AI workers altering my improvements

[Cedronian]

A heads up,

In my current game I have a ROP with the Americans. They had some cities just north of my borders that had no access to fresh water. So the AI decides to start irrigate from a irrigated square inside my territory. Fair enough, it´s a smart move, since we have a ROP-agreement.

What I don´t like is that the AI worker starts to irrigate squares that I have previously mined. That can´t be right? I mean it´s ok (to an extent) that the AI works inside my territory but they shouldn´t be able to alter and destroy tile improvements already built. That should either be an explicit no-no or an act of war if the AI chooses to do it anyway.

What do you guys think?

//Ced.

[alexman]

I agree with you, and you don't even have to have a ROP for it to happen. Workers, like other units with no attack, cannot cause a leave-or-declare-war situation.

Having said that, it's pretty funny to start planting forests on AI irrigated grasslands and watch his cities starve!

[edit: I just had a scout that was asked to leave-or-else, so I guess units with no attack CAN be perceived as a threat.]

[Bleyn]

Have any of you noticed if the AI workers just do it to the human-controlled areas, or have you ever seen them doing it to each other also?

I'm curious to know if its just generally a blind spot in the AI programming with regards to borders, or if its targetted against us specifically.

[Thrawn05]

That must be a bug, the only time my workers leave my borders is if another civ cut my land in two on the same continent. With or without ROP

[nbarclay]

If you view his turning your mines into irrigation projects as an act of war, declare war!

Actually, one of the things that bugs me about Civ games in general is that their concept of what constitutes an "act of war" tends to be a little too black and white. For example, in CTP, my preferred philosophy would generally be to view pirates, slavers, or heretical clerics operating against me as outlaws deserving of enslavement or death. But I can't tell the AI that that's my policy and leave it up to the AI to decide whether it really wants to call my bluff. Similarly, in Civ 3, I have no way of telling the AI that my official policy will be to enslave any settlers that try to move through my land without permission, so the AI will always act as if such movement across foreign borders is just fine.

In such cases, if I take action, war is automatic rather than the AI having to decide whether my action was serious enough to be worth fighting over given its own role in precipitating the incident. I can't make the threat in the hope that the AI will back down. Further, I can't have world opinion (not to mention my own people's moralie in Civ 3) reflect the fact I acted only in response to what I regarded as a serious provocation by the AI. That can be a bit limiting and frustrating at times.

I have no illusions that it would be easy to design an AI that truly understands all the shades of gray between "just fine" and an outright attack on foreign soil. But I can still wish for at least a little bit better understanding of such nuances.

Nathan

[Jaybe]

Cedronian,
As a practical matter, after these foreigners have changed your mines to irrigation, just go ahead and change them back to mines,* leaving him with an irrigated tile to link to.

Your situation with those workers is not something I have experienced yet. OTH, I'm only on my 6th game (or is it my 5th?).

*Assumes, of course, that you have excess workers. I hope you weren't in a wonder race with that city at the time.

JB

[star mouse]

If you're feeling particularly resentful towards the AI's irrigation, and the workers are not right next to your borders, you can do something really evil. Station a line of defensive troops along your border and on your side of it such that they are between the AI territory and the AI worker. Not sure what happened when I tried it, but it was fun....

[Borg Hunter]

I have the same type of problem, though not the same specifically. My problem is with the automation on my workers. Generally, I place my cities near high-food producing land (grass, wheat, cattle, flood plain) that need shields. So I mine all that land. But then my automated workers come by and say "Hey, let's irrigate here!" So they destroy my beautiful mines and make irrigation even though I don't want my city to grow anymore right then! I end up having to un-automate my workers and control them manually, which gets tedious.

Is there any way to tell my workers not to destroy any existing improvements? I haven't checked the options menu since I got 1.17f.

[PatLasch]

Just use Shift+A to automate the workers, then they will not destroy the existing improvements.

[Carver]

Originally posted by Borg Hunter

Is there any way to tell my workers not to destroy any existing improvements? I haven't checked the options menu since I got 1.17f.

Use shitf-A instead of just A. Then they won't destroy existing improvements.

[Cedronian]

Originally posted by nbarclay
If you view his turning your mines into irrigation projects as an act of war, declare war!

I suppose I could have done that, but it wasn´t the right time for warfare. I generally shy away from war until later in the game when I can completely obliterate my opponent in a couple of swift strikes with my superior armies

Originally posted by Jaybe
Cedronian,
As a practical matter, after these foreigners have changed your mines to irrigation, just go ahead and change them back to mines,* leaving him with an irrigated tile to link to.

JB

Yes, this is what I did. I followed his workers with my own, one step behind, and mined the tiles right back. A bit of a hassle, but it wasn´t the right time for me to start a war over it. Besides, I like seeing the AI make some smart moves (irrigating from my squares).

I´m still playing that game, and the Americans decided to declare war a few hundred years later. Needless to say, his cities that needed irrigation, now instead got a funeral

Thanks for the replies guys!

//Ced.