Does the AI know about the New World?

[Airefuego]

A quick question -

Does AI "know of" all the game settings and change its behaviour based on them?

Especially map type - knowing the basic map type affects my early game strategy a lot.

Do the AI know when they are on an archipelago map and should beeline galleys? Or Pangea, and not bother?

Or in that map (terra? hemispheres?) where all Civs start on one continent and there is an uninhabited New World somewhere else - does the AI know this and take it into account?

Do they know when I have selected Raging Barbs?

Do they take it into account if I choose OCC? (It would definitely change my strategy if I knew THEY were doing an OCC)

Etc...

Grateful for any tips from AI-insiders!

 

[Morgawr]

I think they have absolutely no clue, which is very sad, so I hope someone proves me wrong

 

[KMadCandy]

i remember seeing somewhere that the AI was made more aware of ... it was either the Always Peace setting or No Barbs setting, i can't remember. even if it was no barbs, that doesn't necessarily mean they're aware of raging barbs, and i can't find the mysterious place i read it anyway. wasn't the 3.13 change list, so must have been earlier, maybe in warlords even.

i don't think they can stategerize in those ways at all tho. sad. i wonder whether they even notice when cultural victory is turned off, now that they're programmed to go for it sometimes?

 

[Airefuego]

It sure would help if they knew about Always Peace! I feel sorry for Shaka though. He must feel sad and empty inside in those games, and never know why...

 

[Refar]

Playing a Pangea map i noticed that the AI did not even try to get the "Circumnavigate Globe"-bonus. They had optics and even astronomy - the dutch built like a dozen of those EastIndiamen. But no one bothered to go around the globe. I notced it, as i got a World Map as 'tribute'... Circumnavigated myself about 1800+

Mede me think, "they know its pangea, so they not bother"... I only ever played one pangaea map however... so perhaps it was just weird.

When come to think about it - the AI can not possible know, what to expect from a particula map script. But they seem to explore just enought to find - end settle - every worthles peace of land... Perhaps something like % of land plots known is used to determine if more exploration is needed...

Maybe Bhruic knows

 

[Darth Meanie]

well, they always always know the value of your world map, and beg for it if you found another continent...

 

[KMadCandy]

Do the AI know when they are on an archipelago map and should beeline galleys? Or Pangea, and not bother?

i remembered seeing a Blake post on another forum. found it.

The AI has a soft hard limit on the unit's it'll train.

For instance it'll train #Cities + 1 Bombers and #Cities + 1 Fighters, it'll train # WaterTiles/350 Carriers, and enough Carrier Fighters to fill them.

It'll train exactly one "Settler Sea" (a transport designated to carry settlers) regardless of map size.

Although the formulas can be quite complex, there is always a hard cap for a given game state (but if the game state changes, like the AI enters a war, or it gains more cities, the "hard" cap might be raised, so it's not exactly a hard cap but the # units trained is capped in some formulamatic way, typically such that the AI will train a max of "X" units per city).

they don't know where resources are until they learn the tech. but i'd not be surprised if they know how many water tiles are on the map from the very start, the same way certain quests are given only if the map is over x% water tiles.

 

[LlamaCat]

I think it's important to realize there are no "theys" when it comes to the other AI leaders... there is just one software "brain" and it already knows everything. It is just controlling various elements according to certain parameters that are laid out in the code, and those vary according to the difficulty level, the hard-coded "personality" of each leader (i.e., the statistical likelihood of choosing A vs. B in any given choice path) and the map and game settings.

So I would say the other leaders sort of already know everything in a sense, and the computer is just not allowing them to do things with this knowledge that the human couldn't already do without the knowledge.

 

[Airefuego]

Thanks for the explanation llamacat, on what the "known knowns" and "known unknowns" are for the AI...

So yes it "knows" what the map type and game setting is... my question is, does it change its overall strategy based on this?

 

[r_rolo1]

^^One thing I noticed is when I play with Space and culture disabled the AI is more beligerent and fields more troops ( that is my experience, dunno if it happens to all )

 

[KMadCandy]

well, the land/sea tile ratio changes the land unit/boat ratio of troops they're programmed to build and keep around according to blake. his example was late era since that particular game was aiming for a time victory, but the rule applies forever.

but that's not strategy. simply obeying orders to build more boats on an archi map doesn't mean it uses them wisely (or even at all).

 

[Phrederick]

So I would say the other leaders sort of already know everything in a sense, and the computer is just not allowing them to do things with this knowledge that the human couldn't already do without the knowledge.

That's pretty pedantic. I think it's pretty clear that the question is "Does map/game settings change AI behavior?"

 

[Gliese 581]

The AI usually don't go for The Great Library or for Liberalism, or for the circumnavigation bonus. That would be three welcome changes if they're supposed to be clever..

 

[KMadCandy]

i've watched them going for liberalism and economics by my espionage points. one time when i reached lib about 5 turns before isabella was going to, she changed techs immediately and i don't know if she ever did finish liberalism. if she did, it wasn't until at least 12 techs further down the road . i mean this is isabella, she wasn't exactly going to convert to Free Religion.

so they know there's a bonus for being first, and their behavior can change when they realize "oops i missed the bonus". but yeah they don't beeline for it. i kinda wish they would. i beat pacal to lib by just one turn the other week, that was so exciting!

 

[Gliese 581]

i've watched them going for liberalism and economics by my espionage points. one time when i reached lib about 5 turns before isabella was going to, she changed techs immediately and i don't know if she ever did finish liberalism. if she did, it wasn't until at least 12 techs further down the road . i mean this is isabella, she wasn't exactly going to convert to Free Religion.

so they know there's a bonus for being first, and their behavior can change when they realize "oops i missed the bonus". but yeah they don't beeline for it. i kinda wish they would. i beat pacal to lib by just one turn the other week, that was so exciting!

You're right that they'll pursue it sometimes and they might even have gotten a little better at it in BTS than before, but as you say, they don't beeline like a human player. Of course it's alot to ask for the AI to start to plan in 4000 bc how they're going to win the liberalism race.
It's funny though when an AI beats you to Education then proceeds to tech economics even when they have the preqs for liberalism! I've had this happen to me a few times.
I wish they'd at least aggressively pursue the circumnavigation bonus as soon as they get caravels. Upgrade/whip two ships at the western and eastern edges of their known world and start sailing as straight as possible!

 

[LlamaCat]

That's pretty pedantic. I think it's pretty clear that the question is "Does map/game settings change AI behavior?"

ha ha! I guess you have not spent much time on the Civ Fanatics forums...? You should see how some of the discussions get on here, all over a game!

But seriously I somehow don't think map settings would have anything to do with AI behavior except in the very specific sense that of course the AI would build a mine if they have gold on a hill in their city, and build a farm if they have rice, just as the humans do.