Give me your best AI quirks, oddities and 'unique' decisions!

[Gazebo]

Hey all,

While I'm largely happy with the many changes we've made to the AI's tactical and plot-based behavior (AI competitiveness is still an issue), I'm sure there are a lot of things we still haven't addressed. I'd like to query the community for the biggest gripes and complaints they have about specific AI behaviors. In other words, I want you to give me examples of stupid things you've seen the AI do that you have either exploited to your advantage or have caused the AI to fail where a human might not have done so. These can be tactical problems, civilian problems, diplomatic problems, etc. Just be as specific as possible.

Example:

A few weeks back someone mentioned that the AI can be 'baited' out of fortresses with civilian units. With this knowledge, I went in and added some checks to make the AI resist this temptation. Were my changes perfect? No, but they were a step in the right direction.

So, without further adieu, let's roast the AI, eh?
G

 

[espence]

I posted this a while back, not sure if anyone noticed so apologies if it's already been noted or acted upon.

One of the problems with war against the AI at the moment is that it will do bad peace deals when it either a) has lots of troops near your city and has a possibility of taking it, or b) will give you a city even though your troops are no where near to its cities.

I am assuming that all the AI is taking into consideration is the relative army strengths, so when you take out enough of its troops, no matter what the situation is, it will give a peace deal. I have had situations where one of my cities is surrounded by troops and on zero health, but because I killed just enough units before asking for a peace deal, the AI accepted. It is also possible to declare war, then just sat back and kill enemy troops as they come to you. When your army strength hits a certain point above the AI, it will give you a city.

There is already a mechanic in the game to assess troop proximity, which is used by city states to calculate whether they will give tribute. Hopefully this code could be used in some way, along with city health, to improve the AI negotiations.

On a side note, many thanks for your work on this mod. I'm currently testing version 54.1 with a few of whoward's pick n mix mods (smart AI, fixed prophets) with no issues so far, except that it's possibly a bit too peaceful given that I started between Mongolia and Assyria!

 

[Stalker0]

except that it's possibly a bit too peaceful given that I started between Mongolia and Assyria!

I consider that a quirk, even the war AIs are very peaceful in the early game I have found. I generally never get into war until Industrial unless I anger them or start it myself.

One issue I saw, Rome was fighting me. On the plus side, when its first force was defeated, it did not trickle in units. It waited until it had a whole new army and pushed again...I was impressed. However, it also strolled an artillery right next to a CS on my side!

 

[Gazebo]

Good points. I'll look at the deal AI (I've seen that problem as well), and I'll look at the 'danger plot' rule to see if it checks for allied city state lands being dangerous.
G

 

[Civ123]

I much enjoy playing continents type maps or any water maps separating the landmasses. However what really sucks the fun from the game, is seeing AI naval invasions from other continents without adequate ship protection for their conveys. Surely it works on the same principle of keeping siege units behind frontline units?

The constant troop embarkation around my coastal cities, making them sitting ducks for my city defences to exploit is hard to comprehend sometimes.

Will it ever be possible to fix these?

 

[Gazebo]

The problem with naval invasion escorts is that it is a 'multi-unit formation,' but not laterally (i.e. across multiple hexes), but also vertically (two units on the same hex). The tactical AI does not handle that very well. I've done what I can with it, but the AI is simply erratic when it comes to escorts.
G

 

[Stalker0]

In CEp we experimented with giving all units normal strength on water to try and help.

 

[Gazebo]

I've done some work with the escort function, and I've added in an XML value that lets us set a % value of the units actual defense as additional embark defense (right now it is 25% of real defense as additional embark defense). This is a bit more granular than the method that already exists).

G

 

[Stalker0]

AI scouts are too passive.

In my last game, I made a blunder, and an AI I was at war with had a scout right near my exposed great general. He was dead to rights, but the scout just kept on its merry way.

 

[Gazebo]

That's just the way the scout AI works – it is not designed to ever attack anything. Changing that mechanic would probably break how the early-game scout functions for the AI, unfortunately.
G

 

[ExpiredReign]

What about the list SmartAI's author, Ninakoru, started about this.

That thread is entitled: Lets list AI stupid behaviours

I'm assuming a lot of these are already included via W's DLL work, there must be some others that need attention.

 

[Stalker0]

Oh Hiawatha, you were doing so well!

Came out me with 4 artillery, 4 GWI, and a few naval vessels to take a coastal unit. I was impressed...and even intimindating.

Until the artillery kept moving closer...and closer...and then they were right next to the city...and they died.

 

[Gazebo]

Ha. Coming via naval invasion? Land?

 

[Stalker0]

Ha. Coming via naval invasion? Land?

Land...they just moved right up to the base.

 

[Gazebo]

Odd. I removed restrictions on distance for ranged units to allow for AI flexibility, but it sounds like they just goofed.
G

 

[Funak]

Actually thought I'd lose by first ever World congress host vote last night when out of the 8 remaining AIs. (one guy dead) 5 had denounced me and the other 3 were guarded towards me. 3 of them, regret not checking which ones still voted for me and made me the leader somehow.
I guess it's possible the hated the other guy even more but still felt rather weird. But then again I'm not complaining.

 

[klokwerk]

Actually thought I'd lose by first ever World congress host vote last night when out of the 8 remaining AIs. (one guy dead) 5 had denounced me and the other 3 were guarded towards me. 3 of them, regret not checking which ones still voted for me and made me the leader somehow.
I guess it's possible the hated the other guy even more but still felt rather weird. But then again I'm not complaining.

I had the same problem in my last game, it was strange seeing William voting for me 2 turns after denouncing me. Maybe he's schyzophrenic.

 

[klokwerk]

There were multiple AI quirks I saw but I already wrote them (wrongly) elsewhere (V57.0) :

- during a war, they sometimes keep their navy close to their cities, unused

- sometimes they keep their navy close to my cities where they just get killed

- sometimes they also let their land units under my navy fire turn after turn.

- sometimes they also embark under my city fire (at least I saw barbs do it)

In v57.1 :

- bad city fire focus when defending a city (they had no unit near their city), they should focus my assyrian towers with their city fire, not the chariot archer which makes 1% of the damage.

It's not all bad though, sometimes they correctly focus fire a single unit and kill it, and they even managed to kill a GG of mine once (he was in a relatively bad place though). I also saw land units going back to heal (v57.1). Just not every time, I also saw (v57.1) land units and a GG just staying there waiting for death. It's just not consistent.

If they could properly attack a city it would be great too. I don't know how they prepare for it, but they should get in city range all at once and with siege units going first in a position where they can shoot as soon as the next turn (and as a secondary goal, range units).

They should maybe bring their whole army together first, as a human that's what I do. Then I look at which squares around the city my siege units will need to reach in one turn. Only when my siege units (at least 2, preferably 3) are correctly ready in front I enter the city range with all my units. But that's probably too hard to code.

The fact they don't go all at once is mostly what kills them. But that's extremely hard to do that for a dev on 1upt.

 

[Funak]

I had the same problem in my last game, it was strange seeing William voting for me 2 turns after denouncing me. Maybe he's schyzophrenic.

He probably is, he payed me over 20gpt + a luxury for my luxury (might be something bugged with his UA?). Either something is wrong or he got a huge secret mancrush on me, which seems unlikely considering how he refuses friendshipdeals and is generally y about everything.

 

[klokwerk]

He probably is, he payed me over 20gpt + a luxury for my luxury (might be something bugged with his UA?). Either something is wrong or he got a huge secret mancrush on me, which seems unlikely considering how he refuses friendshipdeals and is generally y about everything.

Wow, 20 gpt+ for a single luxury ? Now that's what I call a friend.