Add dedicated action for hunters: "hunt all animals within cultural borders"

[raxo2222]

It seems like animals like to sit in my kingdom, while my hunters are ignoring them on autohunt mode.

I have to manually control hunters to clean area, where I recently settled my city.

This action would make hunters kill every animal, that is within cultural borders.

 

[Thunderbrd]

It's possible that the hunting AI is set to ignore within borders... I'll have to check into that for the AI's sake at least.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Of course they are as animals can't enter borders by default programming it that way would save some time on the unit's decision making.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Of course they are as animals can't enter borders by default programming it that way would save some time on the unit's decision making.

Yeah but usually the 'go kill anything you see and can probably get away with without backlash' command in the AI routine isn't so selective as to look within constraints beyond 'visible enemy within reach'. I'll really have to get in and look deeper. Alberts programmed some specialty hunter AI just before the big changes there and you may be right that he let that be a consideration to speed things up a bit.

 

[Galadrion]

I've found that setting a hunter on border patrol (the stop-sign icon) fulfills this function - although canines are, in fact, a little better at this. For the hunter unit to come up to the same effectiveness usually requires the Hunter's Sight promotion, or some other way to improve the unit's ability to spot hidden animals.

For the most part, I'll normally put one hunter unit on patrol for every two to three cities I've got - that keeps the animals under control fairly well, and gives me a reasonably steady stream of subdued animals as well. I don't know if it's the way the AIs are programmed or if it's just a coincidence, but I have noticed that the hunters tend to focus more on encroaching animals, while the canines tend to focus more on barbarians and neanderthal units. That might just be the way the combat bonuses are structured, though - hunters are more likely to run into dangerous odds against barbs/'thals, while canines don't get bonuses against animals (unless suitably promoted).

The advantage to using the border patrol order is that the patrolling units are willing to go a bit beyond your borders to get a target. It gives your defenses a little more depth and proactive-ness, and can keep the animals/barbs/neanderthals from scoring easy kills on your noncombat units.

 

[cammcken]

I've found that setting a hunter on border patrol (the stop-sign icon) fulfills this function - although canines are, in fact, a little better at this. For the hunter unit to come up to the same effectiveness usually requires the Hunter's Sight promotion, or some other way to improve the unit's ability to spot hidden animals.

For the most part, I'll normally put one hunter unit on patrol for every two to three cities I've got - that keeps the animals under control fairly well, and gives me a reasonably steady stream of subdued animals as well. I don't know if it's the way the AIs are programmed or if it's just a coincidence, but I have noticed that the hunters tend to focus more on encroaching animals, while the canines tend to focus more on barbarians and neanderthal units. That might just be the way the combat bonuses are structured, though - hunters are more likely to run into dangerous odds against barbs/'thals, while canines don't get bonuses against animals (unless suitably promoted).

The advantage to using the border patrol order is that the patrolling units are willing to go a bit beyond your borders to get a target. It gives your defenses a little more depth and proactive-ness, and can keep the animals/barbs/neanderthals from scoring easy kills on your noncombat units.

That's what I do, except I have the opposite problem—there are some rare animals that I want to subdue, and the dogs kill them before my hunters can get to them. Hunters aren't as fast as dogs, so I can't stack them together and automate border patrol. (Or at least without diminishing effectiveness.)

Somewhat related request: Can the "Protect Unit" automation be re-programmed so that defense-only units can still use it? Or a new command that equates to "follow this unit around"? That way, I can have dogs with just one promotion in Bodyguard following my hunters, providing vision without the killing blow. I used to put them in stacks to auto-hunt, but the stacks often got broken.

 

[Thunderbrd]

That's what I do, except I have the opposite problem—there are some rare animals that I want to subdue, and the dogs kill them before my hunters can get to them. Hunters aren't as fast as dogs, so I can't stack them together and automate border patrol. (Or at least without diminishing effectiveness.)

At some point you have to accept there are limits to what we can do with automation and just don't automate if you want to have control. I just keep a dog with as much promoted vision distance as possible in each city on sentry so it'll wake up if something's nearby to kill then send what I want to send after it.

Somewhat related request: Can the "Protect Unit" automation be re-programmed so that defense-only units can still use it? Or a new command that equates to "follow this unit around"? That way, I can have dogs with just one promotion in Bodyguard following my hunters, providing vision without the killing blow. I used to put them in stacks to auto-hunt, but the stacks often got broken.

Can you group them and then still automate the stack with the sort of automation you seek? If not, it might be something to think through the logic on to ensure the AI isn't having the same problem... but one thing that they have that the player doesn't is the ability to define their units' AI types - and which unit is in charge with more direct methods. I'd like to eventually allow the player a bit more control to achieve some of what you just asked for but you're talking about a truly deep mire of coding to work through so it's not something you'll see any time soon.

 

[cammcken]

Can you group them and then still automate the stack with the sort of automation you seek?

Yes. Not defense-only units; they can't have any automation involving combat. But units without Bodyguard will stack, auto-hunt, and usually the hunter gets the kill. The only issue is that, after one engagement, the stack gets split, just like in vanilla Civ. I suppose the AI doesn't have this problem. I've tried Auto-protect with much better results: every now and then a dog gets a kill, or I need to re-assign the pairs, but it works.

but you're talking about a truly deep mire of coding to work through so it's not something you'll see any time soon.

No problem. I didn't realize how difficult it would be. Honestly it's probably not worth the effort. Hunting is only important for one or maybe two eras, after all