Nukes - Why does the AI never use them ?

[Kronis]

I play Monarch/Emperor level, and have had on multiple occasions, crazy, universally-hated AI adversaries who develop nuclear weapons. However, no enemy has ever used them on me, or any other opponent before, although they threaten like crazy. Presumably, dominant civs don't feel the need to use 'em, since they have the capacity to crush with conventional weapons. Conversely, perhaps smaller nations aren't so willing to have everyone declare war on them, either.

Myself, I've only ever been able to use them with less than a few turns left in a space race situation...

So what is necessary to create a N.Korea -type of country: crazy, irrational, and willing to accept the hatred of all other players ? I'd love the ability to lob tacticals and ICBMs in retaliation...!

 

[Kalach]

So what is necessary to create a N.Korea -type of country: crazy, irrational, and willing to accept the hatred of all other players ? I'd love the ability to lob tacticals and ICBMs in retaliation...!

Sounds more like a USA type of country to me
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I think they will normally start using them if down to a few cities or if you use them first. And are much more likely to use them as the difficulty level goes up.

 

[Colonel]

they use them on higher levels sometimes

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

In civ2, the ai was more likely to use nukes if you had large cities. If you alter the rules.txt to increase food production dramatically in most terrain types, the ai's usage of nukes also increases dramatically (because more cities are even larger than in a normal civ2 game). Maybe the same tactic can be used in civ3? I have not tried it yet, but I may once I get interested in civ3 again.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Increasing shield production may also help, as well as disabling the space race victory condition.

 

[maverick_mw]

I've had several heated nuclear exchanges, mostly not started by me. It seems the AI is more likely to nuke you if it really REALLY hates you, and you are on a seperate land mass (an we all know how useless the AI is at bech assaults).

 

[Kronis]

I've had several heated nuclear exchanges, mostly not started by me. It seems the AI is more likely to nuke you if it really REALLY hates you, and you are on a seperate land mass (an we all know how useless the AI is at bech assaults).

Any one particular civ, or does it not matter ?

-Plutonian, I thought of that, but the ruleset in Civ2 was just so much less complicated, and different. Remember that if you had a decent pool of spy units, you could just use them to enter a city and trigger a device ?!

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I actually do use spies to plant nukes. Too bad we can't do it in civ3...

 

[al_thor]

It seems to me that the AI will freely use nukes if CITIES HAVE BEEN RAZED in earlier wars. If you were the one doing the razing, and then later on went to war with them AND they had nukes, they WILL use them - trust me on this.

 

[al_thor]

Or, if you want them to launch first, wait for them to get nukes, go to war and raze some of their cities. They WILL launch.

 

[Kronis]

It seems to me that the AI will freely use nukes if CITIES HAVE BEEN RAZED in earlier wars. If you were the one doing the razing, and then later on went to war with them AND they had nukes, they WILL use them - trust me on this.

Ahh. The answer I was looking for !! Thanks !

Kalach- See ?! It wasn't N.Korea or the United States. I just need to be genocidal murderer a là Serbia/Yugoslavia...!
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[PlutonianEmpire]

How do I tell wether an ai is using nukes in civ3?

 

[philippe]

yeah. once had the zulus banned on a small continent,not realising they had nukes
my precious capital :cries:

 

[al_thor]

Plutonian -
Well, for one, if you have the Sound Effects turned ON, you will hear a great rumbling - supposed to be the sound of the rocket or something.
If your sound is off, you will have to trade World/Territory maps every turn. Then you can look and see the devastation - indicated by the orange pollution surrounding an entire city, and the city population is very low - usually 1/2 to 3/4 of population is killed.

Another indicator of nuclear war is when ALL remaining civs suddenly declare war on a single civ (same turn declaration). This invariably means that the naughty civ has launched a nuke (the AI frowns upon this practice - I don't really know why

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I see, although it sometimes seems that the ai won't use nukes until you nuke them first.

 

[HamaticBabylon]

I wonder if the A.I should frown upon nuclear testing. I know i have tested half a dozen nukes just to get a kick outta the " 2-D explosion", I must say cruise missiles are much better.