AI Players' way of playing is very suspicious!!!

[sirtommygunn]

the AI cheats on me a lot with its magic eyes and somtimes even makes like 3-5 units out of nowhere in one turn in a city im about to attack!!!!

 

[cabert]

the AI cheats on me a lot with its magic eyes and somtimes even makes like 3-5 units out of nowhere in one turn in a city im about to attack!!!!

The AI does not cheat, it just does what it is programmed to do.
Magic eye?
You have the ability to guess, which the computer can not really do (programming it could be done, but no creativity can be expected). So the programmers gave the AI some tools for targetting (the magic eye is not used in creative ways, remember) cities/tiles.
It's not a "global" knowledge. It's just something used in specific situations.
It's designed to face the "guessing" ability of a player.

Look at it this way : when you decide to attack a city, you know what will be there as defenders because you played many games before this one.
The AI never learns, so it needs another tool.

And about 5 units appearing magically, it's obviously the counterattack stack moving in. Just fortify on a nearby forested hill, and they are gone.

 

[Neo Guderian]

I assumed that the AI pathfinding algorithms probably behaved like civ3's and so therefore I anticipate the AI knowing what paths are open as well as city strengths. I didn't do this consciously though, just a carry-over habit i picked up playing 3.

I dont think its a big deal personally. I usually pick out a city on my border and intentionally leave it poorly defended. That way, I know exactly where their main thrust will come from. Fortunately, I also have a fort nearby with a nice little surprise for said ai invasion force.

So I guess im cheating the cheating AI. I feel so dirty.

 

[JBConquests]

I dont think its a big deal personally. I usually pick out a city on my border and intentionally leave it poorly defended. That way, I know exactly where their main thrust will come from. Fortunately, I also have a fort nearby with a nice little surprise for said ai invasion force.

Or, in Civ 3 I used to leave a city undefended as far away from AI as I could, that way the AI would spend lots of turns crossing all of my territory to conquer this city. That gave me lots of turns to attack the enemy stack. Then, when the AI got there, I would put tons of defenders in the city and empty another one. The AI would then march towards that one...

I haven't tried this in Civ 4 yet.

 

[cabert]

Or, in Civ 3 I used to leave a city undefended as far away from AI as I could, that way the AI would spend lots of turns crossing all of my territory to conquer this city. That gave me lots of turns to attack the enemy stack. Then, when the AI got there, I would put tons of defenders in the city and empty another one. The AI would then march towards that one...

I haven't tried this in Civ 4 yet.

this is an exploit, if it works
I don't think it does, though. The AI will pillage you to death.

 

[Bast]

You really need to have a BIG army these days to survive. Gone are the days in Civ II and Civ III when I used to play with a virtually non-existant army just happily expanding and building wonders.

 

[Kartik]

I hate the religous penalty, it cost me my capital and 2nd best city because of converting to Islam.

 

[Bast]

I hate the religous penalty, it cost me my capital and 2nd best city because of converting to Islam.

Islam is one of those religions you should never convert to (in the game) because it's just too late. No one will convert (at least long enough). By the time you get one or two to convert, they'd switch to free religion.

 

[jawilson]

I see some merit to your "magic eyes" argument. Every turn the AI has to evaluate the map and send its forces somewhere. It probably can't distinguish between a path that is temperarily or permanantly blocked. This might have something to do with it changing course if you move troops. I don't know if this is true, I haven't studied the source code. I am just making my own guess at the situation.

I think this is something that even the human players use. For example, let's says I have a unit in a friendly civs territory, but someone with closed borders is between us, and has a fog of war covering their entire area. If you want to move the unit back to your territory using GoTo, the game will find the quickest route, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the closed borders. This may mean a LONG, 30 turn detour to the south pole to get to the target. If there is no way around, you will get the red circle at the GoTo point, meaning you cannot make the trip. So, even though you cannot actually see the entire closed-border area, the pathfinding algorithm lets you know that there would be no way through.

 

[sirtommygunn]

The AI does not cheat, it just does what it is programmed to do.
Magic eye?
You have the ability to guess, which the computer can not really do (programming it could be done, but no creativity can be expected). So the programmers gave the AI some tools for targetting (the magic eye is not used in creative ways, remember) cities/tiles.
It's not a "global" knowledge. It's just something used in specific situations.
It's designed to face the "guessing" ability of a player.

Look at it this way : when you decide to attack a city, you know what will be there as defenders because you played many games before this one.
The AI never learns, so it needs another tool.

And about 5 units appearing magically, it's obviously the counterattack stack moving in. Just fortify on a nearby forested hill, and they are gone.

dude i saw the spaces within a large range of the city nothing but like 1 worker and another city with 2 things in it and that city dident lose any guys so yea its cheating