enabling settlers

[antaine]

so, as many of you know, I've modded RFC and had the Carthaginians and the Celts swap places. The Celts are now fully playable with their own UHVs and everything the regular civs get (except a civilopedia entry).

However, I've noticed that the AI refuses to build any settlers or use any that they are given with the WorldBuilder after they spawn. I don't know why they won't use the units, even in their core area and with high ratings on the tiles indicating that they should *want* to settle there.

Does anyone know of any file(s) or code that might prevent a civ from building or making use of settlers? (They are buildable for them as they appear for the human player, and the AI won't even use free ones "gifted" to them. Very strange indeed...)

 

[embryodead]

Core/Normal/Broader areas in Python are irrelevant, they're for stability/flipping. I assume you changed the settlersMaps in CvRhyes.cpp and the tiles show values like 7112310 in cheat mode?

 

[antaine]

I'm not sure what you mean by showing values in cheat mode...I make the key city tiles "700" just like London is for the English and Paris is for the French. I then made all the other tiles on the islands worth 500, just like everybody else core areas, and still they won't settle them.

but not only that, they don't seem to want to build any settlers of their own, or use any that I give them with the world builder...they just walk them around for a few turns (to expose new map, I suppose) and then leave them standing still.

 

[embryodead]

I'm not sure what you mean by showing values in cheat mode...I make the key city tiles "700" just like London is for the English and Paris is for the French. I then made all the other tiles on the islands worth 500, just like everybody else core areas, and still they won't settle them.

but not only that, they don't seem to want to build any settlers of their own, or use any that I give them with the world builder...they just walk them around for a few turns (to expose new map, I suppose) and then leave them standing still.

That's normal if they don't see any tile with good foundvalue.

Cheat code inside:

Spoiler :

Go to your CivilizationIV.INI , find the CheatCode section and change it to this:
CheatCode = chipotle

Once this is enabled you can use either CTRL, SHIFT or ALT while hovering over different things to see various hidden in-game info. CTRL-Z also reveals the map and shows more stuff.

To see actual foundvalues, press ALT while hovering over a tile. With settlersMaps value of 500 the foundvalue for Celts should be very high and colored in green. If it's not, then your settlersMaps are wrong somewhere.

EDIT: Check the values a turn after founding the 1st city.

 

[antaine]

the values for brennus are in the 500,000s and 400,000s.

The settlers maps seem to be added correctly. I just gave them a settler at a number of locations and they just founded amsterdam and pompaelo, so they've used a "gifted" one. I could have sworn they'd founded pompaelo once before, so perhaps they are making settlers too (I thought maybe they took it from the Romans or somebody else).

Maybe they see a problem with a cross-water trade route? Is there maybe a tech they need to make them more likely to plant a city disconnected from their capital/other cities??

 

[Baldyr]

I don't believe you can do much more than edit the Settler maps (which is something I would know nothing about personally) to influence the way the AI uses Settler units. AFAIK you can't make the AI use any units in a predictable way, even if you change the AI units order values for them. (Well, I've managed to "disable" AI orders so that units do nothing at all... Also, non-Settler units with Settler AI settings will park themselves on a "city location" for the rest of the game.)

City founding could very well not be dependent on how many Settler units they have, but rather what spots are available to that AI, how that spot relates to its capitol (you might be right about the overseas thing), and whether or not the AI needs any more cities. Just because you as a developer think then need cities doesn't do anything to make the AI want some... I guess you can't make an AI overextend itself by spamming it with Settler units. (I managed that by a massive spawn area, ruining that Civ's stability resulting in a collapse.)

So, I'd just forget about the whole thing and work around the problem. There are city spawns and there are spawn areas (flipping units and cities). I don't believe Rhye uses anything else himself. (Well, he gives colonial powers free units in ships, but obviously those Civs are "ready" to use them by then. One clue could be that those spawn are connected to the Astronomy Tech...)

Also, I've seen the Celts build Settlers during autoplay. Why they build them in the first place is somewhat of a mystery though, as the don't seem to use the ones the got during their initial spawn. Maybe they disbanded the ones they didn't need, and a while later figured they needed to build cities...

It seems to be very normal AI behavior not to use its Settlers, though. I've noticed this with many if not all AI's during play testing. Also, I've seen the AI disband good units in mid war. I guess I gave them too many with spawns...

 

[embryodead]

Just in case - foundvalue is the first number, not the XXX,XXXs. This number should be high and green for the AI to consider it a valid city spot.

You can also play as another civ and watch celts play - using alt, shift and ctrl you can hover the settlers and see their AI strategy and mission - a settler spawned with wrong strategy would be stuck as well.

 

[antaine]

they usually use their first two on the continent whenevrer i test them. i have an idea to test after work with this that just might work