that good. Until the human brain can be mimiced (agh - horrible word. Wonder if I spelled it right..) the AI will always need a hand or two up to compete at the human level.

[Maquiladora]

I'd rather play an AI that assesses threats and targets based on things it sees and knows fairly, that doesn't take a supercomputer or mimicing of the human brain.

[vmxa1]

dream on

[Maquiladora]

Funny, because thats how CtP2 works.

Oh and yes the AI was terrible in unmodded CtP2, largely because of imbalances in other areas of the game. In mods it has been shown this kind of AI can work, and it can be highly competitive.

[Harovan]

CtP2 has an AI since when?

[Maquiladora]

I see your position, you think one big cheat makes an AI then youd be hard pressed to find a real one.

[Harovan]

Nevertheless the Civ3 AI is halfway competitive at least for an average player, whereas the CtP2 one does not exist. What concerns the mods, you may want to ask your beloved friend hexagonian, how many hefty cheats and fat advantages are in Cradle.