Lobotomized AI

[Invoke_Shadows]

You could just fix recon units to where can only defend like loki does, then AI can't use the to attack. Or could make where can only attack animals, since really only used for recon and capturing animals by most people.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

Ah, but the AI has been doing precisely what I have wanted them to do with the promotion. Though I may have to re-evaluate the weighting now that workers don't gain quite as many levels in the course of a game.

Oh yes, and what if someone has already fixed the AI's inability to retreat when they ought to?

Then I am sure that I would thank someone for this .

 

[WarKirby]

You could just fix recon units to where can only defend like loki does, then AI can't use the to attack. Or could make where can only attack animals, since really only used for recon and capturing animals by most people.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


Ahem.

I do believe this is a bad idea.

Several civs, including Svartalfar, Austrin and Sidar, are heavily reliant on recon units as field soldiers. And in general, the fulfil many more roles than simply recon.

 

[Vehem]

You could just fix recon units to where can only defend like loki does, then AI can't use the to attack. Or could make where can only attack animals, since really only used for recon and capturing animals by most people.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


Ahem.

I do believe this is a bad idea.

Several civs, including Svartalfar, Austrin and Sidar, are heavily reliant on recon units as field soldiers. And in general, the fulfil many more roles than simply recon.

What he said

 

[Grimz101]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


Ahem.

I do believe this is a bad idea.

Several civs, including Svartalfar, Austrin and Sidar, are heavily reliant on recon units as field soldiers. And in general, the fulfil many more roles than simply recon.

And then there is mid game, where Rangers are the strongest units for a while.

 

[TimSLS]

I think a serious problem with the AI right now is its desire to build "curse the land" long before it has the production capacity to justify it. The AI is never able to get it off against me (as I know they are going to try and just do a mana surge 50 turns into the war to be safe) but all the AI vs AI wars are constructing it, vastly wasting their own recources, and also creating lasting handicaps for my AI rivals if they finally do complete it. So all my rivals are wasting their production and/or suffering under the loss of bonuses from a rival curse the lands...

I think the AI needs to only build it late in the game when production justifies it (perhaps a tech requirement would help?) and the AI should be programed to throw in a protective mana surge when a war has been long lasting.

Though in reality I don't like a feature that seems primarily to allow the AI to damage each other (unlike conquest where the other AI clearly becomes stronger)...I don't want to beg the team for an option to disable a feature I don't like - so can someone tell me if there's a realitivly easy way to edit out this ritual myself? Aside from having heard people say "XML" and "Python" I know nothing about either, so let me know if it would be too difficult. But if someone could give me some directions I'd really appreciate it. Either to delete it, or cause it to require some very advanaced tech.

 

[Tarquelne]

so can someone tell me if there's a realitivly easy way to edit out this ritual myself?

The tech requirement idea's a good way to restrict it. You can disable it, too, with TECH_NEVER

Here's some of CIV4ProjectInfo.xml, in FF's Assets/XML/Gameinfo. Curse the Lands and the Ritual before it in the file, Chosen of Esus.

Spoiler :

		<ProjectInfo>		<!-- Chosen of Esus -->
			<Type>PROJECT_CHOSEN_OF_ESUS</Type>
			<Description>TXT_KEY_PROJECT_CHOSEN_OF_ESUS</Description>
			<Civilopedia>TXT_KEY_PROJECT_CHOSEN_OF_ESUS_PEDIA</Civilopedia>
			<TechPrereq>TECH_DECEPTION</TechPrereq>
			<iMaxTeamInstances>2</iMaxTeamInstances>
			<PrereqAlignments>
				<Alignment>ALIGNMENT_EVIL</Alignment>
				<Alignment>ALIGNMENT_NEUTRAL</Alignment>
			</PrereqAlignments>
			<iCost>500</iCost>
			<iCooldown>30</iCooldown>
			<iHideUnits>10</iHideUnits>
			<Button>Art/Interface/Buttons/Projects/Chosen of Esus.dds</Button>
		</ProjectInfo>
		<ProjectInfo>		<!-- Curse the Lands -->
			<Type>PROJECT_BLIGHT_THE_CROPS</Type>
			<Description>TXT_KEY_PROJECT_BLIGHT_THE_CROPS</Description>
			<Civilopedia>TXT_KEY_PROJECT_BLIGHT_THE_CROPS_PEDIA</Civilopedia>
			<bPrereqWar>1</bPrereqWar>
			<iMaxTeamInstances>1</iMaxTeamInstances>
			<iCost>1800</iCost>
			<iBlockBonuses>5</iBlockBonuses>
			<iCooldown>75</iCooldown>
			<Button>Art/Interface/Buttons/Projects/Blight the Crops.dds</Button>
		</ProjectInfo>

Note that Chosen of Esus has a TechPrereq - TECH_DECEPTION. As you either know or immediately realized, you need "Deception" tech for Chosen of Esus. Add a TechPrereq line for Curse the Lands. TECH_NEVER is a valid tech that can't be researched.

The TechPrereq line should come before PrereqWar. (Look to the Rites of Oghma to check on the XML tag order.)

 

[Vehem]

Though in reality I don't like a feature that seems primarily to allow the AI to damage each other (unlike conquest where the other AI clearly becomes stronger)...I don't want to beg the team for an option to disable a feature I don't like - so can someone tell me if there's a realitivly easy way to edit out this ritual myself? Aside from having heard people say "XML" and "Python" I know nothing about either, so let me know if it would be too difficult. But if someone could give me some directions I'd really appreciate it. Either to delete it, or cause it to require some very advanaced tech.

I've actually turned it off myself for the time being. It was supposed to have been disabled during the last major version (043) but got re-enabled at some point. Until Ritual Potency and Shielding are finished, balancing it is going to be a nightmare, so it's best left disabled.

 

[TimSLS]

Thanks so much! Never realized it was that easy to edit...

 

[tharg]

Try playing high to low games for some insight.

I have no idea where they're putting the hammers/beakers but it's not doing them a bit of good.

Are you sure they have any beakers? A common trick appears to be to run pacifism and build scouts until they do not have any spare beakers. I think removing the pacifism civic would improve some AI’s performance quite a bit.

 

[TimSLS]

Or make the change Kael made in the main mod - -20% military unit production instead of support cost.

 

[Tarquelne]

Or make the change Kael made in the main mod - -20% military unit production instead of support cost.

That makes a lot more sense. Pacifists *could* spend more money on their military - enlistment bonuses? - but I believe a penalty to either production or performance make more sense.

But I think the penalty should be 23%.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

That makes a lot more sense. Pacifists *could* spend more money on their military - enlistment bonuses? - but I believe a penalty to either production or performance make more sense.

But I think the penalty should be 23%.

Excuse me?? Well, what makes you think 3% is so much of a difference?

 

[TimSLS]

Lol...I think Tarquelne is refering to how nitpicky a couple of us got on the Scion thread, worrying about whether the awakening spawning decay would continue or not during Illian stasis (which he figured out amounts to a 0.27% difference...)

 

[Tarquelne]

Lol...I think Tarquelne is refering to how nitpicky a couple of us got on the Scion thread

Actually I was just being silly. I try to keep it in check, but...


And when I refer to the nitpickiness of those in the Scion thread I do so behind closed doors.

 

[TimSLS]

Possibily the ability to control exactly where your population grows attracts a certain kind of personality...

 

[Iceciro]

Control freaks like me.

I hadn't thought of Curse the Lands... that seems like it could be a viable issue, too.

I don't suppose there's a way to block Ritual production from just AI players?

Also, Curse the Lands could probabaly do with being higher up, say Theology, to ensure people can actually drop the hammer-cost into it when it's castable. Hmmm. *ponders the change for Fall Flat*

 

[Vehem]

That makes a lot more sense. Pacifists *could* spend more money on their military - enlistment bonuses? - but I believe a penalty to either production or performance make more sense.

But I think the penalty should be 23%.

Excuse me?? Well, what makes you think 3% is so much of a difference?

It can make all the difference in the world. I really do feel that 21.5% is plenty though...

 

[Tarquelne]

I really do feel that 21.5% is plenty though...

That is so bogus.

 

[WarKirby]

I think a serious problem with the AI right now is its desire to build "curse the land" long before it has the production capacity to justify it. The AI is never able to get it off against me (as I know they are going to try and just do a mana surge 50 turns into the war to be safe) but all the AI vs AI wars are constructing it, vastly wasting their own recources, and also creating lasting handicaps for my AI rivals if they finally do complete it. So all my rivals are wasting their production and/or suffering under the loss of bonuses from a rival curse the lands...

I think the AI needs to only build it late in the game when production justifies it (perhaps a tech requirement would help?) and the AI should be programed to throw in a protective mana surge when a war has been long lasting.

I agree with this.

The AI doesn't seem to understand the notion that something takes too long to accomplish, and isn't feasible.

For safety, I think it wold be a good idea to have a hard cap on build/research time for the AI. Ie, it would never try to build or reesearch anything which would take longer than say....30 turns*, unless there are NO other cheaper options. (and in the case that there aren't, it should check for new options ever 3-5 turns or so, and be prepared to put aside whatever mega project it is working on, for something more reasonable)

Fixing curse the land itself, is a good way to go. But the same problem exists with Samhain, and will exist for anything stupidly expensive added into the game. Better to fix the problem at it's source, if possible


*assuming normal game speed. scale appropriately