Civ3 AI Insanity

[Wlauzon]

As my Civ3 playtime gets near the end with Civ4 out in a couple days, I have been playing around with some things I never really tried before. And came up against (again) the often total insanity of the Civ3 AI.

The year is 1485 AD. 4 major civs left, and a couple of minor ones on the verge of being eaten by others. Me (Babylon), Persia, Aztecs, and America.

I am about equal to my neighbor, Persia, somewhat behind militarily but ahead tech wise of the others. Other civs are pretty much all on other continents.

I sign a mutual protection pact, and an alliance against the evil Aztecs with Persia. and give him a bunch of excess workers to make him really happy.

Next turn Persia attacks me with no warning - I never even get the notice that they have declared war on me. The first notice I get is that I have lost my supply of spices.

I did a save game at 1460, and have reloaded and replayed this with a dozen or more variations, trying trading and not trading with any of Persia's enemies, alliance and not alliance, etc etc. In short tried almost everything I could think of, yet invarably at 1485 Persia attacks me.

Only thing I can think of is that there is a bug or something corrupted in the save file.. or something.. - else why would Persia go from Gracious + alliance + pact on one turn to total war on the next.

Or is the AI truly totally insane at times?

 

[LoopyLewis]

Or is the AI truly totally insane at times?

Yes. And it also doesn't know what it's doing - it just does it.

 

[Beamup]

If you could post a save people might be able to figure out better exactly what was going on.

 

[vmxa]

It would be interestign to be able to turn of the Preserve Seed and play the turn again. I say that as I suspect that the logic can get to the point that it takes a branch to randomly decide the action and the seed comes out war.

If it could be turn off, that could be disproved or confirmed.

Basically the Persians are in a tight spot and have no good options. A human would not select war with its ally in most cases, but the logic tree gets to a no determination point and goes down a the random path, just a guess.

Otherwise it is insane.

 

[Wlauzon]

If you could post a save people might be able to figure out better exactly what was going on.

Unfortunately, I cleaned up all the 100's of old saved games and deleted that one also.

I gave up on the game after trying a few more things. Simply not worth playing it out when every other civ has decided to go to war with you and no matter what you do it cannot be avoided. And of course the next turn, about 20 nukes fall.

I sure hope the Civ4 AI has more smarts.

I have run into some really stupid AI things before, like a 2-city civ declaring war on me, but it is just kind of interesting how the Civ3 AI reacts at times.

 

[rysingsun]

ive noticed an interesting thing. when the ai is "getting ready for a surprise attack" - you know the time - the time he starts sending troops in your direction even though there is absolutely nothing that way that would interest him besides YOU - well anyway at that time try to negotiate a gpt trade with him. you will discover that he is unusually demanding at this time. for example instead of him offering you his silks for 10 gpt (like he would have a couple turns ago) he offers them for 30gpt. this is confirmation that he is preparing an attack on you.

this is why i also believe that it is no accident and no bug that the ai declared war on you the same year in spite of all your strategies. the decision had already been made and "scheduled".

i think you can prevent the surprise attack by paying that outrageous 30gpt for those lousy silks.

 

[Wlauzon]

this is why i also believe that it is no accident and no bug that the ai declared war on you the same year in spite of all your strategies. the decision had already been made and "scheduled".

i think you can prevent the surprise attack by paying that outrageous 30gpt for those lousy silks.

I suspect you are right. As long as 15 turns ago he had began parking Armor right on the edge of his territory next to mine, so the invasion had already been scheduled. And at that point there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. It seems that once the AI decides it is war time, nothing will stop it.

In another game I had the Aztecs offer a mutual protection pact, which I took, two turns later they attacked me.

 

[guspasho]

Something I've heard a few other times mentioned, that may or may not help provide insight, is that the AI doesn't play to win, it just plays to keep you from winning. Maybe Persia saw a war with you as its last chance to stop you from gaining dominance as you wiped out the Aztec.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

Something I've heard a few other times mentioned, that may or may not help provide insight, is that the AI doesn't play to win, it just plays to keep you from winning. Maybe Persia saw a war with you as its last chance to stop you from gaining dominance as you wiped out the Aztec.

I've noticed this. And it gets worse the more powerful you get and the closer you get to winning. Ever noticed how the AI goes absolutely nuts when you start to build a spaceship?

 

[Spartanism]

The Maya came to me last turn and offerd a ROP and MP and then was attacked by the Iroquise. The Maya signed a treaty and broke my Mutual protection pact. Not one turn later Im invaded and being run over by the hordes.
What is wierd is that the Maya took 6 cites in that turn and then had me join there alliance. I was thinking of some easy expansion riding the coatails of teh Maya (most powerfull civ militarily)

 

[Wlauzon]

I've noticed this. And it gets worse the more powerful you get and the closer you get to winning. Ever noticed how the AI goes absolutely nuts when you start to build a spaceship?

Just for grins a while back I made up a scenario that was just super loaded with all the resources, all the best type of terrain, etc, and gave my self about 500,000 gold.

Naturally, I got WAY ahead pretty fast, but as soon as I really started to build up a lot of military units, every single one of the 9 other civs declared war on me with a couple turns.

I took the same scenario, and assigned it to another civ as a starting position, and sure enough, at about the same year, every other civ went for them.

So, pretty obvious that once you get to be the biggest you become the prime target.

 

[cpikey316_]

So, pretty obvious that once you get to be the biggest you become the prime target.

In Civ 2, they'd tell you about it! You'd get a message that 2 civs had signed a pact to contain your "aggression"

 

[ThePrankMonkey]

in my current game i'm the biggest and my neighbors the arabs who dont stand a chance decided to declare war on me. its only the third civ in the game to do this. so they're being razed to the ground at the moment, i'll be going back to handle the other two, the celts and the zulu, after i'm done with the arabs.

at least with those two they were of similar size and military strength, i've been larger and more powerful than the arabs the entire time. he has horseman, i have knights and cannons. sucks to be him.