bad, bad AI "teleport" cheat

[onedreamer]

I've played now many games with Civ4 and never encountered this problem, but in my last game (direct LAN connect, level Monarch, Pangaea) I encountered it twice in few turns.

Here are the screenshots. I'm playing China. Note Asoka's (with whom I am at war) Swordsman and Catapult in the bottom left corner, in the jungle inside Isabella's lands, and notice my two workers on the corn.

Now, can anyone explain how could the catapult jump two squares ahead through jungle and kill my workers ?

A few turns before, the same thing happened with a Spearman sitting in the dyes square next to Shangai, which teleported on the pigs and killed another 2 workers.

 

[onedreamer]

Also, look at the swordsmen in the second screenshot. It seems from their inclination that they actually came from the jungle square directly south of my axemen, which would make sense for the catapult to attack my workers. However since these are the screenshots of 2 consecutive turns and in the first one India had already moved, this couldn't have possibly happened...

 

[MrCynical]

I may be wrong about this, but I have one theory. The territory to the south of you seems to belong to a third civ, which presumably Asoka has open borders with. If this deal was cancelled in the interturn his units would be teleported to the nearest square they were allowed on, which would be the square belonging to you south of the axemen. They could then attack the worker and move the warrior as it appears in the screenshots.

I'm not sure if this fits, since it couldn't happen twice in a couple of turns for the spearman you mentioned, but it's my best suggestion. It should be easy to check if the relative diplomacies are correct. Even if this is the case it needs a tweak to stop units being teleported into enemy territory when open borders is cancelled.

 

[oldStatesman]

OD -

You may want to read this and post your screenshots this way - I am not able to see them in direct links to your site. Others may have this problem too.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3278741&postcount=2

 

[onedreamer]

I may be wrong about this, but I have one theory. The territory to the south of you seems to belong to a third civ, which presumably Asoka has open borders with. If this deal was cancelled in the interturn his units would be teleported to the nearest square they were allowed on, which would be the square belonging to you south of the axemen. They could then attack the worker and move the warrior as it appears in the screenshots.

I highly doubt it or I hope it doesn't work like this because it could be exploitable by human players. When you are kicked off a territory because of open borders cancellation, you are always transported into neutral territory, or eventually in your own. I doubt you can be transported into enemy territory.

 

[onedreamer]

repost for who couldn't see the screenshots:

Screen1:

Screen 2

 

[oldStatesman]

Thanks! Now I understand...this is strange behavior....

 

[RobSoyka]

There is an upgreat that allows faster movement in Forrests. May be the catapult has that ability?

 

[MrCynical]

No, you can see the promotions the units have in one of the screenshots, and neither unit as woodsman 2. I don't think catapults can even get this one.

 

[Kolyana]

You absolutely need to report this bug.

 

[onedreamer]

I reported it... what else should I do ?

 

[MrCynical]

OK then, second suggestion. Are you absolutely sure the catapult is the same one? There's a galley just off the coast which could offload a unit on top of your worker in one turn. Then the other catapult could retreat into the fog of war to give this position. I think it's more likely to be a fault in the open borders teleport system, since the galley explanation doesn't account for the final orientations of the units, but I'm just trying to run through every possibility.

 

[onedreamer]

look at the galley, on the flag of India only one white circle, which means the galley is not transporting any unit. Actually, in the interturn that galley will not move toward the shores but attack a galley of mine and loose. You can see my damaged galley selected in the second screen

The open border teleport seems to be the most credible hypostesis at first, but I would almost surely exclude it: first off, the same thing happened around Shangai as I said, and both the squares involved were in my territory. Second, I doubt the two AI cancelled the deal because more units were arriving later on. I can try to see if I still have this save and easily double check though.

 

[andrew_yaweb]

I'm not an expert, but I think you were a victim of the catapult withdrawing from combat onto your workers, no?

 

[Psyringe]

A catapult cannot withdraw from combat with a worker, as there isn't really a combat. The worker doesn't fight.

 

[andrew_yaweb]

I thought the catapult was perhaps in combat with your axeman there and withdrew, landing on and killing, your peasant...not possible?

 

[onedreamer]

no if you retreat you go back where you came from. Also, there wasn't any fight with the axemen, otherwise I wouldn't have come here to post this bug, right ?

 

[Meatbuster]

Maybe I've figured it out. There is a road in a jungle south of your axes. My theory is that Isabella's lands expanded momentarily when her + to culture was applied. That's when the catapult drove around the axemen and blindsided your workers. Then your turn kicked in, and your city got a + to culture, combating Izzy's culture and driving the border back.

So what happened is that the cat got the + movement from your road because it was on Izzy's lands during her turn.

Izzy's turn (her border expands) -> Asoka's turn -> Your Turn (your border expands)

Or perhaps we could go with the Open Borders canceled theory posted back on the second post. OB moved the cats and sword then cats moved to workers.

 

[onedreamer]

there isn't any road south of my axeman...

otherwise I wouldn't have come here to post this bug, right ?

 

[Renata]

Can you post a save? It'd be nice to see it happen for ourselves. Makes it easier to figure out exactly what's going on.