AI Social Policy Selection

[joshinda]

So I was playing a game on standard (8 civs) the other day, and took out city states to see if the gameplay was any different.

Some time into the game I look at the policy choices the ai have made. Both gandhi and darius have completely filled patronage as their second policy branch.

I know the ai in CiV is notorious for dreadful decisions, but surely this is taking it to a whole new level?!

Anyone else had this happen?

 

[Spatzimaus]

What happens is this:
The AI picks its first policy more or less at random. As soon as it does that, an AI trigger kicks in that almost purely forces the AI to finish the tree it's started, instead of dabbling in other areas; the AI can sometimes work on two trees at once, but never more than that. Once it finishes a tree, then it'll semi-randomly pick the next one to work on, and repeat the process. (Semi-random in that it weights each tree by its current priorities, but all unlocked trees are possible choices.)

And don't underestimate a full Patronage tree; even if you're not Greece or Siam, it's often a good all-around investment, if only for the science, great people, and the finisher that makes it much harder for anyone ELSE to get a diplomacy win.

 

[NotSure]

Patronage wasn't always a garbage social policy. If they both rolled a diplomatic grand strategy, Patronage would probably be a high priority (even though it shouldn't). Greece often takes policies in Patronage (even though it shouldn't).

I've seen Egypt pick half of Rationalism and half of Piety before, so yes, they will make some strange choices with SP. I'm seeing a lot of full liberty, full tradition recently. Rarely will I see one go Rationalism, but the ones that do go that route spam out the RAs and do well.

 

[Ellye]

What happens is this:And don't underestimate a full Patronage tree; even if you're not Greece or Siam, it's often a good all-around investment, if only for the science, great people, and the finisher that makes it much harder for anyone ELSE to get a diplomacy win.

OP said he disabled city states.

 

[bcaiko]

Having the Citystates completely disabled is an odd situation, though. I can understand why the AI doesn't necessarily account for that. Still, you'd think there'd be a code that influenced the AI's decision to take the patronage tree based on the number of CityStates left in the game.

 

[NotSure]

Ah.. I skipped right over the "no city states" part. My American public school education let me down again.

 

[chazzycat]

don't worry, in the future you're still the smartest guy on the planet

 

[Spatzimaus]

OP said he disabled city states.

Ah. Yes, that makes a difference.

No, the AI won't realize that Patronage does nothing, because the underlying Flavor values won't have changed. The AI, generally speaking, just doesn't change his behavior based on the quirks of the map or scenario. It won't base the decision to take Commerce on whether or not it has coastal cities, it won't base the decision to research a tech on whether or not the Wonder at that tech has been completed already, and so on.

If you intend to be changing things in significant ways like this, then it's on you to change the game to keep the AI from crippling itself; the AI has little ability to adapt. In this case, you'd do this by disabling the Patronage tree completely. (Just set its era unlock to ERA_FUTURE. No need to mess around with anything else.)

 

[NotSure]

don't worry, in the future you're still the smartest guy on the planet

...and President. A scary picture.

 

[joshinda]

Ah. Yes, that makes a difference.

No, the AI won't realize that Patronage does nothing, because the underlying Flavor values won't have changed. The AI, generally speaking, just doesn't change his behavior based on the quirks of the map or scenario. It won't base the decision to take Commerce on whether or not it has coastal cities, it won't base the decision to research a tech on whether or not the Wonder at that tech has been completed already, and so on.

If you intend to be changing things in significant ways like this, then it's on you to change the game to keep the AI from crippling itself; the AI has little ability to adapt. In this case, you'd do this by disabling the Patronage tree completely. (Just set its era unlock to ERA_FUTURE. No need to mess around with anything else.)

Thanks for the info! I'll be sure to try this out