Solver's Unofficial BtS Patch

Solver

Mohawk Games Designer
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Solver, who is one of the testers for BTS has released an "un-official" patch for the BTS AI. The changes are:
  • Fixing a possible infinite loop problem with unit movement.
  • AI now more likely to promote siege units with Accuracy to better handle the changes to bombardment in BtS
  • AI understanding of what is an "early Wonder" now correct for non-Normal game speeds.
  • AI civs that are close to reaching a Domination victory recognize that and are more likely to declare war, in particular with Aggressive AI.
  • "Dead unitgroup walking" crash fix as per Dale
  • No-conscript colony crash fix as per Gyathaar
  • Another colony crash fix as per myself
  • Fixed the bug allowing Forts in foreign territory, which would result in Forts overrunning useful rival improvements.
  • AIs close to domination population will have a high priority for health buildings in cities that are unhealthy.
  • AIs close to domination population will put a high priority on researching Genetics and will like other health techs better.
  • The AI will be less reluctant to raze cities that have its state religion if it doesn't have the shrine for that religion.
  • Corporation maintenance is now exempt from inflation, so the costs don't blow up so much.
  • Added possible workaround for a crash bug.
  • Fixed an infinite loop problem with city attackers (thanks Gyathaar)
  • Blockade code rewritten so that blockading is now much faster, as per Gyathaar
  • Fixed Quick-speed crash (whoops)
  • Auto-explore change per Bhruic.
  • Auto-explorers will heal when wounded.
  • Advanced start population selling fixed per Gyathaar
  • Fixed the AP-conversion hammer bug
  • AI will use espionage to destroy non-resource terrain improvements - such as Towns.
  • AI may destroy improvements through espionage just because it hates you, with no war plan
  • Increased likelihood of the AI stealing techs - hopefully it will do so now
  • Poison Water and Foment Unhappiness missions now have the same effect, duration and cost on all game speeds, to mirror the official patch.
  • Fixed AI airstrike bug
  • AI now only capitulates to the team which has done them a majority of the damage.
  • On non-aggressive AI, the AI's are more aggressive early in the game.
  • AI trains more units early in the game.
  • AI SHOULD do a better job of bribing other AI's (this may or may not work)
  • The cost to Bribe AI's into war now uses a new algorithm, it better reflects the impact of the bribe (ie a large AI charges a lot more to be ordered around). Generally bribing will be more expensive, especially cases where it used to be excessively cheap.
  • AI's tell you to sod off if you try to bribe them onto a victim with an intact nuclear arsenal.
  • AI brags about it's nukes more.
  • Always Peace now suppresses AI militarism (with some barb awareness).
  • AI spends less on Espionage.
  • AI trains spies with lower priority.
  • AI better aware of Free Market / Environmentalism corporation impact.
  • Exploring units should now heal.
  • Possibly fixed exploring "YoYo" issue.
  • Fixed a puppet strings exploit related to naval invasions.
  • Fixed some issues which hampered or stalled AI early game expansion.
  • Tweaks to Governor, particularly "Emphasize Food"
  • Fixed an undefended cities issues.
  • Destroying Towns through espionage will turn them into Villages, etc.
  • Slight tweak to the AI selection of HQ city when founding a corp
  • Splitting off a colony no longer tends to create the same civilization
  • Governor fills the food bar better.
  • Governor should work hamlets over cottages.
  • AI offers larger bribes to other AI's, and doesn't care how much it "overpays" to bring another party into war.
  • The vassalizing thing should work now.
  • Fixed bug where defensive units idle.
  • Hamlets WILL be preferred over cottages.
  • Fixed independence-loving colonies
  • AI will prefer to run Foment Unhappiness in cities that have been hit with Poison Water and vice-versa
  • Fixed possible negative inflation situation (thanks Esper23)
  • AI prefers to poison water supply of cities with a low food bar to ensure population loss.
  • Fixed bug causing the new capitulation behavior to malfunction.
  • Fixed bug causing units to sit around outside cities.
  • AI now knows how to use Steal Tech and Incite Revolt
  • AI's may choose to not be espionage "petty terrorist" and instead only use large espionage missions (like steal tech and sabotage project).
  • AI uses spies more smartly (camps them in cities to get the discount)
  • AI values espionage buildings more
  • Another couple of minor changes to governors

The patch can be used with BtS 3.02 or 3.03, and it maintains full savegame compatibility! Last update on August 29.

Original discussion and topic created by Solver can be found in this Poly thread. Note, the file can be downloaded from the first post of that thread.

It can also now be downloaded straight from CFC.

You do not need the .cpp and .h files for the patch to run. If you don't know what those files are, you can leave them alone.
 
[*]AI civs that are close to reaching a Domination victory recognize that and are more likely to declare war, in particular with Aggressive AI.[/list]

Cool stuff. I wanted to chime in with another example of how Domination AI can be improved. The Khmer were a mere 2% of the world's population away from victory. They absolutely refused to research medicine. Those hospitals would have won them the game!

In a nutshell, if the AI is on the verge of a population based Domination victory, it should emphasize research that will increase the size of its cities and hence put them over the edge of their goal.
 
I suggest that AIs should more readily declare war on civ that are close to victory (provide they know they can win).

Ex, Saladin is close to cultural, his neighbors Shaka and Asoka should more readily to declare war on him as Saladin is almost winning the game.

Ex, Ragnar is close to domination, his neighbors Montezuma and Elizabeth should gang up on Ragnar to prevent him.

Ex, I am about to win Space Race, my neighbors should attempt to sabotage my production, or close borders with me, or declare war on me
 
Working on a patch, drinking tequila, sleeping? No one really knows.

I'm supprised more people aren't all over this thread trying to bash the ai.
 
I am overall positive towards this expansion... but disappointed at Firaxis for not releasing information about upcoming patches. Or even engage in a dialogue somewhere to correct some of all these gamebreaking bugs.

You dont buy a book, that has the last pages unwritten and sit down say; "oh well, the ending can wait"...

With so many bugs, they should be patching more often - working day and night.
 
Well alexman has announced on this forum that the corporate maintenance is going to be adjusted to account for inflation. That does sound like "they" are at least listening to complaints and working on fixes.
 
Excuse me for my ignorance but where should I put this patch? And do I have to start a new game for it to start to work?
 
Well alexman has announced on this forum that the corporate maintenance is going to be adjusted to account for inflation. That does sound like "they" are at least listening to complaints and working on fixes.

Well... next time they release a civ product; Civ5 - then ill wait 3 or 4 years for it too work as intended.
 
Excuse me for my ignorance but where should I put this patch? And do I have to start a new game for it to start to work?
It goes in ...\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets
You may want to backup the old file just in case.
 
I am overall positive towards this expansion... but disappointed at Firaxis for not releasing information about upcoming patches. Or even engage in a dialogue somewhere to correct some of all these gamebreaking bugs.

Yeah, my only real problem with Firaxis is how pathetic they are about communicating.

It's odd, many/most games these days have their own forums and some level of interaction between the company and the fans - like a community rep and often even devs/designers/producers. Firaxis is a (very) successful shop with one of the most popular games of all time and has...NOTHING.

Good thing there CivFanatics (and Apolyton, I guess).
 
I have updated the file, you may now re-download. No AI changes, but I included fixes for three crashes.
 
Well... next time they release a civ product; Civ5 - then ill wait 3 or 4 years for it too work as intended.

Hey, good luck with that. :rolleyes:
 
Solver, how nice of you to provide these fixes :)
There's a couple of other AI issues I think people would appreciate you taking a crack at if it's within your abilities:
- The AI's tendency to place large stacks in your territory during war, and then have them remain totally inactive.
- The AI's tendency to spam corporations in its own cities to the extent that it will nearly bankrupt itself.
 
Sorry to disappoint you guys, but my understanding of AI code is currently quite limited, so there's little I can do. Certainly nothing about those strange inactive stacks.
 
Sorry to disappoint you guys, but my understanding of AI code is currently quite limited, so there's little I can do. Certainly nothing about those strange inactive stacks.

Ah.. Well, it was worth a shot anyway. At any rate you've done plenty already! Here's to hoping an official patch isn't going to be too far down the road.
 
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