AI actions -- confused

[Trinity]

No good deed goes unpunished. Here I go into war on the side of Babylon who was attacked by Rome and Greece. Rome settles, Greece continues the attack. I'm taking out Greece. Babylon and Greece settle. Five cities to go before Greece is gone.

Babylon and Greece agree to a trade embargo against me, but Babylon is still "Polite". I lost my supply of Incense, and am now incensed! I wonder if the Babylon AI sees "The French are cautious toward you"?

The Iroquois and I are still pounding Greece, and since that embargo, I got the English to join the war effort.

I guess the message is to end the war.

 

[Zouave]

Expect no loyalty or personal relations with this AI. It is just a bean-counter - not a human. Remember that.

BTW, I think the above is too bad.

 

[Daaraa]

I agree with Zouave. If the AI has 500 workers and nothing else and you have 100 modern tanks your military advisor will say you have a weak army.

Although why they did it could be that the AI saw you as a threat to them and figured you would go after them in the next round.

 

[Trinity]

[rant] Oh, now that the war is over, Babalonia is polite, the Iroquois are cautious, everyone else is annoyed. How come the Zulus don't appear on the Foreign Advisor board now that there is room for them? I'm sure they're annoyed as well.

The stupid AI destroyed the last 4 Greek cities that were on decent terrain when I took them. Of course the one on desert with no resources stayed intact. Go figure. [/rant]

We lost our supply of gems because Persia wants to up the ante. I'm the only one who can build the Iron Works. I'm going for Battlefield Medicine next, and Theory of Evolution.

I've held off on building a fleet of Frigates, and now the Iroquois have one, and hence control the seas. I've got some ironclads, and am waiting for destroyers.

I'm thinking of changing governments from Monarchy to Republic but I've got to first figure out finances. I'm about 20 units above my free units. Does Republic and Democracy research faster for less outlay?

How do you increase your research (I've got Universities all over the place)? Do scientist specialist citizens help at all?

 

[Zouave]

Scientists help. So does Copernicus, Newton's, Theory of Evolution (a bit) and SETI. Great Library too but that's risky to build; you might lose a lot of production if someone else does and it takes a lot of time to get to.

 

[sumthinelse]

Originally posted by Trinity


Does Republic and Democracy research faster for less outlay?

How do you increase your research (I've got Universities all over the place)? Do scientist specialist citizens help at all?

Well, in an indirect way you get more science with republic and democracy, because it all depends on how many gold icons you have on your city tiles, and the science %. Build roads, mines, especially where you see gold resources. Develop squares next to rivers.

Maybe you knew all this.

I have heard rumors that there is a special bonus for science with republic, but have not seen any hard evidence of this. I personally don't believe it.

I don't find scientist specialists particularly helpful unless I have a lot of excess population that don't have city squares to work.

 

[TedG]

Originally posted by Daaraa
I agree with Zouave. If the AI has 500 workers and nothing else and you have 100 modern tanks your military advisor will say you have a weak army.

Although why they did it could be that the AI saw you as a threat to them and figured you would go after them in the next round.

AI stupidity:

A lot of it is laziness on Firaxis' part, but also consider that computers are "dumb" and basically can be programmed only to make comparisons between two or more things, not make actual thought-based decisions. So in the case of military strength, it just looks at the number of units for each civ, a simple numeric value, and compares them. Whichever is greater, that civ is considered stronger. I believe it would be possible to have it look at the types of units involved, but that would be a lot more complex to code all of that, so they simply have it compare the numeric values. They're just too lazy to code more than they have to. The same principle applies to pretty much every other "decision" the AI makes - it's just a comparison, not based on morals or thought or anything like that. That's why the AI can be really stupid at times... actually... all the time!

 

[Jaybe]

I'm thinking of changing governments from Monarchy to Republic but I've got to first figure out finances. I'm about 20 units above my free units. Does Republic and Democracy research faster for less outlay?

I can think of only THREE excuses for not being in Republic or Democracy, because of the HUGE commerce advantages (which enables much higher research). Marketplaces, banks, libraries and universities all enhance those commercial advantages!

The "excuses":
1. Haven't learned them yet.

2. You are at war and war weariness is a problem, or you are about to go to war and you FEAR it will be a problem. War Weariness is a fickle thing; sometimes there is very little, sometimes it is horrendous!

3. You don't have a RELIGIOUS civ and you are dreading the multiple turns of anarchy. Turns of anarchy seems to increase as your number of cities increases (or is it just population??). If you ARE a Religious civ and you are at peace, you owe it to yourself to switch!!

 

[Trabpukcip]

Originally posted by Trinity
[rant]

The stupid AI destroyed the last 4 Greek cities that were on decent terrain when I took them. Of course the one on desert with no resources stayed intact. Go figure. [/rant]

BTW the AI automaticly destroye the cities you conquer when they are at level 1, so that's why it did that... and you may notice that this is happening becose when you capture a city it goes down 1 level...

 

[Trinity]

I have a commercial/industrious civ and want to avoid the 6 turns of anarchy, at least until after I've built Theory of Evolution. Those two science advances will allow me to survive the anarchy without falling too far behind.

So which produces better for a large civ of this type? Democracy or Republic?

 

[Jaybe]

Trinity,
Both Democracy and Republic have much improved corruption (& waste) compared to Monarchy. Democracy is marginally better than Republic.

BTW, how do you know it will be six turns of anarchy??

You will build Theory of Evolution much faster with either of these two governments. Whether it will make up for your transition time would be hard to tell. Save game, try one way, reload the save and try the other path??
OTOH, if you are building it in or very near your capital, you may not be incurring any corruption there anyway.

 

[Jaybe]

Trabpukcip,
If a town has 1 population, it will survive your conquest if
it has an expanded border.

Though it may be if it has built any culture or even any improvement (unclear to me at the moment -- you know, conflicting posts and experiences (or faulty personal memory )).

 

[Jason Fox]

Originally posted by Jaybe
Trabpukcip,
If a town has 1 population, it will survive your conquest if
it has an expanded border.

Though it may be if it has built any culture or even any improvement (unclear to me at the moment -- you know, conflicting posts and experiences (or faulty personal memory )).

I think it auto-razes only size one cities with no culture.

 

[Trinity]

I'm guessing on 6 turns of anarchy. It seemed much longer than 4 turns the last game.

Theory of Evolution will be built in one of Rouen, Rheims, or Paris. I've got 8 turns before I get to build it. I've got Shakespeare's Theatre in Rouen (Forbidden Palace - zero corruption), and have 15 turns left. I'll probably lose out and be able to switch to Theory of Evolution and complete it in a few turns. Rheims is right next to Paris, Marseilles is close to Paris as well and is a heavy shield producer. I have 4 cities with little or no corruption.