And I thought I knew how the AI behaves...

[snarzberry]

I have played many hours of civ 5, somewhere north of 1500, and I thought I knew how the AI behaves in all situations and then tonight out of the blue it completely surprises me by doing something I have never seen it do before.

Settings are deity standard everything continents as Arabia.

Montezuma declares war on me and has some units attacking my peripheral cities, in the meantime one of his scouts is inside my borders and takes an attack from my city Medina. You've probably had this happen many times before, it usually fortify heals and takes a load of attacks from the city, sometimes insta healing before it dies.

Here's the screenshot...

Ok, nothing out of the ordinary yet.


But then after taking another shot Montezuma captures my worker with his scout!

Am I on drugs? The AI doesn't use scouts to capture workers!, not that this would be a bad thing, and when this happened my eyes pop open and I start to question my short and long term memory. Am I having a mental day and have completely forgotten everything I knew about this game or is this new code or a rare occurrence or have I been living in bizzaro world all this time?

 

[MantaRevan]

That's interesting. You're right. I've never seen it happen before. Are there any other reasons he might want to move onto the tile that just happened to have your worker on it?

 

[snarzberry]

I can't think of any reason why that's the only tile he would move to. If it were true that the AI will move a scout onto a tile that contains an enemy worker if that is the path it would choose if the worker didn't happen to be there then surely someone would have seen this happen before... surely I'd have seen it before, right?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

... sicne i can't see a screenshot, that doesn't sound weird to me.

Scout isn't a Civilian unit, it's a Combat unit, it might be weak, but it can surely still conquer other units/cities?

Maybe the only reason we rarely see this happen (or not at all) is because Scouts never happen to be within our borders during war time?

 

[Dedrytus]

I thought that I have got "secret patch" when city attacked my embarked unit ;-) I do not remember any hostile action from AI scout.

 

[snarzberry]

... sicne i can't see a screenshot, that doesn't sound weird to me.

Scout isn't a Civilian unit, it's a Combat unit, it might be weak, but it can surely still conquer other units/cities?

Maybe the only reason we rarely see this happen (or not at all) is because Scouts never happen to be within our borders during war time?

In principle it isn't strange at all to use a scout to take worker, it's something a human might do. But in practice it isn't something the AI does (at least so I thought). I've had enemy scouts plenty of times in spots where they could kill my worker, they just don't. It is standard for me to ignore them even if they are in range of my scout, or even an un- escorted GP, as I have been sure that they're never used by the AI to attack, even against a non-combat unit. Weird, can't work out why it happened this time.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

While AI isn't great? maybe it needed it?

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

ive never seen this before, but is this normal?

standard, pangea, Rome, Emperor: Turn 19 - meet Alexander. Turn 20 - He tells me my economy is in shambles (forgot the exact words but it was about my economy being in bad shape). Turn 31 - He Denounces me. Turn 37 - He says I'm weak militarily. He doesnt DoW until the 120s turn-wise (i had already taken Germany and Hiawatha).

I've almost always had Greece declare pretty early on me. But ive never had the "your economy is weak" 1 turn after meeting him let alone several insults but no DoW's til much later. He was at war with others but that has never stopped him in the past from declaring either.

i certainly dont have 1500+ hours but this was pretty weird to me. and i've never seen a scout take a worker either but im not at the point where i can find that odd yet.

 

[Heerlo]

ive never seen this before, but is this normal?

standard, pangea, Rome, Emperor: Turn 19 - meet Alexander. Turn 20 - He tells me my economy is in shambles (forgot the exact words but it was about my economy being in bad shape).

I've never even heard of that happening.

 

[gozpel]

I had Germany denouncing me on turn 7, belittle my culture at turn 8, laughing at my military at turn 9 and then send a few warriors and an archer towards me at turn 60, being hostile all the time.

First off, don't covet lands you never seen, then don't ridicule someones army without even watched that army, same with culture and whatelse. It should be the same for the player, don't "see" any info of any AI before you actually had a look at their lands, that should unlock it, not before.

These are some of my greatest gripes about the AI, some things should ONLY happen at border-contact, then it should be free to feel anything it wants to "feel". Not denouncing me for being a stranger walking in the same forest someplace far away from our capitols. Extremely annoying!

 

[Gamewizard]

Not denouncing me for being a stranger walking in the same forest someplace far away from our capitols. Extremely annoying!

Maybe your unit was all like "Hey, we are the greatest Civ in the world, and your Civ is dumb! Nah-nah-neh-boo-boo, stick your head in doodoo!" And then your unit mooned them to top it off!

Wow, your units are jerks. Even I am going to denounce you next turn!

 

[Optional]

scout taking worker???!!!

Snarzberry, this can mean one thing! Because we all know why scouts until now didn't capture workers, right? Yes, there was a reasoning behind it: the AI just let that worker of yours steadily plod on until now, because it was convinced your land would soon be theirs, and so it would eventually profit from the improvements your worker was making.
But my theory is that in this case the AI was not after your land. I think the war it fought with you was a phony war, meant as a smoke curtain to disguise its real intentions. It probably had already identified another AI as its real enemy. If I'm not mistaken you'll get a peace offer very soon.
I would advise to take the peace terms, but make bloody sure you're gonna get your bloody worker back and tell the AI in its face you're not gonna take any more of this shite!!!

No, I've never seen this (back to serious). It's a couple of days now since you've posted this, and nobody's said they've had it, so that tells how rare it must be.

 

[gozpel]

Maybe your unit was all like "Hey, we are the greatest Civ in the world, and your Civ is dumb! Nah-nah-neh-boo-boo, stick your head in doodoo!" And then your unit mooned them to top it off!

Wow, your units are jerks. Even I am going to denounce you next turn!

If I could do that in the game, I most likely would do it.

But I can't, so therefore you and your response is doodoo.

Just pull your head into where it belongs.

Moderator Action: That's not an appropriate answer. Please don't insult anyone here in the forums.

 

[gozpel]

And of course a scout can steal a worker!

What game are you playing?