Why, oh why does the poor AI...

[Catt]

. . . refuse to eliminate the thorn in its side?

The attached screenshot is from a "barbarians random" game in debug mode. I presume the barbarians were "raging" because they were popping up pretty frequently (I never got to see an uprising to determine for certain). Babylon's attempted REXing was significantly crimped because of a nearby barbarian hut. A Babylonian settler would venture out, sense a barbarian, and rush back to Babylon. Even an escorted settler returned when faced with a barbarian. The AI of course enjoyed enormous combat bonuses against barbarians but refused to send out a warrior or two to "cleanse the land" of the threat. Take a look at the minimap and you can see that other civs have expanded to 3 or 4 cities. Babylon is still OCCing it, even though it has two settlers ready to go (but unwilling to venture out). This absoutely prevented Babylon from becoming a power -- the same thing happened to Germany, east of Babylon on its own island.

Catt

[Catt]

. . . Break an Unproductive Loop?

This behavior would strike me as difficult to correct since I imagine it happens only when the stars align . . . but nonetheless I'll point it out.

The attached shows an Arab scout. For at least 20 turns the scout used it's 2 movement points to: (1) move SE along the floodplain, and (2) move back NW to the same tile it currently occupies. This pointless movement loop ended only when another civ attacked and destroyed the nearby barbarian camp. My guess is that the scout was attracted by the goodie hut, but repelled by the barbarian camp. In any event, it essentially neutralized the Arab's starting advantage.

Catt

[Catt]

AI Uses Luxury Slider!

Originally posted by Catt in another thread
The AI never uses the luxury slider

I thought Soren had posted that the AI won't use the luxury slider but instead will always use entertainers. I was surprised to see the attached in a debug game I was running to test a possible mod to communism. As war weariness built up within Persia's cities, it seems that for whatever reason Persia decided to actually use the luxury slider (if only at 10%).

Catt

[Mazarin]

IIRC -Soren posted that AI only uses the luxury slider to combat war weariness, because -opposed to city-size/pop-rushing- it influences the whole empire.

[Panag]

hi ,

what levels where played catt

have a nice day

[Catt]

Originally posted by Mazarin
IIRC -Soren posted that AI only uses the luxury slider to combat war weariness, because -opposed to city-size/pop-rushing- it influences the whole empire.

I don't recall the Soren post but your explanation makes perfect sense.

panag - it was a test game in debug mode on Regent.

I didn't include one other oddity I saw the first time. I believe we've all seen that the AI can make some strange build choices with respect to wonders (great and small) -- i.e., choosing a low-shield city to build Leo's in only 142 turns . In this test game, Xerxes, the leader until forced to switch to Communism late in the game, elected to build his Apollo Program in a large "core" city, but unfortunately a great trade city but a poor production city. This example is probably not entirely valid (since another AI won a diplo victory the turn before), but Xerxes did not switch his Apollo build to a more productive city, even when his capitol completed a build and was free to choose something else. As you might imagine, 47 turns to build Apollo could be a fatal mistake (if the space race is still "active").

Catt

[Harovan]

Why, oh why does the poor AI...

... make peace in the early game to absolutely inacceptable terms?

Ok, here's the short story. Oh, and before anyone criticises: No, I would never play this way in MP .

4000BC - Built Istanbul.
3800BC - Built first warrior, "Ahmet". Sent to explore east.
3750BC - Spotted enemy borders (so close , that's an ultra-huge map, 200x200, with all 24 civs)
3700BC - Stepped in with Ahmet. It's Niagara Falls of the Iroquois, yet undefended. Hiawathas scout must have stumbled in a hut.
3650BC - We trade Warrior Code + Ceremonial Burial + 10 gold for Bronze Working + Masonry. They refuse to trade us Pottery, for all we possess + all our gold per turn.
3600BC - We declare war and destroy Niagara Falls.
3500BC - Ahmet gets killed by an approaching stack of 3 Warriors. He succeeded to kill one.
3250BC - 2 Iroquois warriors approach our borders. Our first Settler is on the way and we build the second one. We don't have a single military unit. Nevertheless, Hiawatha agrees to make peace and gives us Pottery + Mysticism for merely 36 gold.

I have no military and no chance to build enough in time. Hiawatha has at least 4 warriors and 1 spearman on the way. That's what Ahmet spotted before his death. I never could withstand such a force. But still Hiawatha makes peace, to pretty humiliating conditions.

Why, oh why?

[ducki]

Originally posted by Catt


I don't recall the Soren post but your explanation makes perfect sense.

I remember that post - I think it's in this thread, actually. (Edit: After reviewing the thread, it must be elsewhere. )
Soren did say that the AI uses the Lux slider solely to combat WW.

[ducki]

Found it.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=1433065#post1433065

[DaveMcW]

Sir Ralph: The AI does not know how to evaluate "forced mate" positions like yours (to borrow a chess term). Like a chess computer, it would require a slow search engine to find a win 4+ turns ahead.

[Pyrodrew]

Worker Jobs

What is the purpose of the Persian Worker below?

I don't see much value of building a railroad there. I currently trade with Persia via airports, harbors, & road connections. Perhaps he is looking to create more road trade routes, but wouldn't working on tiles closer to his border 1st be better for that? If I'm missing something obvious let me know.

[FrustratedPoet]

Having a railroad to cross that mountain range for 0 movement cost would be useful. Are the two cities in the picture connected by railroad by a different route already?

[Panag]

hi ,

ahem , here is something new ;

an army out of three infantry attack a lone infantry and get defeated , ...... the regular defending infantry survives with two hitpoints , .......

okay Soren you did a nice job but , huh , is this normal

there is the posibility off course , but what are the chances of seeing that , ........

( burning sigar felt from lips )

is this a good thing or is it a no so good thing

Soren

have a nice day

[alexman]

This affects only mods, so it's not as important as some other issues mentioned here. Nevertheless, it's annoying because it prevents the AI from loading non-nuclear missiles that have the ability to be loaded in a naval unit.

The AI knows to use tactical missiles properly, only if they have the "tactical nuke" AI strategy. Missiles that have the "cruise missile" AI strategy, never get loaded, even if the human can load them in ships because they have both the "cruise missile" and "tactical missile" abilities. We cannot work around the problem by giving the "tactical nuke" AI strategy to these missiles, because they are not nuclear and the editor allows that AI strategy only for units with the "nuclear weapon" ability.

Ideally, the cruise missile AI strategy should include loading and using from ships, if the unit actually has the ability to load into a ship.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Having a railroad to cross that mountain range for 0 movement cost would be useful. Are the two cities in the picture connected by railroad by a different route already?

Well for me I want RR in all tiles as pollution can show up anywhere and I want to get there and clean it in a hurry. The timing on when to build that RR is another matter and I will wait until there is nothing better to do.
I make an effort to have all tiles useful for one city or the other with a size 19 map, that does not always work out.