List of AI Stupidities

[SpikeSpiegelJKD]

It's the beginning of the game. The russians contact me and say, "HELP US CRUSH THE GERmANS!" So I say, sure, why not. War with germany. Then Russia demands I give him my entire treasury, I say no, then he declares war on me. Wow, what a nice deal.

 

[Green]

- Why do the AI's caravans immediatly know where all of your cities are, when you have made peace, whereas the attacking units never get to my cities directly

- Why do the unit's that can freely move in enemy territory get to my nearest city when the enemy is only complaining about my attacking unit's

 

[B52]

I don't know if anyone has put this one up yet, but here it is:

I spent literally hours building a "wall" of cruisers around my island, hoping that it would block any enemy units from getting through. It worked except for enemy cruise missiles. Somehow, they managed to go through my cruiser wall (and yes, I made sure that there were no spaces in it), and attack my battleships. At one point I even made a small ring around one battleship and the cruise missiles still got at it. Now I know that AI cruise missiles can teleport.

 

[yaroslav]

That is not an AI stupidity, but an AI cheat. And, yes, as far as I know, the AI cheats with cruiser missiles (I believe that with all "ranged" units, but I'm not sure)

 

[funxus]

IIRC, the AI can attack with cruise missiles and nukes if the target is within the range of any of their cities (no matter where the unit is stationed), and obstacles.

 

[Ace]

You are correct. Starlifter did a thread on this sometime ago. The AI can "teleport" missles, cruise or nuke, instantanously anywhere it wants. The missile "appears" on the target and does not actually travel to it. The only defense against nukes is the SDI. rings of cruisers or airbases have no effect on incoming missiles. If the target is within range of ANY AI city, it can be hit this way.

If you want to protect your battleships from cruise missiles, stack an ageis cruiser with them. A vet Ageis with stop hordes of missiles.

 

[B52]

Has anyone seen this AI stupidity?

I am at war with the Spanish, having just captured one of their cities. All of us are linked by the usual web-like rail network. I send out a stealth fighter every turn to patrol, and damned if I don't catch at least one AI howitzer per turn left out in the open, undefended!

This is so stupid, since on a RR he has no good reason to leave it there... Why he doesn't just attack me straight away I have no idea!

 

[Daicd]

The AI has the annoying habit to go wake up a unit that's in sentry mode. For example: I have a fleet of battleships and cruisers lying off the coast, placed in sentry cause all they have to do is to protect the coast in case of an attack. An enemy ship (probably a trireme or some other outdated wooden vessel) encounters this fleet, so all my ships wake up. For there's no harm in some pathetic fishermen I put them on sentry again. Instead of moving away his little vessel ('go fishing elsewhere'), this units sees it as its duty to KEEP ANNOYING my fleet turn after turn! Each turn he sails around to wake up as many ships he can get to!
The same goes for land units, by the way. Why is this? Can't he leave me in peace? For this causes me to ponder the possibilities of attacking him.

 

[Daicd]

Originally posted by eyeball
Not sure if this qualifies, but in one Civ 2 game, it was late in the game and I was trying to find enemy cities. I find a small island with a hut on it. I enter the hut, and get an advanced tribe. When the city appears, it is already size 4.

That's not a AI stupidity, but a bonus for you. I once had an advanced tribe size 4 with a temple and marketplace in it. You discover 'an advanced tribe' - so they may indeed have done some work for themselves.

 

[funxus]

Welcome Daicd!
It sometimes would be nice to have a fortify-option for ships so that they wouldn't wake up, but there's not much that can be done about it unless you station it in a city. Maybe the ship is trying to reach something on the other side of your ships, which is why it tries to get past them? The AI moves aren't always understandable.

 

[The Person]

Someone has certainly posted this before, but just in case...

Typical example of how the AI diplomacy works:

Step 1: Demand tribute

Step 2: If tribute is not received, got to war

Step 3: Lose one city

Step 4: Sign peace treaty

Step 5: Wait a few turns

Step 6: Repeat

This is especially true if you are stronger than the AI.

 

[yoshi]

I know there's nothing that can be done about most stupidities except to hack into the Civ2 program and dissect the AI, then rearrange it's logic mechanism to make it more 'intelligent.' Nevertheless I'll add this: Why doesn't the AI know how to use Carriers? This is more than just a stupidity that we can laugh at, it's a design oversight that has never been fixed.
(I think I may have already posted something like this here at some point.)

If you want to go into it further see the thread I opened on the topic:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66586

 

[Rowan]

Would have to agree yoshi.
[dance]

 

[Old n Slow]

Noticed that this thread has captured the interest of a few viewers...

TEN Thousand!

 

[MikeLynch]

this units sees it as its duty to KEEP ANNOYING my fleet turn after turn! Each turn he sails around to wake up as many ships he can get to!
The same goes for land units, by the way. Why is this? Can't he leave me in peace? For this causes me to ponder the possibilities of attacking him.

I buy the bastard.

Seriously, I once had a massive oceanic blockade that I *had* to maintain, but I didn't want war and I got irritated by the snooze-button visitor. So I made sure to keep a Spy unit within easy reach of the outer part of the blockade. Presto-changeo. Doesn't work so well if it's stacked (or if it's a ship carrying any units).

 

[Achinz]

I've not had time to go through all the posts here and if this has been mention previously please ignore it (I've checked it's not in the list cited):

The AI does not know how to pop goody huts! The unit probably moves randomly but it seems they go out of their way to avoid popping huts. In my last game I saw an AI warrior fortifying itself just in front of a hut (no one else around).

 

[Diangelo]

Wprobably the stupidest question on the board but....how do you make settlers and engineerswork by them selvers(you not having to tell them to build roadsor otherwise).Hopefully you know what i mean.....

 

[Ace]

Hi Diangelo,

You can automate your settler/engineer by pressing k. The unit will then build roads and irrigate automatically, under the AI's direction. This is not a good idea because the ai rarely builds stuff where you want it.

 

[Diangelo]

How do you know where you need things...thats my problem i don't really know the best places to irrigate etc. to help my new settlements.....plz if your online i/m me at angelboycarlos(its aol s/n)if you have another one e-mail me AngelboyCarlos@aol.com thankyou

 

[Diangelo]

Well i tried what you told me...press k but that doesn't seem to have any affect on the settler/engineer....is there something else i have to do?