Soren: make your AI culture capable!

[Solver]

Hi Soren, I hope you will be reading this,

I have noticed that one of the biggest flaws of your AI is low culture priority. In peace-time the AI will often be building quite some units. Rather than that it should build Colosseums and Cathedrals in some cities that don't currently need either just for happinnes problems.

In my games, I always have double the value of everyone's culture easily and soon, without focusing on it intentionally. As soon as I start thinking culture, everyone is in awe of me, even if they beat me militarily or territory-wise.

So, Soren, please make AI produce more culture.

[Lucilla]

I guess, if the AI would focus more on culture, it would be easier to conquer him. The money / shields spent on culture cannot be spent on units and the AI might become too weak.

Don't know whether that's correct, though. Maybe it's an option to make the AI's priority for culture depending on the difficulty level?

[Solver]

Not quite... sure it would have a bit less units, but do you build units all the time during peace, if you're a builder? This could lead to the AI actually taking my cities by cultural flips, as well asthem even treating me worse, since culture is known to influence negotiations.

[Lucilla]

I'd like to play around with this idea. Actually, I would prefer an AI that is more competitive in peace times. Unfortunately there's no parameter in the editor where you can manipulate the AI's or the civilization's priorities concerning research, culture, trade, military strength, etc. (or did I miss this feature?)

I don't even know whether these goals could in theory be changed using parameters and whether they work together or against each other.
So for instance you would have a slider for culture vs. military. If you increase the one, you would automatically decrease the other. But as there are more parameters than just the two, I assume it's more complicated.

[Solver]

I guess it's compliciated, too, so that's why I want Soren to pay some attention to peace-time . And yes I know he didn't have time before... still a great job done, but those lazy guys at Firaxis really need our critics .

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Lucilla
I'd like to play around with this idea. Actually, I would prefer an AI that is more competitive in peace times. Unfortunately there's no parameter in the editor where you can manipulate the AI's or the civilization's priorities concerning research, culture, trade, military strength, etc. (or did I miss this feature?)

Yes, it would be nice to have sliders for all of these, and the ability to randomize them at the beginning of a game. That way you never really know who you're playing against. The sliders could even represent the different victory conditions, with the AI using basic strategies to achieve its goal. So if the "Space Ship" slider is higher than the "Domination" slider, the civ would focus more on developing an industrial infrastructure while protecting its capital. If the "Diplomatic" slider were high, the civ might be nicer than you'd expect, trying to gain a favorable disposition from the other civs.

Maybe I'm just thinking out loud here.........

[WarpStorm]

I'd swear I saw this in the editor. I'll have to remember to check on this when I get home. I hate reading these forums at lunch...

[Alex]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
I'd swear I saw this in the editor. I'll have to remember to check on this when I get home. I hate reading these forums at lunch...

Is this in the editor?

Wow... this would be great!

[Solver]

I'm positive it's not.

[TechWins]

Yes, it is in the editor (civilizations tab), and Korn's Blitz mod makes good use of it too. I did some research for the mod, and I noticed that whenever a civ does have a flag checked they do prefer to follow that flag slightly. For example, Japan has the happiness flag checked, and in the test I did they had more temples built than say England and Germany, who didn't have the happiness flag checked. The flag checking only makes a marginal difference in the building priotirities of the AI, but that marginal difference is still a difference.

[TechWins]

Btw,

I've stated since Civ3 first came out that the AI needs not to build excessive amount of cities and concentrate a little bit more on infastructure. Instead of building that settler to go colonize (not in Civ3's terms) that single-tile desert island half way around the world the AI should go build a temple, a marketplace, a library, etc... Basically anything that would provide more benefit than that single-tile desert island. In my opinion, this would strengthen the chances for the AI to win.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by TechWins
Yes, it is in the editor (civilizations tab), and Korn's Blitz mod makes good use of it too.

Yikes! I must have missed this. I've been concentrating on modding units, terrain benefits and map sizes. Guess I'll take a look at the civilization tab tonight.... Still, I'd rather have a slider than a check box; that way it's not all or nothing.

And I agree that more infrastructure, less meaningless all-the-way-around-the-world cities from the AI would present more of a challenge. I'd also like to be able to flag terrain as being unable to support cities (like mountains are currently). Then I'd make desert and tundra uninhabitable, thus giving colonies some meaning later in the game (when oil appears in no-man's land).

Dream, dream, dream....