Neat.

miike · July 31, 2002, 03:52

I am playing Civ3 and I decide to attack the Americans. They are my neighbors on a continent next to me. Their continent and my continent are connected by a short and narrow land bridge. The strip of land is 1 tile wide and 2 tiles long. Anyways, I begin my attack and start towards the landbridge. I find out that the Americans had placed a fortress and musketman on a hill, blocking my way before I can cross the land bridge. No problem, I kill him and start across the landbridge. In the middle of the land bridge their is a mountain and another fortress and another musketman. I kill him and continue across the bridge. I finally, make it to their continent, and I am about the spread out, when their is another fortress on a hill with a spearman defending. I have never seen the AI place fortresses in such obvious good defender places. The AI used either hills or mountains and there was no way across the land bridge without going through their defenders. I don't know if anyone has ever seen this before, but I am very happy that it appears that the AI is using the terrain and fortresses to defend itself. If I can figure out how to take a screenshot, then I will post it if anyone cares.

statusperfect · July 31, 2002, 04:12

You press Print Screen when in the game and the you open up a MS paint window and use the paste command (Ctrl+V).

delsolsi · July 31, 2002, 04:14

To take a screen shot. Press the PrtScn button on your keyboard. Then paste it in to paint or what ever program you use for that kind of stuff.

NeoStar · July 31, 2002, 06:19

I've seen this stuff before, also from the Americans believe it or not.

What's doing, Firaxis?

Taking over their continent I came to a mountain range blocking the east 'heartland'. They brought all their huge rifleman army up to defend on all those mountains and things turned ugly...

Luckily my Indian allies took most of the flak

Deathwalker · July 31, 2002, 07:26

This sounds great

Gangerolf · July 31, 2002, 08:36

the ai is getting smarter, eh?

haven't seen too much of that yet myself though. maybe in my next game

vondrack · July 31, 2002, 10:25

Hey, miike!

How is it going? Still frowning over Civ3? Or liking it more every hour you play?

Radek

GhengisFarb™ · July 31, 2002, 10:32

Maybe the AI has started hiring military advisors.....

Ethelred · July 31, 2002, 13:16

Sure there weren't any resources on the tiles? I have seen the AI build forts once or twice that seemed to be strategic but they happened to have resources.

Richelieu · July 31, 2002, 13:22

Haven't seen that yet but i hope it's true.

miike · July 31, 2002, 14:03

Here ya go

miike · July 31, 2002, 14:12

I am the green ironclad in the pic. I went and reloaded a saved game, just so you can see the defenders. There were no strategic or luxury tiles there, when I took them over. Of course, I had not discovered uranium yet. So, maybe there will be in the future. It looks to me like they are defending their continent.

ChrisiusMaximus · July 31, 2002, 16:04

I would say that you are correct Miike,very clever that.Those Americans are defending better than I do in similar situations,I usually place acity on part of the landbridge.

miike · July 31, 2002, 16:05

Quote:

Originally posted by vondrack
Hey, miike!

How is it going? Still frowning over Civ3? Or liking it more every hour you play?

Radek

It is getting better, I just try not to take this too seriously. Also, culture helps me take back any cities that I lose. When I play, I consider my civ like my baby, and I get really pissed when the AI comes in and tries to wreck everything. Also, whenever I see the AI do something particularly intelligent like fortresses on hills and using chokepoints, I am pretty pleased. Earlier in the same game that screenshot is from, I had placed a Jaguar Warrior on that same mountain, just to keep the Americans from spreading out. Of course, the English beat me to it. Oh well.

miike · August 2, 2002, 19:03

I don't know if anyone still checks out the old messages, but here is another screenshot of the computer blocking my expansion to another area. The computer is definately blocked people from expanding. It is pretty nice to see this, even if I am being screwed for land. Now all we need is to teach the AI the importance of destroying roads to strategic resources.

miike · August 2, 2002, 19:03

....

Zanzin · August 2, 2002, 21:13

Good to see the AI is doing some good moves. It's not totally useless!!!

DeepO · August 2, 2002, 21:29

The AIs have been doing this from the original game (unpatched)... and if you block your side of a chokepoint, they will rush to block the other side. Once such an impasse is created and an AI unit is fortified there for some time, a worker will come and build a fortress. It happens in each game with chokepoints I've played, but the chokepoint has to be 1 tile wide, they will not do it with 2-tile wide chokepoints.

But I agree, it is rather neat

DeepO

JohnM2433 · August 2, 2002, 21:47

If there is a little stretch of land between two large bodies of water, I always try to build a "canal city", which allows me to move naval units from one side to the other. Such a city has important strategic value.

I wonder if the AI knows to do that?

DeepO · August 2, 2002, 22:02

John, I've seen it happen a few times already, but have seen anough chokepoints that didn't have such a Panama city... I don't think the AI will aim for it, but it happens by accident sometimes. Once it is there, they will use it however.

DeepO

JohnM2433 · August 3, 2002, 12:32

There really should be a Build Canal command to allow workers to build, on a tile next to water, a structure that allows naval units to move through that tile. You could place a land or naval unit on that tile to prevent other civs from using your canal.

And if workers could also build a canal next to any other canal, you could even allow ships to pass through 3 land tiles or more. Obviously, this should take a lot of turns to build so that players cannot build a huge canal accross an entire continent in a short time. Building a canal over a great distance should take a long time, as in real life.

Switch · August 3, 2002, 16:02

That's an interesting, if not new, idea John. Although I think more than one tile is rather extreme.

Too bad rivers are now set between tiles....

if they were in tiles, then there could be another worker action called Build Seaway or whatever, that would turn rivers into tiles both crossable by units and usable by sea units. That way, if say you have your capital connected to a river that connects to an ocean, than the capital would be able to build sea units. Of course, for the city to be able to use the seaway, it would need a harbour.....

Zylka · August 4, 2002, 01:42

This is very neat

Although I suggest using a sn00py gfx upgrade!