How to fix these 10 problems in CTP?

[DutchGamer]

Problem 1 : AI does not settle enough
I happen to be one of those players who LOVES big (and I mean BIG) empires.
REALLY every CTP game I end up with a grid, covering the entire space and earth, spanning 1008 city's.
It is one of the main reasons I love CTP over CIV, no need for strategic locations, just "GRID" build everything full.
(also because sea and space settling are released later, it alowes for permament settlement placement, for the entire game-span, rather than just the early landgrab in civ)

Sadly however that makes the game quite early on very boring.
Only 90 turns in the game, when I have like 40-50 city's I tent to hit that "1 advance per turn"
point, and after turn 110 orso my ranking is higher than all the other 7 civs combined.
As a result only the first battle I wage actually is chalenging.. never I have had the joy of a proper space war,
and even a proper tank war, that I actually could lose, is unheared of.

Now to get to 1008 city's (thats how many will be needed minimal to completely fill aka "exploit every plot of space"
on the largest unmodded possible map) there are 2 methods :

Method A (legal) : keep within the maximum number of city's restrains of your current goverment untill you can build the AI Wonder, once you can and have, start spamming city's.
To counter the occasional revolt this will cause, you also place a mind controller in every city, and be sure to place the defensive units of a city around, instead of inside it. When you have completed "the Grid", break down the AI.

Method B (mod) : change the goverment settings so each of them can handle 10 times the number of city's they can normally. (technocracy can handle 120, now 1200, communism 60, now 600, etc).
This works well, and allows for a more enjoyable game than the "AI wonder" trick, alowing for bigger empires far sooner in the game, and a more gradual empire expansion. On top of this it also it allows ALL players to build big empires, instead of only the player who happens to get the AI.
But here is the problem : the AI seems not to recognise the extra room for city's and hardly ever mass-spams settlers to use this new big empire possibility like it should.

Even when I give them the tech for sea and space settling and leave all sea and space free for them to settle for 100 turns they still only have only 1 or 2 new city's each.
Is there a way to make the AI smarter in this regard? to settle new city's just as aggresive as I do so I actually have a challenge facing them?

something like :

"is current goverment anarchy?, ifnot, check next"
"has maximum number of city's for current goverment been met? -> ifnot, check next
Stone age
"does city has 1 defensive unit? -> ifnot, build defensive unit, ifyes, check next
"is city size 4 or larger, ifyes, check next
"is there land free to settle? -> ifyes, build settler
Classic age
"general check, is total army size 1.5*number of city's? ifyes, check next
"does city has 1 defensive unit? -> ifnot, build defensive unit, ifyes, check next
*does city has granery? -> ifyes, check next
"is city size 6 or larger, ifyes, check next
"is there land free to settle? -> ifyes, build settler
Middle age
"general check, is total army size 2.5*number of city's? ifyes, check next
"does city has 2 defensive unit? -> ifnot, build defensive unit, ifyes, check next
*does city has granery? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has aquaduct? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has wall? -> ifyes, check next
"is city size 8 or larger, ifyes, check next
"is there land free to settle? -> ifyes, build settler
Renesaince age
"general check, is total army size 3*number of city's? ifyes, check next
"does city has 2 defensive unit? -> ifnot, build defensive unit, ifyes, check next
*does city has granery? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has aquaduct? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has wall? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has mill? -> ifyes, check next
"is city size 8 or larger, ifyes, check next
"is there land free to settle? -> ifyes, build settler
Industrial Age
"general check, is total army size 3.5*number of city's? ifyes, check next
"does city has 3 defensive unit? -> ifnot, build defensive unit, ifyes, check next
*does city has granery? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has aquaduct? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has wall? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has mill? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has factory? -> ifyes, check next
"is city size 8 or larger, ifyes, check next
"is there land free to settle? -> ifyes, build settler
Modern Age
"general check, is total army size 4*number of city's? ifyes, check next
"does city has 3 defensive unit? -> ifnot, build defensive unit, ifyes, check next
*does city has granery? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has aquaduct? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has wall? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has SDI? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has mill? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has factory? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has drug store? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has Oil Refinery -> ifyes, check next
"is city size 8 or larger, ifyes, check next
"is there land free to settle? -> ifyes, build settler
Genetic Age
"general check, is total army size 5*number of city's? ifyes, check next
"does city has 4 defensive unit? -> ifnot, build defensive unit, ifyes, check next
*does city has SDI? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has Mill? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has factory? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has drug store? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has Refinery -> ifyes, check next
*does city has Nuclear plant -> ifyes, check next
*does city has Robotic Plant -> ifyes, check next
*does city has incubation center -> ifyes, check next
"is city size 8 or larger, ifyes, check next
"is there land free to settle? -> ifyes, build settler, ifnot check next
*is there sea free to settle? -> ifyes, build sea engineer
Diamond Age
"general check, is total army size 6*number of city's? ifyes, check next
"does city has 5 defensive unit? -> ifnot, build defensive unit, ifyes, check next
*does city has Beef Vats, ifyes, check next
*does city has Force field -> ifyes, check next
*does city has SDI? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has micro defence, ifyes, check next
*does city has factory? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has drug store? -> ifyes, check next
*does city has Nuclear plant -> ifyes, check next
*does city has Robotic Plant -> ifyes, check next
*does city has Incubation center -> ifyes, check next
*does city has fussion plant -> ifyes, check next
"is city size 10 or larger, ifyes, check next
"is there land free to settle? -> ifyes, build settler, ifnot check next
*is there sea free to settle? -> ifyes, build sea engineer, ifnot, check next
*is there space free to settle -> ifyes, build space engineer

Problem 2 : AI does not develop tiles properly
Part of a proper "Grid" are not only the city's but the land arount it too. As a "grid" builder I do spend a lot of income on building improvements
Granted, I tend not to have enough PW-points to do so fully untill middle ages orso, since my empire is so big,
but quite fast my city's are linked by roads, and farms are everywhere.
(and when possible they are ubgraded to the new type available)
In late game I tend to change every tile possible into mountain, or grassland (**** tradegoods) to maximise production and growth.
-> one other feature I absolute ADORE in CTP, and miss in CIV

The AI however, does not even when in diamond age, has all his city's linked by road, let alone rail or maglev.
it does also not even place a farm and mine, on every tile alowing it, most of his land is even in diamond age undevolped.
Let alone upgrading older types of improvements.
And NEVER I have seen the AI having the common sence of terraforming it's own terrain.

Is there a way of making the AI smarter in this regard? so it at least will place a improvement where possible
and change less profitable tiles into better ones?

something in line with this :

"at end of turn check available PW ->
*if any terrain is swamp, jungle, tundra or forest terraform into grassland
*if any terrain is glacier or hills, terraform into mountains.
"check available PW"
*if any city's plains + grassland + water = less than 4, change 1 mountain to grassland
"check available PW"
*if any grassland, desert or plains has no farm, place best farm possible
*if any hill or mountain has no mine, place best mine possible
"check available PW"
*if any grassland, plains
(changing hills or glacier into mountains)
(if a city has less than 4 tiles in range with grassland or water -> change mountain in grassland)

Problem 3 : AI does not upgrade his units

In CTP there is no way to ubgrade units (CIV is better in this regard) so after a while you need to just disband obsolete units, and build new ones.

Is there a way to make the AI understand this?

Something like :

"is armysize x times city's?" => if yes, check next
"is unit obsolete?" => if yes, delite unit, back to line 1

Problem 4 AI does not build properly
Where I invest a lot in both production and growth boosting buildings, the AI often does not build the most important buildings in every city it owns.

Is there a way to make the AI smarter in this regard?

Something like

"is city happy? -> ifyes goto line 2, ifno, build happyness building (list)
"can city build growth building? -> ifyes, build growth building, ifno, goto line 3"
"can city build production building? -> ifyes, build production building, ifno, goto line 4"
"can city build income building? -> ifyes, build income builing, ifno, goto line 5"
"can city build science building? -> ifyes, build science building, ifno, goto line 6"
"can city build happyness building? -> ifyes, build happyness building, ifno goto line 7"
"can city build any building?" -> ifyes, build any building, ifno, build publik works

If those 4 problems are fixed, the game already is improved massively, but there are minor issues to deal with as well to allow for mega-empires :

Problem 5 Science goes way to fast

As said often as early as turn 90, I get 1 turn = 1 new tech, even turning my techrate at 0, often will not end this.
This is true in all ages, on all terrains.
before one has 1 defensive unit in every city, that very unit already have become obsolete.
before you are able to build a basic farm or mine on every plot of land alowing to, you already have acces to the upgraded model.

=> the AI does not suffer from this, but only because they have less city's, undeveloped plots, and undeveloped city's if thats fixed, they will suffer from that problem too. for now the problem is you are already done completing every diamond age building, before the AI even enteres the renesaince age.

What I want is being able to fully ubgrade my massive kingdom with level 1 mines, farms and roads, and have all city's in it
build all available buildings LONG before new techs are available.
Also I'd like to build a proper sized army in every era BEFORE going to the next era.

While tweaking the number of "points" needed to research certain techs can fix this a bit, it does not fix this completely. For starters because the AI makes mistakes as adressed in points 1-4, but also because the way techs work is to linear.

Is there a way to implement a solution?

something like this?

*add 10 new "neutral" techs between each age.. like the "future techs" they will add no new buildings or units, but will be a requirement before entering the next age, making players stay longer in a certain age, while still able to enjoy all the goodies of that age.
*add a modifier to tech-advances, when you are far beyond or behind on other civs.
"every tech you research that is already known by others, will be reasearced 20% faster per other player already knowing it"
"every tech known only to you, will reduce your techrate by 10%"
*map size causes a global tech-bonus or penalty to all players. (tiny +20%, small +10% normal - large -25% big -50% huge -70% gigantic -90%)
*percentage of global population reduction. (global population : your nations population = your tech% reduction)

Problem 6 City's cant be properly managed.

when running a 100+ city empire, it is way to much work to apoint each citycen personally.
However the "ingame" buttons are to dumb to handle surpluss citycens.
(when you press the "growth" one, it will occupy every plot of land possible, and dump the rest in happyness (worthless!)
(when you press the "production" or "commerce" one, it will place those excess people on production or commerce instead (sweet!) hower it will ALSO remove almost all people from all fysical plots, totally crippling your growth). And if you first put it on growth and want it on production later, you'll have to press that button one city at a time.

What I want to be able to say the game is "I want to have optimal growth first, any excess put to production/science/commerce". As well as being able to adress the buttons of multiple city's at once from CITY screen.

Is there a way to implement a solution?

something like this?

*add a happyness slider, saying what happyness you want this city to have, it will only add the minimal level of entertainers needed to reach that level. (DEFAULT it stands on 73)
All others will be put default in the field first, and on science second if no further options are selected.
*add an switch saying "fieldwork first" -> it will cause the city to always put as many people as possible out in the field BEFORE adressing them as employees/factory workers.
(this switch is standard ON, but can be turned off)
*remove the happyness and food buttons.
*instead of optimalising the city, the buttons science, gold and production, will adress where surpluss workers must be put in that city. Multiple buttons can be clicked as well.
(in that case those extra workers will be spread in 2 or 3 even parts over the selected options, when none is selected, they are evenly spread)
*add an extra feature to your CITY screen, alowing you to change the happyness setting, the fieldwork switch, and the gold/production/science button on multiple city's at once

Problem 7 AI has ****ty unit controll

This is perhaps the most difficult issue to adress, for creating a smarter AI is not an easy task, however it is needed!
for the following reasons :

7.1 "Wrong Unit Navigation"
When you tell a unit to go from A to B, it will not always pick the route that will cost the least number of movement.
(for example if you have maglev going in a curve around a mountain, the unit will move OVER the mountain, rather than taking that much more efficient route following maglev)
While as a player you can manually prevent this, the AI suffers a lot from this.
Likewise, units tend to bump into city's rather than around it (oh how I hate spaceplaces launching when bumping into a city, rather than flying around it towards the apointed target)
7.2 "AI is suicidal"
The AI seems to not notice units in the way.. (most wars started by the AI are because the AI just moves his unit on a plot where mine or that of other AI happens to stand, causing wars
even while you have perfect friendships with them)
Also the AI seems not to understand "active defence" while it should learn to avoid city's with such units inside it, when it wants just to fly/walk/swim by.
Why does the AI have that insane need to move all his frigging units every turn anyway? makes sence when exploring in early game, but later on, not so much.
7.3 "AI is drunk"
Never have I seen the AI attacking with a full 9-stack. the biggest defence I have seen the AI muster, is moving all his remaining units in his city's,
after I just took halve their other city's. And even than, never more than 7 (weak) units.
Finally the AI seems to have absurt space controll (it never manages to get that space probe IN the black hole, and many of it's probes just vanish without a trace while not even NEAR that wormhole)
7.4 AI cant fight
While as a player I tend to attack with multiple 9-stack armies of various types, in transports, with ships to escort them, and if possible backed up with airplanes,
the AI totally lacks any such strategy. I want it to fight a lot smarter, being able to lauch proper invasions on land, sea and space just like players would.

Is there a way to fix this?

Something like this

*when a unit is moved, have the route checked for obstacles (like city's and units) and move around them, never again lauch any unit into space as part of his movement route.
*check for all possible routes and pick the route that uses the least amount of movement points, instead of the most direct route.
*when not at war with that player, have the AI evade other players city's and units with active defence when moving it's units, so it will not pointlessly lose units
(it may have the allseeing eye, so it will KNOW where those city's and units are)
*have the AI move around units that are in it's way, and only attack units when it wants to go to war.
*have the AI build full stacks and when declaring war, have it move in multiple of those stacks at once both offensive and defensive.
*give the AI better space aim (and any aim when moving on 0.1 plots) so it actually can find that wormhole in 1 turn, as it should
*fix the disapearing wormhole probe bug.
*give the AI proper battle skills.

to this end preset combo's could be added the AI would buildlike, AND it would learn that when it wanted to transport such a group it would build not only transport for it, but protection vessels as well.
Combo's like this :
"landarmy A"
A2 4 calvery, 3 musketeer, 2 cannon
A3 4 tank, 3 machine gunner, 2 SAM
A4 4 fussion tank, 3 Storm Marine, 2 War Walker
"landarmy B"
B1 "9 warrior"
B2 "6 musketeer, 3 cannon"
B3 "6 machine gunner, 3 sam
B4 "6 fussion tank, 3 war walker
Marines C
C1 "9 marines
C2 "9 Storm Marines"
C3 "9 swarm"
etc...
Transport group T
T1 "9 thireme"
T2 "9 longship"
...
T6 6 troopship, 3 plasma destroyer
T7 5 space transport, 4 space fighter

Problem 8 Useless Trade

I hardly ever build caravans, and ignore trade alltogether, and STILL win.
When running massive empires, that 2000 gold/turn trade will give you really is nothing.
Also in late game, because of terraforming and pollution, most trade goods disapear.

While this is one rare case the AI does utilise a game-feature better than most players. (they always ask for my tradegoods, and have plenty of traderoutes) it sadly is one that hardly has any effect at all.

Hence trade in general need a massive improvement to become usefull again.A much cheaper to build caravan, is part of the solution, but not the complete solution. And while increasing trade value by a lot would solve it, it would worsen the science problem.:

so is there a better way to fix trade?

something like this :

*instead of gold, have trade add publik works (thats actually usefull in early game if it did)
*increase the maximum number of traderoutes to 10 per city
*when a plot is terraformed, it has a 1% change of having a tradegood on it

Problem 9 Endless Gold/Publik works.

when handling a massive empire, in late game, you will have way more gold and PW than you'll ever can use.
(enough gold each turn to rushbuild every city each turn and still have a surpluss, and enough PW to terraform and improve the entire map every turn)
Being rich, is nice, being insanely rich is a gamespoiler. this need to be fixed.

Partly this can be fixed by increasing the price of the more advanced mines and farms and by making terraforming a lot more expensive

How to implement a bigger and better fix

Something likes this

*limiting citysize to 50 max (preventing them from growing any bigger)
*reducing the amound of production/gold per employee by 75% (5 instead of 20)
*reducing the effictiveness of "capitalization" or "infrastructure" instead of 1 gold/pw per 8 production, make it 1 gold/pw per 100 production. (pw as % of production is unaffected)
*increase upkeep cost of the more advanced units and buildings

Problem 10 Clueless Diplomaticy

In the game there is no way to understand WHY some other civ is liking you or is hating you. That makes it hard improving your reputation with them, because you don't know what causes it to be low to start.
Furthermore it is stupid the game does not allow for trading city's, or to trade techs for something else than techs.
Also I don't quite get the 3 trades per turn thing, should that not be more in line wheither they like you or not?

How to improve this?

Something like this

*change the trade menu to more resemble civ's, alowing for multiple items (city's, treaties, gold, techs) to be included in ONE trade proposal.
*when at war no gifts can be made, and no deal can be made other than to declare peace (gold/city's/tech may be included in peace proposals) -> remove the ability to bribe yourself into peace.
*breaking a promise (like declaring war(breaking peace agreement), or moving illigally into other players lands (breaking non-tresspass agreement) should lower your reputation with all other players.
*when you select information on an other AI, or player, you get to see the modifiers that cause this civ to like or dislike you.
*making a promise increases your standing with all civs slightly (but less than the negative effect of breaking them)
*the number of deals that can be made with other civs is reduced, in most cases it is 1 deal per turn, but with allies you can make as many deals per turn as you want, and with people who you are at war
you cant make any deals for the first 10 turns of that war.

[JohnGalt137]

Hey, you put a bunch of work into this. Some of it is solvable inside the game engine. I'm not familiar with most of how to fix it unfortunately. Civ: CTP has its own scripting language, but I'm not sure what the limits of it are. Search SLIC commands on the forum and you might be able to figure something out. The fellow who did the Forever Future mod may have some ideas of how to do this.

If you are playing a single player game here is how I would fix your issues without any programming:

1) AI doesn't settle enough:

Play on Deity mode with 31 AI opponents. Some of them will be randomly awesome and you may have enough difficulty even surviving at the beginning that they can get way ahead of you. You can find information on how to play games with way more AI opponents on the FAQ page.

You could also just cheat mode them a crap ton of extra settlers at any point in the game you feel they are falling too far behind. You can also set it up so that the AI starts with more settlers than you, but that requires knowing a little bit of the SLIC scripting. Look around in the files under the ctp_data/default/aidata directory, somewhere there is an AI file. Maybe you can improve the AI?

2) AI doesn't use PW effectively:
You may just have to cheat them good PW upgrades.

3) AI doesn't upgrade units:
Maybe the 31 AI opponents will help, because they'll fight each other and kill eachothers unobsolete units. I don't know. Again you can totally cheat to fix this. Or you can look at the files under: ctp_data/default/aidata. AIPlan.txt has some documentation.

4) Same as above...

5) Science goes way too fast:
Finally something easy to fix! If you think science goes too fast, you're either not under enough pressure from the bad guys (Play with more on a higher difficulty setting). You can also back up the ctp_data/default/gamedata then open and edit advance.txt and increase the advance_cost of every advance. You can just double everything or increase the later stuff by a bigger amount. Also you can increase the difficulty by going to diffDB.txt in the same area and increasing the difficulty of deity. Maybe change BASE_CONTENTMENT to be lower, or increase GRANARY_COEF. If you increase SCIENCE_HANDICAP you need more science to get advances than other stuff. Also here you can increase AI difficulty by messing with AI_START_UNITS, AI_START_ADVANCES, AI_START_PUBLIC_WORKS, and AI_TECHNOLOGY_COST, AI_PRODUCTION_COST_ADJUSTMENT. If you look at this file and think long enough you can probably figure out a way to make the game much harder =-).

You can add other techs, but they may be hard for you to implement. The every tech you know making stuff slower may be changeable from somewhere. Somewhere there is a constant in one of these data files that controls the increase in advance cost per advance researched, currently the game increases the cost of each advance a small amount for each other advance you've already researched in that age. I can't find where this is controlled.

6) I have no idea how to deal with this. Maybe you can figure out a way to use the data files to replace the entertainer with a farmer and then add an extra entertainer...?

7) I have no idea but you might check under the AIData folder.

8) You're nuts, trade is great, maybe not the way you play civ, but in competitive civ trade makes or breaks you. Don't believe me? Play a PBEM game with me you get 3x bonus settlers but can't build caravans, and I get to start with the labyrinth.

9) These variables are adjustable in the datafiles in the gamedata folder.

10) I've got no clue about this.

[Max_Smirnov]

In short: time to code a CTP 1 remake!
Some of the problems have been solved in our Forever Future mod, but really, some cannot be solved by modding (in short, stupid AI). CTP kinda sucks in single player mode, but most of its problems can be solved by playing MP games only

In long:

Problem 1.
You're exaggerating it, but it does exist. This can be patched up (if not truly fixed) by increasing the priorities of settlers in the AI files. Sea and Space settler have low priority values and that's the core of the problem

Problem 2.
This problem is actually a function of 2 problems.
a) General. The "grid" approach is not always optimal, but you can build whatever the hell you want because you don't have to fight for survival because the AI is stupid, stupid, stupid and it cannot be really helped without coding the game from scratch.
b) Specific. The AI uses a set number of resources (which can be changed) for PW. However, the optimal approach to tile improvements is massive investments done sporadically instead of slow steady developement so the AI suffers here.

Also you're exaggerating again, the AI DOES upgrade roads to rail/maglev if it has enough resources. For what little good it does since these improvements (above Roads) are rarely worth the staggering cost unless you need to move large amounts of land troops from one end of a huge land empire to another or forced to fight a difficult defensive land war. Rail Launchers and Space Planes diminish the role of maglevs even further.

Problem 3.
Well duh, very true, can't really be solved without coding.

Problem 4.
This can be patched by changing the weights of city improvements in AI files. However that still means the AI will build according to a dogma, but at least you can create a better dogma than the current one. IN CTP THE AI WON'T AND CAN'T PLAN. Also your dogma seems to be mostly subpar to the one actually in place - the current AI at least employs heavy defences on the borders... 2-4 units for city defence is NOTHING if you get attacked by an invading army.

Problem 5.
True, a common problem. It can be fully fixed by rebalancing, but it seems with you, it's mostly a function of the AI being stupid and allowing the player to build a bloated science-heavy empire. Which cannot be fixed. Play MP.

Problem 6.
Good idea although I personally like micromanaging It cannot probably be fixed without coding the game anew, although MAYBE writing smart SLIC files could allow to jury-rig it. It's a dying art though...

Problem 7.
AI might be a subpar in developement, but it is atrocious in combat. It DOES attack with full stacks sometimes, but it is hopelessly inept at war where multi-stack tactics and forward planning are crucial. It sadly lacks any capacity to do so and it cannot be repaired without coding a new game.

Problem 8.
Bollocks. It is merely a function of the inept AI again which allows you to build an unnaturally bloated empire again. In MP games, trade is absolutely crucial to get a lot of money from modest investments.

Problem 9.
Non-issue, encountering such problems merely means you're far beyond the point where you have won the game. Because if you didn't, you'd be using ALL that gold and production to build units like crazy and praying it is enough.

Problem 10.
I agree, this stuff really sucks and sadly the CIV series beats CTP hands down at this field. Again, the only solution seems to be either coding a new game or playing MP games...

[JohnGalt137]

I think that simply increasing the difficulty in the DiffDB file could remedy most of these problems. Increasing the priority of settlers seems like a great idea. I think that obviously multiplayer fixes a lot of these issues, but evidently he's just trying to boost the AI for single player. The toughest game I ever have is 31 player games.

[Max_Smirnov]

That is true, let's have an example from DiffDB (Deity from the current FF mod):

AI_START_UNITS 5 / Pretty obvious except most of these units are SETTLERS. Great to give CPU a kickstart.
AI_START_GOLD 1000
AI_START_ADVANCES 14
AI_START_PUBLIC_WORKS 2500
AI_TECHNOLOGY_COST -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 /Tech costs per Era (here the AI pays 90% to get an advance). Be really, really careful with that unless you want to change the CPU into a tech farm.
AI_PRODUCTION_COST_ADJUSTMENT -0.2 -0.3 -0.4 -0.5 -0.5 /Production costs of units, buildings and wonders. Go crazy here, especially if you want to increase the number of units the CPU is supposed to be building.
AI_GOLD_ADJUSTMENT 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 /This works opposite, how much gold the CPU has. Doesn't help him all that much, high values will result with a runaway CPU science again.

Basically make the AI a cheating bastard.

[JohnGalt137]

So I dug into the AIP's, and man is this ever not clear =-0. Any idea how to increase the priority of settlers as well as sea and space engineers?

[JohnGalt137]

Is it easier just to use the AIP loader to mass settle more often? Or to just never call the build no settlers AIP?

[Max_Smirnov]

I'll try to help, however this is indeed far from clear

So there are 6 (most important?) files in default/Aidata/AIPs directory, one for each AI "personality"
- SciFew (Scheming)
- SciMany (Progressive)
- MilFew (Peaceful)
- MilMany (Militant)
- Cleric (Cleric)
- Slaver (Slaver)
There are also special files like Mass Settle or Survival, used in special circumstances by any personality.

Let's look at these files.

- Firstly, unit classes, like primary garrison troops or settling parties
Them numbers inside mean relative priorities of various stuff AI can build.
The AI seems to be avoiding some of them (like nukes), don't ask me why. However, it mostly works.

- Secondly, quotas of units to build in each class until the priority is satisfied. I think as the AI is building units, the priority of a given class drops, but I am not sure of that. Also I think that the AI is checking the last unit in the group only, so it *should* be modernizing its troops, not by exchanging them, but by buying new ones. Or it may be checking all the entries. Who knows.
Now what the numbers mean?
a) Positive number, like 2.5: How many of that unit the AI needs PER CITY for the quota to be fully satisfied;
b) Negative number, like -2.0: How many of that unit the AI needs TOTAL for the quota to be fully satisfied.

- Thirdly, improvs and wonders
Again, priority values that are compared with each other and the priorities of unit groups.

Have fun balancing and testing that, and by fun, I mean, good luck on your trip through Hell

[Eerion]

Just a thing I have noticed playing FF and regarding this:

AI_GOLD_ADJUSTMENT 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2

Is there a way to push this boost somewhere else? Since it would let us avoid endless gold presents to friendly players and CIV favouring gold govermnets over any else while not at war (and sometimes even when they're at war).

[Max_Smirnov]

Well, maybe we should do away with this bonus altogether. After all, CTP's AI cheats and it cannot ever run out of money anyway, so it won't be crippled that much by getting less cash.

[Eerion]

Sounds very reasonable

[mwmoriarty]

1) My biggest beef with the AI pertains to diplomacy: when they agree to not trespass or not pirate, they break there promise(s) continually. Is there a way to fix that?

2) My second beef with the AI is their building their cities too close together - when I capture them I have to tear down and rebuild...lol From what I am reading I may be able to work with some AI files to improve this?

3) Do the slider controls for map settings like Wet/Dry, Warm/Cold, etc. actually override the settings in the txt file or are they multipliers of the same?

4) the science factor seems off. When trying to get a list of all the advances with their corresponding science/gold costs to put in a spreadsheet, the txt files will indicate 20 for level one advances such as Agriculture, 65 for second level advances such as Bronze Working, etc, but in playing the game this can change radically. I don't know what determines this. It doesn't seem to be because of no. of cities or population. Maybe it depends on what turn you are on as well?

5) The time frame for the game seems to have two factors:
- the turns and their weighted years, i.e. 50 yrs per turn during the first 102 turns, 5 years per turn for the next 125
turns and then down to 2 years for the next 125, and back up to 40 years per turn in Deity mode for the Diamond age.
- the other factor seems to be advances and whether you qualify from that perspective to move on to the next age.
My question is what should the age start-finish years be? i.e. Ancient: 4000BC~1100AD, Renaissance 1100AD~1750AD,
Modern 1750~2000, Genetic 2000~2500, Diamond 2500~3000?