Artificial Stupidity Hard At Work

[eldar]

Let me set the scene, first.

It's a random, standard, world, Monarch difficulty, and I'm playing as the Byzantines. On a Pangaea map - oh well, you can't have everything your way.

With the aid of Horses, I rampaged through my close, and not-so-close, neighbours, netting me a solid 60% of the landmass by around 500AD. I figured a nice quick domination win was at hand... except the Sumerians, powerhouses that they are, had kept the tech pace quietly ticking along.

So much so, that I found myself in the Industrial Age in 590AD, a personal record time. Given this speed of research, I decided to stop killing and start building - a good Spaceship date was on the cards (UN was most definitely not after my Rep was trashed due to trade routes getting cut).

One of my early victims were the Korean, who I'd kept hanging around as a city-state for help during era transitions.

Towards the end of the IA, I'm using Universal Suffrage as a Hoover's pre-build. I checked all my four remaining rivals' builds to check that I wasn't going to look embarassed - there had been quite a few cascades, meaning someone part-way to a big Medieval wonder could've been close.

So I get to Korea. An OCC, remember. And this is what I see in their capital:

Hate to say it, Wang, but you really don't want to be building something that will take you longer than the entire game to complete. How about a Worker? So it'd waste 92 shields... take a chance!

 

[Own]

LOL That is pure AI stupidity.

 

[Tomoyo]

When he grows in 6 turns it'll halve the time it takes to finish it.

 

[eldar]

No, he'll have to make the new citizen a clown and he won't have enough food to support size 4. So he'll starve back to size 3, still at 1 shield per turn

 

[Tomoyo]

No, because he already has one happy, one content. He'll add one unhappy and it will be even. Three food from the flood plains, 2 from the grassland and the city squre, and one from the plains is eight, enough to survive in size four.

 

[eldar]

You are right, of course I've taken pity on him though. I signed RoP and have sent 3 Workers in to improve his land!

 

[vmxa]

So tell me again why you are keeping him around? If he is gone the research rate goes down for you and up for the others.

 

[Tomoyo]

So tell me again why you are keeping him around? If he is gone the research rate goes down for you and up for the others.

Probably for their free tech upon era change.

 

[Yuri2356]

You are right, of course I've taken pity on him though. I signed RoP and have sent 3 Workers in to improve his land!

But every day, thousands of children starve because the AI has no idea how to feed them. You can give them hope.

For just 5 Gpt you can help to ensure that these poor little chunks of data can live a long and healthy life.

 

[vmxa]

Probably for their free tech upon era change.

I know that is why, what I mean was is it worth it? Keep them in the game for long period of time and hope they get a tech that no one else already has and you will do what, buy, extort it?

I mean I am well aware of the tactic, just never understood the value. Note, I am not saying it has no merit, I just saying I fail to see it as other than an exploit and one that seems to be of no great value.

So maybe someone can explain it to me, so I can see the point.

 

[Tomoyo]

I suppose that if he is already doing 4-turn research, it would speed up the tech pace.

 

[Gyathaar]

specially when you yourself is a scientific civ it is valuable to keep other scientific civs around.. why? because you can gift the other civs and buy their free techs before you get your own free tech.. that way you are sure the tech you get yourself is one that no other civ has gotten.. and if enough scientific civs are still left in game you will usually end up getting a 2nd lvl tech as your free tech.

See this article for more info info on Scientific Double Slingshot: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=90177

 

[eldar]

They did indeed come in handy at the era change! Their free tech (and the Sumerians) was Rocketry. Whilst I couldn't afford to buy Rocketry straight up (I had no spare techs to trade with, and as I said, my per-turn trading rep is shot in this game - so no goods for tech) before I got my free tech, thus avoiding the chance of it being mine, I got Ecology. That was a straight-up trade, as it was known by two Civs by then.

My era slingshot here was pretty solid: Ecology as my freebie, Rocketry from Korea, Computers and Miniaturization from the ToE. I had pre-builds for Hoover's and the Internet ready that same turn. I now have enough specialist farms that I should be able to keep up 4-turn research 'til the end.

And an update on Project Inch'on:

I've connected up his Gems and Iron, and improved a few tiles. A pity he's not on a river - he'll be wanting an Aqueduct sooner rather than later. As you can see, the US build became an Airport (a Sumerian city has just finished US).

 

[tR1cKy]

Uh... apart from the stupidity in pretending to build the Universal Suffrage in 600 or 300 turns, did someone note that the imbeciles were spending all their poor income into science for a research that would (almost certainly) take the max turn number anyway?

 

[Mr. Do]

When he grows in 6 turns it'll halve the time it takes to finish it.

You are such an optimist!

 

[eldar]

Uh... apart from the stupidity in pretending to build the Universal Suffrage in 600 or 300 turns, did someone note that the imbeciles were spending all their poor income into science for a research that would (almost certainly) take the max turn number anyway?

I did notice that. However he must've finished something, because he came into quite a lot of money (and I mean gpt) towards the end of the game.

Oh, and a couple of the tiles in his NW got sucked up by Arequipa. I guess my Library+(free) Research Lab were more than a match for his Palace after a while

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

But every day, thousands of children starve because the AI has no idea how to feed them. You can give them hope.

For just 5 Gpt you can help to ensure that these poor little chunks of data can live a long and healthy life.

lmfao Yuri

 

[lifeaquatic]

That terrain mod you have on there is hard to look at so i missed the point of this thread.

 

[Tomoyo]

That terrain mod you have on there is hard to look at so i missed the point of this thread.

The terrain doesn't have much to do with this...

(BTW, this is the terrain mod that I use...)

 

[eldar]

(BTW, this is the terrain mod that I use...)

I prefer the old "regular" irrigation though - and I'd like to better differntiate between forest and jungle. Ah well.