List of AI Stupidities

[cliff]

Not an AI stupidity in the game itself but rather, ehm, after the game.

It was one of the first games I ever played and I didn't do well. I was almost wiped out and someone else landed on AC. I happened to play the Russians and by some reason I had chosen a female leader so I played as Cathrine the Great. When the game ended there was this presentation of the score and the computer said:
The people will forever remember you as:
Cathrine the Great the Foolish

 

[Dell19]

You can rename any of the leaders to get a situation like that where the name contradicts itself...Although there may be some more worrying statements in your post...

 

[Old n Slow]

Discovered a laugh in the latest GOTM.

I surrounded the Axtec Capital with Alpines, Marines & Cavalry -- looked inside with a Dip & noticed the defense: an Eng., a boat, & 4 Musketeers, where the Eng. & boat were supported from other cities. 5 shields available to support the four musketeers, 4 used (Aztecs in Democracy at the time), 1 left to work on the Women's Suffrage Wonder.

So I proceed to stand on all the shields I can to deny the support (the city square & a whales would still be there) leaving just three troops supported.

The three that remained were the three leftmost in the display box -- the Eng., boat & a musket.

 

[sethos]

My chariots were exploring the neighborhood when I met the Japanese. I managed to destroy their capital. There wasn't any other japanese city on my continent. A few turns later I made peace with them and traded maps. They sat on a small island about 20 squares away from my continent I was very astonished to see that there was no "connection" (discovered sea) between the island and the continent - the island was surrounded by black squares. How did they manage to get there? By Underground? Teleportation?Rebirth?

 

[duke o' york]

Erm, yeah. Rebirth. By the fact that you were exploring with a chariot then I can safely assume that the game was in its early stages so it is entirely conceivable for the Japanese to only have their capital. Maybe you missed the message saying that they had been wiped out, but they would have been reborn elsewhere on the map. I hope you left them on the tiny island as your pet civ.
Alternatively, sometimes the AI starts with 2 settlers in different places, which would account for their great separation but survival when you captured Kyoto.

 

[Jed]

I don't know if it's already been posted because this is my first time here, have you guys ever noticed that when you take over cities, that most city improvements just aren't there. They may have 1 or 2 or maybe even 3, but rarely. How can their city be size 12 without an Aqueduct?:flame:

-Jed

 

[duke o' york]

It is assumed that your conquering troops went on the rampage and destroyed many of the improvements in the city. Fair enough, I suppose. You wouldn't expect everything to survive unscathed. It is a little annoying to send a spy into the city and discover that when you take it the next turn it has lost everything but the temple.
The city's population won't disappear without an aqueduct - it just means that you can't grow higher than 8 without one. Once you have maxed the population of a city then you can sell the aqueduct and sewer system and it will stay the same size and give you all the trade and production it did before.

 

[ainwood]

It could even be assumed that the improvements were destroyed by the retreating army.

 

[sethos]

I just started a new game, but the site was very poor. So I cheated and had a look at the map. I was astonished to see the Vikings with 3 settlers and a chariot - 4000 B.C.!

 

[starlifter]

Wow! I can't believe this thread is still going after all these months!

I don't know if it's already been posted because this is my first time here, have you guys ever noticed that when you take over cities, that most city improvements just aren't there. They may have 1 or 2 or maybe even 3, but rarely. How can their city be size 12 without an Aqueduct?

There is an exact pattern to this. you'll spot it easily now: When a city is lost, the game decides to remove some improvements.... the way it does this is by hardcoding all possible improvements into two different groups, lets say Group 1 and Group 2. The game decides, at the moment of capture, on one group or the other. All the improvements in that category are then removed. There is no overlap, and the groups never change. If a city is conquered twice in a row, it is possible for it to lose all improvements. In practice, this rarely happens because of certain game biases which make one group or the other more likely to be chosen.

Take a look when you capture cities, and note the improvements. I'll start you with a hint. Aquaduct and Sewer are in the same group.... in a city with both these improvements, you'll always have both or none after capture.

About the Aquaduct question. For any city sized 8 to 127, you need an aquaduct for it to grow. For any city from size 12 to 127, you need both the Aquaduct and the Sewer for it to grow.

If you lose these, population is not lost.... it just prevents growth. If your city is fully grown, and you definately know you will never need it to grow larger in a game (say you have a size 33 city), then you can sell off both for 200 gold, and save 4 gold per turn. Once a city is done growing, Aquaducts and Sewers are not needed!

PS, The AI must abide by these same growth rules... it does not cheat on this.

 

[Zidane]

Once I played for about 3 turns and got tired of the game, so I revealed the map with a cheat menu. I watched the AI for a couple minutes and saw that when they build a city, it automatically becomes surrounded by irrigation! The city i saw this in was in the middle of grassland with no river too! Now if this isn't AI cheating, I don't know what is

 

[Jed]

Originally posted by Zidane
Once I played for about 3 turns and got tired of the game, so I revealed the map with a cheat menu. I watched the AI for a couple minutes and saw that when they build a city, it automatically becomes surrounded by irrigation! The city i saw this in was in the middle of grassland with no river too! Now if this isn't AI cheating, I don't know what is

The AI always has some kind of Advantage. I don't think the AI is smart enough to get Settlers to irrigate it themselves.

-Jed

 

[Old n Slow]

They sat on a small island about 20 squares away from my continent I was very astonished to see that there was no "connection" (discovered sea) between the island and the continent - the island was surrounded by black squares. How did they manage to get there? By Underground? Teleportation?Rebirth?

_______________________________

I remember my first game at King level (maybe I can find the save someday). Wiped out the Spanish, and turns later discover the Egyptians. We become friends & trade maps. They had eight cities -- four on one continent, four on another with an area of black surrounding the second location -- they had yet to discover themselves!

Can two "new settlers" start so far apart? Or do new restarts have the possibility of a truly enriched setup (beyond the tech averaging?)

 

[starlifter]

Can two "new settlers" start so far apart?

To my knowledge, on standard game random maps, if a civ starts with a 2nd settler, it begins at the same spot as the first.

The AI uses missiles with no intervening ground track. A missile will indeed "teleport" to its target. In fact, it will home in with 100% accuracy on its victim, even if the victim is located in an unexplored area of the AI's own map! I think I have a long post about this from sometime last fall, but don't recall the thread.

But as for settlers teleporting, I have neither seen nor heard of that.

Barbarians will "teleport". Well, actually just appear in spots. But not the AI civs, I don't think.

 

[Jed]

Originally posted by starlifter


To my knowledge, on standard game random maps, if a civ starts with a 2nd settler, it begins at the same spot as the first.

The AI uses missiles with no intervening ground track. A missile will indeed "teleport" to its target. In fact, it will home in with 100% accuracy on its victim, even if the victim is located in an unexplored area of the AI's own map! I think I have a long post about this from sometime last fall, but don't recall the thread.

But as for settlers teleporting, I have neither seen nor heard of that.

Barbarians will "teleport". Well, actually just appear in spots. But not the AI civs, I don't think.

I'm playing a chieftain game right now and the Barbarians are set to "Raging Hordes". Barbarians are constantly taking over other Civilization cities. I onlyhave one fortified unit in my cities and the barbarians lose to him all the time.

Can someone explain what the Barbarian settings do? Like Villages only(I know they can only be found in huts with this setting) but what about the other 3? Raging Hordes, restless Tribes, etc. Can someone start a new thread about it, this thread is for AI stupidities...

-Jed

 

[duke o' york]

I won't litter the place with a new thread as I'm sure that this link has all you need to know:
Marquis de Sodaq's Complete Civilization II Combat Guide

This section will explain why you have been getting the results you have:

From the Marquis' Guide:
Barbarians do not always attack and defend at normal unit strengths. Barbarian archers defend with a base value of 1, not the normal archer defense value of 2. Other barbarian units have normal defense values. All barbarian attack factors are affected by the difficulty level of game being played:

Chieftan x0.25 the normal attack value
Warlord x0.5
Prince x0.75
King x1
Emperor x1.25
Deity x1.50

The level of barbarians is simply the frequency with which they
will appear. On the higher levels then it is common to have huge explosions of barbarians towards the end of the game and you can destroy around 25 red units on a single square regularly. But don't let this put you off!
If you can capture a barbarian leader then you get a payoff depending on the level you set them at, from 50g at restless tribes to 150g on raging hordes! Easy (and useful) cash!

 

[starlifter]

... from 50g at restless tribes to 150g on raging hordes! Easy (and useful) cash!

(crying in morning coffee) And Smash said he only gave us 100g barbs in GOTM17.... sniffle.

 

[WinstonJen]

I have another AI problem to add. Once, I had the UN wonder, so I could see who had an alliance with whom. I attacked the Sioux, and they activated their alliance with the Romans! But I had checked this before the attack - there WAS NO ALLIANCE! Where do these under-the-table deals come from?!??!

 

[starlifter]

The only thing I can think of is that the civs made contact sometime prior, and were able to talk to each other when the need arose.

BTW, who has Marco Polo (I know it's not in effect with UN)?

 

[duke o' york]

I'm sure that this has come up before in this exhaustive list, but has anyone ever been contacted by the AI using Marco? They just seem to build it and leave it, letting their exploring units make contact with other civs. Likewise with the UN, which I have lost for the first time in my current game . Actually, it was cascaded to by the Carthaginians after I built Darwin's Voyage and Women's Suffrage in consecutive turns and used up all my food caravans. I'll get it back......