Just HOW STUPID can the AI get??

[Encomium]

How stupid can the AI get?? Well, besides cheating, it is so dumb it did this:

I am attacked by the Babylonians. But I quickly develop iron and start winning. I storm into Babylon itself and push my troops towards the new capital, Ur.

I then get a message that "The Babylonians are building the Pyramids"!!!

Civ II pulled this same nonsense. The Babs are desperately in need of troops to stop me, but they start building a Great Wonder!

Civ II. Civ III. Some stupidities remain the same.

[Dis]

they figure they can hold you off for 100 years. Once those pyramids kick in the population explosion will fuel their war production machine making them invincible.

[MonsterMan]

Yeah

Encomium, you are continuing to demonstrate not the stupidity of the AI but... oh well

[kittenOFchaos]

At that point you halt your invasion waiting for them to complete the wonder for you that you can then take...

How many times in civ2 I can say that to be true!

[Atahualpa]

And exactly WHERE did they built the wonder?

[Zachriel]

As stupid as humans

Consider human history, the AI is just doing a good job of imitating the follies of our past.

[cassembler]

Perhaps they were all gonna hide in these "pyramids." You gotsta pretend every now and then...

[GeneralTacticus]

This seems similar to their Civ II/SMAC idiocy where everyone that could would start on a wonder as soon someone was about to finish it. And I've seen that happen in Civ 3 as well.

[MonsterMan]

The thing is that you don't know in what city a wonder is being built. Even if one did, they would have to spy on that city to see how far it was from completing the wonder. So, the AI doesn't generally *know* that you are about to complete it.

I don't think things need to change, because there are strategies to take advantage of the AI if it did. Have one city work on a wonder, while the AI civs don't bother starting work because you're so far ahead. When you discover a tech letting you build a new wonder, switch production in that city to the new wonder and start over with the first wonder in another city. Voila, you're equal in work on the original wonder while you're finishing an even better one.

Needless to say the AI can switch production too, and if you win the wonder race they'll switch to a "preproduced" university or somesuch.

[pauli]

So, the AI doesn't generally *know* that you are about to complete it.

if you believe the ai doesn't cheat, anyway

[MonsterMan]

I don't think the AI cheats (other than its known bonuses), but I do think the other civs are very good at working together against the player sometimes

Of course, if the civ has an embassy connection, I wouldn't be surprised if the AI goes through the player's cities one by one to check them out. But I don't know, I'm playing Monarch and I've built all the wonders I cared about (on archipelago, continent-only wonders such as Pyramids are hardly worth building).

[Willem]

Originally posted by MonsterMan


Of course, if the civ has an embassy connection, I wouldn't be surprised if the AI goes through the player's cities one by one to check them out. But I don't know, I'm playing Monarch and I've built all the wonders I cared about (on archipelago, continent-only wonders such as Pyramids are hardly worth building).

Exactly! I don't understand why people thinks the AI is cheating when all it's doing is using an option that's available to the human player as well. If you really want to know how far along a civ is with their Wonder, all you have to do is spend a little gold and go through every city until you find it. The AI is just doing the same thing. As I said in another post, maybe that's why the other civs always seem not to have any money in their treasury.

[achtungpanzer]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by MonsterMan
The thing is that you don't know in what city a wonder is being built. Even if one did, they would have to spy on that city to see how far it was from completing the wonder. So, the AI doesn't generally *know* that you are about to complete it.

Yes you can find out which city a wonder is being built in for free just look at the wonder screen (F? cant remember as i am at work) and it shows who is building what wonder. you can judge how long it will take my looking at the size of the city and shields available. You know the start date (you get a pop up) and just divide number of shields required / estiamted shields per turn. If its tight you can investigate the city.

Bye the way the AI allways starts building wonders even if hasnt a hope of winning.

[Ironikinit]

F7 is the wonder screen.

[FNBrown]

Originally posted by Ironikinit
F7 is the wonder screen.

I had no idea this option was available... thanks!