[Civ2] Is there a breakdown somewhere of how the Civ2 AI works?

[Nerrolken]

I’m a game developer trying to learn more about AI design, and I thought Civ2 might be a great game to analyze, based on my familiarity with the game and the fact that it’s complex but old enough that it’s probably not an insane starting place.

I’ve heard the official source code has been lost, but are there any articles or analyses of how the AI is designed, or any similar breakdowns of the Civ2-esque projects like C-evo or FreeCiv?

 

[The_J]

I don't know about the official source code, but since companies have been bought, and stuff has been transferred, it seems that the situation of the IP in this area is complicated for Civ2.

You've read this paper here: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/rbg/code/civ/ ?
(paper itself linked at the top; not 100% directly related, but probably interesting enough for you)

 

[Hans Lemurson]

Was that project playing against the Civ2 AI, or the default Freeciv AI using the Civ2 ruleset?

One thing I do know about the Civ2 AI, is that its attacks were mostly streams of units with a GOTO order against a target city, and that the in-game pathfinding was very buggy (units walking off of railroads, unable to cross the international date line...).

 

[jsclev]

Did you ever get any more information regarding your question? I have spent the last year learning game AI in order to someday be able to release a strategy game with good AI. I don't know exactly how the Civ 2 AI works other than that it most likely was a rules engine and was probably composed of basically a huge set of if-else conditions.

Don't know if it would help you, but I'd be happy to share some of what I've learned regarding how someone might go about engineering the AI for a map-based strategy game such as Civ 2. I have spent quite a lot of time the last year trying to learn game AI, and have read quite a bit of academic material. It's not easy stuff to put it mildly.