Automate player military?

[StevenOCillin]

is there any way ,either right now or in some unplanned future utility or expansion or update or kitchen sink or whatever.........., for the player military to be automated like the workers are at present ?

From searching the forums it seems peeps managed to do it for CIV3 so I'm wondering has anyone though of doing it for CIV4?

S.K.

 

[Finite Monkey]

Though I find the thought of an automated military akin to watching the AI play itself that is not your question.

I have not heard of people doing it for Civ 3 but would be very interested in hearing about it. How, why etc.

 

[StevenOCillin]

this is the post which gave me the idea that people did it with CIV3

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=9509

 

[TCGTRF]

is there any way ,either right now or in some unplanned future utility or expansion or update or kitchen sink or whatever.........., for the player military to be automated like the workers are at present ?

From searching the forums it seems peeps managed to do it for CIV3 so I'm wondering has anyone though of doing it for CIV4?

S.K.

If you want to keep an enemy busy but don't want to fight him yourself, you can always gift your units to an ally. You'd have to realize, though, that the AI is nowhere as near as smart as you are (but doesn't get bored with long wars.) This inefficiency can have long-term detrimental effects, though, on your expansion.

Never send a robot to do a man's job.

Tom

 

[StevenOCillin]

is that sarcasm? hmmmmm I dunno I guess I'll ask my PC and get back to you later

 

[salty]

What would be nice is if I could set a default garrison (e.g. 2 longbows, 1 pikeman or 3 mech infantry, 1 SAM) and have the computer spam out the appropriate units and send them off to the correct city.

 

[mjs0]

What would be nice is if I could set a default garrison (e.g. 2 longbows, 1 pikeman or 3 mech infantry, 1 SAM) and have the computer spam out the appropriate units and send them off to the correct city.

Now this is an idea that I could take and run with!

Today automation means you are delegating an important task, such as worker actions, build queue management or population assignment, and leaving a broad range of decisions in the hands of the AI.
Lets have an option for an automation interface that allows the human to quickly delegate a lower level set of objectives that leaves fewer decisions to the AI, basically letting the AI take care of the grunt work. Not quite as much micro management as queueing the actual commands but not quite as hands off as we have today.

The example above is a great one, in each city I want a default garrison of X, Y and Z. Another example would be to automate a worker based on a plan for city improvement...I want cottages here, farms here and mines here, plus these tiles need roads...go do it, oh and my priority is food supply first.

Even something as simple as setting a population target for a city, or a production target. "Grow Berlin until it has 16 population with a focus on generating hammers" might cause the AI to produce a city that has 13 tiles worked and 3 engineering specialists.

I guess what I am saying is rather than a broad 'focus on production' order I want to be able to set specific targets. (Mr. Governor, I need this to be a city that can produce a modern armor every 3 turns )

 

[potatokiosk]

Just remember that the more you delegate to the AI, the more trouble you'll have above noble. Unless, of course, you manage to build a program that is smarter than the game's AI.

 

[Finite Monkey]

I read that Civ 3 post and there wasn't much to it. Someone saying they automated all units including military then someone asking them if they would know how to attack.

I still don't see the point in having the computer fight itself. A major goal for Civ 4 seems to have been removing the annoying parts of micromanagement from the game. The parts that are left are the few crucial elements that allow a human player to actually defeat a super powered AI opponent on harder difficulty levels.

So while I think it would be interesting to create and test an AI to do battle with the AI I do not think it would be fun to have the AI do battle for me. If someone does succeed in producing a more potent AI military I would like to play against it though.

 

[aktme]

Well, you can automate your military units. It's called exploring. Pressing "E" with a military unit or stack of them will make them do what scouts do. Only this time, they can attack. IF there is a military unit or city that the ai believes it can win, it will attack that unit if it's in sight. (assuming you're at war) I usually do this with my mobile units (horse archers, chariots, cavalry, etc) to raze land because the ai will do that too. Basically the explore automation will make them harrass enemy units. When they're low on hp, they heal up as standard.

I wouldn't recommend you use them on this auto setting unless you either A) Have a high tech advantage (ie. 1 unit lv above theirs), B) Can mass produce faster than your opponent, C) Want to harass your opponent or D) have a bunch of useless units (chariots, horse archers, etc) left over while your opponent has a higher tech unit.

And harass includes city units too. If the ai believes it can win, it'll attack cities. I've had them take over cities like that. They weren't very defendable since the unit that took over the city would be low on hp and no help in sight, but hey, if they take over cities for you, I can't complain.