What does the AI know?

[AlrightyThen]

Does the AI know at the beginning of the game which forms of victory are allowed for that game?

Does it know when the human and/or other computer players are close to one of those goals?

Does it know both of the above?

I'm getting attacked a little too coincidentally for no discernible reason as I come close to reaching a victory condition.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Re: What does the AI know?

Originally posted by AlrightyThen
Does the AI know at the beginning of the game which forms of victory are allowed for that game?

It would have to because it is playing towards the same victory conditions as you are.

Originally posted by AlrightyThen
Does it know when the human and/or other computer players are close to one of those goals?

I suspect that it does. Whether it uses the embassy and spies to determine or it has a hook is unclear. However, there is strong evidence that points to intimate knowledge of your empire.

Originally posted by AlrightyThen
I'm getting attacked a little too coincidentally for no discernible reason as I come close to reaching a victory condition.

Try to trade places with the AI in that situation. Would you attack yourself?

R:PM

[delfino]

The computer knows everything.

Your weakest spots and your stong characteristics.

It will always target your least defended city, like magic one of their units will pop up near your workers, will rush build a wonder even in a miserable city and without any real way to get a leader, their regulars will sistematically defeat your elites specially if you are trying to get a strategic city. Furthermore their cities pop up near strategic resources, even if several squares away from their main empire.

That is why we love this game.

[=DrJambo=]

if it didn't get some help it would be too damned easy, much like civ2 where the AI would constantly throw its units against well defended cities!

[chiefpaco]

Does the AI know at the beginning of the game which forms of victory are allowed for that game?

Excellent question. This is on my top 10 suggestions for the next Civ game.

From what I've seen, the AI is vaguely aware of something called the Space Ship. That's about it. It will build the UN & hold a vote, but I don't know if it accepts it in a strategic move.

Right now, the AI seems to be built to make the human lose. I'd prefer it to go for a win instead. Perhaps, at some point in the game, preferably before the modern age, each AI can select a Victory condition to gun for. It would have to best suit their situation & ability. Like, a large warmongering empire might go for domination or conquest. A high culture religious civ would go for a culture.

As a result, currently, we have very few "races" in the game, where the human has to thwart an enemy winning, other than by SS or UN. We only have the human trying to sustain pressure from all civs to make us lose.

Furthermore, by getting rid of the "Double-culture" rule for a Cultural victory, we would get a much better race to the limit.

[benjdm]

Tougher question. Does the AI know what selections the human player made for map generation ? When I play islands, the computer does not seem to place enough emphasis on Lighthouse / Astronomy / Navigation etc.

[Nym]

Originally posted by delfino
Furthermore their cities pop up near strategic resources, even if several squares away from their main empire.

I am quite sure of this too, but I get a surprise within my present game. French are located south from me. Many turns ago, we both went at war against the Zulus, north-west from my empire. I captured most of the ennemy's cities and kept them, while the French razed those they captured, except one. I found this really strange because the city was in the middle of toundra, without water or any known ressource. I was so quite sure that aluminium or uranium will appear there (I was the most advanced and still in Industrial Era). And... nothing.
Very strange. The city is now completly surrended by my empire and about 20 tiles apart form the french empire. I do not understand.

[rah]

Fist time (and only time) I ever saw a nuke launched against me. Was it aimed At my super capital or a strategic city at the front, Noooooooooooooo, rather the city that was building my last SS part. The AI knows almost everything.

RAH

[Jamski]

Just a quickie, has anyone tried using a spy to catch a spy - so to speak - maybe the AI has infilterated an agent, and if you don't look... I check about every 10 turns on Regent+ and I find them quite often, so maybe this is how they know where your workers are, even if they can't see them, and do those stoooopid "worker round-up" attacks....

-Jam

[Coracle]

Originally posted by rah
Fist time (and only time) I ever saw a nuke launched against me. Was it aimed At my super capital or a strategic city at the front, Noooooooooooooo, rather the city that was building my last SS part. The AI knows almost everything.

RAH

The AI cheats outrageously. And that's another reason why I've turned the Manhattan Project into a comerce-producing Internet Wonder.

[Inverse Icarus]

i swear the AI is more agressive is domination is the onlyvictory type... and rightfully so.

[player1]

Originally posted by Coracle


The AI cheats outrageously. And that's another reason why I've turned the Manhattan Project into a comerce-producing Internet Wonder.

Don't forget you can do the same.

Spy cities, and find out whioch builds SS parts.
Then nuke it.

Also nuke Aluminum connections.

[Fidel]

Only in my last (1.21) game did AI try to build a spaceship. Then, however, they all rushed and I won only because my research was quicker.
BIG note for XP: Firaxis, consider having ALL techs as prerequisite for spaceship. It is stupid, anyway, to have a ship to Alpha Centauri before stealth or SDI.

[Hurricane]

I´m pretty sure that the AI has no clue about victory conditions. The AI will build a courthouse in its capital, so why would it not build space ship parts even if it hadn´t a clue what they were good for?

The problem is, of course, that the AI scripting is very simple. I would say the AI reasoning from beginning to end is something like:

if { unsettled land = build settler
else build improvement (50%) or military unit (50%)
except if wonder available = build wonder
or if at war = build military unit }

research % = maximum without having a negative income

trade:
buy everything you can afford
sell everything anybody can afford

[Akka]

Re: Re: What does the AI know?

Try to trade places with the AI in that situation. Would you attack yourself?

R:PM

I am playing a game. I would like the AI rather act like if it's was its very existence that was in the balance (ie : no systematical "I'm a 5-cities large civ with gunpowder and I will attack this continent-size empire using hundreds of modern armors").