AI - map layers with point totals to give computer some awareness

[Craterus22]

I would hope that they address the AI problems as other people have mentioned - but I haven't seen this mentioned.


AI - map layers with point totals to give computer some awareness of their situation.


Some of the older computer games ( I am thinking of steve jacksons OGRE - c64, and more recently the board game translation of 1830), had a pretty decent AI.

I remember someone saying (this is from memory and I could be wrong) that in order for the ogre to make the best moves in the game - the designers used a point system (giving points to particular units to give them value in relation to other units), so that it could look at the entire map then look at the point totals to see where the "best" targets are for the particular unit.

In civ 4, if there was a layer for each civ in the game. The civ ai could look at the layers that it is "hostile" at or "at war" with and then make a decision on where the best targets are to attack - and places to avoid because of point totals for the path finding.

In any case, I hope they find a way to make the AI play smarter. As much as I like multiplay, single player play would be the reason I end up buying the game.

ps - I am glad that it was reported that the firaxis team is PLAYING the game (even though it was mentioned as multiplayer only). I hope each team member is required to play at least one complete game a week during the build process. When civ3 came out there were obvious problems that were discovered by many people in one game session.

 

[warpstorm]

This is called an influence map and I'd be very surprised if they aren't doing this as it has been one of the standard analysis techniques for quite a while.

 

[Albow]

Isn't the problem tho that these maps whould make the aI do stupid stuff, like go and attack far flung undefended colonies, while you go and smack their core?

Wouldn't it be better to define a certain number of strategies, and make the AI pick one (randomly) each game ... so you will never know what algorithm they are following.

 

[croxis]

I have a feeling something like this is already in the civ 3 AI. Also the point system could factor in distance and probability of sucess.

 

[Craterus22]

Also the point system could factor in distance and probability of sucess.

No sense going to war with a country on the otherside of the world if your not going to ship enough units to make the attack successful - right?

This is where I think perhaps civ3 ai went horribly wrong... In the ogre example, it was a much smaller map and you were really using the point system for tactical (i think) decisions.

Not - should I go to war with this civ or that civ.
But - which enemy's within the attack range of my stack are worthy foe's or is it an efficient use of resources to attack them.

For the execution of attacks - there just seems to be something lacking.


Long term strategy should include a point system and/or recent (leaky bucket) game history-influence.


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sorry to bother people with an obviously old idea - but when I see civ3 - I don't see the results I would expect with a system like this...

If it is used in the game currently is there an ini file available that we could modify the way the ai sees the point total overlays?