Are you a Wiser Orc? (quizzes towards a better AI)

[smusebaer]

Quiz 0 (Foundation):


What difficulty level do you typically play on in single-player?
Prince to Immortal

Do you play multi-player?
Less frequently these days. Long Buildupgames with my close friends or sometimes short and agressive with players from Hamatchi
What game speed do you use?
mostly Normal

What map size do you use?
Various, but mostly normal

What map type do you use?
Maps with see and more than one Continent. I like tectonics lately. (lake if i want a barbarian challange)

If you use any non-default game settings (such as no barbarians/raging barbarians) what are they?
Raging Barbarians, Aggressive AI, No Building Prereqs, More events

What version do you typically play?
FfH and sometimes FF

What Civilization(s) do you typically play?
Varied


Quiz 1 (Religion):


What is your favorite religion?
Runes

Why is your favorite religion your favorite religion?
I normaly research bronce working and need the gold. The Wonder with Iron is realy cool.

Does the religion you prefer vary depending on some factor(s)? If so, what factors are those, and which religions do you prefer accordingly?
FoL is for elfs. Message from the deep for the lanun. Sometime I try other religions just for fun.

How high of a priority is founding a religion? Does this priority vary? If it does, what does it vary on?
Varies by civ. Varies by Situation. Mostly religion ist part of my economic, and sometimes resources are more important. With elfs of course religion ist very important. But founding it isn´t. Ok it´s one mana and money, but a better start through the right tech is far more important.

Do you attempt to found multiple religions? If so, which, and in what order?
Sometimes I aim for a certain later religion, and develop RoK on the way.

When attempting to obtain a religion, are there any other technologies that are essential either to gaining that religion that aren't directly in that religion's path, or that are important enough to delay going directly for that religion?
Sort out the economy/resources first (Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Education, Mining, Calender etc - as suits the resources).

Under what circumstances will you switch religions? Is there a particular planned order for switching religions?
Sometime i just aim for the wonder of a certain religion and switch to a mor combat oriented religion.

Are there any circumstances under which you'll avoid any religion?
Generally not

If you're attempting to found a religion, and another player founds it first, will this change your religious strategy?
No

 

[heisenberg]

Quiz 0 (Foundation):

1. What difficulty level do you typically play on in single-player?
Emperor/Monarch

2. Do you play multi-player?
Yep ^^

3. What game speed do you use?
normal

4. What map size do you use?
Standard/Small

5. What map type do you use?
Continents, Big&Small, Pangaea

6. If you use any non-default game settings (such as no barbarians/raging barbarians) what are they?
Agg AI, No AI building req, No tech brokering, Living World

7. What version do you typically play?
Current versions of FfH2, FF

8. What Civilization(s) do you typically play?
Err, I end up randoming for fun mostly. I love playing as Hannah, but... my MP buddy thinks coves are way overpowered so I kinda avoid her =P


Quiz 1 (Religion):

1. What is your favorite religion?
Runes/OO

2. Why is your favorite religion your favorite religion?
Runes:
Who doesn't love the money runes rakes in lol , Not to mention Bambur is a pretty decent early game hero which can buff melees (and himself). Mines of Gal'dur also provides early iron (or when your civ lacks iron).

OO:
Early game naval dominance is pretty much assured, and there are hardly any reliable counters against water-walking, tsunami casting priests against coastal cities (except other cultists =P). Saverous is another decent early game hero. I find OO's culture pretty useful--I usually just build a fresh cultist to follow my settler and plop the temple down on the new city which generates 4++ culture/turn. This manages to push borders out fast.
OO's divine line is very powerful, from early cultists to stygian guards and onwards to T3. Stygians are strong enough "semi-early" units you can get just a bit later than when most civs get axemen. I tend to ignore the metal line and beeline for fanaticism when I use OO, and try to hold out till i get them with cultists/warriors. These str 7 beasts are way stronger than the axemen you see around when you do get them, the lack of CR 2-3 is easily made up for by the extra strength and water-walking.

3. Does the religion you prefer vary depending on some factor(s)? If so, what factors are those, and which religions do you prefer accordingly?
Runes:
I never really liked the priests, so when I do go runes I seldom go down the divine line (at least till late game). A major perk of having runes is running Arete, so I'd be looking out for at least a decent amount of hills. Another drawback of runes is that newly founded cities with runes do not generate culture, so if you want that initial border push you'd either need to bring 2 disciples along (one to spread and one to push), or have to build (sometimes i rush) monuments. Thus having the creative trait effectively eliminates this problem.
The mines provide very early iron, so I'd tend to use runes for civs that go down the metal line.

OO:
Very dependent on starting placement/map type. OOs a pretty no brainer pick when I do play Hannah =P
When I do start next to water and at least see a "seafood", and that I see that at least one nearby opponent has a coastal capital, I would favour OO.
I love OO's divine line too, so I usually like playing OO on evil civs so that i retain evil alignment for water-walking eidolons.

4. How high of a priority is founding a religion? Does this priority vary? If it does, what does it vary on?
Pretty high piority, especially for those early religions.

5. Do you attempt to found multiple religions? If so, which, and in what order?
Seldom, unless I really needed it. Like trying to change alignments through double swapping religions, to get units from other alignments/religions.
Like.... I love dwarven shadows , except that I run runes most of the time on them and swap over to build those shadows.

6. When attempting to obtain a religion, are there any other technologies that are essential either to gaining that religion that aren't directly in that religion's path, or that are important enough to delay going directly for that religion?
For early religions, never. At emperor I sometimes barely make it founding those religions first. As philo leaders I usually even pop that first GP out fast to make sure I get it first bulbing it. Sometimes I run pacifism at start to get that first GP out fast too.

For late religions (Emphy, Council), I usually take my time getting other techs before heading for it. Stuff like the worker techs, metal maybe till bronze for axemen, or archery for some decent defensive units before heading for it.

7. Under what circumstances will you switch religions? Is there a particular planned order for switching religions?
I usually switch for 2 main reasons:
1: to access additional units, either because they are religion specific or alignment specific.
2: for diplo reasons (like falling in line with the strongest civ), usually when I do not have the holy city anyway.

When I do change to get additional units its definitely planned in advance, like trying to possibly avoid building heroes if I could if I'm coming back to the religion after a short change to build units. Especially when no one else is of that religion and I would still be able to build him later on after the switch. Or if I'm the Sidar i'd end up waning him lol.

8. Are there any circumstances under which you'll avoid any religion?
umm... only religion i'd avoid is veil when I don't want to have to deal with the infernals. I always end up debating if the trouble of having to hunt Hyborem down is worth the overpowered StW. (which sadly is nerfed in FF lol) Usually I'd try to delay the pact abit so that the infernals do not get too strong since I end up hunting him down fast 90% of the time once I finish pact.

9. If you're attempting to found a religion, and another player founds it first, will this change your religious strategy?
Depends sometimes on how far into the religion I have researched. The boon of having the holy city is huge, so sometimes I'd see if its nearby for me to take, else I might just follow the religion for awhile, then found one of the late religions further into the game and switch.
I usually find that I can still grab the early religions first in SP on emperor when I use the GP to bulb, but in MP I'd definitely try to guess which religion my friend goes for and avoid it (coz he's good and usually beats me to it )

 

[Breunor]

The primary objective of the Wiser Orcs mod is to substantially improve the AI. Towards that end, I would like to ask certain focused questions on specific topics, with the expectation that I can turn the feedback into better AI than the present AI.

Any hidden quizzes are ones where I've already started design of that section. Feel free to answer them, but I'm less likely to use the results.

Ground rules:

1. If you don't like how a question is worded, feel free to answer part of the question, something related, or to skip the question.
2. If you think I'm missing something important on the subject, feel free to mention it even if I don't ask.
3. Detailed answers are primarily what I'm looking for, particularly for the reasons why you do something.
4. Please don't argue if someone else's answers are "good" or "bad" on this thread (my questions, however, are fair game). Frankly, detail matters a lot more than if it's the optimal answer.
5. Thank you for your time.


Quiz 0 (Foundation):

1. What difficulty level do you typically play on in single-player?
   
   Emperor now.
2. Do you play multi-player?
   
   No
3. What game speed do you use?
   
   Normal
4. What map size do you use?
   
   Standard. Occasionally I'll try small or large.
5. What map type do you use?
   
   I try to change up a lot. I like shuffle, I wish there were more ways to randomize. To me the most fun is trying all fo the different maps.
6. If you use any non-default game settings (such as no barbarians/raging barbarians) what are they?
   
   I haven't so far, but I am thinking of it when I get more familiar with the game. I wouldn't use any of them as 'standard' but as concepts to try. The raging barbarian is one option, there are a lot of neat looking ones.
7. What version do you typically play?
   
   Latest version of FfH 2. Note I still play 'regular' Civ more, I like TAM but I think it needs some work.
   
8. What Civilization(s) do you typically play?

I pretty much always play random. If I haven't played in a while, I usually play the Bannor. (I love the Bannor!) But I really enjoy just playing random.

Quiz 1 (Religion):

1. What is your favorite religion?
   
   I probably 'role play' more than I should; I try to get the Order with Bannor, Veil with the Sheam, etc. However, in acuality I am an opportunist, and if I see myself on an archipelago, I'll go for the Cthulu religion. However, I only go so far, I doubt I'll be one of the people taking Emyrean or Order with the Calabim.
   I need to learn the game a little better to really get the best religions down.
2. Why is your favorite religion your favorite religion?
   
   Not sure if I really have an answer to this; it depends on the circumstances, the Ljosfar want Leaves because they don't cut their forests down so guardian of nature is great. I've never played Esus.
3. Does the religion you prefer vary depending on some factor(s)? If so, what factors are those, and which religions do you prefer accordingly?
   
   Many factors:
   
   Diplomacy: Its not as important as regular Civ but there is an element here
   
   Opportunity: If someone is doing me the favor of spreading his/her religion to me, I'm mroe likely to adopt it as it saves me the cost of building missionaries
   
   Game Flow/characteristics: This is the hardest. As I said above, if I'm on archipelago, I'm likely to take the overlords. Clearly, the Sheam benefit from a high armageddon counter, so the veil works for them. The elves like Fellowship of Leaves since guardian of nature gives happiness from forests. Perhaps the most important is that I'll found a new religion to get the shrine and shrine income and help get the heroes. I'll go for Runes of Kilmorph if I really need money.
   
   Other circumstances can matter. I had a game with no metals. I built a lot of catapults and went for Runes of Kilmorph both for the money and for the fact that Bambur can heal catapults.
   
4. How high of a priority is founding a religion? Does this priority vary? If it does, what does it vary on?
   
   Its a factor but not always dominant. If I take an already founded religion, I'll try to asses if I can get the heroes or if I'll be beaten out by the founder or someone else. The more 'natural' the religion the more likely I am to use it even if I don't found it. That is, I'll probably takes Fellowship of Leaves for the Ljosfar even if I don't found them. I'll also more likely use a religion if somebody has spread it to a lot of my cities.
   
   I'll also assess how likely I am to get a great priest (or other great person to build the shrine) and how much money I'll get form it. And they can mix -- I'll sometimes gound a religion, get a shrine, get money, but still use another religion if it is useful.
   
   
5. Do you attempt to found multiple religions? If so, which, and in what order?
   
   Rarely. If I'm not getting the heroes, religions are usually a lower priority than other available techs. This doesn't mean I woon't sue multiple religions, like multiple temples for happiness.
   
   
6. When attempting to obtain a religion, are there any other technologies that are essential either to gaining that religion that aren't directly in that religion's path, or that are important enough to delay going directly for that religion?
   
   I may not be interpreting this correctly. To me, religions are important but they aren't the only thing. I clearly get a lot of basic techs (Agriculture, chants, education, hunting, exploration, etc.) depending on the map and setting before getting religions.
   
   It also depends on whom I am playing and how important it is to me.
   
7. Under what circumstances will you switch religions? Is there a particular planned order for switching religions?
   
   I don't have a planned order. It would only be opportunistic. TYhe main reason I would switch is if I am beaten out to a hero and by switiching may get one. I may get an early religion and switch to a later religion like Order or Empyrean later.
   
8. Are there any circumstances under which you'll avoid any religion?
   
   Only for roll-playing reasons.
   
9. If you're attempting to found a religion, and another player founds it first, will this change your religious strategy?
   
   It can, I assess it on a case by case basis. Getting a shrine can be important. But other factors can matter, like if I will simply take it from the founder the old-fashined way.

Extremely useful answers; thank you. I'm in the process of implementing some pieces of them.

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