AI moving palaces reason?

[geofelt]

I recently revisited civ2-gold(vs 2.42), and found that the AI civs were moving capitols frequently. In a second game, I recorded it and found:
Egypt moved 8 times,
Indians 4
greeks 5
vikings 4
--all before 1ad. I thought it took 1000 gold to do this, an unlikely sum in the bc years. What is going on?

 

[la fayette]

The cost is 1000g only if you move your capital in 1 turn (immediate rushbuilding of the palace). If you build a new palace and take your time, the cost is only 100 shields IIRC.

Then, why would YOU feel like moving your capital ?
The answer is: reduce corruption and waste, if you have built cities too far away from the capital.

I suppose that this is exactly the reason why the AI does it, but there seems to be some kind of programming bug which results in a very high number of moves in some games (not the only strange piece of strategy by the AI ).

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

It seems sometimes they build a Palace if they have no other city improvements to build.

 

[yaroslav]

Yes, DoM is right IMHO. AI builds the Palace if there is no any other improvement avaliable and the AI think it's not time to build more units

 

[Old n Slow]

I agree with the Duke.

Somehow I think that the palace moving is a systemic thing -- most games I don't see it occurring at all, a few games maybe once ever, and a few games a number of civs make the change, and often make the change again.

What an enterprising researcher might want to do is to see (via cheat mode & past saves) "conditions" that might lead to such palace switching (small land? some techs acquired but others not?) -- but somehow I think that it is a low priority question -- and one where the player will have few opportunities to take advantage of and/or deter the effects.

 

[blackthorn]

Thats exactly what just happened in my game.I have'nt seen the A.I. do that in a long time,then boom,right about the time this post started.

Is it possible for the comp. to release this type of play due to a certain time of day and such???

 

[funxus]

Originally posted by blackthorn
Is it possible for the comp. to release this type of play due to a certain time of day and such???

I doubt it's timed.

Every time this happens, I feel that it's my play that is bad. Since they probably build a palace out of lack for something else to build, it must mean they are behind in science. If the AI is behind in science, I usually feel it's my fault, because I'm slow as well, because from what I understand the AI follows my science rates. This theory probably has many flaws, but I still never like it when they build palaces...

 

[scloopy]

Originally posted by funxus

I doubt it's timed.

Every time this happens, I feel that it's my play that is bad. Since they probably build a palace out of lack for something else to build, it must mean they are behind in science. If the AI is behind in science, I usually feel it's my fault, because I'm slow as well, because from what I understand the AI follows my science rates. This theory probably has many flaws, but I still never like it when they build palaces...

If the AI follows our science rates how is it that sometimes I am way ahead and sometimes the AI seems to be flying along with discoveries?

 

[Archer 007]

Originally posted by scloopy


If the AI follows our science rates how is it that sometimes I am way ahead and sometimes the AI seems to be flying along with discoveries?

That most likely due to huts.

 

[Illusion13]

No one knows how the AI thinks...

 

[funxus]

I guess the designers do...

 

[John Bull]

They shoud come to these forums every once in a while and explain themselves.

 

[scloopy]

Originally posted by Illusion13
No one knows how the AI thinks...

The AI thinks just like the Nut Behind the Keyboard who designed the game. I believe you may find some of them in an institution by now. That is what happens to old game programers. The game is never finished and they end up babbling their life away.

 

[ElephantU]

Think back to the machines we had in the mid 90's, when Windows 95 was the latest thing. Keeping within 16MB of RAM was a good thing back then... and a lot of research in AI algorithms has been done since too.

I notice the moving palaces problem less when I am tech-gifting the AI a lot in a spaceship game. There does seem to be a correlation between AI Science % levels and the human player, but I do not think it is absolute. A better idea is to prioritize the techs you need for intermediary goals (improve government, get trade going, get Michelangelo's, etc) and ignore the off-path techs that distract from the plan and just add higher beaker costs. When you need something, see if your neighbors have it first and trade for it.

 

[The Person]

We all know that the AI should be called AS (Art. Stupidity) sometimes. But what's bad for them usually is good for you...

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Originally posted by The Person
We all know that the AI should be called AS (Art. Stupidity) sometimes. But what's bad for them usually is good for you...

Art. Intelighence is corect. (Artificial, as in not real... ) The thing that really scares me is that the fact that the comp was programed to act as it does, such as the put the food first "bug". It makes me wonder how the programers play civ. One would think that they would be really good, but looking at their priorities one may think otherwies... I supose that they programed the comp. that way so it wouldn't starve itself out, as it would be simpler than "put trade first unless your city would starve, or your city isn't getting enough production..."

 

[Squonk]

In my Komnenai scn, Muslim civ is pretty big and scattered all over the map. They have several palaces. But they tend to move the palace to Tortosa, which is indeed about in the middle, but over the boarder. Also, they build the palace, though they do not have the proper tech.