AI colonization

[Lone Wolf]

I think that the AI needs to prioritize colonizing the newly-found continents more. Right now, while the AI colonizes the uninhabited islands which it founds in the early game just fine, it doesn't do as fine with uninhabited land found in the middlegame (like, say, Brazil in Earth18 remains uncolonized for a long time).

 

[jdog5000]

I agree, I've been thinking about introducing an AI strategy where the AI will really go for setting up a colony as soon as it gets Astronomy. There's no excuse, Caravels come first and most AIs send them out to scout ... so they should know it's out there and, provided they're not bogged down in wars or stretched too thin economically, it's a golden opportunity on Terra maps and things like that.

Kinda takes some of the fun out of Terra maps that the AI doesn't race for the new world like the human player can. Occasionally they do well, but they're just a little slow since there isn't serious coordination between the various necessary pieces.

 

[Ninja2]

Maybe part of the reason is that if a player is maybe 4th or 5th in the tech (and therefore exploration), he will still have a shot at colonization later on. I mean, if the AI was extremely efficient at colonizing, there would be no opportunities left for the human player to colonize if he is not leading the game already.

Could this colonization efficiency in any way be linked to difficulty levels?

 

[Lone Wolf]

Maybe part of the reason is that if a player is maybe 4th or 5th in the tech (and therefore exploration), he will still have a shot at colonization later on. I mean, if the AI was extremely efficient at colonizing, there would be no opportunities left for the human player to colonize if he is not leading the game already.

That's an extremely strange way to code the AI. Using that logic, the AI should refrain from doing anything active at all, to give more opportunities to lagging players. And it colonizes badly regardless of the tech stance of the human.

 

[r_rolo1]

I think the key in here is coordination. The AI is coded to always have a ship with a settler team ready when possible ( atleast it was what Blake said a while ago ), but , as we know, the AI has some issues with preparing such kind of things efficiently.

Other thing that ( may ) influence this is the fact that a effective colonization requires focus of the player in a certain area to send the settlers or the military there, a thing that requires some kind of memory ( otherwise , it will just scatter settlers around, without any major plannning behind ).....

It is definitely possible to make the AI to colonize effectively. The Rhye's Portugal has no problems in make a extensive colonization of Brazil ( same for Spain and the Dutch in a lesser degree ). It might be worthwhile to look there....

 

[Lone Wolf]

The Rhye's Portugal has no problems in make a extensive colonization of Brazil ( same for Spain and the Dutch in a lesser degree ). It might be worthwhile to look there....

Well, for one thing, they are given free settlers via Python. However, sometimes, you could see lots and lots of Settlers, Longbows/Muslets/Rifles and East Indiamen stubbornly refusing to leave Amsterdam. Rhye said that it is due to AI blocks on sending out settler parties, and removed them in the recent versions. But the RFC European AI's still don't colonize as much as they should (England especially).