Why, oh why does the poor AI...

[Pyrodrew]

Having a railroad to cross that mountain range for 0 movement cost would be useful.

Useful for me. The Persian border is 6 tiles away from there.

Are the two cities in the picture connected by railroad by a different route already?

Yes, and more importantly neither city has land that even borders Persia. North & West of Mauch Chunk is sea. The only way to Persia is South-West. Persia never owned any territory near there at any time.

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

Not normal, but possible. I recently had an Army of 4 Veteran Modern Armors die to 1 Veteran Modern Infantry & leaving it at 3 hps. Another time I had 2 pikemen survive an assault of 10 swordsmen. Those are just the odds and luck. What is most entertaining is seeing a longbowman hurt a tank with his arrows.

[ducki]

Originally posted by panag
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 , .......

That's not really new(there's plenty of threads bemoaning the combat model and the RNG), and not really anything to do with poor AI(it's about the RNG and the combat model), but here goes.

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

Yep, pretty normal. We've all run into the Uber Spearman from time to time, and I've personally beat down a steady stream of Immortals(4/2/1) with a small band of Horsemen(2/1/2) and Archers(2/1/1).
Since you didn't mention terrain bonuses, city bonuses, river bonuses, fortification bonuses, etc, it's difficult to really talk about your case in detail.

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

This is the important part - "what are the chances" - it's all about "chance", probability, odds. Even a stupid gambler will eventually hit his number on a roullette wheel if he tries long enough - though there's a chance he won't, too. It's random.
If you were regularly seeing this result, it would be worrisome, but once or twice is in line with randomness.

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

I think it's good. Everyone wants to see the underdog win once in a while. Think of the American Revolution, the war for Texas' Independence, etc.


It's normal.
It can happen. It should happen infrequently, but it should happen. Otherwise, if there's no risk, where's the fun?

[Panag]

hi ,

it just felt so strange , ......

well its nice to see these things , there are definatly somethings that should occur more , .....

have a nice day

[Pyrodrew]

The harbor problem is bad in 1.29. The screenshot below is in the modern age. The AI even built a university in this 2 person city & is building a cathedral now, yet refuses to build a harbor at all. If there are more than x coast/sea tiles in a city's screen a harbor should be built. And as I mentioned earlier, many AI Civs will go into the Industrial Age unable to trade with other Civs because they have no harbors anywhere.

Is the harbor problem fixed in a PTW patch?

[Pyrodrew]

>>>

[Coracle]

Perhaps THIS is another example of this braindead AI.

I have taken absurd reputation hits for the most minor of things, and even for alleged stuff I NEVER DID. These hits would last virtually FOREVER, and civs I would newly meet would refuse FREE resources thrown into a deal even as a bonus, and the civ would insult me too. Ridiculous.

However. . .

Many, many times I am at war against someone with, say, the Romans as an ally. Before the the 20 turns are up, before any renegotiation, the civ allied to me cuts its own separate deal with our mutual enemy. But the AI civ never seems to take any rep hit.

Just another Screw the Human trick courtesy of Soren.

[BRC]

Just another Screw the Human trick courtesy of Soren.

I was under the impression that the AI does not know which civ is the human, and therefore cannot "screw" them. I also thought that the AI still has "moods" and reputation to keep up.

OT: Why are all of your posts so negative??

[DaveMcW]

http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm

[metalhead]

Originally posted by BRC


I was under the impression that the AI does not know which civ is the human, and therefore cannot "screw" them. I also thought that the AI still has "moods" and reputation to keep up.

OT: Why are all of your posts so negative??

You have to forgive Coracle. He's had this game for over a year, and still hasn't grasped the basic strategies required to beat even Warlord. So, he figures it must be a problem with the game, and not his playing style. Pay no attention to his unfounded, ridiculous accusations about the AI ganging up on the human. It is simply not true.

[Zachriel]

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

Assuming the Army is composed of three Veterans and the Regular Infantry defender is fortified on open terrain, then the odds of victory are 85%. If the defender is fortified in a city across a river, the odds are only 66%.

Now replay the position with Artillery, leaving the defender with one hitpoint fortified in the open, the odds of victory are now nearly 99% (but not 100%!).

Historically, Infantry units are much better on defense than offense.

[CerberusIV]

Further to the harbour comment by Pyrodew, is this a candidate for worst AI city placement ever? Novgorod has no bonus, luxury or strategic resources whatsoever. The patch of forest is recent. A worker came out of the city, forested one tile and then turned into a radar tower.

[ducki]

Cerberus - Is there perhaps Oil under that city?

[CerberusIV]

Originally posted by ducki
Cerberus - Is there perhaps Oil under that city?

No, the game has reached the modern age and I have Rocketry and Fission so can find all resources. There are absolutely NO strategic resources under Novgorod or within the city radius. It is just a patch of totally useless tundra.

One also has to ask why the AI is prepared to spend the next 88 turns building a bomber in this city

[ducki]

Maybe it's a prebuild.

[Ozymandias]

All the more reason not to allow city building on tundra.

[Theseus]

But it has a harbor!

[Panag]

Originally posted by ducki
Cerberus - Is there perhaps Oil under that city?

hi ,

check the patch info , since 1.29 each city gets extra food and shields , and its the same in PTW ,Soren explained it in detail somewhere on this site , ......

have a nice day

[ducki]

Originally posted by panag


hi ,

check the patch info , since 1.29 each city gets extra food and shields , and its the same in PTW ,Soren explained it in detail somewhere on this site , ......

have a nice day

my question about oil was to try to explain the founding of the city in the first place, not its continued existence.

[Panag]

Originally posted by ducki


my question about oil was to try to explain the founding of the city in the first place, not its continued existence.

hi ,

why , only for the two shields ? thats why i posted the first message

have a nice day

[CerberusIV]

No, there never has been oil there. I believe that the two shields is because the Russians were in a GA when I took the screenshot.

[DaveMcW]

Or they could have mobilized.

[Mark_Everson]

Originally posted by theNiceOne
I'm with Gwylim.
(snip)
I know that a good AI is hard to program, but what could be easier is separate difficulty settings per age, so that the AI production bonus could be even higher during the later ages and their corruption lower, etc.

Another possibility, which can be modded without the help from Firaxis, is to make a few new governments - governments that are better than any of the current ones. Like a democracy w/o war weariness and with military police. This government would be a very good boost for the AI during the later stages, but would be illegal for the human player to ever choose.

Hi theNiceOne, I think these are both Great suggestions. Like you say, the first one would be really easy to program. And it seems that making the bonuses a little lighter in the early game, and better in the later game would make the balance of difficulty thru the ages closer.

You could even go beyond the normal set of difficulty levels for the late game. The only issue there is that there may be a range of arbitrary advantage for which the game becomes unstable in some ways. I remember fondly some Deity +1, etc games I played in Civ2 way back, but really weird things could happen. . . Cities shooting up to huge populations and such.

[edit 2nd para for clarity]

[Pyrodrew]

making the bonuses a little lighter in the early game, and better in the later game would make the balance of difficulty thru the ages closer.

To best simulate this now play a harder difficulty level, but find a nice sweet starting spot. Not the same thing , but as close as you're going to get for now.

[alexman]

Monarchy is almost always the better choice, even if you have terrible FP placement.

As an aside (but a very important aside, which I mention here hoping that Soren reads it), the FP increases the OCN by 25% in Communism, not 100% as we previously thought. Increasing the effect of the FP in Communism would certainly go a long way towards balancing Monarchy versus Communism (thus helping the Communism-happy AI) in a future patch (hint, hint... )

[alexman]

This is not enough to ensure domination on anything except tiny maps, and corruption for larger empires than the OCN is still manageable with courhouses, et cetera.

I suspect that the AI was programmed to stop at the OCN before the patches changed couthouses, police stations, and WLTKD to each increase the OCN by +25%. It is now worthwhile to have larger empires, but the poor AI doesn't know this.

For an example, see the Chinese in NorMe's game in the AU 203 spoiler thread.

[joncnunn]

I concur with Alexman:

Pre Code of Laws: 1.0 OCN is fine, but
Post Code of Laws / Pre Communism: it should stop at 1.25 * OCN
Post Communism: It should stop at 1.5625 * OCN.

For Commerical civs, the # should be:

Pre Code of Laws: 1.25 * OCN
Post Code of Laws / Pre Communism : 1.5625 * OCN
Post Communism : 1.953125* OCN

But there should also be a check for "Do I already own at least half the land tiles", and if so, keep on capturing cities regardless of OCN to acheive Domination.

[vulture]

Originally posted by joncnunn
But there should also be a check for "Do I already own at least half the land tiles", and if so, keep on capturing cities regardless of OCN to acheive Domination.

And perhaps those cities out to be flagged to be treated in a different manner. If I am going for world conquest, I tend to rush a temple there to generate some culture and get the land once the borders expand (we are going for domination here after all) and then set the city to produce wealth, let it grow to size 6 quickly (usually having been starved down) and then set as many citizens as possible to taxmen or scientists, depending on which is more useful. It gets good value out of cities that would otherwise be 95% corrupt.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
Further to the harbour comment by Pyrodew, is this a candidate for worst AI city placement ever? Novgorod has no bonus, luxury or strategic resources whatsoever. The patch of forest is recent. A worker came out of the city, forested one tile and then turned into a radar tower.

Novgorod is bringing in some commerce and generating some culture, so it can hardly be dismissed as completely useless. I certainly don't see the sanity in building a bomber, and the worker really should have planted a second forest so the city might get a little more production when it reaches its maximum viable size, but the only thing I'd really question about its being built is the fact that it's more or less in someone else's territory. (Then again, the AI does that all the time.)

Nathan

[joncnunn]

Resurecting this old thread from recent experence on the Emperor level with classic Civ III 1.29f.

Why, oh why does the poor Zulu AI attack my Mech Inf with lone Calvary units??? (Zulu most advanced techs are Refinery & Atomic Theory; it's attacks have been completely unsuccessful.)

Why, oh why is the poor Zulu AI unwilling to talk after 5 turns where since the war started from them declaring it out of the blue, they have lost on average a city per turn to my combonation of Artertelly and Bomber bombardment, Tanks, Mech Inf, and 4 left over Armies of 4 Calvary each, ensuring that they will lose quicker via being dominated instead of the Space Ship?

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by joncnunn
...
Why, oh why is the poor Zulu AI unwilling to talk after 5 turns where since the war started from them declaring it out of the blue, they have lost on average a city per turn to my combonation of Artillery and Bomber bombardment, Tanks, Mech Inf, and 4 left over Armies of 4 Calvary each, ensuring that they will lose quicker via being dominated instead of the Space Ship?

(Because they are the Sadam (one of the Sadam's??) of Civ!)