Gifting Units to Other Civs

[Rekk]

This was removed a while ago because it was deemed usable by humans. How was it abusable? Has the AI evolved to the point that it's not abusable anymore?

From my own recollection, it was deemed abusable because you could give useless units to the AI and force large upkeep costs and push supply over the limit. I know the AI knows to disband units if they're getting too expensive. Does it know which units to disband if, for example, it's currently fighting a war?

I just want to give guns to my weak friendly neighbours to help with their wars, but I guess I'll just have to step up and use my own supply to defend them. Damn the global consequences.

 

[Enginseer]

Player A, Player B, and Player C exist in one game and neighbor each other.

Player A and Player B get into a Declaration of Friendship and love each other.
A war erupts between Player A and Player C.
Player A's wounded are sent to Player B's borders.
Player A asks hey Player B why don't you help me against Player C? You have so much military power.
Player B: Okay.
Player B declares war on Player C.

 

[Rekk]

Yes, you just described my third paragraph.

Players D, E, F, G and H get angry at Player C for declaring war on Player B. "They hate warmongers!"

If only Player B had been able to support Player A's military; the war between Player C and Player A might never have happened!

 

[Enginseer]

Yes, you just described my third paragraph.

Players D, E, F, G and H get angry at Player C for declaring war on Player B. "They hate warmongers!"

If only Player B had been able to support Player A's military; the war between Player C and Player A might never have happened!

Except for Player B and Player C are AIs and you are the human.

Player B has no intentions to go into war with Player C, but Player A the human exploits this by expanding its military power(it doesn't know where this power is coming from) and since friends scratch each other's back. It'll happily suddenly try to attack Player C with all of Player A's leftovers.

 

[Rekk]

I see what you're getting at now.

 

[Rekk]

You can't gift wounded units to city states. Why should gifting units to civilizations be any different?

Contributing obsolete units increases military score much less than contributing relevant units. Any gratitude the civ has can be a function of percent increased military score (which is also closely correlated with supply limit).

 

[Enginseer]

You can't gift wounded units to city states. Why should gifting units to civilizations be any different?

Which wasn't the case when the ability to gift to major civilizations was available. You can gift wounded units to city-states at that time.

Contributing obsolete units increases military score much less than contributing relevant units. Any gratitude the civ has can be a function of percent increased military score (which is also closely correlated with supply limit).

And the AIs tend to not disband units at all(and prefers to upgrade them). So you can exploit giving the AI a few weak units just so you can pump up your war score with massive casualties or you can force them to upgrade their units which redirects their treasury to upgrading instead of somewhere more useful.

One of the other reason that you can't gift to AIs is that the AIs won't know how to do it(was never coded in Firaxis) as well. You can easily restore this property back.

 

[Rekk]

Which wasn't the case when the ability to gift to major civilizations was available. You can gift wounded units to city-states at that time.


And the AIs tend to not disband units at all(and prefers to upgrade them). So you can exploit giving the AI a few weak units just so you can pump up your war score with massive casualties or you can force them to upgrade their units which redirects their treasury to upgrading instead of somewhere more useful.

One of the other reason that you can't gift to AIs is that the AIs won't know how to do it(was never coded in Firaxis) as well. You can easily restore this property back.

That was then, this is now, etc.

So the AI doesn't know when it should disband units?

 

[Enginseer]

That was then, this is now, etc.

So the AI doesn't know when it should disband units?

They will disband when they are exceeding the supply cap which isn't the main problem since the human exploit involves forcing them to upgrade them or killing off their obsolete army (you prime their military score and you dow them while easily killing them causing huge war weariness and war score in your favor).

 

[Rekk]

They will disband when they are exceeding the supply cap which isn't the main problem since the human exploit involves forcing them to upgrade them or killing off their obsolete army (you prime their military score and you dow them while easily killing them causing huge war weariness and war score in your favor).

I mean, if the answer to the original question of this thread is: No, the AI doesn't know when to disband units in situations other than 'over supply cap', that's enough. I'm not going to advocate strenuously for changes to the AI, because I don't know how much work it'll be. Saying that would've been much clearer than hypothesizing your scenario that I had to ask for clarifications on in every post.

I will say that VP advocates disbanding obsolete units and spending production to create new ones. That the AI can't play by this guideline is somewhat against brand, isn't it?

That's aside from counterarguments like:
Moving units onto your "opponent's" land requires open borders. Good luck ever getting it back after this war.
Killing units doesn't contribute much to warscore anymore. You're blunting your invasion on your own units to give your opponent more time to respond.
Obsolete units don't contribute much to military score, although I don't know why trying to increase your opponent's military score matters anyway.
How many obsolete units are you going to produce to do this? How many eras behind are you going to leave your 'sacrificial' units, draining your GPT? One era isn't enough to steam-roll through.
If you want to farm xp/yields, you can already do the exact same thing with city-states.

 

[Gazebo]

The Al know how to disband obsolete units, but it typically won’t unless it is in debt.

 

[Gothic_Empire]

The Al know how to disband obsolete units, but it typically won’t unless it is in debt.

Would it be possible for human players to gift one another units, but not AI?

 

[vyyt]

Ok, is there a simple option to re-enable gifting units in the files?

 

[tu_79]

Ok, is there a simple option to re-enable gifting units in the files?

Yes, but you have to swear by Sid Meier that you are not going to exploit it.

 

[vyyt]

Yes, but you have to swear by Sid Meier that you are not going to exploit it.

I swear by Sid Meier. Now tell me how to do it

 

[unconnected]

I swear by Sid Meier. Now tell me how to do it

Yes, but you have to swear by Sid Meier that you are not going to exploit it.

Did you ever find out?

 

[Zanteogo]

I miss being able to gift units honestly.

Sort of like what's going on the RL right now.

 

[pineappledan]

But Kiev Kyiv is a Minor Civ. You can still gift units to those.

 

[Zanteogo]

Anyone figure out how to restore gifting to major civs?

Maybe if possible, we can get a dipo option file addition please?