I just *love* this new debug mode in PtW! Last night I did a little experiment to try and figure out the AI behavior. I created a map with six identical islands, each island made exclusively from bonus grassland and with enough room for just one city.
Then I removed the ability to build any kind of ships and Wonders, turned on accelerated production, turned off civ-specific abilities, cut research costs by a factor of 10, and started all players from the Industrial Age in Democracy.
My goal was to play with the AI build-often preferences and see how they will react in identical environments.
I gave Egypt Happiness, Greece Science, Germany Production, Babylon Culture, and Russia Trade. It didn’t matter. Here’s what they all did:
Build units first (Warrior-Spearman-Spearman). Mine initially, until the city grows so that it needs entertainers (size 3). Then start irrigating to compensate for the food lost from the entertainer. Irrigate more and build a Granary so that the city grows faster. When the city finally grows again, assign another entertainer and start producing Wealth(!). Switch to rifleman when Nationalism is discovered.
Here is a picture of Thebes at this point. Note the lack of a temple, even though happiness is flagged as a preference, and there are obvious happiness problems.
Then I removed the ability to build any kind of ships and Wonders, turned on accelerated production, turned off civ-specific abilities, cut research costs by a factor of 10, and started all players from the Industrial Age in Democracy.
My goal was to play with the AI build-often preferences and see how they will react in identical environments.
I gave Egypt Happiness, Greece Science, Germany Production, Babylon Culture, and Russia Trade. It didn’t matter. Here’s what they all did:
Build units first (Warrior-Spearman-Spearman). Mine initially, until the city grows so that it needs entertainers (size 3). Then start irrigating to compensate for the food lost from the entertainer. Irrigate more and build a Granary so that the city grows faster. When the city finally grows again, assign another entertainer and start producing Wealth(!). Switch to rifleman when Nationalism is discovered.
Here is a picture of Thebes at this point. Note the lack of a temple, even though happiness is flagged as a preference, and there are obvious happiness problems.
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