suggestions about ai strategy for firaxis

[bigvic]

on the hope that the programmers and whoever else is responsible for civ III check these places out, lets sort of set out a definitive, REALISTIC, set of suggestions about what could be done about some of the more lunk headed things tha ai does. i'm thinking more on the terms of specifics, especially militay tactics and strategy, but am open to any SPECIFIC suggestions in any area, political, builds, etc.

let me start it off........

1. teach the ai how to bombard - i don't mind having an advantage, but an ai that knew how to use good combined arms tactics would be really refreshing. there comes a point, before armor appears, when, like in the real world, offense is rather lacking. cannon/artillery/naval bombardment is the only intelligent option. the ai just sends human waves of knight/cavalry in a tediously predictable rampage.

2. teach the ai how to move forces in clumps, with a good mix of offensive and defensive troops. they do this sometimes, but more often seem to attack peicemeal so i, with far fewer forces easily pick them off one at a time

2.a. same with naval forces

3. stop stupid settler crap

4. more sane ai alliance structure - though this seems to have improved in 1.29 - also, a little off topic, some kind of option to tell ai to "call off its dogs" against your friends. miss that from smac/ac, even ctp2, i think.

5. better use of ai armies - i've seen the ai do the stupidest things with them. also, more ai attention to building military academies - i always seem to be able to build one in a high production city, then bust out army after army to crack those tough nuts, or guard that horde of artillery. ai should go there sometimes too.

ok, all for now - sure i'll think of more later - these were just the things that hit me on the current german military bustout i'm enjoying now - panzers rock!

[Cyclotron]

Re: suggestions about ai strategy for firaxis

Originally posted by bigvic
3. stop stupid settler crap

Eh? What's wrong with 'em?

[Demerzel]

I'm guessing he's refering to the fact that an AI will send settlers all the way across your territory to build a city in a location which is totally unsuitable.

Annoying and dumb strategy.

[Myrddin]

Let us know what level you are playing at so that we can judge your complaints

Yes the AI does some stupid things but if unless you have concrete programming ideas on how to improve it....

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by Demerzel
I'm guessing he's refering to the fact that an AI will send settlers all the way across your territory to build a city in a location which is totally unsuitable.

Annoying and dumb strategy.

I can't see that. If the AI doesn't build there, then you will... besdies, even a few gold or science a year is worth a measly settler. Why is this so bad?

[bigvic]

well, i was thinking more of the way during war, especially early in the game, all of a sudden theres a sertler accompanied by a spearman trying to scootch past your horde of swordsmen. sure great fun and all, getting loads of slave workers, but come on......who would do such a thing?

play on regent/monarch - like to speed play, limited on time. higher levels require too much time investment for me - got better things to do. but then i have not noticed a big difference in ai tactics/strategy - just more aggressive imo.....

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by bigvic
play on regent/monarch . . . but then i have not noticed a big difference in ai tactics/strategy - just more aggressive imo.....

Though the AI strategy may sometimes be the same on higher levels, the effect is not. For instance, what you consider piecemeal; that is, 5-6 units attacking, then another stack; becomes 50-60 units attacking, then another stack, then another stack.

Also, on higher levels, the AI will be more likely to treat you as an inferior. They will generally have more powerful armies, so will be more likely to make demands, more likely to refuse "reasonable" trades and treaties, and more likely to attack.

[Zachriel]

Re: suggestions about ai strategy for firaxis

Originally posted by bigvic
1. teach the ai how to bombard -

This will probably be difficult to program, as it might be too easy to exploit by capturing AI artillery. If it could be made to work, it would be a great improvement to the game.

[bigvic]

Re: Re: suggestions about ai strategy for firaxis

Originally posted by Zachriel




This will probably be difficult to program, as it might be too easy to exploit by capturing AI artillery. If it could be made to work, it would be a great improvement to the game.

yeah, it would involve a ratio of defenders to bombarders, like 1 defender to every 2-4 bombarders, never less than 2 defenders.........

[Jaybe]

My main complaint* about the AI civs is that they often will maximize population without regard to production, WLTKD, or happiness. Size 25-30 cities with most of the cits being non-working and/or unhappy, and having 6-12(+) food surplus. Build more MINES, dammit!

(*Other than combat bombardment ineptness, already mentioned)

[The Puny Celt]

The AI needs to upgrade units more often and/or disband obsolete units. If the AI could be programmed to disband its units in high corruption cities so much the better.

[Arrian]

Jaybe is right. I think that the worker automation orders are more of a hindrance to the AI than the bombard issue. Too much food, too little production.

I wonder if this could be done: Order the AI to grow a city as fast as possible until it hits a wall (size 6, no construction/size 12, no sanitation). Then maximize production. Once the wall is breached, maximize food again until hitting the next wall. Stop growth around size 25. In addition, forbid tile improvement orders that provide no benifit under the current system of government. This is primarily aimed at irrigating under despotism, but also applies so mining cows on plains under despotism. That, coupled with fine-tuning the city build orders (when to build marketplaces, etc.) would make the AI much tougher.

Of course, if that was the case, I would also favor lowering the AI's advantages on the higher levels.

Bombard would be ok... even just convincing them to mass their artillery and use it to beat up on approaching invasion stacks would be good, but I don't want the AI spending too much time & shields building arty stacks... most of the time it would be better served by building large numbers of fast attackers. I know I am. Arty is nice, but is only really important when fighting Cav vs. Infantry or Tank vs. Mech.

-Arrian

p.s. Oh, one more thing... has anyone ever seen the AI use the luxury slider? It seems to use entertainers instead, which is often a mistake.

[jshelr]

My impression, correct me if wrong, is that the AI station defensive troops relatively evenly throughout their cities. We focus our defenses in border cities and respond to a threat with massive concentration in the city being attacked (relying on transport advantages on our own road or RR system to prevent being "flanked"). If the AI did a bit more defensive force concentration, it would be much tougher to roll over their civs. That might be programable although we would immediately try to fake them out.

[Gastric ReFlux]

Actually, the AI coud be adjusted to mine more, but if it were, it would get kerfloogled by something that would need to be programmed.

The AI never, _never_, uses the luxury slider to make citizens content. It will always hire specialists to prevent a city from rioting. Which means that what we regard as extra irrigation is in insurance against starvation. So before the worker AI code could be adjusted, there would first have to be code written to teach the AI to use the luxury slider.

[JohnM2433]

Fix the way the AI evaluates gold per turn deals. As it is now, it seems they will only accept such a deal if the gold per turn is no more than the current income of the party requiered to pay it. They do not take into account that spending rates can be adjusted nor that debts can be paid from the treasury directly.