Are they some kind of huge bugs?

[Vorpal+5]

Something felt wrong in my game, and then I understood...

No AI empires, advanced or not, as ever built a single mana node. For the record, they are Deity level AIs, some having advanced techs.

See this screenshot, Dural and Elohim have sawmills on the nodes.

To add others comments, I'll also add that I was able to discover all religions but Kilmorph, which was discover by the Khazad. Is strikes me a bit strange that the sole success was achieved by a 'Vanilla FFH' nation and not a FF one. Does it means there is a screwed setting somewhere?

I did not rush any religions. I gave the Ais a chance to get them, and only started around turn 200 or gaining them, starting with FoL. Imagine that, Deity Ais not able by turn 200 to get FoL or any other religion.


So, is this a problem in my game, coming from a bizarre set of parameters which led to this behavior, i.e have you seen the AI build nodes and get religions easily?

 

[admtanaka]

There's a problem somewhere with mana nodes. I've noticed the same thing as you - the AI never builds them.

Religion founding varies greatly on the AI civs. As you noted, the Khazad always found Runes. Elves always found FoL. The Sheim found AV, but they tech very badly in my experience so they rarely do so in time for it to matter. The Lanun will found OO. Occasionally the Balseraphs will also found something. Many games, however, let me found whatever I want, because no one is in a hurry to found religions besides dwarfs and elves.

I've stopped playing fractal maps, btw, because I've realized that the AI functions much better in a rather cramped pangea map. It lets them expand into each other and trade techs like crazy, and it really helps to make them more competitive.

 

[Eldrene]

Just out of curiosity, what are the map generation parameters? That looks like an interesting set up that I might be interested in trying out.

 

[Vorpal+5]

Its mountain coast with few mountain ranges. Make some tests and check in the editor, I found out that with 'some' mountain ranges, there is too much.

About AI not building nodes. It is not completely exact, I rechecked and there is ONE node build by the AI. Guess by who? By the Khazad. Interesting... So I would first search in some kind of 'ai weights' for each race before anything, if I were developing the mod

For religions, I believe this is the same problem... Even the evil lizards never founded Ashen Veil, and it is turn 312 (I have not founded it either...). Problem of AI priorities which are so low they are never reached...

 

[Krschtschn]

I have experienced that as well. The AI seems to have problems with the whole magic system. I know FF is on hiatus right now, but are there any plans concerning the AI?

On another note: Kolsevahn is agnostic. He won't found AV

 

[Lone Wolf]

The religion issue is nothing some XML (and maybe Python) tinkering won't solve. Introduce specific XML flavors for the founders of respective religions, place higher AI weights for the religion founding techs in general, increase the AI religious weights, greatly reduce the natural spread of RoK and FoL.

 

[Niveras]

The FF AI has bigger problems than whether or not they build mana nodes. Check out how they spammed all those lumber mills, for instance. Absolutely 0 mines, farms, or cottages.

Although they can build them relatively early, they're not really useful until late game once you get a couple techs and running Industry - the other improvements are better in that regard. Because the techs merely quicken the time it takes to build improvements, the AI tends to pick lumbermills to build early on (taking 15+ turns per tile on quick), which has a drastic effect on their economy. The only reason the AI is even remotely competitive in FF right now is because of the difficulty bonuses.

In one game, I had a city with corn in its fat cross, and built a farm over it. When the AI took over my civ (I started Calabim, then switched to Infernal), it actually built over the farm I placed... with a fort. A farm, on a resource, in a city's fat cross!

The FF AI needs a rewrite, but because it's on hiatus and they're rewriting everything to begin with, it'll be a while before it gets an update. As it is I had to downgrade to vanilla FFH because Fall Further games were just too boring. If you survive the early game (e.g. not getting rushed by from their cheat-level production bonuses), your economy will soon vastly outpace theirs.

 

[Vorpal+5]

can be true, although you see on the screen that the AI can still build cottages and some workshops...

can it be altered easily by modifying the priorities in the improvements xml?