AI Tendencies / Personalities

[vorlon_mi]

Do any of the sponsors have tendencies or flavors? In the other Civ games, certain leaders -- such as Montezuma or Shaka -- are always warmongers. Others love to build world wonders. Has anyone noticed a trend, or read the appropriate data files, for the leaders in BERT?

In my current game, Brasil has been my buddy since we met. Russia / Slavic Federation has declared war on me in every game where he appears. Fielding / ARC has been cooperative for 100-150 turns, but I'm starting to worry that she might backstab me as the victory approaches.

Related question about declaring war: Kozlov declared on me, I defeated his forces, and we agreed on peace terms. About 5 turns later, I could see that he was massing a counter attack, and tried to declare on him to get the initiative. No, the game said, you can't declare until 8 turns have passed.
So I wait the full 8 turns, declare on him, and take one of his three cities. Chungsu takes another, leaving only his capital. I have better things to do, so I get him to peace with payments of energy and diplo capital. One turn of peace, and the very next turn Kozlov gives me the "We have cowered in fear long enough" and declares on me. No 8 turn limit for the AI, apparently. Alright, little guy, you started this but I will finish it. Lined up my ships around his coastal capital and eliminated him from the game.
Does the 8 turn limit only apply to the human player?

 

[legalizefreedom]

It seems like this research was done, but I don't recall where. Seems like there were some hidden tendencies for each leader, but most are random to make it unpredictable, including Affinity affinity ;-)

 

[Guide-on]

Unfortunately, you are right. If any modders are listening, they should make their leaders heavily flavored toward specific affinities. I understand that corporate will not provide any more help.

P.S. If corporate is even still listening, Please let us know.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Reviving my old thread, rather than starting a new one ...

I enjoy (not love, but enjoy) the shift in diplomacy as I get ready to build my game-winning wonder. Two of the AI will always object to it, likely to declare war to try to stop me. I haven't yet discerned a pattern in who will (basically) denounce me.

1. Sometimes, it is the second- and third-place AI. Or the first-place, if I am second, in score. That often means I need to move troops and prepare for a larger scale, multi-front war.
2. Sometimes, it is a strong AI and weak one. That makes my war prep easier.
3. A few times, it is a pair of weak AIs, so that I don't have to change much at all.

Have any of you noticed a pattern? Do the objecting AIs have a conflicting affinity, or the same affinity and consider me a competitor towards their VC? Any hints that might predict which AIs will object?

 

[vorlon_mi]

Reviving my old thread again... sorry.

In my last 3 games, where I was going for an affinity victory, the objectors all had a conflicting affinity. In one game, I had only one objector because ... not sure? Either all the remaining AI had the same primary affinity as I did, or the other potential objector had been eliminated. Or both.

I'm not sure if that's actual data or just coincidence. I haven't played any Contact victories lately to collect data there.

 

[legalizefreedom]

I have never noticed a pattern of who gets pissed or how pissed they get. Just seems random. To be fair, I've never really tried to look for a pattern though.

 

[vorlon_mi]

A little more data for the trend... Last night, as I started the Supremacy victory wonder, both the objectors were definitely Harmony. Al Falah, who was also high score and further away (meaning a more complex war) was also Supremacy and said not a word.

 

[legalizefreedom]

That might just be random. I've often seen same affinity sponsors agro at the victory wonder.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Over the weekend ... Around turn 305, I had finished the pre-requisites for both a Contact Victory and a Purity/Promised Land Victory.

I saved the game and did a little experiment.
Al-Falah 16/9/8 (Harmony/Purity/Supremacy)
ARC 5/8/12
FI 7/14/6
Polystralia 7/14/6
Brasil 13/6/6

Started the Beacon -- Both Arshia (AF) and Elodie (FI) objected
Stopped and reloaded the save
Started the Exodus Gate -- Both Arshia and Suzanne (ARC) objected

No clear pattern for the Contact victory condition. I was #1 in score, while AF was #2 and Hutama and Elodie traded back-n-forth for #3
I expected ARC to object to the Promised Land victory, since she was clearly pursuing Supremacy.

Al-Falah was truly puzzling in this game. All of the other AI leaders picked an affinity and stuck to it.
Arshia started Harmony and pushed it all the way to 15. I planted spies to watch for the start of the Mind Flower.
Shortly after reaching Harmony=15, I got the notice that Al-Falah had researched the tech for a Warp Gate (Supremacy)... huh?
I brought my spies back to HQ, since I had chosen the national security policy which gives +1% to wonder construction for every agent at HQ. Seven or eight agents was a nice boost. By the time she gathered herself to declare on me (2 turns before I completed my Exodus Gate), she had pumped up her Purity affinity. Indeed, as I counter-attacked and laid siege to Ard, she was already building an Exodus Gate... wth?
Talk about switching up the affinity goals!

Geography may have played a role, but not a big one. Al-Falah was my next-door neighbor to my east; I settled all my cities to the west so as not to ruffle feathers. ARC was on the other landmass, dozens of tiles to the southwest. LegalizeFreedom, you may be right. It may be randomly chosen from those with contrasting affinities.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Conducted a similar experiment tonight. I am playing Brasil, and on turn 269 I checked the objectors for both Contact and Supremacy victories.
The AI in this game are:
Al Falah 3/4/8 has been a punching bag this game; 3 or 4 cities, with one getting attacked and reclaimed
ARC 5/6/15 keeps expanding, took a city from NSA and 2 cities from KP; #2 on the score list
NSA 9/5/4 forward settled on Fielding, lost that city, and has been trying to get it back. only 3 cities total
KP 4/8/3 expanded to 4 cities, has lost all but her capital. Soon to be defeated by Lena
INTEGR 3/8/3 moderate expansion, 5-6 cities, has not done much but attack nearby aliens. Fought some skirmishes with ARC
PAU 14/8/11 this game, Samatar is a monster of expansion. At least 12 cities, maybe more. No wars that I can remember. Forward settled Kavitha on her land mass (after turn 200) and held onto the city. #1 on the score list

I saved the game, then planted the Beacon. The top 2 factions in score -- Africa and America -- objected
Restored from the save, then started the Emancipation Gate. Africa objected again, along with INTEGR.
This supports my hypothesis from an earlier post, that objectors are likely to be favoring a different affinity than the human player.
Africa ran up their Harmony affinity first, while INTEGR has been emphasizing Purity. Both ARC and Al Falah are following Supremacy, same as I am.

The other interesting observation from this game concerns forward-settling. In most of my games, Samatar is pretty peaceful and gets "Cooperating" status with multiple factions. His capital is on my land mass, some 20-25 tiles to the west of mine. Early in the game, as I was settling my 2nd and 3rd cities, I placed one of them about 4 tiles west of my capital... much closer to my capital than his. Africa pipes up to complain. When I settled a 4th city, nearly due south from my capital but a tile or two west, he complained again, even though we were Cooperating. Around turn 100, he invades me!!

After shutting down my exploration and expansion to fight him off, I decided I wasn't having fun. I went back to the turn 40 save, before I had settled the city that first angered him. I settled the next 4 cities to the EAST, some in the ocean to the east. Nothing west of the "longitude" of my capital. Samatar was quiet, "Cooperating", and proceeded to drop lots of cities to his west. At this point (turn 269, starting the gate), I have a huge navy and a decent sized army. I took out Kozlov (my neighbor to the south, a little bit east) around turn 250 with my navy. The ships and planes are all on station in home waters, waiting for the orders to invade northern Africa, while the gate is constructed.

Moral of the story: sometimes, the AI gets really angry if the player settles in their direction.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Update from tonight's play: I'm playing as KP, going for a Transcendence victory. 14 cities, 4 conquered, with 25 accelerator buildings completed.

The AI have been beating each other up pretty well. Elodie eliminated both PAC and PAU; I took out NSA as they were close to my core cities.

Turn 270 report -
FI 6/6/16 She started building her gate around turn 257
AF 12/6/4 She had completed Decode Signal at least 30 turns ago, but started her Beacon around turn 261
INTEGR 6/14/6
Polystralia 4/5/10 Was beat up pretty hard by Al Falah, losing a couple of key cities

The objectors? Franco Iberia (not a surprise) and INTEGR (small surprise). I'm moving my land troops away from Al Falah, my neighbor to the northeast, towards INTEGR, who is massing troops near our shared order in the west.

I've just realized that I no longer care if Arshia lights up her Beacon. Once ignited, it will take her 40-some turns to finish. My Mind Flower will connect sooner than that, with my array of accelerator buildings. I need to worry about Elodie, both from "destroying her gate" view and "fending off her attacks." In the far eastern ocean, I grabbed Nhiet Tinh -- an aquatic city that Duncan had taken during one of his adventures. It was his last city which I conquered. My supply lines are long, so I have debated about whether to defend it, or concentrate my navy in the east to attack Elodie.

Key Observation: objectors held differing affinities from mine, AI who was similar affinity to me did not object.
-------------- Addendum, 13 Aug 2023 ---------------
Elodie finished her gate on turn 283; I destroyed it on turn 293.
Arshia finally finished her Beacon on turn 300! Must not have had much production in the city where it was built, taking ~40 turns to finish. She built it in the water (?) which makes it more vulnerable.
Since my Mind Flower completed on turn 289 (27 turns to build), I was not worried about the AF Beacon. My MF took 19 turns to connect with the cosmos.

Indeed, I did a bit of a Machiavelli -- I allied myself with Al Falah. That meant that she declared on the two objectors, bleeding off some of their troops and even trading a couple cities back and forth. As a result, neither INTEGR nor FI ever invaded my turf... other than a stray submarine.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Latest set of data, supporting two of our hypotheses:

• When going for an affinity victory, the objectors are usually following a different affinity
• When going for a contact victory, the objectors are random

I'm playing as Africa, going for a Purity victory. Started building the gate on turn 261, finished it on turn 274.
At the time I started, my affinities were 10/16/9
The opposition:

• Al Falah 3/9/5 Did not object
• ARC 3/5/6 My neighbor to northwest
• PAC 7/5/4 Objected, but she was reduced to one city at the time, because she kept warring with Duncan
• NSA 3/6/9 Did not object. Hung on through tough times around turn 100, then started settling like crazy about turn 200
• Brasil 5/6/12 Objected. My neighbor to the northeast, with 3 large cities plus those he conquered from Lena

INTGR spawned within 10 tiles of Brasil, so she was doomed. Friendly enough to me, but overwhelmed.
KP was my nearest neighbor, due east. Around turn 70, she forward-settled me, planting a city right on a peninsula that allowed ships to pass through from west to east. I waited for her outpost to become a city, then declared and took it. She kept refusing peace offers, so I took over her 4 cities and their surrounding land.

I had great luck in exploring Progenitor sites, so I had one piece of the signal. In parallel with the war effort and digging myself out of the Unhealth Hole, I built the Transcendental Equation and Decoded the Signal. Saved the game, started the Beacon on turn 268 to see who objected.
To my surprise, the objectors were ARC and Al Falah. Neither of them were bothered by my Exodus Gate (Arshia was also Purity), and neither of the gate objectors cared much about a Beacon. I reloaded the save and carried on with the Purity track.

Based on intel from my spy satellites, Brasil had already sent an invasion force of 10-12 units over the rough terrain, closing on my northern border. He had fought others in the preceding turns, but my gut told me that his troops (mostly level 2 promotions) were coming after me. I declared on him as soon as he objected. strafing his troops with Level 3 aircraft. I had actually planned for the possibility that he would object; I planted new cities on my northern frontier around turn 230, so that they could serve as forward airbases. Consistent with my experience in other games, the objectors never agree to peace. I conquered the Brasilian cities and INTGR cities with Level 3 tanks and air power.
I was sending my navy to take out PAC, who was down to a OCC. But before they could arrive, she had declared on NSA (again) and Duncan took her out.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Wrapping up a game last night as Al Falah, going for Supremacy. I started near the north of a large land mass, Fungal Terran planet.
ARC was my neighbor to the southeast, but she only settled 3 cities. During my expansion, I took ARC out around turn 220.
Slavic Federation was my neighbor to the southwest, with PAU very close, due west. As usually happens, Samatar was willing to be Cooperating early on, so I kept expanding away from him. NSA started near some islands on the west coast of the other land mass; Duncan was willing to be Cooperating around turn 150 and stayed there for more than 100 turns. KP was the power on the other landmass, eventually invading and overrunning NSA. I backstabbed PAU around turn 170, taking his original capital and his biggest cities.

At the time I started my Emancipation Gate, where I was 8/11/16,

• NSA, still Cooperating but reduced to one city, 8/4/6
• Kozlov, Neutral and also reduced to one city, 8/5/6
• Chungsu, 8/6/5, OBJECTED
• Polystralia, Cooperating, 3/8/5
• KP, Cooperating, 5/11/3, OBJECTED
• PAU, at WAR with me on my west coast, 3/4/6

KP makes sense, as she was both 2nd place in size and score as well as developing a different affinity.
Why did Chungsu object while SF and NAS did not? All 3 had level 8 in Harmony. Perhaps relative strength? Chungsu had 3 decent sized cities. I half expected Polystralia to object, since they were pursuing Purity just as KP was. Definitely seems to have a random component, along with a higher affinity different than mine.