AI LOVES Carriers in 8.2 with the defense boost

[flounder]

AI seems to prefer huge carrier fleets (without air, mind you) because of the high defense rating. I often see 3 carriers for every 1 actual ship (destroyer, sub, etc.) They love them so much they buy them in there landlocked cities at times (although this is probably a separate bug).

I understand the idea behind buffing carrier hitpoints, but is there a way to do it that won't mislead the AI? Maybe create a passive trait that gives them like a 30% defense rating vs sea and air?

 

[Thalassicus]

Carriers were changed half a year ago in March's v5.7, though it wouldn't make a difference: the AI ignores everything about a unit when deciding what to build. In other words... carriers could be 1 or 100 strength and the AI is oblivious.

The AI uses "flavors" to make decisions, which are written by hand by a human. My guess is Firaxis dramatically increased the carrier flavors in patch 1.0.1.332... I've fixed that mistake for v8.6.10. Thank you for bringing it up.

The real problem is AI design. It should build units in "groups" like [1 carrier + 3 aircraft + 2 destroyers + 1 sub] and use them together. Instead, the AI builds units individually, rolling dice with random probabilities to figure out what to build. We can't really fix this... just adjust the dice.

 

[flounder]

Thanks for catching that. Loving the mod. Hope it finds itself in good hands when you "retire."

 

[Thalassicus]

Something else I realized might have affected this in the patch: Destroyers were moved to Combustion. This means the AI could conceivably have only Carriers to build and no Destroyers, Battleships, or Submarines. If the AI only has one type of ship to build, they're going to build it... due to how the flavor system works. I'm not sure if there's a way to solve this problem without access to the core AI...