Better BTS AI blatant blunders

[HoKa]

Better BTS AI is good at warmongering. It is utterly bad at everything else. City placement is abysmal at times; cities are always underdeveloped (generally not a single building is built); it mines pigs on hills (!); it doesn't chop forests, so no pre-chopping strategies either; it doesn't whip population farms; it expands when needless (maintenance hell); it's research line is chaotic (no bee-lines)...

The list goes on. All it can do now is spam Axemen and attack, which is nevertheless impressive. There's a lot to improve on. Are there any plans to do this, to embetter the non-combat (very important) aspects of the game's AI?

If so, what's the best way we can help in making this happen?

 

[Jawa'sRevenge]

If so, what's the best way we can help in making this happen?

Learn C++ and get really good at it

 

[r_rolo1]

In defense of the mod team, I should remind you that they decided to attack both the most glaring and the more easy to fix issue of the stock AI in BtS: the way the Ai fights wars. You are right in saying that there is a lot of stuff to fix yet ( in spite of mining pigs not being a bad move per se ), but remember this is a work in progress and that any constructive contribution will surely be warmly received

 

[HoKa]

In defense of the mod team, I should remind you that they decided to attack both the most glaring and the more easy to fix issue of the stock AI in BtS: the way the Ai fights wars. You are right in saying that there is a lot of stuff to fix yet ( in spite of mining pigs not being a bad move per se ), but remember this is a work in progress and that any constructive contribution will surely be warmly received

I'll see if I can help with anything; I'll lurk around a bit!

 

[Roland Johansen]

Better BTS AI is good at warmongering. It is utterly bad at everything else. City placement is abysmal at times; cities are always underdeveloped (generally not a single building is built); it mines pigs on hills (!); it doesn't chop forests, so no pre-chopping strategies either; it doesn't whip population farms; it expands when needless (maintenance hell); it's research line is chaotic (no bee-lines)...

The list goes on. All it can do now is spam Axemen and attack, which is nevertheless impressive. There's a lot to improve on. Are there any plans to do this, to embetter the non-combat (very important) aspects of the game's AI?

If so, what's the best way we can help in making this happen?

By saying that the AI only learned about rushing with axes, you're not doing justice to the many improvements in this project. If I were the developer of this project, I would have been insulted by that remark. First read the change logs before you make such a post. I tried to add them to this post, but they were too long (went over the 30.000 character post limit). The change log of the previous version is always added to newest download and the changes of the latest download are in the download description.
One of the latest changes for instance fixed the infamous AI problem or re-improving its land constantly with workers thereby destroying full grown towns.

There are a few ways you can help to make the AI better. You can use the 'Report Questionable Behavior' stickied thread to report an instance of questionable behaviour of the AI that you noticed in your game. Of course a savegame is very useful then.
Another way to help is to join in some of the more technical discussions of how to change the AI decision algorithms. Now and then, such discussions start in this subforum and people can join in to think with the developers. It's easy to say that the AI is doing something wrong. It's a whole lot harder to write decision algorithms that make the AI behave sensible.

By the way, the AI does construct building in its cities. Of course, it will do this better on higher difficulty levels than on lower difficulty levels. My guess is that your observation that it doesn't is based on the cities that you captured.

 

[Afforess]

By the way, the AI does construct building in its cities. Of course, it will do this better on higher difficulty levels than on lower difficulty levels. My guess is that your observation that it doesn't is based on the cities that you captured.

Judging buildings the AI builds by capturing cities is so horribly inaccurate. Remember, many buildings have a percent chance that they will be destroyed in the battle.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Judging buildings the AI builds by capturing cities is so horribly inaccurate. Remember, many buildings have a percent chance that they will be destroyed in the battle.

I know.

 

[r_rolo1]

Better said:
-All military related buildings will disappear ( except military academies )
-All culture giving buildings will disapear ( except World Wonders, corp HQs, shrines and Academies )
-All the others have a random chance of disappear

 

[PieceOfMind]

I mine pigs on hills. Without context you can't say that is necessarily a bad thing. For one, it's probably not a bad idea if you don't have Animal Husbandry.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Usually sheep make better mine targets though, since you're trading food:hammers 1:1 rather than sacrificing more food for less hammers in the case of pigs. It doesn't mean you shouldn't make a temporary improvement to get the best yield, but in the case of being able to work pigs early AH should probably be a priority target, for both human and AI.