AI's aversion to Air Force?

[arjaaaine]

I just played on King Difficulty in Civ 5... and I noticed a weird trend.

Maybe I just don't know but I like to have 4 major wars in the future era when all my techs are done and all the cities are fully upgraded (culture/gold and maybe happiness)

I have so far yet to see the AI use bombers/ jet fighters at all. IMO

Stealth Bomber > BattleShip > Giant Death Robot >> Everything else (not counting upgrades)

In all of my games I start by building decent amount of BattleShips to make sure when I declare war I can harrass my opponent and Upgrade my BatS to incredible levels.

Then I make As many SBs as my steel allows and rein hell on my opponent. I never have to worry about them dying nor the enemy gaining any EXP.

Yes, everytime I use my bombers heavily the AI tends to build Anti Air land units more, but NOT once did i find a Jet fighter.



Is this the case with higher levels too? If it is, then I guess if I can survive the first 50-60 turns, the game's too easy lol.

 

[pickle]

noticed this too, I had a game where I was bombing the crap out of japan, they built 2 zeros, just 2 that was the extent of the airforce that the ai put together. they did have a lot of AA guns and mobile SAMs but these are too easy to get around and if there is nothing bombing your units it is just too easy.

no idea why they don't build an airforce, maybe it is something that can be fixed by a mod?

 

[bonafide11]

If you guys haven't noticed yet, the AI isn't very bright. They'll get better as more patches come out.

 

[Kyroshill]

Sadly true... the AI doesn't build aircraft.... probably doesn't understand them and so puts a very low priority on them.... as in.... never

 

[Skwink]

To be fair, I never build AF either.

 

[Kyroshill]

To be fair, I never build AF either.

Without enemies to fight, why bother? It just serves to make a winnable war infinitefly more winnable... of course AI wouldn't do well, but at least I could build an AF just to watch the air battles

 

[Manamus]

dont planes require stuff that the AI doesn't have? I normally have Artillery when they all have Pikemen... so If i let the game last untill bombers... they have?? muskets?

 

[JBConquests]

The AI does build Bombers, seen them try and bomb me in a number of different games. Though they don't build too many.

I have never seen them build a Fighter though. AI doesn't understand that I have Jet Fighters. They keep sending their bombers into a city turn after turn where I have Jet Fighters until they get shot down.

You would think they would learn the first time...

 

[Zydor]

In its current nerfed form due to the move to mass market format, they got to be careful anout Air & Naval. The effective restriction on the numbers of Units in the game means the air and sea units have to be reigned in. If they dont, the already broken balance due to mass market format, will be even more pronounced.

If there are only (say) a dozen or so units possible in your military forces, its a real bummer if three aircraft turn up and take out a third ..... kind of totals the enjoyment factor for the type of player who is into casual format games.

This is the kind of consequence when you try to turn a game from what it was designed to be (a strategy game) into a grab for a wider market share by crude cutting out of functions to appeal to the wider target audience. The dilema's will get worse as they tweek, twist and try to shoe horn Civ into mass market format. Its a real shame - and total deception aimed at the new casual player target market.

 

[BomberEscort]

In its current nerfed form due to the move to mass market format, they got to be careful anout Air & Naval. The effective restriction on the numbers of Units in the game means the air and sea units have to be reigned in. If they dont, the already broken balance due to mass market format, will be even more pronounced.

If there are only (say) a dozen or so units possible in your military forces, its a real bummer if three aircraft turn up and take out a third ..... kind of totals the enjoyment factor for the type of player who is into casual format games.

This is the kind of consequence when you try to turn a game from what it was designed to be (a strategy game) into a grab for a wider market share by crude cutting out of functions to appeal to the wider target audience. The dilema's will get worse as they tweek, twist and try to shoe horn Civ into mass market format. Its a real shame - and total deception aimed at the new casual player target market.

Air was lacking in III and IV, so it's not a "CiV has been dumbed down" issue...

 

[MadRat]

The AI will build an AF *if* the air units are that civs UU. Thus I have seens Zeroes and B-17s (both in one game too!). All the other Civs will never build an air force.

The AI is dumber than a pile a lobotomized bricks.

Rat

 

[Zydor]

Air was lacking in III and IV, so it's not a "CiV has been dumbed down" issue...

In that case the AI must be naturally dumb without any help since its rarer than bigfoot to see it play with Air assets in Civ V - at least with 3 & 4 there were air assets played with, and extensively. Whether individuals liked the individual assets is a never ending circular question, but at least they were there, and in good number.

In Civ 5 they are like a poor antique - exciting when you hear about it, interesting when you see it, but no autionier on the Planet can pursuade you to buy it. Certainly not having had your fingers burnt nearly clean off at the knuckles, with "Lot Number 1", and the attendent near libalous catalogue description.

Regards
Zy

 

[atteSmythe]

In my current game, Egypt had exactly one fighter. So it's definitely not limited to unique units.

It was using it for strafing runs when fighting another AI. When I finally declared war on them, they still had the fighter. Unfortunately for them, they never set it to intercept, so my own bombing runs were unimpeded, and they ignored a mobile SAM that one of my CS allies gifted me, and quickly lost said fighter.

I was just happy I got to see the mobile SAM work!

 

[Zydor]

In my current game, Egypt had exactly one fighter. So it's definitely not limited to unique units.

It was using it for strafing runs when fighting another AI. When I finally declared war on them, they still had the fighter. Unfortunately for them, they never set it to intercept, so my own bombing runs were unimpeded, and they ignored a mobile SAM that one of my CS allies gifted me, and quickly lost said fighter.

I was just happy I got to see the mobile SAM work!

Classic

 

[stormerne]

No game in the Civ series has had impressive airborne AI. Perhaps it's quite hard to program. I do remember the AI cheat in Civ2 where a bomber would hang motionless in one spot for years, doing nothing but keeping you from encroaching on that tile!

 

[Vulcans]

I play imortal or diety, and the game is normally over by the industrial era. thus i never see any modern warfare.

come to think of it the same applied to civ4, everything was cought with swords, and finished off with cavalry.

thus modern warfare is somewhat an obscurity for me in civ games. maybe i should start a game in the modern era to see what modern warfare is like

 

[arjaaaine]

I like to enjoy my games, so I take them to year 2100 atleast... My target to have every single land piece and 75% of water tiles under my control lol..

but the weird thing is, AI uses Guided Missiles very generously.. I use them as a last resort when my strategic resources run out. I just finished a lvl 6 (level after king)... and I had a total army strength of 100k.. (All Bombers) and Napolean had an army str of 500k.. We were seperated by oceans.. I was in America and he was in Asia/Africa and Europe... in about 40-50 turns, I had 180k army and he was left with arnd 150k.... All thanks to my bombers.. LOL

I am just glad he didn't declare war on me before my cities grew to 25 pop monsters lol