Nations Personalities

[Sirotnikov]

But it doesn't always happen. Sometimes, leaders just take advantage of their country and plunder it. This should also be represented.

My idea isn't tough to do, it already exists in Civ2 with the nation's default personalitites (agressive, militaristic etc)

I want to add a few factors, and make more than one preset per nation. I also want the presets to change 3 - 6 times in one game.

[Mathphysto]

You're right that the needs of society don't always dictate the leadership - but if you want a strong AI to compete against, it had better not be a ruinous leader. I think a single "bad leader" factor might be interesting. But for the toughest possible game, the AI should not have a bad moment.

When I rule, I have a rough list of priorities:
1) meet the needs of my empire (gold, happiness, defense)
2) everything else needed to win the game

If I think that I can gain a scientific victory faster (perfectionist) and more easily than a military victory (militaristic), then I'll aim for that - but always while meeting the needs of my civ. Otherwise, I kill myself much more effectively than anyone else.

So the AI should sate the needs of its civ, then any excess effort should be put into the least costly form of victory. This is a much more formidable AI than one that suffers from multiple personality disorder.

For example, if the AI goes from being militaristic to perfectionist, it has alot of catching up to do - it is weakened by the random changing of goals and strategies. Only if the change is motivated by the needs of the civ and the desire to win will it strengthen the AI's civ.

[Sirotnikov]

quote: Originally posted by Mathphysto on 05-12-2001 06:26 PM You're right that the needs of society don't always dictate the leadership - but if you want a strong AI to compete against, it had better not be a ruinous leader. I think a single "bad leader" factor might be interesting. But for the toughest possible game, the AI should not have a bad moment. When I rule, I have a rough list of priorities: 1) meet the needs of my empire (gold, happiness, defense) 2) everything else needed to win the game

Yeah, but you wouldn't want all the AI civs using the same tech path and the same tactic to defeat you. It's easy to calculate the exact winning path to conquer the world or land a ship as fast as you can, and the AI can do it. But the point is having fun.

The goal of the human player is to win. The goal of the AI is not to win, but to provide fierce competition. Some civs are there to attack you, some are there to lure you into political traps, and some are there to race you in science.

[Mathphysto]

What fiercer competition could there be than from someone that wants to win just as much as you do? Hence the fierce competitive nature of multiplayer. I don't want pseudo-challenges - AI that makes it interesting, but isn't going to blow me off the map. I want an AI that is scrambling to build a spaceship faster than me, and another that is trying to conquer the world one city at a time, and another that is caught in the crossfire of more powerful civs and is just trying to survive.

Moreover, I want the roles of these AIs to be able to change: the weak can become the strong, the strong can collapse. That's only possible if they are trying to achieve the same objective (or if you change personalities, but changing personalities changes civ objectives, which weakens the AI civ). As it stands now, the militaristic AI is always going to trounce the friendly neighborhood perfectionist AI, etc. I want playing against the AI to be just as difficult and fun as a multiplayer game. And I want to lose occasionally, like in a multiplayer game.

[Sirotnikov]

quote: Originally posted by Mathphysto on 05-12-2001 11:05 PM What fiercer competition could there be than from someone that wants to win just as much as you do? Hence the fierce competitive nature of multiplayer. I don't want pseudo-challenges - AI that makes it interesting, but isn't going to blow me off the map. I want an AI that is scrambling to build a spaceship faster than me, and another that is trying to conquer the world one city at a time, and another that is caught in the crossfire of more powerful civs and is just trying to survive.

But this can't be as different civs should ahve different and changing (hopefully) AIs.

If the civs ahve the same bvery powerfull AI there's no Rise and Fall of civs, there are no differences. No tech trade as everyone research the same thing according to the best path possible...

quote: Moreover, I want the roles of these AIs to be able to change: the weak can become the strong, the strong can collapse. That's only possible if they are trying to achieve the same objective (or if you change personalities, but changing personalities changes civ objectives, which weakens the AI civ).

That's what I mean. A different AI personality would have differnt goals and different strategies to achieve it (military, expand, perfect, science etc).

quote: As it stands now, the militaristic AI is always going to trounce the friendly neighborhood perfectionist AI, etc.

That's exactly what buggs me. I know that the white, green and orange civ are always gonna defeat the others and stay till the end game with me.

quote: I want playing against the AI to be just as difficult and fun as a multiplayer game. And I want to lose occasionally, like in a multiplayer game.

Why is the MP fun? Cause there are different leaders, that alwyas change etween games and during games.

You'll lose if the AI cheats...