What does the AI do if you give it a crawler?

[chuft]

Just curious if anyone has tried giving an AI some crawlers. What does it do with them?

[Ell_man]

I have never given the AI crawlers, but I've watched the AI play enough to see that it builds crawlers and uses them.

The AI uses crawlers to rush secret projects and it will occasionally convoy resources, (crawl). It just doesn't mass produce them as players do.

[vyeh]

I started a SMAX transcend game on the Map of the Planet using the 7 SMAC factions (I played University). I opened the scenario editor and place three crawlers in each HQ.

It was pathetic. The AIs would send all three crawlers to the same place. I saw a situation where the AI went over a rocky mineral bonus (take a look at the Hive, which has two crawlers going through the rocky mineral bonus to a rocky square)!

I saved the game, Crawlers, 2120, after 20 turns:

(1) Morgan: 3 minerals (rolling mineral bonus); 1 mineral (rocky); 2 minerals (monolith).

(2) Spartans: no order; 1 mineral (rocky); 2 nutrients (rocky nutrient bonus).

(3) Gaians: 1 mineral (rocky); 3 energy (uranium energy bonus); 2 nutrients (uranium nutrient bonus).

(4) Hive: 3 energy (river energy bonus); 2 crawlers moving to the same rocky square over a rocky mineral bonus!)

(5) Believers: 1 lost to MW (was 1 mineral on a rocky square); 2 mineral (rocky volcano); 2 mineral (rolling mine).

(6) Peacekeepers: 0 minerals (fungus!); 2 crawlers holding on fungus.

[CEO Aaron]

The AI is incredibly idiotic, let's be clear. To give you an example, I played a hotseat challenge where I played Morgan for 100 turns, then switched to the lowest ranked faction, which in this case happened to be Sparta.

First of all, my new Sparta position had just three bases, no centauri ecology (so no formers) and several colony pods roaming fungus infested territory with nowhere to found a base. But the shambles that I was taking over was a laughable joke compared to what the AI did with my meticulously built position over at Morgan Industries. I had planted a good forest and borehole farm, with extra food supplied by a condenser farm for each base. The AI apparenlty cashed in all the crawlers, then proceeded to use its formers to cover up the boreholes and build its pathetic farm/mine and farm/solar lameness.