One of the awkward facts of the civ games (and all the others, I'm sure, but I don't play any others) is that the computer always knows everything about your civ right down to the last unit in the smallest city. This is not only inherently unfair (and the reason I prefer MP mode) but it actually damages the playability of the game. It makes the Player/AI competition unworkable.
I do not do game design. I am not knowledgeable in modern programming languages. But I used to program (Fortran, Basic, Cobol - Hey, I'm old, OK?)
So I ask this seemingly simple question. Why isn't the AI program isolated from the game operations programming? It isn't impossible to keep part of a program from having information from another part of the program (actually, it takes deliberate effort). So why shouldn't the AI program know only the same things that I do? Is that such a bizarre idea?
The AI programs will never improve as long as the developers *depend* on the AI having secret information (as a crutch). Let the AI see only my city, not the units inside. Let the AI have to trade with me not knowing how much gold I have. Let the AI not know the locations of my cities (or the other civs).
It wouldn't bother me in the least to have a level of difficulty that is virtually unbeatable (there are plenty of chess programs like that already, for me anyway). But let the AI play the same game I am playing, and let me test my skill against *that*.
I do not do game design. I am not knowledgeable in modern programming languages. But I used to program (Fortran, Basic, Cobol - Hey, I'm old, OK?)
So I ask this seemingly simple question. Why isn't the AI program isolated from the game operations programming? It isn't impossible to keep part of a program from having information from another part of the program (actually, it takes deliberate effort). So why shouldn't the AI program know only the same things that I do? Is that such a bizarre idea?
The AI programs will never improve as long as the developers *depend* on the AI having secret information (as a crutch). Let the AI see only my city, not the units inside. Let the AI have to trade with me not knowing how much gold I have. Let the AI not know the locations of my cities (or the other civs).
It wouldn't bother me in the least to have a level of difficulty that is virtually unbeatable (there are plenty of chess programs like that already, for me anyway). But let the AI play the same game I am playing, and let me test my skill against *that*.
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