A.I. Shortcomings

[AIexanderTheGr8]

I've been playing A New Dawn after being frustrated at the A.I. behavior in Caveman 2 Cosmos. I read in the AND description that the A.I. was vastly improved, but this is not true. I very much like this mod and appreciate all the work put into it, but it would've been very helpful for me to know all the A.I. shortcomings before running it.

I read in a thread that the A.I. can't use siege engines and would like to know to what extent this is true. I would appreciate any further input as well regarding A.I. misbehavior and its impact on difficulty. I already turned off great commanders and have read up on other ways to increase difficulty, but my main concern is A.I. behavior regardless of what's turned on or off.

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

I've been playing A New Dawn after being frustrated at the A.I. behavior in Caveman 2 Cosmos. I read in the AND description that the A.I. was vastly improved, but this is not true. I very much like this mod and appreciate all the work put into it, but it would've been very helpful for me to know all the A.I. shortcomings before running it.

I read in a thread that the A.I. can't use siege engines and would like to know to what extent this is true. I would appreciate any further input as well regarding A.I. misbehavior and its impact on difficulty. I already turned off great commanders and have read up on other ways to increase difficulty, but my main concern is A.I. behavior regardless of what's turned on or off.

I think you have to try and judge by yourself. I think AI is good enough. I usually play with Flexible Difficulty and Flexible AI because I think it prevents the steamroll effect that mostly helps human players.

 

[King Victor I]

One thing I have noticed is the barbs do not protect their workers. Even if a unit that can capture them is adjacent, they neither run nor reinforce.

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

One thing I have noticed is the barbs do not protect their workers. Even if a unit that can capture them is adjacent, they neither run nor reinforce.

They probably don't value them very much. Given that there's a chance for killed units to become slave workers, I don't think their behavior is completely wrong.

 

[AIexanderTheGr8]

I think you have to try and judge by yourself. I think AI is good enough. I usually play with Flexible Difficulty and Flexible AI because I think it prevents the steamroll effect that mostly helps human players.

Thanks for the reply. During your games, does the A.I. ever use bombardment? I can be attacked by a stack of catapults at a +50% defense city and they won't do anything to lower my percentage; they just run up and get killed. If this happens in your games, what--if anything--do you do to address it? Is the aim of increased difficulty making sure they have more catapults to recklessly throw at you?

 

[AIexanderTheGr8]

One thing I have noticed is the barbs do not protect their workers. Even if a unit that can capture them is adjacent, they neither run nor reinforce.

Thanks for the reply. I've noticed this also and for me, even rival civs' workers stand still to be captured--at least for one turn longer than in vanilla Civ4.

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

Thanks for the reply. During your games, does the A.I. ever use bombardment? I can be attacked by a stack of catapults at a +50% defense city and they won't do anything to lower my percentage; they just run up and get killed. If this happens in your games, what--if anything--do you do to address it? Is the aim of increased difficulty making sure they have more catapults to recklessly throw at you?

Difficulty doesn't make AI smarter. It only gives AI some advantages in terms of production, science and so on.
I definitely had AI bombard my cities. AI has its own way to do it, IIRC it depends on what's the strongest defending unit.

 

[Nakkimunakas]

AI seems to sacrifice city defenders too easily if you bait them to by putting units on a high defence tiles around their cities.

 

[Nakkimunakas]

BTW does the <iAIPerEraModifier> affect <iAIResearchPercent> in CIV4HandicapInfo.xml if I mess around in there?

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

BTW does the <iAIPerEraModifier> affect <iAIResearchPercent> in CIV4HandicapInfo.xml if I mess around in there?

I can't check now, but IIRC yes, eramodifer affects research costs.

 

[<Nexus>]

AI seems to sacrifice city defenders too easily if you bait them to by putting units on a high defence tiles around their cities.

Are you playing with Archer Bombardment option? With that on I didn't experience such behavior.

 

[Nakkimunakas]

Are you playing with Archer Bombardment option? With that on I didn't experience such behavior.

Not on.

I can't check now, but IIRC yes, eramodifer affects research costs.

Didn't see <iAIResearchPercent> in the base game or other mods so if it was added later I wasn't shure about that. Just trying to avoid runaway tech gap.

 

[Nakkimunakas]

Yeah AI does't bombard city defences for me either and now Castle Gatehouse is blocking them from attacking since they don't bombard.

 

[AIexanderTheGr8]

AI seems to sacrifice city defenders too easily if you bait them to by putting units on a high defence tiles around their cities.

Thanks for pointing this out. I've noticed this behavior too and it kills me. I just want to shake my computer like a crazy person asking, "You want to win, don't you?!" The A.I. does give up advantageous positions to make reckless attacks and often with single units. I see a lot of siege weapons roaming by their lonesome and though this type of behavior has been noted in other threads, I figure I'll toss it in this one too for good measure.

I've tried to imagine every possible work-around to the fact that enemies don't bombard. I was hoping someone who's played more hours might prove more imaginative than myself.

 

[AIexanderTheGr8]

Difficulty doesn't make AI smarter. It only gives AI some advantages in terms of production, science and so on.
I definitely had AI bombard my cities. AI has its own way to do it, IIRC it depends on what's the strongest defending unit.

That's so strange that you have the A.I. bombard your cities and I don't. I've set up sandbox situations trying to coax bombardments to no avail. I guess I'll try different defending units and see if I can change/interpret the A.I.'s reasoning. How often would you say you're successfully bombarded? If I imagine the A.I. bombarding my city, I can picture them maybe bombarding one turn and then doing something completely irrelevant the next turn without following through on the siege.

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

When they say 'bombard' do they mean, its attacks with siege and troops, I've seen that happen.

Trouble is, it will send in highest % win unit to attack 1st, then maybe follow up with siege.

Rarely have I seen it bombard the Cultural defenses down, but then again, I don't allow my cities to be attacked.

 

[Nakkimunakas]

AI also uses too much city raider promotions IMO. It's easy to destroy them in in the field when they don't have any field combat promotions in their stacks.

 

[AIexanderTheGr8]

When they say 'bombard' do they mean, its attacks with siege and troops, I've seen that happen.

Trouble is, it will send in highest % win unit to attack 1st, then maybe follow up with siege.

Rarely have I seen it bombard the Cultural defenses down, but then again, I don't allow my cities to be attacked.

By bombard, I just meant lowering city defense percentages (generated by walls, etc.) before attacking with a raiding army. Your explanation really clarified the issue, though: the A.I. first sends units with the highest chance of winning in a direct confrontation with defending units. That seems like a sensible strategy if not for their failure to bombard city defenses.

I don't know anything about A.I., but hopefully something can eventually be done to correct this behavior. It's such a well-done mod.

 

[Nakkimunakas]

Changed some variables in BBAI_AI_Variables_GlobalDefines.xml:
BBAI_SKIP_BOMBARD_BEST_ATTACK_ODDS 15 --> 100
BBAI_SKIP_BOMBARD_BASE_STACK_RATIO 250 --> 2500
BBAI_SKIP_BOMBARD_MIN_STACK_RATIO 150 --> 1500

I don't know if that helps any but I am seeing AIs bombard other AIs city defences now.

 

[45°38'N-13°47'E]

Changed some variables in BBAI_AI_Variables_GlobalDefines.xml:
BBAI_SKIP_BOMBARD_BEST_ATTACK_ODDS 15 --> 100
BBAI_SKIP_BOMBARD_BASE_STACK_RATIO 250 --> 2500
BBAI_SKIP_BOMBARD_MIN_STACK_RATIO 150 --> 1500

I don't know if that helps any but I am seeing AIs bombard other AIs city defences now.

Please, let me know if it works better now when AI attack your cities. Those values are known for causing troubles, like AI not attacking at all or performing only suicide attacks.