AI caught cheating

[SoHappy]

Another cheating thing I have noticed is with Strategic Resources!! Has anyone alse noticed that the AI gets automatic access to some strategic resources like saltpeter!! In my last game I shared my continent with the Germans, I had the only source of saltpeter but they somehow also had access. Only way I can think of is trade, but just does not add up (most other civs either did not have the tech or only had one source).

Has anyone else noticed this as I find this very annoying!!

[Sevorak]

Freshwater lakes call themselves Coast. The only way to tell the difference is that saltwater Coast is 1 food, 2 commerce and freshwater Coast is 2 food, 2 commerce.

-Sev

[Elucidus]

Also I am currently in a game where I seem to have the only coal, and saltpeter is not too common either.

If that picture had no lake shown then maybe we should be concerned. Also note the computer can use your irrigation to make his own.

[Cian McGuire]

LOL- there is no Freshwater tile.

Any body of water not connected to the *main* body of water is considered a lake.

[Trifna]

Boy...

Firaxis is becoming greater and greater since Yin was the first to say that Civ III was a beta...


Hey Yin, you know you were 2 weeks before time? Maybe you should play stockmarket.

[Fromage]

That is a lake. They have irrigated everything from there. It's 480 AD, so they have had time time remove irrigation near ST. Petersburg.

AI doesn't cheat. Perhaps you just have to think AI cheats, because you have to explain your losses somehow. It's easier to shout "CHEATER!" than admit that you just suck too much for that level

[Lord Chambers]

I understand what you are thinking Fromage, but it's true the AI cheats. I wouldn't ever use that word to describe it though, because it sounds like whining. What the AI does to increase it's difficulty on higher levels is lower the number of sheilds for things, lower the amount of food for population growth, and probably other things like lowering corruption. It's too bad that they can't just be wiser, smarter, and more devilish to increase the difficulty, but they have to resort to mathematically stacking the game against you. The AI will get more units, buildings, techs, everything, and you have to be a super player to outwit blatant "cheating" on these higher difficulty levels.

[Prlwofsky]

Hi, some things I've noticed in my games:

- City's do work as irrigation conductors if they are linked to an irrigated square or a source of fresh water. The inland lake is fresh water so every elligible square around Moscow can be irrigated.

- The computer does not have 'automatic' access to saltpeter (you should have seen the begging of the French for salpeter in my last game while their empire was slowly eaten away by the germans

- The map does not contain anything that is impossible so I think cheating is not proven (yet). I must say the computer gives a hell of a fight on regent level, but it's possible to stay on a par with the computer by making good use of the special resources. (In my last game I even grew faster than any computer opponent, only to be burned to the ground when I didn't have Iron and my hated enemies the Russians noticed that when the showed up with swordman on the doorstep of my palace

Ah well... back to the drawing board I guess

[dexters]

It is the inland lake that is providing the irrigation for the Russians. Stop making a big fuss without taking the time to inspect the situation closely.

And if the AI cheats, it will be in the area of bonuses that will be hidden from the players. There is no need for them to cheat so obviously as to irrigate without having a source of fresh water. The AI could simply be given food or production bonuses without the player even knowing.

But according to Soren, the AI programmer, there are NO AI cheats/bonuses below Prince difficulty. And even the cheating the AI does is just mostly enhancement bonuses, no build improvement in one turn at no cost type deal.

[Deathray]

The difference between difficulty levels is AI aggression and bonuses/penalties to food, shield and commerce production. What this means is that you can have an easier game without haveing a clueless opponent. Other than this the game does not cheat.

[Baloo]

Yep, I should've said "Freshwater" tiles instead of leaving it without a quote, even though I know there's no such thing as a Freshwater tile. Do you just love people correcting other people mistakes? Thx, BTW. I mean it.

About a huge lake, look at the mini-map. There's no huge lake overthere. And, hello - Minsk is NOT connected to any irrigation that's allegedly comes from a source of lake or river (St. Pete and Odessa is - I should
ve corrected my earlier statements). Check it out. If you spend the game more than 2 hours, you might already know how to irrigate your land.

Scepticism is a blessing, not a bane.

[Fromage]

"Minsk is NOT connected to any irrigation " So what? It doesn't matter, because couple of hundred years ago it was connected to that lake near moscow. After that AI build mines south of the Minsk, so there aren't any connection anymore.

Hmm. What huge lake? It's 1x1 lake east of Moscow. That is the source of water.

[NZrevenge]

If the computer cheats, then atleast it's fair. In my first few games, back when I still trusted the fully automated workers, I noticed things like this happening in my own territory as well.

This leads me to believe that either I am very unobservant, or there is a bug in the automated worker AI...

[Psiwar]

Ok. This screenshot takes all doubts away. I had never come across a lake in my games so i was thinking that the tile would say something like fresh water. Also, that tile is connected to the sea by position 5 and i thought that a lake should be completly inclosed by land (all tiles around it with land).

It was never my intention to to whine or call the AI cheater to "hide" my defeats. I started a new game with an industrious civ and my starting position had a good food output. With the combination of both it was possible to spit out settlers twice as fast. I understand the need that the AI has to do ICS better than you because it needs to compensate for it's poor strategy.

The bottom line is that the russians are mean.

So, the world is still flat (?) and we can all sleep better because Civ3 is great indeed. (just needs that patch)

[Isle]

This is not shocking. The very same cheat was in civ2. I have several former AI-cities that have irrigation and no source of fresh water. This is on Emperor level. Some of these cities was even irrigated without workers and in the 10-20 turns it was capital before being conquered.