Computer AI and empty territory

Trinity

Brains, Beauty & st b*tch
Joined
May 6, 2002
Messages
313
Location
Pacific Northwest
Okay, there's this secluded little spot I've been using for barbarian farming every three turns. So all of a sudden India, Aztecs with whom I have RoPs and MPPs, who are at least 20 squares away seem to know exactly the moment when the barbarians appear.

Mind you they have no units in the immediate area. All of a sudden there are huge troop movements from the other side in a race to kill the barbarians first. And they know exactly the square the barbarians are in, while I have to hunt for it. Go figure.

I'm not whining, because I just decided to station units down there so no one gets to farm it. So much for the "fog of war".

Espionage? I don't think so, since I'm the first building the Intelligence Agency. Interesting? Yes.

The French KGB arrives in 10 turns.
 
Why don't you add that to the thread on this forum of annoying AI cheats? There are so many. :mad:
 
It is common knowledge that each of the AI civs know the exact location of each unit in the game. They always have barbarians (and privateers) as a high priority target. Don't sweat it. OTH, don't leave one of your cities without a garrison (especially if you are at war), either!

I once left a metropolis garrisoned by only a cavalry, having determined that it was unreachable by the enemy. But one of his cavalry was given a suicide mission, killed my cavalry and razed my metropolis. I learned that lesson VERY well.

It isn't a "cheat" so much, once you are aware that they have it. It simplifies the programming significantly, and they have been programmed to ignore your subs when they are not supposed to see them (that was 1.14, I believe).
 
Originally posted by Zouave
Why don't you add that to the thread on this forum of annoying AI cheats? There are so many. :mad:
The AI does not cheat!
They just use different rules than we do to compensate for their not being able to think! :lol:

What is "unfair" is their different rules were not documented to us. We have to learn them through experience (or others' experience here in the forums). But the joy of learning, even of being surprised, is part of the fun!
 
This being my first CivIII game on my new computer (I'd gotten a couple to the 1700s on my old one), and the first one where I wasn't on an isolated island, it took some time to figure out how the AI works.

It becomes more apparent when you have RoPs. You get to watch unit behavior. I ended up setting a line of riflemen across a narrow band that blocks access to my industrial heartland. As soon as the last unit went in place, the Aztecs knew they couldn't get south, so they know where I am but I don't know where they are. Yet the AI isn't the sharpest knife in the draw especially when it comes to military tactics. I needed to move a unit so my allies could get units into their city, the Aztecs moved down quickly. So I put one cavalry unit next to one of their cities, and they moved their entire force to patrol that city. What a great way to set things up for a conquest of a nation you have an RoP with.

I also think they incorporated a paranoia quotient with certain civilizations. The Aztecs seem very paranoid. Yet that same maneuver with India doesn't work. India seems very trusting and is a good neighbor. Of course I wonder about when Gandhi went to war with Persia on his own, and I dropped 200 gold in his treasury as foreign aid if that didn't provide him with trust.

I played Alpha Centauri, and did some tweaking on a couple of factions that I thought were very unbalanced, and it unbalanced the entire game. It is my opinion that one has to be very careful how one designs a module. Things in this game are quite balanced, and I'd be loathe to make changes without doing an awful lot of research.
 
Originally posted by Jaybe

The AI does not cheat!
They just use different rules than we do to compensate for their not being able to think! :lol:

What is "unfair" is their different rules were not documented to us. We have to learn them through experience (or others' experience here in the forums). But the joy of learning, even of being surprised, is part of the fun!

What I find amusing is how one or two itmes a week a posting is made of this AI "cheat" and how the game is utterly unfair and crap (though that last bit is not always by the original poster). This is especially amusing considering that the previous games also had this same AI "cheat."

Now one thing that would be nice would be if the developers could program the AI to not worry about barbariens/privateers that are no where near their land.
 
Originally posted by etj4Eagle


What I find amusing is how one or two itmes a week a posting is made of this AI "cheat" and how the game is utterly unfair and crap (though that last bit is not always by the original poster). This is especially amusing considering that the previous games also had this same AI "cheat."

Now one thing that would be nice would be if the developers could program the AI to not worry about barbariens/privateers that are no where near their land.
seriously, it may appear hard to program a AI, but really it isn't much harder to program 1 that doesn't cheat! the programer just need to provide the ai with tactic and allow the ai to experiment. this make them unpredictable and FUN! we don't need a cheating hard to defeat enemy, we need realistic enemy that fear troop superior after getting seige a few time!
 
Originally posted by akinkhoo
seriously, it may appear hard to program a AI, but really it isn't much harder to program 1 that doesn't cheat! the programer just need to provide the ai with tactic and allow the ai to experiment. this make them unpredictable and FUN! we don't need a cheating hard to defeat enemy, we need realistic enemy that fear troop superior after getting seige a few time!

Thanks for that incredibly informed and well thought-out opinion, Mr. Technologist.
 
Originally posted by akinkhoo
seriously, it may appear hard to program a AI, but really it isn't much harder to program 1 that doesn't cheat!

Cool! Let us know when you have akinkhoo's Civilization game ready for market.
 
Any chance that the computer got the map of the barbarian area from someone? Another computer unit may have moved in the area, and seen the map. Or you may have traded world maps to someone, who then traded it to them, who saw the open space and moved right towards it.

It's amazing how often something we gripe about turns out to actually have a reason for happening that we didn't expect.

--Yelof
 
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