List of AI Stupidities

Some very STUPID AI things:
- building fortresses all over the place and not occupying them, so you already have strongpoints when you invade his island.
- building cities that have no water access, but that do have several ocean squares in the city area. That city can't build a harbor, an offshore platform or ships, so there will be a shortage of food and production later in the game.
-irrigating deserts, while mining is far better (if you need the food from deserts the city is already in a bad area).
- building 1 city and have 4 settlers around it improving the area... DUH!!!

Aegis Avenger
 
Originally posted by hgengstrom:
A barbarian ship wants to land troops to attack my city. I put two settlers there to block the shoreline. That ship would have waited there forever. I finally moved and let them land so they could kill themselves by attacking my city.

Similarly, I've used freight units to thwart a barbarian landing! Nothing more fearsome than freight blockade!

 
Hi, first time user - excellent site, it really is the one I've been looking for!

Anyway - when you're allied with someone (This is in Civ 2) they are allowed to launch suprise attacks without first cancelling the allience through diplomacy, which we all have to do.

This is extremely annoying and the first time it happened I stopped playing for about a week, I was so disgusted! I got over it though, although it was a long, painfull process!

Sorry if someone's posted this before - I'm a bit new round these parts!

Excellent site by the way!
 
yesterday i sat for many terms with for destroyers holding my ally germanies 3 BB and several cruisers in two squares so that later ill be able to destroy them when the time comes since they are in home waters and the rest of my fleet is in a city two squares away.
the dumbest is when they destroy objective cities that have wonders in, esp. when i am about to conquer them.
 
I don't understand why ground units can't enter squares occupied by other civ's air units. I know from experience that i can fit under a flying plane.

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Thou who goes to bed with an itchy butt wakes up with a smelly finger.
 
The reason you can't go under airplanes is because they are armed enemy planes that can shoot and bomb you, and since there is no AA the game, you cannot fight back.
 
One time the French had me down to one city. Because I had full technology, they couldn't take it militarily (they have dumb tactics, as you can see from the other posts in this thread): I had about 4 or 5 veteran mech. inf., 2 howitzers, an armor, a stealth bomber, and an SDI defense, walls, coastal fortress, and SAM missile battery defending it. The AI just doesn't know how to assault that kind of defense and win.

BTW, this city had my palace; it was my capital. That French spy didn't seem to care, though. He just came up and bought my capital like it was any other city. He didn't even destroy my palace first. Just bought it out right. Give me a break! Talk about a cheating AI.
 
This may just happen in my games, on my MPG, but has anyone ever seen the AI use a carrier? I've never seen it happen, and also, why is it that the AI seems to love defending with anytrhing but mech inf in the modern epoch?

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Ceramic Cyanide
 
Ceramic Cyanide(nice name)--

The reason AI's don't build carriers is because it doesn't need to. It's planes(even fighters) have unlimited fuel.

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"What do we want? Tickets to the Met, Broadway, the shops, civilization, man, that's what we're looking for. Oh, we may stumble along the way, take this fellow for instance. . . *BLAM*
Now was that civilized? Fun, yes, but in no sense civilized."
 

I forgot to hurry up and but SDI defnce for one of my cities before declring war against a nuke power. So, you guessed it they nuked that city. I went back a saved game and bought SDI and low and behold no nuke attack!! In fact I never seen a nuke attack against a city with SDI!! So nice to know which cities have SDI before you nuke is it?!?

Actually the AI tries to nuke the cities that have the most units inside. As far as I'm concerned the AI ONLY nukes cities of mine that have SDI because all of my big cities have it!
 
Leaves Fighters/Stealth fighters suspended in mid air at end of turn. There's no airbase or anything. <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/angry.gif" border=0>

BTW: Tradiing Maps. There is a logic to this
1) Both parties must have researched Map Making
2) Opponent must be an enthusiastic ally or Worhipful <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/cwm40.gif" border=0>

On the subject of wandering AI units. The wall of doubled up diplomats/spies works for me <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/biggrin.gif" border=0>

[This message has been edited by CivGuru (edited April 22, 2001).]
 
AI Stupidities? You bet... I saw a few things on this thread about fortresses everywhere. I decided to take some screenshots...
http://home.earthlink.net/~c17gmaster/Stupid_AI.bmp

I can understand fortifying the perimeter of your empire, but what's with putting fortresses between cities? Choke points on your railroad net are understandable, but... This is just lame.
http://home.earthlink.net/~c17gmaster/Stupid_AI2.bmp

Well, if somebody tries to take the south pole, France will vigilantly fend them off...

Note that I'm having problems getting these links to work properly. If anybody would like an e-mail copy, I can provide one. They're ninety-second downloads on my 14.4 modem. Or, if anybody knows what causes the little icon I keep getting...

-----Anthony
 
Yupp i fully agree with your statements.

1.Someone of you mentioned fighters staying in midair for one turn well I saw a ground unit attacking them (which would be impossible if this would have been mid air bombers)
2.An AI once had a barbarioan raid (Partisans) near to one of his "well-placed"
cities (i think 3 inhabitants at the beginning).The AI built engineers to scare them off. You can imagine they didnt have a chance. But the barbs werent very clever too. They attacked a stronger city on the same island with one partisan while the rest of the troops stayed next to the poor city (by now size 1)seemingly smoking or playing cards dunno.
3.The AI always pillages. If i wanted to conquer a city I wouldnt pillage since I want the city fully operational after taking them over. Maybe the AI knows that he has no chance
4.The AI often shows up with an engineer/settler to build up a city in a square already fully improved and used by another much larger city of mine
5.Did you ever see the AI expelling another AIs dip/spy or using those against each other.
Actually an AIs city protects another AIs dip/spy (German city defending English spy for example)
You sometimes cant expell those if they are exactly between your and another AIs city.
6.Once an AI wanted me to retreat my troops. I agreed. They sent armies home which were attacking an enemies city miles away from the ones of the AI expelling them.
I hope i havent forgotten anything
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Never suppose wickedness if it could be stupidity as well.
Richard Feynman
 
Questions: are these bugs?

1. Dragging a ship (cursor turns to GO) and
letting go causes ship to move in opposite direction and then stay stuck in one spot.
2. Using the Go To command and having units
get stuck in one position (often at a shoreline or at a fork in a road).
3. I surrounded a city that had only phalanxes, warriors, and archers with
cavalry, and the enemy attacked my units
with cannons (at least, that was the sound
effects that I heard).
4. After giving a "gift" to the weakest nation, that nation after some turns, attacks.
5. My city has no roads into it and yet,
enemy catapults suddenly appear next to it and starting attacking my city. I can never
do this with my own pieces because these units only move one space at a time and never
have the chance the attack once they reach
the city.

Thanks!




[This message has been edited by rafisher (edited May 18, 2001).]
 
Another thing that the AI does is they don't ever get Leo's Workshop and so they try to attack you with warriors when you have armors and stealth fighters and other modern units.

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Unlike many rumors about me I am not the person you think I am. I am just a figment of your imagination.

It's TRUE!!!
 
Another thing is that the AI never likes you. You have to give them all your money for 87 turns before they will move up to icy.

The AI never gets the good techs like railroad, gun powder, mobile warfare, etc. they just think you'll give it to them when they demand it. The funny thing is they will still do this to you when they're surrounded by modern units and they are defending their only city (which is size 2) with phalanxes, pikemen or legions.
 
I have noticed that, as a couple people have said, you can manipulate barbarian ships to drop their units on land that you want. I have found it helpful to have units on terrain that takes up 1 move so that the ship drops its crusaders onto a forest and can't move. 4 crusaders on a forest is an easily squashed target.

It's also wierd how barbarians only stack units when:

1 - Unloading a ship
2 - When there is a barbarian leader around
3 - Original stack when peasant revolt / religious fanatics show up.

They never seem to get the idea that stacking an artillery unit with a fanatics unit would be a good defensive idea. Not that it would help them, anyway....

One obvious cheat - barbarians can capture a city of size 1 no matter what. If I try it, the city is toast.

And of course, it bothers me that the limit of cities in the game is 256....

Derk

 
Two civs whom I've never even contacted yet, on a faraway continent, signing a pact to contain my aggression--go figure!

Also, the AI doesn't get rid of its hopelessly outdated units. I've seen them with tanks, bombers, elephants and warriors in the same year--what a motley crew!

Of course, I usually try to get Leonardo's (and most often do), but when I don't I'll turn antiquated units in for upgrades rather than waste my time with them. (Actually come to think of it the only time I've ever not gotten Leonardo's was in scenarios where it didn't exist! I don't think the AI ever tries to build Leonardo's--well maybe once, then I rush-built mine when they were almost finished!).

I sure hope the AI will play better in CivIII. But I suppose programming an AI to think like a devious human is a tall order....
 
How about THIS little gem....

"The French get Literacy from the English!"

"The English get Polytheism fro the French!"

I then call up the French and ask them to declare war on the English.

"We have no contact with the English."
 
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