AI not using ships to attack

Serbitas

Chieftain
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
24
First, its a great mod! i really enjoy playing it, even tho the AI is alot weaker then in BTS.

Here is the biggest flaw i noticed: The AI doesnt use ships for a landing attack at all. If you are on a island/continent and your opponent is on another its a safe easy victory, becouse the computer cant figure out how to transport troops to your continent and attack.

Another prety big flaw is that the computer cant figure out how to use siege weapons, and dont use them at all when attacking a city. It only wastes its siege weapons on single units without finishing them off even.

Is in the project someone dedicated on improving the AI? If not i am considering some work on it (if i can figure out how and where. i am familiar with python and xml but didnt bother yet to check civ4 code)

best regards Serbitas
 
Yes, I have found that it is just too easy if I'm on an island or small continent. Well, the non-domination victories are easier anyway. Dominating from an island is kind of tough (and tedious). It takes a lot of ships in FfH to transport a decent sized stack. Perhaps that's why the AI has so much trouble. Perhaps it doesn't know how to upgrade ships for cargo capacity.

Also, getting iron for frigates is not always easy. I've played lots of games where there seemed to be only a couple iron sources... and none of them near me.

One more factor may be the tech specialization. Iron Working is often pretty low on my list of priorities. I would assume that same goes for teh AI. Unlike BTS, there's a lot you can do without Iron Working.

Anyway, it might help to play on tectonics/pangea map. No ships required. Much more challenging because any AI could declare war and be at your front door with a big stack at any moment.
 
Most games I see the entire navy for an AI just hanging out in one of their cities. If they'd loaded it up it probably would be a serious threat.
 
I've had in my own games (at the Immortal/Deity level) AI invasion fleets land large armies either adjacent to one of my cities; sometimes even directly assaulting it from their transports.

So they can do it.

Not often, I'll admit, only about 3 or 4 times to me, and I was always surprised. Mostly because when enemy civs are on relatively distant land, at a certain point, they seem to go to sleep. Every now and then, they'll declare war on a near neighbor on their island/continent, but I usually see some sort of equilibrium reached and I can mostly ignore them. I do, if I can afford it, have a picket line of ships for advance warning (hawks are cheaper but get kind of tedious to get ordering into the sky) but it's not crucial.

The AI could do a lot more damage though if it tried. You do see large fleets just doing nothing. They'll attack across short water distance far more often, but even then, I think they don't much use their potential.

I've seen the enemy use siege weapons, like catapults, effectively against my cities many times. They're often well-protected too. However, I'll also see catapults used poorly too; attacking single units rather than fortified cities, for example. Sometimes the catapults are not well-protected; my assassins really knock out lots of them - but then assassins are problems in general. Still, a human would see that his cats were being wasted.

I'd say the AI was not confused by catapults, just careless with them.
 
Top Bottom