Nukes and AI response

[Morten Blaabjerg]

I am currently working on a classic Civ scenario, where I would like to use the Nuke position/unit in a rather unusual way.

The scenario depicts the viking raids in western Europe -focus of the scenario lies in the combination of massive aggression ("nuclear" terror) on the viking side, and diplomacy/development on part of the christian church. The diplomacy part gives me little problems.

Its the nuclear thing!

-How do I design effective nukes that are sea units? This can be accomplished, I know, but only makes sense to human players it seems.

-How do I get the AI controlled players to buy and actively use the nuke viking dragonships? -Is there any way to cheat the computer to conceive them as the powerful weapons they are?

For instance, if I would like the game to start with a massive AI viking attack with nuke dragonships?

It seems silly that the computer players keep buying triremes, when they have this vast destructive naval weapon at their hands?

I would very much appreciate any tips on this sucject!! Is there any way of manipulating the tech tree or diplomacy settings so that I get the job done?

Thanks in advance.

Yours Sincerely,
Morten Blaabjerg

 

[CornMaster]

; role = AI role (Generally affects the way in
; which computer players use the unit, but
; roles >= 5 will actually affect abilities
; of the unit)
; 0 = Attack
; 1 = Defend
; 2 = Naval Superiority
; 3 = Air Superiority
; 4 = Sea Transport
; 5 = Settle
; 6 = Diplomacy
; 7 = Trade

This is from the rules.txt

You could set the Trieme to an undirsable condition for the AI, or set your Dragon Ships higher.

For Example: Try setting it to 3, 5, 6, or 7 and see if the AI still builds triemes. I don't know what other effects this might have but it's worth a shot.

You could also try making the trieme obsolete or very expensive (But if you still want to use it as a unit, these aren't options. And of course you could just delete it from the game.

Hope this helps.

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[CornMaster]

You could also use events in order to force a Civ to move a unit on a certian turn. Although I'm not at home so I can't help you there.

Maybe this will be the key. <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0>

Edit: Oh...Classic Civ 2.... Then Events won't be an option....sorry.

[This message has been edited by CornMaster (edited April 03, 2001).]

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Thanks!
I have tried some of the positions, but I'll try some of the others too. Also, it has come to my experience, that the AI sometimes behave strangely when encountering unusual combinations in units.

"Barbarian" landbased nukes works very terrifying indeed!

"Barbarian" thunderclouds as submarines over the ocean works fine too, for instance...!

I'll keep working on it, till I solve this problem. As you say, I may find a way to rearrange my tech tree, so as to make these new units desireable.

Kind regards,
Morten

 

[CornMaster]

If you want to make the unit un-buildable just give it the tech preq of no. Or make a tech and assign all the units you don't want the AI to get to it and then they can't build.

I'll shut up now. I'm not the best scenario builder around...JValdezToo, Prometeus, or kobayashi will be able to help more.

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[Morten Blaabjerg]

I may have found -if not the definitive, then definitely a step on the way- solution to my problem. It does not solve the AI use of the new unit, but clarifies something that was muddled up in my (modified) tech tree... -and makes the new unit avaliable for a start!!

There's a little piece of information I must have overlooked in my search. I'm still a newcomer to scenariomaking... But I am learning very fast!

"Nuclear Fission
Tribe must have this together with any tribe having built Manhatten Project to build nukes."

Credits go to Carl Fritz CIV2 homepage for that one...
http://users.sgi.net/~harden/

If any others veteran scenario builders have useful hints or information in this regard, don't hesitate to let me know. I will very much appreciate it.

If anyone knows of other scenarios with creative uses of the Nuke slot, please give me a hint. I would very much like to try them out.

Morten


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"We all watch the same stars; heaven is the same for us all; the same universe envelops us: What importance is it in what way anyone looks for truth? It is impossible to arrive by one route at such a great secret."
Symmachus, Roman Senator "Relations" 3.10 (384 AD)

 

[xeven_god_of_helsibahr]

<FONT size="4">Text</FONT s><FONT COLOR="Black">Text</FONT c>Hey, I know this is not the topic of this forum...but I wanna know: Do diplomatic boats work? ? ?

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Xeven

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Hi Xeven,

No, they don't! To the best of my experience
neither trade or diplomatic units work unless
they are land based! Alas...

Read kobayashis very inspiring article on
"getting the units right" and "mixing land,
sea, and air unit abilities" -available
in the downloads section of Civfanatics,
if you wanna know more!

Yours Truly,
Morten

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"A handful of might, works better than a bag full of right!"
Max Stirner (1806-56)

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

Just to wrap things up, concerning my nuke experiments. It seems to me, with the Classic Civ2 anyway, that seabased nukes (and landbased as well) does indeed work, and are also handled OK by the AI.

Dragonship, Pot, 2, 10.,0, 99a,4d, 1h,1f, 24,0, 0, NF, 001000000000000

Movement domain needs to be set to 0-2 (in this case 2 for sea), and primary AI role set to 0=Attack. The flag for destruction upon attack needs to be set, if you don't want any funny flaws in the grapx, or you may experiment a little with that. To my experience they destruct anyway, in the aftermath of the exlosion, but I'm a little unclear as to where they really go? The ATT value needs to be 99, if you want the pollution and the AI messages. Also you need to use the right "nuke" slot for the unit you
want to match computer player messages.. "our words are backed by ODIN!".... Other slots can be used, but are not sure to get the same response from the AI. Any unit slot with an ATT of 99 will be treated as a Nuke, and make all the fuss with noise and pollution, anyway. This can probably be twisted to fit some interesting scenario designs?

The nukes (whether landbased or seabased) are used, not surprisingly, most aggressively by barbarians, or human players....

The AI controlled computer player doesn't use them unless out of balance, their power must be really shaken, or they just lose their "temper"... So it's very nervy and quite difficult to determine if, when and where AI players will use these weapons, but as a general rule, mostly in the end of a game, where the AI players have been rather pushed, rather than the beginning of a game with room for expansion. They will rarely use them against another computer player, but it has been seen, I have born witness to this!

They are no good as an offensive weapon in a traditional way, but might add some color and fear to an interesting scenario concept.

Check out my topic "hammer of the north" if you want to know more.

Yours Truly,
Morten

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"A handful of might, works better than a bag full of right!"
Max Stirner (1806-56)