Why AI combat will never work in Civ 5

[Fistleaf]

I agree with jtwood. If we need modders to produce a good AI, it is like paying the developers just to produce the interface and graphics. The money is just for buying an empty Civ5 shell with nice graphics. Furthermore, there is no obligation for modders to do any work since they are unpaid.

If the AI fix is too difficult, Firaxis should compromise and change the game to using 2 or 3 units per tile. You still manage to get rid of the SOD with this change.

 

[Zhahz]

You should post this on every forum that has anything to do with Civ 5.

The tactical AI can be better - that is for sure. It was obviously not as high a priority as it should've been.

I dislike the comparison, because it's not an excuse, but the combat AI in Civ IV wasn't truly competitive until BTS and even then it was at its best with the better AI mod.

What's completely irritating is that Firaxis ignores history and doesn't learn from their mistakes/failings and make more of an effort to get it right to begin with. They're a successful company who's made millions on civ and doing a half assed job at this point is lame.

 

[Lord Parkin]

The problem is one unit per hex, period. It makes pathing impossible and neuters the AI advantage of superior numbers, as well as promoting completely cheesy and artificial moves. Even changing it to 2 would help tremendously by preventing complete logjams.

Completely agree. I'm only on my first game on a fairly low difficulty level, and already the logjams are irritating me. Even AI units wandering randomly through my territory with Open Borders block my Workers from improving tiles, for goodness' sake. That's just daft.

 

[bigredjeff]

 

[Craftsman]

The problem is one unit per hex, period. It makes pathing impossible and neuters the AI advantage of superior numbers, as well as promoting completely cheesy and artificial moves. Even changing it to 2 would help tremendously by preventing complete logjams.

Until they fix this foolish and basic mistake nothing else will materially change things.

Completely agree. I'm only on my first game on a fairly low difficulty level, and already the logjams are irritating me. Even AI units wandering randomly through my territory with Open Borders block my Workers from improving tiles, for goodness' sake. That's just daft.

How nice to hear that I am not alone!

Now, back to Civ IV.

 

[Atzar]

As far as combat goes, in the end I'd settle for an increased interest in self-preservation. Too often the AI will simply sit an archer/warrior in a desert right in front of you and get it swatted with little cost to the human player.

If you have a badly-injured unit, try to move it away to heal if at all possible - definitely do NOT run your 2 HP Warrior across a river to attack my full health spearman on a hill. Attack my Warrior with your Archer rather than leaving him idle for no apparent reason. When possible, attack from rough terrain to minimize damage from a counter-attack.

If they accomplished just this, I think combat AI would be adequate at the very least. I don't really expect them to bait me with traps or anything a human player might try, but I should feel like I'm doing more than playing chess with a sheep.