Fire elementals dont attack the AI

[Angel-Julia]

What's the deal with fire elementals, they dont attack the AI.

The dragons lair somewhat inconviniently spawned at my intended 2nd city spot, with rice, pigs, lake, mana, and most importantly blocking the 2nd land bridge to a perninsula that i inevitably controll.

anyway, i figured it's going to be a bit of a pain to have the dragon in my back yard, and i'll have to somehow take it down as soon as i can, but at least in theory it blocks the 2nd land bridge, so the only way onto the perninsula is straight past my capital.

on turn 50 i saw the first fire elementals, 11 turns after the city was founded.

then to my supprise the fire elementals decided to move NW each turn, not getting anywhere before needing to be re-summoned. and then Cardith lora managed to walk a scout straight past the dragon city. this is somehow not right that the elementals dont attack the AI. they should have pwnd any scout walking past, and also any settlers or anything else the AI wishes to walk down that land bridge.

I'd understand if it was dovildo, but Cardith lora does not have peace with the barbs, so why dont the barbs attack?

 

[DaveGold]

In one game I used Gibbon Goetia to take control of another nation and move some of their forces into dragon territory. There were attacks on these units but it seemed unpredictable when the fire elementals would attack and when they wouldn't. I was moving in workers, a hero, some priests, all into separate squares. On some turns none were attacked, or just one, or two or three, quite unpredictable!

 

[Angel-Julia]

I've noticed the barbs favour attacking the human in most situations, i.e. when there is one of my scouts and an AI scout next to each other, and a great spider. then the great spider will attack my scout 100% of the time.

also i think summons AI programming should be re-written. obviously the elemental is too busy trying to get somewhere NW, and then dissapearing the next turn, while ignoring the AI unit walking straight past the dragons city.

there is no point in a summon to try to travel somewhere as it will unsummon, so it should suicide attack anything in range that turn.

 

[Doug Piranha]

I've noticed the barbs favour attacking the human in most situations, i.e. when there is one of my scouts and an AI scout next to each other, and a great spider. then the great spider will attack my scout 100% of the time.

That's because the barbs have a handicap against the AI scout, and a lesser handicap (or none) against your units (if you're not playing settler difficulty ). So they pick the easier battle.

there is no point in a summon to try to travel somewhere as it will unsummon, so it should suicide attack anything in range that turn.

Well, the summons need to be somewhat smart about not just giving free experience to the attacked unit...

 

[Angel-Julia]

yeah, it must be that handicap. i play on diety, so i guess the handicap is quite big.

I agree about the summons being smart about not giving away free exp. though they should also be suicidal if their death will weaken units to the extent that the units will likely die next turn if hit again and not fully healed. etc. maybe also considering if they have 4 fire elementals then their suicidal death will weaken incoming units to the extent that the other barbarian units can clean up after them.

in this case, i would say cardigh lora's STR2 scout vs STR9+empower fire elemental is a situation where the elemental should attack the scout.

now i'm half expecting Cardith lora to next walk a few settlers straight past the dragon and fire elementals in order to settle my teritory. and knowing my luck if i send some troops to stop these settlers than the fire elementals will attack my troops while leaving cardith lora free to walk past.

 

[Sephi]

maybe Cardith Lorda send two scouts and the fire elemental was only able to kill one of them?

fire elementals don't have a unique AI, they will attack AI civs as much as other barb units.

 

[Emptiness]

Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I haven't seen the Barbarian's summoned Fire Elementals attack anything - not my units, not AI units, nothing. Even a lone scout is safe to walk right past Acheron's city. A stack of Fire Elementals will charge out of the city and promptly ignore all targets.

 

[Sephi]

But that issue only exists with Summoned units owned by barbarians or other summons as well?

 

[DaveGold]

Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I haven't seen the Barbarian's summoned Fire Elementals attack anything - not my units, not AI units, nothing.

If I've got city spaces to upgrade within three spaces of the dragon and I accidentally move a worker close enough .... you can guess what happens.

 

[Angel-Julia]

I think the issue is that they are going after another target that is outside of their movement range, and so never getting to their target.

I guess if you leave a anarmed city, or worker 4 squares from their city then they will repetatively try and get to it, only to vanish the next turn, and in the mean time your big stack can take down the dragon free from elemental attacks.

I think the AI should be changed to that it only considers targets within it's movement range.

this thread is also starting to talk about elementals
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=355546