Civ III AI stupidities

[gunkulator]

A really stupid thing of the AS is that: they always switch from Republic to Democracy, even if they're not religious, and when they're at war they usually stay in that government when war weariness is so heavy that they must turn half of their population into clowns to keep the cities under control. They're also utter unable to use the luxury slider.

The only thing I've seen that gets the AI out of Democracy is if they are having unit support problems (or they are overthrown). The AI doesn't like to run a deficit. At Emperor and above, the AI can switch gov'ts rapidly anyway so being religious doesn't factor in.

 

[Gilder]

So I don't spam my own thread, here's one. Even stupider than that, I have NEVER seen the AI build ships better than Galleys. They seem to value it pretty low to build naval units. I take transports, load them, and go to the BACK of an enemy I am fighting. Cities there tend to be new, and small. I start with those puny cites, and squish the big ones between two invasion forces. Preety cool, but pretty irritating. (Probably because I never defend my back-side ports, either, CUZ I NEVER HAVE TO!!)

I've seen them build battleships, destroyers, even subs, but not transports. They stick with Galleons in my games.

 

[gunkulator]

Sink a few of those galleons and you'll see transports. In fact, once they have the right tech and oil, they can't build anymore galleons.

 

[Bungus]

A really stupid thing of the AS is that: they always switch from Republic to Democracy, even if they're not religious, and when they're at war they usually stay in that government when war weariness is so heavy that they must turn half of their population into clowns to keep the cities under control.

Hahahaha.. In conquests though they like fascism when war breaks out. And the Republic to Democracy switch is only stupid because Democracies are only marginaly better.
Most of the AI's defincencies can be worked around with some knowledgable use of the editor. For AI hardly upgrades, because of the high upgrade cost. If this is lowered, the AI upgrades all the time, if they have the cash. Many units don't see use (by the AI) in the standard game because of theit stats or the way they are flagged (artillery aside). If you build the game around the AI and know how it works, you can make it behave twice as smart. Surprisingly, the original developers didn't do this though. But its possible for us to.

 

[CivFan91]

More of a cheat than a stupidity: Even on Chief, where everything goes your way, the AI has never experienced War Weariness. In fact, I have rarely seen the AI go into disorder, period. Even if I've detroyed a city's Temples, Cathedrals, etc., and has no Wonders, and is size 8. Oh, and they are in Republic. Never once did they riot.

 

[Bungus]

I've never heard of that before. Are we talking about conquests?

 

[CivFan91]

We can talk about any version of any release. I happen to play (and love) Conquests V.1.22. Of course, on C3C, the AI cheats and sees where you are at all times. Adds to the difficulty, IMHO.

 

[Morcant]

The AI never learns not to mess with a human player when he is a super power.

France had better not jack up the price of 3 lux for Iron, horses, spices, dyes, and 55gpt (i'm the one paying 55gpt). They damn well know what happend to persia... (compleatly conqured in 3 turns for making spicses and dyes too much money, 10gpt at the time)

 

[CivFan91]

If you are playing Sid and the AI outnumbers you 100 to one, it will not blast you off the planet like it should.

 

[tR1cKy]

More of a cheat than a stupidity: Even on Chief, where everything goes your way, the AI has never experienced War Weariness. In fact, I have rarely seen the AI go into disorder, period. Even if I've detroyed a city's Temples, Cathedrals, etc., and has no Wonders, and is size 8. Oh, and they are in Republic. Never once did they riot.

Er... they do suffer war weariness, and heavily. This is from my replayed GotM 43:



The apparent absence of war weariness in your games must have another reason. Actually, in Republic, it takes a while for WW to kick in, expecially if it's you to declare on them and not the vice-versa. It is possible that your wars are too short, of the damage you inflict on the enemies too little. Who knows?

 

[CivFan91]

Yeah, maybe they're too short to see a WW city. I prefer lightning strikes with superior units, instead of wars of attrition, because the Battle Random Number Generator is so awkward.

It lets me win desicively one time, and then my same unit, with same HP, does the same battle against another of the same unit, and it loses! Not as outrageous as spear vs. tank, since I was in IA, but you'd think a Crusader can beat a Barb Horseman, even if he is on a hill.

 

[Choffy]

Most stupid thing for me : To do not connect horse and iron when available.

 

[TimBentley]

The reason the AI usually doesn't get war weariness on chieftain is because they're not doing much damage to you. Yes, absurdly, the AI gets the same war weariness as the human.

 

[oldStatesman]

If you build the game around the AI and know how it works, you can make it behave twice as smart. Surprisingly, the original developers didn't do this though. But its possible for us to.

Do you have a suggestion for mods that do this? I don't have the time, but would like to play one...TIA!

 

[CivFan91]

I'll make the game harder after I win a few on Sid level. Being newer to Conquests, I am playing at Regent... go figure.

 

[Civlord]

I hope Civ4 is better.

 

[Own]

- The AI also doesn't like attacking armies unless the army is seriously wounded and/or outdated.

Cleo: You must attack the armies!
Alex: NO! They're scary, they have flags and stuff

Not exact, didn't feel like copy/paste, but really I'm just mentioning this because of the stupid 10 character limit.

 

[tR1cKy]

Want to know a fresh AS stupidity? I'm playing a game right now. One of the opponent civs are the Aztecs. They have the biggest landmass and the better terrain. They have spare sources of silks, incense, iron and saltpeter that they could trade for money or other luxuries they need. Well, i'm in 1090AD now and they're still unconnected with the other civs! Yes, they didn't build a single road to link with the others, they didn't build a single harbor! And so they can't trade anything and their economy is hopelessly broken.

If i wouldn't be going for 20K i would already crushed them. But i'm doing it anyway. They're simply too stupid to survive.

 

[CivFan91]

Once, I tried to put NoAIpatrol=0 in thr .ini file, but i misspelled part of it, and all AI units cleared their cities at all times. A bug really, of my own making, no less, but it was really funny.

 

[Own]

What was the typo ? I'd like to try that out.